ROFL That comment reminded me of one of couple of comics on SE site with them.
Well looks like i might try playing this a few times. You can’t really swap around final town forms that easy (from what i read) and since you get better graphical representations of your characters I’d like to see my hero(ine) decked out in some attire…preferably some sexy attire for the heroine…and twins.
Which reminds me, even back in the days my youth, twincestlyness of Meena and Maya had already made them my 2 favorite characters in the game.
Well after playing for a while, I have to say overall translation is good, there was only 1 actual spelling mistake I noted (as opposed to some looking like spelling mistakes because of the localization of dialogue). I generally don’t care for the excessive localization so that every town has certain style. Certain characters are okay imo.
And they kept the same menus for the English translation, unlike DQ8. Obviously they’re a bit spruced up from the original DQ4.
For the rest of the game, for those who didn’t know, it’s PS1-style graphics and gameplay, except the immigrant town takes longer to build without wifi connection. Also you can use the top screen to extend the view. I usually use this in dungeons only to find out best way to chests or stairs.
OMG… OMG… OMG…
[size=200]They took out all the Puff-Puff!!![/size]
After all these years… they’ve gone an censored something that’s been around since the NES days! :x
WTF!!! WTF!!! WTF!!! 
It was in the US version of DQ8.
The twincest remains cute though.
EDIT
Before anyone asks, this is a puff-puff. The original DQ titles didn’t show a puff-puff, it just made the screen go blank with the text, “Puff Puff. Puff Puff.” go across the screen. However DW4 was one of these titles with the text in the English version (it first showed up in DW3, but japan had it since DQ1).
That is actually kind of a shocker considering it was in original, was in DQ8 even where it was much more…visual. I can’t see why they decided to take it out, unless somehow the ratings board got a hell-of-a-lot more conservative and they wanted a specific rating.
Mmm…dunno if i should keep supporting them if they are going to be censoring such lame things. It was just text. Hell i didn’t know what puff-puff was when i was that young. It is removing on of the game’s trademark items.
EDIT: Looks like SE is wanting direct feedback so I asked them about it.
http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dq4/
I first noticed it, because the woman in Ragnar’s chapter… made her husband’s memory return with a Puff-Puff. She doesn’t do it in the DS version (shows her wedding ring instead). Seriously. I’d remember a woman more from a Puff-Puff, than some stupid ring. 
I’d also like to point out that Oojam is the REAL hero of DQ4. He gave his life up for the twincest.
Despite what some Toriyama haters might claim, his art style has improved over the years. All these DQ remakes make it easy to see.
Mostly in the detailing and how he does eyes. I like how the twincest are even more alike in the new drawings. Plus Meena showed too much forehead in her original incarnation. 
In other news, Narg is upset that some cos-players lack a twin so they can properly perform cos-play. Manya looks so lonely without her sister. 
Maybe it’ll be put in newer versions. If so, it’ll be easy to find as i just noticed my current game reads “Not yet rated by ESRB”
Well the game isn’t a full translation either. The Japanese version had a feature called “Party Talk” where you could have your party members talk to each other. It gave them more character depth, as you learned more about how they ticked. For example how twincest, the twins were. Or how smitten Priest-boy was with his tomboy Princess.
The English release of DQ4 is a censored, watered down version. I’m honestly shocked and disappointed. I thought Square-Enix was better than this. Guess not… It baffles the crap out of me. DQ4 got a rating of E+10… you’ve got things like Megaman Zero getting an E: and all they took out was the blood effect, there’s still sexual innuendo with Leviathan and tons of killing going around. Castlevania normally gets a T. DQ4 should have gone that route…
Have I ever mentioned that the gypsy twins are the sexiest damn thing Toriyama has ever drawn? The DQ4 renewal has doujin’s out the ying-yang featuring them. I think only Jessica from DQ8 and the DQ3 priestess out number them.
Well maybe they’ll learn from this if their idea was to get rated E that you can’t please enough people and actually not censor it. I, and many others, were very shocked to find they censored the “puff puff” reference when it was in pretty much all it’s graphical glory in DQ8. The removal of the talking i’m suprised at as well, unless it was because of text size. If it was, to their credit, they do have some backing there. Nintendo even today is very strict about allowing larger storage for foreign releases of games simply to fit more text in.
The only thing I can think of why they censored the Puff Puff is if DS falls under Console section of Nintendo which is still more strict, although less than in the past, for games than those under Gameboy releases…however it was in the DW4 release which just makes it all the more baffling.
It still doesn’t make sense to me though. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl got a rating of Everyone: it has gambling (the casino slot machines), sex (breeding Pokemon), simulated violence… hell… even pagan religious overtones (God is a Pokemon in that universe: Arceus).
It’s totally odd. Dragon Quest Swords and Dragon Quest VII & VIII got a Teen rating. You’d think they’d have gone the same for Dragon Quest 4.
Hell… Final Fantasy 4 on the DS got the same rating as DQ4 - they didn’t censor “You Spoony Bard” or the sexual tension of Rosa having the hots for Cecil and Kain having the hots for Rosa. 
Also the poor English translation hidden on the Japanese version of DQ4 (which can be unlocked with an Action Replay), had the Party Talk dialog.
Wondering if any adventurous hackers will make a patch to include the party talk and puff puff for English versions.
It’s strange considering that Square Enix hasn’t made any major modifications to their games in years.
While I don’t know if this is related, SE USA recently hired a couple new guys (they previously worked at Warner and THQ, I think) to lead marketing and business development, so I hope they aren’t the ones who called the shots.
It’s not puzzling to me at all. I’d be more than willing to bet Party Talk wasn’t cut for content, but for time: the developers were lazy. This is, after all, a very old game, and DQ is not loved nearly as much in the States as FF. So rather than spend time and effort polishing the script on the party talk, they chopped it. Sort of like how in the PSP port of the original FFT, they added a bunch of stuff back in, but not (I don’t think) the odd book thing you could find by doing jobs.
As for the puff puff stuff, yeah, that was probably cut for content. Was the DS game rated lower than DQ8? That would explain it.
Well as a numerous number of people probably have asked about those 2 questions to SE when they asked for feedback, they will likely have some ‘official’ reason, so we’ll see what that is.
Even if DQ4 is valued lower than DQ8, it still seems strange as DW7 was not editied for content and I’m sure at that time they weren’t expecting massive sales for DW7.
Ugh… after comparing the Japanese and American versions, the omission of Party Talk seriously cripples the character development. For example:
[spoiler]* Party Talk explains how Kiryl got that illness (taking a fatal attack meant for Alena). It also shows a turning point in the relationship between them, as prior to that heroic act, she was mostly oblivious to him. But after seeing how he’d give up his own life for her, as well as almost losing him, Alena shows more affection towards Kiryl.
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Ragnar explains how Healie became human.
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The twincest describe growing up with their father and his apprentices. Balzac’s jealously and desire for easy power; as well as Oojam’s kindness and brotherly relationship.
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Taloon would constantly voice out how he missed his sexy wife.[/spoiler]
Damn them for taking it out… :evil:
what about the european version? anyone know if both items (party talk and puff-puff) were taken out in that version? i’d assume so.
EDIT: yep…looks like it was too.
And they wonder why DQ doesn’t take off so much. Yes, it does have some elements that might make not quite as appealing as FF to American audiences, but then they shoot themselves in the foot by spending time styling text rather than translating text and arbitrary censoring. It could have done much better though than FFIV as i’ve seen a few FF fans actually comment the graphics were better than FFIV and the battle speed was better (unless you’re insane like me and max it out on active).
It would be nice if they rereleased the game (not for the same price) with uncensored and uncut. Several other DS games were rereleased, but I doubt they will do it. It may make them change their policy though for DQV at least and spend more time translating and less time stylizing.
And in other news they’ve confirmed it was actually cut from the rom, not just commented out. Well that means no Action Replay code will re-enable it, but maybe they’ll start working on a hack to put that back in and puff-puff as well.
EDIT2: Actually now it all makes sense! I now see why there is no party talk and possibly no puff-puff reference.
The NA version is 100% what the English text is in the EU version. The EU versions of games always generally have missing features due to the fact they have to cram so much text in them for various languages. In fact it’s so close a European save will work on a NA game with zero problems. Other games usually have missing items, uncleared flags, etc. WOW! That’s the height of lazyness and profit-making over quality. I don’t know if I’ll preorder DQ5 now after this.
Oops… wrong place for this.
So that the post isn’t a waste:
did they at least un-neuter her before the 3rd generation?
I always thought she was fugly. Not that Toriyama is the greatest female character designer out there, but he outdid himself in the “WTF” department with her appearance. I suppose he was drunk or something. 
DQ5 is usually seen as the best title of the Heaven Trilogy - just how DQ3 is seen as the best of the Roto Trilogy - so I’m kinda hyped in getting it. However I have a strong hate on Square-Enix for cutting content and censoring DQ4 - so I’m tempted to just pass on it until I see it in a pawnshop or yardsale.