Why is Dragon Quest Not Popular in the West?

There are a lot of reasons why the Dragon Quest series hasn't really become popular in the West. In this week's episode, we dive into a few of the reasons that this fantastic and influential JRPG series never made the splash that other franchises like Final Fantasy did.

Maybe it was the lateness of the original localization. After all, Nintendo did have publishing issues and ended up giving away free copies with Nintendo Power subscriptions. Was it the art for the original games that made gamers dissociate the Toriyama-style game art from the Dungeons & Dragons-style boxes?

Heck, even the timing of DQ games in relation to the life-cycle of the consoles played a big part. DQXI is one of the few DQ games that released mid-life-cycle, and it took off like wildfire! (At least for a DQ game.)

We discuss all this and more in this episode of Dragon Quest FM. Give it a listen, and let us know your opinions on why Dragon Quest isn't popular in the West!

BJ Keeton

BJ helped found Geek to Geek Media in 2016, and has been writing and playing RPGs most of his life. By day, he designs websites and writes about SEO. By night, he does his best to find new and devious ways to trick his D&D and Pathfinder parties.He's an Adamantine bestselling author on DMs Guild for his D&D adventures, and you can find him on Bluesky as @bjkgames.com. Listen to his weekly podcast at dragonquest.fm

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