Why The Last Story is Japan exclusive

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 20 January, 2011

"It has to be viable."

Nintendo has explained its decision to only release promising Wii Japanese role-playing game The Last Story in Japan.

"With all the conversions, when we do it in Europe we've got to do the whole of Europe," Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton told Eurogamer. "So it's multiple languages. It has to be viable.

"We've got so much on our plate at the moment. The most important one is in the first quarter this year. Kirby's Epic Yarn is the most important title. We've got some great product coming out.

"On top of that, when we add in 3DS, it's just so much."

Nintendo disappointed many European and North American Wii owners when it revealed it's decision to keep The Last Story Japan exclusive.

The Mistwalker-developed title has attracted a great deal of attention from Western gamers through the release of eye-catching trailers and translated information from Japan.

While Nintendo repeated it's "no plans to release The Last Story in Europe and the US" stance to Eurogamer, it did offer a glimmer of hope.

"We've released quite a lot of RPGs on the Wii in the UK," Yarnton said. "It's an area that's been growing for us. It's up to the market. We never write anything off."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (77) Latest comment 12 months ago

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  • Oh-Bollox #1 1 year ago

    Oh fuck off. Just fuck off. No-one believes this shit any more.

  • Widge #2 1 year ago

    Is it going to the US?

  • TonyHarrison #3 1 year ago

    Ha. There's absolutely no chance of this guy being involved in the decision process. Get this from Iwata, and I'll listen...

  • rudderless #4 1 year ago

    One game and one console. It's just so much. Too much for our tiny European brains to handle.

  • Eraysor #5 1 year ago

    The Nintendo bullshit-machine continues to produce at an alarming rate; someone needs to show them what happened to Sony with Demon's Souls...

  • zephirus #6 1 year ago

    Nice to see Bandai-Namco's "We hate making money from our product" release strategy is gaining followers. The Wii market is obviously clogged with fantastic RPGs.
    Edited by zephirus at 20/01/11 @ 14:00

  • AndyboyH #7 1 year ago

    And the delay to Epic Yarn was whose fault? Us European customers who wanted it back in 2010? rather than say, a lax company specifying a long project time for localisation + NoE submission, meaning a much delayed release?

    I'm coming to realise very quickly that this David Yarnton chap doesn't like mixing with the truth. Maybe it's not his fault, it's what he's getting handed from his George Clooney-alike boss, or from the chaps in Japan, but either way, he's not making a good impression for spouting it.

  • Apaar #8 1 year ago

    I just don't buy it that Nintendo, the current market leader both in home console and handheld side, doesn't have the resources. As an example, EA customarily has the resources to have BioWare's incredibly text and VO heavy games translated to multiple languages and they still manage to reach Europe without even a delay.

  • spitfire1945 #9 1 year ago

    Nintendo has to step back and let another publisher, like Rising Star, get this game published abroad.

    It's more Final Fantasy than FF itself.

  • X3Entente #10 1 year ago

    how many people does it take to translate a fucking game from japanese to english ffs, shemnue 2 was even translated unoffically by fans. Its not difficult, just find someone who is fluent in both japanese and english. Well i dont know, maybe those ppl are hard to come by, take dynasty warriors for example

  • darkmorgado #11 1 year ago

    No no no. It doesn't "have" to be every fucking language at all. Just release it in English for fuck's sake. Most people bloody speak it anyway.

  • HL706 #12 1 year ago

    Oh well, that means I've still not bought a Wii game since 2009. Was really looking forward to this too.

  • Cappy #13 1 year ago

    "We've released quite a lot of RPGs on the Wii in the UK.."

    A lot? Fire Emblem, an SRPG, is the only one that comes to mind. Unless he's suddenly taking credit for third party products, even then, I'm not sure if there are more than three or four.

  • abelardie #14 1 year ago

    Ok, i'm going to be honest, as much as it pains me, as I've always been a Nintendo supporter.

    The JRPG remains a popular genre in the west. I'm sure there are sales and revenue figures to back that up. However, here is a JRPG, that has rated extremely well in the likes of Famitsu in Japan, and Nintendo don't feel the effort of translating it is worth it. Surely the only reason is that they don't think it will sell well enough. This has to mean that Nintendo has absolutely no confidence in the Wii core market in the West.

    Does this mean that, with the exception of established Nintendo franchises, that unless a game has the mass market appeal of casual/family/whatever games, it is going to become less and less likely that we will see Nintendo-published Wii games like this one in the West?

    Would love to be wrong.....worrying though...

  • AndyboyH #15 1 year ago

    Also like the fact that apparently Kirby's Epic Yarn is their biggest release of their quarter, not Pokemon Black/White, which will, in units sold, no doubt blow Kirby out the water.
    (both a Kirby and Pokemon fan, so don't neg me unnecessarily - but it's not unreasonable to expect Pokemon's latest release to outsell Kirby...)

    Either way, just illustrates another way Yarnton seems to be out of touch with his own products...

  • berelain #16 1 year ago

    Morons. Utter morons. There is absolutely NO reason not to release it unless theres no demand for it. Given its pedigree and the fact that we havent had a good JRPG out here for a while, I think there is demand for it.

    Well I want the damn thing any way. Bloody hell Nintendo.

    And don't get me started on Kirby. I mean really, was there even much to translate? No. I played the game last July and it could have been released back then. Quit dragging your arses.

  • RoOhDaMite #17 1 year ago

    "We've got so much on our plate at the moment. The most important one is in the first quarter this year. Kirby's Epic Yarn is the most important title. We've got some great product coming out.

    "On top of that, when we add in 3DS, it's just so much."

    Thanks for leaving it up to the consumer to decide ;)

    "We've released quite a lot of RPGs on the Wii in the UK," Yarnton said. "It's an area that's been growing for us. It's up to the market. We never write anything off."

    Quite contradictive to say "it's up to the market" when you don't even offer your product.

  • Grunk #18 1 year ago

    Why not just region lock it to the UK?

    you could have different versions for each county, at different price points to take into account how different cultures need different content.

    the cumbrian version would have their protagonist ordering curry sauce with their chips, whereas in Northumberland it would be gravy.

    Living, as I do in East Scotland, I would take it as a personal affront if the game suggestsed I have my chips with anything other than sauce, this is the kind of thing that sparks revolution.

  • Whitster #19 1 year ago

    Out of interest how did Lost Odessy do over here as thats probably a good comparision.

  • captain_Carl #20 1 year ago

    Nintendo, what the bleeding fuck are you doing??

  • StolenGlory #21 1 year ago

    David Fucking Yarnton again.

    Not exactly the most popular soul around here at the minute.

  • Cjail #22 1 year ago

    The Last Story is a Japan exclusive only because in Japan games like "My Dinner with Andre" sell millions of copies: they just want to be sure to sell!
    Just joking ;)
    Edited by Cjail at 20/01/11 @ 14:31

  • GamesConnoisseur #23 1 year ago

    In short, we can't be arsed as we are rolling in money and anticipating massive profits from rip off 3DS!

    Bastids deserves to be bitch slapped!

  • retr0gamer #24 1 year ago

    It's going to sell sweet FA in japan as well since the Wii market is dead. It will bomb in japan just like Xenoblade did. This game and Xenoblade would sell a whole lot more in the US and Europe but Nintendo just won't bring it here. They are a bunch of tools.

  • TONYgr #25 1 year ago

    HL706
    You should at least buy donkey country returns man,superb game!

  • CallousB #26 1 year ago

    "It's going to sell sweet FA in japan as well since the Wii market is dead"

    Not really true...hardware may be down but there are currently more Wii games in the top 20 in Japan than on any other format.

  • msimplay #27 1 year ago

    Fine even if you don't want to translate it into many different European languages that still doesn't explain why it isn't being translated for the US who's main language is English.
    At least we could get a sniff of an import but no they want to do the whole Japanese exclusive thing.

  • retr0gamer #28 1 year ago

    Yeah what games though? All of them are casual games with the exception of the 2 mario titles. Looking at the top 20 of the year there's only 5 games there for the Wii with the NDS dominating. Releasing a third party or core game in japan is commercial suicide. Xenoblade failed spectacularly and Last Story will as well. Neg me if you want, the sales figures tell the truth.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #29 1 year ago

    This week has be pure gold for Nintendo's bullshit machine.

  • geeza2020 #30 1 year ago

    Oh bugger, thats my anticipated Wii games list cut by 50% then....

  • Der_tolle_Emil #31 1 year ago

    Give me English subtitles and that's all I need. I couldn't care less if it was in my first language, English is fine. I understand that translations are not cheap, especially when there is voice work involved. Hell, stick a bloody "ENGLISH ONLY" sticker on the box and be done with it.

    Nintendo's current approach of making a game viable for Europe is really half-arsed. Dear Nintendo: If you really, really want to have your game available in 5 languages then stick to it and cough up the money for the translation. If your definition of "supporting Europe" is "saving money" then you have it all wrong.
    Edited by Der_tolle_Emil at 20/01/11 @ 16:16

  • Evolution #32 1 year ago

    Yarnton is no Reggie.

  • StolenGlory #33 1 year ago

    "It has to be viable."

    Because god knows me buying any Ninty product in the next six months certainly isn't.

  • MJHaylett #34 1 year ago

    Nintendo haven't heard of Subtitles for different languages then?

  • Jamiesan #35 1 year ago

    Nintendo, if you want me to shell out £220 for a region locked handheld in March, then you've really got to pull your fingers out and start treating Europe as equals, like most publishers do nowadays. This isn't the 90s any more.

  • TheTingler #36 1 year ago

    How DARE HE bring up Kirby's Epic Yarn. I'm still angry at Nintendo about that. NO GOOD REASON AT ALL that Kirby was delayed.

    And this is just equally nonsense. Still, I must admit I'd rather have Fatal Frame/Project Zero 4 and/or Mother 3.

  • Cloud-Strife #37 1 year ago

    MOTHER FOCKKKKKEEEERRRRSSSS

  • actionfitz #38 1 year ago

    ""We've got so much on our plate at the moment."

    yeeeeeeessss... what with Nintendo being such a small outfit, it clearly can't afford to carryout localisation for the different territories... I mean adequate QA and language conversion would clearly cost far too much for such an impoverished company as little old Ninty... after all... it's not like they have just had one of the most profitable hardware runs in console history and are about to do it all again with the portable 3DS handheld - which incidentally is priced at a huge mark up from its predecessors and it's Home Console cousin...

    /end sarcasm.

  • Kafeen #39 1 year ago

    There goes the only Wii title that's interested me in a while

    Never mind, at least we'll get Kirby's Epic Yarn!!!

  • Krelle #40 1 year ago

    Wasnt gonna buy this but now I think ill play it just because I can. Suck it doods (:

  • Whitster #41 1 year ago

    I'd quite like to see to opinion of someone at Mistwalker as to how they feel regarding this not being worldwide.

    Maybe if Nintendo don't want it out on their format outside Japan they could allow them to port it to 360/PS3 for the rest of the world? MS showed alot of love for their stuff before.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #42 1 year ago

    I don't actually mind David Yarnton. Seems an amiable bloke overall.

    But Nintendo Europe at the moment is an utter clusterfuck...

  • ukuleleimport #43 1 year ago

    Anyone here from a non-UK European country? Yes, you in the back, and, oh, there's another one... Do you speak English? Yes? Surely not? You can actually understand me? Amazing!

    Nintendo, you bastards!

  • deano2099 #44 1 year ago

    "With all the conversions, when we do it in Europe we've got to do the whole of Europe"

    Yes, but you only need one language for the US, and then you can sell those discs in the UK. Oh no, you can't, because you region locked the console...

  • Der_tolle_Emil #45 1 year ago

    Add it to the pile with Xenogears and Excitebots.

    Do you mean Xenoblade? I actually was looking for an update on this regarding the European release but I could not find anything besides news from about a year ago saying that it will be released under a different name here. Since then nothing :(

  • spekkeh #46 1 year ago

    With all the conversions, when we do it in Europe we've got to do the whole of Europe

    I never got this. Why exactly? I can imagine there's some moronic laws in countries such as Germany, France and Italy that demand translations, so just don't release it there. That still leaves the UK, The Benelux, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, Poland, the baltic states, Australia, etc. etc. for whom you only have to convert it to PAL. And you'll probably notice that half of the gamers in the chauvinistic countries would happily import them from the UK anyway, because guess what, they speaky english.

  • inutaihanyou #47 1 year ago

    It seems my worst fears are coming true, first bandai with the tales of series, and now nintendo :/

    It seems these days japanese companies have fallen into the "the US/UK only like macho gung ho FPS" trap, and now they seem to not want to release any really good titles in the west because its not 'tailored' to the market :/ Shit's crappy man.
    Edited by inutaihanyou at 20/01/11 @ 16:37

  • cjs #48 1 year ago

    Doing just menus and subtitles (leaving the VO in Japanese) for six or seven European languages would be considerably cheaper than doing the VO for just English. I suspect that the real question on their minds there, though, would be how acceptable subtitles are to gamers outside of a certain small hardcore market. I certainly wouldn't be surprised to find that the vast majority of gamers wouldn't touch a subtitled Japanese game.

    That said, it would be a fairly cheap experiment to do by just adding the an English menu/subtitle option to the Japanese version and seeing how many are imported into...oops, region lock. Sigh.

    This is really the worst thing about consoles; the hardware vendor having complete control over what software can be released combined with their innate conservatism tends to entirely block avenues that are artistically interesting and probably at least a little profitable for game developers.

  • blue_sora #49 1 year ago

    Okayyyyyyy so why can't Nintendo just translate to English only? Last time I check English is the universal language. Or it's already changed? Or if they are so poor to hire voice actors then just put subtitles. Seriously, what's the point of hyping the western gamers with trailers and all that just to tell us "Oh sorry, it's only released in Japan and stay there in Japan."

  • Der_tolle_Emil #50 1 year ago

    Doing just menus and subtitles (leaving the VO in Japanese) for six or seven European languages would be considerably cheaper than doing the VO for just English.

    The thing is: I'd probably prefer the Japanese VO over the English ones anyway. Keep the Japanese ones and translate the menu/subtitles. It worked for Eternal Sonata and also Oboromuramasa. In the games I own that still have the Japanese voice overs I think of them more of a bonus instead of "cheap" localisation.

    I mean, back in the day where storage space was limited more than enough games came with just one main language. Not too long ago Star Fox 64 was released with just English voice overs (but localised subtitles) and it sold just fine. Why should that have changed?

  • obidanshinobi #51 1 year ago

    "no plans to release The Last Story in Europe and the US"
    So they are ignoring the 2 biggest markets for gaming. Err....WTF ?
    Nintendo have been making some shocking business decisions of late.

  • Raiten #52 1 year ago

    So they got so much coming out eh? well should say something that i've nothing in pre-order for wii, since there's nothing worth a damn to pre-order to begin with, the only games i've bought for wii as of late have been some over year old releases.
    Oh well, at least ps3 and pc have a lot of games to look forward to, unlike nintys oooh toooooo many releases catalogue.

  • shadownobody #53 1 year ago

    i'm from portugal and i buy my games in the uk.
    i dont have a problem because the game is in english

  • Makeem95 #54 1 year ago

    Another year my Wii is going to spend gathering dust.

  • Daryoon #55 1 year ago

    Christ. At least release it in the US. Please? Lack of Xenoblade is frustrating enough as it is.

    Thing is, though, I can kinda understand where they're coming from, at least in regards to the UK. A hardcore JRPG isn't going to sell well on the Wii. How many JRPGs sell well over here, period? British culture seems to be more bandwagon-led than any I've seen elsewhere.

  • InvisibleCrane #56 1 year ago

    "They hate money."

    No, no, no, no, no a thousand times no. Nintendo do not hate making money, they've made more money than ever with the success of the Wii and DS and while I will say not releasing this game outside of Japan is a stupid move...what can we do about it. Face it no matter how much we whine, cry, bitch, moan and beg nothing is going to change. The Last Story will never come outside of Japsn so please just learn to accept that...but then again this is the EG community we are talking about here, you all have never been one to accept any questionable decisions from game companies at all

  • Incarta #57 1 year ago

    "Another year my Wii is going to spend gathering dust. "

    See, this is why Ninty can't be arsed.

  • HermitArcader #58 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • iWolf #59 1 year ago

    There are plenty of specialist translation companies such as Keywords International that they could out-source to, bloody cheapskates!

  • Hulle #60 1 year ago

    Shame :( One of the only Jap RPG's I'm actually interested in.

  • Lusterpurge #61 1 year ago

    We don't need English/French/German voice work. Just subtitle it and keep the voices in Japanese. I'm sure 90% of the gamers who would have bought it would have kept the Japanese voices anyway (if of course, it was even an option). This isn't the 1950s anymore. People are not scared by subtitles and foreign languages.

  • madjim #62 1 year ago

    Its a good decision because they let us predict how they are gonna treat the European 3DS owners in the future. And if they are going to treat us like shit in the future, we should return the favor by not buying their hardware.

  • talmit #63 1 year ago

    Oh Nintendo at least release a god damn English version like in the good old days. Every RPG gamer in the EU is capable of reading English. Seriously for this and that 3DS region locking BS - FUCK YOU NINTENDO! I am so looking forward to see you getting crushed by Apple on the mobile market!

  • sfp_noodle #64 1 year ago

    Nintendo has gone from hero to zero in the space of a month it seems. They need to wake up from their 80s mentality and realise they're going to lose a lot of customers. Its getting ridiculous now.

  • Kaminari #65 1 year ago

    Engrish is too complicated for most Japanese devs. Then just imagine them having to speak in Fernch.

  • Pwnsweet #66 1 year ago

    OK, hold on a second here. So when they said earlier that this game was exclusive to Japan, they were actually serious!? Somebody at Nintendo needs to be fired. The Last Story is about the only game I care about on the Wii right now. I want this game more than I want the new Zelda.

  • jackdoe #67 1 year ago

    Haha. Some more bullshit from Nintendo. If they had any decency, they'd license their publishing rights to the game in the west and let any number of willing publishers localize it. Of course they won't do that (just like Namco Bandai won't with Tales).

  • aine #68 1 year ago

    I think you should be blaming Nintendo of America more than Yarnton/Nintendo Europe here (even if he is talking bollocks). It seems like the American centric nature of the internet has skewed basically all pre release marketing and hype to the point where if a game is being released in Europe but not the States, no one will know about it, major websites won't bother to cover it with any kind of prominence and it will sell fuck all, even if its excellent. Nintendo based examples: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Another Code R, Last Window, Jam with the Band, Doshin the Giant etc etc. So I don't blame NOE one bit for not considering an EU only localisation if NOA aren't bothering with it.

  • madjim #69 1 year ago

    Fool me once (Fatal Frame), shame on you. Fool me twice (Last Story), shame on me.

  • varsas #70 1 year ago

    Would someone from EG please ask him what RPGs on Wii? Aside from Fire Emblem I can't think of another that Nintendo have released in the UK!

  • djed #71 1 year ago

    Luckily, the Wii isn't region locked, so you can just imOH WAIT WHAT AM I SAYING?!

  • Galvanizer #72 1 year ago

    Bring the game over, already!

  • Alestes #73 1 year ago

    Nintendo should give us Xenoblade and The Last Story now. It would make me buy a Wii right away, as it is now, I have no reason to. JRPGs are why I buy consoles, the rest of the games I play on the PC.

    Nintendo and Namco Bandai are really the worst when it comes to publish JRPGs. At least Square-Enix learned their stuff after ignoring the european market during the SNES/PS1 days.
    Edited by Alestes at 22/01/11 @ 08:42

  • bmmb #74 1 year ago

    This news is false, The Last Story is not a Japan exclusive. Here's the real deal from Nintendo France - "Thank you for your interest in The Last Story. Unfortunately, the vocabulary used by this announcement was misconstrued by the British journalists: "No plans at the moment" does not mean that the output is canceled, just that it is not yet scheduled in the calendar. The adaptation of this game could be very long (12 000 dialogues, a record!) and our translation teams are overstretched in the short term." Source - http://www.livewii.fr/news/153869-The_La...

  • Glottis #75 1 year ago

    Both Xenoblade and The Last Story will get localized, don't worry. It might take 6 months or a year, or maybe even more, but they will get localized sooner or later.

  • seadude4869 #76 12 months ago

    the fking Nintendo like to do japan exclusive... They did alot of similar sh*t back in game cube... stupid me didn't think harder before buying into wii... there are quite a few good RPG games that are japan exclusive. Since there aren't many games in wii already, and they pull shit like this!! I will no longer buy any Nintendo... wii-u can kiss my a*s.

    btw, I just software crack my fking wii, and try out the "the last story". It is certainly a good game and the online element is really fun except I don't understand what's going on and how the controller work!! Anyway, my hard earn money will never go to fking company like Nintendo from now on.

  • seadude4869 #77 12 months ago

    let's make a statement and don't buy Nintendo anymore... too many bullshits!!