Since the Playstation 2 release of Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, Nippon Ichi Software America have served as the publisher of the Atelier line of games… but it seems that their role as active publisher has ended with Atelier Meruru with Tecmo Koei taking over the reins as international publisher – following the company acquiring the Japanese developer GUST late last year (However it seems that NIS America was still involved in the localization process). Rather than introduce you to the entire background, I encourage you to check out my first post “The Mystery Behind the English Localized Releases of Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk – May Tecmo Koei be the Sole Publisher?“.
BUT the question is…. with this change of hands will there be any change to the Australian releases? Let’s take a look…
Australia’s releases of the Atelier series have also jumped around a bit – with THQ Asia Pacific releasing the original Playstation 2 games (Iris: Eternal Mana, Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny and Iris 3: Grand Phantasm) and Namco Bandai Partners distributing the three games in the Alchemists of Arland series. HOWEVER, it seems like it MAY be changing hands again….
In the above image is the classification for Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk, which might not be as interesting as the recently unveiled ESRB description but gives us a hint of who may be behind the distribution. Unlike Namco Bandai Partners who generally include their company title under application – they have gone with Tecmo Koei Europe Limited. While this may be just Tecmo Koei’s personal preference and have no impact on the regions distributor – Mindscape Australia in recent months have been publishing the companies titles including Dead or Alive 5,Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper and North Star: Ken’s Rage 2.
With previous releases, Namco Bandai Partners were able to offer a near-simultaneous release of NIS America titles in Australia – so let’s hope this trend continues irrespective of who distributes it. Of course…. just who will be distributing it has yet to be confirmed.
Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk has been classified as M for Mature Themes. Also of note is Violence (Mild), Language (Very Mild), Drug Use (None), Nudity (Very Mild) and Sex (Moderate).
