Two Japanese Game Localization Announcements You Might Have Missed

If you’re stumbling upon this blog, you’re likely aware of how many announcements are made nearly simultaneously during the E3 period. Because of that, some will get lost in the shuffle, especially if they aren’t AAA titles or coming from a big publisher. For the two announcements I’ll be highlighting in this post, both publishers figured they announced their titles at the right time for early exposure. But that didn’t happen thanks to — you guessed it — other publishers with the same idea, and people who write articles about these announcements for larger and smaller sites only have so much free time.

I was a little worried when Gaijinworks announced their intention to localize Class of Heroes 3 and Summon Night 5 for PSP in 2015, a system even other niche Japanese game publishers drifted from in the last couple of years. And that was before factoring in delays — they are the reincarnation of Working Designs, after all. This wasn’t too concerning with the former title, considering it’s also available on other platforms (though they haven’t announced any intention to localize those), and dungeon crawlers tend to have less text to translate compared to traditional RPGs. The latter, however, was a far larger ordeal, and I wasn’t optimistic about it selling well enough for Gaijinworks — despite how small an outfit they are.

Fortunately, that concern was for naught, since it must have done well for the company to announce a localization of Summon Night 6: Lost Borders. It’s nice that they didn’t run into another Arc the Lad-style (or Growlanser-style, to a lesser extent) situation here, since Bandai Namco apparently has no intention of bringing it over themselves.

The sixth Summon Night game released in Japan earlier this year to commemorate the franchise’s 15th Anniversary, and came with a number of changes compared to previous installments. For one, it gives players the option of playing from the viewpoints of three different protagonists in its world of Fillujah (which they’re not changing for the western version), in Raj, Amu, and Ist. All three live in isolation from each other, and each has a convenient cute, flying sidekick along with them. The characters will eventually form a party during their quest, and likely meet the other protagonists, since that’s how these games tend to go.

Since this game required higher development costs compared to previous installments, developer Felistella teamed up with former Wild Arms developer Media.Vision for its production. They also developed Wild Arms XF and co-developed Valkyria Chronicles III, so they have experience with SRPGs.

As indicated by numerous screenshots, Gaijinworks has already completed a good portion of its localization, and is currently in the process of having it dubbed. Whether the final version will also have Japanese voices as an option is currently unknown, but they’re looking into it. The game will arrive early next year for PS4 and Vita.

Meanwhile, another title was lost even further in that aforementioned shuffle. Shortly after E3’s conclusion, Atlus USA confirmed a localization of FuRyu’s Caligula. During the time of its announcement, press members and bloggers were backlogged on articles they needed to post, meaning news of this game was put on the backburner. Now that they’ve mostly finished, some still haven’t gotten around to giving this attention. But in fairness, that’s also partly due to its rather nonchalant announcement from Atlus, as if they hadn’t intended on confirming this just yet. Now, they have little choice but to acknowledge it, despite their current focus being on games releasing sooner.

Caligula is an RPG about students stuck in a perpetual high school, where many attendees are frighteningly unaware of the trouble they’re in. Those who are aware have to find some way out, though others enjoying their perpetual supposed paradise are bound to get in their way, along with those who trapped them inside. Like many current Japanese games with high school settings, it’s concept has been compared to Persona, albeit with enough differences to prevent it from being a rip-off. This game has a larger focus on Vocaloid themes and performances, and fittingly features the talents of some Vocaloid performers.

Speaking of the Persona games, though, a familiar writer is on board: Tadashi Satomi, who previously wrote the scenarios for the first two Persona titles (and the Digital Devil Saga duology). Considering that, it’s fitting to see Atlus USA localizing it.

Since it will be a Vita-exclusive game in 2017, Atlus USA is understandably hesitant to spend too many resources on it. The game will be released only through PlayStation Network, and with Japanese voices and subtitles. As small compensation, it will release in America and Europe around the same time, an unusual occurrence for Atlus games due to their continued lack of a European arm. The game recently released in Japan, and is garnering positive impressions from those playing it. Hopefully it can find a sizable enough audience when it arrives next year.

Though the announcements for these titles were sadly buried, hopefully they’ll be able to garner more interest after marketing cycles for both pick up. Since Summon Night 6 is also on PS4, I’m more concerned about the Vita-exclusive Caligula here. But Atlus tends to be frighteningly good at marketing their titles, and they don’t seem to be expecting much from this one, so it should be okay. If you’re interested, keep your eye out for both when they release in 2017.