Summary
Dragon Quest 11 S: Echoes of an Exclusive Agehas come back to the Nintendo Switch eShop at a permanently reduced price. As the wait for the next installment in the long-standing JRPG series continues, Switch users who hadn’t downloaded the latest entry had to go without it for a month while Square Enix worked on some updates. Now the wait is over, and anyone who hasn’t playedDragon Quest 11 S: Echoes of an Exclusive Agecan do so at a lower cost.
Square Enix announced thatDragon Quest 11 Swould be temporarily delistedfrom the eShop on January 31, with the unavailability starting the next day. According to that announcement, the devs would make “minor updates” to the game’s listing during that time, which many interpreted as a switch in publisher. While Square Enix was already the title’s publisher on the Xbox, PC, and PlayStation versions, Nintendo was the listed publisher on the Switch version. Given that the company had delisted games likeOctopath TravelerandTriangle Strategywhen taking over as publisher in the past, it seemed like the same thing was happening withDragon Quest.
Sure enough, now thatDragon Quest 11 Sis back on the eShop, its listing shows Square Enix as the publisher. That’s not the only noteworthy change, though. The officialDragon QuestTwitter account also announced that the game is now permanently discounted to $39.99. Some speculated that such a price drop would happen after the delisting, considering that Nintendo tends to avoid lowering game prices apart from some temporary sales. While it may not be much of a surprise, it’s still nice that people can grab what some callthe best entry in theDragon Questfranchiseon the cheap.
Dragon Quest 11 S Is Back on the Switch eShop for Just $39.99
Interestingly enough, this isn’t the game’s first permanent price cut. In a rare move for the company, Nintendoslashed the price ofDragon Quest 11 Sto $49.99back in 2020, just a year after its release. The latest discount may make more sense, as the title is now several years old, but seeing not one but two such changes for a Switch game is unusual.
While it’s nice to seeDragon Quest 11 Sback on the Switch and available at a lower cost, there’s still little word on the series' next installment. Thegap betweenDragon Quest 11andDragon Quest12is the franchise’s longestso far, and it keeps growing. Square Enix announced the game in 2021, but it’s been a long wait since then. Some may seeDragon Quest 11 S’s price cut as a sign of potential things to come, but such a takeaway may be little more than wishful thinking.
