Square Enix fast-tracking FFXIII localization - Report

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted May 5, 2009 10:54 am PT

Producer Yoshinori Kitase says publisher is aiming to "minimize" lag between Western release of anticipated JRPG and its Japanese launch later this year.

The potency of Square Enix's upcoming role-playing game Final Fantasy XIII was on clear display in Japan three weeks ago, when a brief demo spiked sales of Sony's PlayStation 3, the only system that the game has been announced for in the island nation. And though Japanese gamers will have to wait only until the end of 2009 to explore FFXIII's world, Square Enix confirmed earlier this year that Western gamers won't see the game on the Xbox 360 and PS3 until, at the very earliest, April 2010.

This battle will occur...eventually.

Be that as it may, the publisher hopes to minimize the delay between the Japanese and Western rollouts of the heavily anticipated game. Speaking to UK gaming site VideoGamer, FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase said, "Traditionally the Final Fantasy numbered series, it takes about half a year between the release in Japan and the release in North America, and another half a year before it's released in Europe. But we would like to minimize this, this time."

Kitase stated that the publisher plans to trim time off of the global rollout by streamlining certain development tasks. "For example, we have already started recording English voices, and also the text localization has been in progress, too," he said. "Normally we complete the Japanese version first, then move on to the US and EU versions, but this time there are some tasks that are happening simultaneously. So this time we're hoping to release sooner than a year later [in Europe] than the Japanese release."

A North American Square Enix representative had not responded to requests for an updated release window as of press time. For more on Final Fantasy XIII, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

179 Comments

  • moh2in

    Posted Sep 8, 2009 4:26 pm PT

    this is gonna be EPIC!!!!!

  • ChinoStylz

    Posted Jun 3, 2009 6:21 am PT

    So tempted to pick it up when released in Japan... Gonna have to leave real early to get a decent spot in line though.

  • PhantomFactor

    Posted May 12, 2009 7:47 pm PT

    By far the best spoken words in the above walkthrough are

    "I think I just slapped that guy, did I just slap that guy?
    ...
    I think I did."

  • Sammonoske223

    Posted May 12, 2009 3:37 pm PT

    Yeah, the international version will release in japan before we even see the American original game. SE is just taking too long and is thinking of Japan release to much. This should be released world wide at the same time. Japan can have the international game.

  • Strathdor

    Posted May 10, 2009 8:18 am PT

    They should be doing all the voice acting at the same time. I can't believe they just focus on one language when doing recording. Seriously sad to see this is how the Japanese do things.

  • snooker8th

    Posted May 7, 2009 9:35 am PT

    wow... the graphics look really good.
    I was worried they wouldn't be ps3 standard any more for the battles... I hope the English voice acting is similar to the Japanese
    I hated the voice acting in FFX but FFXII was done well!

  • snooker8th

    Posted May 7, 2009 9:10 am PT

    It will be delayed another 6 months from April 2010... don't hold your breath people.
    Square Enix are behaving like morons lately.

  • slipknot61174

    Posted May 7, 2009 8:36 am PT

    Wow, as long a wait as it is for XIII, I still can't help but be intrigued by the inevitable "international" edition that'll release down the line for the Japanese market that will have played XIII to death before our domestic eyes even manage to SEE the damned game... Maybe all this could've been averted if Square had decided to go all multiplatform "worldwide" release BEFORE they finished the PS3 version of the game.

  • Fady117

    Posted May 7, 2009 5:53 am PT

    The sooner the better, but they shouldn't overwork themselves too.... i mean, fast work may yield bad results, so if they need time to make the US and EU versions, they should have it. Otherwise people will get bad interpretations and the company will eventually get the blame...

  • flyingteddy

    Posted May 7, 2009 4:16 am PT

    @xxxkinkykevxxx,
    i did not mean less content but that EU version can get extra content like new bosses or weapons etc, this has happened before.

  • Matt-Tribal

    Posted May 7, 2009 1:38 am PT

    Thank God! Beginning to lose faith in Square Enix but this a nice pick me up. After reading previous posts I hope they do get it right though, but the sooner the better really.

  • Abed_1990

    Posted May 6, 2009 11:40 pm PT

    @ Spider-Jim

    i have to agree with you, even tho it sucks that we have to wait this long for the game to be released...i'd rather have a quality game that took long to translate instead of one that sounds cheasy. and FF12 was amazing in that area and every other aspect as well

  • sillycatsteven

    Posted May 6, 2009 11:34 pm PT

    is Kitase serious? i hope they are doing the same for all of their games. look at star ocean 3!! xbox only for english verson, but they are releasing a ps3 verson for JPN... WTH are they thinking!! they'd already done the translation and made a ps3 verson, it wouldn't take that much work to put them together. little extra expense => global market = lots more profit... o_O|||

  • prioritymail

    Posted May 6, 2009 7:32 pm PT

    I don't see why this game is taking so long to make, and imagine how long it would take to make it to the us had they been waiting to do the localized versions until later...
    For the amount of time put into making this game, it better be the best game I have ever seen.

  • shredicalous

    Posted May 6, 2009 7:03 pm PT

  • Caging

    Posted May 6, 2009 5:07 pm PT

    What took SquareEnix THIS long to figure this part of the business model out? Arrogance. If they were really clever they would have realised the GLOBAL market has more value than just concentrating on your local market for all these years and keeping the best bits for the local market,Or re-translate thier version poorly which has been done time and time again. As usual the Japanese companies are the last to realise the global market value of any of thier products. They better learn to open Up before they fall into stagnation in the long term.

  • Spider-Jim

    Posted May 6, 2009 4:55 pm PT

    Yes , that's good as long as they don't skimp. 12 has an impressive script and excellent acting/dialogue. I was quite impressed. So I will be happy as long as quality is not lost!!!

  • Shadow_Fire41

    Posted May 6, 2009 4:21 pm PT

    ..........why does it take so long to translate Japanese into English?
    i mean come on, we have 26 letters in our alphabet, and 2 forms (standard and cursive, which both are similer to each other.) while japanese has 3 forms, and symbols usually have more then one letter per symbol.......should it really be that hard? and alot of European languages aren't to hard to pick up.
    so why does it take so long to translate. (this is just my statement, and know this.....i only know enlgish so i don't know the real difficulty of translation.)

  • Squall_gunbl

    Posted May 6, 2009 3:38 pm PT

    YAYYYY

  • Grandstream

    Posted May 6, 2009 2:43 pm PT

    On the one hand, April 2010 isn't so bad...as long as its out by the summer, i'm happy. secondly, this FF has potential. Because while SE may contemplate work between Versus 13 and the next FF (pfft!), DLC is a definite for both of these.

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