At PAX Prime, Siliconera caught up with Dragon Quest mobile producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto, and asked whether Square Enix were interested in publishing the Dragon Quest VII remake for the Nintendo 3DS in North America.
Dragon Quest VII is famously known for having perhaps the largest script of any game in the series, and this aspect of the RPG has often been presumed to be one of the reasons that Square Enix haven’t committed to localizing it yet. Fujimoto confirmed this when he spoke with us.
“In terms of DQVII, it has a lot of text to go through and translate,” Fujimoto said, “and we’ve received so many requests and so much positive feedback about the game, but unfortunately, we have to consider the cost and the manpower needed to handle the sheer load of text. In terms of scenario and script, the game is probably one of the largest in the DQ franchise. If a lot of people can buy it and support it… well, we can’t promise anything.”
“From Dragon Quest VIII and beyond, we’ve revamped the translation,” Fujimoto explained. “For example, we’ve added regional twangs like those from Baltic regions sounding Russian and things like that. We’ve also updated the spells and monster names, so any classic titles we revisit, we want to say consistent. That being said, when we go back and update the classic titles, we make these changes. That’s another step in the process.”
“Going back to people who want DQVII to come out… we’ve gotten a lot of requests, we really want to do it, but right now, we need to hammer out what kind of resources we’d need to do it. We say this a lot, but, we can’t seem to get to the point where it’s justifiable.”
So, here’s the deal. This is one of those cases where making noise is actually a productive thing to do. Square Enix want to bring Dragon Quest VII for 3DS over. They just need convincing that it’s worth their time and money to do so. So if you care about the game and want to see it published in the West, get out there and let them know. Do it via their official Twitter feeds, their Facebook pages. Send e-mails if you can. Get in touch with their community managers. (And do it politely.)
If you have trouble finding any of these things, Google is your friend. Let’s make this happen. The 3DS has proven to be a fantastic platform for JRPGs in the West already, not just in terms of quality but also in terms of sales. Square Enix have seen this firsthand in the case of Bravely Default. If they need to see fan support for Dragon Quest, showing it to them is a good first step.
