Super Play Issue 39, January 1996, Page 11

The Trouble With Mana 2

Following last month's glorious fanfare over Square Soft's long-awaited
sequel to Secret of Mana and the shock news that a definite decision has
been made not to release it in the West, Super Play has lit its ornately
carved ivory pipe and donned its official Basil Rathbone deerstalker in a
bid to get to the truth behind this foul perpetration upon all fair and good
English-speaking RPGers throughout the world. Onward, Watson.
Initially, our investigations led us to believe that it was Square Soft USA
who had canned the game's translation. Problems such as programming bugs
(which would involve a delay of six months to a year to fix) were cited as
the reasons by 'those in the know' as to why it was simply too much bother
giving the game a release outside of Japan. Tempers flared as Western Square
fans saw red and demanded the head of Square Soft USA on a plate, but after
getting in direct communication with their head man in the US - Ted Woolsey
- a different story has emerged. Unfortunately it has nothing to do with a
sinister conspiracy against Americans or even the lost will of an eccentric
old aunt, but merely the economics of a large multinational video gamescompany.
The decision to release a Japanese-developed Square game in the West rests
firmly with Japan. Ted and his colleagues can make suggestions as to with
titles they think Western audiences but the final say is down to Square Co.Ltd.
Although the translation into English is produced in the States, the actual
coding of the text into the game is done back in Japan, something which
obviously ties up staff who could be hard at work on any number of projects
Square has planned or in progress during 1996 (there are already three major
titles on the SNES scheduled for January and February: Front Mission: Gun
Hazard, Super Mario RPG and the just announced Bahamut Lagoon, of which more
next month), and remember Square are now heavily gearing up for the
Nintendo64 so their workforce is therefore at a premium. Apparently
programming bugs do exist in the game (but no one's saying exactly where)
and at the moment Square Japan are simply not prepared to commit staff to a
good six month's work correcting it. You may ask why they can't just hand
over the job over to someone else, but remember that for most companies the
actual code of a game is a closely guarded secret, with techniques and
routines that are to be protected. To simply pass over that much work (even
to an American arm) is simply out of the question in most cases.
If you still feel that strongly about not being able to play an English
version of Secret Of Mana 2 then it may still be worth sending a polite note
to Square (see last issue for the address) to show your enthusiasm. After
all, if enough people do just that Square Co.Ltd might come to realise that
it could still be a commercially viable SNES product this time next year.
We'll keep you posted.