Wasn't this coming on Switch too? The colorful and varied cast, while stereotypical, does make me interested in the game after all the recent JRPGs with their ONLY HOT PEOPLE AND MASCOTS ALLOWED policy...
It seems a while away to be honest...maybe the first real news about it will come on TGS? There have been little signs and rumors.
They seem to have stumbled into serious development issues early on in regards to the Switch version. When the game was first revealed they already announced the game would be on PS4, 3DS, PC and "Nintendo NX", as it was called then, because no one knew what the console would actually turn out to be. Not even Square Enix knew. They promised to show footage as soon as possible after the console was unveiled and then released, but that didn't happen until now. Only recently they were able to tell fans: "Development is progressing smoothely".
We don't really know, but the biggest reason this takes so long could be because they can't simply port the PS4/PC version down to Switch. The graphical and performance hit would be too big. There are graphically impressive games like Doom or Wolfenstein ported to Switch, but only at heavy costs. They had to slash the framerate in half to 30fps, drop the resolution as far as 300 something p (which is worse than PS2 quality) and on top of that still downgrade the visuals further. The problem is, they can't do that this easily with a game like Dragon Quest XI as it already runs at just 30fps on PS4. They can't just half it to 15fps to gain more power. And even the base PS4 doesn't manage to handle the game at full 1080p resolution but 900p instead. One can imagine that when already the PS4 struggles, the Switch might not be able to handle it at all. I think they had to rebuild the game in parts or entirely from the ground. If they brute-force a downport, the game will look and perform awful, if they however build and optimize it from the gound for Switch, then it can still look really good and perform well. But that will take some time...
Anyway, reviews are out and the game got great reviews here in the West as well!
I especially enjoyed the Kotaku review. It is a bit unconventional, lol, but it is very detailed and passionate about the game and the entire series:
If you can't bear to watch over 30 minutes of this I suggest you wait for the Easy Allies video review. They are usually concice, in-depth and I already know Ben, who does the review, is very informed and passionate about the Dragon Quest series.