General Zelda Zeldas Downfall in Japan?

[DarkestLink]

First off, it's The Wind Waker isn't unpopular. If it was, there would be no remake.

If you feel that way fine...but even Nintendo admitted that it was Wind Waker's unpopularity that caused them to create Twilight Princess.

 

[Terminus]

If you feel that way fine...but even Nintendo admitted that it was Wind Waker's unpopularity that caused them to create Twilight Princess.

Which was due to backlash over the sudden switch from semi-realistic visuals to slightly cartoony cel-shading.

 

[Justac00lguy]

If you feel that way fine...but even Nintendo admitted that it was Wind Waker's unpopularity that caused them to create Twilight Princess.

I think you're getting mixed up between controversy and an actual disliking.

This game was seen as a disappointment, because the people who disliked what they saw voiced their opinion. When you dislike something you tend to voice your opinion more so then when you like something. The Wind Waker still remains one of the highest selling Zelda titles as well as one that's highly rated among multiple mainstream reviewers and players alike. Tell me what makes it so unpopular?

 

[Salem]

Wind Waker did well by Nintendo standards because it's LOZ. For LOZ standards, it did pretty poorly. It didn't sell that well and it has more infamy than Zelda II (mainly due to Zelda II's obscurity). OoT is the 2nd best selling Zelda, yet OoT 3DS only had a measly...3.2m sales. With Wind Waker's poor sales and bed rep, I'm surprised that WWHD even has a chance of receiving 1m sales.

3.2m sales isn't bad, just saying.

EDIT: One more thing, sales isn't the only measure of how popular a game is, there are way more factors that come into play if a game is "popular" or not, take WW for example, it's right now it's considered the most popular game in gamefaqs, I this this has to do with how many people visit the game's page or forum on that ,actually if you check the top games for each console, they don't exactly correlate with that game's sales standing, so in short, a game's popularity isn't all sales, the game sale's number DOES help, but it's not the only factor.

 

[Seth]

3.2m sales isn't bad, just saying.

3.2m is really quite good if you consider the smaller market for handheld consoles compared to home consoles.

 

[Shadsie]

From what I've read / been given the impression of, the Zelda series, from almost the get-go has suffered from the "Germans Love David Hasselhoff" thing, or alternately, the "Genius in France" syndrome.

And, it's okay, because if something or someone is an international property, if they are less popular in their nation of origin than they are in the culture of another country, they have that other country, which, if it spits out love and/or money, it will be catered to. The trope on TV Tropes is, of course, named for American actor David Hasselhoff - for those of you too young to remember the TV show"Baywatch" as a thing, he gained his fame with that. (While "Baywatch" was a popular show in America, it was considered something of a joke-show). Something about The Hoff struck a chord with modern Germans, and... there you go. A similiar thing happened with Jerry Lewis and French culture - Most Americans find him annoying, but his famous/infamous love among the French prompted Weird Al Yankovick to write a song about it. Comparatively, "Big in Japan" is an American phrase used by businesspeople here who don't expect a product to sell well on the home-turf but expect it to do well in a foreign market (perhaps specifically Japan).

Everything I've heard/read about the Zelda series has told me "This isn't as popular in its native Japan as it is in America and Europe, so Nintendo actually uses it to cater to the American and European markets, because they get enough sales of Zelda here to more than justify its existence."

So, don't worry. We're just like the French giving Jerry Lewis a continued, much-needed living.

 

[Ganondork]

Zelda in general appears to be unpopular in Japan; despite its heavier Eastern influences, the series is more appealing to the Western audience for reasons I can't really say [I'm not experienced in the Japanese market so I don't know what's in and what's not]

This is pretty much the case. Zelda has never really been a big franchise to Japan, and I've heard this echoed around Zelda Dungeon since I joined. The chart, also in Ventus' posts, is a clear indication of this. If I had to take a jab at the reason for this, I'd probably guess that it's because Japanese seem to like story-oriented RPGs (Fire Emblem, Ni No Kuni (Can someone verify this one for me?), etc.) and Zelda really doesn't offer too much in either of those criteria. It has always seemed to me like Nintendo aims Zelda for the Western world, and the sales in Japan really show this.

 

[DarkestLink]

It was disappointment in the game's sales and backlash that made Nintendo switch to Twilight Princess.

 

[Seth]

I don't think that chart shows it is unpopular, quite the contrary. Raw numbers don't tell the story, if you factor in the size of the two countries, I think Zelda is comparable if not even more popular in Japan then it is here.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

Zelda is just a bit too westernised to appeal to the Japanese market. Although it may seem to have a lot of eastern influences to someone from the west, it is certainly not as eastern compared to most JRPG's. That is because Zelda is tailored to cater for the western audience, therefore it is the west where the games are going to be popular.

This actually shocks me a bit. You'd think something like Zelda would appeal to the Japanese market, but I guess like Sonic & Kingdom Hearts, not many people in Japan care for Zelda. I mean, we're talking about a country that has completely different tastes while other countries (ex. the United States, the United Kingdom, etc.) like the same franchises.

 

[Seth]

This actually shocks me a bit. You'd think something like Zelda would appeal to the Japanese market, but I guess like Sonic & Kingdom Hearts, not many people in Japan care for Zelda. I mean, we're talking about a country that has completely different tastes while other countries (ex. the United States, the United Kingdom, etc.) like the same franchises.

Again, take population size into account, not just raw numbers.

 

[Unlucky Monkey]

It would be too much to quote every Post, so, I made a little summary of the whole Thread.

Ventus: You're not wrong, but, Majoras Mask isn't that popular. In fact, many Gamer (especially the younger ones) may never heard of Majoras Mask. The Game became very popular the past years (The Game deserves it). But Nintendo is also not stupid. Only because the Internet is crying, does not mean, everyone wants a Majoras Mask Remake. With Ocarina of Time 3D, there is already a Remake for the 3DS available. Why remaking a Title, not well known among the casual Fans? Majoras Mask is still a Topic, even with the Release of Wind Waker HD. And I think, they will still do an Majoras Mask Remake.

K4KING: Thanks for the inside! I only got numbers, but you truly got the inside. That was an interesting Post. Releasing Wind Waker in the same month as Pokemon, that may not be the best tactic. But the same goes for every other game released in September when GTA V was released.

jimmy.f27: It's not only Wind Waker. I did not found any of the newer Zelda Titles selling more than about 600.000 Copies in Japan. For a japanese Game, this is simply not good. If Nintendo never released Zelda in the West, this Franchise would be gone since Majoras Mask.

Keith: Ni No Kuni is popular in the West, but the Playstation 3 Version sold only about 800.000 Copies Worldwide. The Nintendo DS Version (only released in Japan) was more popular in Japan. This may be a commercial success for Namco Bandai in the West, but after all the commercials and a big Name like Ghibli, selling less than a million Worldwide, is not really a commercial success for Ni No Kuni (Playstation 3).

 

[Mangachick14]

I don't know if it's entirely accurate to say the series is doomed in it's homeland based on the sales of a remake whose original didn't come out that long ago. I mean, sure the sales are greatly lower in Japan compared to the States, but the overall population of Japan is also way smaller--as others have mentioned.

 

[DarkestLink]

Actually, the original Wind Waker didn't do badly in Japan. In fact, it's the 2nd best selling 3D title behind OoT itself. But in the end, Phantom Hourglass outsold all the 3D titles aside from OoT.