Western JRPG-fans-slash-360-owners who want to listen to the spoken dialogue of Final Fantasy XIII in Japanese are out of luck – size limitations on the 360’s DVD format mean that the game will likely only include the English audio track.
In a Q&A held by IGN to promote the upcoming Final Fantasy crossover Dissidia, Katase and Squeenix cohort Takeshi Arakawa answered a question about whether the game would include Japanese language support – size limitations on the UMD format mean it won’t – but then received a followup question asking whether that would hold for the next numbered Final Fantasy game as well.
“Obviously, when we talk about XIII it’s for PS3 and Xbox – with PS3 being on Blu ray there would be enough memory, but on Xbox probably not,” answered Katase. “At the moment we’re thinking of releasing the voice in English only. Are there many people who would like to play with Japanese voices?”
Thankfully, it doesn’t look as though this means the actual game’s dialogue – meaning the script – will have to be shortened. You just won’t get to listen to it in your language of choice.
So yes, if you’re one of those types for whom everything is better in Japanese, you might want to start saving up for a PS3. The rest of us will just have to make do with the normal dub acting. The horror!
(CVG)
