We've all heard some kind of story about the furore that a brand new Dragon Quest game stirs up in Japan. Kids skip school, adults call in sick, and the original Dragon Quest III on Famicom even led to a number of arrests.
Well, folks, history repeats itself — kind of — with the release of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, as one establishment has chosen to close up shop today to let the team play the highly anticipated remake (thanks Automaton Media).
The game launched today, 14th November, worldwide, and to celebrate, the Cura Chiropractic clinic in Tokyo has closed its doors for the day. The head of the clinic was nice enough to leave a note on the door for those who may not have anticipated this job change. The note reads (translated by Automaton) "Notice of temporary closure: We can’t open the clinic because all of the staff have changed their Jobs to “Hero”. Head of Cura Chiropractic."
The note was also posted to X (formerly Twitter), with the message "Please forgive us."
If you know your RPGs, or happen to know of the clinic, this might not be a surprise — the clinic is called 'Cura', which is the name of a healing spell from the Final Fantasy series. It also advertises itself as “The best chiropractor in Japan for otaku to gather and talk about their favourites,”. Sounds like a chiropractor we actually want to go to!
Amusingly, people on social media have noticed the name, and are asking the chiropractor to rename itself to 'Midheal', which is the Dragon Quest equivalent of Cura.
But that's something for the clinic staff to consider at a later date. For now, the team is enjoying some well-deserved food at Luida's Bar, a well-known Dragon Quest-themed bar in Akihabara. They have Mini Medal pancakes!
It's a good thing Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a pretty darn good game, so we hope the team at Cura Chiropractic had a great day eating food and playing video games.
Are you indulging in some Dragon Quest-themed treats today? Or are you just settling down to play the HD-2D Remake? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments.
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[source x.com, via automaton-media.com]
Comments 22
Lucky them, hope they're enjoying the game - looking forward to playing it myself as soon as my discounted physical copy arrives!
Cura, Midheal? This whole waiting is gonna to RUINGA my day if it doesn't get delivered today.
Thoroughly enjoying this nostalgia trip. I still own my GBC cart of DQ3 and I'm pretty sure the internal battery is dead but I can't get rid of it. At this point it's a sentimental treasure. My wife is going to play DQ3 remake because she thoroughly enjoys the soundtrack of DQ in general. Stay kacrackle out there.
Man, if only my job would give everyone the day off for a game release lol. Unfortunately due to the industries we're part of, that isn't really an option for every employee.
Those Mini Medal pancakes look amazing!
Makes me want to play it more..i'm a DQ fan but wanted to wait for the drop in the eye watering £50 price.
Some things never change. The very first issue of Nintendo Power has an article about Dragon Quest 3 releasing in Japan (pg. 92). It includes a photo of people lining up in the street to buy it. 😊
Well, Cura is also the Spanish word for Cure (as a noun), so if I wasn't told of its otaku origins I'd assume it's in Spanish.
Anyway, hopefully their employees don't return with a Curse.
Usually the kids don’t show up for school when a DQ game releases. It’s huge over there
@HammerGalladeBro My understanding is the Japanese name for the Final Fantasy spell line was originally "Care" but somehow ended up Cure.
My guess is because the original NES Final Fantasy UI was tied very specifically to the four-character spell name limit. Having the later spells be Car2, Car3 and Car4 wouldn't have had the same ring to it.
Dont make me buy this now! I am waiting for the Switch 2 version
Japan gets it. Dragon Quest has always been amazing and consistent. Love it.
I just call in sick 🤷♂️
To be honest, I have mixed opinions on this. On the one hand, it's nice that they're giving their employees the day off to play the game. On the other hand, what if someone desperately needed to be seen by a chiropractor, and this clinic was the only one in the area? Should a patient be made to suffer agonizing pain just because people want to play a game?
If only there was a way to play such a game on the go....
I would assume they were anticipating a slow day and had few appointments. And I suspect that's not the kind of thing that would get a lot of walk-in patients. So it may have made a lot of sense to close early anyway. Maybe some of the potential patients decided to do the same and play through the pain for DQ3.
Damn. I wonder if they take my insurance.
@AstroTheGamosian they’re not a 24/7 clinic I don’t imagine anyway. They probably close at least one day per week normally and are likely almost entirely by appointment.
Lol Seriously? 😂😂 I hope they have fun.
@jesse_dylan Eh, I wouldn't know. I don't know how bad the situation is in Japan, but I know that I can never seem to get in with any doctors to save my life here in the U.S., even when I really need to, such as if I am sick.
If that ends up happening, I have to go to an urgent care clinic and wait for several hours in the waiting room before finally seeing someone. The only way I can ever see someone in a timely manner is if I get to the urgent care clinic right when they open, but even then, there will be a line of people.
@AstroTheGamosian yuck yeah, it’s horrendous in the US and will be getting worse in the next ten months or so unfortunately. And depends on our insurance and all kinds of stuff. I hope it’s not as bad in Japan!
@jesse_dylan It's frankly part of why I plan on moving to Europe. I could possibly qualify for Czech citizenship through my grandmother, who was born there and lived there until she turned 18, at which point she emigrated here to the U.S. And being a Czech citizen gives me the benefit of being an EU citizen, allowing me to live and work anywhere in the EU. I'm thinking Ireland, specifically Dublin, but I would not be opposed to Germany or the Netherlands, either.
@AstroTheGamosian You should do it. It's better living for sure in the EU, where humanity usually comes first over corporations and profits, especially these days... I often wonder if I'm Scandinavian enough to emigrate there, but probably not!! My grandparents were all born here. I dated and English girl back when the UK was still in the EU. Emigrating is difficult, but having the ancestry might make it a lot easier. Even some place like Prague is pretty amazing... and the Netherlands... wow. And if you do end up in Germany, English is widely used, and the German people are some of the most kind, gentle, pro-social people you could imagine. Of course, Ireland is amazing. Not to be a perv, but Irish girls.... are very lovely humans. Meanwhile I'm trapped in the land of buried ballistic thermonuclear armaments.
@jesse_dylan I did take a bit of German back in college, but it was quite difficult. The Der/Die/Das genders tripped me up constantly. The fact that you could have a masculine or feminine pronoun for even an inanimate object baffled me. And that's just one example of the difficulty I had.
But according to Google, only 56% of Germans actually speak English. That's not too far off from the Czechs, where 50% of them know the language, from what I have heard. In comparison, about 95% of the Dutch speak English.
But I'd probably still go with Ireland, because I also have heritage and distant relatives there, and I actually identify with it more than my Bohemian heritage, despite it not being as significant in my genetic makeup. I am 50% Bohemian, and the rest is a smattering of mostly Irish, English, Welsh, and Scottish. But of it all, I identify with my Irish heritage the most.
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