Level-5 on localizations for Omasse Rental Weapon Shop, Guild02, more
Guild01’s original retail release in Japan consisted of four games. Three of these titles in total will be released on the North American and European 3DS eShops – Liberation Maiden, Aero Porter, and Crimson Shroud.
The question is, what happened to that last game? “Omasse Rental Weapon Shop” hasn’t been confirmed for overseas territories yet.
Level-5 says there are two hurdles in the way of a western release: the amount of text and Japanese culture. While the company is considering localization, Omasse Rental Weapon Shop is “extremely text-heavy, and it functions on the expressive power of its text and language.” Level-5 is also considering “whether or not a large enough audience outside of Japan would appreciate a game that relies so heavily on knowledge of Japanese culture.”
“We’re still wholeheartedly considering how to or whether or not we can make that title work at the moment. The game is actually extremely text-heavy, and it functions on the expressive power of its text and language. Hirai-san, the creator, is a famous comedian in Japan, and the game is deeply rooted in his talent for expressing Japanese culture through language. We need to consider the high pedigree of translation required, and the time and money needed to do that with this amount of text may surprise you. Another factor we need to consider is whether or not a large enough audience outside of Japan would appreciate a game that relies so heavily on knowledge of Japanese culture.”
Guild01 will be receiving a sequel in Japan, appropriately named Guild02. Level-5 has interest in localization the collection for North America and Europe as well.
“We hope to do so at this point, but the Japanese version is still in production, so we kindly ask for your patience for an announcement if we do decide to bring them over.”
We’re not done with the topic of localization yet. Siliconera asked Level-5 if we’d see some of the company’s other titles such as Time Travelers, Fantasy Life or The Little Battlers Experience.
Here’s the response:
“LEVEL-5 International America works alongside LEVEL-5’s headquarters in Japan to assess the markets for titles in both North American and Europe. Their goal is to figure out how to maximize the potential of LEVEL-5’s entire spectrum of current and future properties in each region, whether that be for existing franchises such as the Professor Layton series, which is popular in the West, or for Inazuma Eleven, currently being broadcasted in over 10 countries throughout Europe and South America.
“Essentially, L5IA doesn’t exist solely to self-publish titles that have already been released in Japan; its mission is to explore all the possibilities of a given title and how best to deliver it to our fans. The feasibility of releasing our titles sometimes hinges on business decisions, but the goal of L5IA is to make our titles available to as many people as possible.”
