Dragon Quest visionary Yuji Horii reveals the tenth mainline RPG is in the finishing stages of development...

It remains Wii's biggest coup. When Nintendo president Satoru Iwata shared a platform with top Square-Enix executives to reveal that Dragon Quest X will be exclusively hitting Wii (all the way back in 2008(!)), it was pretty huge news. The JRPG franchise still rules above all the rest in its homeland. Dragon Quest IX on DS set new sales records and has sold a mighty five-and-a-half million units worldwide - an impressive million being achieved in western territories.

Speaking to Nintendo Power (via GoNintendo), Dragon Quest's creator and producer Yuji Horii confirmed the game was still on track for a Wii release, and hinted that it would take inspiration from its critically-acclaimed PS2 predecessor.

"The next Dragon Quest game, Dragon Quest X, will actually be released on Wii. I feel that some users will want to play Dragon Quest on the big screen, which is why we are working toward releasing it on Wii. Of course, in the future we might develop on handhelds again, so it's really a case-by-case basis. It all depends on what the customer wants at that time. Something else we hear is that players want a new Dragon Quest that follows the same system of Dragon Quest VIII, so that's something else we're taking into consideration while in development for a Dragon Quest on Wii."

Horri-san also revealed that the development process had advanced onto the last parts of the game. Rather than teasing an imminent showcase, he merely stated that the team would be able to "announce something" by the end of the year. So. You know. Look out for that.