Square Enix Promises To Explain What’s Up With Final Fantasy Type-0

Where’s Final Fantasy Type-0? For whatever reason, Square Enix’s medieval PSP game has never made it to the United States, and it’s hard not to be bummed about that, because people who have played the Japanese version report that it’s pretty great.

U.S. gamers really want to play it. There’s one group working on a fan translation, and another, who call themselves Operation Suzaku, campaigning and petitioning to get Square Enix to bring the game here in one form or another. (A retail PSP release is pretty much off the table, as many retailers don’t even carry PSP games anymore—maybe a digital release? Or a port?)

http://kotaku.com/5983342/square-enix-wont-release-final-fantasy-type+0-in-north-america-so-fans-are-taking-over

Now here’s the good(-ish) news: Square Enix is at least paying attention.

Earlier this month, newly-minted Square Enix US/Europe boss Phil Rogers put up a candid blog post about the company’s plans and ambitions. In the post, Rogers invited fans to e-mail him with questions and comments. The folks at Operation Suzaku did just that—and he responded

Hi Khalia,

Thanks for the note and I’ve done a ‘lot’ of reading, which has been great actually to read what people think and feel. On the one hand it’s great that people care so passionately about our games, but on the other it’s clear we’ve frustrated some people out there which certainly is not our intention.

So to your point, I’ve seen your Facebook page and I hear your question clearly. I’ve posted on the blog that this is one of the first questions I’m going to tackle. It’s not a quick question to answer but I’m looking into it and I’ll update everyone when I can. But I mentioned (again on the blog) that I don’t want to get hopes up as localising previously released games sometimes isn’t possible when the team have moved onto other projects. But I will look into this thoroughly.

Thanks for the email,

Phil

Now, don’t get your hopes up too much: if the Type-0 programming team isn’t free to help with localization programming (that is to say, implementing English text into the game’s code), bringing the much-requested RPG here might not be an option. But this level of transparency is unprecedented for Square Enix, and extremely promising—hopefully Rogers keeps it up.

(Top image via FF wiki)