[Dragon Quest 11 S](https://youtu.be/h6dsxCfdZlk?feature=shared) was one of if not the very first game ever confirmed for the Nintendo Switch, back then known only by its codename NX. It’s an enhanced port of the PS4 version of Dragon Quest 11, with tons of fan-requested features and even more stuff crammed into it. This port falls in line with Nintendo ports of other mainline Dragon Quest games, such as the Game Boy Color remakes of the first three games and the DS remakes of DQ 4-6.
However in 2019, Nintendo was really pushing this as a major release that year. Of course they would be publishing it over here, but the marketing really peaked at E3 2019, where we not only got two separate trailers for DQ11S at Square Enix and Nintendo’s press conferences, but the DQ11 protagonist was being added as a playable character to Smash Ultimate as well! Dude was so ridiculous RNG heavy that folks wanted to ban him in competitive for a bit there. That said, the music selection he brought with him sounded garbage.
The game came out in September 2019, the same month as the Link’s Awakening remake, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Untitled Goose Game along with the Switch Lite console. I’ve personally never played a Dragon Quest game until now, but after the passing of longtime series illustrator Akira Toriyama I felt spurred to finally give it a shot. I’m currently playing the 3DS version of Dragon Quest 8 as my first DQ game alongside the DS version of Chrono Trigger, both to help get my appetite whet for the eventual 100+ hours I can expect from DQ11S. Here’s hoping the music of DQ11 sounds better than the tinny, almost synthetic compositions I’ve been hearing in both Smash Ultimate and in DQ8 3DS.