Dragon Quest V Remake Hits Big In Japan

Thanks to GamerFeed for its article noting that Square Enix's PlayStation 2 remake of Dragon Quest V has debuted big in Japan, since this previously mentioned SNES remake has already "sold over a million units in just 2 days", additionally helped by "the inclusion of a preview disc of Dragon Quest VIII." The series, known as Dragon Warrior in the States, has never really taken off outside Japan, however: "Dragon Quest VII went on to sell more copies than any other PSOne game in Japan ever. By contrast, Dragon Warrior VII, and the Dragon Warrior series, has never attained more than a small but loyal cult following in the US."

Comments

My thoughts

[DarkkOne]

I've been a fan of the DQ/DW series since the first game... it was actually the first RPG I played on the NES. I think the problem with sales in the US is that RPGs never were *incredibly* popular at first anyway. Once FF2 and 3 (4/6) came out on the SNES, even among the niche, the party system of FF had lodged itself in everyone's minds, as well as the variety of travel in its world.

Then came FFVII, and the way it somehow attracted a fairly large crowd of what previously weren't RPG players. By the time we got DQVII, Final Fantasy was far superior, at least if you were looking purely at polycount. The people attracted to eyecandy, and action (the kind of people FF7/8 seem to have appealed to) found the mostly sprite-based (yes, they *were* 3D to an extent) graphics, and slower gameplay of DQVII not to their liking.

Since the series stayed mostly under the radar, I know most of the people I've asked didn't realize there were more than one until VII came out, the fact that the only two games they've tried were both "behind the line" from their perspective is surely not going to help the game stateside.

Regardless, I personally can't wait to play any future releases. This series has been one of my favorites. I quite like the gameplay (and for some reason, Drakees are my favorite critter of all time.)

Re:My thoughts

[cgenman]

Ahh... Memories.

Don't forget, though, that Dragon Warrior was quite popular on the NES. I, II, III, and IV all made it to the cover of Nintendo Power, had good sales (except IV), and created fond memories. Dragon Warrior 1 is most console people's first RPG, and is still copied to this day on smaller devices. But the NES is where U.S. Dragon Warrior sat for many years. While Final Fantasy 2 never came out for the NES (I had a pre-order. Sigh), it did make two large splashes on the 16 bit generation, and three on the 32 bit systems.

Dragon Warrior, on the other hand, was conspicuously absent after the NES. With absolutely nothing on the SNES, and a title snuck in at the end of the Playstation's lifetime, there was little to really keep the series fresh in player's minds. To them, Dragon Warrior was an old outdated game that had been done a million times before, and a million times better. They waited too long to do a sequel, but not long enough that it could be considered new again.

Now I need to whip out the old emulator and find a copy of DQ IV.

I personally love Gold Golems, but Drakees were adorable.

Re:FFVII Remake

[CaptMonkeyDLuffy]

CG Movie versus game remake? Since we're talking about Square, there isn't much difference between the two to begin with.

Re:I Once Read A Cool Fact About DQ...

[BlueCodeWarrior]

Google is your friend.

From the link:
Dragon Quest is so popular that when Dragon Quest 3 was release in Japan, many people skipped school to buy it and fights broke out over the carts. Because of this, law now requires them to release Dragon Quest games on weekends.