Alright, so I said earlier that I would dive into why Dragon Quest is most likely the Square Enix series getting into Smash. This is regardless of the fact that there are fans of Bravely Default and other Square Enix series like Kingdom Hearts and The World Ends With You.
Basically, there are two major reasons why Dragon Quest is looking good for Smash characters.
1) It’s easily regarded as the #2 JRPG, between Final Fantasy, and the Tales series. I’m not putting Pokémon in there because it’s not quite the same. Dragon Quest has made somewhere around $50 million based on game sales alone. As it’s mostly based on Japanese profits, imagine what that could look like if the West took interest in it.
2) The evidence supporting Erdrick as “Brave” is more than some folks truly think. Not only are there translations that hint at Brave relating to the class of Erdrick, there’s also...well, this:
That picture in itself was surprising even to me. But it’s, like, blatant.
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Now, as I continue, I would like to clarify that I have no issue with a Bravely Default character, nor would I want folks to feel bad for wanting the character. However, wanting and expecting are two very different things.
Anyway, a few things to consider:
1) Like other 3rd party series that some folks would like to see in Smash (Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright, for example), these series simply don’t carry the same crossover power that series that have shown up on several consoles. Being on more than one console allows for more exposure, and this exposure means that there’s more potential for fans of the series that don’t have Smash to become more interested.
Considering those series largely came from the DS and 3DS, or basically Nintendo handhelds, the people who would be interested would likely already own Smash and a Switch.
2) It’s not as if Bravely Default sold poorly. It actually is reported to have done well, bringing in at least $1 million in sales worldwide. The sequel, Bravely Second: End Layer, also brought in a Good amount worldwide, at 700,000 copies sold. Bravely Second was also rated highly as a well made game.
This definitely should show that the Bravely series is a great series, and is a young one. Compare this, however, to the overall worth of Dragon Quest, at roughly $6 billion, including all different media, including manga, movies, etc. This puts Dragon Quest very similarly to Pokémon, in that it’s placed in a variety of media forms.
To continue, there is actually evidence to suggest that Square Enix would like to improve the acceptance of Dragon Quest in the West, as they haven’t succeeded in the past. According to
this, Square has tried and failed previously to make it stick. With the recent Nintendo Direct that showed Dragon Quest XI S plenty of love, I wouldn’t be all that surprised to see it get added to the marketing machine that is Super Smash Bros. Sakurai has been given awards for assisting the Japanese gaming industry with growth and exposure. Adding Erdrick (and potentially the Luminary to the game as an alt) is an easy avenue to renewed exposure to the West, especially combined with a new game coming to the Switch, and would allow Dragon Quest another shot at the West.
When it comes to Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest III (which is the game Erdrick debuted in) is often highly regarded across the entire series, considered arguably the best game ever in Japan. This, and the other accolades that have been mentioned, do not quite line up with other lesser Square Enix series.
Finally, to end my case for now, I will simply cite leakers. We know that more than one leaker has been able to corroborate the fact that a Square Enix character is DLC for Smash. This isn’t information that only Vergeben has stated. What Vergeben
has recently stated, is that it’s Erdrick specifically. While Vergeben has an overall rocky reputation, it shouldn’t be disregarded that he has mentioned this. It’s actually worth noting that i’ve just learned that Tansut, the user responsible for leaking Cloud just before his reveal, is now also evidently leaking Erdrick.
Long story short...Dragon Quest is leagues ahead of other Square Enix series. It has a gaming legacy for RPGs, has exposure across several consoles, and is a perfect candidate to be added to Smash to the benefit of Square Enix. The code name in the files can be tied to Erdrick, far more closely than saying “Sora has a Brave form!” Or “Bravely has Brave in it!”. More or less, I would be quite surprised to see any other Square Enix series get in over Dragon Quest and Erdrick!