All Articles: Xenoblade Chronicles

Xenoblade will be published in Europe next week and even though a Nintendo of America spokesman said the company has “no plans” to bring it across the Atlantic, Xenoblade is a major subject of conversation around Redmond.

Speaking to IGN, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said: “We will be watching very closely what happens in Europe. Certainly if there are business opportunities and positive consumer uptake from some of those titles, that will be great data for us to consider as we look at what to do with these titles.”

Don’t pop the champagne corks just yet, but this is the best news to come out of Nintendo of America about Xenoblade since the company first announced it under the title Monado: Beginning of the World (yes, at one time, Xenoblade had an official American release scheduled).

Are you a Wii owner who is sick and tired of Nintendo’s decision not to localize many of the games they publish in Japan? Titles like Fatal Frame IV, Dynamic Slash, Pandora Tower, The Last Story and Xenoblade have all been published by The Big N in Japan and have never made it across the Pacific. If the last game in that list, the Monolith Soft-developed Xenoblade, interests you, then perhaps you should hook up with Operation Rainfall.

The group plans to flood the offices of Nintendo of America’s President, Reginald Fils-Aime, with letters from July 11 through the 13th. They also plan to call Nintendo’s customer service line (1-800-633-3236) to request Xenoblade as well as mass emailing the company with the same message. It’s unlikely this campaign will do anything (if I were Reggie, I’d call in sick that week), but Nintendo really needs to do a better job of listening to their fans (I’m still waiting on Mother 3).

If you want to join the movement, be sure to visit Operation Rainfall’s website.

RPG enthusiasts have been on the edge of their seats to see if two titles over the last year, The Last Story and Xenoblade, would be making it to America. Prospects are still bleak for the former, but chances just got a little higher for the latter, as Nintendo of Europe has confirmed today it will be bringing Xenoblade Chronicles (a retitling of Xenoblade) to PAL territories. The game is slated to release sometime later this year, and will feature both English and Japanese voice tracks, along with subtitles in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Unfortunately the Wii is region locked, but I can think of a few people who’d be willing to import it with a Wii that can play it because of the language options alone.

Xenoblade is known for being the latest game by Monolith Soft, the company behind Xenosaga, consisting of many veterans from Square during its golden age. Their most notable works there include Xenogears and earlier Final Fantasy titles. You can check the official site for the port here.