Speculation: Will Type 0 make it to English speaking waters?

[Melkor]

I'm just curious if anyone with two brain cells to rub together has anything to say on this matter.

The JP release of Type 0 is about two weeks away, and still we haven't so much as seen an English Type 0 screen, despite the game being in development for some six years, and despite the assertion that they 'wished to bring it to a North America audience'.

What does that mean exactly?

Well I suppose nothing solid, they still have plenty of time to announce it, even after the Japanese release, but lately I've been thinking it won't make it, at least not to PsP.


Consider... If they haven't even began (or started in any depth) the surely long and laborious translation and voice acting process that will surely take several months, it will be quite some time, probably early 2012 before we get a copy.

Now take into account that in NA/EU regions the PSP is a bit of a zombie (ESP~ in the European regions, everyone online seems to be American when it comes to psp) i.e A lot of major retailers have stopped doing them, some almost three years ago, and even the ones that support them have a VERY limited section.
Whats more a lot of the (frankly less important) developers have given up on them, where once any multiplatform game made it to the PSP, the little console is now almost entirely restricted to those excellent little JRPG's and occassionally Indie/ exclusive game. Those are wonderful, but not exactly big sellers.

Oh, and to put the final nail on the coffin?

The Vita is on the way, a console which not only outdoes the PSP in every dimension, it also features support for a large catalogue of it's games. As we all know, when the next generation of a console is released, the sales for the original plummet in most cases.

To put it simply, the Psp's days are numbered. In fact, I'd say that by the time Type 0 is English ready, if it ever is, it simply won't be marketable on the Psp.

So I was thinking, d'ya think they'll do the sensible (Yet infuriating) option and release it on the Vita? Or simply a digital only download which will most likely be downloaded by a ton more people due to Vita availability?

This would remove the need for the double discs, but it would also mean an extra wait, less chance of a snazzy cover, a loss of a decent swansong for the PSP and having to fork out a ton of cash just to play it.>_>



I'm not speaking from any wisdom here, merely speculation, so feel free to state your own thoughts and expertise on the matter.

[ArgyleNinja]

I wouldn't worry about marketability. Square Enix knows that a decent chunk of its revenue comes from the US. To deny us Type-0 would be a slap to the face.

[ジタン2728]

Well they are currently trying to see if "foreigners" see any appeal in the direction the game has gone. A fair guess would be it has been well recieved and there has been a fair amount of hype for it from what i have seen at least.
A downloadable version is on the cards because well lets face it, they won't sell it very well if PSP go etc.. owners can't download a highly anticipated game. And they have thought about a downloadable version.

Besides haven't they already bought the trademark in Europe for Type-0?
Anyway in short, they had pushed back the JP release from Summer 11 to Oct 11... So it may not have been presented to the localization crews? And with there being no news in the US and Europe regarding a release should a release happen they may target the Vita, however they will have to change the format from UMD to the Vita memory cards.

I don't know tbf but this is what i think at least.

[hawk222]

I wouldn't worry about marketability. Square Enix knows that a decent chunk of its revenue comes from the US. To deny us Type-0 would be a slap to the face.

^This. I mean, come on, Squeenix isn't like Namco-Bandai and the Tales series, right?

[Archer]

I see no reason not to; They'll probably wait a month or so before releasing an english port (maybe by christmas shopping rush month)

[ジタン2728]

I doubt they would even finish it by christmas if they haven't even got round to presenting it to localisation teams yet. I obviously don't know if it has or not, but if it had we would have seen something about it by now. It comes out in Japan on the 27th Oct. So like i say it is very doubtful we will even see it till i think middle of next year.

[Archer]

If they don't make it by xmas then they'll probably lose a large chunk of sales...

[Melkor]

I doubt they would even finish it by christmas if they haven't even got round to presenting it to localisation teams yet. I obviously don't know if it has or not, but if it had we would have seen something about it by now. It comes out in Japan on the 27th Oct. So like i say it is very doubtful we will even see it till i think middle of next year.

Hrm, really?

I have to admit I know next to nothing about translation efforts or what not, but if I had to make an intelligent guess I would have said that it would maybe take a team of a dozen or so people (unless that's particularily costly, which I don't imagine it is) maybe several weeks to translate the whole script, and then perhaps two months max to find and record Voice actors. Shouldn't be too hard since Square would likely employ the same actors they use for other games like Dissidia/Crisis core, as they have with the JP release. I wouldn't even be surprised if they used the corresponding actors of the characters that double up.(E.g the English Zack for Jack or the English Kadaj for Machina).

Provided they waited until mid November to get some sort of sales estimate and decide whether it's worth it, I can't see why they wouldn't have it done by Christmas if they wanted to. They do, after all, have the game finished, it's only a matter of changing text and speech. Although when I think on it, it might be difficult to reformat all the menus, re-adjust the lip synch-etc.



Hahah, unfortunately you're the forums unofficial regional transition expert, what with your almost dual nationality, so I'm starting to doubt my own assumptions now.

Since you keep an eye on these sort of things, might you have any examples of Square (or other) games and the relative time it took to localise them after the JP launch?


Hrm, another thing to consider is whether they might have actually started work on it and not informed us. Although surely they'd be itching to tell us, unless they already know that everybody who wants it outside of Japan has been keeping an eye on it for the better part of six years, regardless of where they publish it.XD

[ジタン2728]

Well FFXIII was released in Dec in Japan and over here in March.
It is just a speculation on my part for the localisation idea. I just don't reckon we will hear anything for an english version till sometime next year. I just don't think it would be released before christmas due to the fact we haven't seen any info for a release outside of Japan. We will see though.

[Nexus_Nocturnal]

I don't think there is anything to worry about. I mean, look at the damn trailer. That shit looks FUCKING HOT AS GOD DAMN TAKE MY MONEY.

It's like the High Fantasy/Japanese version of something like Modern Warfare. You got amazing combat, open world exploration, RTS, and freaking jet fighter action. From watching the trailer it looks like Type-Zero's combat could put Tales of combat to shame all by itself. Ever since 9 it seems like Square has been trying to go more and more cyber/steam punk than previous games. Type-Zero looks like they finally got what they were looking for and it looks amazing. Same with Final Fantasy Versus.

Square Enix would be incredibly stupid to not release this to the states and Europe. The thing is though, we might have to wait for when the HD version is released if they ever do one. Either that, or our version might be released on the Vita instead of PSP. Melkor is right in the fact that we are reaching the end of the PSP's life cycle.