It goes without saying that XSEED has come a long way, as it has been getting spotlights from major publications sites like Kotaku and — as of today — Game Informer.
In a gaming community where collectives of blockbuster titles and mega-corporate studios overshadow the attention towards individualistic games and companies, strong development efforts and a great big break are required to receive notice.
In the case of XSEED Games, a company of former Square Enix members, its reputations for bringing unique Japanese games and RPGs to the West, strong localization efforts, and its frequent communication with regular fans, have since doubled ever since the distribution for two Nintendo-published games, The Last Story and soon Pandora’s Tower.
In observance to XSEED’s devotion to continuous support for the system and its fans, Kimberly Wallace from the aforementioned GI article writes:
We’ve seen this firsthand with the company publishing two Wii titles that fans campaigned hard for in Operation Rainfall: The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower. With the Wii as good as dead for gamers in 2012, Xseed took a huge risk with The Last Story. The gambit paid off, with The Last Story becoming the company’s most successful title to date. The company is certainly hoping that the goodwill carries over to Pandora’s Tower, which will certainly be one of the last games for the platform.
While partnering with a giant company like Nintendo is bound to shake the gaming world, it’s the smaller quriks by XSEED that are the most signifying.
Wallace also goes to praise XSEED for the amount of effort its staff puts together to localize each of their games. They market, distribute, and translate all the acquired games by themselves, making the finished localized product personal, and more appreciative to the player. It is as if localization is no longer a mechanical process, but an art form that is honest and human. She states that the staff loves what they do best, and that their passion resonates from each game they release.
These same passions can be addressed upon the releases for the Ys: Seven series and Legend of Heroes: Trails of the Sky, as partnering with Falcom for Western distribution, and promising to grant players the best possible translations have warranted a lot of financial support.
Passions do come at a cost, as plenty of XSEED’s games, typically those for the Sony PSP, have not met enough expected sales despite receiving favorable reviews and fan support. Titles such as Half-Minute Hero and Legend of Heroes: Trails of the Sky have been victim to selling poorly for a dwindling handheld system.
What is fortunate, however; is that XSEED is a growing company, and it is embracing digital distribution and the mobile market to test open waters. And as the publisher is known to give Japanese games a second chance to shine, it may be the right thing plan of action to test more obscure games for the home market.
Nevertheless, these new directions still don’t transform or alter the way XSEED delivers games, as it will continue to strive offering players unique and individualistic titles for the home and digital market. With the recent acquisition for Suda 51’s stylish new game Killer Is Dead, it is unquestionable that this move will indeed shake up the video game world.
XSEED shows no signs of stopping what it does, and that alone makes it deserve the spotlight from as many publications possible.
And be sure to check XSEED’s 2013 line-up HERE
