NO ITS THE END OF THE WORLD>>>
FOR JAPAN

I think we'll see Agito released in 2010 with FF 13.

The major thing I see with this announcement is 2 fold. One, it might impact the RECORD slaes for DQIX. It'll still sell in the millions, but it might not sell the 6-9 million I thought it would because some people feel angry by all the waiting and the delay (hey, some people just get angry whenever a game gets delayed).

Two, this effects the launch of DQVI DS yet again. Which probably was only recently finished, but they weren't going to release next to DQIX. Now they're probably going to hold its release until next Christmas in Japan because DQIX has to be stalled until Summer....

It just means America once again is going to be devoid of Dragon Quest for a long time. Which is bad because its not like they're handling it well over here, in advertising or localization, in the first place.

It would never sell that much. DQ9 selling more than 4 million would be an accomplishment in itself.

Dragon Quest 8 only sold 3.63 million on PS2 in Japan.

Obviously they need the extra time to utilize the true power of the Wii.

(spelling O.o)

I wonder what's up with that bug.

And it may not get up there.  But while the PS2 was suppose to be the BEST SELLING SYSTEM EVAR!!!!, Dragon Quest VIII its still not the best selling Dragon Quest game.  Which goes to DQVII for best single selling title and DQIII for best accumulated sales in the series.

And this is the DS we're talking about.  Which is pretty much becoming synonymous with Japanese gaming.  I think its at least going to topple all other DQ sales, if not break 5 million easily.

Well, they also advertised (and published) the original Dragon Quest in America.  And we all know how that turned out...

Trust me, I'm happy that Nintendo has jumped on board to advertise DQ.  Especially since Square-Enix has decided NOT to advertise the series AT ALL.  But I wish they'd address the real problem.  Which is how the series is being handled in its localization.

They can increase the advertising all they want, but if people are getting an altered product with cheesy accents, altered names and even portions of the game missing, what's the point?  People aren't stupid, they aren't going to get all ecstatic over an inferior product.  The game might sell more copies, but it won't gain a long term fanbase.  That takes actual effort and quality control.  Something it seems only the actual producers of the series seem to be able to have a handle over in their native country.

Does SE actually remove parts of the game from western releases?  Last I heard they were still adding new things to western releases (then reselling them in Japan at a marked up rate later).

Last I heard the corny accents aren't coming.  On a somewhat related yet unreleated note, the sad part about the accents thing is that most people probably don't even recognize Japanese accents too well so they get uppity when western releases have accents.  Can you tell the difference between Tokyo native and an Osaka native for example?

On a tangential note, I thought the accents in DQIV's English DS release were charming and enjoyable.

They removed a lot from Dragon Quest IV.  Things like the Party Chat feature, a couple scenes from the game (puff puff) and altering the story.  With little logical reason for it, other than possibly wanting to make the game appeal to a more 'casual' audiance.  I really have given up trying to understand the logic behind localizations for Square-Enix.  It almost seems they change things just for the sake of changing it.

And they haven't given an American release for a Dragon Quest game original content since DQVIII.  And all that included was added voices (which weren't in the original game) and an orchestrated score.  All the other improvements to the game come from the original Japanese games.  What we in America get is just alterations or cuts. 

For Dragon Quest V however, early reports are claiming that they are altering (and possibly removing) portions of the script again.  As well as changing names and giving certain characters accents, which has been confirmed.