07-06-2011, 07:57 AM
Usually when a game doesn't get released in a region it is because of either costs (whether it is translation, marketing, license rights if it is a TV Show/film/book/anime/manga or publishing rights costs) or that it didn't suit the market like a full of colour cute looking game in America or a over the top violent American style game in Japan. Another reason could be reviews in one region might put off a publisher at another region to release the game. While it is disappointing that some games weren't released in your region, there are usually realistic reasons why they aren't released. Besides the option to import has always been available (the 90s in the UK were quite big on importing with small and even a couple of larger stores advertising imported games and systems such as the PC Engine that weren't officially released in Europe to the point of big magazines reviewing import games, they seem to have died down after the Dreamcast) if you are desperate.
As for these three games, looking at their profiles of the companies shows that many of their games are either Japanese only or handled by smaller publishers (Majesco, D3 Publisher, Atlus) or with Ganbarion (makers of Pandora's Tower) focus on anime based titles. In fact the only game that was released outside Japan by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo so far is Disaster: Day of Crisis and even then got mixed reviews in Europe (also apparently it had a bit of a dodgy development cycle to the point of being almost cancelled according to one review). I'll predict at best case scenario (the other scenario is that they won't get released which is understandable) that at least one or two of the three games of Operation Rainfall would be released in America most likely by smaller niche publishers who understand that market a bit more, not by Nintendo of America who would rather focus on a Mario/Pokemon/Zelda title (the possible reason why Nintendo of Europe is translating and publishing them is due to not as many niche publishers in Europe that would be interested). I can actually see Xseed Games publishing The Last Story in America due to that its parent company was involved of the development of the game, whether it happens or not remains to be seen.
Going back to unreleased games in a region, there are a few examples that I can think of top of my head that Europe didn't get while Japan/America got that were considered big titles such as the original releases of Final Fantasy 1, 4 and 6, the SNES version of Chrono Trigger (it was released on the DS), Mega Man 6, Ninja Gaiden "Shadow Warriors" 3, Super Mario RPG (it was released on the Virtual Console though) and the Mega Man collections. At least some games had plasuable reasons why it weren't released (for Super Mario RPG it would have been released when the N64 came out and not many RPGs were released on the SNES in Europe most likely due to localisation costs for the others, for the Mega Man collections Nintendo published the first 5 NES games and Mega Man X in Europe so Capcom might had to deal with Nintendo for rights even though ironically the first collection was made in the UK). The other way around seems to be rarer in the past, game publishers with Japanese roots (American publishers generally published games in both America and Europe, sometimes Japan as well) didn't really care and also unaware about Europe when they see Japan and America as the big markets and any sales outside them two regions were a bonus, the oddity being Sega releasing Master System games exclusively for Europe/Brazil that weren't ported to the Game Gear for the US/Japan (Battle Out Run, Bonanza Bros, Gain Ground, Buggy Run, Running Battle, Cyber Shinobi, Basketball Nightmare, Ninja Gaiden to name a few). The other exception were systems that weren't released in the US and Japan such as the ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC so only European publishers and developers could work on it. Nowadays it is a bit of a different story due to publishers and developers are more aware of a global market and there are more publishers that can release niche products such as Rising Star Games and 505Games in Europe or XSeed, Majesco, NIS and Atlus in the US.
Also for the other way round they usually have a smaller print run and even to the point of being released only in a few countries (e.g. Mr Gimmick, Alien Soldier, Disaster: Day of Crisis).
As for these three games, looking at their profiles of the companies shows that many of their games are either Japanese only or handled by smaller publishers (Majesco, D3 Publisher, Atlus) or with Ganbarion (makers of Pandora's Tower) focus on anime based titles. In fact the only game that was released outside Japan by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo so far is Disaster: Day of Crisis and even then got mixed reviews in Europe (also apparently it had a bit of a dodgy development cycle to the point of being almost cancelled according to one review). I'll predict at best case scenario (the other scenario is that they won't get released which is understandable) that at least one or two of the three games of Operation Rainfall would be released in America most likely by smaller niche publishers who understand that market a bit more, not by Nintendo of America who would rather focus on a Mario/Pokemon/Zelda title (the possible reason why Nintendo of Europe is translating and publishing them is due to not as many niche publishers in Europe that would be interested). I can actually see Xseed Games publishing The Last Story in America due to that its parent company was involved of the development of the game, whether it happens or not remains to be seen.
Going back to unreleased games in a region, there are a few examples that I can think of top of my head that Europe didn't get while Japan/America got that were considered big titles such as the original releases of Final Fantasy 1, 4 and 6, the SNES version of Chrono Trigger (it was released on the DS), Mega Man 6, Ninja Gaiden "Shadow Warriors" 3, Super Mario RPG (it was released on the Virtual Console though) and the Mega Man collections. At least some games had plasuable reasons why it weren't released (for Super Mario RPG it would have been released when the N64 came out and not many RPGs were released on the SNES in Europe most likely due to localisation costs for the others, for the Mega Man collections Nintendo published the first 5 NES games and Mega Man X in Europe so Capcom might had to deal with Nintendo for rights even though ironically the first collection was made in the UK). The other way around seems to be rarer in the past, game publishers with Japanese roots (American publishers generally published games in both America and Europe, sometimes Japan as well) didn't really care and also unaware about Europe when they see Japan and America as the big markets and any sales outside them two regions were a bonus, the oddity being Sega releasing Master System games exclusively for Europe/Brazil that weren't ported to the Game Gear for the US/Japan (Battle Out Run, Bonanza Bros, Gain Ground, Buggy Run, Running Battle, Cyber Shinobi, Basketball Nightmare, Ninja Gaiden to name a few). The other exception were systems that weren't released in the US and Japan such as the ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC so only European publishers and developers could work on it. Nowadays it is a bit of a different story due to publishers and developers are more aware of a global market and there are more publishers that can release niche products such as Rising Star Games and 505Games in Europe or XSeed, Majesco, NIS and Atlus in the US.
Also for the other way round they usually have a smaller print run and even to the point of being released only in a few countries (e.g. Mr Gimmick, Alien Soldier, Disaster: Day of Crisis).