UK Charts: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Crashes Out Of The Top 40

Wow. Great game. Deserves a top spot for sure.

Already fell below The Grinch: Christmas Adventure?

Isn’t there physical stock shortages with Dragon Quest 3, which would explain the sudden drop?

What...? It seems British don't like Dragon Quest much... A pity, it's a great game indeed.

Other recent releases like Zelda and Mario & Luigi deserve to be higher too.

I mean, even now and with all of Square-Enix's effort to make Dragon Quest a global brand in the last few years. It's still not quite a popular enough a brand in the west compared to other jrpg series'. My take is that the UK market still sees the series as a niche.

@BigBluePanda Came here to say I really struggled buying it last week on either Switch or PS5 so this doesn’t surprise me

For sure European people doesn't have any taste, Nintendo Switch undeperformed compared to PS4, for example. We could have twice the number of sales, at least, if it performed the same rate than the rest of the world. I'm talking about hardware sales.
Excuse my English, and the not subtile thought.

I already have 1, 2 & 3 together on one cart, I ain't gonna be dropping £45 on a tarted-up version of just one of them. Not immediately, anyway.

Glad to see mario luigi brothership still on the list. Such an amazing game.
Even with all the high end pc games i have. Because of this game, my pc is collecting dust 🤣

I especially love the bro attacks.
I seriously hope they expand more on this, wish to see more classic mushroom characters jump in as a bro attack.
Seeing yoshi was soo surprising and made him look so powerful in that moment.
Would be cool if DK barrel was in it and he jumped out as a bro attack.

Glad to see HOGWARTS LEGACY still doing good, despite the "boycott". 🤣

It's still a 36 year old game.

Half of the top 10 are First party games. Then FC25 and Hogwarts Switch versions selling a lot too. Is that like 3/4 of top 10 sales on Switch? Absolutely insane. BEAST

That’s disheartening.
I had it preordered (in America) but quickly realized I was going to drop it once Fantasian comes out so I cancelled for now. Will be 100% getting it at a later date. I don’t want to be part of the problem! It looks like the best HD-2D game so far and I don’t want to miss out.

I think it would have done better at something like a $40 price point.

Nobody really talks about Hogwarts Legacy but it does massive numbers on Switch despite the performance issues. It's one example of why porting AAA third party games to the console still sees benefits.

@WheresWaveRace Gotta count MySims, too. Since it only released on Switch. So pretty much most of the top ten is Switch-related.

@Arkay I started playing it this week on PS5 since it was on sale, and I really don't see what most people see with the game. Sure, it's not awful, but performance is not all there even after a year, the side quests are boring, the voices sound like robots at times. Hopefully it gets better by the end.

Mildly tragic. But at least it charted at launch. How many great games release and don't even chart? More than a few I'd wager.

@Erigen Multiple factors in addition to what you mentioned. I think the biggest hold-off on DQ 3 HD2D is that it's a $60 NES game with a glow-up. The price is not justifiable, and DQ games do tend to go on sale, so I'd imagine people are just passing on it and waiting for a better deal.

Payback for skipping the UK in the 80s!

Probably because you can play two perfectly fine versions of the game for free on any number of platforms including the dirt cheap handheld emulators most people have now. The remake is certainly pretty but it's still an old famicom game being sold at full price which is as hard of a sell as a full priced shmup these days.

@Arkay I noticed that too and lol'd. All that torpedoing, spoiling, and review avoiding sure did nothing.

I wish Dragon Quest was more popular, I love the series so much and always try to recommend it to new players. If you’re a fan of Zelda and turn based Pokemon, you gotta try this series! 🗡️🛡️

Well, it seems like I am not the target audience of Square Enix anymore, so I did not buy it. I hope it is a sign, that the boycotts are working.

I am definitely not surprised about Mario & Luigi. It is not bad, but it gets boring so fast.

Astro Bot deserves a few more sales. I finished the update content recently.

@Jhena Boycotts are working based on one week of the UK charts? And the game was selling really well in the Japanese market, so, I don't know about a "boycott" working. Not to mention this is only the physical market and some people are saying the game is sold out.

Wooooo! Wreckfest and Epic Mickey charted! Wooooo!

@MeanBeanEgg It's mostly cause some sites refuse to talk about it because they want to boycott the author. But the game still sells and I find that to be quite hilarious.

Oh, MySims on number 8. 😊

And Monster High: Skulltimate Secrets by Outright Games on number 26.

@MeanBeanEgg
It is two weeks now. First week no. 14 for a Square Enix game is hard. Week two it totally dropped off, this is not normal. Are you trying to say Square Enix just released a few thousand copies and made the rest buy the digital version?

„At least its performance over in Japan will likely be enough to keep Squeenix satisfied for now.“

Squeenix will never be satisfied.

It appears hardly anyone buys games for Xbox anymore. Not really surprising, with the value Gamepass offers... but surely it can't be good for business.

@JohnnyMind Are the Italian video game charts much the same as the UK's?

I don’t get it. What censorship are people complaining about. If it’s just lack of cleavage or partial nudity that’s absolutely absurd.

I agree with the 39.99 comment. That’s what it should have launched at. Many reviewers and players shared they didn’t change enough in the combat department and I completely agree. Combat looks so bland and they could have really made it more engaging. They made this beautiful game yet when battle happens, it looks a mobile game.

Not all of us get review codes NL, some of us have to pay money for games. Pretty tight funds this time of year.

Nice to see Lego Harry Potter Collection up there. That reminds me I need to pick that one up soon.

@MeanBeanEgg Hogwarts Legacy is an extremely average/mediocre game with a beautiful world (not on Switch though). I enjoyed exploring the castle, but after a few hours, the gameplay became very boring and repetitive.

Let's face it, UK is a very sporty region and they love their sports and action games way more than RPG especially a remake of an old game. It's not surprising cause Final Fantasy XVI and other JRPGs also never sell well over there either. I know a lot of British friends that mostly plays sporty or action games only, they had little to no interest in story driven RPGs. There may be that one or two dude that will claim they do but the majority of them that I knew of had no interest in RPGs or JRPGs for that matter. Companies should stop selling JRPGs in that regions.

@LoneAries You probably didn't know what the mobile games play like cause when compare to this it plays much much worst. Battles are boring to the point of being static, accessing menu are confusing, character sprites look smudge and glitchy most of the time and the whole game felt like a one dimensional mess. This remake at the very least looks more details, battle felt like it had life and value to it and enemies and players sprites are both seen and animated. It looks like an evolve version of the DS games and those games are exactly how I want my Dragon Quest games to feel like, I don't want my DQ to feel like mobile trash but don't want them to feel like triple a garbage too.

@MeanBeanEgg
I never said the boycott worked specifically in the UK, you just did. The game was also on place 30-something in the german Amazon shop, so it probably bombed here too.

The game did good enough in Japan, but I do not think 821 k or something like that is that impressive for THE legendary Dragon Quest 3. It could not even best Pokemon Brilliant Diamond's and Shining Pearl's 1,4 million sales, a remake many seem to hate.

As long as I do not know the digital sales in Japan, I am not convinced, that the boycott did not work at all.

So Square and Enix were correct then by not releasing great RPGs over there in the 90's xD

I apologise on behalf of the UK. My first step into JRPGs was having to special order a copy of Secret of Mana for the SNES in the UK. Discounting Mystic Quest, we didn't get a Final Fantasy until 7 released on PS1.

A lot of us as kids in the UK who liked JRPGs were reliant on region converters to play NTSC carts. Expensive as SNES UK games were £50-£60. Imports even more. Thankfully beyond the GameCube, localisation got better.

Ah well, not all bad. Our SNES was still the better looking design though 😉

@olliemar28 there is something you could do about it, just buy 10.000 boxed copies of the game and I'm sure it'll show up in the top40 next week again

UK disappoints again.

I'd love to play it, but the price is insane.. I'm not paying that much for an old game, even with shiny new visuals.

@Serpenterror Ah Man I Really Wish Dragon Quest was more popular Even That Maybe sales in the usa are little bit better idk

@Anti-Matter I Guess Sometime some games does get more love great to see some people playing it

I Feel like Censorship could be why a games is not selling well We really lives in the era where woke people have basically force japanese company to put thing they should have never do

I'm not surprised. the game is very outdated and also didn't age very well. it has poorly written characters and dialogs, the story is almost not existent, it has far too high encounter rates and so on.
some hardcore rpg gamers are buying it early and thats it.

@superdad64 no one cares about the censorship of the game. it doesn't change the experience at all. it's all in your mind.
I'm also not a fan of censorship but you also have to be realistic.

@the_beaver Not only from British people...
Personally, I never got interested in DQ and probably never will since my time for playing games is reduced a lot since I started working so to me JRPGs are going to be ignored by me because they can take too much time to complete the games, even only to get the base ending.

@jojobar I mean, saying it "doesn't effect the experience" is a bit disingenuous when aesthetics also effect the level of fun you have.

JRPGs just aren’t hugely popular over here…outside of Pokémon and Final Fantasy it’s a very niche thing in the UK.

Plus add on the fact that it launched close to Metaphor which by most accounts seems to be the best JRPG of the year so far so if you’re going to buy one or the other it’ll probably be that.

@Erigen Well, they were about 17 years behind North America in receiving any mainline games.

"Why am I not surprised" - Joe Hayabusa.

You can’t ignore the highly negative press the game is getting.

You’re only kidding yourself if you thought Dragon Quest was going to do well in the UK.

HUGE UK fail. Shame bell ringing.

@superdad64 censorship comes from the government. This is a company realizing that the old way of doing things is not accepted today. That is not censorship.

@Jhena why aren’t your their demographic? Why is there a boycott? I literally know nothing about this

I’m having a fun time with the game, but I have to admit that so far it doesn’t feel any better than the DS remakes of DQ4&5 that I got for like $30 each… don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to get back to it when I’m off work but it definitely isn't as fresh as DQXI, despite the same price. Similar to charging the same price of Link’s Awakening remake as they did for BotW.

I plan to get it someday, just not at a full price retail game.

You guys really like your sports games and shooty shoot games.

@UltraBEAR 100% agree. There are journalists being killed and threatened for reporting on genocide. There are books being banned because they talk about being trans. That’s censorship. Doing new art for an old game isn’t censorship. The 1980s art was squished and squat in “superdeformed” style too. No one is complaining about the absence of that part. (Even tho it was cute!)

@Dark_Isatari
Square Enix has been chasing the modern audience for a while now, which I am not part of. Does it even exist? People boycott the game because of the changes they made, which you can see on the internet if you google it. Even the creators were not happy about the changes, which they had to make.

@Jhena I can't really see how they're chasing a modern audience with this very retro game..?
Unless you mean calling it "appearance A/B" instead of male/female. In which case I agree is stupid wording but not exactly worth a boycott in my opinion.

@Dark_Isatari
If this was the only game doing changes like this, I would agree with you.

If you do not think it is worth to boycott it, then I respect your opinion. But I do not want to support stuff like this.

@Jhena very graciously worded. I also do not support the eradication of clear gender distinction, as I think it’s a beautiful aspect of humanity that two different forms must learn to supplement and harmonize with eachother. I decided against the Thousand-year Door for similar reasons as covered here on NL (having been on the fence about it in the first place). But I’m not sure that SquareEnix or Nintendo will correlate poor sales to those decisions unless there is a clearly expressed message to them.
As Japanese developers I’m sure they don’t have personal interest in gender issues (Japan is generally less interested in that topic than the West) but are under the impression that it matters to the westerners.

@jesse_dylan Book Being Banned because they talk about being trans? Since where did people get so senstive about it?

@Dark_Isatari
Yeah, I enjoyed The Thousand Year Door, but I feel guilty for supporting it. It is also the game, which made me realise, that Nintendo is lost. I have been coping for a while before that, because I did not want to believe that Nintendo is pushing the ideology too. I dropped the game and started playing retro games. I even learned a little bit of game making, with the free engine Godot and created the 2D game "Dodge the Creeps", with the help of their tutorial. Then Astro Bot came along and I thought I could just ignore all the politics and enjoy the games. But for the last two or even more weeks, I realised, that I can not and do not want to support it. I might go back to playing retro games. The gameplay might not be so good, but the classics make up for it with soul.

Or I give Black Myth Wukong a chance, to see if there is still hope in the industry.

It is 2024, I am very sure the companies know, that many people do not like the changes and boycott products, because of it.

By the way congratulations on boycotting The Thousand Year Door. I very much respect people, who stand by their principals in a peaceful way.

@Jhena I don't think Nintendo is pushing any kind of ideology though. I think that is an overreaction. I believe they are just getting that kind of feedback from western journalists or whoever and trying to accommodate what they are being told is an interest. Similarly, I wouldn't really say I "boycotted" TTYD; more like I was curious, and then hearing about that becoming a focus was the feather on the scale that lessened my interest. But I don't think anyone bought it because they are excited about that tiny detail.
I understand the frustration at propaganda being shoved toward us, but in most cases it is really a very small issue. You can tell when that identity demographic stuff is the focus of a product vs a little side-note. As I mentioned, Japan has always been more ambivalent about gender and has a long history of "gender-bending" characters, but they are very clear that this is not meant to be standardized as "normal behavior" even if they don't find it particularly offensive.

I would recommend not letting the issue become a major focus of your gaming life. Most of the time they are optional aspects which I appreciate.

@Dark_Isatari
To me it really does not matter, why a company is pushing it. If it does, I am not interested in the product and I loose the respect for the company.

I do not want to be responsible for Nintendo one day releasing a game like Dragon Age Veilguard.

Haven't really seen any advertisement that it exists to be honest.

Thinking back to DQXI S, Nintendo of Europe was behind them, publishing and advertising it. In this case it's a multiplatform release, so Nintendo isn't there helping things along, that could be "a" reason for it not to sell just as well...

Honestly, this one's not that great so I get it. Don't get me wrong, in 1988, I'm sure this was a masterpiece! But with all of your party members being blank slates with no personality, dialogue, or involvement in the story, the game feels a little....soulless. not to mention, it makes the story feel much weaker. I fell in love with DQ 8 and 11 for the party members at least as much as the gameplay and story. I'm still enjoying the game, but I'd probably only give it a 5/10 whereas I'd give 8 and 11 a 10/10.

@jesse_dylan i don't enjoy 1st person shooters or sports games and i could care less about trans characters being in the game (doesn't bother me at all), but this game is pretty weak compared to newer Dragon Quest games. It was great back in 1988, sure, but it's pretty weak now. The story is half baked, the gameplay is actually the same as always (which is good), most importantly your party members have zero lines of dialogue, personality, or any involvement with the story. It leaves the game feeling a little soulless.

@superdad64 it’s a big deal in the US, unfortunately. There’s a huge list of banned books that are either taken out of school and public libraries, or are kept in restricted sections. Many independent book stores fight against this by having a banned books week.

@Cord well yeah, they’re not gonna reinvent the wheel on a classic. Have you played it? It’s great. And yes, it’s very similar to the original. You wanted them to make it an action game in full 3D? we knew what to expect.

@Cord while I’m not all that far, I definitely agree with you. It really feels like an NES-era game.. why was this priced the same as XI???

DQ3 was never going to sell as well in the west as Japan. Still, it's an awesome game.