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Fujimoto: "...it's like Nintendo took half of the bill!"(for DQVII)

Oregano

Member
From Nintendolife's interview with Dragon Quest Producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto:

What has Nintendo's involvement been in the development process?

The sheer translation volume of Dragon Quest VII is more than 2 times Dragon Quest V, so it's a gigantic game. It was really hard to make the business decision to localize the game. With Nintendo, we were able to work it out and work hand-in-hand and make it happen together. To be completely blunt, it's like Nintendo took half of the bill!

Thought this was an interesting tidbit because there has been a lot of speculation about Nintendo's level of involvement in games like this and Bravely Default.

Hope this is of enough interest for a thread!
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
Please bring us the forgotten Ace Attorney games, Nintendo.
 

Ridley327

Member
That's really interesting. We've usually been under the assumption that Nintendo basically pays for all of whatever Squenix needs to do on any of those pick-ups, so something like this helps paint a clearer picture.
 
How cheap can SE be? They've got plenty of money.
It's not a safe thing to do. What happens if the game bombs and no one buys it? Suddenly this expensive translation looks like a mistake to investors. If Nintendo is with them and helps foot the bill unsure things suddenly look way better.

Same thing would probably have had to happen if the old games were going to be ported to PS4/Vita instead only with Sony this time(now that the translation work is done they can btw use it for iOS ports etc btw).
 

Oregano

Member
It's not a safe thing to do. What happens if the game bombs and no one buys it? Suddenly this expensive translation looks like a mistake to investors. If Nintendo is with them and helps foot the bill unsure things suddenly look way better.

Same thing would probably have had to happen if the old games were going to be ported to PS4/Vita instead only with Sony this time(now that the translation work is done they can btw use it for iOS ports etc btw).

Well as far as we know Sony doesn't have this level of involvement with DQ Heroes or Builders which are likely going to bomb something fierce.

Actually Yakuza seems to be the main/only analogous Sony example and that's Digital only.
 

Vena

Member
Well as far as we know Sony doesn't have this level of involvement with DQ Heroes or Builders which are likely going to bomb something fierce.

Actually Yakuza seems to be the main/only analogous Sony example and that's Digital only.

DQHeroes already bombed. And it was something fierce.
 
Well as far as we know Sony doesn't have this level of involvement with DQ Heroes or Builders which are likely going to bomb something fierce.

Actually Yakuza seems to be the main/only analogous Sony example and that's Digital only.
I have no clue how we are actually getting Heroes or Builders. They're 100% bombs and everyone knows it. Some executive must've got it into his mind to try to reestablish the series at any cost.

Guess SE's mobile cash flow helps make decisions like that easier.
 

-shadow-

Member
I honestly find it hard to believe that it's too much text for them to do the localisation themselves/make it justifiable. But on the other hand I wish I could say I was surprised.
 

MANUELF

Banned
Nintendo always needs to step in and localizar a game themselves with these publishers, at least we are getting the game I guess
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
I honestly find it hard to believe that it's too much text for them to do the localisation themselves/make it justifiable. But on the other hand I wish I could say I was surprised.

Dragon Quest VII is infamously known for its extensive script.

Dragon-Quest-VII.jpg

There is a fucktonzillion amount of text. Literally.
 

EhoaVash

Member
Uh...didn't Nintendo foot the bill for dragon quest 9 localization too.

They're footing bill for dq 8 remake too.

And they footed the bill for dragon quest 5 or was it 6's Ds localization. Not the first time.
 
It amazes me how much Nintendo has to do to have some support.

If you saw the sales numbers of some of the DQ DS games you wouldn't be amazed.

Dragon Quest VII is infamously known for its extensive script.



There is a fucktonzillion amount of text. Literally.

That's not all script though. There were a lot of drawings & stuff in there.

Even so, Enix's localisation team received about 70000 pages of text, it's certainly still a massive undertaking, but easier now because they have the previous work as a guide.
 

emb

Member
I wonder why so much translation is needed. Is the remake hugely different from the PS2 game?

I could understand wanting to re-translate everything if the old version was inaccurate, but when the cost of translation almost meant no localization for the remake, why not use the existing translation?

Edit: Reading the article, I guess this mostly kinda answers my question:
With this remake, we have new translations and we re-localized the game, so I think a lot of the old players will be able to get the sense of a fresh start as though it's a new game. Also, we added a lot of party chat to this remake, so I think the original users will be able to enjoy those added elements and learn more about the characters. With this added party chat, I think users will be able to like certain characters more, and dislike certain characters more! The added chat gives another layer, so players will be able to emotionally invest more in these characters, so I think it'll be super fun!
 
Dragon Quest VII is infamously known for its extensive script.



There is a fucktonzillion amount of text. Literally.

Do bear in mind that's also the game's code and development stuff, too, not just the script.

In fact, based on the PSX version's word count, Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, and 4 have longer English scripts, as do Persona 3 Portable and Final Fantasy VII.
 

Effect

Member
Not at all surprised by this. I don't see Nintendo doing this as a regular thing. Dragon Quest however is a special case for them. Nintendo has always wanted the Dragon Quest franchise. It's why Enix back in the day got special treatment and maybe why Sony was likely able to poach SquareSoft the way they did. People always talk about how Nintendo lost Final Fantasy but looking back I don't think Nintendo ever saw it as a loss. Dragon Quest was the loss when 7 and 8 ended up on the PS1 and PS2. This is why they went all in with Dragon Quest 9 and made sure it was a success on the DS and got the remakes on the GBA/DS. Why you saw that Wii on rails game and Dragon Quest X on the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. They very likely have always wanted and will make sure that franchise is synonymous with Nintendo.

It's no surprised that Dragon Quest 11 got that NX announcement that had to be walked back by Square Enix because they spoke to soon. Ignore all the talk about Final Fantasy Remake and XV on the NX. It's DQ11 and Builders that Nintendo is very likely looking at and making sure they get. So if they have to pay half for the translation then that's likely seen as a drop in the bucket.
 

Oregano

Member
Sony and MS do stuff like this too?

They actually generally don't. Sony and MS do much broader co-marketing details than Nintendo but it's very rare for them to take on (co)publishing.

A large part of that is that MS doesn't have a ton of JP content to help localise and the ones on Sony platforms tend to get localised without their assistance. As I said Yakuza is an obvious example of Sony doing something like this but they minimised their risk massively by making it digital-only releases.
 

Raw64life

Member
I'm certainly ecstatic that it's happening, but I wish that they'd go all the way and maybe actually advertise the game as well.
 
It amazes me how much Nintendo has to do to have some support.

It's not that scandalous. Sony and Microsoft frequently have co-marketing deals with third parties (where they'll share the cost of an ad campaign that features their console's branding). The difference is that Nintendo only seems interested in deals where they're directly buying a stake in a third party game.
 

ElFly

Member
more than 2x Dragon Quest V?

I would have lowballed it at 5x? 8x?...10x?

DQV ain't that large and DQVII is gigantic. just 2x sounds low

I guess he still said "more" but I guess that puts the limit at less than 3x
 
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