Is it time to give up on the Dragon Quest series in the West?

M

Mr. RPG

Member
It has been two years since Dragon Quest VII was released in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS. In October 2012, Square-Enix said they were "evaluating" a Western release. Fast forward up until last year they were saying the same thing. Do people not realize that Square-Enix passed this game over a long time ago? Why do people delude themselves thinking that Square-Enix still remembers Dragon Quest fans when the past four years have shown otherwise?

Do people remain hopeful because of the recent Dragon Quest re-releases on mobile devices?

The last North American release of a brand new Dragon Quest game was Joker 2 in 2011 and I am a little doubtful that the mobile Dragon Quest games have received enough traction to convince Square-Enix to release new Dragon Quest games in the West.

How long will you keep hoping for a new Dragon Quest game? I gave up on seeing any of the 3DS Dragon Quest games a long time ago, but I remain hopeful that Dragon Quest Heroes will be released in the West.
 
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Dragon Quest Heroes will come to the West

1. Because its from Tecmo - and Tecmo brought far smaller games to the West

2. You cant ignore the huge Ps4 sales in the west

3. Why bring dragon quest back to the big screen if you ignore the west?

4. Sony brought Yakuza 5 to the West to please the fans - DQ Heroes will definetly have a far bigger request
 
I think Dragon Quest Heroes will definitely come over. Dragon Quest XI too if it's a PS4 game.

As for VII on 3DS, I doubt it at this stage.
 
It is time to give up on anything resembling consistency.

We may get the occasional spinoff or even remake or mainline game.

We'll never, ever get close to 50% of the packaged Dragon Quest software that's released in Japan now.
 
JuanLatino said:
Dragon Quest Heroes will come to the West

1. Because its from Tecmo - and Tecmo brought far smaller games to the West

2. You cant ignore the huge Ps4 sales in the west

3. Why bring dragon quest back to the big screen if you ignore the west?

4. Sony brought Yakuza 5 to the West to please the fans - DQ Heroes will definetly have a far bigger request
Click to expand...

I agree with these reasons, but I think the biggest reason is that translating Heroes will be extremely cheap compared to translating a full blown Dragon Quest game like VII.
 
Hey, I recognize you. You're the negative (realistic?) guy from Dragon's Den.

Personally, I'm reserving judgement until we see where these alliterative trademarks end up .
 
I don't see VII happening unless Nintendo localizes it, but seeing how future Dragon Quests aren't for Nintendo systems, there's no need for them to further promote the series just to help out sales of the series on non-Nintendo consoles. The only way I see VII happening is if Nintendo plans to bring out X to help with the lack of software for the Wii U. But both sound like a money-sink situations though.
 
DQVII 3DS never coming will always hurt me. Love the series so much. I do expect Heroes though.
 
TokoTamer said:
Hey, I recognize you. You're the negative (realistic?) guy from Dragon's Den.
Click to expand...

I laughed out loud to this. :P

TokoTamer said:
Personally, I'm reserving judgement until we see where these alliterative trademarks end up .
Click to expand...

We've done this before and it just led to disappointment. Don't you remember the last set of alliterative trademarks that just ended up becoming titles for the mobile Dragon Quest games?
 
JuanLatino said:
Dragon Quest Heroes will come to the West

1. Because its from Tecmo - and Tecmo brought far smaller games to the West

2. You cant ignore the huge Ps4 sales in the west

3. Why bring dragon quest back to the big screen if you ignore the west?

4. Sony brought Yakuza 5 to the West to please the fans - DQ Heroes will definetly have a far bigger request
Click to expand...

Based on what? I would guess the previous Yakuza games sold as well or better than the non-mainline DQ games we've gotten.
 
Heroes is more of an action game, so maybe someone will assume that it'll have more casual appeal. I dunno.

For the mainline series, I wonder if it just isn't compatible with Western tastes.

Soriku said:
DQ XI will come over so long as it's not an MMO.

Everything else...
Click to expand...

Making two Dragon Quest MMOs in a row seems like a really good way to cannibalize your sales (er, subscriptions). Unless Dragon Quest X is dead already, in which case another Dragon Quest MMO deserves more thought for other reasons.
 
I refuse to believe DQ7 won't get released here. I'll put my fingers in my ears and scream if anyone says otherwise. Its just...taking a long time because of the text and... stuff...
 
Well, SE always mentions in their reports how they shouldn't drop consoles because of the west, so if DQXI comes out on PS4 they'd probably localize it...

Hopefully with all the JRPGs coming out now they'll change their minds =P
 
gimel said:
I refuse to believe DQ7 won't get released here. I'll put my fingers in my ears and scream if anyone says otherwise. Its just...taking a long time because of the text and... stuff...
Click to expand...

I like the commitment. I wish I was still like you, but I became convinced after E3 last year that it just isn't coming. I think that Nintendo chose Bravely Default over Dragon Quest VII when Square-Enix (presumably) decided to pass over publishing both games.
 
hitmon said:
Guess you meant on consoles. I do have hope since they have been releasing them on mobile.
Click to expand...

Yep -- and while the cynic would (reasonably) say this is just S-E double-dipping on porting the DS rereleases, the interesting part of the DQIV release on iOS is that it includes party chat, the feature notoriously cut from the U.S. DS version. Fully translated (and with the new-style regional accents too). Which, unless I'm mistaken, indicates S-E is willing to put extra money into localization depending on the situation.

I'll take what I can get! I've never even really touched a musou game but I'd be sorely tempted to try out the PS3 version of Heroes if it comes over. Though I think we all know there's one DQ game in particular that we're clamoring to see here in the West...

Rocket Slime 3
 
threelights said:
Well, SE always mentions in their reports how they shouldn't drop consoles because of the west, so if DQXI comes out on PS4 they'd probably localize it...

Hopefully with all the JRPGs coming out now they'll change their minds =P
Click to expand...
Horii mentioned in an interview at that Taiwan game show the other week that they returned to PlayStation due to several circumstances.

Sony paying for western localization and promotion might be part of the deal for the DQ games, maybe?
 
Wasn't it stated that the next mainline Dragon Quest game would be appearing on a console? The only reason I see that decision being made is so they can start pushing the games in the west again. There's clearly a market for it and the fact that pretty much every game from the likes of Atlus and NISA is brought overseas should have SE embarrassed at this stage.
 
DQ Heroes is likely but I won't believe it until I see it.

DQ7 has seen a bit of hope with S-E's "Holey Heroes" trademark in Europe. It's a long shot and could mean nothing but combined with S-E's comments about letters and petitions from France making them re-think DQ7's localization status, that could be it.

DQX, I'm beginning to give up on it. I think Aeana was working on a menu translation though? Could be interesting.
 
Mockingbird said:
I don't see VII happening unless Nintendo localizes it, but seeing how future Dragon Quests aren't for Nintendo systems, there's no need for them to further promote the series just to help out sales of the series on non-Nintendo consoles. The only way I see VII happening is if Nintendo plans to bring out X to help with the lack of software for the Wii U. But both sound like a money-sink situations though.
Click to expand...

In the world of reason and consistency, XI is a 3DS game. But we live in an irrational space where IX was conceived as an action RPG, X is an MMO, and there's a DQ musou game. So I don't know.
 
Catchpenny said:
Based on what? I would guess the previous Yakuza games sold as well or better than the non-mainline DQ games we've gotten.
Click to expand...

the last DQ Game (DQ IX) sold 1.02 Mio in the west (thats the numbers from 2011) - Yakuza games never sell this good in the west. I think even with their Japanese numbers they hardly cross the million mark
 
zeromcd73 said:
Horii mentioned in an interview at that Taiwan game show the other week that they returned to PlayStation due to several circumstances.

Sony paying for western localization and promotion might be part of the deal for the DQ games, maybe?
Click to expand...

There would certainly have to be more to that, since that's exactly what Nintendo was doing. Hell, Nintendo did more to raise awareness for the series in the west with just the marketing campaign than Enix had ever done.
 
JuanLatino said:
the last DQ Game (DQ IX) sold 1.02 Mio in the west (thats the numbers from 2011) - Yakuza games never sell this good in the west. I think even with their Japanese numbers they hardly cross the million mark
Click to expand...

DQIX is a mainline game. I'm talking about the spinoffs like Slime Quest, Monsters and the like.
 
Mr. RPG said:
It has been two years since Dragon Quest VII was released in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS. In October 2012, Square-Enix said they were "evaluating" a Western release. Fast forward up until last year they were saying the same thing. Do people not realize that Square-Enix passed this game over a long time ago? Why do people delude themselves thinking that Square-Enix still remembers Dragon Quest fans when the past four years have shown otherwise?

Do people remain hopeful because of the recent Dragon Quest re-releases on mobile devices?

The last North American release of a brand new Dragon Quest game was Joker 2 in 2011 and I am a little doubtful that the mobile Dragon Quest games have received enough traction to convince Square-Enix to release new Dragon Quest games in the West.

How long will you keep hoping for a new Dragon Quest game? I gave up on seeing any of the 3DS Dragon Quest games a long time ago, but I remain hopeful that Dragon Quest Heroes will be released in the West.
Click to expand...



The last Dragon Quest Square-Enix localized for the west (outside of the mobile ports of the old games) was the DQ5 remake. the DQ6 remake and DQIX were both localized and published by Nintendo.

Basically, it looks like Square Enix gave up on DQ after they couldn't follow up DQ8's success with the DQIV and 5 remakes.
 
Ridley327 said:
Nintendo did more to raise awareness for the series in the west with just the marketing campaign than Enix had ever done.
Click to expand...

To be fair, Enix of America obviously wasn't nearly as big as Nintendo back in the day and didn't have access to the same resources and influence as Nintendo. I think Enix did a great job on localizing the Dragon Quest titles.

GaimeGuy said:
The last Dragon Quest Square-Enix localized for the west (outside of the mobile ports of the old games) was the DQ5 remake. the DQ6 remake and DQIX were both localized and published by Nintendo.
Click to expand...

That's very true and I do remember that. This only makes Square-Enix look even worse in comparison. Dragon Quest V came out almost six years ago on the Nintendo DS in North America.

Come on Square-Enix. This is just sad. You can't even release your own games.
 
In my opinion, don't "give up" on anything... just wait for it to come up. And don't get hopes up too high. I'm still waiting on Shenmue 3 (lol) but at the same time I don't sit around hoping for it, you know?
 
Mr. RPG said:
I like the commitment. I wish I was still like you, but I became convinced after E3 last year that it just isn't coming. I think that Nintendo chose Bravely Default over Dragon Quest VII when Square-Enix (presumably) decided to pass over publishing both games.
Click to expand...

S-stop...
 
Feel like SE USA is going to give it another shot with Heroes and maybe one or two the 3DS games (Theathrythm, Pirate Slime, DQVII). Their mobile plan has been sort of going down the drain, time to try something else.

Catchpenny said:
Based on what? I would guess the previous Yakuza games sold as well or better than the non-mainline DQ games we've gotten.
Click to expand...
They didn't. The PS3 Yakuza games sold worse than the DS DQ remakes and Monsters games in the US. All the Yakuza games combined even sold worse worse than DQIX.
 
Semi related. Dragon Warrior is one of my favorite NES games and I always enjoyed it more than Final Fantasy as a kid. I played a small portion of Dragon Warrior 2 on game boy color but other than that I've never continued with the series.

If I only played but really liked the first, should I play any others? If you had to recommend only one, which one?
 
superNESjoe said:
Semi related. Dragon Warrior is one of my favorite NES games and I always enjoyed it more than Final Fantasy as a kid. I played a small portion of Dragon Warrior 2 on game boy color but other than that I've never continued with the series.

If I only played but really liked the first, should I play any others? If you had to recommend only one, which one?
Click to expand...

Check out 5.
 
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