Come Watch 13 Minutes Of Level-5′s Ni no Kuni
If you were a big fan of Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2 and have been disappointed with the direction the series has taken, Level-5 has something special for you. Ni no Kuni (Loosely translated to Another World) may not have anything to do with Dragon Quest, but it takes what the company learned with developing DQ VIII and runs wild with it on the PS3. Many media outlets are already calling it Game of the Show for TGS 2011, and with good cause. It looks like a simple JRPG, that uses the best cel-shading we’ve ever seen. The good folks at Kotaku have a 13-minute movie showing tons of in-game footage, and extended trailer and more. Sit back and enjoy what looks like one of the most exciting PS3 exclusives to hit in 2012 (North American release). For those interested in importing, Ni no Kuni arrives in Japan on November 17th.
Isn’t that just awesome? If there weren’t so many other huge releases coming out this holiday season I would have imported it in a heartbeat. As it is though, I’m going to have to sit it out and wait for the localized version to arrive sometime in 2012.
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You and me both Tim. I really wish this genre wasn’t dying off as it is. There are SO few traditional JRPGs made nowadays. This is really what I wanted from DQ IX and X. Instead IX was supposed to be an online team RPG, and X is an online team RPG. Nothing wrong with that, but this is exactly what I wanted and thankfully Level-5 realized this. This game looks so kick-ass I don’t know where to begin.
Did no one download the DQ X trailer?
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What I would give for another Dragon Quest done in the exact same vein as DQ VIII. Like Steven said to me, remake DQ VII using the engine from Ni no Kuni and I would flip out. Have you guys even played VII before? Steven just picked it up and I was telling him that if any of the series ever needed a remake it’s that one. Given it’s extremely late release on the PS1, it looked extremely dated compared to virally everything else out at the time. That said, with over 500 job classes and 70,000 pages of dialogue it remains one of the deepest RPGs ever created.
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I have Dragon Quest VII too! And yes, it desperately needs a remake. I think many other RPG games from the SNES and PS1 era would really benefit from an upgrade. Some wouldn’t even really need any gameplay tweaks at all, because they are so timeless. Act Raiser, for example, is still a unique and amazing adventure. The soundtrack is phenomenal, and it’s hard to believe the level of sound quality the SNES was capable of (far better than the Genesis and its crappy chipset). Can you imagine that game redone with modern visuals and tweaks? The simulation parts would especially benefit. As far as visuals go though, Wild ARMs 2 could definitely use an upgrade. It didn’t look good even for PS1 standards, but it’s an excellent RPG. The story and music are really cool, but the visuals are just really…clunky.
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Yeah Tim. There are so many classics games like that which would greatly benefit from an overhaul, but I doubt we’ll see that happen anytime soon simply because of the sheer volume of content offered in most of these games. DQ VII in particular would cost a substantial amount of money to remake. I actually wouldn’t mind a DS-style remake where they just combined the graphics in such a way that it wasn’t as jarring as the original was. The biggest problem with DQ I – III and VII is that they aren’t readily available anymore. The easiest way to play the first three installments is to buy the GBC remakes or to pick up a third party NES machine and hunt down the ultra rare original NES copies. Doing either is going to set you back some serious cash. Why Square-Enix doesn’t use the translations the GBC games but place them into the Super Famicom remakes is beyond me. It wouldn’t cost that much and they could release the Wii Dragon Quest Anniversary (I,II,III) here in North America. As for VII, release it on the PSN. Heck they could even release the NES DW series on the Virtual Console. It just annoys me that FF is extremely easy to get into, all 13 iterations, but with DQ there are huge gaps and new fans have a difficult time starting with the original and moving up. Basically new fans would have to begin with IV, V, and VI on the DS before moving on to VIII on the PS2 and then back to the DS with IX. That’s very cumbersome for those that want to experience it all.
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I think Enix’s back catalog in general is just…inaccessible. It’s like they don’t want it to be out there. I have Dragon Warrior I for NES, and I-II and III for GBC, then IV, V, VI, and IX for DS, VII for PS1, and VIII for PS2. But I admit that now, it’s hard to go through the series’ roots. But I agree that releasing them on Virtual Console or PSN would be a good idea. So many other Enix games need to be re-released too…Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Act Raiser 2, EVO, Brain Lord, Robotrek, 7th Saga, Paladin’s Quest…
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Enix has always published unique games outside of Dragon Quest. Sadly, the only ones I’ve played and loved are the Tri-Ace developed ones.
I remember checking out VII during my RPG bloom in the PS1 days. I always kept looking for the next big/unique thing, but VII seemed so old to me. For the first time, graphics felt really unattractive to me so I didn’t give it another chance. Too bad in my case. Would love it if VII gets a full-fledged remake for next-gen consoles. I really think that they should consider doing so and experiment a bit. X is already set to hit the Wii so it will most likely be somewhat limited graphically, not to mention the huge risks in gameplay. They should just treat VII’s remake like V for the PS2 and overhaul the graphics completely while retaining the old-school deep gameplay. Win-win situation for Square-Enix. If X blows, then VII will most likely soar.
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Over the past week I’ve been contemplating starting over with Dragon Quest. My problem is that how do I start such a quest? Even if I don’t manage to go through then all, it would still make for an interesting read for those who have never experienced the games before. I own the original NES games so if I take my top loading NES, I shouldn’t have any problems playing them. It’s a risk though if things don’t pan out. The last thing I want is for the NES to glitch and erase my game ;). There are third party solutions available but I don’t know how reliable they are. I never had problems with my top loader before, but just getting to it is….interesting lol.
I really wish the Enix part of Square-Enix would release their content on the Virtual Console and PSN. I miss Valkyrie Profile.
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I sure do, but wouldn’t it be nice to have all the classic Enix titles available on the PSN, Virtual Console, etc? Some of these games are available in digital download format and via PSP, etc, as you said, but more often than not they aren’t available. Like I said, if I want to play the original Dragon Quest right now, the easiest way is to emulate it on my computer, but I really don’t want to do that. Therefore the only honest way of doing so is to either track down the original NES carts and pick up a third party NES, or the top loading NES. The official top loader NES-101 goes for around $75 and up depending on the quality of the machine. It also doesn’t have RCA inputs, meaning you have to use the old RF connection and on an HDTV, you can expect to see interlace lines galore. Since the original NES suffers from a ton of playback issues thanks to the faulty pin connector, the third party option is the ideal solution. These fake NESes can be bought for $12 and up, but the problem is most of them are simply emulators on a chip and have problems with some of the more advanced NES software like Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. There’s also the cost issue associated with Dragon Quest as a whole. If Square-Enix would simply release these games via the Virtual Console it would solve tons of problems. For a guy like me, I’m just going to devote an entire day to finding my old NES-101 and pray that it doesn’t look too horrible on my HDTV. After that, plop in Dragon Warrior and have some fun playing these games the way they were meant to be played :)
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I don’t know why people say they’re the best versions. The screen real estate was halved in order to fit on the screen. The graphics are dumbed down from the Super Famicom versions as well. The only saving grace is that the English translations are more in line with the original Japanese versions, but it’s a heavy price to pay. That said, naturally they’re better than the NES versions in terms of overall appearance, but neither the GBC nor the NES versions compare to the Super Famicom remakes. The big problem I have with the GBC remakes is the lack of background details in DQ II. It’s a little jarring considering how nice the first one looks.
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#17 written by Christina 7 months ago
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I think I will import this one since the PS3 is region-free.