Topic: Mistwalker's "The Last Story" out in NA via XSEED!

[KDR_11k]

The Famitsu review of Last Story is a 38 out of 40. Not a bad score, but I was hoping a perfect score.
 
http://www.1up.com/news/japan-review-check-last-story-valkyria

Sorry, but you need to pay Famitsu good money to get that perfect score.  They have a reputation to maintain, after all!

And the price for RPG scores is higher than normal it seems since they usually rate lower than other kinds of games. IIRC Tales of Symphonia got a 34/40.

[broodwars]

Add another nail to the coffin that is The Last Story ever leaving Japan, at least this year: Nintendo UK has stated that the game is just too much for their localization teams to handle, between the necessity of multiple languages and the upcoming 3DS.  They also imply that the game doesn't look like an especially viable product.  This and the comment on having to deal with the 3DS makes me think we'll see a similar answer from the puppet entity known as Nintendo of America: 3DS is Nintendo's message this year, and they don't have the time, manpower, or financial interest to do anything else.
 
You may now resume your hysterics, Kytim.   

[TJ Spyke]

Yeah, but Nintendo of America would only need to translate into English. It does suck that at the very least Europe may not get it because of the language issue. I am starting to lose faith North America will get it either though.

[Kytim89]

Add another nail to the coffin that is The Last Story ever leaving Japan, at least this year: Nintendo UK has stated that the game is just too much for their localization teams to handle, between the necessity of multiple languages and the upcoming 3DS.  They also imply that the game doesn't look like an especially viable product.  This and the comment on having to deal with the 3DS makes me think we'll see a similar answer from the puppet entity known as Nintendo of America: 3DS is Nintendo's message this year, and they don't have the time, manpower, or financial interest to do anything else.
 
You may now resume your hysterics, Kytim.   

*Jumps out of a ten story window*

[broodwars]

Yeah, but Nintendo of America would only need to translate into English. It does suck that at the very least Europe may not get it because of the language issue. I am starting to lose faith North America will get it either though.

Like I said, the big problem is that this is a game from a niche genre with localization issues launching in the same window as something Nintendo cares a whole lot more about and would make a lot more money: the 3DS.  I have a nasty feeling that the 3DS is going to divert so much of Nintendo's attention away from potential Wii projects that by the time they start to consider localizing the game, it will be too late and the Wii's time will have passed.

[King of Twitch]

What? They're too busy working on Ocarina of Time and Star Fox to TRANSLATE WORDS?

[broodwars]

What? They're too busy working on Ocarina of Time and Star Fox to TRANSLATE WORDS?

Well, as you might have noticed in the link I gave, Nintendo UK's quite busy trying to translate the massive amount of dialogue and text in Kirby's Epic Yarn.  And hey, $40 ports of 12 year old games don't localize themselves.   
 
In all seriousness, Zelda: Skyward Sword is probably something of a localization mess for Nintendo right now as well.  I wouldn't be surprised if Treehouse was so busy trying to get Zelda out the door that they just didn't have the resources to tackle something like Last Story.

[King of Twitch]

Someone should take their moneypit swim time away until their grades improve.

[Kytim89]

What? They're too busy working on Ocarina of Time and Star Fox to TRANSLATE WORDS?

Well, as you might have noticed in the link I gave, Nintendo UK's quite busy trying to translate the massive amount of dialogue and text in Kirby's Epic Yarn.  And hey, $40 ports of 12 year old games don't localize themselves.   
 
In all seriousness, Zelda: Skyward Sword is probably something of a localization mess for Nintendo right now as well.  I wouldn't be surprised if Treehouse was so busy trying to get Zelda out the door that they just didn't have the resources to tackle something like Last Story.

They do not even have to hire English voice actos, they can just have English text and Japanese voice actors like Muramasa did when it was released.

[Kytim89]

*Breaks into tears*

Here is a new video:

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/32610

Is that Ganon at 4:20?

Check out this video and you will see the reason why you would want this game.
 
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/32610

[noname2200]

In all seriousness, Zelda: Skyward Sword is probably something of a localization mess for Nintendo right now as well.  I wouldn't be surprised if Treehouse was so busy trying to get Zelda out the door that they just didn't have the resources to tackle something like Last Story.

I can buy this, but at the same time Nintendo can still turn to the equally-awesome 8-4 to do the translation.  They've leaned on them to do big games in the past, so unless 8-4 is also tied up with something (quite possible) there should be enough localization resources to go around for both.

[Luigi Dude]

I can buy this, but at the same time Nintendo can still turn to the equally-awesome 8-4 to do the translation.  They've leaned on them to do big games in the past, so unless 8-4 is also tied up with something (quite possible) there should be enough localization resources to go around for both.

Yep, NOA used 8-4 to translate Baten Kaitos Origins.  This is important for everyone to remember since Baten Kaitos Origins was never released in Europe.  So just because NOE has no plans to release The Last Story doesn't mean NOA won't since NOA has released RPG's in the past that NOE didn't.

[KDR_11k]

Yeah, but Nintendo of America would only need to translate into English. It does suck that at the very least Europe may not get it because of the language issue. I am starting to lose faith North America will get it either though.

They won't translate the voice acting for other languages so that effort is reduced. Also there's reason enough to believe that the game will sell at least a few hundred k in Europe which would justify spending millions on the translation.

[Kytim89]

Everyone, let's pull our monry into a dummy bank account and pay for the localization of this game ourselves. I pledge $100, how much will everyone eled pledge?

[noname2200]

Everyone, let's pull our monry into a dummy bank account and pay for the localization of this game ourselves. I pledge $100, how much will everyone eled pledge?

Let's see, in my pocket I currently have some pocket lint and an old, stale lollipop.  So...put me in for some pocket lint!

[Kytim89]

Everyone, let's pull our monry into a dummy bank account and pay for the localization of this game ourselves. I pledge $100, how much will everyone eled pledge?

Let's see, in my pocket I currently have some pocket lint and an old, stale lollipop.  So...put me in for some pocket lint!

We still have about a million left to put into the pool.

[Crimm]

I can buy this, but at the same time Nintendo can still turn to the equally-awesome 8-4 to do the translation.  They've leaned on them to do big games in the past, so unless 8-4 is also tied up with something (quite possible) there should be enough localization resources to go around for both.

Yep, NOA used 8-4 to translate Baten Kaitos Origins.  This is important for everyone to remember since Baten Kaitos Origins was never released in Europe.  So just because NOE has no plans to release The Last Story doesn't mean NOA won't since NOA has released RPG's in the past that NOE didn't.

That's a shame, I really like Origins.


ANYWAY: Mistwalker is continuing to tweet about Last Story in English.


Read into that what you will.

[TJ Spyke]

I've never heard of 8-4, what else have they done?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Everyone, let's pull our monry into a dummy bank account and pay for the localization of this game ourselves. I pledge $100, how much will everyone eled pledge?

I have the perfect Dummy bank account.


Mine. so I can set up Pay Pal or you can send me a check, and I will hold all the money until we reach, what was it? a Million. so $1 Million dollars, and then we can spend that on localization and credit it with spacial thanks to Kytim (we will use your real name) and everyone else that donates.

Please inquire further through PM though.

[Kytim89]

Everyone, let's pull our monry into a dummy bank account and pay for the localization of this game ourselves. I pledge $100, how much will everyone eled pledge?

I have the perfect Dummy bank account.


Mine. so I can set up Pay Pal or you can send me a check, and I will hold all the money until we reach, what was it? a Million. so $1 Million dollars, and then we can spend that on localization and credit it with spacial thanks to Kytim (we will use your real name) and everyone else that donates.

Please inquire further through PM though.

As long as there is no misapropriations on your part or anyone else's then I am cool with it.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Hope is not lost outside of Japan for The Last Story, at least not according to Nintendo France
http://www.livewii.fr/news/153869-The_Last_Story_et_l'Europe_:_no_stress_[MAJ]

All that to say that the French division spoke tonight on the forum Gamekult to clarify the situation:
"Thank you for your interest in The Last Story. Unfortunately, the vocabulary used by this announcement was misconstrued by the British journalists:" No plans at the moment "does not mean that the output is canceled, just that it is not yet scheduled in the calendar. The adaptation of this game could be very long (12 000 dialogues to record!) and our translation teams are overstretched in the short term. "

So while they have no plans at the moment, does not mean they do not intend to do it at some point. So don't expect to see it anytime soon anywhere outside of Japan if no one has even started the translation process some time ago.

[broodwars]

Hope is not lost outside of Japan for The Last Story, at least not according to Nintendo France
http://www.livewii.fr/news/153869-The_Last_Story_et_l'Europe_:_no_stress_[MAJ]

All that to say that the French division spoke tonight on the forum Gamekult to clarify the situation:
"Thank you for your interest in The Last Story. Unfortunately, the vocabulary used by this announcement was misconstrued by the British journalists:" No plans at the moment "does not mean that the output is canceled, just that it is not yet scheduled in the calendar. The adaptation of this game could be very long (12 000 dialogues to record!) and our translation teams are overstretched in the short term. "

So while they have no plans at the moment, does not mean they do not intend to do it at some point. So don't expect to see it anytime soon anywhere outside of Japan if no one has even started the translation process some time ago.

So in other words, they basically said what I said in my original post: it's a difficult game to localize and their localization teams are too busy with 3DS and what games are already out and penciled in for Europe.  It doesn't mean it can't get localized, but that they have no plans for it in the foreseeable future.

[Shaymin]

I've never heard of 8-4, what else have they done?

Gameography

Notable titles include Monster Hunter Tri, Glory of Heracles, and Baten Kaitos Origins.

[Adrock]

Ted Woolsey translated all of Chrono Trigger in roughly 30 days and said he would have preferred 2.5 months. Point being, one man translated one of the largest RPGs of its time in about a month. Zelda games typically have far less dialogue and text than most other RPGs so I don't think translating that game is really holding anything up. That said, I guess I just don't buy that a company as large as Nintendo of America couldn't put together a team of like 3 people to translate The Last Story. The only hold up would be NOA flat-out just kicking The Last Story to the curb. If they want the game out, they would make it happen, probably as early as Q3 this year.

[Stratos]

It's not translating that is the problem, it's the voice acting. That requires much more than 1-3 people.