Plus Alpha
Plus Alpha is the localization company that has been responsible for translating many of theDragon Quest games into English for North American and European territories, starting with Dragon Quest VIII. They are well known for their use of British English, a variety of puns, and pop culture references to, in their own words, "give our products a fresh flavour".
Staff
Plus Alpha consists of two individuals: Clare Saracine and Will Blatchley.
Games Localized
Plus Alpha has performed localization work on the following Dragon Quest titles for Square Enix:
- Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
- Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
- Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
- Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
- Fortune Street
- Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
- Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker
- Dragon Quest Swords
And then there were their contemporaries, who continued that same style:
- It was believed Plus Alpha was working on the English localization of Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie, but this task was instead given to 8-4 ltd.
- Plus Alpha was the inspiration behind the localization style of Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past by Shloc Ltd, with the dialogue and monster/item/skill/spell names being very reminiscent of the previous team's work.
A brief list of non S-E games that the team has localize includes:
- Aegis of Earth
- Mystery Room
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 3
- Okami
- Shadow Hearts 2
- Dark Cloud 2: a title developer by DQ alumni Level-5 prior to their work on the series.
Controversy of Localization Changes
A handful of older fans of the series have taken umbrage with Plus Alpha's localization style, expressing their opinion that the use of puns and British English undermines the serious nature of the games. Holders of this opinion are typically ignorant that the original Japanese scripts house several puns and jokes of their own, and that Dragon Quest is famous in Japan for being atypical of more standard RPG syntax.
While the opinions of the more scorned fans are perfectly valid, it should be known that all of Plus Alpha's edits are done under supervision from Square Enix, and permission must be given by Yuji Horii himself before any change can be made official. In addition to this, Plus Alpha's work has received great praise from professional critics and done much to distinguish Dragon Quest among its peers in a market saturated with role-playing games.
