Dragon Quest X, the most recent entry in the series and the first Dragon Quest MMO, has been out for almost a year in Japan. It has seen a release on both the Wii and Wii U consoles. Despite heavy support from Nintendo of America for the recent DS games Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation and Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, there has been not even a whisper of a western release for this game. However, things may be changing.
Famitsu published a recent interview with Dragon Quest X producer Yosuke Saito and executive producer Yuu Miyake regarding the recently announced PC port of the game.
Saito had this to say:
“I’m sure a lot of people were surprised, but the drive to release a PC version was there from the start of DQX ‘s development. The biggest reason was that, when thinking about which platform was most likely to be connected to a network, the PC was the first that popped into our minds. We also live in an era where there’s nearly one PC for every household, and for people who grew up with Dragon Quest, PCs have been a natural part of their entire lives. We figured it wouldn’t seem unnatural.“
So, does this mean Dragon Quest X could see a western release? When asked, Miyake said “Of course,” and he continued to explain:
“However, as for whether it’ll be run in the Dragon Quest style in the overseas market, every nation has its own play style and sensibilities, so I don’t think it’ll be a single game worldwide like with Final Fantasy XI.”
Saito added:
“This is just my personal viewpoint, but different countries consume their games at different speeds and the way the communities are run also differ. Even the way people enjoy seasonal events is different, so I think we need to divide the running of it by country or region. So we’re thinking about having separate servers for each country.”
Ultimately, Saito’s plans for the MMO are long-term:
“I’m sure we’ll have DQXI and DQXII going into the future, but in parallel with that, I’d like to have a world within DQX where we can tell stories from DQXI and DQXII. I think it’d be great if we could keep DQX going for even ten or twenty years.”
The PC version of Dragon Quest X will be released in Japan this September. Are you looking forward to a western release of Dragon Quest X? Let us know in the comments below.
