Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition will include several new features that were absent from the PC and PlayStation 4 versions of the game. There is one new mode that proved to be incredibly difficult for the developers to include, to the point where it likely won't appear in future games.
Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition has a beautifully realized 3D world that is based on the artwork of Akira Toriyama. One of the new additions to Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition is something that appeared in the Japan-exclusive Nintendo 3DS version of the original game, which is a 2D mode that emulates the look of the earlier Dragon Quest games.
It turns out that implementing the 2D mode was a huge hassle for the development team. RPG Site interviewed Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii and producer Hokuto Okamoto about the upcoming release of Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition and the duo were questioned about the most challenging aspects of development. It seems that the 2D mode was a lot more difficult to implement than anyone realized.
Hokuto Okamoto: [laughs] Oh, it was hard. As you mentioned, the design of these areas is quite different and the size of the maps is very different between 2D and 3D. We still wanted players to recognize that the cities are the same even if they're really quite different. We had to choose what to leave in and what to leave out in terms of the geography of things, which landmarks to keep in the 2D version and so on... that was difficult, to determine what we'd leave in and what we'd take out.
Another thing is that the text is different in 3D and 2D - so we have to manage all that at the same time. If we change one, it doesn't mean that the other changes automatically... so we had to change everything one-by-one. That was hard work. I never want to do that again! [laughs]
The original version of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age was a very long game in its own right and it was only released last year, so the people who have already played it might not be in a rush to go through it again. The addition of the 2D mode will allow returning players to experience the game in an entirely different way, which should appeal to the fans of the earlier entries in the series.
Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition will be released for the Nintendo Switch on September 27, 2019.
Source: RPG Site