SE just seems to fail to realize that there is demand for a completely traditional, orthodox JRPG series over here as well. And they might not blend the old with the new, but buy, so I feel that the DQ games are way more cohesive than FF when it comes to storytelling. The problem is always the marketing and SE's weird expectations.

Not sure yet how DQVII 3DS did but at least it got a lot of coverage by Nintendo through the Directs and online guides to the point that's whole lot of people online were excited about it. Compare that to how no one's played the DS releases of the Zenithian saga or the rerelease of the first 6 games plus VIII on iOS. SE just sent them out and expected Western fans to just pick them up because it's DQ, completely ignoring the fact that it's cultural relevance is not universal. It needs to be smurfing marketed properly.

Coming back to what Aulayna said, by browsing reddit I noticed there's apparently a consensus that DQ is actually bigger in Europe than it is in the US. The rereleases sold better, at least, though that's probably because we're simply making up for the fact that the series hadn't been released here at all before VIII. So suddenly it's "holy crap, there's this whole other excellent JRPG series that isn't FF and it's been hidden from us all this time! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!"

(At least that's what it was like for me. I've been playing the DQ series in order for a little over a year now and I just can't get enough)