Square Enix is on a bit of a roll with its Switch 2 ports at the moment, as I’m sure Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is very keen to remind you. But today, Square Enix’s other big RPG behemoth is in the spotlight, as a classification for a potential Nintendo Switch 2 version of Dragon Quest 11 S has surfaced in Taiwan. The listing appeared on 29th April.
If you think that sounds familiar, then you’re right: the Taiwanese ratings board isn’t the most watertight of places when it comes to leaks, with some notable recent examples of early reveals including Starfield on Switch 2, an early reveal of The Division Heartland, the first look at the then-unannounced Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, and an early look at The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.
Dragon Quest 11 S originally came to Nintendo Switch back in 2019 as an updated “S” version acting as an updated version of the game with additional orchestrated music, bonus plot add-ons, an expanded edition of the 2D gameplay that we originally saw in the 3DS version of the game, and more besides. Specifically, the ‘ultra-fast’ battle speed was a bit of a life-saver. The Switch version of the game had to make some pretty major sacrifices in order to run on the hardware (even though the original game launched on the 3DS, go figure).
Many people hold this title up as one of the best entries in the series (with one commenter on Resetera calling it “one of the best JRPGs of all-time”!) So you can’t really blame Square Enix for developing yet another version of the game; we had 3DS and PS4 at launch, then a different version for Switch, a different version for the (doomed) Stadia, and now Switch 2.
This may make the wait for the long-teased Dragon Quest 12 a bit easier, at least. It’s been five years since Square Enix first announced the game, and we’ve heard precious little about the title ever since. Then, last year, at least, series creator Yuji Horii confirmed that the game is still in development, despite the long silence. Fans are expecting an update on the title, which is aiming at an adult audience, at this year’s ‘Dragon Quest Day’ on 27th May (a day which is celebrated annually to commemorate the release of the original Dragon Quest game in Japan the same date in 1986).
Maybe that’s when we’ll officially hear about the Switch 2 version of Dragon Quest 11 S, too.
