Remember a few days ago when it appeared that Square Enix was being all wishy-washy about the Dragon Quest VII localization? And then remember how many of us pointed to sales figures of other JRPGs like Bravely Default to show that the games can do well?
As it turns out, during an interview with USgamer, Yuu Miyake of Square Enix has admitted that fan interest has caused the company to rethink their approach, citing a petition he received.
“This petition came from France, written in Japanese, asking, ‘Is there any way you would consider it?’ We hear the fans, and we’re paying attention. We had actually given up on the idea of localization altogether, but because there’s such a great response we’re trying to rethink this, to see if there’s any way to make this more feasible. We’re recalculating, and figuring out the costs necessary. Trying to work out the details.”
According to the interview, Miyake even has a copy of said letter with him. What this means for those of us hoping to see Dragon Quest VII localized (or any other JRPG for that matter) is that all these campaigns and petitions do get attention. They work to some degree that cannot be argued.
That’s some great news.
Now, later on in the interview Miyake does mention that Dragon Quest VII was made for Japan and the Japanese consumer. This, tied with the fact that the series hasn’t really done well in the Western world, complicates things. It doesn’t mean Square Enix won’t give it another shot. If anything, it just means their fans keep poking them.
To repeat Steve Baltimore from the last DQ7 article, if you want to get Dragon Quest VII localized for the 3DS, respectfully show your interest. Leave comments on their Facebook page, hit them up on Twitter, or email them some heart-felt messages at [email protected]. People love heart-felt messages.
Unless they’re monsters, but monsters don’t carry around print outs of the French asking them in Japanese to bring their games over. Well, unless it’s a drop item I guess.
