Dragon Quest remakes coming before DQIX

by Ross Miller { May 23rd 2007 at 11:30PM }

Star Ocean has remakes. Final Fantasy has remakes, as does its spinoffs. So why shouldn't Square Enix delve into Dragon Quest's extensive catalog and return to some of the older titles?

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada confirmed that remakes are being planned prior to the release of Dragon Quest IX. "This summer, we'll release Battle Road in arcades and Sword for the Wii," he said during a Q&A session following a financial briefing, according the online version of Japan's Mainichi Shimbun reported by IGN. "Following that, we're thinking of a release for 9 once we've released remake versions and so forth."

As to which games will be remade and what the "so forth" means we're not sure. Also, seeing as Dragon Quest titles have never quite reached the same popularity in North America as they have in Japan, these releases may never be released outside the region.

[Thanks, Rob Accomando]

Tags: dragon quest, DragonQuest

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

SuMtOnE @ May 24th 2007 12:38AM

they should RM dragon warrior IV from NES... 5 chapters.. very very good...

FSK405K @ May 24th 2007 12:54AM

Am I the only one who scoured the web for fan translations just to play the series beyond one of my favorite games, DWIV?

Bluebreaker @ May 24th 2007 12:57AM

If they remake IV again I hope they do the other version I heard about that had an extra chapter that raised the difficulty up HARD and had an extra Chosen One. It also gave the ability to turn OFF that AI in chapter 5!!

der-k @ May 24th 2007 4:43AM

I am excited since I lost my gbc DQ 1-2 games. It will most likely be on the portables.

ZippyDSMlee @ May 24th 2007 5:40AM

I would not mind it if they are full blown Remakes not 2d cash in ports like S/E loves to make...
if its done like the Phanty star remakes I'll be happy...well...if its done like them and relased in the states......stupid sega.......

Magus @ May 24th 2007 6:04AM

@FSK405K:

No, you're not.

Joshua @ May 24th 2007 7:30AM

It would be awesome to get remakes of the original games! I've never played Dragon Quest before, but I would really love to!

Aberu @ May 24th 2007 9:14AM

"So why shouldn't Square Enix delve into Dragon Quest's extensive catalog and return to some of the older titles?"

Dragon Quest 1-3 have been remade for both SNES and GBC. Dragon Quest 4 for PS1 and Dragon Quest 5 for PS2 also were done. It's not like they haven't done it before. They just haven't released even half of the remakes in America.

Bergasa @ May 24th 2007 9:39AM

Yes! I've actually been wondering when this would be happening (since it seemed inevitable with Square-Enix games). Hopefully we get the SNES ones that we missed out on, since 1-4 can be found on NES. Although 4 is rare, so I wouldn't mind that either.

JayDiggler @ May 24th 2007 11:49AM

Nice, Dragon Warrior 1-3 are much better than Final Fantasy 1-3. Though that switches starting with 4th of each series.

Hyper C @ May 24th 2007 12:24PM

OH, COME ON!! Doesn't anyone miss the days when Squaresoft had more creativity then marketing strategy. They've barely been trying to make truly great games lately.

Doesn't anyone realise what's happening here? You people ask:

- "Why isn't there a new Crono Trigger game?"
- "Why arn't they remaking FFVII?"
- "Why are the directors of the Mana series going off on such random tangents?"
- "Why won't they make a new Vagrent Story?"

You know why? It's because we keep buying the half-baked crap they release instead. They are a business and they have longevity in mind. They know excatly the things we really want. Square is sitting on at least a dozen "aces in the hole", and you can bet we won't be seeing any of them. Not until we stop buying the games they release while they're holding a royal flush.

Vegan @ May 24th 2007 12:46PM

This is exciting, and I hope they come here, but nowhere is it mentioned that these will be in English.

Sarge @ May 24th 2007 7:20PM

@2: Indeed, you are not. Of course, I didn't really scour so much as check The Whirlpool every couple of days for new translations.

Needless to say, out of all the translated games, the ones that I can actually remember finishing are DW5 and DW6 (or DQ, whatever). I didn't really like DW5 that much, but the sixth... Wow. It could have easily competed with Final Fantasy 3/6.

The remakes I would like to see would be 3, 4, and 6. The new one scares me a little bit. They're screwing around with one of my favorite franchises. We've seen what happens when you do that too much (i.e. Mana).

The only thing I kick myself over back in the day is not sending off for that player's guide for DW4. That would be awesome to have.

Sarge @ May 24th 2007 3:11PM

@12: Yeah, it's a problem. Seems like much of the creativity has gone. I've heard Dawn of Mana is crap, I haven't been overly impressed with most of their offerings outside of the Enix stuff, in particular the tri-Ace developed stuff. I'm trying to remember the last time I've truly looked forward to a new FF game.

Square had some truly fun stuff back in the SNES / PSX era. In fact, their off-beat stuff was better than the mainline FF games in the PSX era. Saga Frontier 2, Threads of Fate, Legend of Mana (I know everyone hated on it, but I enjoyed it), Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, even Chrono Cross (although it doesn't compare to CT).