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PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

Dragon Quest V Remake Hits Big In Japan 39

Posted by simoniker from the different-strokes-for-different-folks dept.
Thanks to GamerFeed for its article noting that Square Enix's PlayStation 2 remake of Dragon Quest V has debuted big in Japan, since this previously mentioned SNES remake has already "sold over a million units in just 2 days", additionally helped by "the inclusion of a preview disc of Dragon Quest VIII." The series, known as Dragon Warrior in the States, has never really taken off outside Japan, however: "Dragon Quest VII went on to sell more copies than any other PSOne game in Japan ever. By contrast, Dragon Warrior VII, and the Dragon Warrior series, has never attained more than a small but loyal cult following in the US."
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Dragon Quest V Remake Hits Big In Japan

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  • yay! Dragon quest was an awesome game, and i cant wait to try out the ps2 remake. They should do this with more games, like FFVI and FFVII and FFV

  • The question is... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dancingmad ( 128588 ) on Sunday March 28, 2004 @02:56PM (#8697029)
    Anyone know if there are plants to bring 5 over here to the U.S.? With DQ8 coming out later in the year and Final Fantasy 12 being pushed back for DQ, I really need my RPG fix.
    • Score: -1 Flamebait Don't hope too hard. Remember what Square did to Final Fantasy (since you like DQ/DW, I can only assume you were around before that abortion that was FF7).

      Square's 2 strikes:
      1. Final Fantasy X-2, a DIRECT sequel to an FF game
      2. Final Fantasy XI being an MMO Bazaar[0]
      3. Dragon Warrior 8 is their last chance for redemption

      Skewing even further off-topic, does anyone know why Square gave up the rights to Xenogears to Namco? Xenosaga is a disappointment. =\

      [0]I refuse to call it an RPG s

    • Re:The question is... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by metroid composite ( 710698 ) on Sunday March 28, 2004 @08:44PM (#8699430) Homepage Journal
      Look to a different system perhaps? I've noticed that RPGs comming out for the GBA are suddenly going up, whereas PS2 RPGs were never really released at the same rate as PSX RPGs. As far as those go, I can personally reccomend Mario and Luigi, have heard good things about Fire Emblem 7 and mediocre things about FFTA. Golden Sun...is made by the same people as Beyond the Beyond, though a fair bit better polished at least....

      Though, even on the PS2, La Pucelle is comming out in...3 days actually; and that's a quite significant release (sequel to Disgaea).

      • La Pucelle isn't a sequel to Disgaea, it was created and released before Disgaea in Japan and they're unconnected (though Pucelle is supposed to make a cameo in Disgaea, I haven't seen her).

        I liked FFTA as much as my commentary is worth. It wasn't as grand as FFT, but I did like the graphics and battle system. It had its bad points, but I loved it and played it all the way through.

        As for the GBA, I am playing Tactics Ogre now, and FE and Mario and Luigi are slated next on my list.

        As for Square screwing
        • La Pucelle isn't a sequel to Disgaea, it was created and released before Disgaea in Japan and they're unconnected (though Pucelle is supposed to make a cameo in Disgaea, I haven't seen her).

          In the last few chapters of Disgaea, options will open up in the Dark Congress that allow you to enter a series of hidden worlds. The really, really high level ones that I can't even get to yet contain some La Pucelle characters. You have to have an obscenely high level though, so in order to get them, I'd go straight
  • I may get soem of this wrong, but apparently the series is so popular in Japan, the government mandated that it only be released on weekends. This was because hundreds of thousands of kids would skip school to buy it, when it came out on weekdays.

  • My thoughts (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DarkkOne ( 741046 ) on Sunday March 28, 2004 @03:51PM (#8697359) Homepage Journal
    I've been a fan of the DQ/DW series since the first game... it was actually the first RPG I played on the NES. I think the problem with sales in the US is that RPGs never were *incredibly* popular at first anyway. Once FF2 and 3 (4/6) came out on the SNES, even among the niche, the party system of FF had lodged itself in everyone's minds, as well as the variety of travel in its world.

    Then came FFVII, and the way it somehow attracted a fairly large crowd of what previously weren't RPG players. By the time we got DQVII, Final Fantasy was far superior, at least if you were looking purely at polycount. The people attracted to eyecandy, and action (the kind of people FF7/8 seem to have appealed to) found the mostly sprite-based (yes, they *were* 3D to an extent) graphics, and slower gameplay of DQVII not to their liking.

    Since the series stayed mostly under the radar, I know most of the people I've asked didn't realize there were more than one until VII came out, the fact that the only two games they've tried were both "behind the line" from their perspective is surely not going to help the game stateside.

    Regardless, I personally can't wait to play any future releases. This series has been one of my favorites. I quite like the gameplay (and for some reason, Drakees are my favorite critter of all time.)

    • Re:My thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Sunday March 28, 2004 @07:23PM (#8698956) Homepage
      Ahh... Memories.

      Don't forget, though, that Dragon Warrior was quite popular on the NES. I, II, III, and IV all made it to the cover of Nintendo Power, had good sales (except IV), and created fond memories. Dragon Warrior 1 is most console people's first RPG, and is still copied to this day on smaller devices. But the NES is where U.S. Dragon Warrior sat for many years. While Final Fantasy 2 never came out for the NES (I had a pre-order. Sigh), it did make two large splashes on the 16 bit generation, and three on the 32 bit systems.

      Dragon Warrior, on the other hand, was conspicuously absent after the NES. With absolutely nothing on the SNES, and a title snuck in at the end of the Playstation's lifetime, there was little to really keep the series fresh in player's minds. To them, Dragon Warrior was an old outdated game that had been done a million times before, and a million times better. They waited too long to do a sequel, but not long enough that it could be considered new again.

      Now I need to whip out the old emulator and find a copy of DQ IV.

      I personally love Gold Golems, but Drakees were adorable.

  • DQ/DW's popularity (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Pluvius ( 734915 ) <pluvius3NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday March 28, 2004 @04:20PM (#8697566) Journal
    Dragon Quest VII went on to sell more copies than any other PSOne game in Japan ever. By contrast, Dragon Warrior VII, and the Dragon Warrior series, has never attained more than a small but loyal cult following in the US.

    That's probably because the DQ/DW series is about a decade behind the times. I'm not just talking about graphics, either. Fighting the hordes of palette-swapped enemies that DQ subjects you to with the limited amount of innovation that the DQ series has just isn't all that fun anymore.

    Rob
    • So what exactly is it behind the times in? Since you aren't talking about graphics and all you used as an example is graphics? Maybe I'm just lost though.

      And have you actually played any of the Super Famicom releases of the Dragon Warrior series?
      • And have you actually played any of the Super Famicom releases of the Dragon Warrior series?

        Yeah, both of them. They're better than the first four, but that's to be expected by technological advances. Compare DQ6 to contemporary games like Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger and it falls short.

        Rob
      • I've gotta join the chorus here--the old NES Dragon Warriors are awesome, though I confess to never playing any Super Famicom DQs. But Dragon Warrior VII on PS1 is, well, bad. The story, the dialogue, the action--all of it is really mind numbingly boring.

        The graphics are bland but sufficient--but you can't look beyond the graphics to see a good game, because they forgot to make a good game.

        It amazes me that it was the best selling psone game in Japan--surely they were as disappointed with the title as

        • Personally, I thought it was a pretty good game. Just that I haven't been able to find it since i joined and subsquently left the Navy. Just because it wasn't totally mind-boggling awesome, doesn't mean it BAD. I have played many a RPG that were more lackluster than Dragon Warrior VII. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest come to mind?

          How much of the game did you play? If you played all the way through, sure I can see how you can say the story was lackluster.

          I'll agree with everyone else, the first four Dragon
        • I would join you saying that DQ5 was somewhat bland, but, have you played DQ6? It was amazing. The amount of subgames and sidequests is superior to any game in his era. The gameplay was very balanced, and it incorpored a great topology (there were two parallel worlds, which were connected in some points, ala A Link to The Past).

          DQ6 is at least as good as Chrono Trigger or FF6.
    • Fighting the hordes of palette-swapped enemies that DQ subjects you to with the limited amount of innovation that the DQ series has just isn't all that fun anymore.

      As far as I was concerned with the early Dragon Warrior/Quest games (I played 1-4 on the NES) the game was never about innovation but about telling a storyline that did sound like something out of a 9 year old kid's book report.

      The Final Fantasy series hasn't done much innovation in comparison either. Sure they've tried all sorts of different i

  • I really hope that we get the DQV remake here. I still haven't forgiven the Enix half of SE for *almost* bringing the PS1 DQIV remake here - and then cancelling it at the last minute. ARRGH!!!
  • Part of the loyalty comes from there being anime based on the series. I recently bumped into someone that is outspokenly anti-gaming but would spend hours playing dragon quest because "??????????"

  • Obscurity is not the issue. (Score:3, Informative)

    by metroid composite ( 710698 ) on Sunday March 28, 2004 @09:48PM (#8699785) Homepage Journal
    Say what you will, but collecting from 26 raters on the RPGDL forums who had played an average of 53 (mostly console-style) RPGs each, Dragon Warrior RPGs are regarded as fairly average at best (with the exception of the DW4 remake on the PSX which very few had played). I've certainly heard suggested that Dragon Warriors are just generally mediocre games (yet inexplicably popular in Japan; like how Pokemon Snap sold well for some odd reason). It's also may just fit Japanese culture better. I'll repost an old version of the list now (most easily accessible to me on this computer). There's a few mistakes, as this older document was never recompiled, but close enough....

    A few things to note about this list:
    1. it is in no way cannon; a few people admitted that they have odd taste. This was what one group of people enjoyed more on average.
    2. Games that a lot of people have played will end up closer to average in general. I've tossed all games with less than two raters, because those just end up fairly random.
    3. Games that are on here are things which people decided to rate. Nobody considered Zelda a Console-style RPG; sorry to disappoint those who insist otherwise. Star Control 2 was briefly here and kicking butt, but the raters decided not to include it in their revised lists.

    Rank. Game Name: standard deviations (Number of people who rated) (systems on which it has appeared)

    1. Disgaea: 1.28 (5)(PS2)
    2. Brigandine: 1.26 (7)(Playstation)
    3. Final Fantasy Tactics: 1.17 (25)(Playstation)
    4. Suikoden 2: 1.07 (21)(Playstation)
    5. Paper Mario: 0.97 (7)(N64)
    6. Suikoden 3: 1.02 (18)(PS2)
    7. Rhapsody: 0.96 (3)(Playstation)
    8. Final Fantasy 6: 0.93 (24)(SNES, Playstation)
    9. Tales of Phantasia: 0.88 (10)(SNES(JP), GB/C(JP), Playstation(JP), GBA(JP))
    10. Final Fantasy X: 0.84 (19)(PS2)
    11. Phantasy Star 4: 0.7 (16)(Genesis)
    12. Koudelka: 0.68 (8)(Playstation)
    13. Xenosaga: 0.64 (16)(PS2)
    14. Seiken Densetsu 3: 0.58 (12)(SNES(JP))
    15. Chrono Trigger: 0.56 (24)(SNES, Playstation)
    16. Skies of Arcadia: 0.58 (6)(DC, GCN)
    17. Shadow Hearts: 0.56 (17)(PS2)
    18. Breath of Fire 5: 0.69 (7)(PS2)
    19. Xenogears: 0.55 (23)(Playstation)
    20. Valkyrie Profile: 0.53 (23)(Playstation)
    21. Final Fantasy 3: 0.53 (11)(NES(JP))
    22. Threads of Fate: 0.5 (5)(Playstation)
    23. Seiken Densetsu 1 (=FFA): 0.49 (4)(GB/C)
    24. Final Fantasy Legend 2: 0.2 (3)(GB/C)
    25. Ogre Battle 64: 0.48 (5)(N64)
    26. Final Fantasy 4: 0.41 (24)(SNES, Playstation)
    27. Tactics Ogre: 0.42 (7)(SNES(JP), Playstation, Sat(JP))
    28. Tales of Eternia: 0.4 (11)(Playstation)
    29. Grandia2: 0.36 (14)(DC, PS2, PC)
    30. Breath of Fire 4: 0.39 (16)(Playstation, PC)
    31. SaGa Frontier: 0.32 (12)(Playstation)
    32. Live a Live: 0.33 (6)(SNES)
    33. Final Fantasy 7: 0.33 (25)(Playstation)
    34. Persona 2: 0.31 (5)(Playstation)
    35. Lunar 2: Eeternal Blue Complete: 0.31 (18)(Playstation, Sat(JP), SCD)
    36. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete: 0.29 (17)(Playstation, Sat(JP), GBA, SCD)
    37. Pokemon R/B/Y: 0.17 (13)(GB/C)
    38. Ogre Battle: 0.27 (10)(SNES, Playstation, Sat(JP))
    39. Wild ARMs 3: 0.27 (13)(PS2)
    40. Sailor Moon: Another Story: 0.24 (6)(SNES(JP))
    41. Earthbound: 0.24 (11)(SNES)
    42. Suikoden: 0.21 (22)(Playstation)
    43. Shadowrun: 0.2 (3)(SNES)
    44. Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits: 0.19 (7)(PS2)
    45. Lufia2: 0.21 (19)(SNES)
    46. Vanguard Bandits: 0.17 (3)(Playstation)
    47. Legend of Legaia 2: 0.16 (6)(PS2)
    48. Azure Dreams: 0.13 (3)(Playstation)
    49. Alundra: 0.11 (3)(Playstation)
    50. Bahamut Lagoon: 0.16 (6)(SNES)
    51. Shining Force 2: 0.06 (14)(Genesis)
    52. Persona: 0.06 (6)(Playstation)
    53. Pokemon G/S/C: -0.2 (5)(GB/C)
    54. Front Mission 3: 0.02 (6)(Playstation)
    55. Dragon Warrior 4: 0.02 (11)(NES, Playstation(JP))
    56. Tales of Destiny: 0.06 (11)(Playstation)
    57. Wild ARMs 1: 0.01 (16)(Playstation)
    58. Vandal

    • Uh huh... So the majority of people rated Final Fantasy X trash above DW/DQ. The majority also uses windows on their PCs. No one says the Majority has to be right.

      People love to comment about the "Lack of innovation" in the DQ line, especially compared to FF. I always found that amusing since FF was a knockoff.

      Aside: The original "Final Fantasy" was so named because Square was on the verge of ceasing to exist, and it was going to be their last game. At the time, DQ was kicking major ass in Japan, so
      • Uh huh... So the majority of people rated Final Fantasy X trash above DW/DQ. The majority also uses windows on their PCs. No one says the Majority has to be right.

        Actually the first set of people who played FFX called it trash, and the rest avoided it for a while; when they finally did play it they were mostly impressed; FFX's sphere grid is something that hasn't been done before, the characters have strong personalities, and the music is quite good. Overall the remaining group of haters still pulls it

        • Actually the first set of people who played FFX called it trash, and the rest avoided it for a while; when they finally did play it they were mostly impressed; FFX's sphere grid is something that hasn't been done before, the characters have strong personalities, and the music is quite good. Overall the remaining group of haters still pulls it down a few notches but it has strong redeeming qualities

          Having played through it (twice, gods help me) I will admit it does have SOME redeeming qualities (the voice
          • Well *I* liked Xenogears graphics. ;) It's a valid point, but I submit that those games were probably rated by fans (by fans, I mean the kind of fans who played Final Fantasy 1-6 *BEFORE* FF7 came out... the "niche" fans) since I've never really seen them hyped into the mainstream

            In general, yes this is a reasonably "hardcore" group, though nobody was restricted from rating so there was a mixture (I'm a latecommer to the genre myself).

            Nope, none in FF6, and it's an awesome game, isn't it? ;)

            Indeed!

            I

          • The sad thing about internet culture is that somehow BtB got associated with "worst RPG". From my research of it...it looks kind of interesting, but certainly not an easy game...which is probably what turns people off (people like their easy stuff).

            Being both an "old school" console RPGer and someone who has played BtB, I'll comment...

            It's a kind of game that was released after its time. It's a *lot* of level grind and there's not much more to it.

            There was a time when you could release an RPG
            • There was a time when you could release an RPG with a ton of fairly mindless random-encounter-bashing required to get enough money/experience to get through the next part of the game. That kind of game doesn't really sell in a RPG game anymore -- if anything, that kind of crowd has migrated to the MMORPG genre.

              I love to mock those MMORPG players, paying monthly subscriptions just to level-grind. XD
    • Certified Dragon Warrior nut here. DW1 was the first NES RPG i'd ever played, and I loved it to death. After discovering it had sequals, I rented 2, 3, and 4 (several times, each) and played them to death. I loved DW4 so much (with its chaptered story that let you see the world from 5 different angles) that I bought it too. Later down the line, I scraped up some ROMs and translations for DQ5 and 6.
      I've loved them all. The funny thing is though, whenever I fire up a DW/DQ game, i'm never looking for innovat

  • Never understood why it didn't catch on. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DroopyStonx ( 683090 ) on Monday March 29, 2004 @12:25AM (#8700687)
    Back in the days of the NES, the only good RPGs were Final Fantasy and the Dragon Warrior series.

    Final Fantasy was cool and all, but... compared to games like Dragon Warrior 3 and 4, it didn't stand a change. Those games were HUGE, chock-full of dungeons, monsters, stories with twists and turns, hidden quests, and more.

    Not only that, but the Final Fantasy games were pretty short (the early sequels, anyway). Aside from the first, the DW games were LONG. I think DW7 was the longest clocking in at at least 100 hours.

    It might not've had the fancy backdrops/cutscenes like FF7/8/9 had, but that was probably the BEST RPG I ever played for PSX.. just because it was so true to its roots.

    Why the series never caught on is beyond me.

    What's even more strange is the amount of people who are hardcore RPG fans who have NEVER played a single Dragon Warrior game. That is just insane. That's like being a Quake/Unreal fanatic without ever having played Wolfenstein 3D.

    What also irritates me is that these companies think there's no market for it when there is. If you already made the game for Japan, how much harder is it to translate the text and ship it to the US for those who want it?

    We've been jacked out of tons of great games because of this.. like the Mother series. Earthbound was the only release the USA ever had of it. Final Fantasy V never saw the light of day till the Anthology was released. FFII didn't have a US release until not even a year ago! (April 9, 2003). What about FF3?

    Square definitely found a nice niche in the market for porting the unreleased games. I was disappointed to find out that Enix never considered it, but after Squaresoft bought Enix, it looks like it's becoming a reality.

    While remakes are good, I'd be happier than hell to even play the ORIGINAL games ported to PSone/2. It kinda sucks to play the translated versions through an emulator.
  • Were the orginal games on the NES? I think I might have played DW3 on the NES which was a fantastic 80's RPG... I'd play a ps2 version.

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