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Forums - Sales Discussion - DQXI Switch in the West

Xxain on 30 September 2019
Mar1217 said:
Xxain said:

Square Enix has attempted multiple times to strengthen Dragon Quest foothold in the west though. At this point if you consider yourself a JRPG fan then you know what Dragon Quest is. These JRPG fans are buying Persona, they're buying Nier, they're buying Tales, Xeno, but not Dragon Quest. It cant be a marketing thing.

I mean, Xeno and Persona are both exclusives, Nier (Automata I presume) isn't a traditional JRPG and Tales ... has never sold that godly in the west either. 600K isn't poor by any definition I'd say. Anyway, it isn't too bad to see some series remaining in their niche sometimes, not every games are supposed to be tailor made to every sensibilities with the market you're aiming for.

True but in this case no. Square Enix was definitely disappointed with western sales of Dragon Quest 11. It is summed up as "not what we wanted but decent enough to keep trying"



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ARamdomGamer on 30 September 2019

They should throw a demo of Final Fantasy XVI on the box.



The_Liquid_Laser on 30 September 2019

I just downloaded the demo yesterday and so far I am enjoying the game immensely.

As far as the Western market goes, here is one big difference between Dragon Quest 11 and previous entries.  Up until now I always felt Dragon Quest was living in Final Fantasy's shadow.  Even in the NES days, I played the first two Dragon Warrior (Quest) games and thought they were "good, but not as good as Final Fantasy".  Final Fantasy used to be my favorite series, but I just don't think very much of it anymore.  Right now I am very hungry for a really high quality turn based RPG.  Final Fantasy just ain't doing it anymore.  Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona don't really do it for me either.  Octopath Traveler was good, but it was different enough that it doesn't exactly scratch the same itch.

This is Dragon Quest 11's time to shine.  I've just started playing it, but to me it looks like the best turn-based RPG on the market right now.  It just exudes quality and polish.  That is exactly what I've been craving for a couple of console generations right now.  I may be alone, but then again, I have a feeling there are other disgruntled Final Fantasy fans willing to look elsewhere as well.



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AngryLittleAlchemist on 30 September 2019
Ljink96 said:

For what it's worth the game has been doing quite well on Amazon US, being right behind Link's Awakening at the #5 spot for about a week now.

https://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-video-games/zgbs/videogames/?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=sv_vg_13

I think it'll at least do better than it did on PS4. Though, I honestly don't care if Dragon Quest becomes huge in the west.

I'm too lazy to look it up but wasn't it just announced in a chart that DQ11S did half of what it did on PS4 in the U.K.?



Ljink96 on 30 September 2019
RolStoppable said:
Dragon Quest won't find a bigger audience in the West because most people who play it don't finish it and RPGs that don't get finished aren't favorably spoken of. What's at fault is the typical EXP progress that makes Dragon Quest games seemingly drag on forever after you've hit level 30. Mob after mob is thrown at the player, lots of time is spent on battles, but the level rarely goes up anymore and therefore progress is miniscule in the second half of any DQ game. The abandonement of random battles since IX has made the games only a bit more bearable, but they still firmly sit in the area where games get put down and never back up again. The games might not require the player to go out of their way to grind frequently, but that doesn't mean it's fun. Stat growth is an important part of RPGs, but DQ routinely flatlines.

As I like to say, those who consider Dragon Quest a great series are people who use Final Fantasy as benchmark. In that context they are correct, but Dragon Quest XI is yet another entry that can be a 7/10 game at best. Enjoy the first half because it's well done, but the quality gradually drops afterwards and doesn't pick up again.

I feel the exact opposite about XI. The first half is traditional DQ fare. If it had stopped after the first half ti would have been an ordinary DQ game. The second and third acts were more interesting I think. Dragon Quest XI has pacing similar to that of Final Fantasy VI, even to a point where the game references a FFVI soundtrack "Searching for friends".

I don't see how so many people are saying XI is grindy, I never had to sit in an area and grind to progress the plot. It sucks that DQXI takes long to get interesting, but I don't think the first half was better than the second by any stretch of the imagination. DQXI has also been spoken highly of...it has an 89 MC. I'm genuinely curious as to what players suggest the series needs. More Waifus? More Freind Trees, Tea time, dating? 



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Ljink96 on 30 September 2019
AngryLittleAlchemist said:
Ljink96 said:

For what it's worth the game has been doing quite well on Amazon US, being right behind Link's Awakening at the #5 spot for about a week now.

https://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-video-games/zgbs/videogames/?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=sv_vg_13

I think it'll at least do better than it did on PS4. Though, I honestly don't care if Dragon Quest becomes huge in the west.

I'm too lazy to look it up but wasn't it just announced in a chart that DQ11S did half of what it did on PS4 in the U.K.?

I'm not aware of that data, however 1...it's the UK. That's never been a strong market for Nintendo. EU as a whole of course is much stronger. 2, if sales data was released (which I haven't seen as of yet) it most likely does not include digital as Nintendo doesn't include digital as far as I'm aware. 

Edit: So it seems DQXI with 3 days of charting debuted at No. 11 without digital in the UK. Not terrible. Obviously not Fifa 20. But we need to see the entirety of the EU and NA to make solid conclusions. 

Last edited by Ljink96 - on 30 September 2019

PAOerfulone on 30 September 2019

I'm currently playing through the game on the Switch. It's my first DQ game. I'm at around the 17 hour mark of my game time, I've gotten 5 of the 7 main party members, and I'm greatly enjoying it so far. We'll see how well my opinion holds as I progress further.
As far as it's performance in the West goes, if Amazon and GameStop is anything to go by, it's performing pretty well, alongside Link's Awakening. The best I could hope for is that it matches the PS4 version in Western sales. But that's about it.

Last edited by PAOerfulone - on 30 September 2019

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outlawauron on 30 September 2019
RaptorChrist said:

Dragon Quest has not made much of an impact in the west, and I think a large part of that is due to poor marketing. I've been seeing a lot of DQXI Switch advertisements, promotional material, etcetera, and it makes me wonder if this version of the game will be the one to hit big in the west.

I do recall hearing that DQXI had the best selling launch in the west, doubling the previous record, which is great, but the reality is that sales were less than stellar, all things considered. I'm not sure if this is accurate or not, but this Tweet states that DQXI managed 4 million worlwide, and 3.4m of which were Japan. That leaves 600k for the rest of the world.

https://mobile.twitter.com/gamedatalibrary/status/1059999628089876482

Have you played DQXI? If so, what platform? Thoughts on the game? Can it reach 1m total sales in the west?

Depends on the tracker you source. Media Create had a lower number, and Gematsu reported as much as 800k shipped in the West.

I would be surprised if the PS4/PC version of DQ11 hasn't passed a million.

Game is quite good though. I played through on PS4 and sunk quite a lot of time on it. I think Switch owners who missed the original release should download the demo and give it a shot. It's a very well crafted JRPG.

Last edited by outlawauron - on 30 September 2019

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StuOhQ on 30 September 2019

Loving the replay through (despite the resolution being unnecessarily low). I believe and hope it will do quite well in the West but the awful mobile ports of 1,2, and 3 on Switch aren't helping.



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ARamdomGamer on 30 September 2019
StuOhQ said:
Loving the replay through (despite the resolution being unnecessarily low). I believe and hope it will do quite well in the West but the awful mobile ports of 1,2, and 3 on Switch aren't helping.

Yea, when it was first announced I was kind of excited for the first 3 DQ games, then I see their eshop page, they look so ugly and low effort, the bad text font and coloring of Toriyama's work doesn't do it any favors either and the current synth for the music instead of the far superior NES and SNES soundfont.