My 2012 Localization Checklist

Another post, another few months gone by.  Sorry for the delay!

The woes of being a lover of Japanese games in this day and age are often staggering.  With less and less of interest to me coming out of Western companies, these are the games I'm counting on to fill the void.  Sadly, rather than responding accordingly to the emergence of a global economy and Information Age, Japanese developers seem to be losing touch with their Western fans via an unwillingness to even localize some of their most fascinating and unique games.  Recently, we've seen the effects with social networking movements such as Operation Rainfall, the Gallian Liberation Front, and a handful of fan pages devoted to various Tales games.

The situation isn't entirely bleak.  Japanese developers have many interesting things to offer Western fans this year so far*.  These include Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, Tales of Graces f, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, Pokémon Conquest, and Ni No Kuni:  Wrath of the White Witch.  With all that on its way, it may be hard to see what J-game lovers still have to complain about.  So without further ado, here are the rest of the games I'd love to see localized in 2012.

All Aboard Operation Rainfall!

Short story: We (all regions) want Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower.

Long story: Unsurprisingly, the "core line up" for the Wii in 2011 is looking grim. In North America, only LoZ: Skyward Sword rests on the horizon. But wait! A ray of hope. Mistwalker's The Last Story and Nintendo's new IP, Pandora's Tower, still remain a distant possibility. They're already out in Japan, with Xenoblade Chronicles set to release this Fall. So far it's been confirmed that Europe will be getting The Last Story and Xenoblade, with no word on Pandora's Tower. As for North America... well, Nintendo says we're SOL, apparently.

Nintendo of America has repeatedly denied any plans to bring us these three core action-RPGs, even in the wake of the new online campaign "Operation Rainfall." This is also following Nintendo's claims that they intend to return to targeting "core gamers." In Nintendo's words, there are simply "no plans" for NA getting these three games. Pandora's Tower in PAL is also dubious. However, as Joystiq's Nintendo division has pointed out:

Not that we want to give false hope regarding the actions of a company who is always pragmatic to the point of angering dedicated fans, but "no plans right now" is far from a death knell, especially for Nintendo. Some things that there were "no plans" for in America: the black Wii, the Classic Controller Pro, the Wii Sports Resort hardware bundle. Basically, there are "no plans" until the company decides to tell people its plans.

 So, there is still hope.

North America could really benefit from having these three games (and PAL from having Pandora's Tower). The Wii is especially strapped for core releases this year, which is pretty disappointing for those of us who have supported Nintendo every step of the way. Sales-wise it's a bit of a risk, but Nintendo isn't exactly scrambling for dollars and can afford to take this risk. Especially because this could put Nintendo back in the good graces of former Nintendo fans who have since boycotted--right in time for their supposed return to core gaming, the WiiU. This would be a win for everyone so it boggles my mind that they're so hesitant to risk a few bucks.

Or at least make your systems region free, FFS. Really, I'd be more than happy to import if it was "safe." I still might unlock my Wii since apparently it's really easy, but at the same time, it would mean a risk of bricking my console.