Dragon Quest Comes Back to the West

Though I often still made Dragon Quest-related posts here on Damage Control, I’d given up on expecting any 3DS game in the franchise to be localized. And you can’t blame me, or anyone else who thought similarly. It was an amazing occurrence, considering every installment in the franchise was localized for DS. But we went from that to not a single 3DS iteration leaving its home country, due to a number of background factors. It seemed that both Square Enix and Nintendo weren’t impressed with Dragon Quest VI and Joker 2’s sales on DS in 2011, especially the latter title; Nintendo apparently also wasn’t interested in continuing to pursue a franchise whose installments were no longer releasing exclusively on their systems.

But there’s no need for further lamentations. If you read my roundup on the most recent Nintendo Direct installment, or pay attention to other sites that cover Japanese RPGs, you already know Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past and Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King for 3DS were confirmed for western territories. The hardware is nearly five years old, but it appears Square Enix and Nintendo finally made up to the point where the latter feels OK with publishing the games again. This also means Yuji Horii wasn’t kidding when he said they were coming over at Japan Expo.

(Both companies must have had a heck of a makeup session, since they also got Cloud Strife in Super Smash Bros. I’ll spare you the excruciating details.)

There’s plenty of anticipation for both titles, but DQVII is the bigger deal here. It’s a complete 3D remake of the original PSOne title, which adds a bunch of new features and streamlines the experience. For instance, the 3DS version makes it far easier to level up classes, thanks to cutting the experience requirements either by 33% or in half. Monster classes have all been made more useful, and have access to a larger amount of skills. Though it’s still one of the longest JRPGs around, the pacing has been adjusted for certain sections to speed things up. And that’s not even getting into the brand new EX dungeon that’s been added, along with new weapons and armor. It will also receive a localization that’s more in-fitting with more recent DQ localizations, instead of the unpolished PSOne version from 2001.

Its length is the biggest reason why many thought it was a lost cause. A long RPG like this has mountains upon mountains of text to translate and localize, and it appeared neither company involved initially felt it was worth the cash and resource investment. But good sales of RPGs like Fire Emblem Awakening and Bravely Default convinced them that a good audience for the genre exists on 3DS, so they went ahead with the effort. As they say, better late than never. It’s planned for release in early summer 2016, but I’ll go ahead and ballpark a July release.

Of course, there’s also a chance Square Enix could reuse its localization for the mobile version, recently released in Japan. That’s nice, but it’s good that we’re getting the 3DS version as an option.

Meanwhile, Dragon Quest VIII is a significantly lower risk, since it already received a great localization for PS2, which released in America on this very day ten years ago. Just as it was reused for the mobile version released last year, most of that can be inserted into the 3DS version with minor edits. Despite that, the game will be neat to have on a handheld, considering it was a technical marvel when it originally released. Its large overworld is still mind-blowing to explore even all these years later, and it will be more palatable for some of us to explore that in the palm of our hands, and not tethered to the television — or portrait view.

Sure, its graphics aren’t quite on par with the PS2 version, with evidence suggesting it used assets from the mobile version rebuilt on Unity. It also doesn’t utilize the system’s 3D capabilities. But it makes up for that with some extra content, visible enemies on the overworld instead of random battles, considerably shorter loading times, faster battles, and a newly arranged orchestral soundtrack. Still, it’s up to you as to whether its visuals were a worthy sacrifice. This game will release in late 2016.

I’m aware my title is a tad hyperbolic, since these aren’t the first DQ games to release outside Japan in a while. Square Enix has been releasing mobile versions in English for over a year, while Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below released for PS4 last month. Speaking of that: It’s nice that a Square Enix employee was fibbing when he said Heroes’ sales would determine whether they pursued future DQ localizations, though it didn’t receive an advertising campaign on par with, say, Hyrule Warriors. Hopefully it met their expectations.

Even if it didn’t, it will have another chance. People who logged into Steam Thursday were greeted with ads for a PC version of DQH, a clearly unintentional occurrence given how Square Enix has yet to announce it. But remember: This is a Koei Tecmo-developed game, so cross your fingers and hope its PC port isn’t as subpar as their other offerings.

The 3DS DQ localizations also come as good news, because the chance of Dragon Quest XI’s handheld version making the trip over increased tenfold. Remember that it and the PS4 version are different games, but contain the same story. But the unique appeal of the 3DS version lies not only in the version being unique compared to the Unreal Engine 4-powered console game, but because it presents two versions in one. In addition to the 3D version, there’s also a 2D sprite-based one reminiscent of the original DQVII and the DS renditions of IV, V, and VI. Don’t forget that you can’t play the entire game with both versions on the main and touchscreens; that’s only for the prologue. You’ll have the option of choosing which you’ll want to stick with afterward.

We haven’t heard much about DQXI since shortly after its reveal in mid-summer, but Square Enix should have another showcase planned soon, given that it’s due for release in Japan by the end of 2016.

While I wouldn’t expect any of the 3DS spinoffs to make their way over (Rocket Slime 3 and the Monsters games, including the upcoming Joker 3), it’s nice that we’re finally receiving the DQ games people have desired for years. Let’s just hope nothing like this happens again.