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/vr/ - Retro Games

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3557009 No.3557009 [Reply] [Original]

What went wrong for Mega Drive in Japan? Why did it come behind PC-Engine there?

>> No.3557012

Japan was too in love with their own hardware and didn't have much direction as a business in general. What's that old fucked saying...? Even though you may like cheesecake, doesn't mean you can fish with it? Whatever, fuck Sega Japan essentially.

>> No.3557038

PC Engine came out before the Mega Drive, and by the time SFC came out, there was little market share left for the MD in Japan.

>> No.3557045

Their favorite JRPGs were on PCs, PC-Engine and SNES. You can't beat Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy there.

>> No.3557057

Because it was a poor man's system and Japan had money to buy Nintendo instead.

>> No.3557058

>>3557045
>You can't beat Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy there.
This is the best answer

Japan loves Vegeta and all his illegitimate children going on big adventures

>> No.3557062

>>3557038
>PC Engine came out before the Mega Drive
Huh, I had no idea it came out in 1987. Thanks

>>3557045
But Sega tried too. Phantasy Star, Shining Force.

What about PC-Engine? It didn't have DQ nor FF. But still it beat Genesis in Japan.

What was it that kept it more popular? Early release advantage, that made devs choose consoles with wider userbase for their games? I'm not much an expert on this, but I know few JRPGs for Mega Drive.

>> No.3557065

>>3557062
Early titles were ports of now outdated games like Altered Beast, Súper Monaco GP, etc.

Even in América most of the pre-sonic 1 titles were...........uuugh........sports games.

>> No.3557074

>>3557065
True, but why didn't they follow later? Ask me to name MD RPG series, and I will only name Shining and Phantasy Star.

>> No.3557090

>>3557074
Well there was Sword of Vermilion......and it sucked COLOSSAL ASS!

WORST NAVIGATION EVER.

Plus horrid battle system when you could start by being trapped by enemies while wabbling a stick and praying you hit the enemy, many enemies poison you and horrible grind curve.

I swear, i played that game and not even its excelente soundtrack allow me to endure it even longer.

>> No.3557093

>>3557062
The PC-Engine has other franchises that were (and still are) insanely popular with the japs: Wizardry, Tengai Makyo, Brandish, Dragon Slayer, Ys, Shin Megami Tensei, etc...

Mega Drive had Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes and Ys III: Wanderers from Ys but these games weren't exclusive and have PC-Engine CD versions too.

>> No.3557101
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3557101

>>3557074
>True, but why didn't they follow later?
But they did. It's just that they didn't took off as they expected.
http://segaretro.org/Sega_Falcom
http://segaretro.org/Mega_RPG_Project

>> No.3557107
File: 90 KB, 1200x630, CtU7iw_VUAAJIaR.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3557107

Thought I remembered Gamecenter CX's Kibe explaining something about it in one of the corner segments.
But I can't seem to find the episode and rummaging through stuff I saved I still can't find it, so I might be wrong.

>> No.3557113

Famicom was too popular, and had a gigantic lead that was impossible to crack.

And they never had a real killer app, not until Virtua Fighter and Sakura Taisen.

>> No.3557150

>>3557093
Tengai Makyou because RED was with Hudson, and guess who bought them just to have ego rights to NOT USE
ING THEM.

HINT: THEY JUST MADE PAAAAACHHIIIINKOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

>> No.3557220

Yamauchi hired the Yakuza to beat anybody up who bought or sold Mega Drive as it was a real threat.

PCE was just manufactured opposition, Hudson were in bed with Nintendo.

>> No.3557235

>>3557045
>You can't beat Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy there.
And the PC Engine lacks both and sold very well.

Mega Drive + CD do have a very healthy selection of JRPGs: Phantasy Star I ~ IV, Lunar I ~ II, Shining Force (I + II + CD + Darkness), Langrisser I + II, Dark Wizard, Vay, Dragon Slayer I + II, King Colossus, Ys III, Sorcerian, Surging Aura, Vixen 357, 3x3 Eyes, After Armageddon Gaiden, Cosmic Fantasy Stories, Fhey Area, Blue Almanac, Daihoushinden and many others.

I mean, even the N64 sold far more than the Mega Drive there, but the later JRPG library is so much better it's not even funny.

I guess the marketing weren't very good and the Mega Drive really lacks dating sims and life simulation games, both the PC Engine and the Super Famicom have fucktons of this type of software.

>> No.3557238

Why was Sonic unpopular in Japan? I always hear that he's geared at western audiences (America especially). The classic games don't seem particularly American though, only the advertising. He's just a cute, chubby hedgehog.

>> No.3557293

>>3557009
Those glasses were just too unhip.

>> No.3557297

>>3557235
Dating sims came out the mid 90s. They didn't get to the MD because the MD wasn't popular, not the other way around.

>> No.3557320

>>3557235
Megadrive did not have a killer app in japan (Sonic was extremely unpopular). So there was no reason to ever buy one.

>>3557238
Sonic was the snarky edgy anthropomorphic cartoon mascot, an extremely American design that was just not cool in japan. He had no actual personality.

>> No.3557330
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3557330

>And the PC Engine lacks both and sold very well
...but Super Famicom had both and outsold PC-Engine in the end. Also, see >>3557093. Games like Wizardry and Tengai Makyo were big hits in Japan too.

>Mega Drive RPGs
How many of these titles were MD exclusives? Ys III, Dragon Slayer, 3x3 eyes and Sorcerian are on PC-Engine too.

>> No.3557440
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3557440

>>3557330
>but Super Famicom had both and outsold PC-Engine in the end
Indeed, 20 million against 6 million, I guess? Nintendo was unbeatable back then.

Still, the PC Engine also did very well.

>How many of these titles were MD exclusives?
The Mega CD 3x3 Eyes is an exclusive, out of the games I've listed, these are the exlusives (in the 16-bits era, at least): Phantasy Star I ~ IV, Lunar I ~ II, Shining Force (I + II + CD + Darkness), Dark Wizard, Vay, King Colossus, Surging Aura, Vixen 357, 3x3 Eyes, After Armageddon Gaiden, Fhey Area, Blue Almanac, Daihoushinden.

The multis: Langrisser I (also on PCE) + II (also on SFC as Der Langrisser), Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes I + II, Sorcerian, Cosmic Fantasy Stories (actually, a port of PCE's CF1 and CF2) and Ys III.

It's not a complete list, though, there's also Aisle Lord, Death Bringer (also on PCE), Alshark (also on PCE), Sorcerer’s Kingdom, Arcus 1-2-3, Illusion City, Shadowrun CD, Super Hydlide, Sword of Vermilion, Shin Megami Tensei (the best 16-bit version, actually), Record of Lodoss War, Traysia (terrible, but not that much worse than the likes of Mystic Quest) and a couple more, plus the quasi-RPG action-adventures like LandStalker, Beyond Oasis, Popful Mail (also on PCE and SFC, different adaptations), Light Crusader and Crusader of Centy.

It's not the best JRPG library ever, but it's pretty good. It's definitelly much better than the JRPG library of consoles like the N64 and the GCN and regardless of them being from different generations, both were more successful than the Mega Drive in their home country.

>>3557297
I had no idea, thought it was a late 80s / early 90s thing. Tokimeki Memorial is the only game of the genre I can recall the name, to be honest.

>> No.3557446

>>3557297
>Megadrive did not have a killer app in japan (Sonic was extremely unpopular).
Phantasy Star and Shining Force could've been hits there, Lunar too, but the Mega CD installed base was fairly small unlike the PC Engine CD, an add-on as popular as the original hardware (or even more, given the sheer number of PCE-CD games, higher than Hu-Cards, afaik).

>> No.3557634

Contrary to popular believe, SEGA weren't a home-roots Japanese company. It was actually started by a couple of American business men. Japan is actually xenophobic.

>> No.3557645

Because japs have shit taste in everything. Fact.

>> No.3557646

Most of their killer aps were pretty western-oriented in the first place. They became so obssesed with beating Nintendo in America they kinda went careless with their own market.

>> No.3557653

>>3557646
Better than Nintendo which threw the West under the bus to chase Japanese market with Gamecube and Wii U.

Yes I am aware Sega did the exact same thing with Saturn.

>> No.3557959
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3557959

>>3557220
SEGA had the Yakuza on their side, not Nintendo.
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/rumour_leading_japanese_game_company_kidnapped_devs_sister_to_stop_them_from_working_with_nintendo


http://www.japan-press.co.jp/2001/2252/game.html

>> No.3558524

>>3557320

There's nothing snarky and edgy about his original design. He's a chubby looking blue hedgehog. He's less sassier looking than Bugs Bunny.

The only sassiness comes from his marketing. That could have been edited for Japanese audiences.

>> No.3558720

>>3557009
The PC-Engine had a CD unit first which was a godsend for the RPGs they love so much and Nintendo was never censor-happy in Japan so Sega couldn't ride off being an edgier alternative.

>> No.3558742

>>3557320
Go watch the Sonic OVA, he has plenty of personality in that.

>> No.3558762

>>3557065
Don't know what are you talking about
1989 had Phantasy Star 2, Thunder Force 2, Ghouls 'n Ghosts Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi.
And 1990 had Castle of Ilusion, After Burner 2, Columns, Shadow Dancer, MUSHA, Strider...
The library wasn't lacking as you're implying.

>> No.3559560

>>3557101
> http://segaretro.org/Sega_Falcom
Too bad they cancelled it.

> http://segaretro.org/Mega_RPG_Project
1994 was probably too late…

>>3557113
Yeah, accounting for Mark III's failure in Japan, Mega Drive wasn't bad. I read that Mark III sold around 2,440,000 units in Japan (http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Third_generation_of_video_games#Japan)), it was less than MD so in a way Sega made progress.

Saturn was great, too bad they had to scrap it in Japan… They easily outsold N64 and weren't that far away from PS.

>> No.3560936

>>3557009
Because Japanese aren't locked out of 90% of the great PCE library because they can't read Japanese, like you are.

>> No.3560962

>>3560936
The good pce games don't require knowing japanese to play.

>> No.3560980

>>3557320
>He had no actual personality.

This fucking guy.

>> No.3561004

>>3560936
Most PCE games are shmups and other textless arcade games. It's the Saturn and especially Wonderswan that have lots of text-heavy games. The former uses Kanji in its games much more than the latter, which has its pros and cons for those who actually know some moon.

>> No.3561034
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3561034

>>3557653
>>3558720
>underage babbies parrotting stuff they got from youtube but don't actually understand

>> No.3561069

>>3557150
I'm 100% sure that RED is blocking Konami from making a Tengai Makyou pachinko cab.

It's the same thing with Momotaro.
>>3558742
Also AOSTH & SatAM/The US Comics.

>> No.3561146
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3561146

>>3561069
>SatAM/The US Comics

>> No.3561198

>>3560962
How would you know? You're not familiar with the library or language.

>>3561004
Most could mean as little as 51%. That doesn't mean there weren't plenty of good text heavy games.

You can parrot shit you read on the internet all you want. The simple fact is the PCE has a huge CD library and it includes many text intensive games. It doesn't matter that you haven't seen them or even that many of the games wouldn't appeal to you. They were hugely popular and were a major contributor to the consoles success over here.

Not sure if you didn't read the OP or something but the question isn't what good games did the PCE have. It is why was the PCE more popular than the MD in Japan.

>> No.3561202

>>3561198
If you spend more time reading or watching than playing, then it shouldn't really be called a game.

Fact is, the best kind of games (arcade games) don't have a language barrier.

>> No.3561205

>>3557959
>Source: nintendolife

>> No.3561469

>>3557107
keep searching we want to see it

>> No.3561809

>>3561202
Thanks for sharing your shit tier opinion and pretending it means anything to anyone except you and the voices in your head.

>> No.3562298
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3562298

Because most japanese played sega games in the arcade so there was no need to buy the console. Arcade games are still popular in japan.