There are many people who were excited to see the announcement trailer for Dragon Quest XII back in 2021. Ever since, Dragon Quest XII was announced back in ’21 we have not seen any gameplay footage and the official release date still remains unknown. One of the reasons why Dragon Quest XII seems to be going through developmental hell is because reports say that the creator of the series Yuji Horii wants to make the game more adult-oriented than its predecessors. The Final Fantasy XII game which came out back in ’17 was rated “T” and it managed to be a commercial success reach over 2 million copies in sales. Dragon Quest XI was critically acclaimed by players and critics alike for its good story, exciting side quests and its overall presentation.

While Dragon Quest seems to shine with a “T” rating some believe that Square Enix making a “M” rated installment would be drastically different than what people are used to seeing within the series. Recently, Square Enix just released their first “M” rated Final Fantasy game and since then it has received nothing but praise from various gaming publications including IGN, Eurogamer and GameSpot. While the Final Fantasy series has mainstream appeal in western countries like America Dragon Quest is not nearly as popular as the FF series. Square Enix’s attempt to deliver more adult content in Dragon Quest XII could their way of trying to appeal to American gamers. Since there has never been an “M” rated Dragon Quest the process of creating a compelling storyline along with interesting characters that players can connect with would be very challenging to say the least. Square Enix possibly taking a chance with leaning more towards an “M” rating is a gamble that could possibly pay off similar to that of Final Fantasy XVI.