With E3 passing us by and news of beloved Japanese titles like Kirby, Tales and Zelda making planned returns to the United States, one must take a moment to consider the games that countries, like Japan, are keeping in Japan due to either localization issues or lack of perceived interest in the target countries. I will illuminate six of the most popular titles that have thus far gone unreleased in the United States.
6. Melty Blood
Melty Blood is a PC and Arcade fighter that was eventually ported to PS2 in Japan. It has world recognition in fighting game syndicates as a decently competitive title and has character designs by the famous Japanese visual novel and game company, Type-Moon. (Creator of Fate/Stay Night and Tsukahime Visual Novels) The game features many supernaturally themed characters from the Tsukahime visual novel as well as many original characters. It is fun title that has a pretty well established fan base in the states. A PSN or XBLA release would be very interesting, but I doubt we will see it.
5. LovePlus
When a famous video game company like Konami set out to create an all ages visual novel for the DS, no one could foresee the craze it would create in popular culture. We have news stories of people taking this game out on dates with them or applying perfume to their DS. To top this off Konami even hosted several real time events for holidays in which gamers could buy Valentines or Christmas cake for their chosen girl. LovePlus starts out as any normal dating sim title but after you win the girl at the end of the first part the game changes. Suddenly, it becomes a real time girlfriend simulator. Was it too creepy for the United States? Maybe but stranger things have been released by less reputable companies in the USA. Currently LovePlus has two iterations released in Japan with a 3D version coming to the 3ds soon.
4. Last Story
When Nintendo gets together with the developers who created the Nintendo era Final Fantasy games - Mistwalker Studios - and renowned composer Nobou Uematsu to create an RPG, you would expect such a powerhouse of developers would have no problem with release abroad. With the Wii weeping for fresh games in this transitional period between consoles, this would have made a great summer release. But alas, it has been decided that this game would be too much of a nightmare to localize in all the regions of Europe and United States, so all chance of it being released in the states has been put on hold.
