While you may not have been expecting a second installment in this article series, there are still many Japanese games that have some possibility of being announced for English localization and release this year. The “Japanese Games You MAY See Released Internationally” series of articles spawned from the fact that there have been several occasions where games have been hinted at having an English localized release but from there we haven’t heard much on – in comparison to other games where as soon as there is word from a potential release, interest starts picking up quickly and whatever publisher or developer is behind the title quickly announces the title and begins the promotion for however many months until release
The purpose of this article series is to promote titles that have come under one of two categories. These are:
- Titles that have been HINTED although not confirmed as having an English release
- They have been confirmed as having an English localization but have not yet recieved much attention from their English language publishers
This is in order to give you a taste of some of the games that we may see / can expect localized this year for Japan but may have been shadowed by more actively promoted titles.
EARLIER INSTALLMENTS
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First announced in Janauary 2012 – Tokitowa (Also referred to as Time and Eternity / Toki to Towa) was an ambitious RPG project between three studios – Namco Bandai, Imageepoch and Studio Satelight. While as with most RPG’s the game set out to deliver a fun and engaging experience – the three companies united to deliver a unique twist in the visual department… minimizing the aesthetic differences between the standard anime cutscene and gameplay in order to feel like you are controlling an anime. While the background designs remained in 3D – all character models and animations of the characters were delivered by hand-drawn 2D designs.
Unlike The Idolm@ster series which I covered first, I have little hands on experience with the game so I cannot comment how well it plays. While I will admit I am left wondering how the battle system in particular plays out, from the looks of things they pulled off the merger of the visual styles quite well and looks good as well. Of course… the only way we can know for sure is if I can play it for ourselves… and fortunately there have been a few hints from last year which indicate a release is in the works or at the very least planned.
HINT #1
In September 2012 – CEO of Imageepoch Ryoei Mikagewas questioned through his Twitter page about a possible English release of the game. Rather than deny to comment or leave a response similar to “Please wait for a potential announcement”, his reply simply stated “yes!”. This was before the games October 2012 release date. For more on this see “Tokitowa May See An International Release Next Year”
HINT #2
Thats right, there is a second indicator as well very similar to the one for The Idolm@ster: Shiny Festa. Moving forward to earlier this year it was unveiled that Namco Bandai Games Europe had applied for the trademark “Time and Eternity”, essentially the English translation of the Japanese title. For more on this, see: Namco Bandai File for Trademark “Time and Eternity” – Possibility of Upcoming Announcement for Tokitowa?”
Considering Namco Bandai have quite a few projects already in progress such as Tales of Xillia which they have yet to begin heavily promoting yet, If announced I could potentially see it being released in the latter half of 2013 if not 2014…. assuming they even have an intent to release it yet.
Either way I hope an announcement will be made sooner rather than later! For more information on the game – check out my wealth of articles and shared screenshots/trailers for the game in the TIME AND ETERNITY archives.
