Yuji Horii, creator of Square Enix‘s long-running RPG franchise Dragon Quest, appears to have accidentally revealed that a major livestream on May 27 will include announcements about the next Dragon Quest game – and after five years of near-silence on Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, that is not a small thing.
On a now-delisted episode of the KosoKoso broadcast, Horii stated – as translated by Gematsu – “We’ll be doing a live stream on May 27. I think we’ll be able to make an announcement about the next game. We’ll also have various other things besides the next game, so please look forward to it.” The fact that the episode was pulled shortly after strongly suggests Horii said something he wasn’t supposed to – which, as accidental reveals go, is about as unambiguous as they come.
Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate was first teased on May 27, 2021 – Dragon Quest Day – during the series’ 35th anniversary livestream, with a brief teaser trailer and a promise of a darker, more adult-oriented direction for the mainline series. Square Enix has said almost nothing about it publicly since, a silence made heavier by the deaths of composer Koichi Sugiyama in 2021 and beloved character designer Akira Toriyama in March 2024. Horii has repeatedly reaffirmed the game is in active development, but concrete details – platforms, gameplay, a release window – have remained absent for half a decade.
May 27, 2026 marks Dragon Quest’s 40th anniversary, making it the most logical possible moment for Square Enix to bring DQ12 back into the light. Horii has already hinted the game could be compatible with Switch 2, and with Nintendo’s new hardware now in the wild, a simultaneous worldwide launch – a franchise first that Square Enix pledged at the original reveal – starts to look like a realistic target rather than an aspiration. For context on how publishers are thinking about legacy franchises right now, Sega’s recent approach to its dormant catalogue is worth a read.
Are you ready to finally see what Dragon Quest 12 actually looks like in 2026, or has the wait made you cautious about getting your hopes up? Let us know in the comments below, and keep your eyes on GameLuster for more Dragon Quest coverage.
