Japanese Releases Of Dragon Quest I, II And III On Switch Will Be Playable In English

Wow, this is great to know! These games are all so good. The mobile versions are great, but having proper versions on switch will be epic

I can't imagine they've got licensing issues, so this could come out worldwide, correct? I hope so

If they are already playable in English, then a Western release seems much more likely.

you'd think it'd easily be released on the other eShops with English as the default. Hopefully after the DQ11 hype slows down theyll drop them here

@w00dm4n I was thinking do you think that the reason is that since Dragon Quest isn't huge in the West they want to release their brand new game before exposing the West to a way older version of the games?

I mean I would pick these up in a heartbeat regardless, the smash hype really got me lol

Definitely grabbing this on my Japanese account. Mobile ports are great, but having this on Switch is a must.

This is cool... But I want the original NES versions too!

@Xelha it's not much of a hassle a couple minutes of ur so precious time...

if it's playable in english who cares? i enjoy exercising my right as a region free Nintendo citizen.

Given the issues lately with music, it wouldn't surprise me if there is an issue with distribution of the game with "his" music outside of Japan. He puts some crazy limits in his contracts.

I really hope we get a western version, I don't want to have to mess around with trying to get a japanese e-shop and all that.

Now the question is, buy these and play in English or just wait for a Western release? I'll probably wait for a Western release.

Personally I find it's easier to switch my existing account to a different region and then switch back rather than make a new account.

@ryancraddock I don't know a lot about this, but from what I've been reading, Asia and Japan are not the same release regions. I saw some people saying you'd probably need to make a Hong Kong account for this, not a Japanese account. Headline says Japanese releases, but the languages listed are Chinese, Korean, and English so it probably isn't the Japanese release. Feel like the headline shouldn't say the Japanese releases, or did I miss something? Who knows though, maybe the Japanese releases will have English also?

I tell you, if these are not released in NA , I'm just going to make a Jap account so I can get them.

I still have the original games on NES, which is how I prefer them anyway. For those who want this, though, I do hope that it finds its way over here.

I'll get these on the JPN shop to keep access to Japanese language options (they are sometimes removed for western releases). I hope they come west for those that are not willing to use other eshops.

I will wait, for now. If they don't show up in a few months I will go through the annoyance of putting the Japanese account I have back on the system, getting an eShop card, and making the purchase. But they aren't kidding when they say the influx of Japanese News Channel stuff is annoying, it pretty much rendered my news feed useless.

How much is it on Japanese eShop? Translated to dollars please

Cool, but these are ports of the PS4 versions of DQ1-3, which I've been told aren't great.

The main complaints I've heard is that the enemies don't animate in battle, which is the same as the Famicom and NES versions, but the Super Famicom ports had animated enemies. Then the quality of the MIDI music is worse than that from the Super Famicom versions. It feels like Square Enix rushed these ports out to the PS4 and Switch really fast to make a quick buck.

@Whalehome
DQ1 is 600 yen, which is $5.65
DQ2 is 850 yen, which is $7.95
DQ3 is 1500 yen, which is $14.05

@Wavey84 DQVIII is worth getting into, and is one of the better DQ games out there. If you want to get into a good retro DQ game, try out DQV, that, to me at least, is the best DQ game made with it's awesome story. I would avoid DQVI though, as it's quite dull compared to IV and V.

If you want to get into them, here's a list of the better DQ games.

DQIII for GameBoy Color, NES or Super Famicom
DQV for DS
DQVIII for PS2 or 3DS
DQXI for PS4, Switch or Steam

@Wavey84 I'm in the opposite boat. Dragon Quest has become preferable to Final Fantasy solely because of it's turn based combat.

I used to love Final Fantasy but they have become button mashing/automatic, press start to win games.

Hope it gets an europian release soon

@SepticLemon thanks! I’ll have to look into getting these at those prices

Uh, is this the Japanese release or the Asian release? Those tend to be two separate releases. Also strange if this is the Japanese release, that Japanese isn't listed among the supported languages. People are going to buy the wrong version if this article isn't updated.

That's a confirmation: these are the mobile versions just ported. If they don't come officially to the West, which would be certainly weird, they can be purchased in the Japanese eShop instead. If English is supported problem solved.

I wish they made a physical release with the 3 together, though

The PS4 versions of these ports have been out in JP for a long time, now, with no word of Western release. If they don't announce a formal western release for these Switch ports in the next month, I will 100% use a JP account to nab em.

@Wavey84 DQXI is a bit more traditional compared to IX and X.

It plays a bit more like DQVIII, but focusing has been removed for a new Pep system, which is this game's equivalent of a limit break. But it's a little random, and you can't always rely on it to come when you need it. But the cool thing with pep is that if two or more characters are pepped up, and have compatible moves, they can perform a pep move together, which is way more powerful than a pep move done by just one character.

Playing in 3D, you can move your character around the battlefield like some modern JRPGs, but your position of characters don't make that much of a difference when it comes to outcome. There's pretty much no point of it being there to begin with, so I'm guessing that when SquareEnix was working on the game, position was going to be a factor in combat, but never came to be.

@Wavey84 Oh, and yes, there is a Super Famicom version of DQV, but it's an early Super Famicom title, the DS version feels like a real remake.

As for what system to play DQXI on. I'm not sure if the PS4 version has PS4 Pro support, I'll have to look that up. I'm currently playing DQXI on Steam and running it in the highest quality possible, which looks much better than what the Switch can do in its demo. But the Switch version does come with the 2D mode, which isn't in the PS4 and Steam versions, and the Switch version comes with better audio, as the midi in-game audio has be changed to recorded orchestrated music from the DQXI soundtrack. So there's some advantages with the Switch edition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfdFU3O3nf8

@Wavey84 I looked up the PS4 Pro support for DQXI.

It plays in 4K, but it's not true 4K, the GPU is generating a 1440p image, and then it's upscaled to 2160p(4K).

@60frames-please most likely. Like... the one franchise I know of with english localization but no western release is basically an anime crossover game and the lack of western release

Meanwhile Square Enix, especially in the digital era, never go through the effort of actually translating stuff without actually then releasing it in any and all territories that support the language. And DQ is very much their property even with Nintendo being the western publisher for DQ11S on Switch (a decision that was probably decided by SE themselves deciding that no one would know how to best market games on Nintendo consoles than Nintendo themselves anyway).

I'd say expect a "sudden reveal" of the trilogy in one of Nintendo's own dedicated DQ11 direct. Especially when you consider how much of 11S' new content specifically synergize with that trilogy(the 2D mode is all but based on the style of these remakes and an entire quest line consists specifically of revisiting past Dragon Quest worlds with the hero in similarly retro graphics).

I expect a release in parallel to or only days/weeks apart from DQ11S, honestly.

And judging by most indication in Japan and East Asia I strongly suspect it's more to be likely to be "on the very same exact day".

I think I will stick with my Android versions, but this is still nice.

@60frames-please They used to have licencing issues when the games came out on the NES. Nintendo had to rename the games Dragon Warrior, because Dragon Quest in the west was the name of a Dungeons and Dragons rule book that had a trademark behind it. SquareEnix had to fight to get the Dragon Quest name for the west when DQVIII came out.

Technically, there should be no issues getting the games out onto western eShops, but the big problem is that these Switch versions are based on the PS4 versions, which are simply modified versions of the mobile Dragon Quest games. The graphics for enemies and the music is a bit mediocre if you compare them to the Super Famicom remakes.

@LexKitteh Yeah, I was saying the same thing.

@Wavey84
I always had a hard time with the combat in Final Fantasy when I was growing up. I hated it... I'm OK with it now, but recently I started playing the DQ games, and surprisingly I really like the combat. It's static, like a series of mini chess games, meaning you can take as long as you want to make your moves, rather than the active-time battles in FF. And the DQ games are designed so that you really feel like you are accomplishing something with your battles. I don't know why that made the difference for me but experiencing DQ combat has helped me enjoy the combat more in other jrpgs. Definitely try out DQ8 on PS2 or 3DS, and or XI on PS4 or Switch. If you're not opposed to emulating the DeJap translation of DQ5 on sfc is excellent. For the early games I find that I actually prefer the NES versions. They're hard! Which makes them more engaging, and increases that sense of accomplishment.

I rather hope they release the original NES or SNES versions.

I think the Switch sales would interfere with the Android and iOS Sales. In which case, I already bought the Trilogy of Erdrick on my tablet. I just need a proper console release of all three, other than the SNES Versions I have on my SNES Classic, and I won't have to re-download the games just to play them on my phone. Dr. Mario World and Dissidia Opera Omnia take up enough space on my phone as it is.

@Wavey84
I've been a fan of Dragon Quest since VIII on the PS2, but I'll tell you, if you don't like the turn based combat of final fantasy and chrono trigger then DQ is a move in the wrong direction.
With DQ there is no real-time element at all; everything sits there until you give orders for your whole party. There's no "active time", no dynamic camerawork, you can't even tell who is going to do what first.
But where Dragon Quest wins you over is its sheer charm. The colours and characters are bright. Monsters are so humorous and cute that it's a joy to come across a new one. The stories go to fun places. And the JRPG gameplay hews steadfastly to the classic formula, without reinventing the wheel or layering dozens of systems on top of each other.
So I'd still recommend giving the series a go. For my money, it's best to work backwards from XI instead of forwards from I if you're not a huge retro turn-based devotee.

The Englisn support mentioned here is for the Asian verion, not Japanese. If anyone placing an order, get the Asian version, or make sure the Japanese version will also feature English before placing an order for it.

@andjahiam I don't want to have different accounts for different games though.

I started playing Final Fantasy (first game, GBA) and while the game looks and sounds better than what I expected, it's difficult to stand a new battle two seconds after the last one indefinitely.

This means that the Roto's trilogy will be also released in the West?

@N64-ROX I used to love time battle but honestly as the goes on i'm actually starting to be of the other school of thoughts. I feel true turn based battle has held up the test of time better than active time battle.

Ultimately ATB proved to be nothing more than regular turn based with a cooldown timer before you can choose your actions. In comparison I've grown to prefer true turn-based letting me pick my choices and decisions at my own pace rather than putting an artificial time constraint in the formula.

These days, if I really wanted "real time" I'd play a action rpg over ATB- based games. These days ATB feel to me like a lukewarm compromise between turn-based and action games that fail to give me the truly dynamism (especially when i find myself waiting on action gauges to fill again) of the former while ruining the chill pace or undistracted strategizing of the later .

That is...weird, in Japan, but English? Wat.

So according to this article the Japanese version doesn’t support Japanese. NL journalism at its best.

I've always wanted to play the original DQ's. I need more time and money...

@mikegamer
It’s not Japan. It’s the Asian release.

99% of Asian releases are English because that’s the predominant language alongside Chinese. Play Asia thrives off selling English Asian releases. That said, sometimes JP releases do also have English (Okami, Final Fantasy X/X-2, Ace Attorney, etc)

I'll pass. DW/DQ is not my favorite.

@MeloMan Do you have a 3DS/2DS? One of the DQ games came with the original.

There's so many great games coming out...I want this but I'll put it on my list as "hunt down after finishing my backlog of games".

I will be picking up the Asia English version of this game that Square is releasing. They have done this with several games so far (FF World of Maxima, FFX/X-2, and Oninaki). It's an easy buy for me. I've never actually played these games.

@Ludovsky Nice, good!

@Wavey84 Honestly, I couldn't get into Dragon Quest 8, as it felt way too cartoony. It's a beautiful game, but it's tone is just like a bad 80's Saturday morning cartoon. Some people like that, I guess!

I LOVE the tone of the first three games on the NES. I think they started ruining things with all the weird transliterated accents and such. They make for bad reads.

I can agree about turn based combat, though. These days I can only do it very sparingly, and Dragon Quest games have notoriously been about, "Grind, the Game 1-8," as they don't have much else to offer. I hope you find a good match. I'm hyped for DQ #2, in particular.

What would really get my jollies going, is if they ported the PSONE version of Dragon Warrior 7, not that garbage 3DS port.

@Ludovsky
To be honest I'd agree with you about liking pure turn based these days, unless I'm specifically looking to replay an old classic. But perhaps that's just age! I just bought Astral Chain but I can't stop playing Into The Breach...

@manu0 While NL/PS have lots of questionable journalism, there is a difference between Japanese and "Asian" versions of games. That generally means the version for South Asia.

@N64-ROX honestly i'm curious about Astral Chain but I've got both DQ11S and Link's Awakening coming this month so something had to give ultimately ^^;
Heck I already decided to biiit Daemon X Machina later for those reasons

@JaxonH Still weird for SFC games never released outside Japan

Could we get this from PlayAsia?

Yes but PlayAsia also said FF VIII was going to be a physical, so I don't trust them at all, especially after the last game I tried to order from there, just disappeared.

Ughhh... Too much cool stuff to buy.

Well, physical... A little expensive, though, considering the shipping cost.

No preorder bonus, though, meaning I'll wait for price drops or a Western release.

At this rate of a western release doesn't happen it will only be because localizations in other western languages aren't ready yet. But they tend to do these in parallel afaik or close to such so if the english localization is ready, others probably are too.

@CurryPowderKeg79 I dunno if the eshop is confirmed. Isn't the Japanese release usually a different deal?

So all you might find is a japanese only digital version. I mean the language supported in the Asia version didn't include japanese unless I saw wrong (only Trad. Chinese, Korean and english) and exclusively as a physical package afaik

these better be the next SNES games to come to the Switch Online i want to play them asap

I want steam version. What's so hard to release these first 3 games on Steam i'm wondering. You already released DQ11 and DQ Heroes 1 and 2. But you can't be bothered to release thos on Steam? Did Nintendo buy them off this time i'm wondering....

Aaaaand pre-ordered

@SepticLemon yep, these are the mobile versions ported. Kind of took the wind out of my sales. I may get that import release just for collection reasons, but you can snag these for about $10 a pop on your phone. And 4-6 for $15 each, and 8 for $20. 8 isn't definitive, the DS porta arguably are superior to their original releases. 1 and 2 are fine, but 3 is an odd duck. It clearly uses assets from the SFC remake, but lacks any of the battle animations. Which really give the fights some energy and personality. Heck, even the GBC version had them (at the expense of background images in battle).

Snuck in a pre-order. Why the **** not?

Have the GameBoy Colour versions which can be played on my GameCube with the GBA Player, so why do I still want this? I may have a problem...

Are there major differences between the IOS and NES versions other than the graphics?

Can anyone that lives in the Eurozone and may have imported games from playasia comment on the customs costs of this product?

@belmont It is now all pre-paid, so the cost is included in the final price http://www.play-asia.com/blog/2018/01/08/eu-shipping-just-got-easier/

If it's already got an english version, don't see much reason for them to not at least make this available digitally in the west.

@bigcalsworld Thanks!!

Dragon Warrior was the first RPG I ever played, so I'll be glad to have this on the Switch. I hope the translation is better than the fan-translation for the SFC version.

@AlphaElite you would be surprised, a lot of companies seem to not like money when it comes to western releases

"So, while a western release still hasn't been confirmed for the three titles, this does mean you'll at least be able to buy them with a Japanese Switch eShop account and play them on your normal profile if you want to go through the effort to do so."

I don't think this is correct. This article is confusing; the Asia release is different than the Japan release. And only the Asia release has English and is it not on the eShop. Or am I missing something?

@Wavey84 dqiv is turned based fighting just like the first three. I have all 4 of them. Dq viii is one of the best ones ever made. It's been released on the 3ds as well as ps2. Dq heroes and heros 2 are good games as well. If you haven't checked them out you might and the da game for Wii is pretty decent, could be better but hey not all can be awesome.

I may go for the Asian version but only if it's official that there's no western release. Even in what seems to have been a big renaissance for the series in recent years, I'm always paranoid regarding Dragon Quest's releases. I've noticed that Squeenix has pretty high expectations for DQ (as many major publishers do) and can be quick to pull western support when they don't feel it's doing well enough. So if there's a chance for a western release in this case, I'd rather wait and see. If one jumps the gun and gets the Asian version before confirmation of a western release, they will be less likely to get it again for the same console if there is one. Squeenix will see that as a sale for the Asian region, and thus less support for the west.

Speaking of Dragon Quest...

The 1.0.1 demo patch for XI S is finally live in the West, for anyone (like me) who stopped playing due to crashing issues.

well that's basically confirmed western release

If I made a profile to download DQI-III, I'd have to live with the burden of japanese news cluttering my newsfeed, right? :/

Definitely getting the cartridge, but holding out in case Japan gets a release. Amazon Japan is usually cheaper and way faster than Play Asia.

Not holding my breath, but it would be amazing if they also included the original 8 bit games as well as the remasters.

Glad I created a Japanese account a few months ago. It’s really easy and you don’t have to wait for a release in your region. Little more expensive buying Japanese eshop cards but nice having the option.

Japan has also had all the Dragon Quest games available on the 3DS for ages, including the free Dragon Quest Online. Why they take so long to release them in Europe when we've had the manga for ages is beyond me...

@Don It's mainly quality of life stuff.

You don't have to use a long list of commands to do things like you did in DQ1 and 2. You just walk up to something, press A, and it's context sensitive. But in the original NES game, if you wanted to open a treasure chest, you had to pause the game and go to a command to open the treasure chest.

My gripes with the iOS, Android, Switch and PS4 versions of these games is that even though it looks better than the Super Famicom remakes, the SuFami remakes are much more animated, the music is better, and a lot more work was put into them than these newer versions have.

@BlackenedHalo Not always.

Singapore, even though it's an asian country, uses English as their main language, then maybe Malay or Mandarin as their second. But Singapore people pick English as their main language.

Typically, Asian, or "International" editions of games may contain English language in them, but it's mainly there for the Singapore market.

@Bensei Yes, if you put a Japanese account on your Switch, the Japanese News feed will be included with your American or European news feed.

I thought was the Asian release for Hong Kong and Singapore, not Japanese.

@SepticLemon
Thank you for the info. Sounds like the overall gameplay, story and characters are left intact from the original version.

Def will be picking these up on the eShop but not at launch. I’ll be too busy with DQXI S. I’ve already sunk like 15 hours into it and grinded my characters to about about level 18. Maybe it’s because I’m old but I love turn based battles and grinding. Think that’s part of the reasons games like FFXV, XC2, and Tales of Vesperia didn’t hook me like DQXI S did. Between that & Pokemon I’ll have hundreds of hours of turn-based gameplay waiting for me.

@NIN10DOXD Yes, you're right.

In this case, the game has English, Korean and Mandarin in it. There's no Japanese language option in this physical release. Plus, there doesn't appear to be a physical release for Japan, yet.

@SepticLemon Ugh... I already get the NA news feed due to signing up for the free DBZ Butoden download. I guess I'll wait and see if they make a global release.

@KBuckley27 They're not the SNES/SuFami versions. It's the Switch version of the PS4 versions, which in turn are console-ised versions of the iOS and Android versions of DQ1-3.

@Bensei No idea TBH. The Download appears to be Japanese only, whilst the physical edition appears to be Asia only. If it does come out, you'd probably be better off to get the android version, which would be likely the cheapest way to play the game. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.square_enix.android_googleplay.dq1_gp

@Bensei Something to point out too. The Japanese download version are three seperate games with their own prices. It's not a bundle like the physical edition.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/09/japanese_releases_of_dragon_quest_i_ii_and_iii_on_switch_will_be_playable_in_english#comment5231283

@Alucard83 Nope, Nintendo hasn't got these as an exclusive as they were PS4 games released in 2017 before they were ported to the Switch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlApLQQSmGI

...not to mention that they're console-ised versions of the iOS and Android versions of DQ1-3.

@KayFiOS It's identical to the iOS and Android versions.

@mozzy1 I thought mobile took out mini medals and pachisi board mini game for dq3. SNES definitive version given gbc had bad music. Thief was fun in both regardless. https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonquest/comments/8dfunz/what_version_of_dragon_quest_3_should_i_play/

Exciting news that they get a physical release. I'm gonna wait and see if it's released in the west first, seeing as it's not a stupid, limited edition.

Pre-ordered, thanks!
(Along with My Girlfriend Is A Mermaid!?, which costs the same as the digital version, apparently also has English subs but isn't available in Europe in physical format. Great finding! )

As someone else mentioned, this is NOT the Japanese edition, but the Asian edition - which usually includes Chinese and English. This in no way guarantees that the Japanese one will have English, though it is possible.

Even then, it’s important to remember that sometimes these editions come with a simple direct and UNEDITED translation - just a simple pass of the text into English, while the American/European version will be completely re-edited and rewritten, as we’ve seen before in the Japanese version of Fire Emblem (which includes non-edited English).

All in all, this piece of news is doing quite a bit of disservice to uninformed readers unless they have some privileged information beyond the Play-Asia listing.

Well no sirry! They are not in English. Just Japanese! Maybe say Korean as where I come from or something?

Errr complete bollocks Nintendo Life! The Japanese eshop releases for all 3 games are ONLY in Japanese! Appalling piece of 'journalism'!