RPGs Old and New - Iwata Asks Atlus about Etrian Odyssey IV

Yesterday, Etrian Odyssey IV was released in North America on the Nintendo 3DS. Greatly anticipating the game the night prior to release, I began translating an old (Iwata Asks) interview between Nintendo CEO Iwata Satoru, and Etrian Odyssey series' directors Komori Shigeo and Kanada Daisuke, about Etrian Odyssey IV, the series in its entirety, and RPGs in general. There's a lot of very interesting stuff here, so I'd recommend giving it a read if you're at all interested in game design or roleplaying games in particular.

[DaveyB]

I wish Iwata asked them why their so sluggish with their EU releases...

[Canary]

I believe EU releases take longer in general because games A) have to make their way through the bureaucracies of more nations, and because the games themselves have to be translated in more languages.

In North America, for example, games, there's only the United States and Canada; English is the only language that games need to be translated in. Whearas in Europe, you've got a much more complicated landscape.

[Neckbear]

But let us not forget the most important of all reasons: Atlus doesn't have an european branch to handle distribution over there, so that's usually up to whichever european company wants to do it instead.

[Chrono]

They have no offices there, it's a small company.

[jagstatboy]

Great game, loving it so far.

[Hydralysk]

This is the game that really makes me wish I had a 3DS, Etrian Odyssey is just infuriatingly entertaining.

[Canary]

You should start working on getting one.

Especially if you're a fan of the prior games. I picked up a used copy of EO3 last weekend, and blasted through the first two stratums before EO4 came out... but ended up putting just as much time into the EO4 demo.

IV is just so much more polished and streamlined.

I really can't wait to see what they do with EO5.

[rawshack]

Persona 5!!!!

[TongkatAli]

This game is going to be awesome, but i'm not jelly. Its hard to be when you got Persona 4 Golden. When i get my 3DS definitely picking it up.