In honor of Dragon Quest’s 30th anniversary, Japanese television channel NHK aired a special presentation dedicated to the series. Not much of it has made it online yet for Western fans, but the big news — new footage from Dragon Quest 11: In Search of Departed Time — is already on YouTube, featuring battles, new locations and a mountable, flying dragon.
The segment where the protagonist flies around on a bright blue dragon is short, and it’s just one part of the two-minute overview of Dragon Quest 11. While we also get some behind-the-scenes looks at both the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 4 versions of the game, as well as a peek at its lush environments and battle system, it’s that flying creature that’s most striking.
Although the MMO-style Wii game Dragon Quest 10 includes flying mounts, Dragon Quest is typically a game about fighting dragons, not using them to the hero’s advantage. Plus, the scale of that big blue dragon compared to its rider is ... pretty comical, to say the least.
Dragon Quest 10 skipped the U.S., and while Dragon Quest 11 hasn’t been confirmed for a stateside release, its more traditional, single-player nature suggests it has a better chance of making it overseas. The eleventh Dragon Quest is due in Japan in 2017 on PS4 and 3DS, and a version for Nintendo Switch is also in the works.
