An localized version of Atelier Annie is coming out on October 27, but it only has English text. NIS America had to choose between recording new English voiceovers and the original Japanese language track.
“If we were to put English voice acting in the game [Atelier Annie], we would have to take out the Japanese voices in order to stay within the DS cart’s memory capacity,” said Nao Zook, Marketing Manager.
“We believe this game is mostly for the Atelier series fans, who largely prefer the original Japanese voices, so we really wanted to keep the Japanese voice acting. We understand that not having an option for Japanese/ English is a bummer, but we really hope that you all understand why we kept the original Japanese voices.”
Atelier Annie isn’t alone. Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier, released by Atlus earlier this year, went the same route. Both of these titles are niche games, but Atelier Annie (arguably more than Endless Frontier) may have been able to reach a broader audience if it had English voice acting. What do you think? Did NIS America make the right decision?
Oh, and be sure to check back on Friday for our full Atelier Annie interview.
Published: Oct 14, 2009 01:13 pm