Dragon Quest XI will be offline, for home console

Dragon Quest XI will be an offline game for home console, series creator Yuji Horii said during an interview with Final Fantasy fan-site FFRing.

Get the English tidbits below. (Edited from Google Translate.)

What about Dragon Quest XI? Have you prepared something special to celebrate the 30th anniversary? Will it be an online game?

Horii: “(Laughs.) Nothing is decided! But yes, we are preparing something. We can’t say anything right now, but yes, we’re working on it. One thing is certain: Dragon Quest XI will be an offline game. But we’ll have more information on that front soon.”

Does the real-time combat of Dragon Quest Heroes make you want to evolve the gameplay for the mainline series of games? Like what Square Enix is doing with the Final Fantasy series?

Horii: “No, Dragon Quest XI will be a return to the traditional mechanics of Dragon Quest. If we do another action RPG, it will be in the Dragon Quest Heroes series. We want to differentiate those two types of games.”

Will Dragon Quest VII and VIII for 3DS be released in the west at any point? Many fans want them.

Horii: “(Laughs.) We hear and read that a lot of fans are indeed passionate about these games, and we’re thinking about it.”

Square Enix announced a remake for Final Fantasy VII. What is the possibility we’ll see a similar large-scale remake for Dragon Quest games like Dragon Quest III?

Horii: “There isn’t anything planned at the moment, but there is a possibility for it in the future.”

What’s your opinion on smartphone games?

Horii: “I don’t think that the success of smartphone games should be a reason to only make games for smartphones. I really think that games have to be designed for different platforms. Dragon Quest XI will, for example, be a game designed for home console because it will be designed for a controller.”

A few years ago, you made Dragon Quest Swords, a first-person Wii adventure game where use of the Wii Remote was very important. Does the age of virtual reality make you want to experiment with new concepts such as this?

Horii: “It’s amazing! I personally had the opportunity to try Project Morpheus, and it’s a very strange feeling. I really felt there was a girl next to me. Another demo had a shark, which was very impressive and realistic. If time allows it, I’d really like to make a Dragon Quest game using this technology.”

Next week’s issue of Weekly Jump is supposed to have a “big title” related to Dragon Quest revealed. Perhaps we’ll finally hear about Dragon Quest XI then?

Thanks, NeoGAF.