Square Enix “Considering” Releasing Dragon Quest IX Overseas

Regardless of the sales figure, I was curious as to why the split opinions on DQ9, so I headed over to Amazon Jpn's user reviews. Just took a quick glance at some of the comments, but it seems that many people do dislike the game (3 out of 5 based on 1000+ reviews). I knew multi-player would just kill this (same for Blood of Bahamut). So is this a game that only kids or casual players can enjoy or what? Funny everybody has beef w/ the tanned ganguro fairy :)

http://www.amazon.co.jp/product-reviews/B000LXD...

Im glad to see I am not the only one who hates Yoichi Wada, I swear he and Bobby Kotick were brothers in another life. This guy is so arrogant and even worse yet Squares games have been degraded almost to the point of no return. Im holding out hope that the FF13 games will restore some credibility to the Square name, though I still wish Nomura, and all the rest of the remaing Squaresoft employees would just leave and form another studio or go join Level 5.

On topic I really could not care less if they bring DQ9 over, I hated this game the second they said how multiplayer heavy it was, because much like Crystal Chronicles I knew this would lead to ZERO story, and RPG's with no story or character development go right to my games to ignore list. My first exposure to the DQ games was technically DQ7 on PSX but the only one I have played from start to finish is DQ8 on the PS2, which I loved. I have 5 sitting in my DS collection but I am having a hard time starting it because I just don't want to play a 40+ hour game on a screen that small, at least my PSP let me hook it up to a TV.

This would be totally silly of Square-Enix if they didn't release this outside of Japan, more-so with them deceiving PS2 owners from ever having this game.

Man, forget IX! I'm more concerned about VI and the end of the Zenith Dragon trilogy!

Seriously. After reading this article I decided to go see if DQV had gotten the tax cut I was waiting for...only to find out that according to Amazon.com, it's been discontinued. Talk about nasty surprises—I'd love to know when THAT happened...

Not exactly "discontinued" as that's just a label Amazon initially attaches to products sometimes when their print run has dried out. It's very cumbersome and irresponsible of Amazon to jump to labeling products as so, even if briefly as it's still misleading.

The discontinued status has recently been removed from DQV's listing, now they're likely awaiting notice from the publisher on the possibility of more print runs.

Dragon Quest is an overrated series anyway. All it really has going for it is high production value. There are very few series with duller combat. The stories tend to have one generic main quest following which drags you through a lot of little interchangeable goodwill deeds.

I might have even picked it up for one of the console systems. But I'm way more selective with handheld games because I'm not a fan of shoulder pain and squinting.

And yet it still sells millions just because of brand name recognition and nostalgia.. it used to be Horii Yuji (good story) x Sugiyama (good music) x Toriyama (good art) = quality. They keep airing these annoying TV spots w/ 38 yr old housewife, 30+ yr old man, etc having a blast w/ the game too. I guess it does have a very old school "fantasy" flavor for the Jpn audience. I'm actually not a very big DQ fan, but one of my favorite anime was DQ Dai no Daibouken, Sugiyama soundtrack was memorable.

F*** square enix.
No front mission 2089, no sigma harmonics, no dragon quest.
At the very least the cost of localization, some marketing, could be made up releasing this here.
Atlus, Ignition, seem to find a way of making it work.
I hate being a fan of japanese games. Seemed we get screwed somehow (coughyakuza3cough) down the line.
I mean c'mon, make the effort, square.
yoichi wada should "consider" kissing my chocolate chocobo.

Hey, why are you whining about not getting a proper Front Mission man? You're getting Front Mission EVOLVED!

yeah, I get your point.


And I dislike Wada a lot too. But nothing can be done.

SE needs to realize that most of us don't buy their games because of the SE tax. It's ridiculous (especially for Canadians, it makes SE DS games almost in the same price range as first party Wii games). I've never bought a full priced SE game (2 exceptions, CT because I simply adore it, and FFIV because I have nothing else to buy at the time). All other SE games I bought were either slightly discounted (DQ IV for 35 CAN (regular 45)) or had their prices slashed a lot (Heroes of Mana for 25 CAN, FFX (greatest hits) for 20 CAN, ect.) I like SE games, but I simply cannot afford to buy all their games, so I wait for sales. If SE would get off their high horse and price DQ competitively, then maybe just maybe it would sale better and catch on in the west. There are a lot of good RPGs on the DS, and if you want to give your game an advantage, you must either A) Cut its price in relation to other games on the system (xseed/atlus route) B) bundle it with some awesome pre-order goodies (atlus route) or C) advertise like hell (Nintendo, but not for RPGs...sadly, Sega is sort of doing this with Sands of Destruction).

There you have it Square&Enix, if you want to continue charging an arm and a leg at least give your loyal fans a cute moogle plushie for their trouble, or bombard our minds with images of your RPGs, maybe with enough brain washing we will buy them even when they have such a massive price tag. /rant

Yeah, I absolutely agree, the well-known "Square Tax" is ridiculous. The average DS game is US$30, but I guess they feel that their games are so superior, that we need to pay an extra $10 for them. The prices of their non-DS games are normal, though.

That's not really true, many of their PSP games were also overpriced. $30 for the Final Fantasy I and II remakes? Maybe if they had been bundled together. $40 for FFT remake? Etc

Their planned release window is exactly what i guesstimated: May 2010 or an April - June 2010 window.

They'd be stupid not to do so. The game looks really good and would probably sell better than the remakes they have released so far on the DS in Europe and North America.

I really want to play it. I'm currently playing DQ V and loving every little bit of it. Its my first entry game into the DQ series too.

DQ V is considered one of the best in the series. Great place to start, I need to pick it up as well...don't want to pay 40$ for it though.

This is just sad. So many mixed signals from Squaresoft these days.

Squaresoft still exists? :P

I think DQ9 will definitely be out in America. I mean, DQ6 has already been announced to be coming to NA and EU, even though there's zero information on it even in Japan. SE is definitely trying to push the DQ series to a wider audience, especially given a Nintendo statement of going to help SE popularize the series worldwide.

*sigh* Dun care. =/ Already played it; it's crap. FFXIII now plz.

Could you please elaborate, as I'm reading very contrasting opinions about DQIX? If you aren't a troll / DQ hater, obviously.

Fair enough. Best way I could sum it up is...it's just an all-around empty experience. Customization is pretty cool, and the system is standard DQ fare. What really kills the game for me is that ALL of your protagonists are silent protagonists. I don't mind silent protagonists, but when it comes to the point where any semblance of personality comes from the usual boring townfaring NPCs, you have something of a problem... And unlike, say in SMT or Persona games, you don't even get to choose dialog from a prompt box; they're just hollow, empty cardboard cutouts from start to finish.

The game has absolutely no personality, and NONE of the charm previous DQ games had. In short....it's got Yoichi Wada written all over it; no personality, no charm, and only exists to rob you of your wallet.

Well, DQIII (which is my favourite DQ) is exactly like what you describe.. or it's something different from that?

....Soooo....you LIKE games that have absolute no personality, charm, with a batshit boring story, and it's only purpose is to grab as much from your wallet....?

...DQIX is a lot like III... Only about 5x more boring...

I'm going to have to agree with hsiao, there is a certain charm to games where the characters have no personality. Then I get to use my imagination and make one for them, and this is much better than being forced to have a whiny baby protagonist. (FFX I am glaring at you!) Plus I enjoy turn based RPGs. And as hsiao said exploring is very enjoyable in DQ III. I really liked that game. :D

I hate story in videogames, period. But I don't like boring games, obviously.

I don't find personality in dialogue, only in gameplay. DQ V for example is often regarded as the pinnacle of DQ, but I found the storyline to be absolutely worthless. DQIII and IV have an equal worthless story, but better "adventure" elements. In DQ, I just want to travel around the world, looking for hidden treasures, and discovering new places. I could care less about the "hero" and his story..

So in some ways this DQ seems perfect for me, but I still hear people calling it boring, and I don't understand if it's just for the storyline or for the exploration parts.

Didn't Nintendo make comments about co-marketing DQ in the west and wanting to "make it big"? I could've sworn Iwata said something about it, and comparing it to Nintendo's efforts with Pokemon and Brain-Age?

Regardless of the sales figure, I was curious as to why the split opinions on DQ9, so I headed over to Amazon Jpn's user reviews. Just took a quick glance at some of the comments, but it seems that many people do dislike the game (3 out of 5 based on 1000+ reviews). I knew multi-player would just kill this (same for Blood of Bahamut). So is this a game that only kids or casual players can enjoy or what? Funny everybody has beef w/ the tanned ganguro fairy :)

http://www.amazon.co.jp/product-reviews/B000LXD...

they said something along those lines.

And it also seems from the DQIX iwata asks interview that Iwata had a hand at bringing Dragon Warrior for US, back in the days, seems like he is a massive Dragon Quest fan.

I recall having heard that as well, but I don't remember if it was from Iwata's mouth or a blogger's prediction.

I thought they had already made a statement that it would come over? But I believe I remember an interview stating that they weren't particularly happy about the sales of IV and V? I also remember them saying one reason for the delay was that they needed a new marketing strategy in the West.

At least they're not pulling a Namco.

That is... not advertising, stop bringing most of the titles over and still expect the series to grow in popularity.


Speaking of localization, or lack of it though... I must say I'm still quite pissed at Square-Enix for seemingly not bringing Sigma Harmonics and Nanashi no Game over.

Frankly, it's because Sigma Harmonics is quite horrible.. The battles are tedious and deduction part senseless, the only saving grace is interesting art and good music, even then the art is still so-so..

The game was on sale on Play-asia for $9.90 last week. Right now it's still $14.90 if you want to check it out. On Jpn Amazon, it's selling for 1,780 yen. I know some people still want to try it out for themselves, but sometimes there is a legit reason why something is at a bargain bin, like Tenchu Shadow Assassin Wii (wish I could have my $20 back...)

I dunno about that, it's one of those games, like Fragile, that I am expecting something from. Plus, with US localizations I expect some ironing out to be done if necessary as well.

Regarding the Play-Asia sale... Yeah, I know... I purchased it :D consider me mild hyped about it, even if I don't know how I'll get through it.


And I thought the new Tenchu for the Wii was good? I'll pick it up for ten bucks. (sorry, I seem to go after the games you dislike, it's becoming a trend :P)

Hey, at least we both like Arc Rise Fantasia right, just a solid RPG all around. I liked Archaic Sealed Heat too even though 7 out of 10 people didn't like the game (could be why it's still not localized, just bad reception in Jpn, shame..). And despite what everyone said, I still want to try "Velvet Assassin" because I like the female spy in WWII setting, but I would wait for price drop as not to regret it later since I've been warned.

I don't deny that Fragile and Sigma Harmonics both had "potential" and are intriguing ideas, but they did a piss poor job on the "gameplay". As you know, I'm not the type that doesn't give any game a chance and dismiss things easily either, otherwise I wouldn't have spent $60 on a DS game. Even I'm saying they're flawed and most importantly "not fun", I didn't come to this conclusion until after spending hours w/ them.

W/ SH, anyone will need to go to a FAQ anyway, since the puzzles are simply ridiculous. You just run around in the mansion fighting monsters etc, it doesn't help the battle system is boring (use the stylus to face right, face left..). Also like Spencer added, it is virtually impossible to pull off the deduction before a boss, hence one is forced to grind. If the integral "clue" part is broken, the game doesn't hold.

Well, Tenchu Wii was regarded by most to have bad and almost impossible control in turn breaking the game. I have even been advised here to get the PSP version instead. Yet I still give it benefit of the doubt, because I want to enjoy the latest Tenchu entry on the big screen. The graphics are good, but I had to give up after the first two stages, the swing and thrust just weren't responsive even when I wanted to do something as simple as rolling from one bush to another, something a button press would suffice, hence extremely frustrating.

I don't know what games you like, I like many games on all 5 systems (3 consoles/2 handhelds) right now.. I appreciate artsy games as much as the next guy, like Shadow of the Colossus, but that game was damn fun. Fragile, I like the art, chars, dialogue, but I cannot say it was fun, more like I needed to drudge thru for the story. If I just want to enjoy a good story, I might as well watch a movie or anime.

I know, and as you know I respect your opinion, for, since you often import it's a great source of feedback of what to expect. It's great to have people like you around.

I'll be interested in seeing how I'll look at them after playing them, like you do. thing is, I gotta say, I'm stubborn, there's no other way around it :P I'm not doubting you for a second, but I still can't help wanting to try them out. And it was just 10 dolars, I really wouldn't take the risk for $40.

I second Aoshi00. Sigma Harmonics was conceptually good, but the "deduction" token system is illogical and taxing. You end up having to over level just to beat bosses to move the game forward. I really liked the idea, but I can see why Square Enix passed on Sigma Harmonics.

There's also the dialog bubbles; how on earth were they supposed to localize it without cutting off the portraits?

Shame really. I was really, really looking forward to it since I first saw the original trailer.

Wasn't it made by the Dirge of Cerberus team? ...Go figure. -_-

It is a shame, since the Taishou-esque setting was kind of unique (but the in-game locale is very limited..) and the Hamauzu music was wasted. I think I was kind of tricked by its beautiful anime trailer and Hirano Aya-sung theme song, shelled out full price for the game, sometimes I just can't go w/ gut feelings.. By Dirge team huh, that really explains it :(..

I guess it didn't bomb just because it's an IP, but bad word of mouth as well. People who've played it generally didn't like it. So one can't blame S-E for just leaving it in Jpn, better that way..

I'm not adding much to this, but have to agree that Sigma Harmonics' strong point is it's soundtrack courtesy of Masashi Hamauzu. Otherwise, there's not much else to mention.

I really like the soundtrack too, some tracks were quite breathtaking. I didn't even realize it was by Hamauzu until you mentioned it. At least now we know FF13 would definitely have good music.

That's what happens when you don't advertise at all. These games don't just sell themselves because they are part of some big franchise. Popularity in country of origin =/= Populairty elsewhere.

Yeah, we mentioned the marketing plan bit from a previous financial Q&A, but it wasn't a 100% official it's coming over kind of statement. Anyway, Dragon Quest IX *is* bound to come over.