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1UP: Are there any major differences between the Japanese version and the English release of Dragon Quest VIII? Besides the localization, are there any fine-tunings or tweaks that they made to this version?
YH: We added voices, there's that, and instead of it being just text menus, we actually changed it to a totally graphical user interface with icons and graphics. You can play it for yourself on the floor, give it a try, I'm sure you'll like it. It's totally different.
1UP: So do they plan to do what Square has traditionally done with their Final Fantasy games, like where they release the Japanese version, then they improve the American version, and then re-release the Japanese version with the American content added?
YH: At the moment, there's no plan. But once it comes in America, Japanese users might notice that it's changed a lot and say, "Hey, it's got voices and it's changed a lot," so they all might turn around and say "Please release it in Japan again." But no, we don't want to do that at the moment.
1UP: If they had to release it in Japan, if enough fans cried out for it, would it slow down the development of the next game, having to do Japanese voices and such for VIII?
YH: Actually, every time I make a game, I make it the best I can for that territory. So the Japanese one, that was good enough for Japan. We had to do these changes for America to make it good enough for Americans. It's not that we thought it was deficient in its original form, it's just that the text menus and way of storytelling was what the Japanese market wanted, what they come to expect from Dragon Quest. The American audience doesn't expect that, they want voices added.
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