The Dragon Quest VII remake for 3DS has finally made it to Western shores, and while Nintendo published it, the localization was done by Shloc Ltd., a small localization team based in the UK. Nintendo UK interviewed Shloc’s Oli Chance about the localization process of Dragon Quest VII. Make sure to read the full interview on Nintendo UK’s website; here are some interesting tidbits from it:

Nintendo: How much work is involved in bringing a game like DRAGON QUEST VII to the west?
OC: As you might expect, the amount of work involved was pretty huge, but in order to keep quality as high as possible, we had to keep the teams as small as possible. There were four, and at times five, of us working on the Japanese to English localisation, and then once French, Italian, German and Spanish got involved a while later, it became a massive task both in terms of workload and logistics.
All in all, from start to finish, including familiarisation (playing the game to get to know it – no small task in this case), glossary creation (naming all the characters, places, monsters, items etc. etc.), translation/editing and QA, we were working pretty much flat out for just over a year.
One of the hardest things was to put enough time in the schedule for the editor of each language to see all the text, which in our experience is the only way to ensure consistency and quality throughout. You can throw a lot of translators at a job, but if there’s no one making sure they’re all working to spec and that quality is as high as it can be across the board, then things can easily go awry.
Nothing quite compares to DQVII. It’s one thing to contemplate taking on a job this size, and quite another to be four months in, knowing there are months left to go, and that if your pace falters, you could send the entire project off-schedule in five languages.
Without doubt the biggest challenge was keeping up such a heavy workload over such a long time, and making sure that quality didn’t suffer as a result. This is where having a team who know each other so well is essential – if we hadn’t been there to back each other up and give each other’s morale a kick when needed, I don’t think we could have done it.
Nintendo: What would you say is the essence of the DRAGON QUEST brand from a writing perspective and how did you aim to preserve this in your localisation?
OC: From the point of view of writing, I think it’s characters that carry the series, and as such, the main aim is always to make the characters memorable, likable and unique. Given that the series has featured so many games with so many great characters, this becomes more and more of a challenge over time, but it’s a challenge we relish, and one which can often prove highly rewarding.
As long as we can keep the characters knowable and individual and lovable, the world hopefully stays bright and alive. In DQVII specifically, this meant going right down to the level of individual NPCs and making sure that any game-spanning characterisation or story they had was fun, engaging and above all consistent. This was a massive endeavour, but it was what was done in the original Japanese, so it’s absolutely something we have to make sure happens in the English in order to create a faithful localisation.

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Square Enix teases upcoming news for the “Bravely” series

Posted on 8 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in 3DS, News | 20 Comments

Square Enix’s “Bravely” series, represented on the 3DS with Bravely Default and Bravely Second, celebrates its 4th anniversary in Japan today. The official Twitter account for the series posted the picture seen above today – the text in the Tweet reads “It’s Bravely’s 4th anniversary! News have been scarce lately. There may be something soon?!”.

While there’s no way to know for sure right now, a “Bravely Third” game for 3DS is quite possible. Bravely Second left some plot threads unresolved, after all.

We will keep you updated.

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Dragon Quest VII “Discover Story”, accolades trailers

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 0 comments

We have a double dose of Dragon Quest VII from Nintendo today. View a video focusing on story below, along with another highlighting its critical reception.

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Dragon Quest VII “Discover Connections” trailer

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 0 comments

Nintendo is still going with its instructional video series about Dragon Quest VII. Find a new video focusing on the game’s tablets below.

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Dragon Quest X localization looking unlikely, but could be reconsidered with enough fan requests

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii, Wii U | 130 Comments

Nintendo streamed the Dragon Quest VII developer discussion at PAX from a couple of weeks ago, but the online audience was only treated to some of what was shown. We know that a bit of Dragon Quest VIII footage debuted at the event, and fans were able to ask Square Enix’s Noriyoshi Fujimoto some questions.

One person wanted to find out if we’ll ever be getting Dragon Quest X in the west. According to a fan attending the event, Fujimoto responded by saying that translating an MMO is a daunting task, and it would be difficult to bring over the game from a business standpoint. However, he did say that if there’s enough fan outcry similar to that of what happened with Dragon Quest VII, Square Enix could look into it.

Square Enix has already made Dragon Quest X for Wii U, 3DS, and Wii. An NX version is also planned.

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Dragon Quest VII “Discover Connections” trailer

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos | 0 comments

Dragon Quest VII may have come out last week, but Nintendo isn’t finished with its instructional video series. A new episode focusing on connections is below.

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Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional heading to 3DS, coming to Japan in February

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 2 Comments

Square Enix revealed Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional at the Tokyo Game Show earlier today. It’s set for release on February 9 with a 5,250 yen price point.

It goes without saying that Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional is the original game, though with some new content. Numerous characters from past Joker games will be present as well as popular monsters from previous titles. Square Enix is also packing in new scenarios. Those who have save data from the original Joker 3 can import monsters they’ve collected.

Get a look at the first Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional trailer below.

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Dragon Quest VIII 3DS will have voice acting, no orchestrated music

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 30 Comments

It’s been a three year wait since the original Japanese release, but Dragon Quest VII finally landed in North America and Europe on 3DS yesterday. However, Nintendo is also hard at work localizing another Dragon Quest game. Next year, we’ll be seeing Dragon Quest VIII on 3DS.

At the PAX panel for Dragon Quest VII a couple of weeks ago, Nintendo showed some footage from the English version of Dragon Quest VIII. Fans were treated to the intro, which confirmed voice acting just like the PlayStation 2 version as both the king and Yangus spoke. Also, it seems that there will not be orchestrated music like Dragon Quest VII’s localized 3DS release.

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