New Dragon Quest Project, a new Dragon Quest title to add to the collection is now in development for Square Enix. In December, they announced Theatrhythm: Dragon Quest for the 3DS adding yet another genre to the Dragon Quest roster. But Square Enix is looking to hire a planner for the New Dragon Quest Project. The job listing states that the project will be a challenge as the game is intended to be a new genre from titles in the series. Bringing a new genre to a title is nothing new to Square Enix. Though most of the Dragon Quest series has been RPGs, they've created spin-offs based on monster-catching, hack-and-slash, turn based strategy, and even an entire spin-off series where the protagonist is the beloved Slime.
Recently, Square Enix has been porting their titles over to mobile devices, bringing over beloved titles like The World Ends With You (Where's my sequel, SquEnix?), Final Fantasy, and Chrono Trigger in an effort to make the games accessible to a new audience. Unlike the latest Dragon Quest release, Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride for iOS/Android, this game is planned to be a consumer game. This means that the New Dragon Quest Project will be developed for consoles or a traditional handheld rather than an arcade, mobile device, or web browser experience. This is not surprising as, though arcades remain heavily popular in Japan, Square Enix has only published nine arcade titles.
The planner for the New Dragon Quest Project will be responsible for designing maps, creating data for monsters and items, and arranging events for the title. The tasks given to the planner seem to rule out genres with less combat like visual novels or music games, but still leave a lot of creative room for Square Enix to build the Dragon Quest series even greater than it already is.
What new genre do you think Square Enix will delve into now? What genre would you most like to see? Tell us in the comments below!
