I’ll admit, the topic of localization is sketchy, and no one on the journalism or publishing side has quite figured out what always does and doesn’t work. Case in point: the majority of fan translations I’ve been keeping an eye on over the past year or two are all for well-known Namco games. Namco Bandai on the other hand, have acquired a reputation lately for ignoring the pleas for some of their most interesting, most anticipated games overseas. You would never see Square pass on localizing a Final Fantasy game or SEGA pass on Sonic.

The key point to keep in mind here, though, is that while these publishers are introducing new intellectual properties on a steady basis, they wouldn’t dream of giving up on their established franchises. While Square Enix have been more conservative with what games they choose to localize - no Nanashi no Game for instance - even they took a chance with The World Ends With You. They even helped start a trend on the DS by localizing Gyakuten Saiban, following which a slew of DS adventure games were announced by various other publishers. Capcom have been doing their best to push Monster Hunter in Western territories, while the Ace Attorney series that originally debuted on GBA has received fairly popular Nintendo DS localizations.

Majesco struck gold with Cooking Mama, which brought the firm back from the brink of bankruptcy. Some have been successful while others haven’t. Most Japanese publishers are scrambling to find new franchises from their portfolios that they feel would be suited for the Western market.

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