Game developer Square Enix, renowned for its number of long-running Japanese RPG series, announced yesterday that a new, smartphone-only entry in the fabled Dragon Quest franchise will hit online stores sometime this year.
It appears that the game, titled Hoshi no Dragon Quest, will be the first brand new (read: non-port) game in the series to see a smartphone release.
Details about the game are incredibly sparse at the moment. All we know right now is that players will be able to explore a star-shaped world map that can be rotated, expanded and shrunk at will with – of course – touch gestures, and that players will control, customize and level up a party of adventurers. The lone screenshot provided on the official website seems to show combat similar to other games in the series, with a team of four adventurers of various classes battling classic Dragon Quest villains.
Square Enix was one of Japan’s first traditional console game developers to really take to the smartphone gaming market – an endeavor that many would argue the company has largely bungled, releasing a few diamonds in the rough amidst an ever-growing library of odious, shamelessly greedy “free-to-play” games and overpriced ports of classic games from their back catalog.
We still have no official release date for Hoshi no Dragon Quest, but fingers crossed it won’t suck quite as much as Final Fantasy: All the Bravest did…
Source: Famitsu
Photos: Official Website