January 22, 2005

New Game: Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome (JP)

Title: Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome
Platform: PlayStation 2 (JP)
Publisher: Square Enix

(The subtitle can be translated in several ways, but within the context of the game, the best translation would probably be "The Celestial Bride" or "The Bride of Heaven." But "The Bride of the Sky" would be fine as well.)

Where: Shibuya Tsutaya
When: March 25
How Much: 7.020 yen (7,371 yen w/tax)

It's been a while, but I'm back and ready to start updating again. I got back from Japan in early January all set to start writing, only to get hit with a wicked cold and some kind of stomach virus which knocked me out cold for the better part of a week. I'm finally feeling better now, though, so let's get started.

Funny how my first update now that I'm back is from a game I actually bought 10 months ago: Dragon Quest V, for PS2. I played about 8 hours when it first came out, but then I got sidetracked and never got back to it...until about two weeks ago when I got the sudden urge to start raising my Slime again. I've been playing it a ton since then, and I'll probably finish it sometime in the next few days -- I'm at 36 hours now with only a few dungeons left to go before I can head to the final area.

For those of you who missed it back on my previous site, here's a snippet from the entry I wrote the day after this was released, talking about why it's such an important game to me:

As it turns out, Dragon Quest V was the first import RPG I ever played, and the main reason I bothered to learn Hiragana and Katakana, the two simple forms of the Japanese alphabet. I had just finished the English version of DQIV and I was fiending for more, so I decided to buy a copy of DQV from Japan and play through it in Japanese. I ordered the game, went out and bought a Japanese dictionary and a blank notepad, and got to work. Seeing as how the game was pretty massive for its time (around 40 to 50 hours), I decided to write everything down -- the places I went, the items I found, the stuff they sold at the shops, etc. -- so I could get around more easily. In doing so, I literally taught myself how to write Hiragana and Katakana (and a few of the more common kanji), and in the process, realized how fascinating the Japanese language was. This was one of the catalysts that got me seriously thinking about studying Japanese and going to live in Japan someday. It also turned me into a big-time importer; after getting DQV, I pretty much never looked back, importing almost every major release that I was interested in that wasn't guaranteed to eventually come out in English (and even some that were -- I mean, who had the patience to wait an extra two months for Street Fighter II? Not me!).

Of course, it wasn't until 1997 that I finally got to visit Japan, and I didn't move here until 2000, but I eventually made it. So, now, a dozen years later, I'm sitting down again with this game that meant so much to me back then, and I can't help but feel a little nostalgic about the whole affair. It doesn't hurt that it's a superb RPG with a really touching story, but that's not even the point, really. :)

So there you have it. I'll try to get around to posting about all the other games I've picked up in the past few weeks -- Resident Evil 4, Tales of Rebirth, Metal Gear Solid 3, Metroid Prime 2 and Final Fantasy I&II, among others -- very soon.

In other quick news, congrats to 222b for getting quoted in a Japanese Metal Gear Solid 3 ad that showed up in the new issue of V-Jump magazine yesterday. The ad features quotes from US mags and web sites regarding MGS3, and one of the quotes is from Ben's MGS3 preview feature on GameSpy:

Click on the scan above to see a close-up of the quotes portion. The Japanese text at the top says something like "At last, the excitement from all over America comes to Japan" and then underneath it has the actual quotes along with their Japanese translations. (Please note: if anyone wants to use this image on their own site, feel free; however, I ask that you please host your own copy as my bandwidth is extremely limited. Thanks!)

So why would they include American quotes in a Japanese game advertisement? Probably because MGS3 came out first in America, so they had more reviews to pool from. Another reason could be, as ferricide so eloquently pointed out, because Japanese magazine quotes usually read something like this:

ferrisighed (18:34:36): It is very good. The game is the feeling of playing Metal Gear Solid, and I feel satisfied.

Sad, but true. Weekly Famitsu may get more scoops than any other games mag in the world, but they're not exactly known for spitting out the most enlightening prose in their reviews section. :)

Posted by john tv at January 22, 2005 07:14 PM