PumpkinSpice
Banned
I'm really late to replying here but I think it's very valuable to compare OP's question with "Why are the Dragon Quest games popular inside Japan?"
The Dragon Quest series' success in Japan today is largely due to it being a well known series that everyone and their dog has played. I'd even argue the continued success is based mostly on nostalgia, but even if everyone isn't as into them as I am, the games are consistently good. They are also easy for newcomers as they require little skill to beat since they're turn based and you can always fall back on grinding. In short, if you buy a Dragon Quest game you know you're getting something fun.
If you trace back how Dragon Quest got to be a game that everyone knows is good, it's because in 1986 RPGs were a hot new thing on a very popular platform with little in the way of high quality software as competition. By the time Dragon Quest 3 came out in 88 the series was reaching new technical achievements (battery backed up saves! huge worlds! long story!) and the game was a huge hit. It was about as big as Mario 3 was in the rest of the world.
It reminds me a lot of Mario, actually. Why is Mario so popular? Well because the games are consistently good and everyone has fond memories of past Mario games.
But in the rest of the world, in the US/Canada specifically since releases elsewhere have been even more inconsistent, Dragon Quest never had those advantages. 1986 came and went with no release here, 87, 88, and most of 89 as well. By the time Dragon Warrior came out, more than a year after Dragon Quest 3 exploded in Japan, even with the enhancements made for localization, it was a dated game that didn't look like a 1989 NES release. Being punishingly hard and very basic in mechanics didn't help either, especially with other more complicated post-Dragon Quest RPGs having made their way over. Not to mention the competition for NES games in 1989 was insane, just a banner year for the platform.
And of course we all know it flopped so bad that Nintendo gave the game away with Nintendo Power to get rid of copies, in the hopes to maybe spark interest in RPGs.
Maybe it helped out Final Fantasy but it certainly didn't help Dragon Quest cause Dragon Warriors 2 through 4, also released super late, also bombed. Each one worse than the last. Then nothing came out for the rest of the 90s as other RPGs blew up. Finally Enix had a chance to try again with Dragon Quest, and, while I really like Dragon Warrior VII, it releasing so late on PS1 in Japan made it come out a year after the PS2 came out here which was just too late for that game. Even the Monsters games, with the limited success they enjoyed, weren't enough. Series dead a few more years.
So now you're at #8 in the series, nobody remembers 1 through 7, how could any Dragon Quest game possibly do well at this point? I mean, considering where they were, DQ8 did fairly well, and credit where it's due they kept trying with DQ9 doing even better. But the bombing of the remakes, and the Joker games plus #10 being an MMO led to another gap in releases and another missing numbered entry.
So now we're at #11 today. Mainstream gamers do not know about Dragon Quest the same way they do about Final Fantasy. You can find out how hardcore gamers think of the series by reading some of the posts in this thread. A new round of remakes and spinoffs now being localized and not doing so well. Any bets on how well #11 will do?
Honestly it's too bad Nintendo & Enix didn't just release Dragon Warrior 3 in 1989. You would have missed the story tie-in with the earlier games but it was just a way more appropriate game for the time.
The Dragon Quest series' success in Japan today is largely due to it being a well known series that everyone and their dog has played. I'd even argue the continued success is based mostly on nostalgia, but even if everyone isn't as into them as I am, the games are consistently good. They are also easy for newcomers as they require little skill to beat since they're turn based and you can always fall back on grinding. In short, if you buy a Dragon Quest game you know you're getting something fun.
If you trace back how Dragon Quest got to be a game that everyone knows is good, it's because in 1986 RPGs were a hot new thing on a very popular platform with little in the way of high quality software as competition. By the time Dragon Quest 3 came out in 88 the series was reaching new technical achievements (battery backed up saves! huge worlds! long story!) and the game was a huge hit. It was about as big as Mario 3 was in the rest of the world.
It reminds me a lot of Mario, actually. Why is Mario so popular? Well because the games are consistently good and everyone has fond memories of past Mario games.
But in the rest of the world, in the US/Canada specifically since releases elsewhere have been even more inconsistent, Dragon Quest never had those advantages. 1986 came and went with no release here, 87, 88, and most of 89 as well. By the time Dragon Warrior came out, more than a year after Dragon Quest 3 exploded in Japan, even with the enhancements made for localization, it was a dated game that didn't look like a 1989 NES release. Being punishingly hard and very basic in mechanics didn't help either, especially with other more complicated post-Dragon Quest RPGs having made their way over. Not to mention the competition for NES games in 1989 was insane, just a banner year for the platform.
And of course we all know it flopped so bad that Nintendo gave the game away with Nintendo Power to get rid of copies, in the hopes to maybe spark interest in RPGs.
Maybe it helped out Final Fantasy but it certainly didn't help Dragon Quest cause Dragon Warriors 2 through 4, also released super late, also bombed. Each one worse than the last. Then nothing came out for the rest of the 90s as other RPGs blew up. Finally Enix had a chance to try again with Dragon Quest, and, while I really like Dragon Warrior VII, it releasing so late on PS1 in Japan made it come out a year after the PS2 came out here which was just too late for that game. Even the Monsters games, with the limited success they enjoyed, weren't enough. Series dead a few more years.
So now you're at #8 in the series, nobody remembers 1 through 7, how could any Dragon Quest game possibly do well at this point? I mean, considering where they were, DQ8 did fairly well, and credit where it's due they kept trying with DQ9 doing even better. But the bombing of the remakes, and the Joker games plus #10 being an MMO led to another gap in releases and another missing numbered entry.
So now we're at #11 today. Mainstream gamers do not know about Dragon Quest the same way they do about Final Fantasy. You can find out how hardcore gamers think of the series by reading some of the posts in this thread. A new round of remakes and spinoffs now being localized and not doing so well. Any bets on how well #11 will do?
Honestly it's too bad Nintendo & Enix didn't just release Dragon Warrior 3 in 1989. You would have missed the story tie-in with the earlier games but it was just a way more appropriate game for the time.