Why didn't Dragon Quest become as popular as other JRPGs in the West?

>Dragon Quest is a cultural phenomenon in Japan.[161] According to Ryutaro Ichimura and Yuji Horii, Dragon Quest has become popular enough that it is used as a common topic for conversation in Japan,[162] and is considered by the Japanese gaming industry as Japan's national game.[118]
Few people in the West care about this game series

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>The original Dragon Quest game is often cited as the first console RPG. GameSpot called it the most influential role-playing game of all time, stating that nearly all Japanese RPGs since then have drawn from its gameplay in some shape or form.[152] Next Generation said it was "probably the first ever 'Japanese style' RPG", and listed the series collectively as number 56 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time". In response to a survey, Gamasutra cites Quinton Klabon of Dartmouth College as stating Dragon Warrior translated the D&D experience to video games and set the genre standards.[154] Games such as Mother, Breath of Fire and Lufia & the Fortress of Doom were inspired by various Dragon Quest titles.[155] Dragon Quest III's class-changing system would shape other RPGs, especially the Final Fantasy series,[114] and its day-night cycles was also a "major innovation" for console RPGs according to GameSpot.[156] Dragon Quest IV's "Tactics" system, where the player can set the AI routines for NPCs, is seen as a precursor to Final Fantasy XII's "Gambits" system.[157] Dragon Quest V is cited as having monster recruiting and training mechanics that inspired monster-collecting RPGs such as Pokémon, Digimon, and Dokapon.[1][158] Dragon Quest V was unique in that it made pregnancy, and who the player chose as the mother, a crucial aspect of the plot.[159] The real world and dream world setting of Dragon Quest VI is considered an influence on the later Square RPGs Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy X.[1] The Dragon Quest series was recognized by Guinness World Records, with six world records in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition. These records include "Best Selling Role Playing Game on the Super Famicom", "Fastest Selling Game in Japan", and "First Video Game Series to Inspire a Ballet".[160]

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too silly.

Too generic

FF came less than a year after DQ in America, and both games seems to be years apart, which is true since in Japan FF1 came in late 87 while DQ came in mid 86.
FF in Japan is more often compared to DQ3 since it came in early 88, by then FF was the less impressive game, it wasn't until 91 than DQ3 came to America which by then it was old news.

Zero marketing

This, but also it failed to establish itself during the 4th and 5th gen. No SNES games localised while FFIV and VI were, DQVII released 4 years after FFVII and had to compete with FFIX in visuals.

dragon quest 1-4 were brought to west with too much delay. 4 released in 92 when snes had already came out. then 5 or 6 were never localized and 7 released for playstation in fucking october 2001

Blame Nintendo of America
They kept a lot of game from being localized and if they did manage one they butchered the hell out of it

Every game is literally the same. It's also ugly with bad music

Because the West already had their own medieval fantasy RPGs and combining that with anime aesthetics wasn't going to bump that.

FemC with 3 old dudes.

Not enough actions, Americans want to feel the combat

What about Europeans?

DQ1 struggled at first in Japan and needed Toriyama's help to take of at all. Even though it's relatively easy to pick up, thanks to streamlining the tabletop autism, it was still a weird, new experience to people.

It's popular in Japan because of that cultural relevance. It isn't popular in the west because the games can't fall back on nostalgia and thus are judged wholly on merit, ie. gameplay, story, music, characters, art, etc. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why it falls short in all regards for western players.

It was poorly handled in the west, no localizations back when the game first games would actually look impressive to people, and the early localizations completely removed Toriyama's artworks since the US hadn't become part of the gigantic Dragonball boom yet.

When the series finally started to get more consistent western releases the damage had already been dealt, the series would never be seen as Final Fantasy's equal outside Japan.

Because every other turn-based JRPG is "Dragon Quest but with [insert unique mechanic]" while Dragon Quest is just Dragon Quest.

It's too lighthearted for westerners.

>male version of enemy is an old man
>female version is not an old woman
why?

Instead of just putting the games out there, they tried to do major marketing on it but it always failed because no one wants to play Dragon Warrior 3 without the other games in the series. They just never committed to it. All the games have been translated in English but they're scattered all over the place. Squeenix don't move a single muscle unless their projections ensure a profit. I think that careful, corporate analysis has led to the string of disasters we've seen from Squee recently.

Why (You) dont help it get more popular? tell me your reccomendation for bab's first DQ

Not anymore with the upcoming XII, the very first thing they said about it is that the story will be grittier, aptly when the news broke there were threads here crying about how the west is about ruin Dragon Quest.