Players who decide to download and play pirated versions of the game will be taking a very long boat ride. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=16508 Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride released for the Nintendo DS nearly two weeks ago in Japan with a form of copy protection to prevent the distribution of pirated copies of the game. In light of significant piracy due to the R4 and other flash carts, Square Enix decided to protect their latest release by modifying the opening sequence of the game.
Players who load up a pirated version of the game will be treated to a never-ending boat ride at the beginning of the game. At first it was unknown if the boat ride was actually a game breaking glitch, but Square Enix confirmed shortly after that it was included as a copy protection mechanism.
Unfortunately for Square Enix, modders have already found a workaround for the protection and the modified ROM dump for the game is likely floating around somewhere at this point. Nevertheless, Square Enix is attacking the source alongside Nintendo with a lawsuit aimed to stop the distribution of flash carts in Japan.