The Dragon Quest franchise's official Twitter account announced today Dragon Quest Your Story, the first 3DCG animated movie of the franchise. The movie will hit Japanese theaters on August 2, 2019.

Dragon Quest Your Story will adapt the storyline from Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride. Square Enix's Yuji Horii is credited as the original creator of the movie and will supervise the story. Takashi Yamazaki is credited as Scriptwriter and Chief Director, and with Makoto Hanafusa credited as Director.

Takashi Yamazaki was the director of Stand by Me Doraemon, the extremely popular 2014 Doraemon movie, which was also the first 3DCG movie of the Doraemon franchise. Makoto Hanafusa also worked on Stand By Me Doraemon as Art Director.

Dragon Quest series' traditional composer Koichi Sugiyama will be handling Dragon Quest Your Story's soundtrack.

An official site and an official Twitter account for Dragon Quest Your Story have been opened.

First released on Super Famicom in Japan in 1992, Dragon Quest V is quite popular among fans because of its story leading the hero to choose a bride, getting married and raising a family. Another key to the game's success is the monster recruiting and raising system, which later gave birth to the Dragon Quest Monsters spinoff series. Dragon Quest V was first released outside Japan through its Nintendo DS remake by Square Enix in 2009.

The latest main game in the Dragon Quest franchise, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, released in Japan for 3DS and PS4 in July 2017. The game was later released in the west on PS4 and PC in September 2018, while the 3DS version is still exclusive to Japan. Dragon Quest XI currently sold over 4 million copies around the world. A brand next version of the game, Dragon Quest XI S, will be launching on Nintendo Switch in 2019 in Japan. It will add Japanese voice-overs to the game, along with many new elements, including new story elements, though none taking place after the game's true ending. Dragon Quest XI S wasn't announced in the west by Square Enix yet.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is the latest game in the franchise and is currently available in Japan for PS4 and Switch since December 20. The game should release west in 2019, though it wasn't officially announced yet.

Yuji Horii also already commented on a possible Dragon Quest XII, saying it definitely won't happen anytime soon. The next release in the franchise should be either Dragon Quest XI S, or a new Dragon Quest Monsters game.

We're in 2019, Dragon Quest Your Story will definitely be released outside Japan, and should at least get official screenings during anime and game conventions around the world.

Update: The western releases of both Dragon Quest XI S Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition and Dragon Quest Builders 2 were announced on a Nintendo Direct a few hours after I initially published this article. They also revealed Dragon Quest XI S will include the 3DS's version's graphics.