Square-Enix has just revealed the next mainline installment in the Dragon Quest series. The announcement was expected, but the choice of platforms was not. Dragon Quest XI will receive two separate versions - a home console game which is being developed for PS4, and a handheld game which is being built for Nintendo 3DS.

The 3DS version of the JRPG is the one that looks further into development. It employs a rather neat usage of the system's dual screens - the top screen will provide the familiar-but-lovely stylized 3D graphics that we are used to, whilst the bottom screen shows the game in retro 2D sprite form.

The first footage of the 3DS game has already emerged:

However, the biggest surprise was saved for the end of the show, with the announcement that Dragon Quest XI will also be heading to Nintendo's still-mysterious next-generated system codenamed 'NX'. The MMORPG Dragon Quest X, which released on Wii and later on Wii U and 3DS, will also be releasing on NX.

What's remarkable is, given that Dragon Quest XI will have separate handheld and console iterations, this still doesn't indicate what form factor NX will take. Nintendo is keeping mute on its next system until 2016. Despite that, Dragon Quest XI and X are now ostensibly the first ever titles confirmed for the new system.