The founder still has creative control over Dragon Quest. You don't trust him?
Squeenix is already preparing to move on without Horii. After all, who knows how long he has to live.
They've admitted on interviews that starting from the next entry, they want to create a template for the next 10~20 years for the franchise.
According to Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matusda, "as a brand we always need to innovate."
www.thegamer.com
And if you look at how they're describing this "template", it includes words such as "mature", "adult", "dark", "new direction".
Also, combat will be revamped somewhat:
While we still don't know much about Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate, the latest flagship RPG for Square Enix will shake up its battle mechanics. Series creator and Yuji Horii teased the game'
nichegamer.com
It seems they're also struggling with the concept
Japanese outlet denfaminicogamer recently published a text version of a radio interview they conducted with the creator of Dragon Quest...
noisypixel.net
Now, I don't want to be too negative, because something good may come out of it.
But it's clear Squeenix wants to exert some control over the long-term future of the series.
Judging by how they SUCK at making decisions (e.g. FF13, FF 15, FF16, Forspoken, FF7R) I won't hold my breath.