It looks the vague report from Nintendo customer service that Xenoblade (also known as Monado: Beginning of the World) is still slated for release in the United States isn't confirmation enough for some people. A group of fans, calling themselves Operation Rainfall, is working hard to make sure that Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower are all released in the Untied States. It looks like a little organization and planning can go a long way, as the group has already helped to get Monado to the #1 spot on Amazon.com's gaming pre-order list, beating out Ocarina of Time 3D and the Call of Duty: Black Ops PS3 bundle .
They've also found the support of the game's developers, like Soraya Saga (writer of Xenoblade/Monodo) and Mistwalker (creator of Final Fantasy and The Last Story) via twitter, on Nintendo's Youtube page, and lets not forget that letter writing campaign from a little while back as well. The one place that Operation Rainfall hasn't made much noise yet is twitter, so if you want to follow them and help get that going yourself, feel free.
Nintendo might not make a ton of money by releasing The Last Story or Xenoblade in the U.S., but it would do wonders for their reputation in the gaming community. If they can afford hiring Beyonce and Helen Miren to sell their games, they can afford to take the risk on this display of good faith to gaming's most loyal and dedicated fans.
Jonathan Holmes is the most lovable Associate Editor on Destructoid. Catch him on videos, original editorials, and on back episodes of the Destructoid Show and MTV's Road Rules. Jonathan is a retro gamer's gamer.
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Contest:
6:00 PM on 06.26.2011 | 
If Holmes hadn't posted this, I would have never known this was going on, and wouldn't have gone and preordered a game I had already given up on ever getting.
Thanks for the Heads-Up Jonathan!
Just because you only want 1 of the games doesn't mean you should dismiss the others.
If Xenoblade comes to America there's a good chance they'll actually get some sense and release the other games we desperately want.
Anyways, Xenoblade is a much, much, much better name than Monado, but regardless I'll pre-order it if it means Nintendo might learn that we want these games.
"Hey fans, we appreciate your enthusiasm. Look for more updates to come soon!"
Too late for that chipper attitude, Big N. I think now is the time to be conciliatory and apologetic. Not that they owe anybody anything, but speaking in terms of good business practice and respect for the customer, I think that would be less tone deaf.
Blocking releases like this makes part of a vicious cycle where mediocrity is the main selling point in the industry.
Oh for fucks sake. I did not know of this until Holmes informed me, and now I'm fully supporting it. I'm certain the people of Dtoid are also supporting it and the word needs to be spread on as much as possible, so they ARE doing their part.
That is incredible arrogance to assume that everybody knows. As the thread has demonstrated, people did not. I even posted about the letter campaign on Friday and several regular readers missed it.
Extended coverage, keeping a cause in the public eye, is just as much a helpful part of this as anything else. Holmes did a good job here, and I'm kind of galled you want to shoot him down for it and suggest that Dtoid shouldn't be covering it.
And uh, you apparently don't know what the word "arrogance" means, Jim. That isn't what that is.
You presuming to speak for an entire demographic of gamers? If that's not arrogance, I don't know what is.
The point is, do more and stop being a jackass for once in your life. Although knowing you, you'll sit back, wait for it to be released and then throw a 3/10 at it anyway and trash the game up and down and that's the only reason you even would like to see it released here so whatever. Clearly you won't be of any actual help in this so carry on just being another lame blog with zero journalistic ability.
I want Pandora's Tower so bad
Oh, and @Eggman,
His use of "arrogance" was perfectly fine if, like me, he'd come to the very reasonable conclusion (from your post) that you think you're better than everyone else for WANTING IT THAT MUCH MOREZ!!
Also, Holmes' post on the matter here has probably done more good for this "cause" the your total accumulated actions ever will.
Go be mad at someone who deserves it.
Or, ya know, he realized he's arguing with an infant, and decided it's not worth his time.
>I never suggested that you guys shouldn't cover it.
>You don't need to post stories about this for us.
Yeah okay.
Yeah, thanks. They shouldn't post this stuff, 'cause then I wouldn't find out about it and be able to participate. They shouldn't post this stuff so that more people won't join up and help the fight. We should just be a small movement with a few people that can't get shit done, don't post this and tell the world Destructoid, you could actually help us make a difference and we can't have that!
Before this post, I didn't even know that the game was called "Monado: Beginning of the World."
Keeping the effort in the news is good, but games journalists can go a step further by bringing the subject up with Nintendo and other companies as well. That is what he is asking for.
Jim, you seem to want these titles to see US release, so why not ask Nintendo directly? The same can be asked of other sites that appear to support the movement, but don't get involved. Why is it apparently no one tried to hold Nintendo of America's feet to the fire at E3, questioning their approach to US localization and their general abandonment of the Wii? Jim, you constantly question Nintendo's Wii release stance and other things like their eshop, but you only seem to question it in your own posts at Destructoid. For example, I don't ever recall seeing you post an interview where you questioned Nintendo directly. Even the "Xenoblade reconfirmed" (that wasn't actually a confirmation at all) news wasn't in response to anything Destructoid asked, but rather based on the form letter that a reader received after asking.
The most official news we've really had so far apparently comes from a French TV station, where the marketing manager for Nintendo France said that Nintendo of America refused to show Xenoblade at this year's E3 because NoA didn't plan to sell it. (News by way of Nintendo World Report: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/26928 )
It's like when big film studios release DVD editions of old and obscure films, or when FOX made a huge box of silent film and early 30s films (Murnau/Borzage it's called). There is, of course, a market for these things, but I think it's not selling that much but really making the studio look good, making the niche market very happy.
Same goes for Nintendo here. A few huge exclusive J-RPGs for the market that loves such games. Makes them look good, add some prestige to the console. If they don't do it, I think this time it will leave a clear, visible mark.
Eggman, dude, Wheaton's Law. Especially if you have something useful to contribute to a cause, don't be a dick, because it's a lot harder to convince a hostile audience than an amiable one.
I'm not accusing dtoid or anyone else of anything, just thinking out loud really. And I do have to say that Dtoid is one of the few sites I've reliably seen post about these games.
Keep hope alive!
I'm flattered that you think Destructoid has the power to influence a mega corporation like Nintendo, but I'm not sure if that's true. My educated guess (from meeting many Nintendo of America employees over the years) is that the requests of hundreds of thousands of Nintendo fans will mean more to them than the opinion of a handful of videogame bloggers.
I just really don't care if Ninty brings these over. I want the games, but they have such a poor record of meeting hardcore demand that I'm just bored with all this back and forth. Hopefully we'll see these games because I don't think Nintendo is making a single title for release outside of Zelda and Kirby for the wii. Wii U is a year or so off and drought is the only word that makes sense right now.
Nintendo is starving people and this is what we're reduced to to get Nintendo to make some sort of PR effort for fans of nintendo. We aren't hardcore, we're fans. Fans support the system and its games for the entirety of it's life cycle. How hard is it really for one of the greatest game publishers in the world to actually give games to people?
I've done my part on twitter, but I'm still a bit pissy that Hironobu Sakiguchi's only 2 unreleased in America titles have Published by Nintendo stamped on them.