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jarrod on 28 January 2010
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Kenryoku_Maxis said:
jarrod said:
Kenryoku_Maxis said:
jarrod said:
Castlevania, Disgaea and Katamari aren't exactly huge sellers themselves. None of those games have passed 500k this gen actually, and Muramasa's outselling some of them even.

Yet they still get major attention from sites like IGN/GameSpot/GameTrailers for being popular, even 'core' games and their sequels are hyped.  This would only further prove my point that Muramasa is being labeled as 'miche' only because it didn't have a marketing push when it was released.  In other words, since people didn't hear about it on TV or from an article on IGN hyping it, they automatically default to thinking its a 'niche' title.  Although in the case of Muramasa, there were multiple articles/videos on sites like IGN/GameSpot/GameTrailers previewing the game.

I'd call it "niche" but that's mainly due to the merits of the game itself.  I mean it a Japanese made side scrolling 2D action RPG.  Those might've been big in the 16bit days, but they're practically an endangered species now and usually reserved for nostalgic enthusiasts like me.  In fact, I can count all the likeminded games we've gotten this gen on two hands and the only one that sold really well had Mario in it. :/

These days, I'd also call Castlevania "niche" to be honest, though it definitely still has some brand cache.

On consoles, I would definitely agree there's a limited amount of 2D side scrollers being made.  However, on handhelds, we're being flooded with them still.  So I guess I have a different view of the situation.  I mean, while some people will call a game like Muramasa niche, I'm also seeing many people starting to call the entire JRPG genre 'niche'.  Yet we have games from both genres selling in the multi-millions. 

What I was trying to get accross was that terms such as 'niche' are being used to describe games people precieve to be unpopular or they personally don't think are as good as another type of game, not based on sales or actual popularity.  And for the most part, I feel that comes from their lack of being hyped for the game personally (due to a lack of marketing for the game compared to highly advertised western games like Mass Effect, Halo or GTA).

I dunno, the only similar games (JP made sidescrolling ARPGs) I can think of this gen are...

  • Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) 2005
  • Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS) 2006
  • MegaMan ZX (DS) 2006
  • Super Paper Mario (Wii) 2007
  • MegaMan ZX Advent (DS) 2007
  • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) 2008
  • Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii) 2009
  • La-Mulana (WW) 2010
  • Cave Story (WW) 2010

...that's not much.  If we extended out to similar western games, then there's Shantae 2 and (sort of) Shadow Complex?  :/