The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Quest series is a national phenomenon in Japan, yet it has always struggled to find a sizeable audience in other countries around the world. Square Enix is making another attempt to popularize the series outside of Japan with the help of Nintendo and it's possible that the time has arrived for Dragon Quest to win the hearts of the international audience.
There was once a misconception that there wasn't an audience for JRPGs outside of Japan, which is why many classic series never made their way overseas during the '80s and early '90s. Everything changed when Final Fantasy VII was released in 1997, as it became one of the most beloved video games of all time and sold millions of copies around the world. The popularity of Final Fantasy VII meant that other com♐panies began localizing their JRPGs, with 🍎varying degrees of success.
The Dragon Quest series never had the excuse of not being localized, as the first four games appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System under the Dragon Warrior name. It might have been the luk🧸ewarm reception to these games that created the notion of JRPGs not being popular outside of Japan.
The Rise Of Other JRPG Franchises
As time went on, there were other long-running JRPG franchises that managed to find an audience outside of Japan. Fire Emblem got a promotional bump from Super Smash Bros. Melee with the addition of Marth and Roy to the game, which led to fans being curious about their series of origin. The Fire Emblem franchise would later find a huge audience with the release of Fire Emblem Awakening on the Nintendo 3DS and with the incredibly profitable Fire Emblem Heroes for mobile phones. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a strong contender for 2019's Game of the Year and it has helped cement the series as a major Nintendꦉo franchise.
The most surprising JRPG franchise to break the international market is Shin Megami Tensei and its Persona spin-off series. Persona 3 garnered a cult following, as the game earned media attention from the fact that its characters pretended to shoot themselves in the head in order to use magical powers. The Shin Megami Tensei series would later see numerous ports to modern systems and the Persona series would reach mainstream success, with Persona 5 being lauded as one of the best games of 💫the decade.
Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei eventually broke into the international market, yet Dragon Quest has always barely managed to garner a cult audience. Nintendo and Square Enix made a push to promote the Dragon Quest series during the Nintendo DS era, yet it never took off. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past was almost never localized due to this lack of interest and it was only due to a letter-writing campaign from the French Dragon Quest fans that it received an international release. Dragon Quest X has stil🍃l yet to be localized,꧅ due to its nature as an MMO.
The Hero Draws Near
Square Enix is making a renewed push to promote the Dragon Quest series outside of Japan and Nintendo is on board, as Hero (the name for a selection of four different Dragon Quest protagonists) was added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a DLC character. It's possible that Square Enix hopes that Hero will bring attention to the Dragon Quest series in the same way that Marth and Roy did for Fire Emblem in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Nintendo has also been heavily promoting the release of Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of a🦩n Elusive Age - Definitive 💟Edition on the Nintendo Switch, as it has been extensively featured in several Nintendo Directs. The original version of but it was hamstrung at launch by the boneheaded decision to launch it alongside Marvel's Spider-Man, which was a game that dominated the headlines. Dragon Quest XI S has also been released in a month that is stacked with releases, so it's possible that Square Enix ﷺmight be repeating the terribl🌃e release setup.
The original Dragon Quest trilogy has recently been ported to Nintendo Switch and there is a good chance that 4-6 will follow in the future. There are mobile versions of Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past and Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King that could be ported to the Nintendo Switch and Yuji Horii (the creator of the series) has talked about remaking Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for the Nintendo Switch.
The Dragon Quest fanbase outside of Japan has been passionately advocating for the series for years, yet even the artwork of Akira Toriyama has done little to attract a wider audience. Square Enix and Nintendo have been pushing hard for the Dragon Quest series to find success outside of Japan and it may be now or never. If Dragon Quest can't win the he🎀arts of the international audience with this much attention, then it may ha⭕ve been a doomed cause all along.