I must confess, I'm glad there are no PS3 games on that list.

weak japanese sales = weak sales WW = less chance of TP surpassing other Zelda games in sales = Nintendo thinking their game sucked.

some of the most retarded decisions are made based on sales.

Mother anyone?

It's interesting how Zelda doesn't stay in the top 10 for weeks on end and the fans automatically think the Japanese hate Zelda.

The Japanese hated Elebits. They didn't hate Zelda.

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get another sequel.

bigjohnson101.. learn to spell. If you want to taken seriously arond here dont type like a 12 year old. Also tone down on the cursing... my fricking ears are bleeding.

I love how people completely failed to comprehend what I actually wrote, and then called ME an idiot for it.

TP IS an Ocarina game. I never said it was inferior, or that it was a remake, etc. It takes place in the very same Hyrule as Ocarina of Time, it revisits MANY of the very same locations, etc.

None of the other canon Zelda games do this. Now that TP has come out, you cannot play just Zelda 64 or TP alone, by themselves, and get the entire story/experience. They are interrelated.

Sheesh. You all acted as if I were demeaning TP or something.

I was really expecting better Blue Dragon sales. There were seriously ads all over Tokyo for the game - almost as many as there were Wii ads (Sony had hardly a single PS3 ad that I saw, although there have been more showing up very recently). They even put up this giant interactive shadow thing in Shibuya. They definitely wanted people to take notice. I guess some people did - around 30,000 to be exact. The others just bought the best game to come out in Japan for their 360s.

I guess that's it for the 360 in Japan aside for Lost Odyssey. Lost Planet is coming out next week, but there's a bunch of other big name titles competing with it at the same time. Microsoft may have won some name recognition with Blue Dragon, but they better bring out the sequel fast or people will likely forget it before the game surfaces.

The Wii is sparse in Japan so that probably has a lot to do with the lower game sales. It's surprising it's still on the top 30, actually, with the overall Wii system shortage.

No new games came out for the PS3 that week so it that has a lot to do with there being no PS3 games on the list. Following the launch day, there's only been two PS3 games released, and they were both Mahjong games. Not a lot of winners there. :P

Oh, and people are lining up for the DS Lite again. The thing is consistently sold out, and when a shipment does come in, there's often times a line of 100+ people in major stores forming hours before they start selling.

"terpfen 12.14.2006 at 11:17:11 AM
It has more to do with the fact that I think OoT is the third-worst Zelda game."

Great, and I think that A Link to the Past and the original are two of the worst Zelda games... but we're both in the minority.

Moving along now. i wonder how the Blue Dragon will do next week. Hopefully it can do better than this week's abysmal performance. If the game is as good as the reviewers at Famitsu think it is, then it deserves to do better.

I don't know why I'm getting sucked into this, but I feel like I have to blab my opinion!

I like TP - a lot. I'm only halfway through but it's definitely a contender for my favourite game in the series. If I had one complaint, though, it might actually be that the game does pander to Ocarina fans. I liked Majora's Mask and Wind Waker specifically because they tried to be original.

That said, it's just my personal distaste for pandering talking. The game is fun, the controls are the sharpest yet (with a couple of exceptions), the scope of the overworld is large without being boring (usually), and the story and characters are memorable.

mahew, people are viewing your comments negatively because you filled your first post with statements that can so easily be taken that way. Anyone just skimming the comments would basically read your post as "old, not amazing, remake, misuse of the word vast".

Even the word "refinement" has an undertone of "smaller", since refinement generally has a sense of cutting out the fat. But the reality is that TP expands exponentially upon the best of OoT.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and not take your comments negatively, but they DO come off that way. It isn't just a fluke.

I've been reading about the sales of Blue Dragon, and I've read the debates since. Some point out that 80K in sales is absolutely nothing compared to the likes of Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, while others argue that 80K makes it the fastest selling 360 game in Japan, so in that way it's a success.

My verdict on it is that it's not a success...

...yet.

I'll get back to that "yet" part. See, honestly I don't think anyone (including Microsoft) was expecting this to sell through the roof right off the bat. Even if it's from Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy. Even if the music is by Nobuo Uematsu, the man who's music helped make Final Fantasy famous. Even if the character designs are by Akira Toriyama, the designer of Dragon Quest.

I don't think Microsoft is truly concerned with the sales figures yet. They're aiming for something much different at the current time.

And it could be the smartest thing they've ever done.

Let's take a look at what Microsoft has done to promote Blue Dragon. They've been airing commercials for nearly a year now, despite the fact that they didn't contain any gameplay footage (just to let people know it was coming, similar to the commercial Square-Enix just recently made for Dragon Quest IX. No footage, just a logo and "Coming 2007") They bundled it with the X-Box 360 in Japan. A couple weeks before the release, they announce a sequel's in the planning. They also get Takeshi Obata to draw a Blue Dragon manga for Shonen Jump.

I'd like to take a look at the manga for a second, and analyze two key points about it.

1) The manga is *not* drawn by Akira Toriyama himself, though it is drawn by a popular artist of Shonen Jump (Hikaru no Go and Death Note)
2) The story doesn't tie into the game much at all (at least, from what I understand)

So obviously, the manga that is no doubt being promoted by Microsoft, has very little to do with the actual game. It's when I considered this that I realized what Microsoft is truly after at this point in time.

Whether Blue Dragon goes on to sell well or not isn't the point yet. Right now, they're just trying to establish the name Blue Dragon, and nothing more.

Think about it for a minute. There's a LOT of excellent RPGs in Japan that don't sell nearly as well as Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, or Pokemon (and in some cases, Tales of). Some would argue that they might be even better, like the GRANDIA fans or the Shin Megami Tensei fans.

But everyone in Japan knows the names Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. If it's got one of those names with a number attached to the end, it's gonna sell through the roof no matter what. It could be completely s***ty, and it'd sell in the millions.

They have name recognition

Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, they're all big names. And right now, that's what Microsoft is trying to do with Blue Dragon. Sure they want to make a great game to get people excited of course...

... but more than that, they want the name Blue Dragon to grow into the Japanese conscious, even if it's slowly but surely. The promotional Shonen Jump comic is very telling of this, as it's the most popular shonen manga magazine in Japan. That way, if the PS3 is deemed too expensive for the non-early adaptors of the system, the 360 might seem like a decent alternative. After all, it's got that Blue Dragon thing I've been reading about in Shonen Jump. And it kinda looks like Dragon Quest now that I think about it...

Then, when the timing's right, they unveil the sequel. People start to get excited, a new Blue Dragon is coming. Sales rise, and Microsoft gets Japanese marketshare.

It's a great strategy. The only problem is, it might not work at all. But at the very least, Microsoft seems to understand that it's the names and not the games that they need to fight against if they want to have a chance in Japan. I hope it does suceed, but moreso because I want Sakaguchi to rise again, he's a great game designer and even though the Final Fantasy movie failed, he should never have been ousted from Square-Enix. He saved the company all those years ago with this Final Fantasy, he deserves the spotlight again in my opinion.

My 2 cents.

"DQ has writing? Last time I checked DQ had a complete absence of scenario, but an engrossing world."

Because the only way a game can possibly be considered "well-written" is if its overall plot is extremely complex and convoluted, right?

DQ's writing takes the form of small scenarios that you go through in each new area, and every one of them are emotionally touching, entertaining, and hilarious. DQ doesn't focus on one or two big "holy s***" moments, it focuses on smaller but more memorable events. Examples: the "special trick" to opening the door to Alexandria Tower in DQ8, Greed Town in DQ6, reading the note in Papas' workshop in DQ5, and so on.

You can take Sephiroth, I'll take the Great Kalderasha.

You make it sound very negative any time you say anything about it. If your desire isn't to be negative, then why bother arguing about it?

Honestly, I know exactly what you're talking about and they aren't parallels, they're places in Ocarina put straight into TP. One room in particular is nearly identical. It's supposed to make you say, "Oh hey, this must take place after TP," because y'know, it does.

And my point still stands. You're just complaining for no reason at all. Does that make the game worse or better? Hell no.

pixy misao: "you probably have in your head some futuristic Zelda"
Is it just me, or wouldn't futuristic Zelda be called "Metroid"? I mean, there are differences (no towns or specifically-designated dungeons in Metroid) but the main action/adventure formula (fight enemies, collect items which then allow you to access new areas and fight more enemies, etc.) is the same. Even Mario 64 follows this to a degree, though the emphasis on powerups (the caps) is less.

Also, armageddon, a "console epidemic"? I like it. :D I don't think we're there just yet, though. The DS Lite has only sold, to date, 20 or 30 million copies worldwide. When it breaks 100 million, depending on how long that takes, then I'll start talking epidemic.

Also, Ocarina was kind of a retread of Link to the Past, but in 3D. Twilight Princess is kind of a retread of that, but with new controls. That doesn't stop either one of them from being awesome games.

The real question is: will any non-Nintendo game be able to hold onto a top-10 spot next week? (Also, what else is coming out next week?) I'm not expecting quite another all-DS week, but I could see DS claiming 7 and Wii taking another 1 or 2.

It's much better than Ocarina. It's very simple. You take Ocarina and make it bigger, prettier, more epic and actual storytelling. Throw in far better dungeon design, cooler weapons, better sidequests and then throw in the Wii remote and how fun it is to use (yeah yeah yeah terp, go ahead and insert you comment after this point because I know you have one) and you have a far better game.

Now that I've tried the GC version and the Wii version, the GC version doesn't even feel right. I've gotten too used to using the remote.

"It's easy to mistake Zelda:TP for one of the other games when all you have done is looked at screenshots or played 5 mins of it at your buddies house."

Actually, it sounds like the guys saying "Nuh-uh! It's not like Ocarina, honest!" haven't either played it or haven't been very observant, when they think that the similarities amount to, as 'matters' said, "Zelda takes place in Hyrule and makes references to other Zelda games?"

Clearly, that is missing all the more in-depth exact parallels, such as the three first dungeons and the events leading up to them with the exeption of the Twilight twist, which of course has its obvious parallels as well. These are not just references, they are exact retreading of Ocarina. And what is it with the fervent denial that TP isn't modelled directly after Ocarina? There are people who like Ocarina and those that don't, but somehow, the people who like it are taking this comparison most negatively.

Man, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are now collectively, the DS's best selling game with over 3.6 million copies out there in Japan.

It's also really cool seeing Blue Dragon, an Xbox 360 title so high up on the charts; it should be interesting to see how big of a jump in hardware the 360 had.

Also, there are still no PS3 games in the Top 10, but we're seeing some Wii titles stick around which is good for Nintendo. Sony should still be happy however with its PS2 getting 2 spots on the Top 10 list.

Now, as of 25 days at the max, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has reached the Million Mark, with 1.7 million Wii consoles out there, world wide. Time for some hardware!
Paul Gale
1up.com

"but it is still a take on the same formula,"

Geeee mahew you think?! What ever gave you that impression? Durrr durrr durrrr im da water boy.

"But I agree with other opinions: It's coming up close." - No idea what I meant by that.

One more point - as DS and hopefully Wii become popular, Nintendo fans will have to deal with the fact that we're the new home for casuals. That means that something like "1000 DS Recipes", which I hear took 14th place this week, can easily outsell Metroid or Castlevania.

DQ has writing? Last time I checked DQ had a complete absence of scenario, but an engrossing world.

scarecrow - Is there something you're trying to prove? I would kindly suggest that you refrain from stating things that you clearly aren't very knowledgable about. :p

"Wow, give the man a spoonful of water and he'll do anything. Jump froggy, jump!"

It has more to do with the fact that I think OoT is the third-worst Zelda game.

Congratulation X360.. you are fighting in this war!!

arm: Namco said it was 500k. 50k is seriously not that much and a perfectly reasonable amount to break even on a game.

See though, if software is supposed to be the big money maker for game consoles, and you have to sell 500k just to break even (and thus avoid a loss), honestly, what does that tell you?

Sony PS3 and it's media of BR would be their chance of taking Japan as they did with the PS2. Wonder what the sales for the PS2 would of been if it was a pure gaming system, I know it would of done great still but just odd when we look back on the weekly sales and everyone was like "still 25k per week, everyone in japan and grandparents must own a ps2 by now" now look at the DSL, everyone and i do mean everyone incl homeless must own one or waiting to own a dsl.If the wii hits the same amount of people that the DSL does, we might not have to settle for a console war afterall but a console epidemic. The DSL's fan base is so large that it's going to be on the top10 no matter what, there's so many people that have one maybe you guys can post the top20 at least.

Other news: Congratz to Bluedragon and x360 sales.

I love all consoles and the x360 needs some asian love atm, I don't think it will ever be something that Ninty or Sony would have to worry about.

Btw are there any killer apps in the work from 3rd parties or we are just ridding the wii wave till next year?


~Arm

I read somewhere that Sony has fixed their PS3 issues, so things should start to pick up now.I don't know how the market can handle all this gaming goodness, from DSL, PS3,PS2,PSP,X360 and the Wii.Namco stated somewhere that they need to at least sell 50k or 500k(can't remember the exact number) of any game for them to roll a profit on the ps3, so development on the ps3 is expensive might take some time for us to see a few ps3's on the charts, well longer than a week on the charts.Looking at the sales it's easy to see that we might have to be getting the top 20 or even 30 with so many systems out to get a better guage of whats going on later on.

Update: Dr.Phil and the Wii may very well boost nintendo to a level that they've never been to, or it might be those "casual gamers & non-gamers", need some North American hardware sales now.

~Arm

"it's amazing how the Japanese don't really like Zelda.....it's the medieval theme...it's not loved by Asians that much. And I don't blame them."

Yeah, that's why the Asians absolutely can't STAND Dragon Quest, either.

btw, what happened with wario ware's sales?

all the old ones sold well and hung in the charts for months. this one looks like it will be gone from the top 30 next week.

Okay, the people who are calling Twilight Princess an "Ocarina of Time remake" are utter retards. The game feels so vastly different that such a comment is worth laughing at. All-new items, a VERY, VERY different storyline, vastly differing versions of the same locations, and the whole wolf mechanic and lack of an instrument? It's a completely unique game. That's like calling Kingdom Hearts II a Kingdom Hearts remake.

Sigh.

"it's amazing how the Japanese don't really like Zelda....."

I think you're maybe reading too deeply into these numbers. But let's see how Zelda does in the long run. I still feel like enough casual gamers bought the Wii so that the Zelda-loving demographic may not be fully represented in this week's numbers. And let's see how the GC version does, too.

General Knowledge Training is wrecking shop.

Go Gundam SEED!!!!!!

Damn Kirby is LOOOOOOOOVED in Japan. So good to see.

I really gotta get Yakuza2 when it's released here.

it's amazing how the Japanese don't really like Zelda.....it's the medieval theme...it's not loved by Asians that much. And I don't blame them.

Wow, these numbers really are interesting. The casual gamers really are dominating completely in Japan right now. Seems like every week a hot big "hardcore" game comes out, hits the top 10 by storm, and then vanishes into the lower regions or off the charts entirely: see Jeanne D'arc, FF6 Advance, Twilight Princess, etc. Then again, even Love & Berry DS dropped off rather quickly.

Depending on what comes out next week, I think we could be facing an 8-or-9-Nintendo-game list. Heck maybe even 10. That'd be interesting.

If you look at Japanese Wii launch line pictures you may note that a lot of the people are "non-gamers"... the Brain Training crowd. Moms, Dads, middle-aged people... These are the ones that wouldn't be too crazy over Zelda, but would run right out and buy Wii Sports or Wii Play. Hey, look what made it onto the charts!

I'm convinced that as more "actual gamers" get their hands on the Wii that Twilight Princess will be purchased. But it may never have the impact of a big launch week.

Hey! Ocarina?! noooo no way! Maybe have some of the scent, but is not Ocarina, is a great masterpiece of the series

Don't call it an Ocarina game. It's a brand new Zelda game made for the Gamecube but then altered for the Wii Remote. I can't believe the sales are so low. Makes me a bit sad that Japan doesn't like it. I think it is one of the best single player games ever.

There was less then 100,000 Wii units for sale this week, and Zelda sold about 35 - 40k, so it still sold to 35% of new and existing owners.

Solid is a good word. To be honest I was much more impressed by Wind Waker when it was released. That might just be me preferring the exploratory aspect though. You want amazing you look at Wii Sports.

Zelda is also old and conventional. Calling it amazing would be stretching it a bit, I think "solid" would be more fitting. After all, at its core, it is just a refined Ocarina of Time, and it makes no effort to hide it - just the opposite. Some could even call it an Ocarina of Time remake, the similarities are so vast.

To those who doubted the fact that Zelda is not a system seller in Japan:

There you go.

wow, nintendo is still averaging 7 games in ja;pans top ten list. they are really rocking over there. Pokemon DP is now way over 3.5 mill.

does anyone think itll break 5 mill over there?

I expected Blue Dragon to at least crack 100K.