Square Enix Announces a New Dragon Quest Monsters Title

We don’t actually know the title of this upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters title yet, but hey, it’s a start!

In celebration of the Dragon Quest Monsters spinoff series’ 25th anniversary, Square Enix has seized the chance to tell the world a brand-new entry is in (presumably early) development for Nintendo Switch. The announcement was made via the cutest video I’ve seen on YouTube in at least the past two months, so please watch it and smile alongside me:

For those who are unfamiliar with the Monsters side of this legendary franchise, the games eschew traditional “epic” adventures in favor of focusing on capturing and training a wide variety of monsters. Dragon Quest‘s enemy bestiary has always been ridiculously charming, so the appeal of buddying up with these beasties is pretty strong. The fifth and sixth mainline Dragon Quest titles do feature monster recruitment, but the spinoffs take the concept and run with it.

It’s heartening to see an English version of this trailer, too, since the Dragon Quest Monsters games haven’t always had guaranteed Western releases. The first two games came to North America but not Europe; meanwhile, the first two games to specifically feature the Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker moniker came to both North America and Europe, but the third and final entry never made it beyond Japanese shores. Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry’s Wonderland did make the journey West, but its Switch port… didn’t.

So, while it seemed a relatively safe bet there’d been an English release in light of how many Dragon Quest spinoffs have popped up in more recent years, this almost confirms it. (You never know until you know for sure, after all.)

Most recently, Dragon Quest Treasures for Nintendo Switch included some monster-collecting elements, though it’s not quite the same thing. RPGFan’s Abraham Kobylanski gave it a 79, proclaiming “it’s a rich and beautiful world to hunt for treasure in, but enjoyable exploration is interrupted by combat that fails to evoke the same sense of wonder.”