subject: Ffxii And Vagrant Story Designer Working On Madworld [print this page] As great a service as Steam is, it's not atop the list of places to go when looking for Japanese computer games. That's not because it's only focused on the North American market -- you can find games like Football Manager that are more European-centric on there -- but with exceptions like Recettear, it's not exactly a bastion for games from the Japanese market, Japanese role-playing games in particular WOW Gold.
That's what makes it a surprise to hear XSEED Games, publisher of the last several Ys PSP games in the west, plans to bring a pair of JRPGs to Steam. First up is the very good Ys: The Oath in Felghana on March 19, which will be priced at just $14.99. Following that with an unspecified price and release date will be Ys Origin.
Felghana was first made available in North America in 2010 as a PSP game courtesy of XSEED, though prior to that it had been released in Japan as a computer game. That title was a remake of Ys III, a 1989 RPG. The Steam release is based on the 2005 computer game as opposed to the PSP release and supports Achievements and Steam Cloud. The latter is a much-welcome feature; while this won't be as portable as having the game on PSP, Steam Cloud means you can easily move your progress between your desktop and laptop.
Ys Origin, on the other hand, was originally released for computers in 2006 and, as a prequel to the original Ys, it was the first game in the series to feature neither Adol Christin nor Dogi. It has never been officially released in English, making its Steam release a big deal for fans of the franchise.
With PSP software sales not exactly at their peak, it wouldn't make sense for Origin to be released for that platform in the west. The benefits of Steam are twofold. Turning to a form of digital distribution like Steam circumvents the risks involved with releasing a niche product at retail. And while collectors might be upset they can't have a physical copy of the game to keep on their shelves, releasing these games digitally makes them much easier to acquire for anyone who is interested.
What will be worth watching is what happens if these games turn out to be a success on Steam. With there not being many Japanese games on the service, their addition could help to further expand its already sizeable user base Runescape Money. And should the games sell well, XSEED may not be the only publisher which sees potential in bringing more niche Japanese products to Steam.
XSEED positioned today's announcement as the first two games with more to come, but if these two don't pan out there's presumably nothing keeping it from cutting its losses and going back to what it's used to. If they do well, as I expect them to, XSEED may take a look at other Japanese games we haven't seen in English before, perhaps even ones that aren't for PC. And that's good news for everyone.
