Only 8% in the US, 3% in Europe and 2% in Asia? I'm almost surprised that we got as many translated games as we did if they sell so much more in Japan.

well on most rpg's that come stateside and into europe, aren't the sales figures this lopsided towards japan also? cause i would think so. I think as much as FF is popular in the states and europe, i still think the sales figures for Japan compared to the rest of the world would be a pretty big difference...

Well, it is defnitely surprising to know only 8% of people in the states bought the game but then again the ratio of people who play Japaneses rpgs in japan compared to the states should be quite high don't you think?

Also i'm Canadian so i guess the sales figures don't count for all of north America does it?

Wow. I mean I knew the percentages would go Japanese = alot, the rest small, but only 13% of tales sales were outside of Japan I would have predicted an optimistic 25%. Just wow. I guess we're lucky for what we do get then. Very interesting.

The Tales series is probably one of my favorite. Sort of surprising to see such a little percent for the US (8%)...then again, I guess I should be thankful for even getting any of them, since Europe and Asia barely got/get any (total of 5%)...But still, just 13% to the outside world compared to what stays in Japan is surprisingly small, haha...oh well =).

It would probably go up if we had more of the tales titles maybe?

Hmm, I don't know man. I mean, its not like the tales games we are getting are selling out, and for better of worse, most of the games are variations on the gamepay. I can't see us getting more games if the games we are getting aren't selling out or doing awesomely. If there was demand, we would get more.

Well from my own experience its due to marketing, culture and formats.

Personally I would have never know of Tales of, if I hadn't happen to pick it up from a GAME store (World that is) and after playing it for like ages, wikipedia all the older games.

Now Nacmo-Bandai, Ubisoft aren't small companies, they do games like Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Ace Combat (which I loved to pieces until it switched format to XBOX 360) and of course Tekken, Pac-Man.

Its unfortunate that western market is seen as SOCOM, Halo 3, little teenagers speaking foul language, looking for boobies. It may even be our language, as japanese, asian languages have like multiple meanings for one word, hence why english dubbing can be horrible (a japanese only voiceover with subs would rock, I know one PS2 game had that option)

Also as we all know in Europe, PAL is a deadly curse = region locking, multiple language modes like french, german, etc, ugh ..

I don't mean to offend those countries, but english is like the world's main language, so surely you guys can just live with subtitles or what not? I don't always need dubbing.

Now of course not all the blame is western culture, it seems games companies are notorious at providing zero advertising except in games magazines or there own websites, which to be frank, most people don't visit.

FF only has a reputation here, like Zelda, as the companies were brave enough to release such titles over here, add some attempt at advertising e.g. kingdom hearts - disney crossover.

I think if those companies spent some more money on advertising, and not thinking Europe, imports a no go zone then a lot more people would be enjoying Tales of series.

No wonder they decided against localising Tales of Rebirth. How disappointing.

Asking them Europeans to play games in English is like asking you to play the games entirely in Japanese. Game companies tend to have more foresight than that, so they do all they can to appeal to those whose native language is not English. This include both written and spoken aspects of the game.

I suppose inclusion of VAs have its downsides after all. I miss my patience of playing voiceless titles of the past!

(Instead, they need to prioritise their work on fully AI-reliant interpreters and abolish region coding in gaming industry! ... Dream on, boys and girls.)

Perhaps but the cost of making a game into german, french, spanish, italian, etc is probably quite obscene due to the text heavy nature of RPG's as a whole and often you only get that language choice in obscure games like Monster Hunter Freedom.

Worse still it can encourage the developer to cut corners afaik in Tales of the World, all little dialogue between characters was actually voice acted or like in Symphonia with those skits.

Also we will likely never get a limited edition unless it has like minor features e.g. tin box, a dvd making off, possibly some freedbie, whilst in Japan its new game modes and so forth.

Also for the hardcore, who have the time, you can simply have translated english text or fan sub e.g. like most anime but not pratical to read off a script whilst turning eyes off screen.

At most I would perfer japanese VA with option of different subtitles and the abolishment of #### pal which gave us 50 HZ games for god knows how many years.

Finally *phew* I think in a lot of english voiceover games, the spoken bit is always in english, only with different subtitle choices.

In regards to language barrier, its like translating Tales of series into mexican or a native africian language.

At least english (websites, advertising, business) is in English as primary language currently.

I find the numbers you posted interesting, i would think it would be more the 8%. maybe like around 13%

the Tales series in my opinion is rivaled only by the .hack series, even though the only Tales game ive played so far is Symphonia.

Iwould never have guessed XD



You know, maybe thats your experience, but since I live in Europe, and have lived with European from Italy and the czech republic, I don't know if I can wholeheartedly agree with that. Japanese is not a common thing to know in America. However, English IS a far known language throughout Europe. Perhaps not to the scale that the comapnies feel confident realising the games only in English, but your comparison really doesn't hold up. At least say Spanish, where a good amount of Americans do know spanish, but not enough to release a game in america only in Spanish. I agree with your point, but I just felt like arguing the European part. XD

I’m one of those oddballs who decided to go with French in middle/high school =p. If they decided to go with Spanish, I’d be a goner. I mean, if they really didn’t want to translate it into English or something, I personally wouldn’t be opposed to Japanese voice actors along with Enlgish subtitles like with anime...I find I rather enjoy the Japanese voice actors sometimes more than the English (but sometimes I don’t listen to them anyway and just read the text. Not because they’re bad, but just...for precaution in case it’s “an inappropriate game” =p.) Which I suppose would actually, in essence, be the same thing as translating it into English in the first place, but maybe it’d be easier, haha.

I just want my Tales games, as I personally (emphasis on the *personally*) find the Tales series to be much better than Final Fantasy anyway (which is what most people here would know, instead of the Tales series...and I mean “casual” gamers)...=p. Or if not better, at least on par with it. I can’t really say either way, as I haven’t played too many FF’s I’ve liked (though I have XII and an eye out for VI---or was it IV?---and some others I heard were good).

Haha. I don't even know if I could compare FF to the Tales series XD Although I probably get more enjoyment from the tales games in gameplay, the FF games tend to really mean something to me storylinewise. Not that I'm dissing the tales method of storytelling, its just very oldschool. Thats probably how I would compare them. The tales series is very old school. Old school storytelling, old school look with real innovation in fighting. Whereas The FF series is very modern, and on the forefront of jrpg commerical success. They are both awesome in their own way.

And DB, what you heard was play FFVII not VI or IV

Just see how many of these are available in English outside of Japan, and it's clear why the sales number is as shown. Phantasia, Destiny (Remake), Eternia, Symphonia, Legendia and Abyss. And those among these titles that are more popular with the RPG crowd came out late. No wonder most of the sales come from within Japan where there's already a solid fanbase.

Whether the games get a NA release or not doesn't affect me too much because I make sure I only buy Japanese versions anyway.

Yeah, I see what you mean. I haven’t actually played many FFs (seen more than I’ve played, haha), but the Tales series always seemed to appeal more to me, for the story and gameplay, actually. Cliche or not, I love ‘em =p.




Right, right =p. I’ve played a little bit of it (about three hours), but it stopped working on my PS1, so I decided to get my own copy (had been borrowing) and...got a PAL version *cough*. So yeah =p.

A little more on topic though (or I suppose this would actually be off-topic >.o), when I said “which is what more people here would know” (in reference to FF vs. Tales), I meant in my city >.o I just reread my statement and realized it could have been taken to mean here as in rpgdreamers here...and yes, I was too lazy to edit it, so I just said it here >.o