The future of the Dragon Quest Builders series seems to be uncertain, as the series director confirmed today that he is leaving Square Enix.
In a new announcement shared on Twitter and translated in English by Gematsu, Dragon Quest Builders series director Kazuya Niinou confirmed that he is leaving Square Enix.
With development on Builders 2 completed, I have left Square Enix. To Naoki Yoshida, Noriyoshi Fujimoto, Takuma Shiraishi, all of my colleagues, and everyone who enjoyed the games I made, thank you so much! I truly appreciate your support.
The Dragon Quest Builder 2 development didn't exactly proceed smoothly, as Niinou felt a little burnt out by it.
I have been at Square Enix for about seven years now (my longest yet!). I felt a little burned out with Builders 2 and wanted to try out a development cycle different from Square Enix, so I set out for a new development environment.
While Niinou had left Square Enix, additional content for DQ Builders 2 will continue to be developed, as he will continue working on the game as external staff.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 has been released a couple of months back, and it's one of the best Dragon Quest series spin-off games ever released.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is better than the original game in every possible way, introducing many quality of life improvements and fixing some of the biggest issues like the linear progression system and more. And with a simple yet engaging story, excellent exploration, crafting and building mechanics and multiplayer features, the game is an excellent title that no fan of the Dragon Quest series and sandbox games should pass on, even if they never played the original.