On June 10, 2014, Sony (or better say Square Enix’s Senior Product Manager) published on the US blog an article. With the headline saying, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD would be released on PSVita. Shahid Kamal Ahmad, shared this article on his twitter account, fans started celebrating, but their happiness was soon silenced by Sony who corrected the headline saying that Type-0 HD would come to the PS4 only and not to PSVita. Then they added:
“Update: An earlier headline for this post stated that Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is coming to PS Vita, which was incorrect. Type-0 is coming to PS4 in North America and Europe.”
Then later that day, Square Enix confirmed that and added Xbox One as another platform. That’s the worst possible outcome for PSVita owners.
The game
Final Fantasy Type-0 is an action RPG from Final Fantasy series released on October 27, 2011 on PSP in Japan. Originally, Type-0 was planned to be released as Final Fantasy Agito XIII for mobile phones, back in 2006 (plans were revealed at E3). Of course, mobile phones in 2006 were not at the level to handle such a game, and developers planned to release it on next-gen phones.
Two years later, Square Enix announced the platform change. PSP could offer them everything they needed. One of the aspects of moving to PSP was the deflection from “XIII” and rebranding to “Type-0”.
The game was very successful (positive reviews & strong sales) in Japan and naturally, players started calling for the localization. The game later got 2 manga adaptations and a game for iOS and Android called Final Fantasy Agito (2014).
Localization
During development, Hajima Tabata (game’s director) said that he was aiming at western players’ taste, and in the official guide was written by Tabata that the international version was in works. Tabata also said that his team was experimenting with HD version of Type-0 during the development.
In the gamespot’s interview with Tabata, which was posted on November 1, 2012, Tabata answered the question “Will FF Type-0 be localized for North America and Europe? If so, when?” with:
Due to market reasons, we are taking a clean slate in terms of our plans. We feel strongly about bringing this title to the fans in North America and Europe, so if an opportunity arises that can become a conclusive factor, we are prepared to go into consideration right away.
#JRPGVita
In June 2013, Shahid Kamal Ahmad launched his campaign to bring JRPGs to Vita. At the end of the campaign, people were voting which game(s) they would like to see localized on PSVita. The hashtag poll was won by Tales of Hearts R, which got officaĺ localization announced in April 2014. Second was Tales of Innocence, third Final Fantasy Type-0 and fourth Valkyria Chronicles 3.
By this poll, fans told Square Enix how much they want to play their game and many of them stated that the translation of PSP game and its availability on the PS Store would be enough, no need of HD port.
Meanwhile, in March, Sky announced that he and Operation Doomtrain Team work on their fan translation of Type-0 and it will be finished and set to be released in August.
E3 2014
Some time passed and E3 arrived.
On June 8, Sky announced finishing fan translation, which reached playable state. Two months before initial estimate.
A day later, nothing was said about the official localization during Sony’s E3 press conference.
And then… You know the rest of the story.
Conclusion
Firstly, I think it’s good to say that I’ve never been a fan of Final Fantasy. I just haven’t found the game that would catch me enough to start loving the series. BUT, I love PS Vita. I was following Shahid’s JRPG campaign. I knew the results (and I was surprised that Type-0 didn’t win it).
Yesterday’s announcement is K.O. for Vita owners without PS4, like me and a spit in the face for all handheld players. Another act of Sony showing HOW MUCH they care about Vita.
I would understand bringing the HD port to PS Vita (so many people would buy Vita just for this game) and PS4 (I said “understand”, I still think it should be Vita-only game and many PS4 owners have the same opinion), but what is Xbox One doing there? Oh, yeah, I remember all those Xbox owners begging for the localization like PSP/PS Vita owners. I can’t wait to see how it sells on Xbox One.
What do Sony expect us to do? Play Type-0, the game which was originally on their handheld, via remote play? REMOTE PLAY???
And also, I’m confused that Shahid Ahmad didn’t know what was going to happen. Later, he tweeted:
Whoops, I jumped the gun. Blog post now updated. You can kick me now. (But we will keep on pushing for it and I know you will too)
On the other hand, at least Sky’s more than a year of work won’t be useless.
Sky and Operation Doomtrain Team did it for us, for the players. Both Square Enix and Sony turned their back on us.
You can watch translation teaser here on vimeo.
In my opinion, there are 3 things you can do now:
1) You can do get your PSP, imported Type-0 and download the patch released by Sky.
2) Get your PS Vita with eCFW (if you’re lucky enough to have it, I’m not), put there iso with Sky’s translated Final Fantasy Type-0, and experience something Sonyand SquareEnix don’t want to let us do.
3) Or you can wait and hope that Type-0 for Vita will be eventually announced. This “affair” may be just one huge hint of the future release.
Players’ reaction
I’m not the only person who is upset about it. Soon after finding out that the game wouldn’t come to Vita, the waves of disagreement and disappointment started spreading and players started commenting “#NOVITANOBUY” on PS Blog and Sony laughably started deleting those comments. If you want to see some more reactions, check “#NOVITANOBUY” on Twitter.
Some thanks:
– “Thanks” Sony for caring about their handheld and players. Check out the comment sections on US and EU blogs. You are killing your handheld, maybe intentionally, maybe because you’re just stupid, I don’t know what is worse.
– “Thanks” SquareEnix for choosing Xbox One over PS Vita, the successor of PSP. “Thanks” for porting portable game to home consoles, it makes total sense. Thinking about it, I’m not that surprised. Money is all you want and admittedly, Type-0 can potentially sell more copies on Xbox One than on PS Vita. Next time at least find somebody who can write an article without making such a fatal mistake. Fans won’t forget.
Now on the bright side:
– Thanks hard-working Sky and Operation Doomtrain Team for finishing the translation project. You’re awesome. Huge respect to you.
– Thanks Shahid Kamal Ahmad for doing your best for Vita. Many people will hate you after this whole thing, but I think you’re not the one to blame. Keep up the good work.
Links-to-go:
Sky’s blog. http://www.skybladecloud.net/
NeoGAF thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=835043
Shahid Kamal Ahmad’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/shahidkamal
If you have any questions or comments, you can contact me on twitter. @Dessel575