William Wallace

Ok, this is seriously pissing me off.

FF7 was released a fricken year in the US after its japan release.

The other FF games took at least 6 months.

The Xenosaga games take an eternity to come to the states.

FFXII is now scheduled for Thanksgiving in the US. Thats an 8 month wait.

Why does it take SE so long? Voice acting is no excuse. And even if it was, I say f*ck the voice acting, voice actors in games suck anyway. I'd rather listen to the japanese voices w/ subtitles.

The MGS games all have english voice acting, and they all were released in the states around the same date as in Japan.

Suikoden V was released in Japan less than a month ago, and it will arrive in the states in a few days with english voice acting.

So why is Square-Enix so slow? The FFXII demo was completely translated already(besides voice acting), I really don't see why FFXII can't be released here by the time summer ends.

It's almost as if the US branch of SE has no contact with the Japan branch until the game is complete, and then starts translating the game. They really could have started localizing the game months ago.

Fandango

This is just a theory I have but maybe Square wants their Japanese fans to be able to beat the game first being that they are such loyal customers and fans of their games.

Gizmo

Because they like pissing you off?

Ralph Wiggum

Localization + they don't want to release it until fall?

William Wallace

why would they want to release a game like ff12 in the fall, where it will be overlooked because of the ps3+revolution launch, just like FF9 was overlooked because of the ps2 launch?

It would be smarter to release the game in the summer time.

Fandango

Well I don't think they are concerned because it will sell so many copies in Japan, the initial print run is something like 2.3 million copies. Also, its not like there will be any launch rpgs for those systems and FF12 will be better than any launch game on those systems I'm sure. In addition FF12 can be played on PS3. Any FF fan will buy the game regardless of when it comes out and Square knows this.

V-ism

That's pretty much how it goes. I worked QA there before and that's how it is. Actually it's been awhile since I was there, so I'm don't know what goes on there now, but I can say how it was before. We get a Japanese copy around near completion, then awhile later get a first US build. Voice recording is done for the US version pretty much when the Japanese version is done, or at least when all the event scenes are set. At least that's how it was for FFX, which you can tell the voices are ADR dubbed to the animation. I'm not sure when localization actually started. The QA process is a bit slow because when bugs are written up they have to be translated, emailed to japan, and new builds are sent from japan after they dealt with fixes. So yes, they pretty much don't start on the US version until the Japanese version is done. And keep in mind, the scope of these games are pretty huge and it takes some time to translate and test before sent to distribution. That's how it was when I was there and pretty sure it's still the same. However, I think it depends on schedule too. KH2 seems to be much quicker, so I guess they started the process much sooner.

For MGS series, they pretty much worked on both translations at the same time, and the size of the game is small compared to Final Fantasy. And I think it's safe to say that the Suikoden series has lower production values than the FF series, but maybe they have more efficient localization process.

zelebron

Xenosaga is from Namco, not Square-Enix

William Wallace

yes, I still forget that Xenosaga is namco, because the original Xenogears was a square game.

Goldberg74

Maybe because they know that their real fans in America learn Japanese and import them... paging PixyJunket.

NitroJMS

I just wish they had launced Kingdom Hearts II back during Christmas. The first sold better here than in Japan, so why they didn't launch first or simultaneously in the US is beyond me.

Zwerchfell

because they suck and they don't care about the western market.

V-ism

I think that's why KH2 is coming out only 3 months after Japan instead of the usual 6 months+.

And I don't see why anyone should complain. There are obviously reasons for why it takes long. These companies are Japan based, they usually want to release their games at home before they sell it abroad. Yes the game companies CAN work on both versions simultaneously, but for whatever reason they do it the way they are. Not all American movies are released worldwide simultaneously. Many countries have to wait months for a Hollywood movie to come to them, and all they have to do is put subtitles on it. Translating a game takes a lot of time.

They DO care for the western market which is why they spend the time to get it right. Often the US version will have fixes or extra content, because of the later release date. Have people forgotten that the US version of KH had extra bosses the original Japanese version did not? There was a time when Japanese games were very badly translated when they came here. I think we should be glad the level of quality is higher, even if we have to wait awhile.

PixyJunket

Yikes. Do you want some cheese with that whine?

Seriously, be glad that Square-Enix releases as much of their product over here as they do.. besides Final Fantasy, RPGs are still a niche market here. Even hot and highly praised games (Dragon Quest VIII) sell in its lifespan a FRACTION of what your average garbage hip-hop gangster or Disney/Nickelodeon game sells in a week. On top of that, they seem to be really doing an ace job of their localizations. Namco seems to only release every other Tales game to the US and cheapens out on SEVERAL aspects of the localization process, Legendia has HALF of its spoken dialogue removed from the game (as did Symphonia.. though that may have been more than half).

You do bring up a good point about Final Fantasy IX and the PS2 though. But, I also think that going away from the poorly written Dawson's Creek teen-angst story and characters that finally gave the series mainstream appeal may have been a second nail in the coffin for that game.

PixyJunket

No, that's what Namco fans have to do.

Though.. Square-Enix did jack us out of Dragon Quest V.. AGAIN!

fujishig

Honestly, if not for the Square/Enix merger, I don't think we would've seen another Dragonquest/warrior game, after VII performed so poorly (for good reason, as it came out at the end of the PS1's lifespan just like FF IX, and it was damned hard... but it sold like hotcakes in Japan, and even without those high expectations it did really, really poorly here).

FFIX, while a great game and a throwback to earlier, pre FFVII games, did suffer from being different then the preceding games, especially in character design.

I wonder if they didn't release KH2 at Christmas because they didn't want to take sales away from DQVIII?

PixyJunket

Um.. back when they were still around Enix stated SEVERAL times that Dragon Warrior VII met their expectations for sales. It didn't sell any better or worse than most other non-Final Fantasy RPGs on the Playstation. Enix knew it would not reach the numbers it did in Japan and they knew it wouldn't reach Final Fantasy numbers in America.. so I'm not sure why you consider it to have sold poorly when it did exactly what they were shooting for. People keep talking about Dragon Quest VIII selling poorly and Tales of Legendia selling poorly.. RPGs are still a niche market and I don't think any publisher thinks they're going to put an RPG on the market here to sell millions (except for FF and KH at this point). I really don't think it's fair to compare numbers of Dragon Quest VIII to Madden as proclaim it was a failure (as many have). They hit the market they were aiming for and they'd be insane to think they'd break past that.

As for Kingdom Hearts.. that's one reason that's been rumored. I know the original plan was to shoot for a world-wide release (and voice work had reported to have been done last year). If that was the reason the decided to release it in the Spring it was probably a smart one, as it gave Dragon Quest a chance to shine whereas Kingdom Hearts would fly off the shelf no matter when they released it.

fujishig

I think DQ VIII exceeded expectations, though I'm sure the Xmas release and the packed-in demo helped. They did put a lot of work into the localization of that game, though not everything (the menu interface, and perhaps the British voice actors for instance) was fully appreciated by the hardcore fans. Legendia, from all indications, is performing very poorly compared to the GCN's Tales of Symphonia, which is why there's all the doom and gloom surrounding that release. We'll see if Phantasia can sell enough to get Namco to release the PSP game... I mean, it's already localized!

I guess I assumed they had high expectations for DWVII since it sold so well in Japan (setting records left and right), and it had been a LONG time between console iterations here in America (I'm sure their hopes were bolstered by the well-performing DWIII re-release on GBA). And didn't Enix US close up shop around that time (before V was completely localized)? Maybe I got my timelines messed up. Either way, I do think the updated graphics from Level V saved this game in America... and I'm just glad they released it!

I also don't mind Square Enix separating out their releases... there's already a glut of RPGs that seem to come out all together, hurting the sales of each. I'm sure there are people saving up for KH2 (or maybe even Oblivion) that passed on Wild Arms IV, Shadow Hearts III, Tales of Legendia, Grandia III, and the upcoming Suikoden V. Sure, there are hardcore fans who have enough time to play through each RPG before the next one comes out, or those (like me) who are suckers that pile up a backlog of RPGs, but man that's a lot of hours to log.

I am happy that since the PS1, the RPG market in the US has grown enough to make all of these releases doable.

Breakfast with Girls

Hell, I just finished DQ8 last week, and started Psychonauts. Once I'm done with that I've still go Star Ocean: Till the End of Time to go before I even can begin to think about Grandia III or Tales of Legendia. Not to mention the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation One RPGs I've bought but still haven't got around to. Because of this backlog, I don't have time to consider B-tier RPGs.

fujishig

And to think, at one time I played through the horrid Beyond the Beyond because it was the only RPG out.

PixyJunket

I expected Legendia to sell less than Symphonia.. Namco would have been fools not to expect the same. Symphonia was released in a nice "sweet spot" on the Gamecube when the system had no RPGs. Symphonia was also marketed and published by Nintendo and they did a fine job getting the game into people's minds. Namco has done nothing to promote Legendia, not to mention that graphically, Legendia takes a few steps back from Symphonia (I guess this would be a detriment to American gamers). I love the game, MUCH more than Symphonia.. but I knew it would be considered a lesser game to most people. I honestly think Namco is expecting too much of the series which is why they're so sporadic with it. I think they may consider it not worth their time if it won't be a million seller (even if they make money on what does sell). I hate Namco's US division so much.

No way, they knew from the start they wouldn't chip a fraction of its Japanese sales here. They were happy with what it did and happy with all the Gameboy releases as well, in fact, the success of Dragon Warrior Monsters from Eidos is what sparked Enix to reopen a US house! They were really despondent when they had to drop the Dragon Warrior IV Remake actually. Enix of America remained opened until the merger when the Square side took over what they'd been doing as far of localizations. It was kind of sad because they'd been really fan-friendly, for lack of a better term.

Fok

oh well, we've waited this long, what's a few more months. Plus I only buy games when they're released as greatest hits

starseed1981

localization is the answer

Superboy

Actually, I take my inflammatory post back. It was only in the first few years of this console generation did I really feel underwhelmed by the RPGs available. The first great one I played was ToS for the Cube. Great game, and Nintendo did everything right to make it a financial success. It wasn't a game that people are going to look back on and go "wow, I wish more people played that...".

BeanDip0001

maybe its because the beta that was out a few months ago didn't work worth a crap, a lot of it still needed to be put in good english, and oh yeah WE'RE NOT IN JAPAN!!!