Few JRPG franchises have the same history, charm, and enduring appeal as DRAGON QUEST. After appearances on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, Square Enix delivered another beloved chapter in the long-running series with DRAGON QUEST XI, first released in 2017 before eventually making its way to Nintendo Switch in the form of DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition. That version already brought together the original adventure with additional scenarios, an orchestral soundtrack, 2D mode, Japanese voice acting and plenty of other extras. Now, it’s finally the Nintendo Switch 2’s turn. And this time, the adventure doesn’t just make the jump successfully: it feels like it was made for the platform.

Story-wise, DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age takes an enormous amount of time to get going, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. It begins with a cinematic sequence in which a young woman is chased through a forest by a group of headless black riders, a cutscene that could have been lifted straight out of Sleepy Hollow. The hellish escape sequence ends with you, as a newborn, being swept away in a basket down a river, where an old man takes you in. Fast-forwarding in time, we find ourselves in the village of Cobblestone in the Kingdom of Erdrea, where a coming-of-age ceremony is about to take place in honor of the Spirit of the Land.

You, the nameless protagonist whose name you can choose and who never speaks, and your childhood friend Gemma are tasked with completing the ceremony, so you head up Mount Tor together with Gemma and her dog Sandy. When Gemma nearly falls to her death after being attacked by a threatening bird, something miraculous happens: the mark you’ve carried on your hand since birth unleashes a magical bolt of lightning into the sky, driving the bird away.

Impressed by what happened, you tell your mother, who finally reveals that a secret has surrounded you all your life, something she has never told anyone. You are the Luminary, a legendary hero from an ancient prophecy who, according to the stories your grandfather once told you, is destined to save the world. A magical pendant belonging to the Luminary has been kept safe for you all these years, and you are sent to Heliodor to deliver the news to King Carnelian. Like any proper epic, the entire village waves goodbye before you set off on your gray-white horse. Yes, things are initially rather peaceful, even downright heartwarming, in DRAGON QUEST XI S. That is, until the entire mood suddenly shifts and you find yourself on the run from practically everyone and everything in Erdrea, together with your first companion, Erik.

Eventually, as many as six more companions join your battle party, although there is also a temporary seventh playable character that you will have to discover for yourself to avoid spoilers. As you’d expect from a JRPG, each character – and naturally each enemy – has their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and it’s up to you to make the most of them through gear, equipment and efficient tactics. Luckily, when starting the game, you can once again activate various Draconian Quest modifiers that help determine the overall difficulty.

And yes, the franchise’s familiar blue Slimes don’t take long to show up as your first opponents, giving you the perfect opportunity to get to grips with the turn-based combat, with the perfectly functional Auto-Battle option available if you prefer to let the game handle the basics. You’ll quickly learn about the Pep Power mechanic too, allowing you to combine the spells and abilities of multiple party members into powerful special attacks. During battles, the speed can be adjusted across three settings, while the Battle Mode lets you switch between the Classic Camera and the newer Free-Form Fighting option. The latter was my personal favorite, not only because it feels much more modern, but also because it gives you a much better overview of the battlefield.

At other times, you’ll have to flee for your life in some genuinely impressive and tense escape sequences. Here, the camera is a little less cooperative, with protagonists running toward you and obstacles only becoming visible once you’re practically running into them. Since the autosaves can sometimes be quite far apart, it’s also a good idea to save manually whenever you get the chance at one of the many praying statues scattered throughout the world.

As is typical for the franchise, this action is regularly interrupted by plenty of lengthy cutscenes and dialogue that further develops the characters, while at other times you’re free to explore and look for secrets. You can climb onto rooftops, descend into caves and discover tons of barrels and treasure chests containing coins, feathers, clothing, medicinal herbs and other valuable items that you or your companions can use in battle or simply sell to one of the many vendors.

Truth be told, at times, the age of the original game does start to show, especially during exploration. There are moments when an invisible wall inexplicably prevents you from moving forward or jumping down, or when you take an unnecessarily long staircase down only to discover that you could have simply jumped back up or down because there is no fall damage. Certain fetch quests are also rather dryly introduced with instructions such as go find these items, even when you’ve already had those items in your possession for some time and your character could easily have mentioned that during the dialogue itself.

It’s also a little strange that your horse can gallop but has absolutely no concept of manually jumping, even if it would be purely for immersion, unless the game triggers a scripted jump automatically. The autosaves can also be quite far apart, making those praying statues even more important than you might initially think.

Both performance and loading times – and yes, there are quite a few of them – are excellent in this Switch 2 port. For the first time, this version offers a Performance Mode running at 1080p and 60 FPS, alongside a Quality Mode targeting 1440p at 30 FPS. Other quality-of-life features include the option to switch from the standard 3D presentation to 2D mode, skip dialogue, enable or disable autoplay for cutscenes, or swap the voice language between English and Japanese. I also really liked the continuous symphonic orchestral soundtrack, which adds the perfect epic touch to the entire experience.

Final Thoughts

DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition is still an enormous JRPG adventure, and its slow opening and occasional remnants of an older design can sometimes show their age. But once the journey gets going, the memorable characters, beautiful world, satisfying turn-based combat and wonderfully crafted story make those minor frustrations easy to overlook. With excellent performance, a wide array of options, and all the Definitive Edition content packed in, the Nintendo Switch 2 feels like an ideal platform for experiencing this epic adventure. If you’ve somehow missed DRAGON QUEST XI until now, this is a very hard version to pass up.

Additional Information

Release Date: September 24, 2026
Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch 2. Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Relevant links: Available via Nintendo eShop and Steam.

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