Ever since I took over the weekly Retro Wrap-Up feature, I’ve been waiting for a chance to focus on the Dragon Quest series. Many of us have those games they played as a kid that had a profound impact on them. For me, there weren’t many, but the one that did was Dragon Warrior — the North American version of the first game in the series. I learned to play RPGs by playing Dragon Warrior for about 30 minutes at a time, slowly figuring out how the mechanics worked and realizing that the NPCs were giving hints about other things that needed doing in the game. I put my love for this series in my bio. I even wrote my first ever review for this site on Dragon Warrior III (shameless plug).
While Dragon Quest Heroes is scheduled to be released later this year, it’s been a while since the Western regions got a game in the series. The most recent was Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 back in 2011. But that’s not from lack of effort; there have been around ten games (depending on which ones you count) announced for the series since then. So, as you can imagine, Square Enix’s press conference talking about the new ports for Dragon Quest X and unveiling the new Dragon Quest XI brought on some mixed emotions. As excited as I am to see the future of the franchise, it’s a real possibility that I’ll never get a chance to play these games.
It’s a shame that one of the most influential console RPG series, and one of the most popular series ever in Japan, gets so little recognition here is the West. So, with all these unlocalized Dragon Quest games out, or coming out soon, in Japan, the oprainfall Retro Commercial Research Team — in other words, me — will look toward Japan for some TV moments for some of the games we aren’t getting (yet!).
Here are the highlights from the past week.
REVIEWS
- Legends of Eisenwald | Phil Schipper
- Lost Dimension | Steve Baltimore
- Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition | Tom Tolios
- Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 | Steve Baltimore
ORIGINAL CONTENT
- Last Week’s King and Kong (July 20-26): Championship Quality
- OPINION: Red Ash Saga Has Become a Black Eye
NEWS
- Final Fantasy VII Remake Combat Will be Different but “Recognizable”
- Final Fantasy Explorers Heading West
- Dragon Quest XI Announced for PlayStation 4 and 3DS
- Dragon Quest X Coming to PlayStation 4 and Possibly NX
- Dragon Quest Builders Gameplay Footage Live
- Mega Man, Marth, Kirby and Link Nendoroids Appear
- A Keyboard and Mouse Controller Coming For the PlayStation 4
- Grandia II HD Edition Heading to PC 2015
- FUNimation Announces Movies and Releases
- The Weekly Humble Bundle Features Games from Japan
Also, you can check out Operation Recap on our YouTube channel for an alternate take on this week’s news.
And, as always, if you have any ideas or suggestions for retro commercials, let us know either through Facebook, Twitter, or just leave a good old-fashioned comment below.
