Easily the announcement of the Direct for me.  Very excited about them, and didn't really expect them to come out next year.

I was ready to be done with 3DS because nothing good had released recently. This made my day ;D

Definitely the best thing to come from the Direct. Should be good.

Actually, I think this direct really improved my opinion of the future for 3DS.  Was getting really close to writing off the system (ie: happy with what I own, but not planning to buy very many more games) until realizing how many interesting RPGs are coming out over the next year.


Two Dragon Quest games, the sequel to Bravely Default, Final Fantasy Explorers, and a new Fire Emblem all coming out in the next 12 (or so) months is a lot of RPG goodness.  And that's not a full list - just the big highlights.

Highlight of the direct for me! Unfortunately I got lucky and found a dirt cheap copy of 8 for PS2, and despite the fact that the 3DS version is superior and has lots more content, I don't think I'll be playing it again so soon. I can still be an evangelist for 8 since I played it without rose tinted googles, and I can say the game is firmly a masterpiece. Battle system is fun and has some amount of depth, very slow but I believe you can speed it up in the 3DS version. The characters/story exude charm in typical Level 5 fashion, the orchestrated music is beautiful, and Akira Toriyama's designs stand the test of time.

As for 7 though all aboard the hype train! I suppose 11 could come out early 2017... the NX/PS4 version is all but confirmed but the 3DS version, I don't know. Feels like they boxed themselves in a corner by refusing to say anything about bringing over 7/8 until the 11th hour.

Never played Dragon Quest any good?

The dream is real!


Given the love for the series and these games in particular, I'm eager to try them.

If you like very traditional JRPGs, they are great games. Interesting characters and stories, but usually very old-school in the gameplay department.

It's kind of like anti-Final Fantasy. While the FF series experiments with presentation and new mechanics in each game, the Dragon Quest series is much slower to introduce changes.

(Caveat: I haven't played the two entries in the series they are talking about yet... which is why I'm so excited for them to be released.)

It'll be great to play DQVII on 3DS so that's good.  I have over 30 hours on DQVIII on my PS2 so I'm not going to replay those hours, I'll just finish playing it whenever I get my retro game room set up.

I've watched a bit of gameplay from VIII and the open world nature was really impressive to me, atop that I've heard the game is stellar. So I'll definitely pick that one up.

As for VII, I am on the fence. It's likely going to release right around SMTIV: Final, #FE (which did not have any coverage during the Direct, makes me think mid-to-late summer release), and some other stuff we don't really know about yet, so another huge RPG is a bit daunting in that time of the year. However, I have heard that has one of the best stories in the entire series and is quite a good entry, so this is going to be a tough choice to make.

As for the 3DS version of DQXI, I wouldn't be surprised if the handheld version of NX is backwards compatible, making that game a possibility for the future.

If you had to choose one or the other of these DQ games, which would you recommend?

If you don't own and have not played either one, get VIII. Definitely the pinnacle of the series.

From what I understand, DQ7 is supposed to be very, VERY long. I think it is Japan's favorite though.


DQ8 was extremely good. Probably the best in the series. Came in the golden age of JRPGs so it is trustworthy. Both are exceptional games.

aren't both games already available on Playstation consoles though? How is getting a ten year old game on the 3DS good news? I guess that is how Nintendo works starve gamers for content then re-release a decade(s) old game and somehow people are excited again.

Me too.
I was very happy to see the DQ7 announcement but at the same time was thinking "Oh well, at least we got 7. There's probably no hope for 8 for a good long time, if at all." And then, BOOM, DQ8 announced as well.
Nice.

Nice trolling, but no, these games are not on PSN. They are also remakes, so they have improved presentation, extra party members, added features, new scenes, etc.

Looks like I'm getting 8 then. This will be my first DQ game since Dragon Warrior 3 on the Gameboy Color. Should be fun.

Well, they're both remakes of games that were, and still are massive games. The fact that they have fit all of DQVIII into a 3DS cart (and added new content too) is impressive. Plus, some of us have never played these games either out of brand loyalty, ignorance, or otherwise. Also, Square Enix hasn't been particularly kind to Western DQ fans lately. We will probably never get DQX and Heroes isn't the ideal experience. So releasing what are considered the best DQ games is a show of good faith.

what the hell dude? How was I trolling by stating a fact, DQ 7 was released on Playstation over ten years ago, hell over 15 years ago, DQ8 was released on PS2 over ten years ago, both games have been released on PLAYSTATION consoles over a decade ago. What is your problem dude chill out man. I didn't say PSN anywhere in my post, and this HAS been a common complaint Nintendo release schedule being so thin people get excited for decades old re-releases, what was erroneous about my statement and how was it trolling?

Remake or not it is still a game Playstation owners played years ago. Again the same complaints are made about Twilight Princess being used to mask the thin release schedule.

See that is a respectful comment thank you for pointing that much out. I didn't know they were complete remakes I assumed this was Virtual Console or something.

Even if they were available on PS1 consoles a decade ago, that's not relevant now because people don't have those consoles and can't buy the games in stores anywhere. (Used market, sure. Not the same as buying from retail.)  That's even before getting into the fact that they are now portable for the first time, or that they were remade with lots of nice little improvements, or that they've never been on a Nintendo-produced console before.


So for lots of people (myself included) it's pretty big news.




Your old post did sound kind of like trolling. It totally might not have been intended that way, but don't get too worked up if someone reads a post in a way you don't intend.  It's the internet. These things happen.
;)

Dragon Quest 7 3DS is a complete remake of the original, think Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby. Graphics are completely redone as well as sound and music. For the western release it looks like they are completely redoing the text as well since Enix rushed the original translation. Never mind the fact that the game was never even released in Europe let alone translated into PAL 5.

For Dragon Quest 8 the text doesn't need completely redoing since the original has stellar writing. But all of the additional content added for the remake like the extra dungeons, playable characters and endings will still need to be translated. Another minor thing is that the 3ds version runs at full speed compared to the original PAL version that ran at 50hz.

Forgive me for not knowing how 3DS remakes work then. I assumed they were just ports of old games. I guess for someone under those circumstances it's a big deal but it's just wow why limit yourself to only own Nintendo consoles, miss out on games, and then get excited to play a game that wasn't good enough to own ten years ago but now it is because it's on the Nintendo console. I love Nintendo but I don't understand the loyal fans who cheat themselves out of experiences for decades like this. Its odd to me. I wouldn't get excited if SMB3 suddenly came to PSN, I already had it dozens of times elsewhere.

I think what makes this bigger news than Twilight Princess is that with DQ you don't know if it is going to be localized so any time something, even a remake, gets released here it's worth getting excited about.  It also means there is an increased chance that future DQ games will get localized as well.

But for Zelda a game NOT being localized is bigger news.  No one is worried that if they don't buy the TP remake that Nintendo won't localize the next Zelda.

Plus this guy has a history of abrasiveness and negativity, but I s'pose that doesn't mean I have to behave that way, so I apologise.

These days, re-releases/remasters/remakes are very common across all systems, and not everyone has had the time/money in the past to buy every good game. So I see no good reason to single anything out.

Not everybody has a shitload of money and unlimited time to devote to games.  The fact you're on a Nintendo website should tell you most of the people on here like Nintendo games a lot.  If somebody really likes Nintendo games those are probably the games that will be more important for said fans to buy then others.  Plus said Nintendo fans will probably own both the handheld and home consoles, in which case their's usually something Nintendo related being released at some time on one of the 2.

So is it really hard to see why people who are Nintendo fans might not have been able to play a game released on the Playstation over 15 years ago and are excited to finally be able to play it?  Yes they could have bought a Playstation long ago and made this one of the games they bought but depending on their financial situation and time management set aside for gaming, that's not always a possible situation, especially when Nintendo keeps releasing new games and systems that will take away more time and money away from a non-Nintendo system.

Aside from all the other improvements folks here have mentioned, I am also excited these are handheld. I think DQ games work very well handheld.
I own DQVIII (bought a used PS2 copy a few years back) but have barely played it since long-ass RPGs are just hard to devote serious home-time to these days. That and the load times in and out of the many, many random battles are nigh-on intolerable. I am ever hopeful this issue will be resolved with the re-make. Even still, I am less bothered by these things on the bus for whatever reason.

I looked up how long a normal playthrough is after seeing this comment and yeah, you aren't kidding. The lowest I've seen someone say is 80-90 hours. Most responses seem to be a bit over 100 hours if you only do a bit of the side stuff and mostly focus on getting through the game. I've put that much time into RPGs before, but that's with doing a lot of side or post game content... 100ish hours for a bare bones playthrough seems kinda crazy.


Both are still locks as far as day one purchases go for me, but DQ7 is gonna have to be really good for me to see the end of it. DQ8 sounds a bit more manageable.