The latest reveals of Dragon Quest XI have sparked questions among the community, including just how far the game is in development. That's understandable, considering that it has been kept under wraps for a long time, but what we recently saw seems quite polished already.

Producer Yosuke Saito gave a further hint on this as part of 4Gamer's mass interview that has become pretty much a new year's tradition.

"Dragon Quest X will finally celebrate its fifth anniversary. the PS4 and Switch versions are also in development, so it'll continue to excite the fans. At last, development of Nier: Automata and Dragon Quest XI has reached its climax. I'll make it to the end without relaxing!! (I will also be careful not to collapse...). So it will be a tough year in 2017 , but I'll do my best! Please continue to support me. Thank you."

Saito-san's wording certainly seems to indicate that Dragon Quest XI might be quite far along in its development cycle, which appears to match with what he mentioned in passing during the latest reveal livestream, hinting that the game is being developed with a release target within the year of the series' 30th anniversary, which ends on May 27th, 2017. Could the game really be released by then, at least in Japan?

What we saw so far was certainly impressive, including the latest screenshots for PS4 and 3DS, and the new trailers, which also show the game's opening cutscene.

More information was promised for December 29th, and it'll be interesting to see if we'll get further hints.