SweetieGames

As you all know, I’m a huge Dragon Quest fan. When Dragon Quest XI released in the west back in 2018, I was excited to see that Dragon Quest was being explored by a whole new bunch of people in the west, as traditionally Final Fantasy has been more popular over here.

2026 is the year that Dragon Quest turns 40, and I’m really hoping for some exciting updates and news this year! We’re already getting Dragon Quest VII Reimagined this year, but there’s still room for announcements in the celebration.

One thing on all Dragon Quest fans’ mind is an update on the development on Dragon Quest XII, the next mainline instalment in the DQ franchise. Now we’ve hit 2026, and there’s not much hope that the game will actually release this year, we will have officially had the longest gap between mainline Dragon Quest instalments that we’ve ever seen. Of course, the team haven’t been twiddling their thumbs in this time; we’ve seen a huge number of spinoff and remaster titles in recent years. But at the same time, We’ve still only seen a Dragon Quest XII title card; no character designs or premises for plot, except the fact that it’s taking a darker tone. I’m all for waiting for the best Dragon Quest experience that the team can muster, but I’d love to see an update on the game in the anniversary announcements. I always get excited for a new cast of characters!

There may be more spinoffs in the works, and we all know that Dragon Quest has a plethora of spinoff game series to choose from. There’s Monsters, Builders, Heroes, Treasures… they all help to bring new fans in to the Dragon Quest franchise, even if they aren’t fans of traditional turn-based RPGs. Maybe we’ll see a new spin-off title is in the works?

As the OG Dragon Quest has already seen a HD-2D remaster, the 40th anniversary may bring another new remake. We are getting Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, but there’s still time this year for another remake to be announced! Dragon Quest IV and VIII have been floated around in online circles as fan favourites, but of course I’m not giving up hope on a Dragon Quest IX remake. I want to see it again for the first time since it originally released on DS!

Of course, I’m only talking about game titles here, but there’s still room for media outside of the games themselves this anniversary. We’ll probably see pop up shops and cafes, merch, maybe even anime TV series or a film in the works. All I can say is that I’m excited to see what this year brings for Dragon Quest!