Final Fantasy Type-0
The Missing Pillar of Fabula Nova Crystallis
This is a huge disappointment because the game has received strong reviews from both Japanese Final Fantasy fans and importers whom both consider the game to be ambitious and one of the stronger entries in the Fabula Nova Crystallis franchise. While Type-0 director Hajima Tabata has shown strong interest in releasing Type-0 in the West and despite the game having become popular enough to warrant several spin-offs including a new mobile game due this spring, Square-Enix has made little effort to even talk about a Western release of Type-0. This eventually led to an online fan petition called Operation Suzaku, which was created in the same vein as the somewhat successful Operation Rainfall campaign of a few years back to get the game a proper release in the West.
There may be many factors hampering the game’s ability to see release. Probably the most notable issue was simply the game’s timing. It was released both in the waning years of the PlayStation Portables life cycle and during the fervor of the new PlayStation Vita’s launch, making the game completely lost in the media circus around the new system’s launch.
This leads to the other issue that directly affects the Western release: the strange stigma that has hounded the handheld market since the original Nintendo Gameboy. Western gamers seem to be very skeptical of a handheld system ability to deliver a “full console experience” and thus handhelds tend to have a second class status among the Western gaming community. This is usually noticeable by sales trends where consoles tend to sell better in the West (including PAL regions) than handhelds, whereas the reverse is usually the true with Japan. For instance the PlayStation 3 has sold over 9 million units in Japan compared to the U.S.’s 28 million and change. On the other hand, the PlayStation Portable sold over 19 million units in Japan whereas the system only sold a little over 21 million in the U.S., despite being available longer than the PS3.
One other issue stemming from the game’s timing also deals with SE being at a financial and career low point:
While Type-0 may have been slated for an eventual Western release, the delay could have easily pushed prospects far behind what was eventually the end of its life cycle for the PSP. It took almost a year for Western news magazines to ask about Type-0’s localization and no one at SE seemed to know if such a project had ever been green-lighted. The only known info of a possible localization came from a comment by the staff in the Japanese-only Ultimania saying they were working on a Western release.
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All of these points are simply conjecture and until we hear from SE we may never know what kept this title as Japan-only. All we know is that it may be a crying shame as Type-0 features many of the elements that fans have been clamoring for a while such as a return of an old-school-style world map, chocobo breeding, a darker story dealing with the horrors of war and actually showcasing blood and dying, an action RPG battle system, and a cast of characters that are genuinely likable. Hopefully fan efforts like Operation Suzaku can convince Square-Enix not to let this game become another Final Fantasy III and be lost to the rest of the world for a long time before eventually getting released. Until then, check out the game’s intro and hope.
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