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There's a whole bunch of fun little news snippets for this past week-ish, so let's get at it!

First off, there's the fact that FFVI has been released on the virtual console, as already posted by Blitzsage in the forums (no such thing as a fanboy acting too quickly :D).

To celebrate the series' 25th anniversary, Dragon Quests I, II and III will be released as a package for the Wii. The set will also include Dragon Quest X bonus footage and will see a September 15th release date in Japan. Not sure yet for the North American or European audiences.

This year will also mark the 20th anniversary of the Mana series, meaning that, unsurprisingly, Square Enix will be celebrating once again with some type of promotion. In this case, it is a gigantic soundtrack that will be doing the honors: a 19-disc, 21,000-yen (that's about $260), spiffy lookin' soundtrack set that will be available for sale in Japan on September 14.

There's some notable staffer news as well; Square Enix's Yasumi Matsuno, the man behind Final Fantasy XII, Tactics Ogre and Vagrant Story (one of my personal favorites) has jumped ship in favor of Level-5. The move was made in order to achieve more creative freedom; he wants to be able to make whatever he wants. Matsuno has already begun work on a new project, one he hopes will be played by children.

In addition to these, there is quite a lot of new or recently-reviewed FFXIII-2 news to report, but I'll hold off on that until tomorrow. Toodle-oo!

Source: Andriasang, Andriasang, Kotaku

Some fun facts about that Dragon Quest bundle:

It contains emulated versions of both the NES and SNES versions of DQ I through III, but no new material other than anime opening sequences. Smells of short development cycle and cash-in, unlike the recent DS remakes which were developed nearly from scratch and added new features.

Comes with a collector's item 130-page reprint of the manuals and maps from the NES versions of the game, plus a mini-medal trinket.

It has zero chance of making it overseas, but no one should care because honestly it's a weak collection.

This will sell in crazy numbers like cheap glazed donuts when it comes out, because it's a Dragon Quest game in Japan.

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(no such thing as a fanboy acting too quickly ).

CoN's anti-fanboy program must've been down at an inopportune time!

Are any of the DQ games on, or slated to be on, the Virtual Console? I haven't played them, but I don't think I'd mind paying $5-8 to try one.

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Praise Be To Helix!

Quote (BlitzSage @ 4th July 2011 00:41)

Are any of the DQ games on, or slated to be on, the Virtual Console? I haven't played them, but I don't think I'd mind paying $5-8 to try one.

Nope. Square-Enix's representation on the VC is notably sparse, and there are no Dragon Warrior or Dragon Quest games on it. Your best inexpensive option is either emulation or tracking down a copy of Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2 (which is $5 to $10 used).

This post has been edited by laszlow on 4th July 2011 19:27

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Quote (laszlow @ 4th July 2011 15:26)

Quote (BlitzSage @ 4th July 2011 00:41)

Are any of the DQ games on, or slated to be on, the Virtual Console? I haven't played them, but I don't think I'd mind paying $5-8 to try one.

Nope. Square-Enix's representation on the VC is notably sparse, and there are no Dragon Warrior or Dragon Quest games on it. Your best inexpensive option is either emulation or tracking down a copy of Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2 (which is $5 to $10 used).

Does emulation take a lot of memory space? If not, I may do that. Or would you recommend just going after DQ VIII first? Would I be missing a lot if I did that?

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Praise Be To Helix!

Emulating games on your PC takes up a significant amount of space if you emulate games from the PS1/N64 era onward, but barely any if you emulate NES, SNES, or Genesis games. However, due to forum rules, we won't help you with emulation here. Google it, check out a forum that supports it, and go nuts.

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Quote (laszlow @ 5th July 2011 11:17)

Emulating games on your PC takes up a significant amount of space if you emulate games from the PS1/N64 era onward, but barely any if you emulate NES, SNES, or Genesis games. However, due to forum rules, we won't help you with emulation here. Google it, check out a forum that supports it, and go nuts.

I've never been big on emulation anyways, and I don't think I have enough space. I'd rather buy them anyways. In the Mana series too. I need to try both of those series.

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Praise Be To Helix!

In that case, definitely buy Secret of Mana on your Wii, and then emulate (if you can?) Seiken Densetsu III on your computer. I actually think SD3 is better than SoM (which is SD2 in Japan), but I know I'm in the minority in that regard.

And really, space shouldn't be an issue in this day and age. Memory is ridiculously cheap. SNES games take up about as much space as a song in .mp3 format.

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Quote (laszlow @ 5th July 2011 14:21)

In that case, definitely buy Secret of Mana on your Wii, and then emulate (if you can?) Seiken Densetsu III on your computer. I actually think SD3 is better than SoM (which is SD2 in Japan), but I know I'm in the minority in that regard.

And really, space shouldn't be an issue in this day and age. Memory is ridiculously cheap. SNES games take up about as much space as a song in .mp3 format.

I've heard a lot of people praise SD3. But do you think I should go with DQVIII. Only $15 dollars on Amazon. And yeah, I've been meaning to get some more memory for this laptop, because it's still pretty fast.

Anyways, I didn't know that Matsuno had two games that received perfect scores from Famitsu...

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Off-topic: did you know that Famitsu gave Nintendogs a perfect score!?

But anyways, I like his reasons for leaving, because it seems like he's going for reasons other than money.

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Praise Be To Helix!

DQ VIII is a very, very good RPG. And it's by far the most modern of the DQ games.

Off-topic: Yes, everyone knows about that Nintendogs score. Gamers online have some weird obsession about what publications hand out perfect scores to things, which I don't share. I think that any too-quantified review system more complicated than, say, X/4 or X/5 is basically bull**** anyhow.

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Something I learned about on GFaqs: Apparently Matsuno revealed via Twitter correspondence that Vagrant Story isn't part of Ivalice, contextualizing those are-they-or-aren't-they FFT references once and for all. Found a translation but I can't personally attest to its accuracy (it was either get Rosetta Stone or watch anime...I picked the wrong tutor).

As for that Mana compilation: NINETEEN discs. That sounds like some retrospective.

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It's gonna be a glorious day
I feel my luck can change

The Siliconera article says FFVI be released as FFIII, so I assume that means it'll be the original Woolsey translation (as opposed to the GBA translation). Any confirmation on this?

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

I can't confirm it, but I'd be shocked if it was anything OTHER than the Woolsey translation. Every SNES VC game released thus far has been a straight port of its original SNES version, including Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV (which they called Final Fantasy II).

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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Quote (laszlow @ 5th July 2011 23:37)

I can't confirm it, but I'd be shocked if it was anything OTHER than the Woolsey translation. Every SNES VC game released thus far has been a straight port of its original SNES version, including Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV (which they called Final Fantasy II).

I have the SNES version and the VC, and it's an exact copy. So, yes, it's the "Son of a submariner," "slit his momma's throat for a nickel" Woolsey goodness, lol.

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Praise Be To Helix!

If it isn't the Woolsey translation, it's not worth getting

And I definitely second getting DQVIII. I'd advise to only play the NES Dragon Warrior/Quests if you're generally a fan of games from that era (for nostalgia reasons or otherwise). If you don't know/like games from that era, you'll probably be very unsatisfied.

I personally only think they're fun thanks to my nostalgia goggles. My wife almost breaks into tears if she sees me blowing the dust out of my Dragon Warrior III NES cartridge.

Have the Game Boy Color versions of DQ I, II, and III ever been re-released? I know those aren't quite the original NES versions either; monster stats, spell names, and other things got tweaked.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 8th July 2011 13:43)

Have the Game Boy Color versions of DQ I, II, and III ever been re-released? I know those aren't quite the original NES versions either; monster stats, spell names, and other things got tweaked.

Nope. They're still readily available on the GBC, but those are the most recent remakes we've had of the original trilogy (before now, of course). They also have a few additions made (new character class in III, minigames, etc.).

I like those GBC versions a lot, actually. It was how I beat I and II for the first time, and replayed III. I haven't played the SNES versions, but I prefer the GBC version over the NES version for all three.

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Anyone that wants to sample some very good Dragon Quest games, now's a good chance: Dragon Quest Amazon sale

DQ IV DS is about $14 off, DQ V DS is $20 off, and DQ IX is $15 off. That's approximately half price for any of those three games. DQ IV and IX are solid, and DQ V is tied for my favorite game in the whole damn series. Good time to get up on that thing.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 2nd August 2011 21:21

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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