brunoafh wrote:There are a number of articles/blogs/whatever complaining that Namco Bandai doesn't support the Tales games in the west. I'm not going to point fingers or post links, but I recently read one that more or less said Namco Bandai "are idiots" for not bringing the games over. There are countless of rants about this subject, they pop up on N4G constantly. My question to these folks is this: why don't you just learn Japanese? The Tales games are almost all released on region free platforms (PS3, portables) in one way or another, so there's no restriction there. Importing games can be pretty expensive, but if you opt for the Hong Kong versions, you won't end up paying that much more than $60, the retail price you'd here. The games probably wouldn't sell very well here anyway, so I can fully understand Namco Bandai's decision to not make it a priority to localize them to an English speaking base.
If you really want to play the games that bad, then you should take it upon yourself to learn some Japanese, not whine about the publisher's decisions. It's not that difficult, and it's not like you have to be a master of Japanese to understand a game. I'm far from fluent in Japanese, but after a few months of studying, I've been able to play any game in Japanese that's put in front of me, and anyone else can do the same. There are a number of fantastic free resources online, and you'll be getting a new skill and new knowledge out of it. It'll also open up hundreds of other Japan-only games to you. As for time constraints and busy schedules, if you have enough time to pour dozens of hours into the newest Tales game, you have enough time to try and dabble with a new language.
I lived in Japan for 7 years. I studied the language longer than that. There are going to be times in a text-heavy game where even I would have some trouble (really obscure references to Japanese culture, which pops up a lot in JRPGs), let alone someone who just picked up the language. A Japanese class and textbook is not nearly enough, I will go as far to say, barely enough. I know, I have seen all textbooks and I have tutored Japanese for years from students from schools like Stanford and Berkeley. I know how it is being taught, and In America, I can say it is not taught very well. You will never fully grasp the language and culture until you live there. No amount of Japanese movies, anime, manga, websites, books, etc etc will do.
I highly doubt that you can get very far in a kanji-ridden game with just a "few months" of study. Just by reading this thread I can tell you have barely scratched the surface of the Japanese language. I met a lot of people like you in the past, and when I call them out on "a couple of months will suffice", they have the deer-in-the-headlights look when I speak to them in Japanese.
It is really hard for me to take this thread seriously from someone with just a "few months" of study.
お前、馬鹿じゃねぇか。