Square Enix has been thinking about the popularity difference of FF and DQ

[Del Murder]

BD is the exception that proved a lot of SE's rules. It innovated a lot of the traditional JRPG elements but was not labeled with one of SE's big franchise names, and so they didn't expect it to sell much. Its success surprised them but it shouldn't have. It was a great game that blended tradition and modernization in the genre, and did it organically without checking off a bunch of boxes that they pieced together through market research. Yet like you said it didn't sell 10 million copies. So how can they expect their big franchises to do that when those don't have that blend of cohesive design and innovation that BD had (at least until the very end of that game)?

[Fynn]

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)

[Del Murder]

Oh yes, DQ is definitely more cohesive but it lacks the innovation. That's where I think BD succeeded. Of course, the very traditional DQ games are absurdly popular in Japan so I don't suggest they fix what ain't broken. Just don't expect that to fly out West where we don't have the deep seeded nostalgia for the series (present company excluded ).

[Fynn]

Of course, I agree. But I still think the fan base and demand are far bigger than SE give them credit for.

[Squall Leonhart Loire]

I'll definitely want to see how well Dragon Quest XI does. It looks gorgeous, it's on three platforms, and since the Nintendo Switch is one of those platforms and has received a lot of hype pre-release it could sell pretty dang well if Square Enix plays their cards right.

[Depression Moon]

Not really. Aside from the odd choice of putting IX on the DS, as the games were released chronologically, they went similarly to FF. I, II, III and IV were on NES, V and VI were on SNES, VII was on PSX and VIII was on PS2. Then was the oddball that was IX, but later on X got a PS3 release eventually, though that's multi-platform. XI is coming to PS4 again. It's only the rereleases that got released on various platforms, but that's pretty much the same as FF anyway.

Were all those initially released outside of Japan because with the case of FF All first six were definitely not and then ported to other systems years later. That was probably what she was talking about.

[Fynn]

Only V and VI weren't, and later on they were released on the same platform as IX. Hardly the KH situation here.

[Loony BoB]

As far as I'm concerned, it's down to marketing (I'd love to see the budget difference in marketing expenses for the two games outside of Japan, I expect they would be dramatic) and what Murd said about FF being innovative. Tradition is great for some games, but honestly the west likes home console games and innovation a lot more than Japan, I feel.

I've not played any DQ games yet. If they put one out for a home console release and it caught my attention, I would, but so far I don't think that has happened since I actually knew about DQ. If it has, well, it definitely had poor marketing because I'm oblivious to the matter.

[Fynn]

Well, DQVIII was first released on PS2, so maybe back then you just weren't aware of DQ yet.

[Loony BoB]

If only there were some kind of thing that would make people aware of games when they were coming out, then Square could invest in such a thing. They could call it 'marketing'.

Basically a lack of awareness on my part is not something I consider to be my fault, because I've been aware of a hell of a lot of games over the years without really needing to try to be aware of them. Having posted at EoFF for half of my life, I think it's really telling that I still haven't really known when a DQ game was being released on a home console. Again, I'd love to see a comparison of marketing budgets. Are we comfortable on the assumption that Square invests at least ten times the amount into marketing FF (or even Tomb Raider and Deus Ex) than they do DQ? Honestly, at this point I feel like I Am Setsuna got more marketing than DQ does in the western world.

[Skyblade]

The only Dragon Quest game I played heavily was Sentinals of the Starry Sky. I thoroughly enjoyed it, right up until the (utterly predictable) moment near the beginning when everything blew up.

When I reached the next town, the very next quest I took slaughtered me. I didn't just lose, I didn't even stand a chance.

Apparently there was a system introduced through the town which lets you hire random NPCs to give yourself a full party or something like that? And it seems required to do anything after that point in the game?

Not entirely sure on the details, it was a while ago. But the combination of the lack of conveyance and the fact I'd have to use random NPCs rather than individual characters turned me off the game, and I haven't gone back since.

[Fynn]

IX is one of the two games in the series where you only use player-created characters instead of actual characters.