Welcome to my opinion piece on the weird relationship that Nintendo and the Dragon Quest games seem to have and how we are slowly getting them in the west after so long without…
So yeah, by now, you will have heard the awesome news. Dragon Quest 11 is coming to Nintendo Switch and what is more, its main character, the Luminary is also coming to Smash as one of two new members of the roster!
Dragon Quest has had quite the ride when it comes down to the west. In general, only a handful of portable games have come and the Builder franchise. Considering its legacy in Japan (and Asia by extension), this is most surprising as it is considered one of the biggest game series and should even be ranked among the top 3 of Role Playing Games. But in the west… often we could only dream about the glorious days that DQ would become available.
Not so long ago, the latest instalment of the franchise was published in the west on PS4, Dragon Quest 11. It was my personal Game of the Year when it came out, I easily spent 80 hours in the game on top of my full time real life job in retail. It was truly that amazing and I was so thrilled to hear this game would finally make the jump to the Nintendo Switch, an even broader audience than the aforementioned Playstation 4.
We will even be getting a special retro style version of the game and be able to play like the good old days of pixelated RPGs. Nintendo was shown a lot of love, especially for the west as the previous iteration, DQ 10 was online only and limited to Japan. I own the games physically in my full set WII U, but I was never able to actually play them, I actually own a Japanese WII U due to region blocking, another thing I am grateful for in the Switch.
And now, we are not only getting one of the very best JRPGs on the Switch, its main lead is coming to Smash as a fighter no less. Backed by the heroes from previous games as its shadow fighters, this is a very promising day for the franchise. While many out there considered the Banjo reveal to be massive, due to its links with Microsoft, I consider the Luminary to be the big reveal.
It not only brings a great franchise back (in a way) to our beloved console, it also proves how committed Square Enix really is. Only highlighting the lack of commitment by certain other AAA studios. Square-Enix is brave enough to bring some of its biggest titles to Switch and even give its main the Smash treatment. A fighter that looked very promising no less. Sure, we have several sword fighters already, but I honestly think he may become the dark horse in any battle.
I actually just ordered the DLC packs for him. I am this excited for this reveal.
Where will this lead us from here?
I hope we will see more Dragon Quest on Switch, plain and simple. Not just the aforementioned Builders 2 and DQ11, but others too. I hope we will be getting it all, I would even love a remaster/port of some of the titles we have not gotten in the past.
Some might call me a fanboy after all this, which I admit I am, but I am just so happy now. We got an outsider to join the Smash roster, a sword fighter with several great shadow fighters. I honestly think Smash Brothers will benefit from his addition and I look forward to playing with him!
