This Week In Sales: Mystery Dungeon Rises From The Grave

Period: The week of March 2nd  – March 8th (2015)

Top-seller: Dragon Quest Heroes (PS3) – 67,514

Nintendo 3DS sales: 2,566 | Tot. sales: : 9,818,072

Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 2,321 | Tot. sales: 6,885,866

New Nintendo 3DS sales: 7,661 | Tot. sales: 491,847

New Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 21,402 | Tot. sales: 1,172,155

PlayStation Vita sales: 19,757 | Tot. sales: 3,595,128

Vita TV sales: 621 | Tot. sales: 157,439

Wii U sales: 7,379 | Tot. sales: 2,240,782

PlayStation 4 sales: 33,753 | Tot. sales: 1,223,434

Xbox One sales: 445 | Tot. sales: 48,206

<< Last week’s software sales chart

<< How to read and understand sales

Last week saw the release of Atlus’ Etrian Mystery Dungeon for Nintendo 3DS in Japan. Unlike other Etrian Odyssey games, though, this one isn’t a first-person dungeon-crawler. Instead, it’s more of a roguelike—a mix of recipes that combines the Etrian Odyssey world and character classes with the gameplay of Spike Chunsoft’s Mystery Dungeon series.

If you aren’t sure what the Mystery Dungeon series is, think Shiren the Wanderer. If that doesn’t work for you, try Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. The Mystery Dungeon games have been around for a long time now, so you’ve likely at least heard of a couple of them, even if you haven’t played them.

Here’s the thing, though—the Mystery Dungeon series has seen far better days in Japan. Not counting the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon titles (which sell well enough due to being associated with the Pokémon brand), Mystery Dungeon’s sales have been in steady decline since 2010. Below is a list of the Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer games that have been released in Japan since 2008 and how they’ve sold:

(2008) Shiren the Wanderer 3 [Wii] – 59,283

(2010) Shiren the Wanderer 3 [PSP] – 10,227 (Port)

(2010) Shiren the Wanderer 4 [NDS] – 40,703

(2010) Shiren the Wanderer 5 [NDS] – 25,192

(2012) Shiren the Wanderer 4 [PSP] – 6,368 (Port)

As you can see, by 2012, Shiren the Wanderer was practically a non-entity in Japan, compared to the relatively higher sales it enjoyed in 2008. Most unfortunate.

Luckily, this didn’t stop Etrian Mystery Dungeon, which was released last week, from selling 65,226 copies in its first week—a better debut than any of the games listed above. In fact, Atlus announced yesterday that the game is sold out at a number of stores and ask for the patience of consumers while they deliver the next shipment to stores. Not only does that prove that there’s still room for Mystery Dungeon-style games in Japan, it also demonstrates the resilience of the Etrian Odyssey brand, since it has managed to resuscitate the Mystery Dungeon design without having to use Pokémon has a crutch.

That’s good news for both Atlus and Spike Chunsoft. Atlus now have another way they can continue to experiment with Etrian Odyssey, while Spike Chunsoft have another brand they can apply their Mystery Dungeon template to. They now also have an audience on the 3DS that might be interested in trying out a new Shiren the Wanderer game, should they choose to create one, so it should be interesting to see if a Shiren 6 is announced within the year. If I were Spike Chunsoft, I’d strike now while the iron is hot. Shiren 5 Plus may not look like much, but a well-timed release of a Shiren 6 that looks as polished as Etrian Mystery Dungeon could help bring the Shiren brand back.

And with that, the top-20 software sales chart for last week is as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer and Media Create.