Since its initial release on the NES, I’ve been playing Dragon Quest. I played through nearly all of them in English. I played part 7 in Japanese on the 3DS, and I’ve also spent hours watching my wife play through various games, which she does in Japanese. I was fine with the old English versions on the NES, and I didn’t totally mind the changes made by the current translations even though I didn’t really like a lot of the needless name changes of things that were fine to begin with. I understand wanting to change weird names like Kukule or Chamoro, but what’s wrong with Flora (which was changed to Nera)? Why the lame Alltrades Abbey instead of the Temple of Dharma? Also, why attach real-world cultural identities to fictional places with lame accents and stereotypes? My complaints were few, and I was fine with the changes most of the time (I liked how Yangus spat out British slang all the time). When I grew accustomed to the Japanese versions, I noticed these confusingly needless changes all the more, but they were never intrusive to the game.
However when I finally got around to playing part 9, everything changed. They went way too far. Every name was changed. Puns were added to where there weren’t any (forced and to the point of exhaustion), and dialogue and character personalities were changed to accommodate these puns. A few towns into it, I became so irritated with the game that I got rid of it and got it in Japanese, and though playing it in Japanese I realized that there was no need to make nearly any of the changes that were made to the localization. It was needlessly butchered. It reminded me of Japanese TV shows back in the 80s where character names, and even plots, were changed to hide anything Japanese.
I guess someone decided that everything needed to be a pun, because what better way to irritate players than to change simple, straight-forward names into horrible jokes? Bolt Cutter? Ha, ha, I get it! It’s a lightning attack, but it references a tool that’s used to cut bolts! Was Lightning Slash, the Japanese name, not good enough? How about Hot Lick? It’s called Fire-breathing Trick in Japanese (you know, that really common trick where someone spits alcohol into a flame?). Was that too simple? When you use it in battle, it says “blahblah spits fire!” which makes sense, because that’s what just happened, but when you use Hot Lick, it says “blah blah fans the flames, and sends them flying!” What flames? What does that even mean? What reason could there have been to make such changes? This is a problem that continues through the entire catalog of skills. Blockenspiel? It was called Shield Attack. Whipping Boy? Protect. Why, why, why were any of these changed? I've seen a few complaints about this on the net, and many have replied saying that it stays true to the light-hearted feel of the Japanese games, but that is not true. Yeah, the Japanese games have puns and jokes, but there aren’t all that many (it’s mostly just some monster names or some NPC interactions). Story-wise, the games are kept serious, but it’s hard to take things seriously when I’m going into places called Brigadoom (It’s a castle that’s in ruins, and it’s a reference to an old musical! Clever, right!), Coffinwell (cuz everyone’s getting sick and dying), or the Quarantomb (because a deadly sickness is sealed there! So funny!), and fighting things like the Ragin’ Contagion (cuz they didn’t have enough bad accents and stereotypes) or the Master of Nu’un (cuz he’s the Jack of Alltrades! Get it?). You know how many of these names were puns in the Japanese version? None of them. And they were fine names, too. Brigadoom was called Ludiano. What was wrong with that? Also, the Black Knight from there was known as the Black Knight, or the Knight of the Black Rose, but for some reason someone decided that he should be called the Wight Knight (cuz it rhymes with Right Knight, see?) Ughhh!
This game also features a helpful little fairy named Stella, whose name was changed from Sandy because I guess unisex names are too weird. In the Japanese one, she is an energetic, bubbly young girl whose personality is basically the Japanese version of a valley-girl. In English, she’s a rude, pushy, foul-mouthed girl who accentuates everything with the word “flapping” (cuz she’s a fairy, and it sounds like fu**ing! Such brilliant comedy!). This is just an example, but from what I’ve seen, there are lots of dialogue and plot changes made to accommodate their insufferable humor. This game went way too far over the line of bad taste. It essentially change the whole tone of the game for the sake of bad jokes. It’s insulting, and if this is where the English version of the series is going, I’m not going to buy any more of them.
However when I finally got around to playing part 9, everything changed. They went way too far. Every name was changed. Puns were added to where there weren’t any (forced and to the point of exhaustion), and dialogue and character personalities were changed to accommodate these puns. A few towns into it, I became so irritated with the game that I got rid of it and got it in Japanese, and though playing it in Japanese I realized that there was no need to make nearly any of the changes that were made to the localization. It was needlessly butchered. It reminded me of Japanese TV shows back in the 80s where character names, and even plots, were changed to hide anything Japanese.
I guess someone decided that everything needed to be a pun, because what better way to irritate players than to change simple, straight-forward names into horrible jokes? Bolt Cutter? Ha, ha, I get it! It’s a lightning attack, but it references a tool that’s used to cut bolts! Was Lightning Slash, the Japanese name, not good enough? How about Hot Lick? It’s called Fire-breathing Trick in Japanese (you know, that really common trick where someone spits alcohol into a flame?). Was that too simple? When you use it in battle, it says “blahblah spits fire!” which makes sense, because that’s what just happened, but when you use Hot Lick, it says “blah blah fans the flames, and sends them flying!” What flames? What does that even mean? What reason could there have been to make such changes? This is a problem that continues through the entire catalog of skills. Blockenspiel? It was called Shield Attack. Whipping Boy? Protect. Why, why, why were any of these changed? I've seen a few complaints about this on the net, and many have replied saying that it stays true to the light-hearted feel of the Japanese games, but that is not true. Yeah, the Japanese games have puns and jokes, but there aren’t all that many (it’s mostly just some monster names or some NPC interactions). Story-wise, the games are kept serious, but it’s hard to take things seriously when I’m going into places called Brigadoom (It’s a castle that’s in ruins, and it’s a reference to an old musical! Clever, right!), Coffinwell (cuz everyone’s getting sick and dying), or the Quarantomb (because a deadly sickness is sealed there! So funny!), and fighting things like the Ragin’ Contagion (cuz they didn’t have enough bad accents and stereotypes) or the Master of Nu’un (cuz he’s the Jack of Alltrades! Get it?). You know how many of these names were puns in the Japanese version? None of them. And they were fine names, too. Brigadoom was called Ludiano. What was wrong with that? Also, the Black Knight from there was known as the Black Knight, or the Knight of the Black Rose, but for some reason someone decided that he should be called the Wight Knight (cuz it rhymes with Right Knight, see?) Ughhh!
This game also features a helpful little fairy named Stella, whose name was changed from Sandy because I guess unisex names are too weird. In the Japanese one, she is an energetic, bubbly young girl whose personality is basically the Japanese version of a valley-girl. In English, she’s a rude, pushy, foul-mouthed girl who accentuates everything with the word “flapping” (cuz she’s a fairy, and it sounds like fu**ing! Such brilliant comedy!). This is just an example, but from what I’ve seen, there are lots of dialogue and plot changes made to accommodate their insufferable humor. This game went way too far over the line of bad taste. It essentially change the whole tone of the game for the sake of bad jokes. It’s insulting, and if this is where the English version of the series is going, I’m not going to buy any more of them.
