Dragon Quest VIII Won't Support The 3DS Console's Autostereoscopic Display

Maybe Nintnedo will have a reason to release the 2DS in Japan now.

Aww sucks for those that use 3d, but still an amazing game. I hope that isn't a deal breaker for others.

I Guess it doesn't matter since we will never see it statside anyways.

@rjejr Why? They can just used their 3DS with 3D mode off....?

Meh. I guess the 3D would have been nice but I can do without.

Doesn't matter to me as I always play with it off. I'm worried they'll localise this but skip over VII. I can already play VIII on PS2 and IOS but VII has never ever been released in the UK.

coughTales of the Abysscough

But really, DQVIII doesn't do anything impressive on PS2 graphics-wise, so this is just the usual Squenix laziness, even if most people don't use 3D and it doesn't add anything to the gameplay at all.

I work with cel-shaded 3D graphics myself, and I suspect other reasons than frame-rate.

The edge-detection that draws the outlines would be slightly different if two separate images were to be renderes at different angles for the stereoscopic effect, and this just wouldn't look good, aside from the fact that characters would look non-volumetric in general do to their shading.

I don't think they could maintain the visual style well at all, upon going stereoscopic, as they are attempting to look 2D on purpose in the first place.

Don't care. GIB WESTERN RELEASE.

Owning a new 3DS and having played through 115 hours of Xenoblade with 3D turned on the whole time, this definitely makes Dragon Quest VIII less appealing to me.

The most i'll get from the "3D" this game has to offer on the 3DS, is a Dragon Quest VIII book cover that I had years ago. I put it on a textbook or something, open the book........IT'S LIKE IT'S COMING AT ME OR SOMETHING!?!?!

I'm still hoping that they release the original DQ trilogy on 3DS at some point to test the international waters again. Then we can all buy the heck out of it and prove to Squeenix that DQ VII & VIII needs to be released over here, even if it's eShop exclusive.

I'm wondering if this will be released for the New 3DS instead. Because for a game like this, it doesn't look like the original 3DS can perform well in terms of fps.

Surprising since the 3DS is a rather noticeable step down from the PS2 version.

No 3d is actually a big factor for me

No big deal, just bring the game to North America, please!!

All I care about is a western release for Dragon Quest X on the Wii U.
Make it happen Square Enix!!!!!!

Not even on the New 3DS?

@AVahne And then you look at Xenoblade 3D.
Im pretty sure the whole thing could have been pulled off properly, but its Square were talking about.
Releasing quick ports is their M.O. these days.

Pretty disappointing. I mean already it's a slight step down visually from the PS2 version based on the couple of comparison screens I've seen and this news isn't exactly great. I'm sure it will be cool but it's the little things. It's always the little things.

@Pod They aren't really attempting to look 2D at all. They're attempting to look full 3D but with a kind of cell-shaded/toon-shaded style with the outlines around the characters capturing part of the look/style of those old 2D cartoons, comics and illustrations etc. I don't know how much hassle the outlines on the edges would or would not cause in 3D, so I'll just take your word for it, but it's not because the game is trying to look 2D that they've not added the stereoscopic effect.

This game, as a random example, seems to manage just fine with the whole 2D look and style gone full 3D plus stereoscopic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=199&v=p5x875He5ns

As does this game during the battles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmCiAZZZwyo

This game actually has a much better chance at a Western release than VII as it already has an official English translation for a roughly equivalent version. The DQVII translation was old and for a completely different game (from a technological point of view) - lots of work needed updating the translation and porting it to the new version. DQVIII on 3DS is basically just a straight port. Plus the game's mobile port has already been released in English.

Shame about the 3D, though. It has a huge world, but Xenoblade managed it. Even to have 3D only on New 3DS would have been nice.

I don't want 8, i want 7

if we never see another Dragon Quest game in Europe, I'm blaming Jedward. Just saying.

I'll bet that SE, being SE, will release this on the West while COMPLETELY IGNORING the pleas for the DQ VII remake.

Square Enix is not even trying with this.

They downgraded the graphics and no 3D?

3DS Is stronger than PS2. Delay this, and give it a new more talented dev team.

I don't think we will get either Square is really getting weird. I doubt we get Final Fantasy Explorers either. The shame of it all these Dragon Quest games are better than Bravely Default.

@Pod That makes sense!

@Peach64 I was going to buy on iOS but was unsure of the quality and understand the voice over hasn't been localized. A 3ds version would be great control wise.

@Pikachupwnage
3DS isn't stronger than PS2.

Not at all surprising after FF Explorers and Theatrhythm DQ.

@Yasume The 3DS has a weaker CPU than PS2 (by a fairly significant margin) but it has a stronger GPU than PS2 (also by a fairly significant margin). Since supporting 3D only involves extra work from the GPU, there shouldn't be any technical reason why this port shouldn't support 3D, other than Square Enix's laziness.

@AVahne So was the mobile version.

That's disappointing since I enjoy the 3D features, but I'd probably still get this if it was released outside of Japan

@accc @Yasume
Nope. The 3DS's CPU is on par with the GC's which in turn was ahead of the PS2 by a large margin. The Arm11 is just too new, has more advanced architecture, more cache, longer pipelines, etc. PS2 doesn't come close to the best performing games on 3DS. The GPU is a ahead of the Wii's GPU as evident in RE:R and Ironfall, the latter of which had more going on on screen than any PS2 game, developers also stated this. 3DS even emulates Snes better than PS2, at 60fps.

Eh. Who cares, it's still Dragon Quest VIII.

@CrimSkies97 I don't think anything you just said has any truth to it. SNES emulation on the 3DS is rather poor and many 3DS developers have noted how difficult it is to maintain an acceptable level of performance with fully 3D games, even ones that have almost no complexity to them. Just look at how Stretchmo had to drop down to 30 fps on the original 3DS just so it could handle puzzle pieces which could extend in multiple directions. Such a game could have run at hundreds of fps on the PS2 if it had to. The PS2 CPU was a beast which allowed for massive, high poly environments like the ones seen in the Jak & Daxter series, all running at 60 fps. There's a reason that those types of games don't exist on the 3DS. I doubt the 3DS could even run the first Jak & Daxter at more than 10 fps or so.

@accc I don't think you've ever heard of Blargsnes, the Snes emulator that is widely recognized as one of the best Snes emulators.
Those types of PS2 games aren't on 3Ds because no one is there to make them. PS2 was not a beast by any stretch of the imagination, I was known for being under powered at the time closer to dreamcast than the other systems. I would've been able to take that statement seriously if you were referring to the GC or Xbox, but even then the 3DS's CPU is around the former in Raw power. Again, show me one game on PS2 that shares graphics and scope with Ironfall.

Still we need a Na and Europe release. Also Square Enix did do a trademark for Holey Heroes that points to Dragon Quest 7.

@CrimSkies97 BlargSNES isn't very good. Most games don't even work, and the ones that do suffer from slowdown, frameskipping, and graphical glitches.

The PS2 was much closer to the Xbox and GC than the DC in real world and theoretical performance. The DC had an extremely low end CPU and most PS2 games would have been impossible to replicate on the DC. Koei tried porting Dynasty Warriors 2 to DC but couldn't get it to handle large crowds of enemies, so it had to be scrapped. The PS2 on the other hand did a pretty respectable job handling standout GC titles like RE4.

Ironfall is an extremely impressive graphical showcase, but CPU wise it isn't doing anything too noteworthy. The levels feel very static and you only face a few foes at any given time. Black (fps game from Criterion) destroys it in terms of sheer complexity.

Here's hoping for an English language version announcement at E3 for both DQ7 and DQ8 (likely from Nintendo since they publish the bulk of big SquareEnix DS/3DS releases). It's interesting to think that Nintendo now has EVERY main Dragon Quest title on their consoles (some exclusive) but SquareEnix shunned the Wii U for Dragon Quest Heroes. It's even more perplexing when you consider Hyrule Warriors is one of the more successful games in the Tecmo-Koei Warriors Series and the game (DQ Heroes) is getting a PS3 release making a Wii U version very doable. When you think that the Wii U has a bigger install base in Japan than PS4 by almost a million consoles, it really begins to make you think that Japanese third parties have as much of a vendetta against Nintendo as their North American counterparts. Either way, here's hoping we get the 2 3DS Dragon Quest titles.

Another nail in the coffin to New 3DS. It looks like beyond Xenoblade it simply won't be supported that much. Waste of money.

I love the 3D and always have it on. However I'll get it if this does come to to the West.

Oh...no?

I'll still grab it if it comes to America. So many memories with the PS2 version...gotta relive it.

@accc I dunno Blarg is one of the nest Snes emulators out there, the list of green is pretty extensive.
http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/BlargSnes_Compatibility_List
The creator said compatibility issues have more to do with extra chip support the still has not yet put in. According to him, games like star fox will work once he adds the extra chip compatibility.

The PS2 was worlds behind the GC and Xbox, this has been stated by developers and users for years now and is the general consensus, so its absurd you would try to convince people otherwise. Find one other person who believes the PS2 came close to the GCN in CPU/GPU power, everyone knows the PPC and by extension the Arm11 runs circles around the Emotion.

The levels in Ironfall are large and have tons of things going on such as fire, water, particle effects. The developers stated the game can handle to 40+ enemies on screen at the same time while keeping the framerate consistent, even in 3D. The game also puts LoD to good effect to allow for huge draw distances such as at the Russia power plant level.

Black? Are you kidding? That game rarely displays more than 5-10 enemies on screen at once with frame dips and pop-ins. Ironfall's horde mode throws 20-40 and sometimes 50 enemies at you at any one time. And that's with the particle and fire effects and no frame drops. Show me a better example plz.

The Dragon Quest Theatrhythm game didn't have 3D either. Found that out after I imported it, not that it's a big deal, but it is kind of lame because I actually use 3D in all of my games.

"...the forthcoming RPG won't include autostereoscopic 3D support."

I can't play it anyway.

Wasn't interested much before this announcement, now there's no doubt, I'll never buy this version of the game. 3D was the only thing that could have saved it as a possible purchase for me.

The 3D on Xenoblade Chronicles makes the game look absolutely hideous. Not all games that were designed without 3D in mind, will look good when you add 3D. Its a waste of time and effort on ports like this, and I am glad that SE is not including it, whatever their reasoning.

Don't care about them 3D display, just bring the game and DQVII over here. That is all.

Good, more resources for the actual game! The 3D is crappy anyway.

@Kirk
True, these characters are not done in a flat cel-shade style, which is something I think I had forgotten at the time of writing. They do feature completely unlit textures, which wouldn't be an issue in 3D though, but I still think the outlines would be jarring.

If they got rid of those altogether, it might free up enough GPU power for drawing a second picture, but then the art style really wouldn't be the same anymore.

Nice to see that PlayStation titles get to Nintendo consoles eventually.

Because game will get 5 frames per second or 1 frame per second?

i hope both DQ7 and DQ8 release here in Europe