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Interview: Atlus' Alexander Talks Odin Sphere, Localization

As a video game enthusiast, you have to love Atlus. The company stands as one of the few "little guys" to have risen up from the unwashed masses and still maintain its independence by doing, at least from an outside perspective, whatever it damn well pleases. Its catalog of releases are all decidedly niche, yet are counted by many as among their favorites in the hobby, from localized treasures such as Ogre Battle to those in its own in-house developed Megaten universe.

However, the company's next release, Odin Sphere for the PlayStation 2, looks to be cut from a different mold, favoring action in lieu of hard core strategy or role-playing. We recently had the opportunity to speak with the game's project lead for Atlus U.S.A., Bill Alexander, who also serves as the senior editor and QA manager for the company's U.S. arm.

Hello again Bill. Before we get started talking too much about Odin Sphere, could you give our readers some of your background, specifically regarding what projects have you worked on in the past?

I've been at Atlus for 5 years now, and have been involved in a number of projects. Some of my favorite titles to work on were Nocturne, Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis, and the original Disgaea. I consider myself very lucky to have worked on these projects, and even luckier to have worked with such talented co-workers.

For Odin Sphere, I was surrounded by great people. Sammy Matsushima was our lead translator, and handled the communication with the Japanese developer. Mike Meeker and Mike Manzanares edited and proofread the text, respectively. This truly was a team effort, as most Atlus projects are.

And how does this project measure up to those? Is one game more or less like any other from your perspective, or is this one unique?

Well, it's like comparing apples and oranges. The games I mentioned before are all RPGs. Odin Sphere is more of an action game, although it does have RPG elements. That said, it's definitely one of the best games I've worked on. I'm anxious to hear fans' reactions. I'm hoping word of mouth will be a strong marketing force for it.

For me, every game I work on is unique. The stories are so different, and I love the challenge of making each character memorable. I think most of us here at Atlus think of localization as more of an art than a science.

It's certainly unexpected that the game is making its North American debut just says after its release in Japan on May 17? How exactly were you able to achieve this?

We were able to do this by working closely with our parent company. Also, since it's not a traditional RPG, it's got nowhere near the amount of text to translate. Don't let that fool, you, though. It's still a 40+ hour game.

Even so, do you see this as an indicator of future localization efforts, getting games in North American players' hands days and not months or years after their Japanese counterparts? Do you think we're approaching an age of simultaneous localized releases across regions?

Probably not. Unfortunately, RPGs take a very long time to localize, and now that many of them are fully voiced, it's taking even longer. I'm sure it's possible, but oftentimes a developer changes the story as they are working on it, which makes it much less efficient to work on it simultaneously. Also, a lot of games don't become available for licensing until they are near completion.

For Odin Sphere specifically, what was the most challenging part of the game's localization?

Well, trying to get the English dialogue to match the approximate length of the Japanese. Since the scenes were all timed, we didn't have the luxury of making the messages as long as we wanted, like you do with games where the messages don't advance until the player presses a button.

Speaking of dialogue, what was the impetus for including both Japanese and English dialog in the North American version of the game? Will English voices being included in the Japanese version of the game, or, perhaps more to the point, would that be something players in region would even want?

Odin Sphere is a game that we believe will appeal to a wide audience, so we wanted to try and have something there for everyone. For those gamers who are fans of Japanese voice actors and anime, we thought they would really appreciate having the original voices included. And for the more casual gamer, we'd thought they'd prefer to play it in English. We hope that no matter what type of gamer you are, you'll give it a try.

As far as I know, the English voices are not being included in the Japanese version. But, whether or not Japanese gamers would want it is a good question.

How would you describe Odin Sphere? What makes it stand out?

I think first of all, the graphics. You cannot comprehend how great it looks without seeing it in motion. Secondly, there really are a number of innovations in gameplay that make it the perfect hybrid between the action and RPG genres.

Your press release stated that pre-sales in Japan have exceeded Atlus' expectations. How have they been in North America?

They are good, and getting better. Buzz is really building around this game. Also, once reviews start rolling in and people read about how great of a game it is, I think pre-orders will jump. For example, PLAY magazine is giving the game a 10 out of 10. You hear that, people? A 10! So, get out there and place your pre-orders!

Given that the PlayStation 2 has now been replaced, at least in theory, by the PlayStation 3, how long do you foresee Atlus supporting the former console before moving on to the latter?

We're not in a hurry to just abandon the PlayStation 2. As you know, there are millions and millions of PS2 owners who are not yet ready to move on to the next generation of consoles. We will most likely continue to support the system for as long as it remains healthy. I am sure we will also start publishing games for the PlayStation 3, as more become available for licensing.

It's become somewhat expected among the gaming community that titles released by Atlus, at least in North America, quickly become difficult to find due to, one would assume, low production runs appealing to niche markets. Do you see this as continuing with Odin Sphere, or is the game expected to be in comparatively more ample supply?

It all goes back to supply and demand. Consumer interest drives buyers' decisions. Our production runs are based on the orders placed by the buyers from various stores. The best thing you can do to support Atlus titles is to pre-order. That lets the buyers know people plan on purchasing the game. Generally speaking, the higher their pre-orders, the more of a title they will order.

Finally, I'm curious, what does having an artist of George Kamitani's caliber add to the project?

It makes all the difference. Mr. Kamitani has raised the bar so high you may not see a better looking game come out on the PS2. Since everything is hand-drawn, a lot of love and care went into every aspect of the game, and it really shows. Mr. Kamitani also painted the recent cover of PLAY Magazine. If you get a chance, take a look. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Apr 27, 2007 - 2:58 pm | 0 comments
Jason Dobson