We can't complain too much about the wait, however, as publisher Square Enix has already announced that it will be bringing its DQV and DQVI (both originally released for the Super Famicom) remakes to the states eventually, having kept the two games in Japan for over 15 years. Comparatively speaking, a one- or two-year wait for DQV DS isn't that long!
While Square Enix announced their intention to release Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosenin "PAL territories" this September, they aren't the ones handling the Australian release. Ubisoft is the company's distributor in Australia and New Zealand, and thus the duties for Dragon Quest IV fall to them. Reassuringly, Ubisoft has made their intention to release the game for real official in a new press release.
Maintaining the numberless "Dragon Quest: Chapters of the Chosen" title that should keep PAL gamers from finding out there have been other Dragon Quest games, the Australian release of the game is also planned for September. A specific date has yet to be revealed. Also ominously absent from this press release is any mention at all of Dragon Quests V and VI.
Rare items will play more of a part in Dragon Quest V's sidequests than just the wireless Item Shop mode. DQV features "special items" that can be collected throughout the game simply for the novelty of having rare items. Some items are found in dungeons, and others are actually purchased as souvenirs. Some items, like the Chizotto Compass, which marks your current location, have in-game use in addition to intrinsic rarity-driven value.
Your stuff can be displayed in a Museum found along the journey. Apparently, the more stuff you put in this special museum, the more visitors will come, who will in turn alert you to the locations of more stuff. You can trade your special items wirelessly, and you can populate your shop with rare local goods.
The latest issue of Shonen Jump features a nice blowout of screens from the upcoming Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Brideremake, as well as character and monster art. We quite enjoy Akira Toriyama's art when he's drawing stuff like Slime Knights and not extremely similar-looking protagonists.
The scans demonstrate a new feature: the player item shop. Using "wireless communication" of some sort (probably local, but we hope not!), players will be able to operate their own item shops. You can choose your inventory, rename the items, and then set prices.
It sounds a lot like the shop system in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, which did use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. So there is some hope that we'll be gouging strangers.
Takashi Oka, analyst with Cosmo Securities, has predicted that Square Enix's Dragon Quest IX will bring in 20 billion yen ($190.28 million) from sales of 5 million units. That's in line with Square Enix president Yoichi Wada's sales predictions, since Oka's number is limited only to Japanese sales.
Can a third-party game sell 5 million copies in Japan? Only the Pokemons, New Super Mario Bros. and Brain Age 2 have broken the 5 million mark, and all of those are published by Nintendo. Oka said that a portable Dragon Quest doubling the sales of a console release would be "not surprising," and Dragon Quest VIII sold about 3.5 million units in Japan (at least, according to VGChartz). Given the lower price point of DS games, the ubiquity of the DS, and the inestimable popularity of Dragon Quest, 5 million doesn't seem out of the question.
We all know that the DS has a lot of support from the big RPG house, Square Enix. This year, gamers are preparing for a flood of titles, including remakes in the popular Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series of games. If you're looking forward to the Dragon Quest V remake, then Famitsu has some goodies for you.
Along with some new screens to look at, Famitsu has up some general information about the game and its protagonist. It's basic stuff, which we all pretty much know. But, if you've been holding back on learning anything about the game, Famitsu's preview is a nice overview on what to expect from the game.
Eager fans anticipating the release of Dragon Quest V, get your eyeballs wrapped around some of the new content on offer at the game's official Japanese website. Within, you'll find some descriptions for the characters that will be populating the game world, as well as various other goodies. On top of that, you can also enjoy the Dragon Quest IVand Dragon Quest VI sites. So, go click crazy over there and check out the content.
Is Dragon Quest IX really "almost done"? And does it even matter? We're not so sure, because Square Enix still isn't budging on a release date for the game. Company President Yoichi Wada announced at Square Enix's recent earnings briefing that the game will be released at some point in the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2009. Are we about to see that hopeful 2008 release date cruelly taken away from us? How much longer will we be writing paragraphs consisting almost exclusively of questions?
However long we wait, Square Enix is confident of one thing: Dragon Quest IX is going to sell like cakes of the exceedingly hot variety. "With the DS, 10 million units is a possibility," proclaimed Wada to a bunch of no doubt beatific investors. He's presumably talking about global sales rather than Japan-only figures, but even so, isn't that a touch optimistic? We think it is, anyway -- as it stands, no game published by a third-party has come even close to the magical eight digit mark.
With the Dragon Quest IV DS remake announced for the US and Europe this week, we thought it'd be good a time to dig up Enix's commercials for the original Famicom game's release in Japan. They're completely different from the retro ads used last November when the DS remake shipped.
As with Squaresoft's chocobo commercials for Final Fantasy IV on the Super Famicom (launching a little over a year after Dragon Quest IV), these ads were just plain odd! They show hardly any in-game video, relying on logos and recognizable theme music instead. Gather your party and meet us in the fifth chapter, past the post break, for the commercials.
Amazon's "Deal of the Day" this fine Saturday is Trace Memory, a fun adventure game reminiscent of titles like Hotel Dusk and Phoenix Wright. While not as good as the other two (in this blogger's opinion), it's still a good (albeit short) game that's worth its current $8.99 sale price.
The fine folks at Cheap Ass Gamer also noticed some other low-priced DS software at Amazon, if you're looking for filler. These include:
Those are exactly the kind of games that aren't worth buying at their full price (with perhaps a few exceptions), but are much more tempting when on sale. So, let us know if you see anything here that's worth recommending.
Posted May 22nd 2008 11:00AM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Square Enix released an image of the box for the North American release of the Dragon Quest IV remake, and it looks pretty nice! It suffers from Akira Toriyama "every character looks exactly the same" syndrome, but there's not really much that can be done about that! It's the same art as the Japanese version, with a more traditional layout, highlighting the hero.
Dragon Quest IV has been sold a bunch of times over the years, on three different systems, so it's naturally had a few different box designs. We thought it might be interesting to show you the boxarts for each iteration of the game. Well, not all of them -- we've omitted stuff like the budget rereleases of the PlayStation version, because they're exactly the same art with a different border.
Out of all the variations, we like the art on the Famicom release the best. It seems the most dynamic and exciting. We think we like the NES version's art the least, because there isn't any.
The latest trio of games announced for the continent are none other than the Dragon Quests. We only reported this morning that Dragon Quest IV, V, and VIwere North American bound, so hearing about a European (and other PALs) confirmation so soon afterward was a pleasant surprise. Not only that, but DQIV will be releasing in PAL nations this September, too -- maybe Square Enix really meant it when they said they were aiming for simultaneous worldwide releases. (Yes, we know it came out in Japan ages ago.)
Posted May 21st 2008 8:45AM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
The first official news is out regarding a North American release for Dragon Quest IV, in the form of the official website. The site doesn't have much information up about the game -- except its release date, September 16. English screens and stuff can come later!
The real news is on the new Dragon Questseries site, which shows pretty unambiguously that the Dragon Quest Vand VI remakes are on the way as well, with matching alliterative subtitles (Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie). This will be the first U.S. release for these two games (IV was released on the NES) and their availability will mean that, for the first time since IV, every main Dragon Quest game has had a U.S. release.
Just yesterday, NCSX began taking preorders on adorable Dragon Quest slime DS Lite styli. Today, they've revealed a thematically appropriate companion piece: this Dragon Quest V DS protector. Much like otherHori Protect Cases, this is a transparent hard plastic cover for the DS, with attractive monochrome artwork on the top. This one features artwork of the Hero and the game's logo, and looks cooler than we expect things with Akira Toriyama art on them to look. This one doesn't come with any other accessories, which in our minds is just another excuse to go ahead and spend the $7 on a Slime Stylus.
The Dragon Quest V Accessory will ship in July for $13.90. Try not to scuff up your DS before then!
[Update: you just get one! Blue or orange. I am a sad slime.]
There just aren't enough Slime products for us. The hundred bajillion or so that currently exist fail to completely cover every aspect of our lives. Square Enix is working to make sure that we never have to not look at a Slime again, starting with the outside of our DS Lite.
For just $7, you can get one of two adorable Slime styli that fit into the Lite just like the normal ones, with one important difference: a pleasantly vacant little Slime peeking out from the stylus slot. Preorders are set to ship in July, just in time (we think) for the Dragon Quest IV remake.
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