Square Enix held a Dragon Quest press conference on January 13th in Japan wherein they announced very little in the way of concrete details. The conference opened with the company’s statement that there would be no news on Dragon Quest XI today. They did deliver a couple of release dates for other (spinoff) games: the Dragon Quest Builders demo arrives on January 22, and Dragon Quest Heroes II, the Dynasty Warriors mashup, descends on May 27 this year. Not incidentally, May 27 was the release date the first Dragon Quest game hit the shelves in Japan.
Other announcements included a Dragon Quest escape-the-room game, a card battle arcade game, a collaboration of some sort with Universal Studios, and a Dragon Quest museum that will open for a limited time only, until sometime in the fall. Details on each of these minor announcements are to be released later. In other words, the press conference consisted mostly of promising details on various things another time.
Fan reaction to the event was largely negative. A Nico Nico poll revealed over half the watchers gave it the worst rating possible, and other fans tweeted their disappointment.
This Dragon Quest press conference pic.twitter.com/5E4i2OQ8JZ
— Andrew Alfonso (@livefromosaka) January 13, 2016
Despite any self-doubts I have about livestreaming, I take comfort in knowing I'll never have a worse show than the #dq30th broadcast now.
— Diamond Feit ๐ โจ โฅ๏ธ (@feitclub) January 13, 2016
Square Enix has a lot on its plate for Dragon Quest. Unfortunately, most of it seems little more than fluff and filler while waiting for Dragon Quest XI. Also, there was no information or hint that any of the new games or merchandise would come overseas to the west. North America and Europe may see Heroes II, but even that isn’t a guarantee. Overall, there was nothing at the conference that wouldn’t have been better served as a press release when more details were available to be shared.
