| nintendo_fanboy said: It seems strange that so many people played Dragon Quest as their first or one of their first RPG's, and yet it is still way less popular as a franchise than Final Fantasy, and even franchises like Tales of or Star Ocean that don't even appear on this list seem to be more popular in the west. |
Dragon Quest was the first true Console and 'JRPG'. And it was brought over here with Nintendo's help. Unfortunately, by the time it was brought to America, it was already released 3 years after it has been out in Japan (1986 Japan vs 1989 America). By that time, the graphics and gameplay were kind of showing their age. This was over 3 years after The Legend of Zelda, but even more than this, the American release of Final Fantasy was right on its heels less than a year later (1990).
The thing that stopped Dragon Quest from taking off however was the introduction of the SNES. By 1991, the NES was off and running, and Dragon Quest III had just barely been released in America. However, on the Final Fantasy side, they had not only gotten Final Fantasy IV out in Japan, but rushed it to America (calling it Final Fantasy II). And to put the final nail in the coffin, Enix never bothered to release Dragon Quest V or VI (the SNES Dragon Quest games) in America.
All these things added up are why Dragon Quest never caught on in America. And currently, Square Enix isn't doing that much to try to make the series popular either.
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