The Last Story, the latest RPG from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and his studio Mistwalker, will release in North America this year thanks to niche publisher Xseed Games.
It's uncharacteristic for Nintendo, which co-developed and published the Wii game last year in Japan (it's also shipping the game in Europe this week), to allow another company to localize and sell one of its titles. Sega publishing Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the West is another rare exception.
But Nintendo has experimented with its Japanese RPG releases for Wii recently, such as choosing to sell Xenoblade Chronicles in the U.S. with a limited release through GameStop and its own website, following a fan campaign to bring the title Stateside.
Mistwalker's The Last Story was also a part of that campaign, as gamers noticed the RPG received rave reviews and even a system bundle in Japan. Many were also attracted by the involvement of Final Fantasy veterans like director Hironobu Sakaguchi and composer Nobuo Uematsu.
The Last Story will likely be one of the few major titles for the aging Wii console this year, as Nintendo focuses on putting out its Wii U successor this holiday season. Xseed hasn't set a specific date for the game's release yet, though it intends to put it out this summer.
Xseed specializes in releasing Japanese games that tend to have limited appeal but devoted audiences, such as Nihon Falcom's Ys series, CyberConnect 2's Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, and Acquire's Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls.
@ Trenton Ng - Yep! Pandora's Tower is the one, but even if it doesn't come to the US, we still got the other two titles and that's already huge in itself. For a moment, I thought that we wouldn't even see The Last Story in the US, so I'm grateful to Xseed for bringing the game to the US.
WooHoo!! I am not sure why, but most newer RPG's on the home consoles don't interest me that much. Especially when I heard FF 13 had minimal overworld and town exploration. The DS ones are the ones that capture my interest.
Yeah, I'm so happy Xenoblade and The Last Story are confirmed for localization!
But this game seems very fun.