Dragon Quest is a big deal in Japan, so much that seeing people taking a day off when a new game of the franchise is released isn't surprising anymore, and it hasn't been for decades.

Today, May 27th, marks the 32nd anniversary of the release of the first Dragon Quest game, and the Japan Anniversary Association recently certified the day as "Dragon Quest Day" as you can see below.

While the Japan Anniversary Association isn't a government entity, so Dragon Quest Day isn't exactly a national holiday (sorry, Japanese salarymen, no new vacation day for you), it's still a rather well-known organization founded in 1991 to foster anniversary culture in the country.

At the very least, someone must have gone through the trouble of requesting the registration (unfortunately info on who did it is unavailable), which costs 100,000 yen. That's $914. The request is then processed by the association's committee, which decides whether it's eligible for an official certification. Apparently, Dragon Quest Day was considered relevant enough, which isn't at all surprising considering how popular the series is in Japan.

Soon, it'll be "Dragon Quest Day" in the west as well, with the release on PS4 and PC of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, on September 4th. The PS4 version of the game can already be pre-ordered on Amazon, while a Switch version will also come down the line, but it will take a while.

If you want to learn more about the game you can also read our interview with Producer Hokuto Okamoto.

[Thanks for the tip: Lelian]