Japanese Charts: Super Mario Maker 2 Knocks Fire Emblem: Three Houses Off Top Spot

Cool, not a fan of the School simulator anyway.

@Kalmaro nice bait mate

Why (yet again) are the console sales figures punctuated with commas, yet the game sales figures punctuated with full stops/periods? It's weird.

Gross. Mario maker is lame. Bunch of random hard levels made by 4 year olds.

@Aaronnnnn Not bait, I just really don't find the new fire emblem that interesting.

@Kalmaro haven’t played it yet, is that what is actually is?

To quote Mario in NSMBW: "Oh, yeah! Mario time!"

@Hoho First half of the game is essentially building relationships
Second half is the real meat.

It's a unique take on the FE franchise but not one that I'm interested in.

I'm quite excited to try out Three Houses...after I've replayed the rest of the series. Got a bunch of them I either haven't played or want to replay so I figured I'd just go through and knock them all out.

@Tendogamerxxx I actually find the search filters work quite well! I've had no trouble finding good quality levels, and with the detailed search I can find any style level with any theme I want easily.

@Hoho It's not a school simulator, but the setting is a monastery and you are a professor and your instructing gives you heavy control over how you want to build your characters skills. There is still tons of battling, but lots of good character interaction due to the setting. I'm 30 hours in and up to chapter 7, but really loving it so far. It's the first Fire Emblem game I've really bit my teeth into this hard.

@Kalmaro that sounds boring, are the graphics better than in the trailer, a lot of the background textures looked really
Flat.

@Kalmaro Ooo, hitting me with that "it's not bait" bait

I am curious to see those Switch Lite numbers in a few weeks, I can’t see it failing in Japan. Pretty quiet week for most, pretty quiet generation for Microsoft in Japan.

ouch..PS4 almost under 10k....almost xbox one territory

@Aaronnnnn Whatever you say. You kinda lost me.

@Aaronnnnn - In this world, everything is bait, and nothing is mate.

@Hoho About the same from what I've seen.

@Kalmaro How in the world did i lose you, my last message had 9 words

@Aaronnnnn You keep talking about baiting for some reason. Not really sure why you keep bringing that up.

@Kalmaro because you're just saying stuff that isn't true for attention...do you not know what baiting is? Also, besides this post, I've bring up baiting twice, and you act like I've brung it up multiple times

@Hoho just trust me on this, fire emblem three houses is more than a "school simulator", it has an incredible story, great gameplay, loveable characters, and all around just looks really great with it's art style. If you're into RPGs at least a little bit, I'd highly recommend playing FE three houses, or any fire emblem games. And dougphisig is right as well

@Aaronnnnn Multiple means more than one, and you admitted to doing it twice, tree times if we include the post you just made.

In any case, I never said anything untrue. The game has a school setting, and you focus on relationships for the most part before getting to the more traditional FE content.

Thus, I called it a school simulator. It's just not my cup of tea. Was I exaggerating? Sure. People who know about the game know what I meant though and those who didn't just asked me for clarification.

You just jumped straight to saying I was baiting for attention, as if I need any more than I already get.

@Kalmaro 1. You were baiting by over exaggerating about the "school setting" and 2. "You just jumped straight to saying I was baiting for attention, as if I need any more than I already get." Nice brag bud

No shame in losing to a Mario game.

@Hoho Personally, I would suggest the older FE games if you want more action and less focus on relationships but keep in mind that FE games generally do focus some on relationships between characters. It just recently has been getting dialed up though.

@Aaronnnnn It IS essentially a school setting, and I wasn't bragging, just stating facts.

That's all really cool because I love Mario Maker 2 but gosh I have to admit feeling some disappointment in seeing Dragon Quest Builders 2 continuing to tumble down the ranking when it's such a charming game and massive improvement over DQ Builders 1 which was itself a really cool game at the time

I know it was a vain longshot hope to think it could ever reach close to the top 3 or at least a more durable hold in the top 6 but it hurts a bit to see it falling almost forgotten again...

@Kalmaro technically it was both facts and bragging, but mostly bragging, it's like saying "there's a ton of games releasing soon, good thing i have a lot of money to get them all" at this persons end, this is a fact but it's worded as a way to brag, or "humble bragging" which is what you were doing

@Ludovsky question actually, do you need to play or know anything about DG Builders 1 to understand 2?

@Aaronnnnn Nope, it's just the truth, I don't need any more attention, I get enough to keep me satisfied. You're the one implying that I want more to begin with. That's on you to prove, not me.

@Kalmaro What? You are humble bragging by saying that you get a lot of attention, and you're just trying to make me look like the bad guy here, plus, when i say want more attention, i mean post something like what you said the first time just to try and start and argument...which worked. I mean, just look at the like dislike ratio on the first multiple comment you said, you were trying to start something and succeeded, end of story

FE3H sales are already fell that much? I know the digital sales are crazy for this game in Japan, but still....

shame i think for Fire Emblem not being as popular as Mario and Zelda to get the top spot is very impressive and should have held onto the number 1 seller for a while longer Three Houses is a very good game

@Ludovsky ? Why would DQB2 still be in the top 10? It was released 8 months ago, it’s not going to start suddenly selling more, because of the western release.

@Aaronnnnn False, I never said I get a lot of attention. I just said that I didn't need any more than I already get. That could very well mean I only get a little attention and I'm satisfied with that.

If you're wondering about why my comments make you look bad, it's because you're actually doing it to yourself. You acted like I was trying to get more attention and then accused me of bragging and saying I get a lot.

That's all on you.

@Kalmaro @Aaronnnnn hope you don’t mind me getting in the middle of you two (school) kids 😉... bait comments aren’t really Kalmaros style in my experience, and he or she has already said they were exaggerating with their original comment. You can agree to disagree guys, but not worth falling out over or dragging it on and on, let it go... ✌️

@Aaronnnnn Stop replying to that Kalmaro guy/gal, they're just starved for attention.

Unsurprising. Three Houses is clearly an amazing game, but it's a little more niche and doesn't have as much staying power as a certain plumber's newest level creation tool.

@SmileMan64 Yeah i know, he's just annoying, I'm just gonna block him and move on

Three Houses weak sales in Japan due to less people owning Switch? Didn't bomb by any means, but first week sales of 143,000 is a step down from Awakening's 242,000 and Fates 260,000. I thought graphics being better etc would help it sell more.

@MartyFlan I try not to start fights but I make sure I finish them xD

You're right though, no point in dragging it on. It's pretty clear their mind is made up and this is supposed to be for discussion.

@Galarian_Lassie Oh wait, my bad! I didn't realize it was the japanese chart so I was going from my memories of seeing the game already dropping in western charts.

That's entirely my bad mistake(I knew I probably should have drunk more coffee this morning).

@Kalmaro I’ve played all the GBA and 3ds titles, yea relationships were a thing, but it was supplemental to the fighting, and combined with permadeath, it gave a weight to the combat, from what I saw out of treehouse, it looked inverted. Granted Echoes was my favourite thus far and it had deviations from the combat. All that said, I still think this game isn’t pushing the switch hardware.

@Aaronnnnn Nope! Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a 100% self-contained experience.

All playing Dragon Quest Builders 1 might provide you is context on a very few easter eggs, and the ability to see how most of Builders 2's additions to the gameplay/world/etc was hinted at by Builders 1 within late game easter eggs.

The former is very limited you're not missing much and the later you could easily get as much by purchasing Builders 1 after playing Builders 2 because it's not really essential.

Heck some of it you could have guessed from playing the original Dragon Quest jRPG trilogy and the way both Builders 1 and Builders 2 echo Dragon Quest 1 and 2 respectively.

In fact, the funny thing in that regard is that playing Builders 2 and my experience of the many ways Builders 1 hinted at what it might be in it's own easter eggs... I can already have some loose ideas for what might be coming in the hypothetical Builders 3 if that does happen.

Honestly the fact there's a lot of potential for a Builders 3 building up on the very solid foundations of 1/2 is kind of why I really hope Dragon Quest Builders 2 do well enough to warrant "Builders 3" happening in the first place.

Builders 2 was fantastic in many rights, and the many late-game easter eggs hints it dropped might mean Builders 3 may be even moreso.

@Aaronnnnn I’ll get eventually, 1st week impressions can’t be trusted though. I thought Breath of the Wild was my favourite Zelda, now it’s very nearly my least favourite.

@Ludovsky Alright awesome, thanks for the info

@Hoho I was actually okay with awakening. Though I saw the writing on the wall with it since it was clear how much they were putting into relationships.

At least in that game though, it made sense and wasn't too bad. I did hate how bland Robin was, though.

That's pretty bad for FE. Not only did it sell less than a quarter of what it did last week, that was only for 4 days since it released 4 days before the day the chart was compiled.

So it's gone from about 143,000 in 4 days to 35,000 in 7 days. In other words, it's gone from selling about 35,000 a day to just 5,000 a day even though it's only its 2nd week out.

@Aaronnnnn iit's a pleasure. It's a really cool game. Wordy at times but relatively charming story for what's basically "a buddy comedy about a builder teaming up with the amnesiac reincarnation of the god of destruction" in the trappings of a block building game/rpg hybrid.

Why is Xbox tracked at all? Is lifetime sales, combined, really under a single week of switch sales?? Has it really done that badly??

Shame, Three Houses looks much more interesting to me than Mario Maker 2, but in the end as long as both games do well it doesn't matter.

@Kalmaro I thought the bait thing was a nod to a fishing game being number 3

I kinda thought Fire Emblem woudl hold the #1 spot for a while to be honest

@Darkthany Yeah. Perhaps. Though the Switch revision and Switch Lite probably have hurt sales as well cause I imagine a lot of people are waiting to buy a Switch now. Maybe sales will shoot up once the Lite gets delivered.

@Gravitron ...Haha, if only. Nope, they seemed to think I am attention starved or something. I dunno.

Fishing games are surprisingly fun.

Alright, let’s clear some things up.

1. Fire Emblem’s drop from previous games in the series can largely be attributed to shortages and a much larger than average digital share. The game is consistently selling almost all of the allotted stock, meaning its literally impossible for it to sell much more without Nintendo shipping more. Additionally, the digital share for the game will be significantly higher than normal due to both shortages and the NSO Vouchers (SMM2 also had an abnormally higher digital share bc of vouchers).

2. A 75% week 2 drop is perfectly normal for a RPG, which generally have poor legs. For comparison Awakening had a 75% drop and Fates had a 79% drop. Its a perfectly normal drop for a game of its genre, and it’ll be hard to tell what legs it really has till week 3 or 4.

3. Switch sales are falling because of the Switch w/ better battery life and Switch Lite coming out. There will probably be a small bump (~60k) when the better battery life version comes out, before falling again until the Lite comes out, when sales will soar once again. For comparison, PS3 sales dropped to around 2k a week just before the Slim version released.

TL;DR: Both FETH & the Switch are doing fine.

@VenomousAlbino Japan uses the (european) continental comma-as-decimal-separator system, while the other figures use the anglican periods. It's the same if you read numbers from France or Germany--"100.000", "100 000" and "100000,00" all mean a hundred thousand.

Hard for a big 150 hour strategy RPG to compete with the "anyone can pick up and play" nature of Mario Maker.

Even as accessible as FE3H is to newcomers, it's still a lot more demanding than Mario Maker 2, which is easy for basically anyone to pick up and play, but complex enough for almost anyone to enjoy. In short or long bursts.

But me, I put more hours in FE3H in the first two days than I've put in MM2 in total. lol

Yeah, I got to get back into mario maker at some point.

But Fire Emblem.

Anybody else find those Japanese sales figures very underwhelming? When I think of Fire Emblem, I used to think of it as a big IP in Japan. The game has been out almost two weeks and it's not even at 200k yet? I'm surprised Mario Maker 2 isn't even at 500k. Hard to believe games like Fire Emblem now relay on the West for sales and survival. Interesting trends.

Wow Japan is becoming more and more the Nintendo country. 9/10 of the top 10 is Switch, and Switch sales vs PS4 sales.. ouch.

@Kalmaro I checked it out I'm legitimately debating buying it. There was this one fishing game for dreamcast I absolutely loved. Even had the little fishing rod controller

@Hoho While I respect @Kalmaro 's right to his or her own opinion, I respectfully disagree. Yes there is an aspect of school slice of life to the first half of the game, the missions are still classic Fire Emblem and a lot of fun. About the only thing I would minus from FE3H is that the difficulty is inconsistent with previous titles. If you played Classic Normal in Awakening or Fates you will find Classic Normal in three houses to be a little easier.

Good thing there is a hard mode! And Lunatic slated for a free update coming soon.

Sothis's expression makes this article.

@VenomousAlbino I think Nintendo Life writers are often confused ot they don't have someone above them telling them that in this site we will do only one thing. So, sometimes they use the American commas (1,240,760.99) and sometimes the European periods (1.240.760,99), sometimes they write the USA only 3/14/2019 and sometimes they become universal and write 14/3/3019. Sometimes they write about (almost) USA only feet and inches and sometimes about meters. Sometimes they present prices only in US Dollars $, sometimes in English pounds £, sometimes both and when they remember they can even mention euros €. You, as a reader, have to adapt each time and even guess from time to time.

@Cathousemaster Xbox has never been popular in Japan. Still it's a major console and should be tracked.

This just in, turn-based strategy RPGs may not be massive sellers compared to pick-up-and-play platformers and brawlers with world-famous characters. Film at eleven!

The sales are perfectly respectable for this genre. It's completely unrealistic to expect that FE would be the top seller for more than a week or two. Just coming so close to beating MM2 (which also only came out a month ago, remember) is a credit to the series.

For what it's worth, the game is fantastic, and for a decent number of us this is going to be one of the top games of 2019.

Personally, I have about as much interest in Mario Maker as I have in the fishing and baseball games on this list - which is to say, none whatsoever. But I'm already 30-odd hours into Three Houses.

@Heavyarms55 That's perfectly fine, and it's good they give you options so you can tailor the game to what you like. I never thought the game doesn't give enough challenge. I just am not a fan of the setting and this trend of getting so focused on relationships and such.

I don't mind some chatter on the battlefield like in the old games but they just keep getting more bogged down lately.

@Kalmaro I suppose if you only are interesting in the battles then yeah, this game would not be very appealing because there is a lot of stuff that isn't the battles.

@Heavyarms55 I like both! Just like it focused more on battles and keep the chatter to just stuff on the battlefield and possibly a few cutscenes.

@Aaronnnnn I have never played FE and I love every minute of it so far (about 11 hours in). The characters are interesting and lively. The combat is strategic and does not feel repetitive. I have bought only a few games on the first week; this one worth every penny. Ignore the trolls and enjoy the game

Next week the switch will secure 400 thousands lead on the PS4 in Japan