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[KiTA]

I would buy DQX for PC. Reminds me more of FFXI than FFXIV does.

Yeah... I'm kinda curious as to Aeana's comment about DQX not being appealing to the West. What makes it unappealing? The lack of EQ / WOW style raiding endgame?

From what I've heard (I haven't gotten around to importing it) DQX is heavily based on DQ9 with enough FF11 included to make the online capabilities more robust. Remember that DQ9 had local coop (the translucent angel in the bar enables it), DQX being full online is a natural step.

 

[Eusis]

He means the US branches. Enix of America was gutted while Square USA became the new Square Enix USA.

Yeah, Japan side it was much more Enix absorbing Square with an olive branch in the form of appointing Yoichi Wada was CEO, but on the US side it was "scrap Enix USA, relabel Square USA, give them Enix games." Which seemed to mainly result in the more Square-ish games (Drakengard and tri-Ace) getting successfully localized and DQ shoved aside until I guess they were forced to deal with it for DQVIII.

Yeah... I'm kinda curious as to Aeana's comment about DQX not being appealing to the West. What makes it unappealing? The lack of EQ / WOW style raiding endgame?

From what I've heard (I haven't gotten around to importing it) DQX is heavily based on DQ9 with enough FF11 included to make the online capabilities more robust. Remember that DQ9 had local coop (the translucent angel in the bar enables it), DQX being full online is a natural step.

Yeah, skipping for not having that kind of dynamic would be infuriating, doubly so if justified actually. Maybe some of us would WANT an alternative that avoided that.

 

[mattiewheels]

Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VII say hi. =)

5 and 6 never came to america {before the DS ports} yet they didn't dance around 7 being 7.

That's kind of my point. Those were the dark ages, and we could be heading towards something like that again.

 

[KiTA]

Yeah, Japan side it was much more Enix absorbing Square with an olive branch in the form of appointing Yoichi Wada was CEO, but on the US side it was "scrap Enix USA, relabel Square USA, give them Enix games." Which seemed to mainly result in the more Square-ish games (Drakengard and tri-Ace) getting successfully localized and DQ shoved aside until I guess they were forced to deal with it for DQVIII.

Supposedly, SE Japan really wanted a push for DQ games in the West post-merger. From the outside looking in, SE US seemed to take a petulant, passive aggressive stance on this directive from the parent company. (Just look at how they handled DQ4 - the accents, the removal of like 75% of the in game text, the lack of any marketing, etc.) And now that they seemingly have convinced SE JP that we Gaijins are just too dumb to appreciate real JRPGs, well, good luck getting someone in SE US to admit they were wrong about THAT...

 

[rpmurphy]

Smartphones? What?

http://2p.com/3344145_1/Dragon-Quest-X-Hits-NTT-Docomos-d-Game-Platform-by-Meggie.htm

 

[Tripon]

Its a combination of Square-Enix doesn't think they'll selling enough, and not wanting to cede control of a game to another company like Nintendo or Sony to publish it in the west.

Nintendo would probably localize DQ7, or DQM/M2 but then Square-Enix couldn't use that localization for iOS ports or whatever they would like to do with it.

 

[Teletraan1]

Quit putting the mainline games on portables and I will buy them. They were always among my favorite games from NES to PS2 but I don't want to play long games on a portable system. Also don't make MMO style games for the Wii and then try and port it to PC with Wii graphics. Way to kill an IP.

Disclaimer. The above opinion in my own. I am not saying people don't enjoy long JRPGs on portable system. I am sure they do. I don't. Bring back console JRPG.

 

[18-Volt]

If all because of Nintendo's stupid release philosophy. If it doesn't sell, kill it. They have killed many great series because of this; Advance Wars, StarFox, F-Zero and saddest of all Metroid. If it was up to SE, they would have released DQ games already, sooner or later. But just like Level-5 games, DQ localizations are too in limbo, because of stupid Nintendo.

 

[dhlt25]

i still baffle me that games like TiTs are getting localize and not DQ VII.

 

[Yagharek]

If all because of Nintendo's stupid release philosophy. If it doesn't sell, kill it. They have killed many great series because of this; Advance Wars, StarFox, F-Zero and saddest of all Metroid. If it was up to SE, they would have released DQ games already, sooner or later. But just like Level-5 games, DQ localizations are too in limbo, because of stupid Nintendo.

I'm not sure if you noticed, but square enix make DQ, not nintendo.

 

[Tripon]

If all because of Nintendo's stupid release philosophy. If it doesn't sell, kill it. They have killed many great series because of this; Advance Wars, StarFox, F-Zero and saddest of all Metroid. If it was up to SE, they would have released DQ games already, sooner or later. But just like Level-5 games, DQ localizations are too in limbo, because of stupid Nintendo.

Yeah, that's why we got sequels to Chrono Trigger/Cross, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Front Mission, and Valkyrie Profile recently.

 

[Taruranto]

Turn-based RPG's are a niche. Dedicated Handhelds are becoming a niche in the west. It doesn't seem worth it at this point to localize. Now look at this:
That is the script to Dragon Quest 7. Is it worth the man power and resources to completely localize rather than other games that would seemingly do better sales-wise and less work involved?

As much as would love Terry's Wonderland 3D, North America is not really a key market for these types of games any more.

The script for DQVII is already done though, kinda. Though companies rarely re-use old scripts, I guess. (See Atlus who didn't bother porting EP, or the many Lunar remakes...)

 

[18-Volt]

I'm not sure if you noticed, but square enix make DQ, not nintendo.

I did, but they have some kind of agreement, Nintendo do all the localization job when they come to west. Starting from Dragon Quest IX,Nintendo have published all localized DQ games. Nintendo have the same agreement with Level-5 too. Main reason we're waiting too long for Dragon Quest 3DS games, Fantasy Life, Time Travelers and Yokai Watch is Nintendo are trying to find out if there is a audience in American and European markets. And yes, it takes them over A YEAR to do this. They do this all the time.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I did, but they have some kind of agreement, Nintendo do all the localization job when they come to west. Starting from Dragon Quest IX,Nintendo have published all localized DQ games. Nintendo have the same agreement with Level-5 too. Main reason we're waiting too long for Dragon Quest 3DS games, Fantasy Life, Time Travelers and Yokai Watch is Nintendo are trying to find out if there is a audience in American and European markets. And yes, it takes them over A YEAR to do this. They do this all the time.

This is where the phrase "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" comes in to play, when someone knows a little about something and decides to extrapolate out on it as fact.

 

[MLH]

I did, but they have some kind of agreement, Nintendo do all the localization job when they come to west. Starting from Dragon Quest IX,Nintendo have published all localized DQ games. Nintendo have the same agreement with Level-5 too. Main reason we're waiting too long for Dragon Quest 3DS games, Fantasy Life, Time Travelers and Yokai Watch is Nintendo are trying to find out if there is a audience in American and European markets. And yes, it takes them over A YEAR to do this. They do this all the time.

That's done on a game-by-game basis, Nintendo published DQIX in the west. but that doesn't stop SE from publishing DQX or DQVII.

Regarding Level-5 and Professor Layton, Nintendo are paid to distribute/ act as a publisher for the titles, but that doesn't restrict Level-5's titles.

Your anger is aimed at the wrong company, Nintendo have nothing to do with this.

 

[Yagharek]

Can I take that as a compliment, Alberto?

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Can I take that as a compliment, Alberto?

No.

 

[Yagharek]

Bugger.

 

[Teknoman]

/sigh

I guess this means I should just go ahead and get back into PS1 DQVII.

 

[Velcro Fly]

I'd love DQ7 and at this point I'd buy it from the eShop if that's how it came, but I'm not going to lose sleep over not getting it. Since it's a remake maybe that is keeping Nintendo from jumping in? Maybe if DQXI was for 3DS Nintendo would localize? I'm just going to play the games that are released and not worry about companies losing a potential sale because what I want isn't available.

 

[Maximus.]

I really want DQ7 for the 3DS but I doubt that day will come

 

[18-Volt]

This is where the phrase "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" comes in to play, when someone knows a little about something and decides to extrapolate out on it as fact.

I'm not sure how dangerous it is, games won't get released anyway.

That's done on a game-by-game basis, Nintendo published DQIX in the west. but that doesn't stop SE from publishing DQX or DQVII.

Regarding Level-5 and Professor Layton, Nintendo are paid to distribute/ act as a publisher for the titles, but that doesn't restrict Level-5's titles.

Your anger is aimed at the wrong company, Nintendo have nothing to do with this.

Well, if that's so than it just makes both Square and Level-5 have many things in common.

- They both register trademarks for names in west for many titles; couple of DQ games for SE and Yokai Watch, Time Travelers and Fantasy Life. Then we haven't heard from them since.
- Last 3 Dragon Quest games in west, all Layton titles on Nintendo, Inazuma games all localized by Nintendo.
- Non-DQ Sqaure games on 3DS got localized pretty quickly: Theatrhythm and KHDD. Ninokuni for PS3 announced for west before the Japanese version came out (we waited over a year for it but they made it official pretty early)

You say that I shouldn't direct my anger to Nintendo but I don't believe Square would kill their one of best selling series in west just like that (this is just like something Nintendo would do). They have released DQ5 on DS despite the bad sales of DQ4 and DQMJ. I agree, they are not that good in localization. but I don't think they would skip localizing without a good reason. Like "PSP was long dead in west by the time FF Type-0 came out in Japan".

 

[MLH]

Well, if that's so than it just makes both Square and Level-5 have many things in common.
- They both register trademarks for names in west for many titles; couple of DQ games for SE and Yokai Watch, Time Travelers and Fantasy Life. Then we haven't heard from them since.

Every company does this.

- Last 3 Dragon Quest games in west, all Layton titles on Nintendo, Inazuma games all localized by Nintendo.

Level-5 can't self publish in the west, they don't have the distribution network, they go to Nintendo and Nintendo shares in the profits.

- Non-DQ Sqaure games on 3DS got localized pretty quickly: Theatrhythm and KHDD. Ninokuni for PS3 announced for west before the Japanese version came out (we waited over a year for it but they made it official pretty early)

You say that I shouldn't direct my anger to Nintendo but I don't believe Square would kill their one of best selling series in west just like that (this is just like something Nintendo would do). They have released DQ5 on DS despite the bad sales of DQ4 and DQMJ. I agree, they are not that good in localization. but I don't think they would skip localizing without a good reason. Like "PSP was long dead in west by the time FF Type-0 came out in Japan".

Believe it, SE/ Capcom/ Nintendo/ Sony/ Everyone are always doing things that baffle us gamers, but the simple reason is the games are too expensive to localise with little return value.

 

[kunonabi]

Are people interested in dq 10?

yeah, I'm actually buying the wii version in a couple weeks. I'd prefer a localized Wii u copy but that isn't happening.

 

[charlequin]

if companies like XSEED and NIS can bring over the super niche games they do and still make money, I don't see why anyone couldn't do the same with Dragon Quest.

These companies wouldn't have the marketing reach to get DQ into a lot of hands (and specifically, a lot of storefronts) like Nintendo did.

What I don't get is why S-E can not bring games to the west clamining bad sales, when you have Atlus, Xseed and NISA bringing all kind of niche stuff.

Part of it is a question of ROI. Square-Enix is a large company with a lot of capital to invest. While it's always important to diversify your offerings, it's also important to get good return-on-investment on each dollar you invest. If Western localizations are declining, SE might decide that the budget for said localizations is better spent on something that's less risky or more immediately profitable, like FFXIV content.

Part of it is organization. Atlus is a tightly-run ship where the Japanese office is aware of Western sales trends and they've focused heavily on properties that can be profitable via a multi-region release. XSEED has a staff of like three people and (mostly) cherry-picks projects that will be cheap to do. NIS built up a feedback loop of customers who buy useless collectors editions and other margin-increasing stuff to keep up its numbers. SE, on the other hand, has Western departments more oriented towards localizing FF games and whatnot.

Part of it is just competence. Atlus is a well-run organization that has bucked the trends to remain successful even as the Japanese market, Western import market, and handheld market all decline. Square-Enix is a poorly-run company that's burned a ton of brand equity, takes 7 years to release games, relied on non-repeatable Hail Marys to maintain profitability, and has had trouble effectively managing their Western acquisitions.

Ultimately DQ's problem is most analogous to something like Yakuza -- it's a huge Japanese franchise that's much less successful overall in the US, which makes it unusually hard to work out the localization numbers favorably.

Square-Enix could theoretically have made it work for them, but badly managed their treatment of the series over here (remember the Square-Enix tax?) and eventually gave up on basically all Western localizations for the same reason they gave up on everything else (to throw more money into the maw of FFXIV.) Nintendo could almost certainly profit on it, but they're in a rough place right now so they'd have to feel like it was actually a valuable contribution to their current strategy. I think the best shot would be Nintendo using it as a (relatively) cheap way to keep releasing notable 3DS games while they scramble to put their house in order.

 

[Yagharek]

I hope charelquin your last paragraph is accurate as its my only hope for playing the game in pal region.

 

[18-Volt]

Believe it, SE/ Capcom/ Nintendo/ Sony/ Everyone are always doing things that baffle us gamers, but the simple reason is the games are too expensive to localise with little return value.

Well, they have surprised me in the past. There were couple of unexcpeted localizations came from nowhere. Like that DS Valkyrie Profile game. Or Chocobo Dungeon Wii. Or even Rocket Slime for DS. That was a brave move for a company like Sqaure.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Nintendo showed that DQ can be successful if they put in the promotion effort, but I guess SE can't be bothered. Such a shame cause DQVII3D seems awesome.

As for X, even if they don't want it on Wii or WiiU, there's no reason why they can't release it on PC.

Freaking SE...

I sincerely hope you are joking

 

[charlequin]

I hope charelquin your last paragraph is accurate as its my only hope for playing the game in pal region.

At this point I don't think it's likely but if it happens, that'd be the reason I'd expect it to happen for.

Sales is the only thing that causes anything.

This is actually kind of a bad way to look at these decisions, IMO. It presumes that companies are emotionless yet intelligent robots, who make wise decisions based on facts in evidence. In just about any company, though, all kinds of weird intangible stuff goes on on top of the pure numbers layer. Sometimes it's internal politics, sometimes it's the preferences of individual managers, sometimes it's fallout from a lack of skilled personnel available to work on a given project.

For example:

Supposedly, SE Japan really wanted a push for DQ games in the West post-merger. From the outside looking in, SE US seemed to take a petulant, passive aggressive stance on this directive from the parent company.

I don't even know if this is true! But this kind of thing happens all the time. It's actually impossible to understand the history of Sega, for example, without understanding the personality conflicts and communication difficulties between Eastern and Western branches. The same kind of thing affects decisions at SE, even if we don't have a window into the exact details.

But were they really?

NPD sales of 400k+, which would put it as one of the most successful JRPGs of last generation.

If all because of Nintendo's stupid release philosophy. If it doesn't sell, kill it.

Killing franchises that don't sell is a pretty good strategy, actually!

The "problem" Nintendo has there is that as games have gotten harder and more expensive to make, their niche franchises have died off, but that's actually the same problem that every major publisher has had.

 

[Aeana]

This is where the phrase "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" comes in to play, when someone knows a little about something and decides to extrapolate out on it as fact.

Isn't that how we ended up with a certain BDFF/DQ7 thing spreading around the internet?

 

[john tv]

The script for DQVII is already done though, kinda. Though companies rarely re-use old scripts, I guess. (See Atlus who didn't bother porting EP, or the many Lunar remakes...)

The PS1 localization of DQ7 is atrocious compared to the quality of...pretty much every other mainline DQ ever. A large part of it was due to incompetent localization programming (9-letter name limits? ugh), but still.

Saddens me that SQEX can't figure out how to manage and market that series overseas (it should not be difficult).

 

[NolbertoS]

So how hard is it to play through DQVII 3DS Japanese version?? I'm very rusty, but as I'm a DQ fanatic that underwent constant Enix disappointment in the past, will slowly get up to speed reading it slowly, I've played the PS1 version 4 times in the past, so I'm kinda aware were to go. Hope the spell names are easy to recognize.

 

[ohlawd]

I sincerely hope you are joking

X is a game funded by Square Enix, published by Nintendo, and developed by Monolith Soft, a random 3rd party company with no relation to Nintendo.

 

[18-Volt]

X is a game funded by Square Enix, published by Nintendo, and developed by Monolith Soft, a random 3rd party company with no relation to Nintendo.

Are you serious? Monolith is completely owned by Nintendo. They never had any relation with SE.

 

[Aeana]

X is a game funded by Square Enix, published by Nintendo, and developed by Monolith Soft, a random 3rd party company with no relation to Nintendo.

You mean aside from the fact that Nintendo owns Monolith Soft?

 

[ohlawd]

Are you serious? Monolith is completely owned by Nintendo. They never had any relation with SE.

You mean aside from the fact that Nintendo owns Monolith Soft?

I'm totally joking tho.

Just poking fun. I don't really have any intention of correcting people anymore when we still got people out here thinking Xenoblade is a 3rd party Wii game.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

The PS1 localization of DQ7 is atrocious compared to the quality of...pretty much every other mainline DQ ever. A large part of it was due to incompetent localization programming (9-letter name limits? ugh), but still.

Saddens me that SQEX can't figure out how to manage and market that series overseas (it should not be difficult).

Pretty much. That rumor from above, if true, for the time period it describes, would be terrible.

 

[cartman414]

If all because of Nintendo's stupid release philosophy. If it doesn't sell, kill it. They have killed many great series because of this; Advance Wars, StarFox, F-Zero and saddest of all Metroid. If it was up to SE, they would have released DQ games already, sooner or later. But just like Level-5 games, DQ localizations are too in limbo, because of stupid Nintendo.

You do realize DQ ended up in limbo in the first place because of SE USA, and it was Nintendo that saved it from evaporating elsewhere, right?

 

[Biker19]

I'd buy DQVII remake both digitally and physically. Hell, I'd even take a PSN release of the PS1 game at this point.

I would buy it as well. Problem is, Nintendo themselves are too damn cheap to make their consoles & handhelds region free now.

Thank goodness that PSP, PS Vita, PS3, & PS4 are.

 

[Eusis]

Saddens me that SQEX can't figure out how to manage and market that series overseas (it should not be difficult).

Yeah, stuff like Pokemon does very well, stuff like MegaTen has a strong niche audience, even Tales does well enough for Namco to keep bothering with even if there seems to be a very serious localization pipeline problem and the fact they've kinda snubbed most of the 2D games (hopefully mainly a casualty of the former problem.) And mainline games DO sell pretty well it seems, so it seems like SE should be able to keep that going or at least be a reliable niche to profit off of, whereas Yakuza probably has too much of a foreign film vibe to it that may make it too hard to actually get widespread appeal for.

Or so I assume, inversely Dragon Quest is late to the party in markets that are locked down tight, while Yakuza's all about beating up dudes with some RPG elements and so should be able to appeal to people who just want a good bit of violence with character growth. And it's wholly plausible BOTH are mismanaged badly enough compared to what they could potentially do, they're not as outright esoteric or artsy as the likes of Journey that'd probably be murdered at the $30 and 40+ price points.

 

[bryehn]

Buy Bravely Default.

I'm 25 hours into it (250 if you count the town stuff) and it's way more old FF than it is any DQ.

 

[charlequin]

Saddens me that SQEX can't figure out how to manage and market that series overseas (it should not be difficult).

Yeah, definitely. Unfortunately it's not like there are all these other series that SQEX is marketing really effectively either. :/

Yeah, stuff like Pokemon does very well, stuff like MegaTen has a strong niche audience, even Tales does well enough for Namco to keep bothering with even if there seems to be a very serious localization pipeline problem and the fact they've kinda snubbed most of the 2D games (hopefully mainly a casualty of the former problem.)

Right. DQ is probably not a super-hard sell to the niche fandom in the US, and it's definitely been possible to turn a profit on a game of that scope in the past -- it might still be today -- but that requires some stakeholder who's invested in making it happen.

I'm 25 hours into it (250 if you count the town stuff) and it's way more old FF than it is any DQ.

He's saying "show Nintendo that high-quality JRPGs from legacy series perform well on the 3DS so they want to release more of them."

 

[Yagharek]

At this point I don't think it's likely but if it happens, that'd be the reason I'd expect it to happen for.

This is my (uninformed) assumption. It's plausible we might get it, but not guaranteed.

But we can hope.

 

[cartman414]

Too bad their only other franchise people care about is Kingdom Hearts. Feh. (Relatively speaking.)

 

[ShadowElliot]

I hope by some chance, we will get some localizations during E3...

I believe! I want to relive my childhood again with Terry's Wonderland!

 

[rpmurphy]

Saddens me that SQEX can't figure out how to manage and market that series overseas (it should not be difficult).

Yeah, no kidding. I mean, how exactly did they manage to bungle selling the DQV DS remake? FFIII got a great reception, the platform was at its heights, and the title is one of the best games in the series.

 

[E92 M3]

Man - I'd love to play DQ7 on my 3DS (isn't it like a 300 hour game to do everything?). RPGs do great on the handheld consoles. I'm sure it can sell at least a million if it's announced at E3.

 

[charlequin]

Yeah, no kidding. I mean, how exactly did they manage to bungle selling the DQV DS remake?

DQIV probably wasn't the best reintroduction to the series for Western gamers (being a polished version of an NES game) and a lot of its charm and character was cut out when they removed the party chat function. DQV came out too soon afterwards (six months IIRC) and suffered from the Square-Enix tax (absolutely ludicrous $40 pricepoint.) I don't think they marketed what was unique about it very effectively (the whole marriage-and-family angle would have a lot of pull on some people) and although they (wisely) gave each game a subtitle, it was still hard for people to tell it apart from 4.

Man - I'd love to play DQ7 on my 3DS (isn't it like a 300 hour game to do everything?). RPGs do great on the handheld consoles.

Dragon Quest 7 is like a thousand times better as a portable game, yes.

 

[Gloam]

Saddens me that SQEX can't figure out how to manage and market that series overseas (it should not be difficult).

"Hey Kid."
"Who me?"
"Yeah, you like those Dungeons and Dragons?"
"Do I ever mister!"
"And you like cuddly monsters?"
"And how mister!"
"Have I got the ticket for you."
*DQ Fanfare plays*

It's that easy.

Spoiler

This is why I lost my job in advertising.

 

[Deleted member 20920]

I'm not sure how dangerous it is, games won't get released anyway.



Well, if that's so than it just makes both Square and Level-5 have many things in common.

- They both register trademarks for names in west for many titles; couple of DQ games for SE and Yokai Watch, Time Travelers and Fantasy Life. Then we haven't heard from them since.
- Last 3 Dragon Quest games in west, all Layton titles on Nintendo, Inazuma games all localized by Nintendo.
- Non-DQ Sqaure games on 3DS got localized pretty quickly: Theatrhythm and KHDD. Ninokuni for PS3 announced for west before the Japanese version came out (we waited over a year for it but they made it official pretty early)

You say that I shouldn't direct my anger to Nintendo but I don't believe Square would kill their one of best selling series in west just like that (this is just like something Nintendo would do). They have released DQ5 on DS despite the bad sales of DQ4 and DQMJ. I agree, they are not that good in localization. but I don't think they would skip localizing without a good reason. Like "PSP was long dead in west by the time FF Type-0 came out in Japan".

SE was the one who killed DQ6 DS midway during localisation and Nintendo chose to bring it back. That's why it has two different localisation teams.