Square Enix continues to port console classics. The eighth part of the Dragon Quest role-playing series is due to be released in the App Store today.
The appearance of the mobile version of the game, if you are not a JRPG fan, can hardly be called a significant event: Square Enix has long been engaged in bringing its cult projects to mobile platforms. The company has now managed to re-release six parts of Final Fantasy on iOS and Android. And its monetization policy regarding classics remains unchanged – the Japanese company, as a rule, sells it for a rather big $19.99.
On the other hand, you can’t call Dragon Quest VIII a passing release, because this time Square Enix decided to experiment. If all parts of Final Fantasy reached mobile devices almost in their original form, then Dragon Quest VIII is a total remastering. The game works in “portrait mode”, completely redrawn and rebuilt on Unity.
Does the current mobile market need a game?
Rather, yes than no. Today, not only console classics, but also projects inspired by it are already well diverging on the App Store and Google Play (Oceanhorn is a great example).
What do you think about such projects? Write in the comments!
By the way, Dragon Quest is the second most successful line of games from Square Enix. The total sales of all titles in the series amount to more than 57 million boxes. For comparison, the total circulation of all parts of Final Fantasy has more than 100 million copies sold. Both figures were relevant for 2011.