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Square-Enix ponders a remake of Dragon Quest IX, sees Switch as a viable platform for such a remake

Not official...yet
by rawmeatcowboy
11 July 2019
GN Version 5.0

Square-Enix recently held a live-stream featuring multiple developers from Dragon Quest IX. We shared footage from that event, but now we have the full translation of details, thanks to Siliconera. Check out the summary of that event below.

- Yuji Horii talked about wanting to do something with Dragon Quest that would take players outdoors
- he felt that Pokémon was able to beat him to the punch with Pokémon GO
- talk about taking players outdoors brought back memories of Dragon Quest IX and its StreetPass-like feature
- the team ponders a potential remake of Dragon Quest IX, and they lean towards Switch and smartphones for this
- about 80~90% of respondents were asking for this title to come to Switch
- Horii suggested smartphones while discussing possible functionalities, but Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino chimed in saying they could make things happen with Switch using Wi-Fi, too
- Dragon Quest IX looked a lot better to them back in the day compared to how they see it now
- they acknowledge that fans would be happy to just get improved looks for the equipment
- Square-Enix is always considering a remake for Dragon Quest IX, but to them it’s a special title
- if they were to do a remake or port, they wouldn’t be able to decide on the platform at the moment
- there are a lot of people who only played through the story of Dragon Quest IX just once
- this is why they think it would be nice to have Dragon Quest IX that will allow players to simply enjoy its story
- Director Jin Fujisawa says he wants to hear more from fans that want a remake
- they don’t have any studios in mind as to who would take care of its development
- Level-5 President Hino jokingly mentioned that he could do it in a couple months
- in reality he says that it would take about a year, and that’s not counting any additional content
- the creators talked about whether they should add more to the story or just do a remake with added quests and such
- Hino added that back when he worked on Dragon Quest VIII and IX he told himself he’d never do a spinoff or remake
- nowadays he's very interested in doing so
- the creators wanted to remind fans that the talk session just for fun and nothing is actually in the works
- the brainstorming session about a hypothetical remake got their creative juices flowing
- the team all appear pretty excited about the possibilities of getting it done in the near future

[Link]