‘Dragon Quest VII’ and ‘VIII’ 3DS Remakes Coming West

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past and Dragon Quest VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King, the Nintendo 3DS remakes of the classic Japanese role playing games, are receiving a release in western territories, the former after an extensive delay that lead many to believe it wouldn’t make it at all.

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past was originally released for the first PlayStation in 2000 in Japan and 2001 in North America as Dragon Quest VII: Warriors of Eden. It was remade for the Nintendo 3DS a few years ago,  and it was released for the platform on February 7, 2013 in Japan but never received an English localisation. Dragon Quest VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King released a few years latter on the PlayStation 2, in 2004 in Japan, 2005 in North America and 2006 in PAL regions. The 3DS remake has a much less substantial gap between initial release and western localisation, having only hit store shelves on August 27, 2015 in Japan.

The localisations are part of a new push for Dragon Quest in the west. While previous Nintendo DS remakes Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, Dragon Quest V: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride and Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation all received English releases, as did brand new title Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, the massively multiplayer installment Dragon Quest X and the 3DS games have been conspicuously absent.

With these localisations and last month’s western release of Dynasty Warriors-style spin off Dragon Quest Heroes: The World’s Woe and the Blight Below for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, hopefully we will see a rapid translation of Dragon Quest XI: In Search of Departed Time when it launches on PlayStation 4, Nintendo 3DS and possibly the Nintendo NX next year.

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past will launch on Nintendo 3DS in summer 2016, with the 3DS version of Dragon Quest VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King following sometime before the end of the calendar year.