It isn’t very often that a noteworthy Wii game gets released. It is even rarer that a noteworthy JRPG not named Final Fantasy gets released. This week will see both rarities occur thanks to the North American release of Xenoblade Chronicles. It is actually a small wonder that the game is even coming out stateside. This week’s biggest game was almost the embarrassingly bad Kinect Star Wars game…
Xenoblade Chronicles originally hit stores in Japan back in 2010, becoming the 8th best selling game of the year there. It received much critical acclaim and was called the greatest Japanese RPG of the generation by several outlets. A year later the game made it’s way to Europe where it received similar praise. Fans in North America weren’t so fortunate, however, as the game was absent from E3 2011. When asked about it, Nintendo said there were no plans to localize the game for American audiences.
Thus began “Operation Rainfall”, a campaign by disappointed Users on IGNBoards. Operation Rainfall hoped to convince Nintendo of America to localize Xenoblade Chronicles, as well as a few other popular Japanese RPGs. As part of the campaign, the game became the #1 best-selling game on Amazon on June 25, 2011. Not bad for a game that wasn’t ever supposed to arrive on American shores.
In December word finally got out that Xenoblade Chronicles was indeed coming out in North America. Now the ball is in the court of the consumers. If JRPG fans want to see other niche titles localized in North America, they better start by picking up Xenoblade Chronicles. Will this be the best JRPG of the generation, or simply the final game of the generation?
