KYODO NEWS - Jun 3, 2019 - 16:31 | Lifestyle, All, Japan

Square Enix Co. said Monday it will release a new smartphone game title in its popular role-playing Dragon Quest series this year, enabling players to locate and battle monsters in real-world locations.

"Dragon Quest Walk," to be available in Japanese on Apple Inc.'s iOS or Google LLC.'s Android operating systems, is similar in concept to the smash-hit "Pokemon Go" game in which users catch virtual characters that appear on their smartphone screens based on the player's location.

[Copyright 2019 ARMOR PROJECT/BIRD STUDIO/SQUARE ENIX. All Rights Reserved. The Dragon Quest Walk uses the Google Maps Platform]

Yuji Horii, the creator of the Dragon Quest series and executive producer at the Japanese game developer Square Enix, acknowledged at an event in Tokyo that he was inspired by the location-based Pokemon Go game that was released in 2016, calling it "extremely fun" to play.

"I hope many players will take their smartphones and go outside for an adventure as a hero," Horii said. "I think it will push users to go outside for walks and allow them to discover new places."

In the upcoming Dragon Quest title, if a player visits "landmark" spots in Japan such as Tokyo Tower or Nagoya Castle they can progress the game's narrative as they, for example, encounter new foes.

A player can also set a destination in Japan to travel to in order to take part in battles with monsters and collect items.

Since the launch of the first Dragon Quest title in 1986, Square Enix has sold over 78 million units worldwide of the role-playing game series, famous for its blue, onion-shaped mascot character named Slime, according to Square Enix.