So, there have been various tongues a-waggin' about Xenoblade Chronicles ever since it saw a PAL-only launch (aside the Japanese launch) a few months back and they were all saying roughly the same thing: "This is a great damn game." And for those of us who are usually the bearers of such news to the PAL-Land folks, this was a really, really terrible feeling, since Nintendo of America refused to acknowledge that the game was going to come out here. Now, we all sort of figured it would, especially after the whole Operation: Rainfall scenario (which has two games yet to have localized before they're 'done') played out, but it was always one of those things that could have just not happened, especially with the surprising amount of silence surrounding the whole thing.
Now, I only have a tenuous (at best) connection to the game in that the 'Xeno-' prefix brings up good (and less good) memories of Xenogears and Xenosaga (respectively) which only the latter were made by the same team (Monolith Soft) which gives me even more pause. Xenosaga Episode 1 was fine enough, and I've heard several good things about 3 (and would be willing to put in a few of those good things, though I haven't played all of it), but Episode 2 was just.....just awful. Really, really bad. And it's such a shame, too, because that series could've been amazing, especially if they went with the original plan and had it spaced out over the original amount of games they wanted (I believe it was six with rumblings of a possible 're-telling' of Xenogears for one of the episodes), but they caved to entirely too much pressure by the 'fans' and ended up with a terrible product as a result. While there's something to be said for a team that will do what they can to please their fans, there's also something to be said about keeping true to your original vision, which I highly doubt they did.
As I've said time and time again, I'm really not a Wii person. If anything, I'll pick up a few titles (to complement the two games I own for the system: Madworld and Animal Crossing: City Folk) when and if I grab a Wii-U, so long as backwards compatibility keeps and play them then, so this news doesn't bring a whole lot of excitement to me. I'm glad that the game didn't get stuck in Europe and Japan to never see the shores of people who spell 'armor' without a u, but I can't be super hyped about it because I can't really play it and even if I could....I probably wouldn't. I have far too many games as it is, as we all know, and working through them will be what I'm most concerned with. But I can be happy for something that doesn't directly impact me and I am, quite so.
However, speaking on something that does directly impact me, and very much so, there's a bit of a clarification that I think I need to make about the whole "International Version" of Final Fantasy Type-0 I brought up the other day. While at the Penny Arcade forums, I lamented the fact that it was labeled as an International Version and grumbled about what that meant, where I was then told that it was called an "overseas version" in the interview that Andriasang reported on and it is, in fact, typed as such. I'm guessing this means that the possibility of the game coming to America shot from "Good" to "Gonna happen" just like that, but I'm personally not going to let my hype meter go up until I get something more official. Still, it is probably happening, but as to the way, the when and the how, that's all up in the air for now.
And that's really the hardest thing to figure on, so far as Type-0 goes because it's pretty much a given that it won't set the sales charts on fire; at least, not initially. People don't -buy- PSP games enough, apparently, (outside of Japan, at least) so it'll come over to tepid sales at best, which means they have to be thinking about the best level of 'control' over the sales and profits. That would, logically enough, make me think that they would do a PSN-only release of the game, so that, yes, people will still pirate the hell out of it, but at the same time, they're not paying to manufacture the UMDs (two per game, remember), the manuals (though they'll still have to be translated for the digital version), cases and sleeves for every copy of the game, yet still selling it for $40. (You know they will). But this is Squeenix we're talking about, and to say their support of PSN has been consistently good is....well, just a flat-out lie. They're getting better about it, but there are still glaring examples of their games just not on the PS Store.
I guess we'll just have to see how it works out. Either way, UMD version or PSN only (or both, but if there's a UMD version, it will be mine) I'm going to grab it and hopefully be able to passport it onto my Vita (since it'll likely be out by then) and have some fun with it. Because after all the things I've seen and specifically pointed out here about the game, I can't see how you could not have fun, which is something I find strange to be able to say about a Squeenix game again. It's been a while, honestly, but I'm glad that there's still genuine good talent in Squeenix, even if I'd be more willing to bet a Perfect Storm situation happened than good planning. Still, the results are what counts here and the result is that Type-0 looks fantastic.
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