“Based on… what? The last we heard about Trails 2 was quite a while ago, and they went from eagerly discussing their progress on the game to complete, deafening silence.”
Clearly, you haven’t been reading the right threads on the right message boards. (:
We haven’t announced anything officially because… well, there’s nothing to announce! The game is like, a year or two out AT LEAST, so announcing anything now would be kind of pointless. Especially since, with the release THAT FAR AWAY, the constantly changing climate of the gaming industry, the impending decline of PSP game sales and the whole “can’t put the game on PSN” thing, the future of Trails 2 is a total question mark right now (release on UMD? find a solution to the PSN issue somehow? release on Vita somehow? release on Steam?).
We still have every intention of seeing the project through to its completion, but will we still be ABLE to release it by the time it’s done? That’s what we don’t know. All we can do is keep chipping away at it and hope for the best — and if it turns out we can’t do it, no one will be sadder than us. But it definitely won’t be for lack of trying!
Wow, seems I put my foot in my mouth! To be fair, “a year or two out AT LEAST” was just me trying to exaggeratedly stress that it’s going to take a LONG FREAKING TIME to complete. Exactly how long, I have no idea — but bear in mind that the first game took over a year for translation and editing, and that’s with three translators and two editors (probably the most ever used on a single XSEED project), and the second game has OVER twice as much text. And while it’s easy to say, “hire more translators!”, we’re not exactly swimming in money over here, so that’s… not exactly possible. Finding dedicated fans willing to work for free is out of the question due to legal issues, and finding dedicated fans willing to work for bottom dollar is both unethical AND unlikely to produce results that are up to XSEED’s usual quality standards.
In short, all we can do is chug along and keep our fingers crossed. But if we’re putting that much time and effort into localizing a title… do you really think we’re going to just let it slip through the cracks? No, we’ll fight for it. Doesn’t mean we’ll win, but doesn’t mean we’ll lose, either. And yes, we’ve heard all the possible ways in which the PSN issue can be resolved — and we’re exploring every one of them. It all comes down to what’s economical, what’s practical and what’s POSSIBLE, in the end.
We’re seriously doing everything we can, and we simply ask that you guys continue to support us and cheer us on. Buy our other games and send us your positive energy, and sooner or later (most likely later), the game will hopefully come to be, and all will be right with the world.
Until then… there’s always Corpse Party, Solatorobo, Fishing Resort and Grand Knights History to keep you occupied (all of which are top-notch games!), along with whatever other surprises we may have up our sleeves. (:
)!
