Sakaguchi’s Last Story and Why Japanese RPGs Don’t Make it to America Anymore

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Do you remember the golden age of Japanese RPGs? I do. But what happened to it? Where did it go? And why is America starting to get JRPGs later than other English speaking countries if at all? It doesn’t make any sense! Fortunately though, it looks like us Wii gamers will be getting some new gems this year including Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story. But Europe and Australia are getting them first.

The Last Story (ラストストーリー) is an action JRPG for the Wii developed by Mistwalker and AQ Interactive. It was created by the father of Final Fantasy (now head of Mistwalker), Hironobu Sakaguchi and even has music by Nobuo Uematsu. Personally, I believe the Final Fantasy series took a nose dive after Sakaguchi and Uematsu left the team and Square merged with Enix. Not surprisingly, the last Final Fantasy I actually enjoyed was Final Fantasy X, the last numbered installment published under the Square name.

Since leaving Squeenix, Sakaguchi has released a few games with Mistwalker including Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey and I’ll admit, they were pretty good – but nothing close to the classic Final Fantasy games I fell in love with as a lad. The Last Story however seems like it could be much better than anything Mistwalker has released to date. Will it be as fantastic as I want it to be? Maybe. Will it come to America? Why yes, yes it will.

While I was in the process of writing this post I stumbled across an article over at Joystiq.com informing the world that The Last Story will be coming to America in the summer of 2012. It will be published by XSEED Games and everyone involved seems to be pretty stoked about the project. I’m pretty stoked too.

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The Last Story has already been released in Japan (January 27, 2011) and just came out in Europe and Australia last week. What I really find strange though is how Europe and Australia are getting these games sooner than we do in America.

Take Xenoblade Chronicles (another popular action JRPG) for example. Xenoblade came out in Japan in June of 2010, was later released in Europe in the summer of 2011, and now has a confirmed American release date of April 2012. Why do these RPGs take so long to make it over here? Two years behind Japan is one thing, but a year behind other English speaking countries? What’s the deal?

My best guess is that the demand for JRPGs is higher in those countries than it is in America, or maybe the licensing rights and all that is cheaper to do in those countries. I couldn’t find much data regarding this, but if anyone has any further insight as to why this happens, please share your knowledge with us down in the comments section. Some insight may be gleaned from this message board, but most of it just seems to be speculation.

Playing The Last Story

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I actually got my hands on a Japanese copy of the Last Story back when it came out, but unfortunately my Japanese just wasn’t quite up to snuff to really fully enjoy the story. As story is an integral part of most RPGs, I stopped playing the game. The amount I did play however was great. I really enjoyed playing the game and I was even thinking about working my way into getting a European version of the game before I made the discovery that it would actually see an American release.

For more information on The Last Story, you can check out some other trailers at Gametrailers.com, some great message board activity over at Gamefaqs.com, and the official site for the game over here.

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And like I said, the Japanese used in The Last Story is a little difficult, so for those of you looking to actually play games in Japanese for the learning experience, maybe you should check out my post on the Top 5 Nintendo DS Games for Learning Japanese. That’d be a much better place to start. Or for those of you who have your heart set on a Wii game, maybe you should check out the Japanese Wii version of Tales of Graces (which also happens to be coming to America for the PS3 on March 13, 2012).

The Japanese used in the beginning of Tales of Graces is surprisingly easy to understand (mostly because all of the main characters are children), but once the characters grow up, so does the language they use, and it becomes a bit more difficult to decipher. However, it is a great game, so definitely check it out if you’re looking for a good RPG for the Wii to play in Japanese.

But what really frustrates me is that I have to wait so long for these games to make it over to America for me to play. And then some of them end up not even making it over here at all! I remember the days when I was practically swimming in great JRPGs. What happened!?

Why JRPGs Don’t Make it to America Anymore

Most of the time there is a good reason for why certain Japanese games aren’t brought over to America. Some games are inspired by anime that no one in America really knows about. Some games just don’t do well in Japan in the first place so there is no reason to think it would do any better over in America. But these aren’t the only reasons Americans are missing out on some awesome Japanese RPGs.

We also have to keep in mind that localizing a Japanese game and releasing it at retail is an increasingly expensive undertaking. Platform owner licensing rules and rising distribution costs are another important factor. And it also seems like another one of the big reasons games like The Last Story aren’t brought over to America anymore is because of the sort of games America is interested in nowadays.

Today’s mainstream American gamer is mostly interested in first/third person shooters, online competitive gaming, and casual gaming. The market for traditional RPGs (Japanese ones especially) just isn’t what it used to be. Growing up with games, I still remember the golden age of JRPGs. From the time of Final Fantasy on the SNES to Final Fantasy X on the PS2, I always had a good JRPG to play and an even better one to look forward to. Some of my favorite JRPGs (and just games in general) came from the fantastic libraries of games on the Super Nintendo, Playstation, and Playstation 2.

It seems that as graphics get better and games start to look more realistic, the mainstream focus moves more towards these fast paced action games and JRPGs get left in the dust. In this fast paced modern world where people can game on anything from their MP3 players to home consoles, casual gaming and games that offer instant gratification are much more popular than they used to be. The average gamer just isn’t willing to put 50+ hours into a great game like they used to be. Gone is the golden age of Japanese RPGs.

These days we still get the occasional awesome JRPG on modern consoles, but those games are few and far between. It seems like today’s gamers are more interested in headshots and leaderboards than they are in great stories and character driven adventures. And for those who are interested in those things, they turn to the likes of Western action RPGs like Mass Effect and The Elder Scrolls. (Fun Fact: Skyrim was the only non-Japanese game to get a perfect score from Famitsu. Just goes to show that Western RPGs are starting to make a serious dent in the gaming market, even in Japan.)

Don’t get me wrong though, I love these sorts of games too and I can’t wait to get my hands on Mass Effect 3 – I just really, really miss the good ol’ traditional JRPGs I grew up with. Too bad more Americans don’t feel the same way I do, otherwise we might get more games like The Last Story arriving on our shores much sooner.

For those of you who want to learn more about the fall of JRPGs, you can check out this great post from 1UP.com detailing Why the Golden Age of JRPGs is Over. It’s a really great read and if you’re interested in hearing more specifics as to why there just aren’t as many JRPGs as there used to be, you should really check it out.

The JRPG Future

So what can be done to encourage more games to be brought over from Japan? All I can really think of is supporting the ones that do come over here and support online groups that do fan translations just to show that there really is a demand for these games. Some fan groups do actual fan translated releases and some groups just gather together to rally support to bring the official releases to their shores.

The latter includes fan groups like Operation Rainfall who I’m sure had some influence over getting Xenoblade and The Last Story to be released in America. They are also hoping to see an American release for Pandora’s Tower, but only time will tell if they will succeed there as well. As for supporting the releases that do make it over here, unfortunately a lot of them just aren’t all that much to get excited about such as FFXIII and FFXIII-2. Who knows – maybe one day Square-Enix will get Final Fantasy back on the right track. But then again, probably not.

So tell me, are you looking forward to Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story when they make it to America later this year? Or if you live in a country where they’re already out – how do you like them? Any other games you wish would get localized but you just don’t see it happening? Do you think there will ever be a return to the golden age of JRPGs? Let us know in the comments!

Newer Comments →
  • lightroy

    I just bought the game, as it was released here a couple of days ago. [Italy/Europe]
    Playing it, it’s great. Another great piece along with Xenoblade.
    There are various movements about localization issues and old game’s ports, such as Operation Moonfall or, some months ago, a petition against the drop of a Megaman project.
    At last US gamers are getting those titles too, but it would have been a shame to not localize them there also.

    It’s quite odd how the game market works. A lot of titles don’t make it outside Japan, although they are localized in English.
    And some take ages to localize, such as Capcom’s Monster Hunter’s saga, which does take nearly two years for EVERY chapter.

    Anyway, luckly when they don’t mean to localize it elsewhere, sometimes big companies move for them, such as what happened to Xenoblade with Nintendo, if I well remember.

  • cane

    because JRPG’s are so gay. thats why. register into ur faggoty head.

  • http://collegeinfogeek.com/ Thomas Frank

    American gamers need football and chainsaw guns in their RPGs.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1768156226 Monica Castro

    I’m an avid fan of the Tales series and I am really bummed I can’t play the other Tales stuff which haven’t been (and proably will never be) released in EU/NA. And I bet there are a lot of unlocalized JRPGs which have a great storyline that I’m missing out on. The Last Story was one of the games I was holding out on playing, and I’m really glad about that news! 

    Fan translations on lesser known but great games nonetheless are so few. I would think there’s a lot of individuals out there who are capable of helping, but getting with a team could be a hassle that’s why translations just don’t easily come out. Kinda makes me sad… :(

  • http://twitter.com/ZacCitron Zac Citron

    Unfortunately, I think the “golden age of the JRPG” is over.

    Fortunately, like the music industry, I think the indie players — people like you and I — will pick up the slack. While big companies like Nintendo and Sony use money as a driving force, the indie community (which is blowing up) rarely does that. 

    Indie players have to do it for more than money because there’s no safety in it to begin with. While we all know a new Mario game will sell, who knows what the next indie title will make. I doubt Jonathon Blow thought “Braid” would become the amazing title it is. He just poured his heart into that game and we ate it up (similar examples — super meat boy, machinarium).

    Not to say indie developer won’t want cash. I’d be ignorant to say that, but it’s not as fundamental as with bigger companies. 

    Plus, with things like kickstarter will enable indie developers more than ever before (you hear about the new Doublefine studios game? They raised ~1.5 million on kickstarter for AN ADVENTURE GAME… WTF YEA).

    The golden age of JRPG is over… but the spiritual revolution has just begun!

  • Kathris

    Hello,

    I happen to work in the videogames industry, so I might be able to give some insight on why Europe gets licenses easier than America. First of all, as mentioned in the article, the license itself is cheaper in most cases (though it can end up costing a lot due to French/German/Spanish/etc. localization) – but it’s also because it’s a less competitive market in general: thanks to the euro, you can make lots of cash with minimum effort.

    It is true that Europe (and Australia, but I’m no expert on that matter) has a fair share of JRPGs, but honestly, America, stop crying: for almost everything else, Europe is the last priority. That’s a shame.

  • http://twitter.com/shollum Shollum

    Sadly, ‘Mainstream’ is all anyone cares about. In the golden age of JRPGs, games weren’t very ‘mainstream’ in the first place. You either played games or you didn’t. Being a ‘hardcore’ gamer in America isn’t as good as it used to be.

  • John

    Thanks for taking the time to comment, it’s nice to have some inside perspective. And yeah I know that with RPGs in the past EU would get screwed and for most everything America gets what they want from the video game industry – it’s just interesting that now with JRPGs the tables seem to have turned somewhat.

  • John

    Yeah, sad sad :(

  • John

    Yeah, the indie scene is ramping up pretty well. I’ve also been more and more impressed with Level-5. Perhaps sometime in the future they’ll lead us back to the golden age of JRPGs. We can always hope, lol.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jheistuman John Heistuman

    Personally I have a tough time playing may of them because of my time with Anime. That being, I’ve realized just how bad (to me) the English dubs are compared to the Japanese ones. I would probably be playing more of them than I do now if I didn’t have to wince and endure the English acted story. How difficult would it be to include the Japanese voicing and some English subs on these? Come on people. It’s already translated for the script, and already voiced for the original. Just toss em on there as well for the English release. Odds are the ones buying these games actually know the anime’s they’re coming from and to my knowledge most of us prefer Subs to Dubs. :x

  • a0145

    I feel like jRPGs haven’t change in the past 10 years. You still follow the single story arch, come across a random battle, choose your attack, wait your turn, run here, grab that, bring it to them, grind for exp, big boss battle, cinematic action sequence; the same dark fantasy, anime-esque character design.

    There are some exceptions, but I feel like a lot of progress could have been made in that time if developers were willing to break the mold.

  • CelestialSushi

    I know I’ve mentioned this before on here somewhere (at least I think I have), but I’m bummed that Capcom won’t be bringing over Ace Attorney Investigations 2.  I loved the first one even more than the other Phoenix Wright games (but they’re still fun, don’t get me wrong), so to hear that the first didn’t do so well and they won’t be bringing the second one over… sigh.  If anything, I’d have to just import the Japanese version and 1) Try to plow through it by myself as language practice, or 2) Look for a fan translation to have alongside the Japanese version.  Real shame, too… it’s rare that I buy games on the day that they come out, and that would’ve been an instant purchase for me.

    It’s also kind of doubtful that they’ll bring over One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP for the 3DS as well, and Europe’s got that one too.  Heck, they also got the Wii version of that game (while we got the earlier “Unlimited Adventure,” which I am grateful for, btw… with its wonderful FUNimation voices and all that).

    I really hope they bring over Hatsune Miku and the Future Stars… her popularity’s rising here in America, so why not?  If they don’t bring this over… meh, I don’t know.  It’d take a good deal of convincing to get me to run out and buy a 3DS, and I’ve already been considering one for a while.  I just need an extra “push” from a title that grabs my interest, you know? (Not to mention, I can’t find that Zelda 3DS bundle ANYWHERE that isn’t direct from a retailer)

    Sorry, that’s my (mostly on-topic) rant.  I think I’m done.  For now.

  • John

    Maybe one day.

  • John

    Yeah I love the Tales games. Final Fantasy has changed, Dragon Quest is kind of starting to change unfortunately, but the Tales have kept the same formula that I’ve loved for all these years.

  • John

    Some titles keep the original Japanese and others don’t – seems kind of random. And then there’s always undub releases floating around on the internet. But yeah, I much prefer the original Japanese to the English dubs.

  • John

    I like how they haven’t changed much, and I don’t like the direction Final Fantasy has been heading in since XI. Maybe it’s just because of the games I grew up with, but I just really like the more traditional style JRPGs like the Tales games.

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    I’ll only be interested in JRPGs if I can play them on Xbox Live and curse out 15 year olds

  • Seltox

    I’m an Australian, and I hate seeing Xenoblade Chronicles & The Last Story in our stores… why?  I don’t own a Wii, and I reeeeaaallllyyy want those games.

    jRPG’s are where it’s at though.  After finally catching up on all the other games i’d owned, I went out and bought Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Valkyria Chronicles and Final Fantasy XIII-2  recently.  Good times ahead of me.

    Now the issue is.. buy new sound gear.. or get a Wii and buy these games.. hmmm.

  • John

    Star Ocean is okay, Valkyria Chronicles is good, and you’ll only like FFXIII-2 if you liked FFXIII (bleh). And I’d say get a Wii :)

  • Krystle

    Reading this reminds me how thankful I am for Atlus USA. They don’t have a perfect record, but they’ve been very, very good at releasing MegaTen titles for the past few years.

    Fortunately, most current consoles are region-free (except notably the 3DS, aah!) so even though it’s a costly matter, at least importing is still an option for all us JRPG nerds. I know many in the States who simply homebrewed their Wii and imported Xenoblade Chronicles when it launched in Europe.

  • ಠ_ರೃ

    Big boss battle, cinematic action sequences, and single story arcs are found in almost every genre. Fetch quests and level grinding are found in a lot of things these days, too.

    Also, fighting games still consist of punching and kicking and pulling off combos. Action games still have separate levels and jumping and boss fights. The biggest change FPS have made in the past 10 years was changing the enemies from Germans to middle eastern people. Games have similarities to other games in the same genre because otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the same genre.

    Admittedly, yes, it would be nice to see JRPGs try different things, but the same can be said for any genre.

  • ಠ_ರೃ

    BOOM! Head-fireball!

  • http://twitter.com/LaurenMadAgain Lauren Madigan

    sometimes i feel like the only one of my generation that has never gotten into playing video games. weirdly enough i can watch people play for hours and i even take control of the headset for my brother sometimes when he’s playing cod. i seriously want to get into gaming, but there’s oh so many choices and it’s so overwhelming…that’s what living in Australia does. ;p

  • ZXNova

    Some people just can’t appreciate RPGs anymore. I notice that there are certain game series that are more popular in Japan than America. You know Fire Emblem? That game is normally a JP only, but they released one version in Europe once. (Not sure if they released anymore so…) Metal Gear Solid is a game you’d think Americans would like (It has guns, and rocket launchers) but it’s actually more popular in Japan. So you’d be surprised which games are more popular in Japan, and which are popular in America. A game that may not be so popular in Japan, may be more popular in America (vice versa). So I think they should be more experimental with localisation.

  • simplyshiny

    I wish I was more into RPGs but I suck at actually finishing games…my attention span sucks, I guess…and my wii isn’t actually in the best place for long hours of gaming…I love the idea of them though

  • 128bitigor

    Xenoblade is the largest jRPG ever made. Period. It easily tops the second largest japanese jRPG, Final Fantasy XII which is the finest entry in the main series (yeah you’ve heard me). The game is just gigantic and it’s not just the world, the system, quests, it’s easy to get lost in it but surprisingly the game doesn’t feel too overwhelming. When reviewers sang ballads about this game i thought it’s because it’s finally some decent jRPG – but it’s genuinely that good. 

    I wish the Last Story is just as great.

  • John

    Yeah, Xenoblade is definitely a good game. But why do you think XII is the best Final Fantasy?

  • http://twitter.com/solantap Austin Bautista

    Kingdom Hearts is still a pretty popular JRPG though.

  • John

    It seems like they’re slowly getting worse though :/

  • John

    We’ve seen some Fire Emblems in America, but yeah I definitely agree with wanting to have some more localization experimentation. It’d be fun to see some more crazy things over here. Like someone else mentioned, Atlus is always great for bringing over things that you wouldn’t normally expect.

  • Wes55463

    Messed up because JRPG’s are actually my favorite types of games and there are other games such as Gundam extreme VS that i would absolutly love to play in america 

  • ಠ_ರೃ

    I remember when we used to get the Gundam VS games over here. :(

  • ianclarksmith

    Well after the FFXIV debacle they should be getting FFXIV-II out the door by what… the end of the year I think? Maybe they can work up some enthusiasm for MMORPGs in Japan (since y’know, Korea seems to have stolen their MMOjo).

  • John

    “Final Fantasy XIV is, as I understand, a fifty-dollar demo of game being released sometime in 2013.” Too true, too true.

  • 128bitigor

    because it’s such a far cry from the previous entries: the system is robust, the world is much more consistent and interesting than in the previous games an there’s no silly angsty drama throughout. even if Vaan looked effeminate he wasn’t as annoying as Tidus (same goes for Penelo and Yuna really…) – the story overall, if slightly difficult to follow was quite mature IMO.  Plus, it was made by THE Yasumi Matsuno, guy behind such gems like FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre or Vagrant Story – and FF12 certainly has his touch.

  • Kami-guy

    I think it really depends on the game. If it’s a slow-paced game, subtitles would work. But what if it’s a fast-paced game? You wouldn’t want subtitles blocking your view and distracting you at the same time, would you?

    Anyway, I’ve no love lost for dubs, especially in anime. I’d rather appreciate the orginal VAs’ efforts. But occasionally, surprises like the third and fourth entry in the Persona series do pop up. There might be a lot of poorly-made dubs, both for anime and games, but I think it’s unfair to discredit them just because it’s dubbed. Dubs might even encourage more people to try it out, possibly making further localizations viable.

  • http://twitter.com/shollum Shollum

    The series is cluttered by terrible spinoffs. There hasn’t been a real entry in the series since the second game (CoM counts slightly as it actually ties into the story in a meaningful way, but the weird card system gets it thrown into the ‘spinoff’ category).

    The main reason I like the game has more to do with the way battles and leveling is handled. Sure you’re just smashing the cross button the whole time and occasionally casting cure, but it’s fulfilling in some way. It’s enough like a hack-and-slash to get you involved, but it’s relaxed enough for long grind sessions (not that you need to grind, but there’s always room to grind).

    If they follow the formula of the two main games, the third game should do well enough. They can do whatever they want to the spinoffs.

  • Brandon Inoue

     We were lucky enough to get Corpse Party. 

    Extra Credits had a very insightful glance on this a while back.  It was their Myth of the Gun episode. 
    To say that a “formula” works for one culture and one works for the other would not be an untrue statement.  No matter how generic or flawed a FPS is, it will sell in America for a relatively low cost to profit ratio.  No matter how formulaic the JRPG is, there will be buyers in Japan.  Neither one does particularly well in the other country.  This is so much the case, that the XBOX 360 is pretty much dead in Japan (with retailers refusing to carry it).  Not that the XBOX is a purely FPS platform.  I think it does have that stereotype though due to LIVE and the games it promotes. 

    True innovation that everyone can enjoy is hard to come by.  Portal was a genuinely fresh and interesting take on the FPS genre.  It definitely made a difference on how we view a first person game.  Devil May Cry pushed the action genre to new heights.  So much so that almost everything since can technically be called a clone (God of War being a controversial inclusion in that).  Final Fantasy VII was truly the JRPG that would be the standard for many years to come.  Shin Megami Tensei is still one of the best JRPGs to date but doesn’t get the recognition it deserves in America due to its JRPG stereotype label and because of it’s relative obscurity. 

    In order to unite audiences, true innovation, international fan service, and/or concepts that cross all borders need to be present.  Metal Gear introduced the stealth genre and it spoke volumes to gamers from every country.  With a message of nonviolence and games that touch on worldwide issues that affect everyone, Kojima still innovates to this day with series that break new ground.  Street Fighter II broke fighting game ground and to this day still brings people in by innovating the genre and (as of recent) catering to fan suggestions.  Zelda and Pokemon stick to doing what they do best and live off of the their old innovations.  Sticking with the tried and true formula that allows people from around the world to enjoy games ensures that they stay international best sellers.   

    With a few big games I’m looking forward to on the horizon, I feel that there are two uniting forces in the game industry that will always bring international gamers together.  The Undead and 1-on-1 fighting. 

    Yakuza Dead Souls.  Yakuza is interesting in the fact that their translation period isn’t nearly as long as other games but their popularity isn’t that high either.  Yakuza 4 finally nailed it on the localization end with only taking out 1 or 2 aspects of gameplay that wouldn’t make cultural sense in international markets.  As for the game itself, Yakuza 3 was superior in my opinion.

    Street Fighter X Tekken.  I guess hitting a bear in the face with a hadouken needs no translation. 

    Operation Raccoon City. Resident Evil meets 3rd person shooter.  This is a big risk experiment for CAPCOM but after playing the demo at PAX last year, I all ready have my preorder in.  I feel that this will help bridge a few more gaps for the gamers on both sides of the ocean.  Albeit, the horror aspect is pretty much gone in this incarnation.  RE6 should help bring some of that back (we hope).

    Silent Hill Downpour.  True horror speaks to all.  As my college Japanese instructor used to say “Nothing brings people
    together like telling a good story.  Tragedy, horror, or comedy seems to
    do this best.” Silent Hill was a love letter to American horror cinema.  Now being handled by Western companies, the flavor has changed over the years.  Downpour seems to be an Alan Wake inspired piece.  This should be a good upgrade after the stumbles that were Homecoming and Shattered Memories.  Good experiments but not great games. (Hopefully this movie due out this year will be better as well.  Provided that it’s released!)

    The Tales series will also have a release next month.  Not sure about it yet but I’ll be keeping my eye on the critic pages to see if it’s worth it.

    Whew… man I wrote a lot.  Sorry.

  • http://www.pileofsticks.com/ Stacy

    I’m also quite saddened that the age of JRPG’s is over, I mostly blame poor localization/voice acting which turned away a lot of the fans, who’s love of japanese language and culture made them gravitate torwards these games in the first place. Having the original japanese voice option is something I always look for. (they actually kept the original voices in the Atelier games!) Now though, thanks to games like mass effect which has amazing voice acting, people are realizing that it can make or  break a game and are applying that to localization.

    I was quite overjoyed when I learned that Ni no Kuni was not going to be forgotten and is coming to north america! SO Excited!

  • tawn

    I didn’t like FFXIII that much and still loved XIII-2.

  • John

    Yeah, sometimes dubs are really well done and sometimes they’re just awful. If the dub is well done, I don’t mind it at all. I guess more people would be happier if there was both the Japanese language track available with subs as well as a dub, or at least have more effort be put into making a quality dub. It seems like as time goes on, more games and anime put more effort into the quality of their dubs, but there’s always some games or some characters in certain games that are just voiced really really poorly. Oh well.

  • John

    Really? What was different between the two that made you like XIII-2 so much more than XIII?

  • John

    I’ll agree that there were a lot of good ideas in XII but they were all part of a jumbled mess and not presented very well in my opinion. Like you said, the story was difficult to follow and I believe that a good story shouldn’t be that difficult to keep up with. Yes, good stories should keep you guessing and not lay every detail out in front of you, but the writing and development of the story in XII was not up to the standards I’d been used to growing up with Final Fantasy games. Maybe it was just too different for me. And I do agree with you that XII certainly has the touch of Yasumi Matsuno, but it is most definitely lacking the touch of Hironobu Sakaguchi who left halfway through the project out of frustration and took half the team with him to start up Mistwalker. On top of that, Yasumi Matsuno didn’t even stick around to finish the game (due to health concerns, but whatever – Sakaguchi was still disappointed with him). They had to call in Akitoshi Kawazu of the SaGa series to help finish it up. Based on this information it’s no surprise that the final product ended up being such a jumbled mess of ideas. But even though I did not love FFXII, I certainly liked it more than the disaster that was FFXIII.

  • John

    Wow, great comment. Thanks for taking the time to share :) I agree with you.

  • Brandon Inoue

     Thank you.  I felt bit fractured writing all that out.  Not my best work since college but it will do. 
    Update- Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2 (which is a commentary on the game industry in general) seems to have been getting good reviews from American critics (at the moment).  A lot of the jokes are ones we can all understand due to our gaming pasts. 

    I think I’ll be giving it a try to see if I can advocate it for reducing the gap between east and west.

  • Cyntrolliam

    Anyone notice “Last Story” is practically an uncanny synonym for “Final Fantasy”?

  • John

    Yep!

  • Kami-guy

    I agree. There was this one character in Persona 3 with a god-awful annoying dubbed voice. And she’s one of my favourite characters! In the end, I think it even became a meme. 

    Both subs and dubs in one neat package wouldn’t hurt, I guess. At the very least, more people might like it. Anyway, thanks for the reply! =)

  • 128bitigor

    I can’t say I agree. System IMO was nealry perfect (tempo and summons aside) and was a huge step forward in the genre. When all the other jRPGs looked to the past, without FF12 there would be no Xenoblade for sure. Story wise – it was convoluted and difficult and I guess the shift to Vaan – even if it was a nice touch in terms of gameplay (he was a novice outside of Rabanastre just as the player was) – it really harmed the story. Then again, I found it much more mature and intelligent than the whiny mess that FFX was. as feminine Vaan looks, he was way more acceptable than Tidus or Squall (in FF8 i didn’t really like ANY of the characters, it was the system that kept me going).

    It certainly was a bit of a patchwork – Matsuno had an immense task – make another big flashy entry in probably the most “glamour” driven series in gaming. Kawazu’s games, as far as i know, are a far cry from the gothic and serious entries form Matsunos portfolio, also in terms of gameplay. Then again – it’s a matter of taste I suppose – Sakaguchi hasn’t released a decent game, except the Last Story in ages and I didn’t enjoy his games that much, apart from excellently paced FF7. At least not story wise. FF was always about the gameplay and the adventure for me – and I think FF12 nailed it just fine.

    FF13… was almost a pastiche on the series most popular series. And I enjoyed it. Probably because new ATB has so much potential

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