Dragon Quest 11 - Interview with Yuji Horii

Silver

Silver

Spaceman
Staff Member
Supporter
Joined
February 13, 2014
Messages
9,316
Location
New Zealand
PC Gamer talked to Yuji Horii at PAX East and asked about Dragon Quest 11.

Why Dragon Quest 11 will have English voice acting even though the Japanese version has none

In a 2018 interview with Weekly Famitsu, as translated by Gematsu, Dragon Quest 11's designers explained why the Japanese version wouldn't have voiced characters. While it was apparently a debate within the studio, they ultimately decided to maintain Dragon Quest's traditional text-only dialogue, which saved time and allowed series creator Yuji Horii to change the script at any point during development. The English version of Dragon Quest 11, however, will have character voices when it releases this September. At PAX East last week, I asked why.

Producer Hokuto Okamoto told me that part of the reasoning goes back to Dragon Quest 8, which also released with English voices. "That was received quite well by the players of [DQ8], and so we wanted to continue that with DQ11," he said via a translator. And regarding Dragon Quest 11 specifically, he said that by using various English dialects they were able to communicate distinctions between regions in the world and "add additional depth to the characters."

[...]
Click to expand...
More information.
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
9,316
Location
New Zealand
Basically, they want to sell the game to the mainstream western audience, that's why it has voice now. Japanese fans do not care because they seem to love the fact that Dragon Quest has barely evolved since 1986, but the game would not sell well in the west if it looked too much old-school because our idea of hardcore old-school RPGs is more akin to what old CRPGs are.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2016
Messages
512
Location
Brazil
I played DQ8 years ago, and though I have no problems with playing games with no voice, DQ8 was voiced and I loved it.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
Yea, seen another video about this never heard franchise's 11th sequel…
It's still ugly as hell, but is it just me or that uglyness is somewhat unique? Just look at that ingame hair on different characters. Feels as if they're deliberately trolling the audience. Not only that, faces, equipment, horsearmor, props… It's all eyepoking horrible designs and combinations.
If trolling the player was exactly what their plan was, I'll definetly buy DQ11. So far only Berseria did it and I loved that experience.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
I'll have to hear and see exactly what the combat is like in this game before I shell out bucks for it. I've played some of the much earlier iterations and quite enjoyed them, so I'll have to hope this one is more like those.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
19,051
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
Carnifex said:
I'll have to hear and see exactly what the combat is like in this game before I shell out bucks for it. I've played some of the much earlier iterations and quite enjoyed them, so I'll have to hope this one is more like those.
Click to expand...

I think I've played almost every version of DQ, including all of the most recent ones, and the one thing that never really changes is the combat. Different games have dramatic differences in the character development system or things like that, but the combat is always exactly the same. So I doubt you have to worry about it that much. But it's still always good to check up on it.
 
Joined
Apr 14, 2011
Messages
2,163
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom