Square Enix releases Dragon Quest XI S: Definitive Edition demo for PS4, Xbox One and PC

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Some games win you over with their story, and some win you over with the care in every detail: Dragon Quest XI is both. On November 2, 2020, Square Enix released a free demo of Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, about a month before the full version’s launch on those platforms, set for December 4, 2020.

The demo starts from the beginning of the adventure, when the young hero discovers he is the reincarnation of the Luminary, a legendary hero, and follows the first steps of the journey through Erdrea. Progress can be carried over to the full game, and on PC those who finished the demo also got three Seeds of Skill as a bonus. An important Steam detail: after buying the game, the demo stopped working, so the ideal was to finish it first to secure the bonus.

For those who haven’t followed: Dragon Quest XI came out in Japan on July 29, 2017, for PS4 and 3DS, and in the West on September 4, 2018, for PS4 and PC. The Definitive Edition debuted on the Nintendo Switch on September 27, 2019, and what stands out is the amount of extras compared with the original:

Japanese voice-over option, in addition to English;
2D mode, in the style of 16-bit classics, to play the adventure with a retro look;
Orchestrated soundtrack as an alternative to the original, by Koichi Sugiyama;
Difficulty adjustments in the “Draconian Quest” options;
Faster battle speed;
Photo mode;
New episodes focused on the party’s characters.

You can see Square Enix’s care in serving both those who want a modern experience and those who grew up with cartridge Dragon Quests: switching between 2D and 3D is one of the edition’s loveliest features.

What came next

The full version arrived on PS4, Xbox One and PC on December 4, 2020, and on Stadia on March 16, 2021. The Definitive Edition was very well received, scoring 91 on Metacritic on Switch and 92 on Xbox One. By September 2025, Dragon Quest XI had passed 9 million units shipped worldwide, and a Nintendo Switch 2 version was set for September 24, 2026.

Source: Square Enix.