You read the title right. In some amazing turn of events, these two games are apparently being localized. At Japan Expo, in a last minute announcement, series creator Yuji Horii announced that the two games were coming in French. Of course they wouldn't just localize the game for a single European country, which means you can likely expect a full localization across the major regions. When they're coming is a total mystery, but here are some tweets from the event coverage:

• “Yuji Horii has just announced Dragon Quest VII and VIII will be released ‘in French’…?! Apparently a last minute announcement here at Japan Expo. Guess that means both titles at coming West on 3DS. I asked someone from Square Enix and it seems Horii dropping the bomb wasn’t planned.” (via @jkermarrec, 2)

• “At Japan Expo, a few hours after our interview, Yuji Horii has confirmed here that Dragon Quest VII and VIII are coming ‘in French.'” (via @FFRing)

• “Horii actually did mention 3DS for Dragon Quest VII and VIII localization. The translator got upset when he did.” (via @RedMakuzawa)

More details are sure to come, eventually. This announcement wasn't supposed to come this early apparently, so some people are upset with Horii, but now it's out there. @Bortz can now shoot his web all over the place.

Source

 

[Arkansaw]

I guess it's time to learn French.

pardon my french then

@$##@$%#

 

[Voltshock R]

Waiting probably awhile, but more likely it will come.......
Maybe the Rocket Slime 3DS will arrive as a bonus!

 

[Tikker]

It was announced at Japan Expo. In France. Hence the focus on French. Why would they just localize it in one language for a single European country? Gotta use some common sense here. And like Izual said:

erm, you guys realize french is not restricted to just France, right? nor even just Europe....

 

[Nathan Drake]

erm, you guys realize french is not restricted to just France, right? nor even just Europe....

That's really semantics in the long run. The point was that it wouldn't make sense to just localize in French.

 

[GHANMI]

I'm not saying that SE doesn't make an odd localization decision here or there, but for the most part, it seems they have some very clear expectations for the performance of a Dragon Quest game in Japan before they'll consider bringing it over, spinoff or not. I won't try to understand why other localization decisions are made beyond what I already have, but considering Dragon Quest is their crown jewel in Japan that traditionally struggles in the west, it makes sense that their expectations would be somewhat high for it as a series.

You do have a point, since Square Enix indeed deemed anything not a million-seller a "failure" that should be skipped (back in the DS era).
But then again, from their recent remarks (related to Tomb Raider in specific), they admitted to this policy being a mistake.

What I guess is one indication this skipping RPGs right and left (with illogical decisions such as a Final Fantasy spin-off localized for the Vita, and a string of 7 no less Dragon Quest ports for iOS keeping getting released with substantial original localization work - then some languages other than English being randomly dropped despite the script existing ... and those ports bomb horribly)... is just an extension of the misguided jrpg market research from DS era.
They clearly said they were working on DQ10 and DQ7 for English then cancelled it, and "are considering" resuming the project. It's the same pattern that DQ6, DQ Joker 2, Hanjaku Hero, Nanashi no Game, Type-0... followed.
Localization > 80% underway > focus group suddenly deem it not a million seller, we're too AAA for these icky niche things > Cancellation > Rinse and Repeat
Market research team at SE drank the iOS master race kool aid and are randomly cancelling stuff on anything else despite sale numbers clearly contradicting them.

 

[Steena]

Finaland : As far as I know, DQ VII and DQ VIII are very popular, a lot of people, and when I mean a lot, it’s A LOT, ask for localizing them in Europe for 3DS

Yuji Horii : (laugh) I do understand that, but it’s not planned for now. Don’t worry, people desires arrive to my desk and we’ll decide what we do

Apparently this interview was done right before the french version was "announced". Knowing S-E and specifically DQ's continuous false promises about interest in bringing them to the west, I'm not believing until I am holding the damn box

 

[Nathan Drake]

Apparently this interview was done right before the french version was "announced". Knowing S-E and specifically DQ's continuous false promises about interest in bringing them to the west, I'm not believing until I am holding the damn box

Source for that interview? As it stands, I get the feeling that he was just too excited about it and decided to let the cat out of the bag on his own probably as a spur of the moment thing. If they really weren't getting localized, I feel like the people that asked the SE folk immediately afterwards about it would have been told as such. It's just that, even when the staff for a project knows a game is getting localized, they have to keep it under wraps until official localization announcement time. You could have asked him 30 seconds before he went on stage, and he probably would have said no. That's just how these things work.

 

[Steena]

Source for that interview? As it stands, I get the feeling that he was just too excited about it and decided to let the cat out of the bag on his own probably as a spur of the moment thing. If they really weren't getting localized, I feel like the people that asked the SE folk immediately afterwards about it would have been told as such. It's just that, even when the staff for a project knows a game is getting localized, they have to keep it under wraps until official localization announcement time. You could have asked him 30 seconds before he went on stage, and he probably would have said no. That's just how these things work.

Looks like it's this one

http://www.finaland.com/?rub=site&page=news&id=5498

Your points make sense, however SE has been replying to the fans by saying that <DQ title> may be coming to the west for years and years now.

 

[Fire_Slasher]

I've been dying to play DQVII Remake!! Please God let it be true!

 

[BORTZ]

Its been a few weeks and I have not seen heads or tails of an official announcement. Have these rumors been debunked?

 

[CathyRina]

someone told me they did but when I asked for sauce they didn't gave me any.