Nintendo fans are celebrating Octopath Traveler. But a shadowy figure appears at the party. He puts a turd into the punch bowl. It’s a Sony fan.
“This game being exclusive doesn’t matter,” Sony fan sniffs. “When Dragon Quest 11 comes out, then you’ll see some big sales.”
Dragon Quest has a very funny sales history. Clearly, the Sony fan did not look up his sales charts (but message forum dwellers never do).
Dragon Quest, as we know, is very successful in Japan. Nintendo said, “Let us bring this game to America. And then the success will spread throughout America.”
But even back then, they thought Dragon Quest had to be localized. The name became Dragon Warrior. They talked an Old english with Thous and Thees. In one of the greatest video game promotions ever done, Nintendo GAVE AWAY Dragon Warrior with a 2 year subscription of Nintendo Power. Astonishing.
Four Dragon Quest games were ported to the NES. FOUR.
The sales were TERRIBLE.
Dragon Warrior sold 500,000 units despite that tremendous push.
Dragon Warrior II sold 150,000 units.
Dragon Warrior III sold 100,000 units (despite being the much better game than II).
Dragon Warrior IV sold 80,000 units.
There is a reason why Enix did not release Dragon Quest V and VI in America. America simply did not take to Dragon Quest.
But look at Final Fantasy. According to Wikipedia, it sold 700,000 in North America. The sequels were not ported to America until Final Fantasy 4.
Being a fan in that era, I always preferred Final Fantasy over Dragon Quest. It was never my surprise that Final Fantasy 7 broke out in the West, just as it was not my surprise that Final Fantasy kept going downhill from there. Final Fantasy games were more exciting and triggered the imagination more.
But Nintendo tried again to make Dragon Quest popular in America. They massively pushed Dragon Quest IX on the DS. How did that sell?
416,000 units.
In other words, Dragon Quest IX sold LESS than the original Dragon Warrior despite a much larger install base and more informed consumer. Americans don’t want Dragon Quest.
It doesn’t matter for platform. Dragon Quest VII sold around 200,000 in the West for PlayStation 2! Dragon Quest VIII fared better with 500,000, but this is still Dragon Warrior 1’s NES numbers.
I have no doubt Dragon Quest XI will be big in Japan. But I also have no doubt Dragon Quest XI will flop in America. The only reason why a delayed port is coming to Switch is because Nintendo is heavily pushing for it. For some reason, Nintendo has a hard on for Dragon Quest.
So why doesn’t Dragon Quest catch on in America? A big, big part of it is the animation. Dragon Quest feels anime. The music sounds lame.
I’ll probably buy it on Switch, but everything about this game is repellant to me. The anime style, the atrocious character design, the atrocious monster design, and so on.
How do I know Dragon Quest XI won’t sell well in America? Every other Dragon Quest has bombed in the West, why should this one be any different?
I expect games like Xenoblade 2 and Octopath Traveler to outsell Dragon Quest XI in the West.
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