Castle Paradox

[Cube]

Some of you may have heard of this already, maybe some of you haven't. For those of you that haven't, this is why I post this.

Operation Rainfall is a campaign started by some guys over at IGN. The purpose of it is to draw attention to three Japanese games that many people want brought over to North America; Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower. I personally have been wanting to play Xenoblade for some time, as I am a fan of Monolith Soft.

The biggest problem is that Xenoblade is already coming out in Europe and is fully translated into English, but Nintendo continues to ignore any inquiries about the game. People who have e-mailed them get the response that it is coming out in North America, but Nintendo has done this in the past with titles that never see the light of day in stores. This whole campaign was sparked after a representative of Nintendo of France said they wanted to show Xenoblade at E3 but "Nintendo of America wouldn't let them because they didn't want to show products they aren't planning to sell." Other games, such as The Last Story and Pandora's Tower have no hint at all of coming out over here.

Many of you may recall how online petitions and whatnot are never effective... However, this campaign is actually getting a lot of attention, such as news articles on well known websites like Kotaku, IGN, vgchatz, N-Europe, Game Informer, Eurogamer, and many many others. Nintendo's Facebook page's new articles are recieving endless comments calling for Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower to be released in North America (2,688 comments on the top post so far). People have pre-ordered the game so much on Amazon (Under it's old title Monado) due to this campaign that it is now the #1 best selling video game currently and it's not even out yet (And currently, never will be). There are also newer things popping up like video campaigns on YouTube.

Other things that haven't happened yet include using actual mail (You know, the physical kind), and planning you have your letter arrive at Nintendo of America's headquarters between July 11th to 13th. There're more details at the IGN links.

I'll be taking part in this, since it can't hurt to try. And as such, I'm posting this here so more people know about, if anyone is interested in any of these games. I know a lot of you in the OHR community have a similar background as I do when it comes to RPGs, which started out with a Japanese style RPG, so I'm sure one or two of you are interested in these games. I personally have never seen something like this grow to this size in such a short amount of time (This campaign only started 3 days ago). I feel that this is bigger than your usual online petition, and it would be pretty silly for Nintendo to ignore this.

So, if anyone wants to help out and get these games over here, try to spread the word in any way you can and pester Nintendo through whatever means (Politely of course).

[Bob the Hamster]

That is pretty cool. I had never heard of any of those games before, but looking at them now, they all seem like things I would like playing.

[Rya.Reisender]

It's funny how many people are crying about this, but when an RPG gets release in the US but not in Europe (happens far more often) nobody cares.

And when I cry about it the other way around, Americans will just tell me "Just modify your console and import the game".
_________________
Snippy:
"curt or sharp, esp. in a condescending way" (Oxford American Dictionary)
"fault-finding, snappish, sharp" (Concise Oxford Dictionary, UK)
1. short-tempered, snappish, 2. unduly brief or curt (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

[Bob the Hamster]

Everybody should mod their consoles to play import games just on principle.

I think it is horrible that a thing like region-locked distribution media even exists.

[NeoSpade]

[Cube]

A couple days late, but back on Friday Nintendo announced the release date for Xenoblade in North America. However, it's a very limited release; You can only buy it from Gamestop or order it directly from Nintendo. Because of the odd way they're releasing the game, I figure the whole Operation Rainfall thing had a hand in their decision to release it here.

But anyways, I suggest anyone who is slightly interested in this game to buy it. Companies have been releasing fewer Japanese games here lately, so this might be a nice way of showing them there's still demand for them. Some have described it as a great mixture of the best of a Western RPG mixed with the best of a Japanese RPG. The game itself has a focus on exploration and doesn't follow the linear formula a lot of Japanese RPGs tend to do. That doesn't mean there isn't a main storyline to the game though... I've also heard that it takes an average gamer 60-80 hours to just do the main quest, with another 80-100 hours on all the side quests and additional content.

To order online you can follow links from Xenoblade's main page (there's a trailer there too, although it's not the best trailer in the world, heh). You can't pre-order from Nintendo until after the 19th though, but you can pre-order at any Gamestop store or from their online website right now.

Sorry to make this post sound so much like an advertisement, but I'd really like to see this game do as well as it possibly can. Because of it's limited release, it could be as rare as some games like Suikoden II, so that's why I'm letting you guys know now that if you're interested, you should grab it.

[Nepenthe]

Never, ever, ever, buy anything from Gamestop's online store, ever. Period. Get it directly from Nintendo.

Last time I tried to buy online from Gamestop, I was woken up early the next morning by a call from a personal cell phone. The kid on the line said he was with Gamestop and would need my credit card number, security code, etc. to complete the order. Seemed fishy so I called Gamestop's corporate offices and they told me that that's how they handle online orders. Naturally I cancelled the order and shopped elsewhere. I mean, really, they can't even call me from a company phone?

/rant
(But seriously, don't)

[Cube]