Kickstarter launched to localise Japan-only RPGs

Niche publisher MonkeyPaw Games has launched a Kickstarted crowdfunding drive to help bring more JRPGs over to the West.

It wants $500,000 "to help pave the way for a hybrid digital/deluxe physical release for the first of many Japanese RPGs."

Acquire's PSP dungeon crawler Class of Heroes 2 will kick things off, with MonkeyPaw hoping to fund additional improvements to the original Japanese release and offer a premium Deluxe Pack physical release in both the US and Europe. It'll be teaming up with special edition packaging experts Gaijinworks for the latter.

Beyond that, the publisher is calling on gamers to suggest other titles that it could bring over.

"Bringing games from East to West requires an active user base. Kickstarter offers the chance to localise titles that we know our fans will appreciate," commented MonkeyPaw boss John Greiner.

"Japanese RPGs are a unique breed of game that need representation in the West. Now we have a way to finance the expensive localisations that have prevented so many from appearing in our market. It's a great day for RPG fans."

At the time of writing, its Kickstarter page had racked up $11,749 from 127 backers, with 29 days left to reach the $500k target.

The Kickstarter bandwagon is getting busier by the day. Since Double Fine kicked things off last month, Wasteland creator Brian Fargo and Halo Reach designer Christian Allen have used the crowdsourcing site to help fund their own pet projects.