Nintendo just announced Monolith Soft (of Xenosaga Episodes & Baten Kaitos fame) is developing Monado: Beginning Of The World for the Wii. The company's E3 page indicates it's coming to North America.
*Monado Beginning of the World -- Pick Up Your Sword *(Wii) otherwise known as *Xenoblade Chronicles* is a vast single player RPG for the Wii with elements similar to MMOs and Platformers. It’s a beautiful misfit mesh between *Final Fantasy XII* (PS2), *Monster Hunter Tri* (Wii), and *Okami * (Wii/PS2).
Is there any possibility of Atlus, Namco Bandai or any other publishers bringing this stateside? Does Nintendo hold the exclusive rights to publishing the game in NA?
Yes, because this is a game developed by a Nintendo owned studio, Monolith Soft. Atlus or anyone else would have to be given permission by Nintendo. Which isn't going to happen. All in all, this is just another great Monolith Soft title that Nintendo of America is screwing American gamers out of. They did it with Soma Bringer on the DS, and Disaster on the Wii.
Matter of fact, I don't think NoA has published a single Monolith game since Nintendo purchased them. Which really sucks for someone like me, who's a HUGE fan of Xenogears/saga and wants to continue enjoying Tetsuya Takahashis current projects.
I just thank God that Nintneod of Europe isnt run by douchebags like NoA is, so I'll still be able to play this game. Otherwise, I was literally contemplating learning Japanese.
Oh, I'm a huge Xeno fan myself. However I had no clue that Nintendo bought Monolith Soft. That sucks.
Way to go Nintendo on the failure.
Yeah, it would be nice. The more that it gets spread the more hope stays alive.
Since Fatal Frame 4's lack of a western release ANYWHERE and the success of the localisation/translation patch made by fans and the fact people happily went to CF to play a game with a big audience in the US/EU I've had no faith in ninty bringing games over to the US. The UK/EUhasd gotten more but not all the Jpn releases but Ninty US and Reggie's reasoning for not bringing these games over(D:DoC was not released in US because Reggie hates the audio for example)is dodgy or personal.
They can't even blame localisation costs as there's ready done/made UK versions in English so WTF they waiting for? Why piss off US gamers who would make them money-Christ Atlus have done fine this gen publishing niche Japanese games for PS3 etc. Do Ninty US really care THAT little for their gamers these days?
Yes.
They're making almost all of their profits off of hardware sales and peripherals.
Nintendo abandoned "core gamers" a very long time ago. NoA, at least.
For North American gamers Nintendo has never given us a better reason to hack our Wii's now. Although mine has been hacked to be region free for over a year now NA gamers can still play this game if you want. Just softwafe hack your Wii and buy the Euro version. There.... problem solved.
After a spokesman from Nintendo of France made comments last week that insinuated that Xenoblade, Pandora's Tower and The Last Story would not see localization in the United States fans quickly took to the internet and blew up Nintendo's facebook and twitter accounts, making their frothing demand for the games known. Since then Monado: Beginning of the World, also known as Xenoblade, has become the number one bestseller on Amazon videogames. Earlier this evening Nintendo made the following nebulous posting on their facebook and twitter pages, "Hey fans, we appreciate your enthusiasm. Look for more updates to come soon!"
Destructoid's Jonathan Holmes writes, "A group of fans, calling themselves Operation Rainfall, is working hard to make sure that Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower are all released in the United States. It looks like a little organization and planning can go a long way, as the group has already helped to get Monado to the #1 spot on Amazon.com's gaming pre-order list, beating out Ocarina of Time 3D and the Call of Duty: Black Ops PS3 bundle."
finally another rpg coming to the wii. gonna get it once it come out!!!
Excellent.Monolith is such an amazing RPG developer
Yay Line Attack Heroes was properly announced as well! Looks a bit kiddish but cool though.
On topic do you think it was wise of Namco to sell most of their shares to Nintendo?
Have you noticed how many developers for Nintendo are ex-Square employees?
this game looks preety good too
Is there any chance whatsoever this will see release this year?
Probably not, but it would be great if it did.
Nintendo needs a 1st party title to fill the gap between when Wii Sports Resort is released next month and when NSMBWii is released late this year. A September/October release would be perfect, and Nintendo has inexplicably launched titles with less notic before (see: Excitebots).
Still, this game is clearly being dersigned for Japanese release first, so even if it makes it over there this year it will probably Q2 2010 before it's localized.