World War II was a pretty dire business, costing the lives of countless millions all over the globe. However, if there's one thing we can thank this catastrophic international conflict for, it's possibly the most awesome fan-written guide to Dragon Quest V ever seen.
A fellow in Japan has recently unearthed a notebook written by his grandfather during his time playing the Super Famicom release of Dragon Quest V, which launched in 1992. The book goes into an insane level of detail, going as far as to catalogue all of the monsters and sub-monsters, as well as all the items they drop when defeated. Plot details are also recorded as they happened, as is info on how each member of the party levelled up, and at what point.
So what does this have to do with WWII? According to the grandson, his grandfather served as a radio operator at a meteorological observatory during the great conflict - a role which would have required an almost superhuman talent for fastidious note-taking. It would appear that he would apply this same skill to all aspects of his later life - including playing JRPGs many decades later.
Dragon Quest V never received an official English-language release on the SNES, but the Nintendo DS update - released in 2009 under the title Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - did make it to the west.
Thanks to Ryan Millar for the tip!
[source siliconera.com]
Comments 16
What if I don't care?
And what about releasing DQVII here, Square?
That's pretty cool. Would love to see the whole DQ series remake for 3DS and WiiU though, or at least on VC.
Note taking? Maybe that grandfather can go to my practicum class and get crack n. I could use the help or maybe he can tell SquareEnix to stop hating on the west and release Dragon Quest 7, 10, and the Monster games.
Now that a truly kickbutt Grandfather!
Don't all guides have that kind of information?
@ueI Stats and item drops yes, but he also put in a lot of stuff relating to when characters levelled up on his own playthrough. On a purely personal level, this is an awesome thing to find, as a grandchild.
Plus, you know, he wrote it himself.
It is up on gamefaqs yet?
@SuperCharlie78 Unfortunately, I doubt DQ7 will be anywhere near a 3DS, since all of the DQ re-releases were on iOS and Android. Squeenix's Yuu Minake: "We've always wanted to have [Dragon Quest] available on the most popular console or gaming machine available at the time. If you look at the modern gaming scape, a lot of people play games on the mobile platform. That's why we felt Dragon Quest would be appropriate to bring to that very popular game device, [mobile]." (quote from http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/29/6084377/dragon-quest-re-releases-mobile-square-enix )
I'm really just as sad about this mindset they are in. I would love to see these versions of DQ 1 - 3 put on 3DS eShop format someday, and with TR FF (and soon DQ) looking to make waves, it could be possible they may change their minds. Only time will tell.
The original gamefaq.
This is really cool.
I've just recently gotten into DQ myself (beat IV and am currently playing V, both on my Android tablet), and they have a really unique vibe about them.
I guess I will use this opportunity to give people a potentially helpful tip... if you have a Retron 5 console, you can play Japanese cartridges (like DQ5) in English legally!
@Captain_Gonru It was released in Japan, on February 7th, 2013. The problem here is they announced their preference for re-releasing DQ on mobile (read: iOS & Android) platforms a year later, which is why there has been no news on any DQ 3DS releases, not even the NES versions. With Bravely and Theatrhythm doing well internationally, they might be changing their minds, but so far there's been no word. Even if they do eventually release it internationally, it'll probably end up on phones first.
Ah, my favourite game of all time. Do yourselves a favour and play the DS version.
Cool story. Even more reason for DQ7 on 3DS to get localized
I just got DQ 3 on iOS and nothing compares to a controller. What the F is SquareEnix thinking going mobile? It plays like some Indie game and I'm not hating on Indies.
Blasphemous!
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