Dragon Quest IV Nerfed: Official Thread

Dead of Knight

Dead of Knight

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So yeah, I thought I'd start an official thread about this game since I've hyped it up so much. However, I will not be purchasing it at least until it is bargain-binned, if at all, and I want to tell you why.

The Party Talk feature has been removed from the English versions. This is 100% confirmed for Europe and 99% confirmed for NA (obviously the retail version is not out yet, but all signs point to yes).
Sources: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=942422&topic=45370556
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334126&page=6

For those who don't know, this is one of the most entertaining features of the game that GREATLY enhances the personalities and stories of the characters. It is similar to the Tales series feature where you talk to your party members about events, except you enable it and you can do it at ANY TIME. Speculation is that they removed it because they couldn't fit it on the Euro version with 5-language support, or that they were too cheap and/or lazy to translate it.

This means the ONLY way to get the COMPLETE version of this game, a game that Westerners have been yearning for ever since the fuckers at Enix proudly advertised in the back of the manual for DW7 for PSone as COMING SOON to America on PSone and then canceled, is to again to play the Japanese version. And for that, Square-Enix NA/Europe can go fuck themselves in my book, especially at the $40 MSRP, for giving us a nerfed version of one of the best games ever made. I hope that at least some other CAGs will join me in delaying their purchases. I do realize that CC and Amazon are both offering discounts, but I still do not think I should honor these assholes with a launch purchase.
 
If true, that's disappointing. I'll probably wait to pick this one up, but I can't see myself skipping it outright. I like the Dragon Quest series too much to do that.
 
fuck that. After making me wait eight years, I'll probably shoot someone if I don't get it next week. The original Dragon Warrior 4 didn't have it either so it won't phase me that much.

But I guess I'll have to do some LULZODRY to get this. Gamecrazy. Prepare to get copies of 50 cent bulletproof in.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']I hope that at least some other CAGs will join me in delaying their purchases.[/quote]

That's a terrible idea. There's a chance if initial sales of DQ4 tanks, Square-Enix could decide to cancel any future DQ titles to US (DQ 5,6,9). Sounds to me like you're trying to make an issue out of nothing.
 
[quote name='Paco']The original Dragon Warrior 4 didn't have it either so it won't phase me that much.
[/quote]

Then I have no idea what the OP was fucking shitting about.
 
[quote name='laaj']That's a terrible idea. There's a chance if initial sales of DQ4 tanks, Square-Enix could decide to cancel any future DQ titles to US (DQ 5,6,9). Sounds to me like you're trying to make an issue out of nothing.[/QUOTE]

They've already been confirmed to come out here (at least 5 and 6). If they're cutting out features in this day and age, they don't deserve our sales. This is 90s Atlus and Namco bullshit. Don't they remember the fan shitstorm that ensued when Atlus cut out a sizeable portion of Persona 1? Hell, Namco pulled pretty much the exact same bullshit with Tales of Destiny 1 and 2 (Eternia), removing the event talk features completely from those games..... back in fucking 1998 and 2001... on the PSone.

[quote name='laaj']Then I have no idea what the OP was fucking shitting about.[/QUOTE]

They're in the Japanese versions (PSone and DS), Einstein, and add potentially hours to the game. :roll:
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']They've already been confirmed to come out here (at least 5 and 6). If they're cutting out features in this day and age, they don't deserve our sales. This is 90s Atlus and Namco bullshit. Don't they remember the fan shitstorm that ensued when Atlus cut out a sizeable portion of Persona 1? Hell, Namco pulled pretty much the exact same bullshit with Tales of Destiny 1 and 2 (Eternia), removing the event talk features completely from those games..... back in fucking 1998 and 2001... on the PSone.

They're in the Japanese versions (PSone and DS), Einstein. :roll:[/quote]

Nothing is confirmed until it actually gets released. And buy the Japanese version if you like that feature so much. Problem solved.
 
[quote name='laaj']Nothing is confirmed until it actually gets released. And buy the Japanese version if you like that feature so much. Problem solved.[/QUOTE]

I'm not fluent in Japanese. And my boyfriend already owns the Japanese PSone release anyway, so I'm covered there. I really was dying to play it, COMPLETELY in English, without needing my boyfriend by my side to translate it all.

Of course, if it turns out this wasn't removed in the NA version, and it was only removed in the European version, then of course I will purchase it, but will still feel some pain for the European gamers. My judgment remains one of anger until then though.
 
Sucks... but I really hope it does well... I really want the Dragon Quest series to catch on in NA and be a big franchise.
 
While the unnecessary deletion of this aforementioned feature does contain anger-approved suckage, I cannot in good consciousness forgo my eminent purchase of Dragon Quest IV.

While the OP may have a boyfriend with the PS1 version that can always translate to her the Japanese bits, the rest of us do not have this luxury, so we'll take what we're given and swallow it with a bitter pill if necessary.
 
As you mentioned, the game was supposed to release for PSone in NA; the Japanese DS version already has an English translation in it, so if the party talk feature is that important to you, what's the problem?
 
I'm delaying my purchase--I'm with you, DoK!!!

...oh wait, I'm delaying my purchase 'cos it's overpriced to begin with, not because some feature has been left out...
 
I will stand with you dead of night on this fight (Because I dont have $40 at the moment for this game :))

but yea I would not by it anyhow for taking out an inportant feature, I enjoyed it in Tales
 
I survived the "nerfing" of support convos in Fire Emblem, I imagine I'll be okay with a game I've never played and want to.
 
[quote name='whitereflection']As you mentioned, the game was supposed to release for PSone in NA; the Japanese DS version already has an English translation in it, so if the party talk feature is that important to you, what's the problem?[/QUOTE]

The Japanese DS version does not have a complete English translation, it was still a work-in-progress.

[quote name='Dead of Knight']They've already been confirmed to come out here (at least 5 and 6). If they're cutting out features in this day and age, they don't deserve our sales. This is 90s Atlus and Namco bullshit. Don't they remember the fan shitstorm that ensued when Atlus cut out a sizeable portion of Persona 1? Hell, Namco pulled pretty much the exact same bullshit with Tales of Destiny 1 and 2 (Eternia), removing the event talk features completely from those games..... back in fucking 1998 and 2001... on the PSone.

They're in the Japanese versions (PSone and DS), Einstein, and add potentially hours to the game. :roll:[/QUOTE]
If DQ4 sells 6 copies, do you really think they'll release 5 and 6 anyway? No, they won't. They have cut out a feature, but since it hasn't been determined that it was done due to laziness, and very well could be due to unavoidable space restrictions, you are assuming the worst.

Calling the reaction to Persona 1 a "shitstorm" is a bit of an exaggeration. I'd be surprised if Persona 1 sold 100,000 copies, making the number of people who cared very limited.

Finally, talk feature adding hours to the game? That's a little much If I remember VII well, you hit talk, and a character will say "Oh, let's get to the next town!" And that's it. It's not exactly involved character development like the Tales series. I'm about to pop in VII to make sure.

Edit: Hell, it's even worse than I remember. "Gabo was lost in thought." "Maribel was lost in thought."

OK, I'm sure it isn't always that bad. But it isn't that good either.
 
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[quote name='pete5883']The Japanese DS version does not have a complete English translation, it was still a work-in-progress.[/QUOTE]

It has a 99% complete English translation. What it doesn't have is a polished translation, like in the other recent DS remakes. If you've played an RPG before the PS2, this translation is more than satisfactory.
 
[quote name='pete5883']

Finally, talk feature adding hours to the game? That's a little much If I remember VII well, you hit talk, and a character will say "Oh, let's get to the next town!" And that's it. It's not exactly involved character development like the Tales series. I'm about to pop in VII to make sure.

Edit: Hell, it's even worse than I remember. "Gabo was lost in thought." "Maribel was lost in thought."

OK, I'm sure it isn't always that bad. But it isn't that good either.[/QUOTE]

The party talk feature is much more fleshed out in DQIVr than 7 or 8.
 
First let me say that I hate it when American releases get heavily altered versions of the game or no apparent reason. I missed the old Talk menu from the other Dragon Warrior Games in Dragon Quest 8, but I didn't really care because I was glad to get the thing at all.

And that's it. I like the Dragon Quest game, and there are a good number of them that didn't make it to this side of the Pacific. And I don't want them to stop releasing them here. So wild Dragons are going to have to drop out of the sky and attack me on the way to the Wal-Mart to even begin to stop me from getting the remake of one of the greatest games ever made, expecially since I was screwed out of one remake already.
 
[quote name='JCAll']First let me say that I hate it when American releases get heavily altered versions of the game or no apparent reason. I missed the old Talk menu from the other Dragon Warrior Games in Dragon Quest 8, but I didn't really care because I was glad to get the thing at all.

And that's it. I like the Dragon Quest game, and there are a good number of them that didn't make it to this side of the Pacific. And I don't want them to stop releasing them here. So wild Dragons are going to have to drop out of the sky and attack me on the way to the Wal-Mart to even begin to stop me from getting the remake of one of the greatest games ever made, expecially since I was screwed out of one remake already.[/quote]

I feel pretty much the same way. It would have been nice for them to include all of the extra features, but I'm just glad to be actually getting the game. There are a lot of games that were never released in america, and I would be glad to take them, even with some of the features cut.
 
It's disappointing, but I'm not going to boycott the game because it's been excised. Unless I'm mistaken, this is the only way I'll get to play the remade DQIV in English, so I'll take what I can get.
 
It's not a space issue, there's over 20 MBs of free space left on the cart to use. It's just laziness. People seem to be brushing off this feature as "well it's cool if you forgot where to go" as if it telling you where to go next is its only application. That only comprises up of like, 1/5 of its novelty
 
I'm disappointed, but I have to say I won't be canceling my preorder. Way too stoked on this game, no matter what, and I'd like to reflect that by getting it when it comes out.
 
yah this seems real awful imo...

I definitely would like to hear confirmation coz these events seem to be a pretty significant factor in the overall enjoyment of the game
 
WTF guys? I thought Square Enix was better then this. Normally we don't get screwed out of content until there's an international edition.
 
IMO they took out the party talk feature on purpose. Japanese gamers might not have any problems with obsessively checking for bits of extra story but that won't fly with Western gamers. And NOBODY plays DQ games for story. Is all about simple RPG gameplay.
 
I was already on the fence about this one at $40 and this just makes it easier to put off a purchase. Especially before the holiday rush arrives.

Laaj is wrong, this is a bad thing. I read about it in previews and I thought it was an interesting bit to the game that made it a little different than the standard NES jRPG remake. Having something removed for the US market shouldn't still be happening these days. ESPECIALLY when they're charging a $10 premium on the game.

Gonna go with DoK on this one. She IS the super bitch, after all.
 
[quote name='jer7583']I was already on the fence about this one at $40 and this just makes it easier to put off a purchase. Especially before the holiday rush arrives.

Laaj is wrong, this is a bad thing. I read about it in previews and I thought it was an interesting bit to the game that made it a little different than the standard NES jRPG remake. Having something removed for the US market shouldn't still be happening these days. ESPECIALLY when they're charging a $10 premium on the game.

Gonna go with DoK on this one. She IS the super bitch, after all.[/QUOTE]
Thank you. Just changed my preorder to Valkyria Chronicles yesterday at Lamestop, no hassle at all.

Here's some decent confirmation it's not in the NA version, courtesy of Gamefaqs. Additionally, the RPGamer review was released today and makes no mention of it at all:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=942422&topic=45370556
I just got a copy of the strategy guide today (Bradygames). The 'how to not get lost section' suggests look everywhere, talk to everybody, rotate the camera, etc... but doesn't say anything about 'ask your party.' I would think that would be an obvious pointer if it were an option, since that has been the primary purpose of the party talk function since it's inception.

I suspect this is final confirmation that the US version was also dumbed down.
Click to expand...
Took a look into the rom, and party chat is definitely missing. The full english script is around 800k, which is missing around 1meg of text from what the Japanese script has. Crazy that the party chat is more than the entire regular script... but yes, it's completely and utterly missing.
Click to expand...

To people who said this isn't a big deal... OVER HALF the dialogue of the game is gone. Like I said, this is a MASSIVE deal. It's NOT half-assed like the DQ7/8 Party Talk features; it is a significant part of the game that has been cut.
 
I remember beating the original Dragon Warrior 4. That game had a huge amount of text. And the remake supposedly adds a ton more text on story alone. But the party chat being more then the actual game dialogue? HOLY SHIT that's just fucking lazy. And they want us to support them? They want to get moar headway in America while pulling this shit off? Hell I might as well just buy the game used, then write a letter telling them I bought it used so they wouldn't make any profit off of it. That and then write and tell them that the 360 games will not see profit too because of easy piracy.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']To people who said this isn't a big deal... OVER HALF the dialogue of the game is gone. Like I said, this is a MASSIVE deal. It's NOT half-assed like the DQ7/8 Party Talk features; it is a significant part of the game that has been cut.[/QUOTE]
A big deal if you were actually going to talk to your party after every plot point. For everyone else, it's not really half the script. But I have to admit, the more I read, the more it looks like pure cheapness on S-E's part (if random GameFAQs users are really to be believed.)
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']the RPGamer review was released today and makes no mention of it at all

To people who said this isn't a big deal... OVER HALF the dialogue of the game is gone. Like I said, this is a MASSIVE deal. It's NOT half-assed like the DQ7/8 Party Talk features; it is a significant part of the game that has been cut.[/quote]Probably because RPGamer reviewer didn't think this feature was notable to even mention. You keep mentioning how much dialogue the party talk feature has on Japanese DS version without any proof. Some screen caps would be nice.

I personally find all this amusing. A feature almost nobody on US has ever seen or heard of is worth mentioning. All this are minor issues compared to why Square-Enix changed the perfectly fine Japanese scripts to English. How dare they change that! :roll:
 
In regards to the ROM script size, it may be smaller due to the fact that it only includes English and not Japanese+English. Just a thought.
 
Pah... It's still not going to stop me from playing this awesome game. Yes, a good deal of party dialogue is taken out. But a rabid fan community will help fill in the blanks of the characters if I wish to learn more about them.
 
I absolutely loathe all the excess party cut scenes in the Tales series and if they cut out HOURS of boring text not only could I care less but I applaud them for it.
 
[quote name='bigl523']In regards to the ROM script size, it may be smaller due to the fact that it only includes English and not Japanese+English. Just a thought.[/QUOTE]
This is a good point.

Not to mention that the game is only really $30, as long as you have access to a Circuit City.
 
[quote name='laaj']Probably because RPGamer reviewer didn't think this feature was notable to even mention. You keep mentioning how much dialogue the party talk feature has on Japanese DS version without any proof. Some screen caps would be nice.

I personally find all this amusing. A feature almost nobody on US has ever seen or heard of is worth mentioning. All this are minor issues compared to why Square-Enix changed the perfectly fine Japanese scripts to English. How dare they change that! :roll:[/QUOTE]

Proof? Go fuck yourself. I've posted several threads regarding the issue from third-party sources about how much has been cut. My boyfriend has played the remake and has constantly been telling me how awesome and complete this feature is. I've posted more than enough proof; it's obvious you're just trolling by now. I'm sure if I showed screen caps you'd be like, "Oh they're in Japanese, how am I supposed to know if this is really what you're talking about?" :roll: Everyone else has posted their opinions in a decent manner, whether they're still getting the game or not, but you're the only one who's really being an ass about it, and I'm sick of it.

And the RPGamer reviewer is a noob to the series and probably didn't even know the feature existed in the first place. Thanks for playing, try again.
 
Meh. Beat the game on NES back in the day. That's a major disappointment since I absolutely love a good story and character development. But honestly, it probably won't make playing the game again a less enjoyable experience. The game was great even with limited story the first go-round here in the U.S.

I think this will keep me from picking it up until at least the Black Friday sales. But I'm with the people who won't condemn the entire company/series due to this. I enjoy the games too much and want to see more come out here. And that will only happen with sales. Confirmed for U.S. or not doesn't matter. Just like taking features out, things can be cancelled at the last minute. It's simple business; cutting your losses if the project won't be profitable. If OP wanted to start an email/web petition thing to NOT nerf features then sign my ass up.
 
[quote name='Lord_Kefka']Meh. Beat the game on NES back in the day. That's a major disappointment since I absolutely love a good story and character development. But honestly, it probably won't make playing the game again a less enjoyable experience. The game was great even with limited story the first go-round here in the U.S.

I think this will keep me from picking it up until at least the Black Friday sales. But I'm with the people who won't condemn the entire company/series due to this. I enjoy the games too much and want to see more come out here. And that will only happen with sales. Confirmed for U.S. or not doesn't matter. Just like taking features out, things can be cancelled at the last minute. It's simple business; cutting your losses if the project won't be profitable. If OP wanted to start an email/web petition thing to NOT nerf features then sign my ass up.[/QUOTE]

Good post. I definitely still want to play the game, but I don't really want to give Square any money for it. I have decided to plan on buying it used when the price goes down. I'd rather give my money to eBay or Shitstop than Square. I'm not going to condemn the entire company or series, as I love DQ and some other of their franchises too much to do that, but I'm not going to give them money for fucking this up. And yes, it was likely a business decision to remove this. I'm an accountant and I know all too well how bean counters are about stuff like this. As you can see from this thread and the others I've linked to, a lot of people don't care that the feature is gone, and that's what Square was hoping for when they decided not to translate half the game to save money. I'm not going to give them my business, though, even though I desperately want to play the game even without the Party Talk (despite the lack of characterization without it) . It's the principle of the thing.

[quote name='Jesus_S_Preston']I'd rather have a game with less conversations than no game?[/QUOTE]

Agreed. But I'm not going to pay Square $40 for it. Maybe if they charged half the price for half the game.
 
I'm disappointed mostly that the lack of the Party Talk means less development for the characters, who are already pretty shallow as it is.
 
Hopefully they'll keep the convos in Dragon Quest V if this game sells well enough... though obviously, if they were willing to cut it here, I suppose there's no stoppin' them with that game, either.
 
[quote name='Moxio']I'm disappointed mostly that the lack of the Party Talk means less development for the characters, who are already pretty shallow as it is.[/QUOTE]

Same here. If it were as shitty as the Party Talk in 7 or 8, I wouldn't care as much. But it really adds a lot to the game and its characters. Someone on Gamefaqs was bitching about how the characters are very shallow. This wouldn't have been nearly as much of an issue if they kept Party Talk in.
 
Man, how disappointing. Square-Enix really has a stranglehold on these things. I find it unfortunate that they have such a loyal fanbase. S-E can do whatever it wants and the fans will eat it up, thinking "OMG, we're getting DQ!!!11!one!!" $40, blah. Removed content, blah. I really don't have much time or patience for RPGs anymore, (FF4,5,6 for GBA are still sitting in my queue, unopened) so I think I'll pass on DQ4 for now.
 
I'm still buying it, but with EA dollars. I'm going to give them EA sports until they choke on em.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Proof? Go fuck yourself. I've posted several threads regarding the issue from third-party sources about how much has been cut. My boyfriend has played the remake and has constantly been telling me how awesome and complete this feature is. I've posted more than enough proof[/quote]


No you haven't. On previous posts on this thread you stated that party talk had more than half of text in the game. Which goes to show how you tend to exaggerate.
 
how about this "inferior version" for $29.99? Pick it up this week at CC and get a $10 gift card. I just really hope they do that with Chrono Trigger as well, I'm not paying $40 for any DS game that doesn't come with a personal massage peripheral.
 
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