Well Dragon Quest V has been released in America and Europe.  And it is everything it should be.  Added content from the original.  Improved enemy animations over that of DQIV DS.  Improved battle engine.  Additional monsters to recruit.  A party chat feature allowing you to talk to your party members for information and to enhance their character development.  Its all there.

But there's just that one catch.  The same issue that was there in the last games remake.  The localization.

It looked like this game was going to have a much better localization.  Less emphasis on accents and changes to the script.  Instead, the game in a mixed bag.  Certain areas are nearly devoid of any tampering, with the only changes coming in random 'Britishoms' like characters inserting 'give 'em what-fer' and like into their speech.  While other areas seem to be even worse than the last game.  Near illegible patches of text full of apostrophes and added letters that don't even resemble any other language.  And other times, made up words and puns that are clearly inserted as an attempt to make people laugh, but instead just come off as hard to read or a poor attempt at translation.

An example:

"I can 'ardly muster up the energisms to do anythin' these dasies. I'm so 'ungry!"

And topping the list is probably the fact that certain characters have been singled out as clear stereotypes yet again.  Going along with all the name changes, certain characters have been given thick and very stereotypical accents.  Turning Sancho into a stereotypical Spanish accent (saying que, como estas every third word) and the character now called Roberto Briscoletti using a stereotypical Italian accent (the first thing you ever hear come out of his mouth is a reference to linguini).  But there's even more exaggerated examples beyond them in the game.

So what is the verdict?  Well, that's for you to decide.  The game is still amazing.  But personally, I feel this localization, just like the last games localization, has hurt the games characters, story and ruined any chance it had for increased popularity and sales outside Japan.  The only reason I'm playing it is because I'm a major Dragon Quest fan.  But someone looking at this who isn't would probably laugh at the way the characters are speaking and think the game is suppose to be for kids, or just had a really bad localization. 

The real reason I'm making this thread is 1) to bring the state of the game to your attention in case you were going to buy it but also 2) to bring to your attention the state of the series in general.  SquareEnix is just gonna keep generating these kinds of localizations unless more people speak out.  They've said it in interviews and they think its upholding the values of the original series (see link below).  When in fact, this is the exact opposite of how the game is handled in Japan.  The way its being handled right now in Europe and America screams 'marketing for kids'.  When the creator of the series has said time and time again, the reason his games are successful and sell in the multi-millions is because he makes them assessable to 'all markets'.

Its about time we tell SquareEnix to stop focusing on just one brand name and market and fix this.  Especially before Dragon Quest IX comes out.

Link to the Interview with the Head of the Dragon Quest Localization Team:

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/02/13/square-enix-discusses-dragon-quest-v-hand-of-the-heavenly-brides-localization/

Sold out when I went to buy today.

Not yet in Europe.
However count me in for the party

What the hell is Linguini ?

However I must admit that, accents aside, I liked the localization of DQ IV for DS.

Linguine (also spelled linguini) is a form of pasta — flat like fettuccine and trenette, but narrow like spaghetti. The name means "little tongues" in Italian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguine

ha damn got too many games to worry about right now. was gonna get this but realized haven't beaten dragonball origins yet (great game) and getting fire emblem ds game before this. And i always play through them a few times so that can be a while.

especially during school time, should get some good play in during spring break cuase not doing anything. but then almost finals time when get back from finals it always seems. or maybe school work just starts getting harder and its warm out so school flies by quicker than the boring first half.

Picked up my copy up this morning along with Fire Emblem.

For my part, I played DQIV in french and the translation was ok. The accents were'nt too annoying or too kiddy.

I heard Fire Emblem DS wasn't that good....  Also, Maxis, just because you personally don't like something doesn't mean you need to preach about boycotts... >_>

Who said anything about a boycott?  I bought the game myself.

I WANT the games to sell better.  That's why I am bringing this up.  However, its just the facts that with each subsequent Dragon Quest title, the sales have been less than the previous game.  Where the focus on accents and trying to make the game 'European' has increased.

I'm wanting the series to become more popular.  But currently, the only people who are paying any real attention to the series are people who are already fans of the game.  People who are 'new' to the games aren't jumping onto the series because, hey, the games are edited and/or have bad localizations.  If I wasn't a Dragon Quest fan and I bought one of the DS Dragon Quest games, I would have sold it back to the store by now due to the localization.

Its a simple fact that quality sells games.  And until we get an accurate translation and not 'lees go to ja leetle cave now ya?', we won't have anything nearing an accurate or quality localization.