Erik, the suave, spiky-headed best friend character from Dragon Quest XI appears to be doing a lot of work on behalf of the Dragon Quest brand. And I’m not just talking about his strange, yet deeply attractive accent. In the latest issue of manga rag V-Jump, it was revealed that August’s Dragon Quest Summer Festival 2019 will include a brand new Erik-centric announcement. Based on earlier information, it’s incredibly likely (but far from confirmed or guaranteed) that this announcement could be the official reveal of the next Dragon Quest Monsters.
Per Gematsu, we already know that Erik will be the star of an upcoming one-shot manga from Hiro Mashima. Titled Dragon Quest XI S: The Special Starting Book, this manga appears to be related to the upcoming Switch release, and is set for an August 2019 release. Whatever is happening during the Dragon Quest Summer Festival 2019, Square Enix has confirmed it is separate from the manga, but also related to Erik.
Earlier in the year, Square Enix revealed that a new Dragon Quest Monsters is in development. Not only that, but the new game will star Erik and his sister Mia. All we’ve seen so far is a little bit of art, so it’s logical to put two and two together here and speculate the game’s official debut is on deck here. Hopefully this includes a PlayStation 4 release, at the very least so my coverage of the matter so far isn’t immediately invalidated.
Dragon Quest Monsters has been a thing since the Game Boy; it’s a spinoff series that takes a page from the Pokemon book, seeing players befriend and battle with the series’ famous monsters. What generally sets these games apart from the competition is extensive breeding systems, which allow players to carefully tweak conditions to build up powerful teams. The series has largely appeared on Nintendo handhelds and has a spotty localization history. But the way things have gone for Dragon Quest lately, it’s totally possible we’ll be seeing this one.
Source: Gematsu
