Category Archives: Magazine Translations

A Woman Gamer and Dragon Quest

Magazine Translations
A Woman Gamer And Dragon Quest Header

Memories of Taking Great Joy in the Female Hero She'd Been Awaiting

Games were largely a pastime for boys in the Famicom era. Dragon Quest gained a girl fan simply because of the Dragon Quest 4-Panel Comics

Text & Materials: Misao Sanjou Ever since I was a kid I had no interest in playing with dolls, but instead with sentai heroes and the Famicom. My first encounter with Dragon Quest was in 1993. DQ V had already been released, and the DQ I & II remakes for the Super Famicom were about to come out. But the reason I got into Dragon Quest was the first volume of the 4-panel comic, that I just happened to pick up. Primarily based around DQ III, I was enthralled by all of the well-known components that made up the Dragon Quest world contained within: The weapons, armor, items, magic, creatures, stores, fields, and the characters that made up the party. It was the reason that I then wanted to play the games. Continue Reading

The Sudden Rise of Dragon Quest and the Consumer RPG Boom

Dragon-Quest-Consumer-RPG-BoomThe RPG genre was already popular in the international PC market. It all began with tabletop RPGs, but here we'll take a look back at the explosive RPG boom that began here with Dragon Quest. Text by Kaze no Iona

An RPG was a game that involved playing a role?

I wonder if it wasn't the Famicom version of Tower of Druaga that first introduced the term "RPG" to Famicom users (The text "High Quality Role-playing" appeared on the packaging for Bokosuka Wars later on, but actual use of the term RPG hadn't really caught on at that time). I myself found out about the RPG genre through a publication that had launched around this time, Famimaga. The way that RPGs were introduced as games in which you're "playing a role" stood out in particular. Continue Reading

25 Years Since The Release Of Final Fantasy VI – Looking Back At The Passion

Magazine Translations
FFVI Interview - Group
25 years ago, Final Fantasy was already a hugely popular series. But with FFVI you can really feel the determination of the staff to not rest on their laurels due to the series' reputation. These legendary creators took a look back at their memories of the development of this title with us. Eiji Nakamura - As the sound engineer for FFVI, he was responsible for the sound effects and sampling. He's currently the president of Sound Racer. Kasuko Shibuya - Square Enix's "Pixel Artisan". As the graphics director for FFVI, she was in charge of the character pixel graphics. Hironobu Sakaguchi - As the father of Final Fantasy, he needs no introduction, and he served as the producer of FFVI. He's currently the president of Mistwalker. Yoshinori Kitase - An executive officer at Square Enix, he served as the director for FFVI. He also put together the event team. Minoru Akao - He was in charge of the sound programming for many Square titles, beginning with FFVI. He's currently the president of RedSpark. Continue Reading

Shooting Live 2019 – Vertical Shooting Night: An Event Packed With Shooting Love

Magazine Translations
Shooting Live Title Image
Shooting Live 2019 - Vertical Shooting Night was held on 02/21/2019 at AREA in Tokyo's Takadanobaba. This event was the second in Famitsu's series of concerts (following the first one that was centered around pixel-drawn RPGs), and was centered around vertical scrolling shooters. There was a live music section featuring performances by two bands that know the sounds of an arcade better than anyone, a DJ set featuring wonderful composers, and a talk segment featuring some shooting game-loving celebrities. We're bringing you coverage of this event that was packed full of shooting love. Continue Reading
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