Eh its not so bad. I'm usually pretty moody this time of year anyway, so I'm likely just wangsting more than usual. DQ has just been good for shutting my brain off is all, and I end to get into the mood to play the series in autumn since I seem to have a track record of starting a new entry this time of year. I've been going back and forth with a few story ideas for the contest, I decided my older story I was originally going to post would just be a little too long for something like this. The main issue with horror stories is just trying to build tension, and that sometimes means dragging out events a little longer than what feels tasteful. I seriously need to get back to writing though, so I hope I can shake this couch potato rut I'm in.
Hope you're coping with the drama somehow! I'm here if you ever feel like you need to talk about it. I need to get back to DQXI, but seeing as how I've recently purchased Pillars of Eternity II, I might stay in this isometric Western RPG rabbit hole for a bit longer than expected
No, worries, I figured you were being quiet due to family responsibilities and that is totally understandable. The new DQIII translation keeps a lot of names, it just changes a few others for strange reasons. Like Samamosa is renamed to be much closer to the original, which was simply Amazon just with the letters rearranged. Soo/Sioux changed to Perseverance doesn't really make much sense to me, especially since that sounds more like a silly name an early European colony would name their place, whereas the location and original name are all about referencing the indigenous population. Just a strange choice is all and the only reason I can imagine they would make such a change is likely to dodge any controversy with the actual Sioux tribe in the States. Yet, I feel they could have come up with something better, and I honestly don't think the Sioux tribe would be bothered by the original name. Dharma mostly bothers me, because the actual name is clever, seeing how Dharma can be translated to mean soemthing like Duty, which is a nice synonym for what a job would be. Alltrades Abbey just sounds like "Job-Changing Temple" to me, which might be cute if I was seven or eight, but I prefer the original because it's clever and likely to make people actually look up the word. As for DQI's translation, for the most part, outside of some character names the only real change I've noticed involves Tantagel and Brecconary, with one originally being Ludatorm which I haven't quite figured out where the name comes from but since it uses katakana, it's obviously named after a foreign place, just not likely an English one which is why I can't figure it out. Brecconary is the real odd one since it was the name given to the town near Tantagel in the original. Chances are, they gave it a new name just to make it easier for younger players to distinguish between the town and castle, which seems to be the consensus of the fan community. As for DQIV news, I have defeated Estark, beginning the long series tradition with this baddie, will next see Psaro's true start of darkness even though he's kind of been a racist genocidal dick before his morality pet was killed anyway, and finally got the Gas Engine needed to get the Balloon transportation device. I am so happy, I farmed Liquid Metal slimes before continuing. Jumped my whole team to Lv.30, which doesn't necessarily make them dominating, but also saved my ass against some of these new areas I've been exploring. I'm grateful I brought Meena and Borya to the Estark fight seeing Insulate was going to be way more useful than Kabuff and Borya's got more team buffing skills. I find it interesting that DQIV kind of redoes the Baramos/Zoma plot twist again, but reversed. The game has been building up this Estark guy for ages, but it's amusing he is the Disc-One Final Boss whereas the Dragon Psaro ends up actually becoming the final boss in the original. As for the story, I wouldn't really worry about it. I actually don't know if it's going to happen this year because no one has sent me any entries so far. I haven't even started writing my own story yet due to drama in real life, and comfort gaming to cope with it. Hell, I even picked up DQXI finally despite knowing I'll likely be spending most of November diving into Death Stranding instead. So we'll see. I should probably post in the thread to remind people.
Sorry for taking so long to reply. Little guy's been feverish lately (probably because of the teeth), so I've had my hands full. So I've also had no time to write my story at all, so I was wondering if I could request that I'd be able to send it your way over the weekend instead of by Friday? So sorry if I won't address all the details. Honestly, I like the translation of the DQI locations, if ony because of how it connects to Tristan and Iseult and makes it all very reminiscent of old school folklore fantasy stuff. The Japanese have a weird relationship with borrowed words from English and other languages, and I often feel it's for the better when translators go for something that's more appropriate rather than literal. Can't say exactly how things went with Dharma Temple VS Alltrades Abbey, but I know that AA first came about as a translation in DQXI, and they most likely put it in to preserve whatever pun they had in Japanese for Jack of Alltrades and Master of Nu'un (plus, I have no info on this since my Japanese in basic, but Dharma itself may be a pun on something in Japanese, while also being relevant to this world's India-equivalent), so it's definitely a clever choice there - now whether it's good to retroactively retranslate it to that everywhere else is up for debate. I actually distinctly remember the phone version of DQIII having names that were definitely suggesting the country they were parodying? There was some pun on Rome for the Italy-inspired kingdom, and I can't remember whether the Japan equivalent was Zipang of Nihan (one of them is probably from Golden Sun), so there's definitely a pun on the various readings of Nihon going around here. That said, I still think I prefer some of the mosr punny names that stray further from the cultural influence than the other way around - it's one particular thing that's been bothering me in DQXI, honestly. They go out of their way to make every city a cultural stereotype of some real world location, up to over the top accents - think the Orkutsk segment in DQVIII but taken up to eleven. And then there's the cultural background they added with the localization that wasn't in the original, such as making one fisher village be over-the-top Hawaiian, up to everyone calling each other uncle and using the term Kahuna for a village elder which, upon learning this was never in the Japanese version and the Kahuna being a figure of religious significance in Hawaiian folklore, kinda just left a bad taste in my mouth, if I'm being honest. And you know, combine that with the fact the village's design or culture has zero to do with Hawaii other than a vaguely tropical climate and it's just... yeah. DQ localizations aren't perfect by any means. They're cool as parodies, but when it goes too far it just verges on being kind of in poor taste. I somehow totally spaced on you also playing DQIV, so that's cool to hear. The biggest weakness of that game to me is that the characters were the main selling point at the time, but since writing in games has advanced substantially since then, it's only become more and more dated. Like, III has the cool class system and quirky world, V has the generational story, etc., while with IV, all we get are character archetypes which, while still cool, were probably much more special back when this released on the NES. In my personal gaming news, I've beaten FFTA completely, including the corrupt Judges arc. While the game still holds a very special place in my heart, I found that chapter honestly very underwhelming? I've heard some people say back in the day that it was probably the best part of the game so I was looking forward to finally getting there and it just... wasn't. All the battles were super easy and the story that was there was nothing to write home about either. Cid was cool to play around with but with so little to do anymore that didn't really matter. I did start FFTA2 right after that though and holy hell, am I loving it. The story may be garbage, but in many ways this is just so much fun to play. The colors are so vibrant, the graphics in general are gorgeous, the music is amazing, and I just love how the battles are a bit speedier (and everyone gets AP after each mission!). It's just incredibly fun to play around with. Also finished Planescape: Torment and it was probably even more cathartic than when I first played it as a teen. It'd definitely one of the more ambitious stories in gaming overall and I sorta feel changed after that? Of course, I then started Baldur's Gate II and with my character being imported from the first game with the added new expansion pack, I am currently way too powerful. I'm expecting it won't be cakewalk for long, though. And my writing has been in a rut again, but I hope to get back to it soon. Still deliberating on trying to do my short story collection for NaNo, but I might as well just drop everything else and focus on my novel. We'll see.
I've decided that the main reason why DQIV feels so underwhelming is largely due to the devs really not doing much for the remake. I mean the DQIII remakes are essentially DQIII with DQVI elements and QoL fixes. It gained a new customization mechanic, has it's inventory almost doubled, and gained features like Mini Medals, going into wells, and DQV's Pastiche Tracks. What did DQIV get? DQVII's graphics, a seriously scaled down version of the Town building mechanic from DQVII, and a new chapter that feels like a Fix-it-Fic for Psaro fans.. There are more things to explore in towns, but they could have added a few more pieces of gear or some element to spruce up the party system. DQIII feels more modern with the new elements whereas DQIV just feels painfully dated. In my DQ gaming news, in DQIV I have reached Frymiscia in Chapter 5 and I am currently trying to prove my innocence to the Queen so I can get the Zenthian Shield. I find it interesting that BaLzack's servant Leon is a more challenging boss fight than he was considering how much more plot important he is. The difference magic makes I guess. After that, I just need to get the Balloon and go to the World Tree. I am trying to mix up my party more this time and trying to use everyone as much as I can. In DQIII, I am more or less just grinding to fight Zoma at this point. Baramos was a challenge and I barely squeaked out a victory with my full team intact. I think what makes the Alefgard section work so well though besides all of the call forwards to DQI, is just the fact it's actually really short. Your party is well leveled and you start with a boat, so reaching each town is pretty damn easy. I actually acquired most of the Loto gear with little effort. Now I'm just grinding Liquid Metal Slimes around Rimuldar to learn the final spells for my party. From there, I'm debating if I'm going to change my two mages into Sages, but I'm honestly thinking I may just try to take him down with this team.
Coming back to me harping on the newer translations of the game, I'm actually baffled by some of the choices such as changing Eginbear to Edina or more curious, Soo/Sioux to Persistence in the newer translations. The original names are meant to reflect that they are fantasy counterparts to real world places which I feel the new translation loses. Similar, I feel a bit more vindicated to learn that Dharma Temple is the actual name in Japanese as opposed to the silly Alltrades Abbey which is just a bit too much on the nose for my taste. On the flip side, I never realized how off the original translations were for DQI on locations in Alefgard. Tantegel is completely off from the Japanese Ladutorm. Though I do appreciate the fact that Tantegel is a slight name change from Tintagel which is associated with Arthurian myth. One thing I do love baout the remake is that it added a few more interesting visual touches like the reunited souls of Olivia and Errol or the volcano explosion. Even Ramiel is pretty majestic in this title. My one complaint so far has been that Ramiel is way too damn slow for a transportation vehicle. I'm use to speedy airships from FF.
From looking around, not much. Most of the changes are typical changes with remakes such as enemies being a bit weaker and giving more XP and Gold than the original. There was some bug fixes as well and they raised Terry's usefulness in both the DS and mobile ports. The biggest change I can see is that they completely altered the Monster Master vocation. In the original, the class allowed you to randomly recruit monsters like in DQV to be used in your party. The remake removed this feature and added the Slime Family instead. Kind of sucks a neat feature like that was removed, but considering this game brought back and refined the Job system, I can understand why they dropped it all together. In DQIII news, I am now just grinding up a few levels before tackling Baramos' castle. My team is composed of a Fighter, Mage, and Cleric with the Fighter now being on their fourth job cycle, while the two mages are on their third. In hindsight, I should have switched their classes to make a psuedo-Sage but whatever. I am actually debating on whether I'm going to even have a Sage in this playthrough.
VI is great, though I have no idea how the DS version differs from the original. I definitely had a blast with the DS version. I've actually been thinking of replaying VII myself, but with so many games, both replays and first plays, queued up on my list, I don't have the time for that now tbh. Almost done with the corrupt judges storyline in FFTA btw!
Doubt X has it for your character, but I'm sure it pops up as a sidequest somewhere. It was just an interesting observation I noticed as I play through IV. My first actual exposure to the plotline was in VII though. I think once my Halloween gaming is over, I'm going either finish my playthrough of DQVII I started last year, or I may bust out DQVI on an emulator.
Yeah, now that I think about it, it carries over to DQXI too. V qualifies to an extent, as well. So pretty much the only ones that don't have it since IV are VI (where you're the child of a happily married royal couple, if estranged from them) and IX (where you're an angel). Not sure how X goes about it, though.
