Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is here, and, like the original game, it is inescapably,
wonderfully, British.
While the game, its story, and characters are all of course of Japanese origin, almost
all the voice actors who appear in the English language of the game are from the British
Isles.
The cast includes familiar voices from quintessential British media.
Metal Face is voiced by Timothy Watson, most famous for playing a dairy farmer in the longrunning
BBC Radio 4 soap opera, The Archers.
Richard Ridings, who voices Miqol, is best known as the voice of Peppa Pig’s daddy.
And, Melia Antiqua is of course Jenna Coleman, known to Doctor Who fans as Clara.
There’s some fantastic British pedigree behind many of the voices in the game.
But why?
Well, the short answer is, if you’re a native English speaker from outside the UK or Ireland,
this translation was never really meant for you.
Originally, Nintendo didn’t actually want to release the game in your region.
It was only thanks to Nintendo of Europe that the game ever saw an English release.
At the start of the Wii era, Japanese developer Monolith Soft wanted to create a masterpiece
roleplaying game.
The game would build upon the studio’s previous work on the Xenogears and Xenosaga games,
but would be its own distinct story set in an original world.
That game became known as Monado: The Beginning of the World, although Satoru Iwata later
convinced the team to change the name to Xenoblade.
At the time, it was considered very risky to release a Japanese roleplaying game globally.
Being so text-heavy, the games cost a lot of money to translate, and Westerners were
often unenthusiastic about the Japanese style of storytelling.
Reflecting on the original Xenoblade, Satoru Iwata suggested that this is because Japanese
and Western roleplaying game protagonists are very different.
Western RPG player characters are tough and stoic, while Japanese heroes tend to be smaller,
flawed, and, Satoru felt, more relatable.
He said: “In JRPGs, the protagonists aren’t very
strong.
They seem like people you could meet on the street who just happen to be born to a certain
destiny, and are drawn by some force into doing things that they could never have believed
possible.
“But if westerners really didn’t like that kind of story, Stars Wars wouldn’t
have become such a hit.
Because that movie is just this type of story.”
While Satoru felt that these stories can prove popular anywhere, at the time there was little
expectation that Xenoblade would sell well if it were released outside of Japan.
Nintendo of America in particular was sure that localizing the game would be a waste
of money.
Chris Pranger, who worked at Nintendo Treehouse in localization, said of the situation:
“You look at something like even Xenoblade Chronicles.
People love that game, you know, within a certain group.
That game is not the type of game that just pulls in enough to justify the costs on that….
“Okay, cause someone is going to have to eat the costs somewhere, because that game
is guaranteed to not sell enough to justify how big that game is.
You know, hundreds of hours, all voiced.
That’s a lot of money that goes into that.”
Nintendo of America simply wasn’t willing to write off the large cost of localizing
Xenoblade.
…But Nintendo of Europe was.
Because of the plethora of cultures within the region, Nintendo’s European branch is
well versed in providing translations for many different languages.
Ordinarily, Nintendo of Europe can make use of Nintendo of America’s translation assets
for English-speaking European countries.
The decision was made to fund the process of translating Xenoblade for a European market.
While this meant creating an English translation from scratch, Nintendo of Europe was already
paying for costly translations into Spanish, German, French, and Italian.
One extra language, plus the cost of dubbing the game, wasn’t too much more of a stretch.
As the newly renamed Xenoblade Chronicles would go out primarily to British and Irish
gamers, it made sense for the translation to feature local accents and voices.
Here in Britain, we can always tell the difference between a truly authentic Scottish, Welsh
or regional English accent, and one which has been softened to make it easier for a
global audience to understand.
Australasia got the game less than a month after it debuted in the EU, using the British
translation.
However, even with Nintendo of Europe forking out for the cost of translation, Nintendo
of America was still opposed to a Stateside release.
Nintendo of Europe tried to push for Xenoblade Chronicle’s inclusion at E3 2011, but this
was rejected, as the game wasn’t due for release in United States.
But what caused Nintendo of America to change their minds about releasing Xenoblade Chronicles?
Well, please indulge us in being a bit cheeky.
Much like Nintendo of America, we want to make sure you definitely want more Xenoblade
Chronicles content.
So, if this video gets 4,000 likes before Friday, we’ll tell the story of Project
Rainfall, the fan campaign that convinced Nintendo to finally release Xenoblade Chronicles
in America and Canada.
See you on Friday!
We hope!