In June of last year, Nintendo-faithful RPG players banded together to protest Nintendo of America’s decision not to release Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower in North America. All three titles were announced for a European release, meaning full localization would be happening either way, and US fans were angry at missing out. The fan protest eventually named itself “Operation Rainfall”, and sought to change the company’s minds about the release.
Well, it looks like Operation Rainfall partially worked, as Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story are both coming to these shores.
Xenoblade Chronicles was previously announced by Nintendo of America, but the company has now given the game a firm release date. NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime announced during his Nintendo Direct presentation that Xenoblade will be released on April 6, 2012. The company also showed off the box art for the game chosen by fans, seen below:
Finally, The Last Story will be coming to the United States, via XSEED Games. The indie publisher plans to release the game this summer, with no specific date mentioned.
“I am very happy to be able to confirm that The Last Story will be released in North America," said Hironobu Sakaguchi, CEO of Last Story developer Mistwalker. "XSEED Games has a reputation for bringing high-quality JRPGs to America, and I'm sure they will do a great job with this release too."
As a Wii owner looking forward to both titles, I’m glad Nintendo of America and XSEED have worked to bring both games over so I can partake of them legally. If you feel the same way, stop by either company’s Facebook or Twitter pages and let them know they did a good thing. Pre-ordering the titles wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
