>>3814951
> "Change == bad" should be the end of the discussion
Change is bad. That's the whole point. You can't pick a series selling waifus and the power fantasy of being a teen superhero and turn it on its head, selling punishing mechanics and loss, calling it part of that series. Not only it won't work, it cannot work. It's the same issue Square Enix had with FF. Taking out turn battles immediately alienated their audiences. They need to sell growth and progress to their shareholders, but they can't change formula. And making more games in the same category would make them compete with themselves. Anything they do to grow causes them to lose money and audiences. Even worse, reshaping their staff to innovate has killed what worked well before for them already. Capcom and DQ are just another failure in a dysfunctional business culture surrounding gaming.

So the exact issue is that Capcom didn't know how to push the envelope, so they turned a whole series on its head so bad they killed it, despite making a good game.

> For me if the argument is what DQ needed to really sell it, it would sadly be making Nina and Lin waifus and expanding the story to make it more dramatic and involved.
You're right about the waifu part, pic related.

The overarching issue is "marketing". You have to market something to sell games to large audience. Previous entries market your next entries somewhat, but if you make dramatic changes, you're marketing AGAINST your next installments.
So as you say DQ needed something really, really marketable to sell. Waifus, amazing 3D modeling and landscapes (very expensive) like say, Baten Kaitos etc.
Personally, the coolest thing about DQ is the Dragon Transformation. Instead of turning into an angry goblin, they should have allowed Ryu to turn into full size Odjn and just blast bosses into smithreens with grand attacks, then cranked up the colors too. Or just called it BREATH OF FIRE DUNGEON and marketed it as a dungeon crawler.