A Slime Draws Near! Dragon Quest's mascot's SSB4 support thread

[OctiVick]

I think they re-released DQX for WiiU in JP so I assume now they might be working on an international version

 

[Cheezey Bites]

They did release DQX Wii U, that was back in March, they've since made a Windows version (September) and a version for Android (December).

I really hope they're working on an international version, but it'll probably be Windows exclusive... unless of course Slime gets in, then it may be Wii U exclusive for a while to ride the wave of Smash hype.

 

[OctiVick]

I think it might be for WiiU first because It was released before the others and because Nintendo needs more 3rd party

 

[Cheezey Bites]

I hope they do, I want to play DQX in Wii U!

Also, just worked out that I made my 500th post on this here thread! It wasn't the most impressive, but a milestone none the less.

 

[OctiVick]

I hope they do, I want to play DQX in Wii U!

Also, just worked out that I made my 500th post on this here thread! It wasn't the most impressive, but a milestone none the less.

Well cheers to you, lets make sure the next 500 help support our favorite ball of goo heehee ^^

 

[Cheezey Bites]

Looks like DQM2 3DS is selling well! It's not had quite as good a first week as the last game, but they have enough stock this time so the second week was better, and they're projected to beat it's third week sales sometime on Thursday.

This doesn't really help slime, but it's nice to see the series doing well, and Square Enix must be wishing they could get that sort of DQ revenue worldwide.


In other news that only slightly connects the PS4 has sold pretty poorly (although still 10,000 better than the Wii U) in it's first 2 days in Japan... this isn't much of a surprise given that the only significant Japan centric games coming out for the system are Yakuza Ishin (which is also available on PS3) and FFXV which is a series slowly chasing the western market and alienating it's Japanese fanbase.

It'll be interesting to see how FFXV will do, and if it'll kick off PS4 sales over there, or if we'll have a similar situation to XBones in my country (UK) where despite good first month sales they now clutter up second hand shops like dropped litter, and moreover if this potential near failure of FF (and given the insane production costs possibly failure to attain profit if they can't think of two sequels to cash in with *cough*FFXIII*cough*) will change Squeenix's stance on DQ, or just move them more towards mobile devices.


These are tough times for Squeenix, probably even moreso than Nintendo, I'm starting to think if they don't get a rep in Smash Bros they may just not make it much longer... which to be fair would leave DQ open for Nintendo to swoop in and claim... We'll see how things go I guess, Capcom are still holding on in there despite worrying trends, and Sega held in during it's hard times to now be decently successful again, so Squeenix can come back, I just think putting Slime in Smash is one of the best steps they can take to fully stabilize... after all DQX is one of their most profitable titles even despite the lack of worldwide release, if they can get it over here with decent enough sales to justify the servers straight away I imagine it being a fantastic little money spinner, and may well outstrip the FF MMOs of the lucrative most profitable slots.

 

[OctiVick]

Looks like DQM2 3DS is selling well! It's not had quite as good a first week as the last game, but they have enough stock this time so the second week was better, and they're projected to beat it's third week sales sometime on Thursday.

This doesn't really help slime, but it's nice to see the series doing well, and Square Enix must be wishing they could get that sort of DQ revenue worldwide.


In other news that only slightly connects the PS4 has sold pretty poorly (although still 10,000 better than the Wii U) in it's first 2 days in Japan... this isn't much of a surprise given that the only significant Japan centric games coming out for the system are Yakuza Ishin (which is also available on PS3) and FFXV which is a series slowly chasing the western market and alienating it's Japanese fanbase.

It'll be interesting to see how FFXV will do, and if it'll kick off PS4 sales over there, or if we'll have a similar situation to XBones in my country (UK) where despite good first month sales they now clutter up second hand shops like dropped litter, and moreover if this potential near failure of FF (and given the insane production costs possibly failure to attain profit if they can't think of two sequels to cash in with *cough*FFXIII*cough*) will change Squeenix's stance on DQ, or just move them more towards mobile devices.


These are tough times for Squeenix, probably even moreso than Nintendo, I'm starting to think if they don't get a rep in Smash Bros they may just not make it much longer... which to be fair would leave DQ open for Nintendo to swoop in and claim... We'll see how things go I guess, Capcom are still holding on in there despite worrying trends, and Sega held in during it's hard times to now be decently successful again, so Squeenix can come back, I just think putting Slime in Smash is one of the best steps they can take to fully stabilize... after all DQX is one of their most profitable titles even despite the lack of worldwide release, if they can get it over here with decent enough sales to justify the servers straight away I imagine it being a fantastic little money spinner, and may well outstrip the FF MMOs of the lucrative most profitable slots.

Well hopefully this will up Slime's chances a bit. Hopefully if DQ games get a bit more popular so Sakurai can visit SE for a character deal ^^

 

[Cheezey Bites]

I don't think it will, DQ is already one of the biggest brands in Japan, up there with Mario and way way ahead of Sonic or Megaman. If he didn't have enough popularity already then it's because Sakurai's worried about the west not 'getting it'. It's also probably too late for him to be added at this stage.

That said it can't hurt that DQ games are selling well, even the remakes, so I'm still hopeful!

 

[OctiVick]

I don't think it will, DQ is already one of the biggest brands in Japan, up there with Mario and way way ahead of Sonic or Megaman. If he didn't have enough popularity already then it's because Sakurai's worried about the west not 'getting it'. It's also probably too late for him to be added at this stage.

That said it can't hurt that DQ games are selling well, even the remakes, so I'm still hopeful!

Yea you're right about it being too late for Slime to be added for at least this stage in development, I should know better this point ^^;

But Its still kinda nerve racking waiting to see if he is confirmed or not. My hopes has been dashed a bit knowing that he has barely has any fan base worldwide, and the fact that Snake and Pac-Man do have a chance of taking the last few 3rd party slots (I predict there will a 4 character max on 3rd parties) is pretty disheartening.

There is still hope for our favorite goo-ball, so we just have to wait and see . . .

 

[8-peacock-8]

Anyone want to take this thread over? I'm too tired to keep track of my threads anymore.

 

[CatRaccoonBL]

As a guy who likes the character/enemy slime and also likes RPGs, if I were to get a dragon quest game, which should it be?

A great opportunity to both expand my gaming collection and too learn about who I support.

 

[Snakeyes]

Dragon Quest IV DS is a great intro to the series.

 

[8-peacock-8]

Anyone want to take this thread over? I'm too tired to keep track of my threads anymore.

Asking this again. Just in case. lol

 

[Smady]

I don't think I've posted here to give my support. If not a playable set, and I can see why that probably won't happen, Slime would make a perfect assist trophy.

 

[Cheezey Bites]

Anyone want to take this thread over? I'm too tired to keep track of my threads anymore.

I'll take the thread 8... Just how exactly do I go about doing that?



And agreed, IV DS is a good jumping off spot for the series with a good plot and great mechanics, although V introduces a lot of stuff that's now common in the series (monster taming, party talk etc) and is my favourite... They make a series though so you probably should play IV before V and VI so you know what's going on.

If you're only interested in learning about Slime though Rocket Slime and any of the Dragon Quest Monsters games are probably better picks as that's where most of his move sets come from. Dragon Quest IX is also a pretty good game and often goes much cheaper than the others if you're on a budget, but I'd definitely advise the others first.

 

[8-peacock-8]

I'll take the thread 8... Just how exactly do I go about doing that?



And agreed, IV DS is a good jumping off spot for the series with a good plot and great mechanics, although V introduces a lot of stuff that's now common in the series (monster taming, party talk etc) and is my favourite... They make a series though so you probably should play IV before V and VI so you know what's going on.

If you're only interested in learning about Slime though Rocket Slime and any of the Dragon Quest Monsters games are probably better picks as that's where most of his move sets come from. Dragon Quest IX is also a pretty good game and often goes much cheaper than the others if you're on a budget, but I'd definitely advise the others first.

PM a mod.

 

[FalKoopa]

Cheezey Bites is now the thread owner, taking over from 8-peacock-8.

 

[OctiVick]

I don't think I've posted here to give my support. If not a playable set, and I can see why that probably won't happen, Slime would make a perfect assist trophy.

Nah it would be unlikely he would be an AT because that would require another DQ character to take a playable spot; and I cant see another charter take a playable spot except Slime (due to his major mascot status)

 

[8-peacock-8]

Well there's the protagonist but Slime should probably have priority over any of the heroes since it's more iconic.

 

[Cheezey Bites]

I've been busy planning the new OP (trying to balance the already good work of 8-peacock-8 and add a little of my own style and arguments), and seem to have missed important news:

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=1003328&Title=Dragon Quest I & II

Dragon Quest I&II mobile are rated for the US!
Moreover they're bought as a bundle, and don't seem to have a sub-title... although they could just be hiding those for now. What do you guys think? Do you think the recent sub-title registering is connected or are those games still yet to be revealed?



We're still waiting on an official confirmation from Square Enix, but things are looking good for Dragon Quest right now. As I'm sure you're all DQ fans, and probably Mobile Owners I would like to request you all look into buying this game when it's released (I'll probably inform you of the launch dates ). With no news on what OS(es) it's getting released on it's difficult to say if I'll be getting it day one, but I hope I'll be able to.

This may be a small release (and thus will hopefully be very affordable), and may not be exactly what we want (DQVII 3D, DQX Wii U, Slime Mori Mori 3, DQM 1&2 3D and Slime in Smash Bros), but the first two games are still good, and will help show Squeenix that there is a real market and fandom in the west for Dragon Quest.

 

[OctiVick]

I've been busy planning the new OP (trying to balance the already good work of 8-peacock-8 and add a little of my own style and arguments), and seem to have missed important news:

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=1003328&Title=Dragon Quest I & II

Dragon Quest I&II mobile are rated for the US!
Moreover they're bought as a bundle, and don't seem to have a sub-title... although they could just be hiding those for now. What do you guys think? Do you think the recent sub-title registering is connected or are those games still yet to be revealed?



We're still waiting on an official confirmation from Square Enix, but things are looking good for Dragon Quest right now. As I'm sure you're all DQ fans, and probably Mobile Owners I would like to request you all look into buying this game when it's released (I'll probably inform you of the launch dates ). With no news on what OS(es) it's getting released on it's difficult to say if I'll be getting it day one, but I hope I'll be able to.

This may be a small release (and thus will hopefully be very affordable), and may not be exactly what we want (DQVII 3D, DQX Wii U, Slime Mori Mori 3, DQM 1&2 3D and Slime in Smash Bros), but the first two games are still good, and will help show Squeenix that there is a real market and fandom in the west for Dragon Quest.

Maybe Nintendo might jump on the chance to get the first 2 games on WiiU and/or 3DS Virtual Console

 

[Cheezey Bites]

I'm sorry I've still not updated the OP yet guys, work's been awkward and I've been playing way too much Atelier Escha and Logy (I've only finished one path so far, and then I've got endings to go for and everything, so it may be a while, but I'll probably slow down from here on out), I'll try and get it done at least before J-Stars Victory Vs. arrives, 'cos I'll probably get really into that too...


However, this isn't all bad news! We have some fun numbers to crunch and another chance for me to ramble about DQX!


300,000 DAU is an impressive feat for most international MMOs, and yet our favorite Japan only Dragon Quest X has managed it in one country. Now, while this is definitely weaker than FFXIV's notioned 500,000+ that's a game that has been released in the more MMO friendly not-japan. I certainly can't see the figures being triple, and that's with all the Chinese botters that riddle the FF Online community.

Now, there are issues to international releases, not half of which is creating a decent translation, and a cross-language communication system (at least emotes), but DQX has a huge advantage that can mitigate one of the biggest problems. Botting.
Whenever China gets and MMO you know they'll try and make money out of it, but if DQX got a Wii U exclusive international release that'd make the job a lot harder for them, cutting down on the traffic, and massively cutting down on the multiplay (as one would have to have multiple Wii U's to do it, not just PCs). Sure these botters pay their subscription too, but it also puts off a lot of players, making them leave the game when the in-game economy gets screwed over by China.

Now, I know DQ isn't as well liked outside of Japan, and will not do as well as there (per populous at least), but the rest of the world is more familiar with MMOs, and will pick this one up just because it doesn't have as many botters, and is therefore more fun. I imagine it'll still do fantastically abroad, especially as people do know the name Dragon Quest... and actually probably respect it more thanks in part to the FFXIII trilogy.... That said I still believe they could do with some sort of big pitch for Dragon Quest to win over the west... and if they want to monopolize that Wii U advantage then the best way is to make DQ and Nintendo buddy buddy again... Itadaki Street U would be a great start, but we all know that the west's shining beacon for the Wii U is Smash Bros.


But this is Square Enix. I'll argue to the ends of the earth why Slime's inclusion would be beneficial for both companies, and make sense, and be fitting within the Legendary context... but Square Enix aren't exactly the most sensible of developers, so despite the huge success of DQX in Japan, and the potential for it to save them from the awkward position they're in at the moment, it's probably best not to expect anything without reason.


Please support the official releases of Dragon Quest 1&2 Mobile to show SE what they're missing by ignoring the western fanbasis.

 

[OctiVick]

Still hoping for that DQX international release. That could be the major push for slime in smash.

 

[Smady]

I don't think Dragon Quest is going to come back to the West for a long time. They tried very hard to pull off a Final Fantasy-like reboot of the series with Dragon Quest VIII, a sublime game, but that didn't reach their lofty expectations. Square then re-released some older Dragon Quest games in English, but those likewise didn't sell that great. When you consider Dragon Quest X is a MMO, a genre that basically has all its bank on a series' notoriety, I don't think they'd risk the huge server costs when it hasn't made a gigantic footprint in the West. Especially the mess that is Europe being a multinational and multilingual continent.

It's a huge shame because the series is fantastic. I'm not too upset, as I'm holding out for a true successor to VIII (IX didn't quite cut it either) before I truly am concerned about Squeenix dismissing the Western fanbase. Rome wasn't built in a day, but that doesn't stop that publisher from expecting every IP to have Call of Duty sales. It's why Atlus is quietly building up a reputable legion of fans while the FFXIII series gets laughed into the garbage bin of history.

Er, got a bit off-topic there. Despite its recent shortcomings on an international level, Dragon Quest is still huge and Slime's too iconic for very recent changes in the series to matter. He and Black Mage are who I'd hope for if Square ever gets a rep in Smash.

 

[Cheezey Bites]

Well, we're almost certainly getting Dragon Quest 1&2 Mobile and we've yet to see what the Dragon Quest-esque names are, so we may be getting more sooner than later, but I see your point; Squeenix' expectations are the biggest problems with any series they own.

I do have one note though, Nintendo released the 5&6 remakes, not Squeenix. 4 made a profit, but not to SE's rquirements, and Nintendo happily published the other two which sadly went onto slightly weaker sales. The biggest problem I find was they didn't market to Europe, the stronger seat of western Dragon Quest love, a lot of people didn't even know it came out, but I digress.



And I'm not sure I'd call them shortcomings, Dragon Quest is (or more, was) still successful internationally, just not to the ludicrous expectations of SE, and certainly not to it's behemothic Mario-esque cultural impact in Japan.




Also: More DQ News!

Dragon Quest Trading Card Game will be released on the 28th, it's obviously Japan Exclusive as it's Dragon Quest, and it's all physical, but it's happening, so I feel the need to mention it.

 

[OctiVick]

Hey just want to let you Guys know that The Uniqueness Tier List thread is going to be rating Slime pretty soon and any one who is fan should rate to show how much of a unique fighter he can be.

Anyway other than that, any more DQ Nintendo news?

 

[Cheezey Bites]

I've been watching that too, was waiting for the day is all

As for news, nothing big, except you know, if you count 1 million as big!

Dragon Quest X has sold 1million units

While this is still fairly low by DQ standards version 2 and the PC/Android release have helped people pick up the game and start paying their subscription... which is where the money comes from, and is huge for MMO numbers in Japan.

Given this is just one country, and given the previous 300,000 DAU number these numbers are pretty insane, that's nearly a third of the install-base play the game each day four years on.


Still no news on a stateside release mind...

 

[OctiVick]

I've been watching that too, was waiting for the day is all

As for news, nothing big, except you know, if you count 1 million as big!

Dragon Quest X has sold 1million units

While this is still fairly low by DQ standards version 2 and the PC/Android release have helped people pick up the game and start paying their subscription... which is where the money comes from, and is huge for MMO numbers in Japan.

Given this is just one country, and given the previous 300,000 DAU number these numbers are pretty insane, that's nearly a third of the install-base play the game each day four years on.


Still no news on a stateside release mind...

Maybe they might show off a possible international version this E3, because I know they showed it off a few years back for E3 when it was still on the Wii

 

[Cheezey Bites]

It's Slime's (and Black Mage's) day on the Uniqueness Tier List, go discuss how awesome Slime (and Black Mage) could be!

 

[OctiVick]

It's Slime's (and Black Mage's) day on the Uniqueness Tier List, go discuss how awesome Slime (and Black Mage) could be!

Just posted mine, I ended up giving him an A which is a good grade for the lil goo ball

 

[Cheezey Bites]

And mine is posted too, gonna wait a bit before going onto Black Mages... I'm a bit tired of such intense character discussion after that.

I just see so many different, and new, possibilities with Slime as a character that it took a lot to write them all out, and you still managed to bring up a few I didn't think of (Radiant as a stun is a great idea).


Obviously I gave him an S+.

 

[OctiVick]

And mine is posted too, gonna wait a bit before going onto Black Mages... I'm a bit tired of such intense character discussion after that.

I just see so many different, and new, possibilities with Slime as a character that it took a lot to write them all out, and you still managed to bring up a few I didn't think of (Radiant as a stun is a great idea).


Obviously I gave him an S+.

I think your stacking idea was pretty cool and something new.
I spent a lot of time searching up his actual moves in his games for the most part, I made sure to grab info from plenty of different sources from Mori Mori to Joker and I still probably left out some stuff too. I did also try to incorporate the rest of the slime family just so it can open up more possibilities, and most of his potential arsenal I got from Mori Mori just because it had more interesting equipment than normal DQ games.

I was wondering, what's your ideal FS for Slime? I didn't see any idea for it in your analysis (unless I'm just a dumb and missed it ^^; )

 

[BluePikmin11]

Glad you found more possibilities for Slime. It is the purpose of the Tier List to reach out scrap the whole barrel of moves the character has.

 

[Cheezey Bites]

Any character with as many games as Slime has a lot of barrel to scrape . And I'm glad I did too, the more I think about the stack size effecting his properties the more it excites me, though it might be too much to implement if he does make it into the game.



I didn't put an FS in my analysis because honestly I'm not sure what would be best .

Schleiman Tank, King Slime and even Mega-Magic all stand out as possibilities, but I don't know which would be most fun or interesting, and I don't think any would be exactly unique (the tank would likely work like Snake's, King Slime would be a transformation and Mega-Magic is just a big AOE attack)... Sadly FS's aren't Slime's strong point... at least imo.

 

[OctiVick]

Any character with as many games as Slime has a lot of barrel to scrape . And I'm glad I did too, the more I think about the stack size effecting his properties the more it excites me, though it might be too much to implement if he does make it into the game.



I didn't put an FS in my analysis because honestly I'm not sure what would be best .

Schleiman Tank, King Slime and even Mega-Magic all stand out as possibilities, but I don't know which would be most fun or interesting, and I don't think any would be exactly unique (the tank would likely work like Snake's, King Slime would be a transformation and Mega-Magic is just a big AOE attack)... Sadly FS's aren't Slime's strong point... at least imo.

We could just think outside the box and just use the Slime buster :3c

But I think Schliemann Tank or King Slime would be the most likely options.

 

[bloodbuzzed]

I grew up playing Dragon Warrior Monsters I and II, and the DQIII remake for GBC. Slime is perhaps the one third-party I would stand behind full-heartedly.

 

[Cheezey Bites]

Good to have more Slime fans on board and ya gotta love the old DQM games, hopefully the 3DS remakes get translations some time soon. I tend to focus on the main series for translation requests to Square Enix, but I do want Monsters too.

 

[Smady]

Oh the 3DS Dragon Quest games. Every day we go without news of a translation is pure pain. Just look at DQ7:

A translation would also be great news for Slime.

Nintendo is basically in charge of them now, though, because Squeenix is Squeenix.

 

[Cheezey Bites]

I was more talking about the Monsters remakes, but man, I forgot how good the DQ7 remake looks!

Not that DQM2 looks bad mind you:

And who knows what Square Enix are planning, especially with some of their recent comments.

Particularly the line:

"On the other hand, there are games like the JRPG we made for the Japanese audience with the proper elements, Bravely Default, which ended up selling well all around the world."

Firstly if they're looking at games made with a Japanese audience in mind then they have no bigger name than Dragon Quest, in fact other than Mario and Pokémon I'm not sure there is a bigger name than Dragon Quest in the Japanese market...

Secondly, look at what they're calling 'selling well'. In the US DQ9 sold a little over 3/4s of Bravely Default each weak with far less marketting, and in Europe DQ9 sold nearly 3 times as much as BD by weak 10! They've changed their tune on what a successful release is by quite some way...


I think there's a really good shot of getting DQ releases in the west again... I just don't know how soon, though I'd put a reasonable bet on an e3 reveal if the odds were decent (3:1 would tempt me, 4:1 is probably more reasonable).





Note: I used VGChartz for my sales numbers, possibly not the most accurate site, but they're in line with what I expected.

 

[Smady]

I was looking for a DQM2 image too, oh man that game looks fantastic. Bravely Default hopefully got Square-Enix themselves interested in a localisation for the West. The 3DS market I bet would eat up these two games more than any previous DQ game due to the huge install base and the lack of true, old-school jRPGs. And again, it'd make things look up for Slime.

The only thing that'd really suck, is if they brought it to the US and not Europe. I miss the region-free DS.