Topic: Dragon Quest IV Through VI Destined for America

[Nick DiMola]

The Japanese remake of Dragon Quest IV will see an American localization. Its two sequels will also be remade for the DS and released in both Japan and America.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=15994

 Today, Square-Enix published a North American Dragon Quest IV website announcing the pending release of the DS remake of the fourth game from the storied RPG series. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen will see release on September 16, 2008.    

In addition to the launch of the Dragon Quest IV website, Square-Enix announced the pending release of Dragon Quest V and VI DS remakes through the Dragon Quest hub website. Due to some similar elements, all three titles are known collectively as the "Castle in the Sky" trilogy even though there is no official indication that the games are directly related. Both titles have been given subtitles for their eventual release: Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Maiden and Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie.    

Both Dragon Quest V and VI have never been released in America before. Neither title has been assigned a release date, but players should not expect them until after Dragon Quest IV arrives.    

There is currently no word on availability in other territories, but those involved in the DS homebrew scene http://www.siliconera.com/2007/12/13/dragon-quest-iv-hides-a-partial-english-translation/">have revealed that the Japanese Dragon Quest IV ROM contains translations data for all of the European languages. While this is not an official confirmation that the title will see release in Europe, it is a strong sign favoring that notion.    

Dragon Quest IV (known as Dragon Warrior IV in America when it was released for the NES in 1992) was the last Dragon Quest title to be localized for the American market until the eventual release of Dragon Quest VII on the Playstation in 2001. Though immensely popular in Japan, the Dragon Quest series did not garner widespread support in America until the release of Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2 in 2005.

[walkingdead2]

oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy...  i want them but im going to have so many other games to play by that time... what is a brotha to do?

[animecyberrat]

quit your job and become a full time gamer. Finding money to buy all your games, now that is a different story.

[NWR_insanolord]

He should get into smuggling. If he works fast he can be the head of his own smuggling ring by September, and then he'd have underlings to do the smuggling for him while he stayed in his base high in the Andes mountains playing all his games. The only downside is that the shipping prices to get the games to the Andes won't be pretty.

[animecyberrat]

it all depends on what you are smuggling though.

[NWR_insanolord]

There are so many different kinds of things to smuggle, he could just go with whatever works best. Probably something that's not inherently illegal would be best.

[Ian Sane]

Cool!  According to IGN these are 3D remakes so I assume they'll be like Final Fantasy III.

Though I have one request: release the original versions, translated into English, on the VC!  Square Enix seems reluctant to release games on the VC that they figure they can re-release in some other form and charge full price.  Fair enough.  Sucks for us, but we can all see why they would do that.

The thing is though that I'd argue these are two separate, non-competing products.  In fact they compliment each other.  The original and the remake are different enough that it would be worth owning both, especially since we're talking about a shift from 2D to 3D.  If anything the original versions would make a fine companion to the remakes.  I don't think anyone but the most old-school purist is going to not get the remake because the original is available on the VC.  If anything this would be a clever way to get people to buy two products.  Konami released a remake of Rondo of Blood on the PSP and also included the original, which had never been released here.  Well including both was very fan friendly (except for the PSP part ) but they probably could have gotten more sales if they separated them.  Well that would be PSP and Wii which is not an ideal combo but DS and Wii certainly is.

Hell Square Enix could even charge a premium for these titles on the VC because they're imports.  Meanwhile the translation was already done for the remake.  You could probably get an American intern with no knowledge of Japanese to take the remake's translation and shove it into the originals.  So they can charge a premium and get away with it despite not that much effort on their part and sell two different products.  It's win-win.

[Shift Key]

Probably something that's not inherently illegal would be best.

But then he's not a smuggler, but simply a courier. And couriers don't make the big money last I checked.

[Kairon]

RPGssssss...*drooool*

I mean... geez, every time I get excited for a game I find out it's an SRPG. DARN. Give me freaking regular RPGs please.

[NWR_insanolord]

Probably something that's not inherently illegal would be best.

But then he's not a smuggler, but simply a courier. And couriers don't make the big money last I checked.

I'm pretty sure things can be smuggled that aren't necessarily illegal, just obtained illegally or something. He shouldn't smuggle drugs because those are always illegal, there's no legal way to have them so if someone finds them it's game over. Pick something else that someone would have to do more work than that to determine that it was illegal. It's probably not going to pay as much, but it's safer.

[ATimson]

Though I have one request: release the original versions, translated into English, on the VC!  Square Enix seems reluctant to release games on the VC that they figure they can re-release in some other form and charge full price.  Fair enough.  Sucks for us, but we can all see why they would do that.

The thing is though that I'd argue these are two separate, non-competing products.  In fact they compliment each other.  The original and the remake are different enough that it would be worth owning both, especially since we're talking about a shift from 2D to 3D.  If anything the original versions would make a fine companion to the remakes.

Maybe for these DS titles, like FF3; less so with the GBA ports of FF1/2/4/5/6.

Hell Square Enix could even charge a premium for these titles on the VC because they're imports.  Meanwhile the translation was already done for the remake.  You could probably get an American intern with no knowledge of Japanese to take the remake's translation and shove it into the originals.

If they still have the source code and assets. If they had to ROMhack the translation in, that's not exactly a trivial task...

(Which is a big part of why I despair of ever seeing any pre-FE6 Fire Emblem released in English on the VC. 6, at least, could probably be thrown together very quickly and cheaply given the source files and a GBA emulator for Wii--moreso than most Japan-only games, as they've already done the necessary code modifications to support localization for FE7. So of course it's the only one with a readily available, playable fan translation!)

[Caliban]

I still have very good fond memories from playing Dragon Warrior back in the day with my brother, and then one day my bro goes "I beat the last boss" and I'm like "no way, awesome, show me" and it was glorious.

[vudu]

Holy Hell.  We all knew it was coming, but still.  Between these three games, DQ IX, and FF IV - VI, I may never have to play another non-SquareEnix game on my DS ever again.

[Bill Aurion]

Cool!  According to IGN these are 3D remakes so I assume they'll be like Final Fantasy III.

No, no, no...You haven't been keeping up...



This is what the remakes generally look like...