Octopath Traveler making waves on Amazon. Why?

Both demos were amazing. Can't wait for release.

Is it partly because it is an exclusive (at least for now?)?

1. Exclusive games get a ton of hype if they look really good.
2. There hasn't been a big budget game that's looked like this in a while.

Would expect it to sell between 2m-3m if it gets above an 85 on Metacritic.

The demo reception has been incredibly good / the demos themselves were super generous. Anecdotally, I have a fair few friends who aren't interested in JRPGs at all but are picking it up, which is really impressive to me.

Sammy Samusu said:

Areth you shooketh byth iteth earlyist successeth?

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Fixed that for you, because that village really is a fucking localisation mess.

Seriously can't wait for this game

It's out of stock already on amazon.ca

At least in Tokyo, there are ads for it everywhere. It's getting a lot of public exposure.

I said it would sell over 2 million.

Not a single notable game is releasing this month. Everything else seems niche and exclusive games always gets some hype.

Because the last bigish-budget turn-based fantasy JRPG that I can think of was Bravely Second. Give us more of what we want, Squeenix!

(Also if there are some fantasy turn-based JRPGs I missed, I'd love to hear about them).

Edit: my phone corrected "Squeenix" to "Squeegee remix"

I think the game will do very well, I am so excited for it! Next Friday can come soon enough.

Third party games on Switch will sell amazing well when the fans see an effort and they have the benefit of launch marketing,

Putting old ports (unless date and date remasters) on the console with zero marketing is clearly not the path to success on Switch or any platform.

We want exclusive content, effort, we want games that release the same time as other platforms with features unique to our platform like Starlink.

There is no mysterious audience that buys Switch games. 40% of Switch owners in the US also own PS4's. It's called the hardcore fanbase and if you want to sell games you need to market them.

This is why MS/Sony are tripping over themselves and offering publishers money hand over fist to get marketing rights on multiplats. If a game is not marketed to a certain platform it nearly becomes invisible to said platform in comparison (Destiny on XB1 compared to PS4 for instance).

Dry summer and lack of RPGs on the system?

1. Hefty demo with e3 placement.
2. It's a really big, unique take on old-school jrpgs. Familiar, but new.
3. Platform exclusive.

Pretty promising.

How well is this doing compared to XC2 by the way? Because it has the potential to sell even more.

Considering that Square Enix already supports the console and an entire division was created for it (with Octopath Traveller being the first game) I think so. The game will probably experience more than Bravely Default.

chronic_archaic said:

Dry summer and lack of RPGs on the system?

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The Switch has a nice amount of RPG so far, way better then the Wii U and on par with PS4 in the same time frame.

I'm definitely picking it up. This is basically going to be my summer break game. I hope I'll love it as much as bravely default.

We are ready to pay for finished games again

They have the first 3 hours of the game available online that you need to play 3-4 times to see all the content in. It's probably one of the best demos to sell you on a game in a long time. Mix that with how original it looks in a very light month for big releases and boom sales.

It's gonna be so good.

It looks great, had extremely well-received demos, exclusives generate hype and it's releasing at a time with very few other games of note. Perfect storm.

chronic_archaic said:

Dry summer and lack of RPGs on the system?

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XC2 has done great, YsVIII is also doing solidly based on early impressions.

JRPGs just sell well on the system.

Meelow said:

The Switch has a nice amount of RPG so far, way better then the Wii U and on par with PS4 in the same time frame.

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Comic Obsessed said:

XC2 has done great, YsVIII is also doing solidly based on early impressions.

JRPGs just sell well on the system.

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More talking new releases, in comparison with the other systems. I get it's only a year old, but regardless in terms of brand new content it's fair to point out a lack of exclusive RPGs on Switch

I eagerly anticipate the wave of backlash against a solid game that is aimed at older fans of classic JRPGs.

Honestly from what I've read it seems like a lot of people want to naysay this game and want it to fail commercially.

Now that amazon hourly matters much, but it is #10 on Amazon Australia at the moment

It's been shown at multiple Nintendo events, including e3's, Directs, and the Switch unveiling in January 2017. It's been a highlighted exclusive since day 1.

Grads said:

Now that amazon hourly matters much, but it is #10 on Amazon Australia at the moment

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It helps that the price is much more sane on Amazon AU. $75, compared to the $90 on the eShop (which is $66 US).

Because it looks amazing.

Sammy Samusu said:

I remember some people complaining about this game not being worthy of a $60 price tag, but looks like the GP are seeing value in it.

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This community whines about lots of things.

I hope it does well but I'm tempering expectations

it's a niche game that appeals to a certain age gamer who played jrpgs on older consoles like the SNES. it should have some appeal beyond that but how much, who knows

I'm all over it, that much is certain. game looks amazing.

chronic_archaic said:

Dry summer and lack of RPGs on the system?

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I'd say these have pretty big bearings on it. Good job the game looks great too, should be nice to jump in and out of over the rest of the year, give my switch some use.

It's also on the eshop best sellers list as a PREORDER

This game is going to be big

I don't normally care for JRPGs and I'm getting it day one.

It's the rebirth of the rpg, Japanese rpgs are back

Edit: although that already happened with me personally with xenoblade 2

seems to be the only notable game release in july

Something something starved for games.
Everyone played the demo and it's clear it will be a stellar game.

It seems weird to me to make a thread for something like this. Why do any games perform well on online retail sales charts? Because it looks like a really good game and Nintendo and SE have been actively supporting and promoting it for quite a lot of time now. It's something we've seen and been waiting to release since the initial Switch reveal.

Is it a huge surprise that a classic RPG from a company originally known for classic RPGs is doing well?

Well FWIW it's tracking well below Labo on Amazon, too.

Probably just the summer lull.

Saucer said:

It's also on the eshop best sellers list as a PREORDER

This game is going to be big

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And YsVIII is just above it despite that it didn't appear on the eShop basically until its release date.

The genre is doing pretty good on Switch.

Less than 10 days!

I think the demo is the reason it's charting so high right now. It shot up the Amazon charts in the US soon after that released.

I think it's going to sell quite well, but Amazon hourly charts are ... not a great metric.

• Nintendo is advertising the game in video ads on the internet
• 2 demos with positive word of mouth
• unique and catching artstyle

it's not a guarantee of success, but when it works, it's pretty visible when it does

3 hours flew by while playing the demo. JRPG fans, don't get many games like this anymore, somehow, the biggest studios moved from this type of game to some idol pop big budget not what jrpg plays like mentality (cough FF). It's good to see it back.

Buggy Loop said:

3 hours flew by while playing the demo. JRPG fans, don't get many games like this anymore, somehow, the biggest studios moved from this type of game to some idol pop big budget not what jrpg plays like mentality (cough FF). It's good to see it back.

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I mean the same company that made FF is also making this and DQ11 so....im not sure what your point is?

Comic Obsessed said:

And YsVIII is just above it despite that it didn't appear on the eShop basically until its release date.

The genre is doing pretty good on Switch.

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It's no surprise when the Switch had Zelda, Skyrim, Xeno, Disagea and a host indie rpg's in the launch window.

You want to sell a genre on a platform, build a genre fanbase on a platform.

It's had a pretty positive response to all marketing, from initial reveal, to the demos and previews. It's probably going to do very well for a JRPG with that kind of budget. It's not a mystery.

Doorman said:

It seems weird to me to make a thread for something like this. Why do any games perform well on online retail sales charts? Because it looks like a really good game and Nintendo and SE have been actively supporting and promoting it for quite a lot of time now. It's something we've seen and been waiting to release since the initial Switch reveal.

Is it a huge surprise that a classic RPG from a company originally known for classic RPGs is doing well?

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The perception is that we haven't seen AAA caliber classic rpg in decades