Was going to post this in the Reddits for /secretofmana and /seikendensetsu but they have a character limit...
If you haven't heard yet, SQUARE is going to be bringing the first three Mana series games to the Nintendo Switch, but only in Japanese.
The team behind the port, M2 (@hor11 on Twitter) responded to fan interest in an english localization by saying "IF YOU WANT AN ENGLISH VERSION, TELL SQUARE." And also that "IF IT DOESN'T EXIST, IT ISN'T IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE IT."
So given that bit of optimism, I say send tweets to everything you can possibly think of. Anyone who has a twitter who was or is associated with this series. Regardless of who they are or what role they played.
For instance, there is Hiroki Kikuta who did the musical score for SoM and SD3. He has a twitter @hiroki_kikuta -- he already did a big AMA on Reddit a while back, and in English.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamemusic/comments/1yr673/ama_im_hiroki_kikuta_the_composer_for_the_secret/ -- The guy either knows english or has a good translator working with him to do that kind of AMA.
There's Ted Woolsey who did the english localization of Secret of Mana, his twitter is @ted_woolsey
And let's not make the mistake of directing our tweets at @SquareEnixUSA. That's just a press bot. A bot isn't going to see our requests.
We could also send our tweets to people who worked on the fan translation of SD3 with Neill Corlett. I have seen that Lina'chan (@linachanpr) expressed willingness to work with M2 (@hor11) on localization of the game if approached.
We can also just gather up any fans of SD3 that we can and get them on board.
The hashtag #localizemana is taking off beautifully. We just need to get more fans to spread the word and to get SQUARE to take notice of the fact there are many non-japanese fans of SD3 and we need to direct it at the right people.
This is the link to the video that @Seiken_PR posted on Twitter of SD3 running on Nintendo Switch.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Seiken_PR/status/843658507719127040
Go onto the comment section of that and LEAVE COMMENTS asking for SD3 IN ENGLISH.
Maybe something in Japanese too, so they will understand it.
(このゲームを英語に翻訳してください!!! PLEASE TRANSLATE THE GAME TO ENGLISH!!!)
And this is the tweet where developer M2 responded to fan interest in an english localization of SD3. His reaction was pretty positive sounding.
https://mobile.twitter.com/hor11/status/849218230350602240
Basically "WE DON'T HAVE A TRANSLATION, IF THERE IS ONE, SQUARE WOULD HAVE IT, NOT US, IF THEY DON'T, MAKING ONE IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE. BUT SQUARE WOULD BE THE ONES TO ASK."
And ask we most certainly shall.
The topic of the Seiken Densetsu Collection is making the rounds through all the big name gamer news sites like Kotaku and such. But let's also take into account that Square probably aren't googling around to see those articles and the comment sections of people asking for SD3 in english.
As far as Square Japan is concerned, they probably don't even know a fandom for SD3 exists outside of Japan. I compare it to the Japanese Rock fandom. - Dir en grey didn't know they had fans outside of Japan. We had to show them.
Once the band and their record label figured it out, DeG albums started getting sold in U.S. stores. They started touring here too. We couldn't buy what was not available to us. We couldn't go see a band that wasn't coming to our area.
Same principle.
Yes, we could just download DeG's music, but we wanted to buy U.S. releases to show support. Go to see them perform in our cities.
Anybody can go find the rom of SD3 and apply the patch, sure... But isn't it high time that Square gave us an official translation and a way to buy it?
Many on the hashtag #localizemana say they would buy a Switch ~JUST~ to play SD3. Clearly fans want to give Square their money for SD3.
But they won't know that unless we TELL THEM.
SD3 was hyped in an article in Nintendo Power in 1995. Don't believe me? Google image search for it. Instead of SD3 we got Secret of Evermore, which, while it was a decent game, it was not a Mana game, and it was not the sequel to SoM we were promised. Square now has a chance to fix their mistake and give fans what they want.
If this localization happens and people buy the collection for Switch, MAYBE this might give Square ideas for future Mana games that would see the series return to it's former glory. (By former glory, I mean when the Mana series was still focused on action, cool options like leveling up your weapons and spells through use, and FLYING AROUND THE WORLD MAP ON THE BACK OF A KICK ASS DRAGON LIKE YOU'RE BASTION IN THE NEVER ENDING STORY....YEAAAAH!!!)
Being a bunch of angsty, bitter "Square doesn't care about their fans" types is not going to get us what we want. Staying in our own sections of the internet and expecting Square to come to us and research the international fandom for SD3 also probably is not going to get us what we want.
We have to dig. We have to message. We have to Tweet. We have to gather.
#localizemana - #seikendensetsu3 - #secretofmana2 - @seiken_pr
If you haven't heard yet, SQUARE is going to be bringing the first three Mana series games to the Nintendo Switch, but only in Japanese.
The team behind the port, M2 (@hor11 on Twitter) responded to fan interest in an english localization by saying "IF YOU WANT AN ENGLISH VERSION, TELL SQUARE." And also that "IF IT DOESN'T EXIST, IT ISN'T IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE IT."
So given that bit of optimism, I say send tweets to everything you can possibly think of. Anyone who has a twitter who was or is associated with this series. Regardless of who they are or what role they played.
For instance, there is Hiroki Kikuta who did the musical score for SoM and SD3. He has a twitter @hiroki_kikuta -- he already did a big AMA on Reddit a while back, and in English.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamemusic/comments/1yr673/ama_im_hiroki_kikuta_the_composer_for_the_secret/ -- The guy either knows english or has a good translator working with him to do that kind of AMA.
There's Ted Woolsey who did the english localization of Secret of Mana, his twitter is @ted_woolsey
And let's not make the mistake of directing our tweets at @SquareEnixUSA. That's just a press bot. A bot isn't going to see our requests.
We could also send our tweets to people who worked on the fan translation of SD3 with Neill Corlett. I have seen that Lina'chan (@linachanpr) expressed willingness to work with M2 (@hor11) on localization of the game if approached.
We can also just gather up any fans of SD3 that we can and get them on board.
The hashtag #localizemana is taking off beautifully. We just need to get more fans to spread the word and to get SQUARE to take notice of the fact there are many non-japanese fans of SD3 and we need to direct it at the right people.
This is the link to the video that @Seiken_PR posted on Twitter of SD3 running on Nintendo Switch.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Seiken_PR/status/843658507719127040
Go onto the comment section of that and LEAVE COMMENTS asking for SD3 IN ENGLISH.
Maybe something in Japanese too, so they will understand it.
(このゲームを英語に翻訳してください!!! PLEASE TRANSLATE THE GAME TO ENGLISH!!!)
And this is the tweet where developer M2 responded to fan interest in an english localization of SD3. His reaction was pretty positive sounding.
https://mobile.twitter.com/hor11/status/849218230350602240
Basically "WE DON'T HAVE A TRANSLATION, IF THERE IS ONE, SQUARE WOULD HAVE IT, NOT US, IF THEY DON'T, MAKING ONE IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE. BUT SQUARE WOULD BE THE ONES TO ASK."
And ask we most certainly shall.
The topic of the Seiken Densetsu Collection is making the rounds through all the big name gamer news sites like Kotaku and such. But let's also take into account that Square probably aren't googling around to see those articles and the comment sections of people asking for SD3 in english.
As far as Square Japan is concerned, they probably don't even know a fandom for SD3 exists outside of Japan. I compare it to the Japanese Rock fandom. - Dir en grey didn't know they had fans outside of Japan. We had to show them.
Once the band and their record label figured it out, DeG albums started getting sold in U.S. stores. They started touring here too. We couldn't buy what was not available to us. We couldn't go see a band that wasn't coming to our area.
Same principle.
Yes, we could just download DeG's music, but we wanted to buy U.S. releases to show support. Go to see them perform in our cities.
Anybody can go find the rom of SD3 and apply the patch, sure... But isn't it high time that Square gave us an official translation and a way to buy it?
Many on the hashtag #localizemana say they would buy a Switch ~JUST~ to play SD3. Clearly fans want to give Square their money for SD3.
But they won't know that unless we TELL THEM.
SD3 was hyped in an article in Nintendo Power in 1995. Don't believe me? Google image search for it. Instead of SD3 we got Secret of Evermore, which, while it was a decent game, it was not a Mana game, and it was not the sequel to SoM we were promised. Square now has a chance to fix their mistake and give fans what they want.
If this localization happens and people buy the collection for Switch, MAYBE this might give Square ideas for future Mana games that would see the series return to it's former glory. (By former glory, I mean when the Mana series was still focused on action, cool options like leveling up your weapons and spells through use, and FLYING AROUND THE WORLD MAP ON THE BACK OF A KICK ASS DRAGON LIKE YOU'RE BASTION IN THE NEVER ENDING STORY....YEAAAAH!!!)
Being a bunch of angsty, bitter "Square doesn't care about their fans" types is not going to get us what we want. Staying in our own sections of the internet and expecting Square to come to us and research the international fandom for SD3 also probably is not going to get us what we want.
We have to dig. We have to message. We have to Tweet. We have to gather.
#localizemana - #seikendensetsu3 - #secretofmana2 - @seiken_pr
Last edited by Stoopidfox,
