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The game sold 45,378 copies during its launch week in Japan according to Famitsu, and that was in 2019, 2 years ago.
From the Steam owner estimation by SteamDB: is still within range of 0 - 20,000, which is well not a lot, or ~24K by PlayTracker (take it with a grain of salt).
And let's assume similar number but added 5,000-10,000 more for PS4 since the platform has larger fanbase, plus I'm not going to be that over-optimistic to add 20,000 or sth as IX is still a niche game, and easily get shadowed by other big titles released in the same period.
Hence the assumed sales of around close to 100,000 so far, which is not that terrible as it seems (compared to SEVEN or Celceta remaster), but definitely can't be said as selling well either, just "decent enough", and I believe Falcom did expect this number.
p/s: but for their latest Trail game - Kuro no Kiseki, there is clear evidence of sales dropping a lot more than previous game, highly due to fans fatigue, and that is what Falcom should concern about, possibly they need to change their tactic of releasing one game per year (and I think they should).
The sales droppping according to Famitsu is a clear evidence of this.
And do you know why? Because of the 1-game-per-year pacing that's W-H-Y!!! We are still 3 Trail games behind Falcom latest one, and by your encouragement on them continuing we will never catch up Falcom! You knew d@mn well Falcom lacks the manpower to do multiple port at once, hence the partnership with NISA and recently Cloud Leopard Entertainment (CLE) to let them take the job instead, and yet we are still falling behind, FAR!
Because if they decided Ys X to be next year for example, it would take 4+ years for us to even see its trailer on PS4, let alone PC & Switch port!, because NISA already got their hands full with 4 Trail games (as of extra Nayuta spinoff) in the next two years 2022-2023, then Kuro for 2024, not to mention a lot longer if there is delay.
And obviously, you are left with limited options by going with that pace too, thus Falcom can only stick to Trails and Ys for the possible highest profit, casting aside Tokyo Xanadu part 2 or the remake/successor of older series as they are way more risky and need a lot of time to think of the design.
To sum up, you're dead effing wrong on this, Falcom may be able to hold it for past few years, but the plan will backfire them very soon starting now without adjustment, plus LET WE CATCH THEM UP FOR GOD's SAKE!
Edit: maybe we could actually do it had Falcom made up with XSEED, but that is IF, and a big one without any signs in the foreseeable future.
Falcom, and the Ys series in particular, is a series that has gone through many, many twists and turns since its original birth in Japan in 1986.
By the time Retro 3 was released (1989), most of the original staff had already left Falcom for good.
The series died once with 5 on the SNES.
Six years later, the series was revived with 6, but it reached its limits with "Origin", and 7 was released on the PSP under Sony's umbrella.
The rest of the games were released on PSVIta and PS4.
How can this be?
Why does the series have a very, very long span?
Well, after "Neo", the Ys series has been in development for 2 years at the shortest and 4 years at the longest.
That's like the Olympics!(lol)
Yes, I think the Ys series production can be regarded as the "Olympics" within Falcom now.
Falcom is a company that has been doing this for a long time without unnecessarily increasing the number of employees.
There is always a limit to what they can do.
The "KISEKI" series, especially the "Sen" series, is not well received by the fans in Japan, probably because they tried too fast release.
As for Ys, as I mentioned, it is an old series, and for core fans, at least in Japan, it has become a "play it when it comes out" series.
Falcom knows that rushing to make a bad game would mean the end of the series once again.
For the old users, it's more of a "no-brainer".
It's a series that has already died.
But if a new game is coming out, then "good, here it comes! If there is a new one, it's a good thing".
Isn't it the same engine Falcom has been using for years? It would imply that the issue is lack of willingness to fix than just time.
Trails are long games released frequently. I agree about the point of Trails fatigue, but that doesn't mean that Falcom has to work on Trails all the time. They can work on other games to give Trails fans a break while still having a game every year.
I disagree because Falcom is not a solo indie developer that can work on one thing at the time. Falcom works on multiple games at the same time already - so they could include translation and porting in parallelization process. Then they can just wait for the translation and porting to end for simultaneous release. It would require a break in yearly releases - once. Or they could fill the gap year with a smaller in-between game that would fill in the gap year.
Once again, then they should do something else that is not Trails or Ys. If they lack manpower, then lack of income every year wouldn't help them about that. Manpower is expensive.
Not every game they make must be a 30h RPG. They could release smaller spin-offs or just smaller games. If they are not 30h RPGs, then then they will have less to translate which would be perfect to filling the one time schedule shift. Maybe a platformer, considering Falcom has expertise with that thanks to Ys?
No, it is not Phyre engine anymore but new in-house developed, that's why it needs more time to optimize and polish. You didn't know?
Yes that will do, but whether they take risk in others is the real question here. We don't know how well Tokyo Xanadu was sold to kickstart the sequel. or Zweii III / new Gurumin could be too kid-ish to attract many players, or Brandish, is a name a lot haven't heard in a long time.
I never said Falcom solo on one thing only, yet at the same time they can only do a limited number of projects at once too. As I said earlier, they chose Trails and Ys as their main focus + for possible highest profit, with 1 Trail game per year and 1 Ys game per 2-3 years I believe (since Ys has bigger and complex map designs with IX now, and is a fast-pace action JRPG). If they chose Tokyo Xanadu, it would be a subtitute to Ys, not Trail or they would end up breaking their pace of choice. And I myself prefer the later.
In other words, if you want them to do more unique things than Trails, they have to break up their 1-game-per-year strategy regardless.
And no, they can't just wait for simultaneous release, if they could we would have seen already. Falcom is just like other Japanese publishers out there, that they have to do financial report yearly for investors. In addition, they are quite strict in spending too, even Capcom, thus leaving much less room for new and experimental IPs, but rather stick to what they have already established in the long run - Resident Evil and Monster Hunter just like Falcom has Trails and Ys.
Expensive or not you will have to expand and recruit more if you want to do better, this year we already seen Falcom's ambition to go all out (well for 40th anniversary too) by confirming all Trails (except latest Kuro) coming to Steam instead of waiting one by one like before. Then there is also CLE partnership to push forward JP/CN/KR version to reduce the works for NISA. In addition, Ys is now a major game like Trails too, no longer the 6-10 hrs playthrough like we have known for. And if you want to 3-4 projects at once, more recruit. To make the game match the $60 (in term of visual)? More recruits!
I have been defending Falcom games with "small dev/limited budget" reasons, even lost a good friend over this silly debate too (basically he didn't get why people would choose they games when there is better out there, and quality is lacking). But is it really fine to pull that card everytime someone complain about graphics, feeling outdated? I don't think so.
Anyway, if Falcom chose to keep everything the same, because they are always cautious about expansion, prefer safe and comfort zone, that can't be helped, but it is still their fault too, as going bigger requires risks nonetheless.
Again back to the real question - will they take risks in others? Or they prefer something safe like Trails and Ys?
And, Falcom is in a paradoxical situation as they have been releasing only 30h+ games for the past 8 years. If there is another one coming out, obviously fans would expect of similar caliber. Says if they released a 5-10 hrs platformer now, would you be hyped for it?
Indeed there are many other successful 2D/2.5D hand-drawn platformer action on Steam like Ender Lilies, Celeste, Hades, Dead Cells, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Ori and a lot more. But despite their look and scale, many of them actually took a lot of time to develop too.
I don't doubt Falcom ability to pull off one, but they really need to put tons of time and efforts for the game to be unique and on par to those titles I mentioned, plus it can be a hit-or-miss genre to go for too.
Hence I guess why the spinoff Trail - Nayuta is announced, as why creating new one instead of releasing what we already have? Yet we have to wait til 2023 to even touch it lol.
To sum up, Falcom needs to change whether they want to go bigger, going with new or incomplete IPs, or simply niche spin-offs like Nayuta, Ys vs Kiseki. Of course changes could make them go worse, but keep staying like this wouldn't suffice in the long run either.
9 is a much better "Ys" than Falcom itself has announced.
The engine is old, but it has always been old. Do you not know Origin from Napistem?
They're probably a team of about 10 people, except for a few fragmented collaborators.
So if the quality is this good, I think it's great.
Why do they have to be compared to AAA studios every time?
Not so long ago, there was no such comparison.
It's just that Falcom's recent works have become "comparable" in terms of visuals.
But Falcom has not changed its policy. I think that's what it means.
The newcomers are just dancing around.
I think that is arrogance without regard to history.
Because of the price tag $60 which is usually for AAA games.
We are fine with purchasing Falcom games day one because 1. we have been fans of them for a good amount of time or 2. with the benefits of regional pricing that scales the number down to $30-40 or even lower.
But for newcomers, asking $60 means they are expected to have similar to modern AAA games like Tales of Arise, Witcher 3, new Assassin Creed, God of War, Elden Ring, Zelda BoTW, Final Fantasy, etc. Even worse if they are asked close to $80-$100 for Ultimate / Deluxe Edition, which is what Ys IX currently has.
And become "comparable" is not enough, to a majority out there, Falcom's graphics is still 1-1.5 gen behind (and it is a fact). In addition, there are other indies with much better textures and visuals, thus making Falcom's $60 tag even more difficult to swallow.
In other words, there will always be comparisons, and most of them will be against Falcom regardless of our saying.
Well, when you go buy something do you actually investigate/study thoroughly the brands behind the products? I don't think so. The same applies here, newcomers unfamiliar with Falcom games won't care much, if they could listen/empathize to Falcom's background, great, we all rejoice, if they didn't, there is nothing we can do about that, the more we insist that Falcom is not shady (yet) the more we become "fanbois", "white knights" to them.
And we can't just defend Falcom by saying their group size is small, with limited budget etc. forever, especially with $60 tag.
That's why for me this time it should be a perfect chance for Falcom to well basically slow down, so that their games receive more polishness, more optimization matching the price tags. that's all.
don't want it. I don't want all of that.
I want to play Ys, which shows Falcom is this way, otherwise there is no point anymore.
Price? Napishtem and Origins were $100 courses in japan first what?
Newcomers? I'm not a newcomer, but if you're going to complain about it, then you're in the wrong place.
Do you have any regrets if the new Ys costs $100?
That's fine. It's not that expensive if I work normal hours.
Well that's fine if you don't care. I'm just trying to be a bit realistic here, yet my saying is just wanting Falcom to be better in game quality and in the eyes of public
Yes I would be disappointed if the game is not twice the quality & size of Ys VIII, for that $100.
And this is for global market, not Japan mate.
Well it is good to know you can always spend for what you want, but you need to be considerate for others who might not be able to. Nevertheless, it is not really about the price, but the "worth" they expect to receive when pay $60 away.
The discussion is open to everyone unless specified restrictions, by default they have the rights to ask questions, share their experiences, voice their concerns, give their valid complaints and criticisms, debations on game matters so that devs could improve, including pricing policy. If you don't want that then you shouldn't be here in the first place.
Do you think the content of this Ys9 is not worth $60?
"I want Falcom to become a more globally recognized manufacturer"?
That's the arrogance.
What can you say about a company that has been in Japan for so long?
For others, yes it is (highly) possible for them to say that.
And if I have to be honest with you, I did have a minor upset - while Ys IX is a great game, but Ys VIII did offer more contents and longer gameplay. And Ys VIII's base price when launched is lower than Ys IX's launched base price, in other words I paid more for IX but received lesser. So if Ys VIII worths $60 for me, then Ys IX is only around $45-50, does that count?
What's wrong with wanting Falcom and their games to be more recognized? It is just a pure & common goal/ambition, nothing arrogance about it. Did I said I want Falcom to be #1 Japanese game developer/publisher out there, surpassing Capcom, Bandai, Square Enix, and many more?