...sugar and rainbows?!

Just a small thing that's been bugging me. I say small, because it honestly is a very small thing that has virtually no impact on my real life whatsoever, but it's worth voicing in a small little blog entry that no one will read.

You go on sites like Siliconera and read the various comments for the more popular posts that come out (sadly, it's mainly to do with how fantastic this world suddenly is now that Tales of friggin' Xillia has been announced for the west, even though in my opinion, there is nothing amazing about it and the main character person makes me want to castrate someone).

Yet there's also this furore over Persona 4 Arena being region-locked, even though the US version will be packed with all sorts of things that would make an otaku sexually excited like dual audio and *gasp* even Japanese text! Yet you have Siliconera commentators whining about how they may even *BOYCOTT* the game because Atlus has the sheer audacity to region-lock a PS3 game. Now all of a sudden, the sky is falling down?

Why is it a problem for the American gamers? You're definitely getting the game - and not too long after Japan at all - and you get the dual-audio goodness that no doubt most of the fans have always craved for. I see a lot of moody comments predicting a gloomy future where suddenly publishers decide to region-lock their games and OMG, WHAT IF TALES OF XILLIA 2 IS REGION-LOCKED AND DOESN'T EVER COME OUT OF JAPAN?!! THERE WOULD BE NO POINT OF IMPORTING IT! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Really, how many people in America bother to import from Japan if they aren't aces at reading katakana and kanji?

Reality check, America: you get games. You may not get every bloody Japanese game that comes out the door, but you get games. Yes, the whole Operation Rainfall thing was an anomaly (as much as I enjoyed the anomaly, hur hur!). You are NOT Europe or Australia where traditionally, we have had to wait an age just for a game to hit our stores. Anyone remember Rogue Galaxy for the PS2? 8th December 2005 for Japan, 30th January 2007 for America - and right down to September 20th 2007 for Australia. Europeans and Australians are also used to not getting any game at all!

So why exactly are so many American fans on places like Siliconera crying foul and calling for boycotts again? I mean, are you missing out on the game? No. Yes, region-lock sucks, but mainly for people in Europe and Australia who traditionally have to wait months, if not a year, and in the case of Persona 4 Arena, we don't even have an Atlus branch for PAL territories to publish crap. It's just a case of waiting for someone else to do the job, as long as that will take.

Additionally, back when the Tales of Graces F special edition thing for Europe was announced, the same people started whinging about how WAAAH, AMERICA HAD TO WAIT SO LONG AFTER THE JAPANESE RELEASE TO PLAY THIS GAME AND WE GOT NO SPECIAL EDITIONS - HOW COME THEY DO?! Sunshine, Europe has like a 5-month wait after the USA. What's the problem with a tiny extra reward for first-day buyers who didn't immediately go out to import a game from America months earlier? Or the non-English speakers in Europe? What is with these cries of entitlement that I've so often seen? And even then, God, it's only a special edition with mediocre stuff inside. Honestly...

I'm sorry to the US people who genuinely aren't as petty and annoying as some of your fellow gamers letting them down, but honestly, I think a few more Xenoblade instances should be in order. Is this mean of me to say? Well, if it gives them even a bit of humility, then so be it. Realise that you have barely anything to complain about. You get plenty of games that we in PAL territories don't - you get them a lot quicker, and you are damaged the LEAST by this Persona 4 Arena so-called "fiasco". Yet even then, you still find things to whinge about that many are quick to scream boycott, and general behaviour that screams an attitude of entitlement.

And as a disclaimer's note at the bottom here - I personally don't really care about any of the games I have mentioned in this post. Well, except for Rogue Galaxy, because it's genuinely one of the last best RECENT JRPGs to have been churned out. If Persona 4 Arena does eventually intrigue me, then yes, maybe I may support it. As for the two Tales games? There's a reason why even though Europe is starting to receive Tales games again, I am struggling to find the will to get into them. It's all in all, unremarkable in appearance, teeming with characters that may as well share a den with people like Edge Maverick and Meracle for all I care, and just crawling with all these bland clichés. Still, I heard the battle systems are alright.

But no time for that. I have the Mass Effect trilogy to play through.

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