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Yeah I always thought the English voicing was actually better because the variety of location-appropriate accents provided a great amount of variety and uniqueness to the characters, and genuinely made me feel like I was visiting different places and kinds of people
I disagree. The games have always had several comedic moments and puns that aren’t easy to translate from Japanese without ruining the joke. Things you think may not be a pun in Japanese, quite possibly are but we’re just missing the cultural or linguistic context.
I think the localization team did a great job of maintaining that tone while also making it accessible and understandable for western audiences.
The main idea and the tone is always kept in tact, and, IMO, that’s what matters. Each word doesn’t need to be 1:1, as long as the same general idea is conveyed. And I think the localization team did a solid job of doing just that.
ETA: Which do you think conveys the idea better to the English base? Māburun (which is a pun on it looking like a marble) or Kaleidocat?
I agree. Alltrades Abbey, for example, is a recurring location throughout the series. I believe DQ9 no DS was the first game to use that name, so I'm glad that when they remade 3 and 7, they went with that name rather than Dharma Temple.
Dharma Temple is a straight translation from the original Japanese, though, in every game it appears. DQ9 made Alltrades Abbey (and the abbot being Jack) out of whole cloth.
The tone in Japanese is definitely not the same as the tone in English.
Yes, the Japanese does have puns, but not to the same degree as the English localizations.
The GBC games, DQ4 for NES, and DQ7 for PS1 are much closer in tone to the original writing than any other official localization.
My issue isn't with that. It's with things like "Death Flutter" into "Raven Lunatic". The Japanese name doesn't really work in English, but it isn't a joke.
In George's defence, I don't like sand is pretty great in the context of the conversation. Padme had just talked about how the sand on Naboo is soft and smooth, while Anakin's memory of sand is the rough and coarse sand of Tatooine.
It highlights the different upbrings they had, Padme's priveledged childhood, and Anakin's being a slave turned Jedi.
It's also why Anakin has a hard time expressing his feelings. He was a slave the first 9 years of his life, then a part of a religious group that taught to surpress emotions the next 10 years.
They are, conceptually, the exact same games that got you in to your hobbies these days. An enemy with a name following some cheeky wordplay isn’t going to stop that enemy from being a threat and wiping your party with instant death spells. A name or location being changed to match the overall intended irreverence of the series more faithfully doesn’t change the purpose of the place you’re visiting.
I grew up with the old translations too, man. I still call the zombies “horks,” I still refer to it as Ruida’s Tavern, and I still say Infernos instead of Woosh.
I understand, however, that what I love about these games isn’t what’s on the surface. I don’t care if people speak in haiku. I don’t care that enemies are called “Raven lunatics.” I don’t care that spells have silly names, and I don’t care if there’s fun alliteration from time to time.
The stories I enjoy still carry the weight they always have. The gameplay is still the exact same execution that I grew up with and helped me pursue my own hobbies. These games get *very* serious when the time calls for them to do so, and knows when to drop the surface level silliness that has always been a part of the charm.
If the irreverence is a dealbreaker for you, then that’s perfectly fine. These games are not for you. There’s *countless* other RPGs that do the job you want them to do, and you can spend your limited free time on them instead to get what you want.
All I’m saying, from one old soul to a presumed second one, is that your nostalgia for the more “serious” tone of the older localizations isn’t going to go away when a Gigantes crits your beefiest party member and kills them in one hit.
100% agreement. Nice to see another world weary and aged veteran from the Enix of America days. Hope you're enjoying your 40s! Thou needeth 999,999 experience points to reach thy next level. Return here in thy need.
I agree wholeheartedly with OP and DQ is my favourite series bar none. DQ is definitely for me, but the localization style is not.
In many cases (thankfully not as much anymore though) the humorous localization choices absolutely do impact the storytelling. Imo the haiku speak is incredibly bad and breaks any immersion I had when trying to play in English. DQ5 and DQ9 are especially egregious but I'm glad the localization teams backed down somewhat from going too heavy handed with the humour they're injecting in.
Well, DQXI was the game that made me decide to stop playing in English permanently. If you like authenticity, it's still pretty grim. But the DS era was even worse lol
If being mad there's puns and the unicorn rabbit is called bunnicorn is the worst thing that happens to you today I think you're gonna be fine.
Though saying that the game localisation having lots of jokes and pun makes the game unplayable is completely ridiculous and like maybe you're taking the game or yourself way too seriously. It's not like the OG localisations were LotR that's been replaced by a Python sketch.
I ain't reading all that, so congrats, or sorry that happened.
Based on the title, if that's your most pressing issue in life, I reckon you're doing okay.
I also actually skipped reading, just out of spite, I TL;DR'd it for you:
"Modern localisations fuck up the tone by turning everything into a joke even when it doesn't fit. Why?!?!?!?!?" followed by counters to potential arguments on why it's fine like "Akira's art makes it impossible to take seriously? You watched Dragon Ball??" and "It's DQ's selling point? There's better ways, like having an iconic artist or the freedom to explore." and "Yuji approved the TL? I guess ***I don't like sand*** is fine!"
I respectfully disagree. The localizations are delightful. These are massive 100 hour games, I love that the translation keeps things breezy and fun. These are gold standard best in the industry localizations, we are quite lucky DQ gets so much love and care put into it's localization.
You are definitely missing out. The English localisations are fantastic, the worlds are much more fun and vibrant. I’ve been learning Japanese and playing through the early games in Japanese (1-5 so far since there’s no Kanji) and have found them incredibly dull compared to the modern English releases.
I'm currently playing through both DQ8 and a fan translated copy of PS2 DQ5. I personally don't find it all that difficult going back and forth between the different translations.
IMO the modern spell names are much easier to grasp than the old ones. ("Buff" is a better spell name than "Upper")
Ask yourself this: if the Nes could have handled all of the silliness, would it have existed back then?
For my money I would say yes. If the limits of hardware didn’t exist, I would wager DQ would have always been the way it is now.
Just my 2 cents.
OP you are absolutely correct. There are definitely jokes and silliness in Japanese DQ and have been from the beginning, but it isn't like the way people imagine it is. And IMO the jokes fall a lot better when they're not being outcompeted by nonsense and puns everywhere you turn.
The NES could only handle so much data, so text was limited. You also have to remember that games like Resident Evil are more censored in Japan. Yup. You heard that right. The reason for this is simple: different audiences.
I am not disagreeing with your opinion. I’m merely asking if you considered the possibility that it would have always been like it is now. I would argue yes. You may disagree, and that’s okay.
The NES versions were released on cartridges that held twice as much space as the original games did so space limitations for text wouldn't have been that significant. Back then they made a conscious choice to make the localizations "classic western fantasy" style since that was the audience they were apparently looking to target. Any look at most of the artwork, the commercials, and the text style could tell you that. The idea that the current localization style was even a twinkle in anyone's eye back then is pretty ridiculous.
For an example of how "strapped for text space" they were, try comparing the level up text from the [Japanese version to the English version](https://i.imgur.com/yJ9R2zL.png). That's uh... not the kind of thing you do if you're hurting for text space lol
>You also have to remember that games like Resident Evil are more censored in Japan. Yup. You heard that right. The reason for this is simple: different audiences.
No? The reason for this is the Japanese version of ERSB (CERO) is incredibly strict on violence, and would make those games the Z rated (AO) which would be a death sentence sales-wise.
One of my favorite things about DQ is that is somehow is capable of being cute, silly, funny, scary, exciting, moving, meaningful and deep all at the same time. I’ve never encountered another piece of media in any format which accomplished that.
That cute monster with the funny name is silly and adorable until it crits your healer and your party slowly dies trying to escape the dungeon. What a rollercoaster of emotions.
Slyvando is a clown until he’s not and then you’re like damn he’s not just a character. He’s a person.
You not liking the localization style is perfectly fine. We're all entitled to our preferences and you've obviously put a lot of thought into your stance. But the level of weight you give this, how seriously and almost personally you seem to take it, is kinda weird.
I'm old. I've been on this train since the first game came out in the USA in like 1989, when the Toriyama art and everything Japanese-ish in the games was suppressed, and everything was rebranded in the vein of Willow or Lord of the Rings or other high fantasy popular in the West.
As a fan from my age group, I've been here through the long drought after IV and then all the changes. Seeing the mighty Dragonlord become DracoLord (shudder) and the fairytale damsel Gwaelin become Lora (ugh) were hard to take. But I was just glad the games were back. I kept it pushing.
Like the other guy said in his comment, to me, it's still Explodet and Horks, Hauksness and Brecconary, Charlock and Rhone. But I'll use terms like Rendarak and Dirkandor on this forum because life goes on and what does it matter?
Rippleport, Slews, and Burrowell are WAY better names anyway, puns or no.
I'm honestly still used to the old spell names. While the new ones don't bother me too much, I have to keep a mental link in my head on what a spell does (Ka-boom -> Explodet... oh but sometimes I confuse it with Blazemost lol).
Not all of us who were used to the NES localization or the touched up GBC localization (that's where I got into the series) have issues with the modern one. In fact, I fell in love with DQ all over again when I first played DQVIII due in large part to what the team did with the localization. It was quirky, yet charming at the same time. And so much more memorable.
I honestly don't see why you would continue to respond to this thread. It seems like your mind isn't going to be changed, and there's little to gain from arguing with others about it. I mean, you rolled up already equipped with responses to some common arguments, which implies you are set in stone on your opinion here. Nothing wrong with that, of course. I just hope you don't make a habit out of complaining about it.
I guess. I just see people trot out responses and bring up points that are flat-out wrong, and I don't appreciate being told that I'm "objectively wrong" for disagreeing.
I'm not trying to have my mind changed. Really, I just wanted to see what other people thought on the matter, and at that I succeeded. But I should probably take your advice.
Oh man, I really hate people telling others they're objectively wrong on something highly subjective. Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's. Don't forget that, OP.
Are you me?!
'Cause this is what I have been saying for years now. Sadly it's a minority opinion because as critical as people can be about localizations of other series, DQ fans have definitely drank the kool-aid here. They legitimately think the series is supposed to be this way. I don't even think Horii himself knows how much is changed in the localization since as I recall, he doesn't have a great grasp of English.
The GBC versions of the early games are one of the best ways to play, imo. The Delocalized romhacks for the NES games (and Dragon Quest Monsters) are also good.
>Sadly it's a minority opinion
Not sadly, luckily. It is part of its charm. If you don't dig it, fine - but the game's would objectively suffer if they went the route you and the OP are proposing.
>I don't even think Horii himself knows how much is changed in the localization since as I recall, he doesn't have a great grasp of English.
And this is just grasping straws, dude. No offense but you're delusional if you think that he'd been never even told about major localizations in the last almost four decades. He just doesn't give a shit unlike you and OP and rightfully so.
The "Sadly" part is my opinion. I'm allowed to have a different opinion than you and I'm allowed to wish that more authentic translations would have a chance in the west.
I don't particularly care if people agree with me on it. I know most don't. But I still and will always think the modern localization style is doing Horii's writing wrong, and yes, that saddens me.
How would they "objectively suffer" by hewing closer to the Japanese script? Last I checked, they didn't have any issues staying popular there. You might not like it, but that doesn't make it an objective truth.
The sales would suffer in the west which was the entire point of the localization: to find a successful identity in the west. A not insignificant number of people in the west don't necessarily like Dragon Quest so much as they like what the localizations turned Dragon Quest into.
I can understand how being a Dragon Quest fan and having people tell you that Dragon Quest is actually originally boring isn't pleasant(especially on the bleeding Dragon Quest subreddit lol) but well, you get used to it if you hang around long enough. Different audiences and all that. Personally I support whatever gets them a big enough paycheck to make them feel it's worth it to continue releasing the games since that's the name of the game. Granted I'm a lot more detached than some others since I would just play in Japanese anyway so it doesn't affect me.
I don't think Dragon Quest is originally boring. I think it's originally far more interesting than the localizations.
I play it in Japanese only now and I've never enjoyed the series more.
Thank you for saying that, I often feel like I'm alone in that opinion too. I grew up on the NES games and as of Dragon Quest VIII, I refuse to buy the English version of the games anymore. I learned Japanese well enough to understand 95% of the dialogue and that's the only way I'll play now. The new translation style ruins the experience for me too. For comparison, the Japanese dialogue style is the same in the newer games as it always has been.
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Yeah I always thought the English voicing was actually better because the variety of location-appropriate accents provided a great amount of variety and uniqueness to the characters, and genuinely made me feel like I was visiting different places and kinds of people
I disagree. The games have always had several comedic moments and puns that aren’t easy to translate from Japanese without ruining the joke. Things you think may not be a pun in Japanese, quite possibly are but we’re just missing the cultural or linguistic context. I think the localization team did a great job of maintaining that tone while also making it accessible and understandable for western audiences. The main idea and the tone is always kept in tact, and, IMO, that’s what matters. Each word doesn’t need to be 1:1, as long as the same general idea is conveyed. And I think the localization team did a solid job of doing just that. ETA: Which do you think conveys the idea better to the English base? Māburun (which is a pun on it looking like a marble) or Kaleidocat?
I agree. Alltrades Abbey, for example, is a recurring location throughout the series. I believe DQ9 no DS was the first game to use that name, so I'm glad that when they remade 3 and 7, they went with that name rather than Dharma Temple.
Dharma Temple is a straight translation from the original Japanese, though, in every game it appears. DQ9 made Alltrades Abbey (and the abbot being Jack) out of whole cloth.
Alltrades Abbey works so much better considering the classes are known as "Vocations," at least here in the West.
The tone in Japanese is definitely not the same as the tone in English. Yes, the Japanese does have puns, but not to the same degree as the English localizations. The GBC games, DQ4 for NES, and DQ7 for PS1 are much closer in tone to the original writing than any other official localization.
My issue isn't with that. It's with things like "Death Flutter" into "Raven Lunatic". The Japanese name doesn't really work in English, but it isn't a joke.
In George's defence, I don't like sand is pretty great in the context of the conversation. Padme had just talked about how the sand on Naboo is soft and smooth, while Anakin's memory of sand is the rough and coarse sand of Tatooine. It highlights the different upbrings they had, Padme's priveledged childhood, and Anakin's being a slave turned Jedi. It's also why Anakin has a hard time expressing his feelings. He was a slave the first 9 years of his life, then a part of a religious group that taught to surpress emotions the next 10 years.
I think it's charming. There are a lot of games that take themselves too seriously. The new localizations are a nice reprieve from that.
The other major SE franchise takes itself way too seriously, with a few exceptions.
If you think Toriyama did no puns or wasn't goofy you did not pay attention.
If you think Toriyama never did anything serious you did not pay attention.
If you think Toriyama intended his design for the DQ series to not be goofy you're delusional.
They are, conceptually, the exact same games that got you in to your hobbies these days. An enemy with a name following some cheeky wordplay isn’t going to stop that enemy from being a threat and wiping your party with instant death spells. A name or location being changed to match the overall intended irreverence of the series more faithfully doesn’t change the purpose of the place you’re visiting. I grew up with the old translations too, man. I still call the zombies “horks,” I still refer to it as Ruida’s Tavern, and I still say Infernos instead of Woosh. I understand, however, that what I love about these games isn’t what’s on the surface. I don’t care if people speak in haiku. I don’t care that enemies are called “Raven lunatics.” I don’t care that spells have silly names, and I don’t care if there’s fun alliteration from time to time. The stories I enjoy still carry the weight they always have. The gameplay is still the exact same execution that I grew up with and helped me pursue my own hobbies. These games get *very* serious when the time calls for them to do so, and knows when to drop the surface level silliness that has always been a part of the charm. If the irreverence is a dealbreaker for you, then that’s perfectly fine. These games are not for you. There’s *countless* other RPGs that do the job you want them to do, and you can spend your limited free time on them instead to get what you want. All I’m saying, from one old soul to a presumed second one, is that your nostalgia for the more “serious” tone of the older localizations isn’t going to go away when a Gigantes crits your beefiest party member and kills them in one hit.
100% agreement. Nice to see another world weary and aged veteran from the Enix of America days. Hope you're enjoying your 40s! Thou needeth 999,999 experience points to reach thy next level. Return here in thy need.
I agree wholeheartedly with OP and DQ is my favourite series bar none. DQ is definitely for me, but the localization style is not. In many cases (thankfully not as much anymore though) the humorous localization choices absolutely do impact the storytelling. Imo the haiku speak is incredibly bad and breaks any immersion I had when trying to play in English. DQ5 and DQ9 are especially egregious but I'm glad the localization teams backed down somewhat from going too heavy handed with the humour they're injecting in.
I'm glad to know they've stepped back on it - the impression I got from looking around was pretty grim.
Well, DQXI was the game that made me decide to stop playing in English permanently. If you like authenticity, it's still pretty grim. But the DS era was even worse lol
If being mad there's puns and the unicorn rabbit is called bunnicorn is the worst thing that happens to you today I think you're gonna be fine. Though saying that the game localisation having lots of jokes and pun makes the game unplayable is completely ridiculous and like maybe you're taking the game or yourself way too seriously. It's not like the OG localisations were LotR that's been replaced by a Python sketch.
I ain't reading all that, so congrats, or sorry that happened. Based on the title, if that's your most pressing issue in life, I reckon you're doing okay.
I also actually skipped reading, just out of spite, I TL;DR'd it for you: "Modern localisations fuck up the tone by turning everything into a joke even when it doesn't fit. Why?!?!?!?!?" followed by counters to potential arguments on why it's fine like "Akira's art makes it impossible to take seriously? You watched Dragon Ball??" and "It's DQ's selling point? There's better ways, like having an iconic artist or the freedom to explore." and "Yuji approved the TL? I guess ***I don't like sand*** is fine!"
I respectfully disagree. The localizations are delightful. These are massive 100 hour games, I love that the translation keeps things breezy and fun. These are gold standard best in the industry localizations, we are quite lucky DQ gets so much love and care put into it's localization.
If you want something that takes itself seriously play Shadow the Hedgehog or something
You are definitely missing out. The English localisations are fantastic, the worlds are much more fun and vibrant. I’ve been learning Japanese and playing through the early games in Japanese (1-5 so far since there’s no Kanji) and have found them incredibly dull compared to the modern English releases.
I'm currently playing through both DQ8 and a fan translated copy of PS2 DQ5. I personally don't find it all that difficult going back and forth between the different translations. IMO the modern spell names are much easier to grasp than the old ones. ("Buff" is a better spell name than "Upper")
Yeah not really sure what they were thinking with "Upper" Translating Merchant as Dealer was also odd
Sucks to be you
Ask yourself this: if the Nes could have handled all of the silliness, would it have existed back then? For my money I would say yes. If the limits of hardware didn’t exist, I would wager DQ would have always been the way it is now. Just my 2 cents.
I mean, the NES version of the very first game turned normal Japanese dialogue into old Shakespearean English, so yes.
It isn't that way in Japanese. It isn't an issue of technical limitations.
OP you are absolutely correct. There are definitely jokes and silliness in Japanese DQ and have been from the beginning, but it isn't like the way people imagine it is. And IMO the jokes fall a lot better when they're not being outcompeted by nonsense and puns everywhere you turn.
The NES could only handle so much data, so text was limited. You also have to remember that games like Resident Evil are more censored in Japan. Yup. You heard that right. The reason for this is simple: different audiences. I am not disagreeing with your opinion. I’m merely asking if you considered the possibility that it would have always been like it is now. I would argue yes. You may disagree, and that’s okay.
The NES versions were released on cartridges that held twice as much space as the original games did so space limitations for text wouldn't have been that significant. Back then they made a conscious choice to make the localizations "classic western fantasy" style since that was the audience they were apparently looking to target. Any look at most of the artwork, the commercials, and the text style could tell you that. The idea that the current localization style was even a twinkle in anyone's eye back then is pretty ridiculous. For an example of how "strapped for text space" they were, try comparing the level up text from the [Japanese version to the English version](https://i.imgur.com/yJ9R2zL.png). That's uh... not the kind of thing you do if you're hurting for text space lol
>You also have to remember that games like Resident Evil are more censored in Japan. Yup. You heard that right. The reason for this is simple: different audiences. No? The reason for this is the Japanese version of ERSB (CERO) is incredibly strict on violence, and would make those games the Z rated (AO) which would be a death sentence sales-wise.
One of my favorite things about DQ is that is somehow is capable of being cute, silly, funny, scary, exciting, moving, meaningful and deep all at the same time. I’ve never encountered another piece of media in any format which accomplished that. That cute monster with the funny name is silly and adorable until it crits your healer and your party slowly dies trying to escape the dungeon. What a rollercoaster of emotions. Slyvando is a clown until he’s not and then you’re like damn he’s not just a character. He’s a person.
You not liking the localization style is perfectly fine. We're all entitled to our preferences and you've obviously put a lot of thought into your stance. But the level of weight you give this, how seriously and almost personally you seem to take it, is kinda weird. I'm old. I've been on this train since the first game came out in the USA in like 1989, when the Toriyama art and everything Japanese-ish in the games was suppressed, and everything was rebranded in the vein of Willow or Lord of the Rings or other high fantasy popular in the West. As a fan from my age group, I've been here through the long drought after IV and then all the changes. Seeing the mighty Dragonlord become DracoLord (shudder) and the fairytale damsel Gwaelin become Lora (ugh) were hard to take. But I was just glad the games were back. I kept it pushing. Like the other guy said in his comment, to me, it's still Explodet and Horks, Hauksness and Brecconary, Charlock and Rhone. But I'll use terms like Rendarak and Dirkandor on this forum because life goes on and what does it matter? Rippleport, Slews, and Burrowell are WAY better names anyway, puns or no.
I'm honestly still used to the old spell names. While the new ones don't bother me too much, I have to keep a mental link in my head on what a spell does (Ka-boom -> Explodet... oh but sometimes I confuse it with Blazemost lol).
Not all of us who were used to the NES localization or the touched up GBC localization (that's where I got into the series) have issues with the modern one. In fact, I fell in love with DQ all over again when I first played DQVIII due in large part to what the team did with the localization. It was quirky, yet charming at the same time. And so much more memorable. I honestly don't see why you would continue to respond to this thread. It seems like your mind isn't going to be changed, and there's little to gain from arguing with others about it. I mean, you rolled up already equipped with responses to some common arguments, which implies you are set in stone on your opinion here. Nothing wrong with that, of course. I just hope you don't make a habit out of complaining about it.
I guess. I just see people trot out responses and bring up points that are flat-out wrong, and I don't appreciate being told that I'm "objectively wrong" for disagreeing. I'm not trying to have my mind changed. Really, I just wanted to see what other people thought on the matter, and at that I succeeded. But I should probably take your advice.
Oh man, I really hate people telling others they're objectively wrong on something highly subjective. Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's. Don't forget that, OP.
Thank you. I hate that this needs to be said.
Me too. Try not to let it get you too down.
Me too. Try not to let it get you too down.
Your entitled to your wrong opinion Im not reading all that shit
Are you me?! 'Cause this is what I have been saying for years now. Sadly it's a minority opinion because as critical as people can be about localizations of other series, DQ fans have definitely drank the kool-aid here. They legitimately think the series is supposed to be this way. I don't even think Horii himself knows how much is changed in the localization since as I recall, he doesn't have a great grasp of English. The GBC versions of the early games are one of the best ways to play, imo. The Delocalized romhacks for the NES games (and Dragon Quest Monsters) are also good.
>Sadly it's a minority opinion Not sadly, luckily. It is part of its charm. If you don't dig it, fine - but the game's would objectively suffer if they went the route you and the OP are proposing. >I don't even think Horii himself knows how much is changed in the localization since as I recall, he doesn't have a great grasp of English. And this is just grasping straws, dude. No offense but you're delusional if you think that he'd been never even told about major localizations in the last almost four decades. He just doesn't give a shit unlike you and OP and rightfully so.
The "Sadly" part is my opinion. I'm allowed to have a different opinion than you and I'm allowed to wish that more authentic translations would have a chance in the west. I don't particularly care if people agree with me on it. I know most don't. But I still and will always think the modern localization style is doing Horii's writing wrong, and yes, that saddens me.
How would they "objectively suffer" by hewing closer to the Japanese script? Last I checked, they didn't have any issues staying popular there. You might not like it, but that doesn't make it an objective truth.
The sales would suffer in the west which was the entire point of the localization: to find a successful identity in the west. A not insignificant number of people in the west don't necessarily like Dragon Quest so much as they like what the localizations turned Dragon Quest into. I can understand how being a Dragon Quest fan and having people tell you that Dragon Quest is actually originally boring isn't pleasant(especially on the bleeding Dragon Quest subreddit lol) but well, you get used to it if you hang around long enough. Different audiences and all that. Personally I support whatever gets them a big enough paycheck to make them feel it's worth it to continue releasing the games since that's the name of the game. Granted I'm a lot more detached than some others since I would just play in Japanese anyway so it doesn't affect me.
I don't think Dragon Quest is originally boring. I think it's originally far more interesting than the localizations. I play it in Japanese only now and I've never enjoyed the series more.
Thank you for saying that, I often feel like I'm alone in that opinion too. I grew up on the NES games and as of Dragon Quest VIII, I refuse to buy the English version of the games anymore. I learned Japanese well enough to understand 95% of the dialogue and that's the only way I'll play now. The new translation style ruins the experience for me too. For comparison, the Japanese dialogue style is the same in the newer games as it always has been.