Could Dragon Quest XII be the final Dragon Quest game (outside of remakes/remasters/re-releases)? I realize this thread is centered on DQXI's impressive sales and the franchise itself surpassing 94 million units sold globally, and with sales like that, why would you end such a franchise? The reason I'm wondering is because Toriyama has passed on, Sugiyama has passed on. From what I understand, Dragon Quest, at its heart is a making of Horri, Toriyama and Sakaguchi under the company Armor Project. 2/3rds of that team are gone. Square has expressed concern that FF sales have been in decline due to the numbering of the series potentially causing confusion for the consumer. DQ has a similar numbering system. Between DQ IX's scrapped action combat system, the comment at DQ XII's title card announcement about action being added to DQ's combat (and maybe this has been scrapped, we'll find out), and a desire to grow the reach of the franchise, it seems there is a desire explore new things and to alter the formula of DQ which is antithetical to what DQ has been built on (largely avoiding change). With all of these things under consideration, could Square-Enix see this as an opportunity to soft retire Dragon Quest (I could see them doing remakes indefinitely) and direct resources/ideas to a new pillar franchise for the company rather than Horii/Toriyama/Sakaguchi's "thing" now being handled by different people?