3. Xenoblade’s Arrival
Let’s get one thing straight here: we will never take credit for any game that comes to the West. Frankly, if we did, it would belittle the hard work and accomplishments of the artists, musicians, programmers, voice actors, and the rest of the hundreds of employees on multiple continents that made a dream a reality.
That being said, April 6th, 2012 was an amazing day for many at Oprainfall. The dream of having a localized version of Xenoblade Chronicles – a dream that began back when Xenoblade first released in 2010, started a movement in August 2011, and started to take shape with the announcement in December – had finally become a reality. The work of hundreds became the pinnacle of a system for hundreds of thousands.
It was a day where Monolith Soft took the center stage as critics and gamers alike praised the design as proof that JRPGs could evolve into something massive. The critics would continue to praise it later in the year with multiple honors, including coming in second to Guild Wars 2 in TIME magazine’s Top 10 Video Games of 2012.
It was a day where Nintendo saw their fans put their money where their mouth was. It would even be considered a success by Nintendo of America, despite the game’s limited release. Who knows what eventually will come of it or even what would be influenced by this experience (Bayonetta 2, maybe?). All I know is this: if the fans talk, listen. We will back it up.
As for the fans, we were treated to the greatest JRPG to come out in years, possibly the greatest game of the year, and arguably the greatest game on the Wii. To that, we say thank you to the following: Monolith Soft, for creating this massive playground; Nintendo of Europe for the amazing dub; and Nintendo of America for localizing the game.
2. Reggie’s Fire Emblem Slip at E3
As I stated with Watch Dogs, E3 was fairly tame. Nintendo, for the most part, followed that trend, showing off plenty of interesting things but nothing that really stood out. Sure, they tried to throw us off with Non-Specific Action Figure and Iwata’s bananas but it felt like they were holding back, even with the expanded presentation.
So, after the 3DS presentation, we were left to wonder where all the fun stuff was amidst all the New Super Mario Bros. 2 demonstrations, the introduction of Scott Moffitt to the general public, a tweet from IGN about Fire Emblem coming to North America, Warren Specter talking about…
Wait, Fire Emblem is coming to North America?!
And that is how we found out that Fire Emblem: Awakening, the newest game in the Fire Emblem series, would be localized to the West. Reggie casually said something to a member of the press and it created a firestorm. “Why not show the game at E3?” we asked. Well, because they had nothing to show. There was literally nothing translated for the game at that point. They even said that in a follow-up Nintendo Direct later in the summer.
But regardless of how the game was announced, we were all excited to hear that the game was coming West (and worried about a certain editor’s health). And as you can imagine, pretty much everyone with a 3DS on staff is greatly anticipating this game next year (especially this guy).
So, based on the circumstances of what game it was, where it was, and who said it, this was not only one of our favorite moments of the year but our favorite slip-up of 2012. Again, we say thank you, Reggie.
