Almost never happened in North America

The Last Story is one of the stronger titles on Wii, which we've just named as our staff's second favourite on the system in 2012. Originally released in Japan in early 2011, it took a long time to make an appearance in the West. It was early 2012 when it was published in Europe by Nintendo, however it appeared a North American release was not on the cards.

Fortunately the game did make it onto North American shelves, published by localisation specialists XSEED, but it almost never happened. It took a lot of persuasion from key personnel within XSEED to convince sales reps that releasing a full price retail title on Wii at the end of its lifespan was a good idea.

Speaking to Kotaku, XSEED Vice President Ken Berry spoke of how the sales reps within the company considered Wii as a "dead platform", and that he had to fight to help the game see the light of day in North America.

It was a constant fight even within our own organization, To our external sales reps, we'd be saying, ‘No, like you guys don't understand. There's tons of fans out there that are asking for this. There's a huge fan movement.' I mean, so yeah. In the end, I think we were right.

We'd say they were right too, The Last Story became XSEED's most successful title ever and drew huge critical acclaim.

Though Berry was confident the game would be a hit he expressed how much he appreciated the fan movement that saw the game become available in North America:

We’re eternally grateful to the fan community out there. They really stepped up their game and put their actions and their wallets where their mouths were earlier. They backed up their talk.

It appears that this is some proof that persistent requests from eager fans can make a difference in the decision making of big games publishers looking for their next big hit. The Last Story certainly boosted the coffers of XSEED, let's hope other publishers see this as an example and start to bring more Japan-only titles over to the West.

What are your thoughts on this? Were you pleased the game finally made it over to North American shores? Let us know in the comments below.

[source kotaku.com]