Final Fantasy Type-0/ Bravely Default: Flying Fairy- Localization Woes

Square, I really don't know what has gotten into you lately. If you guys want to improve your company's image, why don't you localize these great looking games that people really want and would sell well?

Instead of, you know, more FFXIII sequels?

Linked below is a petition to bring Final Fantasy Type-0 to the states, as well as the Facebook page for a group trying to do the same with Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, two excellent looking handheld RPGs that Square Enix has for some reason currently passed up for localization. Final Fantasy Type-0 was originally announced in 2006 as part of the Fabula Noval Crystallis project, alongside Final Fantasy XIII and the ever-delayed Versus XIII, and is an action-RPG in the vein of the excellent Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Bravely Default, on the other hand, is a homage to classic Final Fantasy (much like it's predecessor, 4 Heroes of Light), and has been compared to series installments such as Final Fantasy IX.

http://operation-suzaku.com/  - Final Fantasy Type-0

http://www.facebook.com/#!/BringBravelyDefaultFlyingFairyToTheWest  - Bravely Default


After the success of Operation Rainfall, there can be no doubt that we as gamers are willing to purchase these Japanese games, if only these companies would release them over here. Let your voices be heard, show Square Enix that they have a market, and support efforts to convince them that localizing their games is worthwhile.

And, while we're at it, it wouldnt hurt to convince them that Dragon Quest VII on 3DS is worth bringing over, right? Operation Dragonfall, anyone?

JRPGs, dead? Hardly.

Anyone who stumbles across this blog will quickly realize that I am quite fond of console-style role-playing games, or to use their current term, Japanese role-playing games. These ‘JRPG’s have provided some of the greatest moments in gaming for me, filling my world with imaginative characters and a unique kind of gameplay that I grew to love.

‘JRPG’s were once extremely popular in the gaming community. While never expressly un-popular, the genre exploded into the mainstream with the release of Final Fantasy VII.  The Playstation era of RPGs featured many classic games, but thanks to Final Fantasy VII, these games were explosively popular. Games like Final Fantasy VIII and IX, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Legend of Dragoon, and others provided the cultural definition of video game RPGs. This popularity continued and expanded with the PS2 era, when Final Fantasy X introduced many more into the RPG fold.

Today, however, these wonderful RPGs, once the pinnacle of gaming excellence, are fading- or so we’re told. The rise of the ‘western role-playing game’ has crushed the Japanese variety, with their more involving plotlines and focus on personal freedom- or so we’re told. JRPGs, we are told, are a dying art.

This is wrong. To be even more frank, this is bullshit.