If you say the words "Final Fantasy" in the United States, virtually anyone with a casual knowledge of games will have an idea of what you're talking about. However, if you say "Dragon Quest," you might get a few confused looks. That's unfortunate because Dragon Quest is a JRPG series that's worth any fan's time (or gamer's for that matter).
Dragon Quest Executive Producer Yu Miyake talked with EDGE Magazine about just that and revealed that the developers at Square Enix are focused on laying more fertile ground for the series in the West, saying that the company has "been thinking about a lot internally."
He compared the success of Final Fantasy, which has resonated well with Western audiences, and said that Dragon Quest might get overlooked due to its cartoonish art style, something that is seen as "childish" he says in the West.
And he's right.
Miyake said:
"We put a lot of effort into Dragon Quest VIII. We put a lot of thought on how we could appeal outside of Japan. We used a lot more regional voice acting, for example. We put a lot of thought into the menu design. But we didn’t want to give up the core element that made the game Dragon Quest. The game did have some modest sales overseas, but it wasn’t anywhere close to the level of Final Fantasy sales."
Dragon Quest VIII was a stellar JRPG that released all the way back in 2005 exclusively on the PS2 to the tune of an average Metascore of 89. It has since released on iOS and will be releasing on 3DS later this month. When it originally released, it was packaged with a demo of Final Fantasy XII, which was hotly anticipated at the time, which further backs up Miyake's point about the success of Final Fantasy. The company apparently saw a need to move copies of Dragon Quest VIII by leveraging a demo of an upcoming Final Fantasy game.
He continued:
"One thing that does stand out: in Japan the target audience for Dragon Quest is vast. It ranges from primary school students to people in their 50s. Now, Akira Toriyama’s art style is cartoonish, and in Japan that doesn’t alienate anyone; it’s not seen as childish. But outside of Japan, I think there’s often a stigma attached to that kind of aesthetic. Now, when an adult tries the game, they will discover that the subject matter is actually quite mature. Nevertheless, players are still left with this disconnect between how the game looks and how it plays. That’s a tension that just doesn’t exist in Japan."
Miyake goes on to say that the release of spin-off titles such as Dragon Quest Builders and Dragon Quest Heroes, while solid in their own right, serve to "soften up the ground for Dragon Quest XI."
Source: [EDGE via Nintendo Everything]
