Exactly one year ago to the day, I wrote one of my most successful articles which looked at the landscape of localizations on PlayStation Vita and included a wishlist of ten games that I would have loved to see on western shores. It was a bit of a depressing read, lamenting what could and should have been; yet I tried to keep it optimistic by pointing out how generally brilliant the localization scene on Vita has been and how many surprising games we’ve actually managed to get from the land of the rising sun.

In revisiting this subject, I hope to reach broadly the same goals – while I’m choosing ten more games that I’d liked to have seen on western shores, I’ll examine some of the success stories that have happened in the past year – games that despite my reservations twelve months ago actually managed to find a localization company to take them on. Success Stories By far the biggest success story since last year – at least in my eyes – is the localization of the Utawarerumono duology. Atlus stepped up to the plate to continue their relationship with Aquaplus to bring the SRPG/VN hybrid to the west, committing to both titles despite their prequel never seeing an overseas release. In fact it’s been a stellar year for Atlus as they also grabbed Caligula, the Persona-esque RPG from FuRyu. Yet following closely behind is Aksys, who managed to grab another game that made my list last year – Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly. Not only this, they’ve taken on a number of otome projects including Psychedelica‘s sequel and 7’Scarlet, cementing them as the premier publisher of otome in the west. It’s a brilliantly refreshing direction for a small company like them and shows a really dedication to the genre that’s flourished on Vita in Japan but is something sorely lacking overseas. Also further jumping on the visual novel train is PQube, who picked up Chaos;Child from the Science Adventure series. While not quite the game I was hoping for in making my post last year, it’s fantastic to see a company picking up more VN’s for western release and in particular another entry in this incredibly addictive sci-fi thriller franchise. It’s also worth noting that a year ago I commended Bandai-Namco on releasing a number of their obscure anime franchises in English yet calling them out for missing certain other games. The situation seems to have taken a turn for the better with the company now committing to smaller titles like Little Witch Academia and Seven Deadly Sins – the sad thing is these games are now all PS4-only (except Gintama, which is coming out in English but not on Vita – for now at least). Yet there still remains a number of Japan-only games that I feel would have really helped flesh out Vita’s library overseas, and without further ado, here are the ten (more) Vita localizations that should have happened:

Coven and the Labyrinth of Refrain

Nippon Ichi Software America have had some decent successes with dungeon RPG’s in recent years – forming a long-running partnership with Experience Inc. to bring their games to the west starting with Demon Gaze. Yet they’ve never had access to a game in the genre made by their parent company until Coven – which makes it all the more bizarre that it hasn’t appeared overseas yet.

Featuring art from Takehito Harada, one of the studio’s most celebrated artists, the game pits you as a book (a rather unconventional hero) who summons dolls to fight for him in combat as he explores a cursed underground labyrinth with a witch in tow. It has all the hallmarks of NIS’ irrelevant, unique humor yet is wrapped up in an enjoyable dungeon crawler package.



The game was a surprising sales success in Japan, clearing 50k copies sold with ease despite opening to a modest 17k, mostly due to positive word of mouth from fans who liked the game’s mechanics; unique storytelling and challenging difficulty. With the company facing a spree of titles bombing left and right in Japan – ranging from Disgaea 5 Complete to Witch and the Hundred Knight 2, it was a bright light in an otherwise dismal few years for Nippon Ichi (at least domestically, thankfully they’ve seen more successes overseas). The reasons for this one not coming west aren’t obviously apparent – the game sold well in Japan; is in a genre that the company have had success with in the west and has art from one of their most celebrated designers. Dig a little deeper and you’ll understand why – earlier this year the company announced the game would be getting a PS4 port (releasing in September) and it’s likely they didn’t want to hurt the sales of that version in the west by having it appear like a late-port. However, that now begs the question of whether the Vita version will release overseas at all – or whether it will be PS4-only. Given the handheld’s dwindling presence in Europe and North America, it would be difficult to blame them if this did happen, but it would be a mighty disappointing outcome all the same (and a surprising choice given the company still have Vita games planned for 2018). Eve Burst Error R If there’s one thing Vita has managed to make itself a home for – more than any other genre in fact – its visual novels. Ranging from the all-time classics (such as Fate/Stay Night) to modern flavours (such as DanganRonpa), the console has thrived thanks to its vibrant screen and portable nature making it a perfect match with VN’s. So when it was announced that the 1995 genre trailblazer Eve Burst Error was getting remade for the platform, it was just another feather in the already stuffed cap for Vita. Following two heroes as they become embroiled in solving a number of murders, the title was unique for its time as it allowed players to switch between both characters at any moment – which was often necessary to provide clues about the other one’s case. Alongside some brilliant character development and a thrilling murder-mystery plot, the game was cemented as an all-time classic fairly rapidly. The Vita version added a number of quality-of-life changes alongside some lovely new artwork, Eve Burst Error R was one of a number of titles from defunct developer C’s Ware that got ported to Vita alongside things like the brilliant-looking Desire Remastered. With the Visual Novel advent seemingly hitting western shores thanks to companies like PQube and Sekai Project, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally get these long-lost classics into the hands of European and North American gamers. But no company has yet jumped on this chance. The games remain Japan-only, which isn’t a massive surprise yet is still a large disappointment. Obviously, visual novels are often a big undertaking on the localization front due to the amount of text involved which may be one of the reasons why – licencing may be another, due to the web of ownership since Eve was licenced out in Japan. I can’t imagine Vita’s weak western hardware sales helped either but whatever the reason, it’s a real shame we didn’t see these overseas.

Fuuraiki 3 Sometimes you just know a game is never going to see a western release when it’s revealed, but that doesn’t stop you longing for it whenever media is shown for it. That was very much the case for me with Fuuraiki 3, Nippon Ichi’s photography-driven visual novel which released in early 2015. I went as far as vehemently requesting it on NISA’s forums, but deep down I knew it would never happen. Set in the rural island of Hokkaido in Japan, the game tasks you with exploring it to take the perfect photograph for a competition, which entails planning your route around the beautiful scenery on your motorbike. Moment-to-moment gameplay has you picking from various destinations; taking in the sights and interacting with the various characters and heroines and at the end of the day – writing a journal entry about your adventures. It’s very unique stuff and far removed from anything on Vita; yet has such a fantastic premise and artwork that I found it instantly appealing. While it may sound a little dull in practice, the game’s hook is that it uses real-life photographs of Japan to chronicle your journey and you’re constantly choosing routes among these. Thanks to the gorgeous scenery; soothing soundtrack and laid-back pace, it makes for the perfect relaxing escapist adventure and is something I truly believe would resonate with a small western audience (it does still make a great import thanks to the mostly image-drive gameplay). Unfortunately, that’s probably Fuuraiki‘s biggest problem – appeal – and likely why we never saw it overseas. While I’m sure the people who try it would absolutely love it, it’s a niche game that likely just wouldn’t reach that big a crowd in the west (in fact it only had minimal sales in its native Japan), making it a very hard sell for a localization team. It’s a very disappointing outcome, but not one I feel too angry towards NISA for as it was probably a sensible business decision. Hero Must Die Vita has been home to a number of ports and remakes of mobile games over the years – ranging from Chaos Rings to Oceanhorn, but none have been quite like Hero Must Die. Originally a 2D RPG with music from SaGa veteran Kenji Ito, the dedicated handheld version re-imagined the title in 3D and was brought across by Nippon Ichi Software – yet the most interesting thing about it was the premise of the game itself. See, Hero Must Die pits you as a nameless hero who has slain the final boss – only to be killed himself immediately afterwards. He’s given an extra five days of life thanks to a benevolent angel to tie up any loose ends in the world – including with the party members who accompanied him on the journey. Depending on your actions during these five days, different people will attend the hero’s funeral – encouraging multiple playthroughs and a number of endings. When this is combined with a fun turn-based combat system in the style of the Atelier games (including a mechanic where the hero gets weaker as the game goes on due to his impending death) as well as some side-scrolling dungeon crawling in the vein of Exist Archive, then you have a game that I personally was very interested in. Yet it’s now been more than a year since the game released in Japan and we have no word on whether it will come west. As for why – there’s no easy reason to explain this one, other than perhaps that Nippon Ichi Software America have their hands too full with other projects to pick up this one as well. If you check my article about them, you’ll notice that 2017 is probably their busiest year ever – and that’s just on Vita alone, not even counting other consoles. As such, some games are bound to slip through the cracks, I’m just incredibly disappointed it had to be this one. Koei-Tecmo’s otome In my previous article on this subject I spoke about how I’d like more otome games to be localized for Vita, and Aksys very much answered this call – recently announcing a spree of games for 2018 and beyond. Yet they all shared one thing in common – all were published in Japan under Idea Factory’s ‘Otomate’ label, who tend to follow a very set formula with their otome releases. Yet there’s another very prominent developer of the genre in Japan – Ruby Party – who sadly have seen none of their games released in the west despite their supposed high quality. They’re the company who effectively birthed the genre with the original Angelique – about the queen of the cosmos – that received a brilliant remake on Vita in Angelique Retour. Since then, they’ve created numerous other successful franchises under their Neoromance label that all took the leap from PSP to Vita in 2014, which was one of the major announcements of Sony’s TGS conference that year. Examples include Harukana Toki no Naka de, involving a group of friends who time travel to Kyoto in the past to fight oni; and La Corda d’Oro, which follows a high school girl with a magical violin who slowly bonds with the classmates around her. Their games are unique among otome titles as they aren’t solely visual novels – Harukana features turn-based RPG combat while La Corda d’Oro features stat-raising and life sim elements. Both have done well enough to receiving ports of fan-favourite releases on Vita; alongside brand new titles designed specifically for the hardware. Why these franchises remain Japan-only is a fairly simple explanation and one that it’s difficult to hold against publisher Koei-Tecmo. Visual novels as a genre still remain relatively niche in the west – despite breakout successes like DanganRonpa and Steins;Gate – and otome is an even more niche sub-genre within this. As such, it’s likely just too risky a venture for Ruby Party’s parent company Koei-Tecmo – and other publishers probably don’t have easy access to the games because of the ownership issue. Thankfully there appears to be a small armada of otome fans within Aksys who appear intent on keeping the games flowing to the west, so maybe one day they’ll get the opportunity to take a stab at a Neoromance game. Lord of Apocalypse When Square-Enix’s Lord of Arcana released in 2010, it marked their first real foray into the hunting-action genre that had been popularised on PSP by games like Monster Hunter and Phantasy Star Portable. It was a competent start that received middling reviews yet was a decent sales success in Japan, promoting the company to announce a reworked version of the game for a 2011 release across PSP & Vita – while the original game came west on PSP in 2011. Following a group of ‘slayers’ as they attempt to reach the legendary Arcana stone, the game has you exploring areas in traditional JRPG style through a number of connected corridors before transitioning to a combat arena for battles – not unlike the Tales games – but with combat that was decidedly more action-orientated in line with Monster Hunter; requiring timing and tactical thinking to take down foes. Development was handled by Access Games – the studio that houses cult game director Hidetaka Suehiro (aka Swery), who acted as designer and co-writer of the title. Given his involvement, this could have been advertised to help promote the game – particular in light of the niche success of his previous titles included Deadly Premonition and Spy Fiction. Additionally, the game was released during the console’s launch period which generally involves software-hungry consumers trying out games they wouldn’t otherwise have done, leading to higher sales. Yet an overseas release never happened. This is one of the more bizarre missed opportunities on this list and I can only speculate that it had something to do with Lord of Arcana‘s western sales – which were likely particularly low considering the time in PSP’s lifespan that it released when piracy was rampant and hardware sales were winding down. Still, this seems a poor metric to judge a sequel’s sales potential buy on brand new hardware, especially when Square-Enix were taking a gamble on things like Army Corps of Hell at the same time – meaning the inclusion of this game in my list remains a sad case of questionable decision-making. Luminous Arc Infinity A franchise with an interesting history, Luminous Arc Infinity came as somewhat of a shock when it was announced – a Vita-exclusive successor to a series which had previously been Nintendo DS-only and had been dead for at least five years, the revival promised to take the great tactical turn-based action the franchise was known for and presented it in a brand new graphical style. It was certainly enough to pique the interest in fans when it was announced at Sony’s Tokyo Game Show 2014 keynote. Despite development duties being shifted from 7th Dragon studio Imageepoch to Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth developers Felistella (while Imageepoch worked on a spiritual successor in Stella Glow), the latter’s experience with the Summon Night franchise ensured the game was in good hands. And indeed the launch came and went without a hitch in 2015 – although some long-time fans were disappointed with the more fanservice-laden aspects, the game sold decently in Japan for the genre and received a solid critical reception. So it was easy for western fans to anticipate a release, especially since there’s also been somewhat of a resurgence in Japanese tactical-RPG’s in recent years – with a number of titles finding their way west ranging from God Wars to Summon Night 6, each providing a perfect fit for the Vita hardware due to their playable-in-short-bursts gameplay style. Combined with a built-in audience in the west through games like Criminal Girls and Hyperdevotion Noire, it seemed like an easy pick up for a localization team. So why isn’t it available in the west yet? Well, the game was published in Japan by Marvelous, parent company of XSEED Games, who seem to have given the title a hard pass. In the past, company employee Tom Lipschulz has suggested that the studio will only pick up a game when they have a cheerleader for the franchise in the team – and presumably noone in XSEED had played the previous Luminous Arc games so that wasn’t present here. However, the move also coincides with a number of other Vita-exclusive Marvelous titles being skipped by the company – including Net High; Uppers and Valkyrie Drive, suggesting it was more of a policy choice. Whatever the reason, it’s a damn shame this one didn’t come west. Net High Vita has proven itself to be a great home for hybrid visual novels – those with light gameplay elements mixed in with the storytelling such as DanganRonpa and Root Letter. So when Marvelous announced they were bringing Net High to the handheld – a visual novel that had you exposing the lies people tell over the internet using investigative and class trial-esque elements, it seemed like the kind of title the perfect game for the audience already there. Sadly, Japanese sales were extremely weak – with less than 3k copies sold in the first week despite the compelling premise, although critical and fan reception to the title seemed largely positive – which suggests it was more a lack of marketing and getting the word across about the game. Given strong word-of-mouth, combined with the fact that it released during a time when more and more Japanese games were turning a profit in the west despite weak Japanese sales (see: Lost Dimension; Root Letter), there seemed to be at least a glimmer of hope it would reach overseas shores. While whacky, the game’s focus on elements of internet culture was something that exists across borders – the idea of internet celebrities, preaching to millions of instagram followers about their lifestyle and the insecurities which actually plague them in real life, which would surely have hit a note with western audiences as much as it did in the east. Games like DanganRonpa have shown that a quirky Japanese-style game can still be very appealing in the west. The hope for an overseas release was recently extinguished when XSEED announced the title wouldn’t be released by them at all due to cultural difficulties in translating some of the text. While it would undoubtedly be one of the more challenging localizations the team has done (which makes it a risky decision at this late stage in Vita’s life), if that sounds like an excuse… that’s likely because it is. Net High falls into the same camp as Luminous Arc – games made exclusively for Vita after XSEED had stopped localizing games for the console. While other companies like PQube and Aksys managed to step in and grab Tokyo Xanadu and Valkyrie Drive, this game hasn’t been so lucky, possibly dooming it to the depths of Japanese obscurity forever. SaGa Scarlet Grace In 2014, it was announced that Square’s legendary non-traditional RPG franchise SaGa – which started life on the Game Boy as Final Fantasy Legend and lived through the SNES as Romancing SaGa; PS1 as SaGa Frontier and the PS2 as Unlimited SaGa – would be receiving an exclusive Vita entry. That dream wasn’t realised until December of 2016 when SaGa Scarlet Grace finally released; but it has become pretty clear that the game won’t be receiving a western release – at least, not on PlayStation Vita. Following four very different heroes as they adventure through the land of the Star Gods, Scarlet Grace provided a free-form design that assigns you a character based on your choices to a number of questions then sends you into the world to explore it and discover various events at your leisure. This sets it apart from the vast library of JRPG’s Vita has to offer – yet thanks to the addictive turn-based combat; fantastic character development and plentiful exploration, fans found lots to love in the game. In Japan, the title received rave reviews from fans who praised the fact it stuck to the traditional open-ended design of previous entries while incorporating a fantastically addictive battle system (I’ve even seen posts on certain forums describing it as “like crack”). The quality sadly wasn’t reflected in sales, as the game opened to a decent 64k – putting it in the upper tier of Vita games, but far below the IP’s historic selling power when it was pushing one million copies sold during the PS1 days. As for why the game never came west, unfortunately the reasons are plentiful. For starters, it released in December of 2016 in Japan – during which time the console was already winding down even in that region, let alone in the west where it had effectively been discontinued. Compounding this is the fact that the SaGa franchise has nearly always been heavily skewed towards domestic sales – and with an already low return expected overseas, the Vita’s poor userbase in the west would make it a difficult proposition for Square-Enix. There is a chance that the game might make it across one day, but I’m not confident it will be on Vita – more likely as a port to PS4/Switch or even on mobile, which would be a crying shame as it would’ve been a nice final exclusive title to send the handheld out in a blaze of glory. Uppers A game that at one time I thought was a certainty to come west, Takai’s deliquent brawler looks increasingly unlikely to hit these shores and marks the third Marvelous title on this list that appears to have been skipped by XSEED – a worrying trend given their previous love for the platform in the early days. Broadly, Uppers is a street brawler that sees you fighting as various delinquents in order to impress ‘queens’ – which means smashing through waves of foes and making use of environmental hazards to finish them in flashy ways. Things are a little different than the creator’s other series Senran Kagura, however, as the focus on hand-to-hand combat means the end result is something more akin to Kenka Bancho or Yakuza – series which are sadly missing from Vita making Uppers an easy choice to fill that gap in the market (coincidentally, the game was actually developed by the studio behind Kenka Bancho, making the title appear to be a somewhat spiritual successor). Given the positive reception seen towards the game from importers like Super Best Friends – who enjoyed the over-the-top zany action – it seemed a safe bet that the game would find a niche but dedicated audience in the west, in particular if the title was ported to Steam where similar releases have done pretty well (but thanks to brawlers already available on Vita, it should be popular there too). Why the game didn’t come west seems to again relate to XSEED being the western publisher for Marvelous titles, who are now choosing to skip any Vita-only game. Even if you accept their excuses for Luminous Arc and Net High, Uppers doesn’t have that luxury – being from a decently-known producer; with no text issues and a strong potential audience. Lukewarm sales in Japan probably didn’t help matters, but this hasn’t stopped similar titles achieving much greater success in the west (things like Disgaea 5 Complete; God Wars and Root Letter spring to mind). Had it also released on PS4 or Switch, things may have been very different for this title; as it stands the only way to truly enjoy it on western shores is through an import guide. Conclusion We’re living in a world where localizations are far more commonplace now than they’ve ever been – compared to the PS1 era, 2017 is a fantasy land where every major game sees a western release. I can’t help but feel that Vita has been somewhat of a catalyst for this too – companies like Aksys; Idea Factory International and Nippon Ichi Software America stepped in when Sony had abandoned the platform and provided a steady stream of releases which was rewarded with plentiful sales from consumers in love with the handheld; which in turn led to more confidence in taking a gamble on riskier genres. The console has gotten so many more releases than I ever thought it would to the point it was much more difficult to put together this list than the previous one. Yet in spite of this it’s difficult not to lament the games which didn’t make it over, especially if you follow Japanese gaming news closely. Some of these choices were games I flagged up as being possibilities for localization a year ago and it’s such a shame that many of them didn’t come to fruition, but sadly that’s more to do with the state of Vita at this stage in its life than anything else. Had Sony supported it better it may be a different story – then again, with better support the localization scene on the handheld may not have taken off the way it did anyway, plugging gaps in release schedules with brilliant new titles. Still, the handheld has been blessed by a lifestream of localization releases throughout its life that have helped keep me and like-minded gamers glued to the platform for the past six years. Plus, a number of these titles are easily importable these days thanks to the advent of Google Translate and some brilliant import guides over at GameFAQs – meaning if you’re at all interested in Japanese games, there’s never been a better time to jump into Vita.