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[nubbe]

Crap music

Crap music

Crap music

Some tracks are fine sure.
But they all have the samey sound.
DQ music has no culture, in DQVIII I had to turn off the music because I got so fatigued

A good music director would have more varied tracks that suite the games different areas and cultures.

Machine sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uJPvyID_Q

Adventure sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dy74NOzcS8

Action sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooZyHLLQ5e8

Comic sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVVenz3L5_g

Mystery sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cubWULxxwB0

Hopefull sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xAbtpkJrE

Dream sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twke34h3EMM

 

[BGBW]

Honestly think its the characters and stories. There's nothing memorable or outstanding there perhaps.

Cor blimey! Is this guy f'real guv?

 

[Celine]

DQ music has no culture

lol
DQ is one of those rare cases where the music is done by a classical trained composer.
It's like stating J.S. Bach or Verdi's music has no culture because they produced classical music (in different time, with different styles and audience to cater to).

I'll be honest, I feel like Sugiyama's been slipping for quite a while though. Starting with DQVII, the soundtracks have been pretty mixed bags for me. Half the time I'm just not feeling 'em (Dharma Shrine from DQVII), and the times I do, it often turns out they're arrangements of older music (like Phoenix Ramia from DQVIII). DQIX was basically a Best Of compilation with all the older music it brings back. I skipped DQX, so I don't really know what's going on there, but I've never seen a DQX song linked in any of the "favourite music" threads on GAF.

Now, this is a point I agree for DQ's music.
Recent Sugiyama output isn't as good as it used to be.
I don't fault him though, as he is well over 80 years old.
It was inevitable.

 

[ULTROS!]

Cor blimey! Is this guy f'real guv?

You'll be shocked that the only characters I really remember are the DQVIII ones.

 

[Hibiki Kurosawa]

It's not flashy and cinematic enough, slower combat (?), no nostalgia factor.

 

[Shahed]

V has a pretty memorable story, and VIII has memorable characters, but I agree in terms of theatrics or main plot points its very different from most RPGs.

There's a reason V and VIII are by far my favourite DQ games

 

[KtSlime]

I don't know if it is true, however, how the tale goes is that Sugiyama was brought onto the project after Horii and his team discussed what kind of music wouldn't cause people to get bored from the repetition due to the limited amount of space available for music. They decided that pieces arranged in a classical style would work best and they decided on Sugiyama. DQ invented classical arrangements in video games. I am sure someone would have done it eventually, but I believe they were first. "DQ music has no culture" is laughable.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

I think the series is just redundant when we have Final Fantasy.

As we all know, the most important part of a video game is the story. And the stories in Final Fantasy games are just so far ahead of the Dragon Quest equivalents. Dragon Quest stories still basically only boil down to "find all the orbs, then kill the boss". Congratulations. Final Fantasy did that with the first game, then actually moved on.

There is also the matter of the visual design. I mean look at this stuff:

It's just completely unrealistic. How am I supposed to relate to this. This looks like something out of an 80's manga. It's just shamelessly ripped off Dragon Ball. I'm surprised they haven't been sued.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy has grounded character designs. That look like actual people. That are actually wearing stylish clothes and not whatever rags were rejected by the local LARPing club.

And then we have the gameplay which is always one step behind. The job system in DQ III is minimalistic and shallow compared to Final Fantasy III. Final Fantasy did something really great when it invented the JRPG genre. Dragon Quest is basically just riding in its coattails. Copying the whole "random turn-based battles that take place on a separate screen" framework, without adding anything new. And when Final Fantasy moved on to better things, this copycat just stayed in the past

 

[KtSlime]

↑ This is some sort of parody post right?

 

[Novel Mike]

It's really all about marketing and the the time it takes to actually get the games released in the west.

I mean look at DQ11 right now, just came out in Japan and SE didn't even bother to confirm its coming west until after it had already released in Japan.

Like WTF imagine they did that for FF15 or KH3, there would be riots in the damn streets if they tried to pull off something like that. Sure they could add something to the western release like voice acting but them not having that in the original version to begin with shows just how behind the times the series is, same reason people were complaining about Zelda not having voice acting until BotW, its 2017 you can still stay true to the heart of your games soul but also have modern accommodations to make the game play better and be presented better.

DQ11 should've been released late this year at the latest and absolutely no reason it couldn't have just been day and date with the Japanese release.

SE wants DQ to succeed outside of Japan? First thing to do is stop making us wait so stupidly long to play the freaking games.

Took SE Nintendo intervention and publishing just to get DQ7 and 8 out for the 3DS and it was years after they had already been released in Japan, they just show absolutely no confidence in it for the west and thats another reason it doesn't sell well because by the time it comes out I'll likely still be knee deep into Ni No Kuni 2 and I'm not dropping that for DQ11 now.

It's by far the most mismanaged series in the west out of any of SE's bigger properties.

 

[ilium]

I think the series is just redundant when we have Final Fantasy.

As we all know, the most important part of a video game is the story. And the stories in Final Fantasy games are just so far ahead of the Dragon Quest equivalents. Dragon Quest stories still basically only boil down to "find all the orbs, then kill the boss". Congratulations. Final Fantasy did that with the first game, then actually moved on.

There is also the matter of the visual design. I mean look at this stuff:

It's just completely unrealistic. How am I supposed to relate to this. This looks like something out of an 80's manga. It's just shamelessly ripped off Dragon Ball. I'm surprised they haven't been sued.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy has grounded character designs. That look like actual people. That are actually wearing stylish clothes and not whatever rags were rejected by the local LARPing club.

And then we have the gameplay which is always one step behind. The job system in DQ III is minimalistic and shallow compared to Final Fantasy III. Final Fantasy did something really great when it invented the JRPG genre. Dragon Quest is basically just riding in its coattails. Copying the whole "random turn-based battles that take place on a separate screen" framework, without adding anything new. And when Final Fantasy moved on to better things, this copycat just stayed in the past

lmao you almost got me

 

[Jay Sosa]

Cor blimey! Is this guy f'real guv?

arrgh don't remind me. So stupid.

I think the series is just redundant when we have Final Fantasy.....

lol, well done

 

[TheRazielim]

Many who don't really know Dragon Quest make the mistake to judge DQ adventures for the overeaching general story and the setting when in reality the strong point are the vignettes that you live in each village which are varied and usually subvert many expectations.
The NPCs dialogues are especially of high quality because they are always interesting to read and characterize those little sprites well even if they are unimportant to the overall economy of the game.
In fact DQ is one of the rare JRPG series where I found it is worthy to read again what NPCs have to say after big events happen.

This is what I love most about DQ, the dialogues and situations while simple hide a mature approach in a similar way of something like Peanuts.
I feel Horii scenario writing is for everyone and that's why I still enjoy the series while I have abandoned other once beloved franchises like FF because they don't cater to me anymore after I grow up.

DQ approach is in antithesis with Final Fantasy approach because the latter is focused on a grand story and peculiar setting chosen for the episode also the events and NPCs are strictly in function of the party members's story.
Instead in DQ what shape the world are the NPCs and the little events while the story and setting are familiar because it's meant to be as a blank canvas.

EDIT:
It could be said (by DQ fans) that Horii wrote so many vignettes after 30 years that it's bound to repetition however for newcomers this isn't really a problem.

This. I used to favor Final Fantasy over Dragon Quest as well in my teenage years, but DQ has become much more charming and endearing as I've grown into adulthood. DQ seems to be oriented towards children and adults, while FF is geared towards teenagers.

 

[KtSlime]

Are there really people who get mad and decide not to play a game just because it was released in Japan first?

If I had to do that for everything that got delayed coming to Japan I would feel exhausted.

 

[sojour]

The skills in the games I've played (VII and VIII) are pretty bad, with a lot of skills not even touched in normal gameplay, especially true in VII.

DQ also feels antiquidated, but maybe for some it's a strength. I bought 8 when it came out on the PS2, it was such a change from playing Final Fantasy X with slower battles and less engaging overarching story and characters, at least in the beginning. I will give that VII had some vinegettes I enjoyed in resurrecting different islands, but again, I feel like those side stories could be fleshed out more, along with a more focused central story.

Oh pacing to me pretty horrible in both of the games I've played. So much bloatness without focus.

 

[Crash331]

It looks kinda generic

This. I blame the box art. It looks like a generic Final Fantasy ripoff from the marketing.

 

[ookami]

Well... In my case I first got bored because I couldn't feel interested in the story. Add to this the music that I could not stand.
I only played DQVIII and really wanted to get into the licence. I hope the XI will do the trick.

 

[M3d10n]

30 years of incompetence

Dragon Warrior I - had to have it's name changed because of licensing issues, gave the game away for free, still considered a success
Dragon Warrior II - extremely difficult, no significant changes from JP version to make it any easier, admittedly one of the worst DQ games especially for DQ beginners and children
Dragon Warrior III - zero marketing, released well into SNES lifespan
Dragon Warrior IV - zero marketing, released well into SNES lifespan
Dragon Quest I, II & III SNES - would've been a great time to reintroduce the series to western fans with the QOL improvements, but nope, didn't bother
Dragon Quest V & VI - didn't even bother releasing them
Dragon Warrior VII - released after PS2 was already out, zero marketing, admittedly looks like dogshit graphically
Dragon Quest VIII - they actually gave the game the time and attention is deserves, proper marketing, drummed up a good amount of hype for it, and what do you know? It sold really well.
Dragon Quest IX - how did S-E capitalize on DQ8's success? By dumping the publishing on Nintendo and telling them to handle it. DQIX still ended up being successful in the west, but S-E didn't want anything to do with it for whatever reason.
Dragon Quest IV, V & VI remakes - zero marketing, changed all the names up, took out the party chat in IV because they were too lazy to localize the text, didn't even bother publishing VI and dumped it on Nintendo again, etc.
Dragon Quest X - nope
Dragon Quest VII 3DS - released 3 1/2 YEARS LATER DEAR GOD
Dragon Quest Builders, Heroes I & II - here's a great idea, let's completely ignore the series in the west for 7 years, not even bother localizing the mainline entry, then release a bunch of spinoffs with zero marketing and hope they sell well
Dragon Quest XI - please don't fuck this up

Quoted for truth.

About the discussions on the merits of the games themselves: that's not how it works. Large franchise games titles don't exist in a vacuum. Dragon Quest grew into a stablished cultural phenomena in Japan and that has an effect on how the public perceives and reacts to the series idiosyncrasies versus someone who comes in contact with the series without that exposure. It's like Star Wars.

 

[purseowner]

This. I blame the box art. It looks like a generic Final Fantasy ripoff from the marketing.

Huh. I didn't know Akira Toriyama did art for the Final Fantasy series.

 

[Young Magus]

Yo real talk,
this has been the funniest thread Ive read all year on this site.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

I'll give it DQ for being consistent.

FF has been on a downward spiral since 11. FF keeps trying to change the formula and it usually turns out to not be good or as good as the previous title(s).

FF rides mostly on its name now, and it still works.

Look at what happened when Bravely Default came out. Everyone praised it for being like an old school FF.

 

[13ruce]

I think the series is just redundant when we have Final Fantasy.

As we all know, the most important part of a video game is the story. And the stories in Final Fantasy games are just so far ahead of the Dragon Quest equivalents. Dragon Quest stories still basically only boil down to "find all the orbs, then kill the boss". Congratulations. Final Fantasy did that with the first game, then actually moved on.

There is also the matter of the visual design. I mean look at this stuff:

It's just completely unrealistic. How am I supposed to relate to this. This looks like something out of an 80's manga. It's just shamelessly ripped off Dragon Ball. I'm surprised they haven't been sued.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy has grounded character designs. That look like actual people. That are actually wearing stylish clothes and not whatever rags were rejected by the local LARPing club.

And then we have the gameplay which is always one step behind. The job system in DQ III is minimalistic and shallow compared to Final Fantasy III. Final Fantasy did something really great when it invented the JRPG genre. Dragon Quest is basically just riding in its coattails. Copying the whole "random turn-based battles that take place on a separate screen" framework, without adding anything new. And when Final Fantasy moved on to better things, this copycat just stayed in the past

The creator/artist of dragon ball designs the characters. So how can they be sued? It's his signature work/artstyle.

 

[themagicalkitsune]

The creator/artist of dragon ball designs the characters. So how can they be sued? It's his signature work/artstyle.

It's a joke post

 

[Crash331]

Huh. I didn't know Akira Toriyama did art for the Final Fantasy series.

Get offended all you want. I've never even played a Dragon Quest game. Don't even know who that Japanese guy is. I'm just telling you why I feel like it isn't popular.

 

[Skittzo0413]

30 years of incompetence

Dragon Warrior I - had to have it's name changed because of licensing issues, gave the game away for free, still considered a success
Dragon Warrior II - extremely difficult, no significant changes from JP version to make it any easier, admittedly one of the worst DQ games especially for DQ beginners and children
Dragon Warrior III - zero marketing, released well into SNES lifespan
Dragon Warrior IV - zero marketing, released well into SNES lifespan
Dragon Quest I, II & III SNES - would've been a great time to reintroduce the series to western fans with the QOL improvements, but nope, didn't bother
Dragon Quest V & VI - didn't even bother releasing them
Dragon Warrior VII - released after PS2 was already out, zero marketing, admittedly looks like dogshit graphically
Dragon Quest VIII - they actually gave the game the time and attention is deserves, proper marketing, drummed up a good amount of hype for it, and what do you know? It sold really well.
Dragon Quest IX - how did S-E capitalize on DQ8's success? By dumping the publishing on Nintendo and telling them to handle it. DQIX still ended up being successful in the west, but S-E didn't want anything to do with it for whatever reason.
Dragon Quest IV, V & VI remakes - zero marketing, changed all the names up, took out the party chat in IV because they were too lazy to localize the text, didn't even bother publishing VI and dumped it on Nintendo again, etc.
Dragon Quest X - nope
Dragon Quest VII 3DS - released 3 1/2 YEARS LATER DEAR GOD
Dragon Quest Builders, Heroes I & II - here's a great idea, let's completely ignore the series in the west for 7 years, not even bother localizing the mainline entry, then release a bunch of spinoffs with zero marketing and hope they sell well
Dragon Quest XI - please don't fuck this up

Wow yeah, this is basically what I think the issue is too. When SE puts no effort into a western release it doesn't sell well, and when they (or someone else) do, it does sell well!

Funny how that works. The lack of consistency in general is a big part of the problem too, since people tend to show interest in game series they've heard of that have continuity. Going from Dragon Warrior 4 to Dragon Warrior 7, and then Dragon Quest 8 is fairly jarring.

 

[Stairouais]

I can't tell what 's a joke post or not anymore.

 

[arts&crafts]

I played a ton of Dragon Warrior Monsters on GBC, I dont know much about the Dragon Quest series but I think this a spin off. It was really good!

 

[Gotdatmoney]

The series isn't popular because SE doesn't take the releases seriously. That's really all there is to it. DQ11 will do well because they will actually market it and treat it like a big game the way Nintendo did with DQ9.

 

[mieumieu]

lol
DQ is one of those rare cases where the music is done by a classical trained composer.
It's like stating J.S. Bach or Verdi's music has no culture because they produced classical music (in different time, with different styles and audience to cater to).


Now, this is a point I agree for DQ's music.
Recent Sugiyama output isn't as good as it used to be.
I don't fault him though, as he is well over 80 years old.
It was inevitable.

DQ music is mere imitation of classical pieces. Heck I wouldn't even say it is imitation. It's just a facade. Most tracks sound 'single-threaded' for lack of a better word, and lacks any of the depths and intricacies. It even lacks personality.

While FF music has gone through some serious changes over the years it also brought us three juggernauts in the industry - Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masashi Hamauzu, Yoko Shimomura - all with distinct style and produces complex yet enjoyable work.

 

[Skittzo0413]

... DQ music is one of my favorite things about DQ overall. It's always very similar to previous entries but that doesn't change it from being amazing. I still can't think of a more epic march than this.

I played a ton of Dragon Warrior Monsters on GBC, I dont know much about the Dragon Quest series but I think this a spin off. It was really good!

DW Monsters was a spinoff that seemed to be trying to capture some of the Pokemon popularity, yeah. The monsters in the DQ world were always very well designed so it was a pretty compelling game/spinoff series, but not all that similar to the mainline series.

 

[Kouriozan]

30 years of incompetence

Thanks for summing it up, exactly what I meant by heavily mismanaged and I didn't know some of the stuffs.
Crazy how nowaday they still haven't learned anything, but I'll stay optimistic for DQ XI.

 

[ogbg]

I don't remember these games even existing when I was a kid. I dislike turn-based combat in general but at least I was aware of the existence of final fantasy. So I guess they just weren't really marketed to the west during that critical nostalgia era of late 80s / early 90s?

 

[KtSlime]

Thanks for summing it up, exactly what I meant by heavily mismanaged and I didn't know some of the stuffs.
Crazy how nowaday they still haven't learned anything, but I'll stay optimistic for DQ XI.

It's probably hard to have the will to keep trying when the sales keep failing to meet expectations.

I think even if they marketed the hell out of this game they wouldn't get much more than 1.5 million, if that. That's really discouraging for a game that the developers feel should be selling 4 times that - which is probably impossible even if everything went right and they had been successfully bringing the game over since the early 90's. It will never live up to expectations because the game is being sold outside it's target demographic.

 

[M3d10n]

I don't remember these games even existing when I was a kid. I dislike turn-based combat in general but at least I was aware of the existence of final fantasy. So I guess they just weren't really marketed to the west during that critical nostalgia era of late 80s / early 90s?

Square Enix put effort into marketing and a proper release exactly once: DQVIII. Nintendo handled DQIX that also did well. The rest of the games were handled mostly like dumpster fire.

 

[Basileus777]

Square Enix put effort into marketing and a proper release exactly once: DQVIII. Nintendo handled DQIX that also did well. The rest of the games were handled mostly like dumpster fire.

DQ7 was given a fairly big push from Enix.

 

[shark sandwich]

Dragon Quest is the kind of thing that, if you first played it when you were like 10 years old, it felt like the most epic fucking adventure of your lifetime. And then you keep buying Dragon Quest games trying to replicate that feeling of adventure.

Problem is, the Dragon Quest audience in the west is mostly hardcore JRPG fans who started with other, frankly superior, JRPGs and then branched off into DQ as a curiosity. It's a HELL of a lot more difficult to sell stuff to seasoned gamers than it is to young impressionable children who grow to uncritically love whatever entertainment they are exposed to.

It's a mediocre, antiquated series that relies almost entirely on nostalgia to sell. It will never develop that sense of nostalgia in the west and it will never sell anywhere near what it does in Japan.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

It's probably hard to have the will to keep trying when the sales keep failing to meet expectations.

I think even if they marketed the hell out of this game they wouldn't get much more than 1.5 million, if that. That's really discouraging for a game that the developers feel should be selling 4 times that - which is probably impossible even if everything went right and they had been successfully bringing the game over since the early 90's. It will never live up to expectations because the game is being sold outside it's target demographic.

Not sure why you think the developers feel that Dragon Quest should sell 6 million copies, I'm sure they don't have that stupid of expectations. The series sells around what, 3 million max in Japan? Which is on the extremely high end for what you can hope for with a game in the Japanese market these days. And the series is arguably Japan's mpst popular gaming propertt. They'd probably be happy with 1.5 million sales in the west, given the state of the franchise here.

 

[BigEmil]

FF tries to cater to western mainstream audience (as seen in FF13s and FF15)

DQ still doing their own thing not trying to cater to the western mainstream audience

 

[KtSlime]

Not sure why you think the developers feel that Dragon Quest should sell 6 million copies, I'm sure they don't have that stupid of expectations. The series sells around what, 3 million max in Japan? Which is on the extremely high end for what you can hope for with a game in the Japanese market these days. And the series is arguably Japan's mpst popular gaming propertt. They'd probably be happy with 1.5 million sales in the west, given the state of the franchise here.

I did make up the number, however one of the few ways one could explain their behavior and leaving Nintendo to port most all the titles in the series is because they are not satisfied with the numbers and didn't think it worth the effort. The world is also a MUCH larger market than Japan alone, it's only natural that it should sell more in a bigger market.

BTW 3 million is also on the low side, excluding remakes 6 games sold over 3 million, 2 games over 4 million. DQ5 sold over 5.6 million copies if you include remakes.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

I did make up the number, however one of the few ways one could explain their behavior and leaving Nintendo to port most all the titles in the series is because they are not satisfied with the numbers and didn't think it worth the effort. The world is also a MUCH larger market than Japan alone, it's only natural that it should sell more in a bigger market.

BTW 3 million is also on the low side, excluding remakes 6 games sold over 3 million, 2 games over 4 million. DQ5 sold over 5.6 million copies if you include remakes.

Today's market in Japan is much different than the SNES era. Sales of games are down across the board. The western market being bigger than the Japanese market in terms of numbers means little when it comes to Dragon Quest, a series that has 90% of its audience in Japan and that caters specifically to the Japanese audience. I don't think Square Enix expects equal or better sales performance for the series in the West, and if they do, they are idiots. 1 million sold in the US and Europe combined would be a success for DQXI.

 

[Zakkath]

I'm playing DQ8 on 3DS atm and I gotta say i don't like it as most fans of the series seem to. The story is average so far. The combat is standard jrpg with very litle variety. The music is very boring and the game's pace feels super slow. Every new story chapter feels padded to extend the lenght of the game.

I liked Dragon Warrior way back when I was a kid, so I wanted to try the series again before 11 comes out. Now, I don't think I'm even gonna give it a try based on my experience with 8 unless they shake things up quite a bit.

 

[Raw64life]

Another thing I haven't seen mentioned about S-E's incompetence when it comes to DQ in the west: for the recent batch of spinoffs they released on PS4, leading up to the release they would do streams on YouTube/Twitch where they showed off features of the game. The problem with this is these games had already been out in Japan for a year or more and anyone who knows how to use the internet could find footage of the entire game being played start to finish anytime they wanted. It seems like they genuinely think that people couldn't do this if they wanted to. Just utterly baffling.

DQ7 was given a fairly big push from Enix.

In the west? I'd like to see the receipts on this.

DW7 is probably the one DQ game where I don't think there's anything S-E could've done to make it a hot seller in the west. It was insanely long and fairly difficult. Probably the only DQ game I ever played that I'd actually use the word "grindy" to describe. It also came out around the same time as FFX on PS2 and it looked like an SNES game. It never had a chance in the west.

 

[Lightning Lord]

Saying DW7 looked like an SNES game is an insult to actual SNES games.

 

[jett]

I don't think that's really true. Most of the traditional roots DQ has comes from timeless fairy tales and Ultima. I think older RPG players in the west can relate to those just as easily even if certain specific things like the classic sound fx and side content like medals and whatnot mean nothing to them.

DQ's biggest selling point is that it is an easy to get into RPG series suitable for all age groups, with a warm family and friends feeling, that is also usually very well made. I don't think people buy DQ specifically because it is "old school".

In a cartoon comparison, I would say that most JRPGs are Adult Swim shows and DQ games are Disney movies.

I can see that.

 

[ethomaz]

I think it was because the games were not localized.

 

[Godzilla's Left Toe]

Get offended all you want. I've never even played a Dragon Quest game. Don't even know who that Japanese guy is. I'm just telling you why I feel like it isn't popular.

You don't know the artist to one of the most famous Manga and Anime ?

 

[Forkball]

1. In the west, JRPGs simply weren't that huge. I suppose the NES Dragon Warrior games sold well enough since they kept putting them out, but there wasn't the JRPG boom we saw in the 16 bit and especially 32/64 bit era.

2. Generic fantasy box art and title. I don't think Dragon Quest is that great of a name... but it's still better than Dragon Warrior. You might say that changing the boxart was simply localization as anime wasn't popular in those days, but keep in mind there were a TON of NES games with fantasy art you'd likely see on the side of a van. Nothing made it stand out if you were just looking through NES games in a store.

3. DQ III and IV were released in 1992 in the US. Yes, they released both of them in the same year. After the SNES and Genesis came out. Sure, the NES was still massively popular at this time and new games were coming out, but these games were ugly compared to others that utilized Super FX and Blast Processing™. DQIII is especially regarded as the first great DQ game and a bonafide classic of the 8bit era, but it was buried.

3. No DQ games for the SNES in the states. JRPGs started to build momentum at this time, but DQ wasn't represented at all.

4. Enter the 32/64 bit era. FFVII has reshaped gaming and the JRPG genre has exploded. Where's Dragon Quest? Nowhere. The game doesn't even release until the year 2000 in Japan, at the end of the PS1's lifespan. It his the US in 2001. One week after, I kid you not, GTA III. Ouch. I do remember this game getting a bit of hype and marketing push however. At this point, everyone was aware that DQ was crazy popular in Japan, and since JRPGs were big, any new one was on a lot of people's radar. Not to mention it had VII, like FFVII. Considering it's coming out years after FFVII, I beat it blows it out of the water graphica-

Oh... I'm gonna play my ballin' PS2 instead. I don't know what the reception was in Japan, but DQVII got some pretty mixed reviews when it released in the US for being an old ass slow ass feelin' game.

5. DQVIII and DQIX did well in the states. DQVIII was like a reboot for the series in the west, and the impressive graphics and rich content captured a lot of new fans and it scored well across the board. DQIX was on the DS, that thing everyone owns. Though this may have had a negative effect in the west as console DQ fans were left in the dust.

6. DQX doesn't come to the states. Can't blame 'em, it's hard to release an MMO. But when DQXI hits the US next year, there will be a EIGHT YEAR GAP between the last two mainline DQ games in the west and a TWELVE YEAR GAP between console Dragon Quest games. That's a lot of time...

7. Since DQ games have several bibles worth of text, it takes a long time to translate. With many franchises, even Final Fantasy and Pokemon, becoming worldwide releases, DQ not being one kind of kills the launch hype.

I wrote way too much about this subject, but it's a mix of not getting a strong start in the west and some unfortunate timing.

 

[Pepboy]

Get offended all you want. I've never even played a Dragon Quest game. Don't even know who that Japanese guy is. I'm just telling you why I feel like it isn't popular.

I'd like to take a sec to remind the DQ fans in this thread that we are a small enough community already without pushing people away with hostility. There's no need.

Plus, the title and purpose of the thread is literally about why DQ has not succeeded in the West. Of course you will get opinions that differ from yours, especially if you already love DQ.

I think the best way forward is to acknowledge that not everyone will enjoy DQ, some people may find the game or art boring, and to just do our best to communicate the values or correct objective misunderstandings when possible.

 

[jett]

Saying DW7 looked like an SNES game is an insult to actual SNES games.

If I had played an SNES game that looked like DW7 my mind would have been blown. The backgrounds are all 3D, you know.

DW7 does have really nice animations for the monster sprites. DW7's graphics got their fair share of hate back when it came out, but after a while of playing it I started finding its lo-fi nature endearing.

 

[Datschge]

Square Enix should consider just localizing the 2D mode of the 3DS version, port that to all possible systems and advertise it as a retro style game. =P