Ni no Kuni Special Edition Announced for the US & EU (and Now Canada Too!)

[SEGA_Queen]

A few days ago, Namco annouced that there will be a SE version of Ni no Kuni called the "Wizard's Edition". It will be available in Europe (and Australia, I think).

However, the US version is only available for pre-order through Namco's store here:

http://store.namcobandaigames.com/st...Exclusive.html

Also, I should note that Namco's store does not ship to Canada. So any Canadians (including myself) will have to import the EU version, or buy it on Ebay for inflated prices.

I would have preferred it if Namco had made the SE available as a EB games/Gamestop exclusive instead, or at least made the plush or the spell book a pre-order bonus.

[PapaStu]

Aaaaand ordered.

[Bojay1997]

The worst part about this is that it's Digital River that handles Namco's store. That means there is a good chance it will be poorly packaged, will be shipped slowly unless you pick the priciest options and if there is damage or another problem with your order, it will take weeks or months to resolve. Digital River is literally the absolute worst drop shipper out there and I have had multiple issues with them through Capcom and THQ's stores.

[Sailorneorune]

Skipping this one due to the nightmare I had with Digital River overseeing Capcom's online store and my Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations preorder. It's not worth it to me to possibly have 2 $125+ charges on my credit card and my preorder "cancelled", only to have it shipped and 2 weeks go by before the duplicate charge is removed. $35 was bad enough.
I wish Namco Bandai would have also made this available at Amazon and/or Gamestop. We like the Gamestop in Henderson enough to preorder stuff there.

[SEGA_Queen]

Skipping this one due to the nightmare I had with Digital River overseeing Capcom's online store and my Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations preorder. It's not worth it to me to possibly have 2 $125+ charges on my credit card and my preorder "cancelled", only to have it shipped and 2 weeks go by before the duplicate charge is removed. $35 was bad enough.
I wish Namco Bandai would have also made this available at Amazon and/or Gamestop. We like the Gamestop in Henderson enough to preorder stuff there.

Whoa! After reading your post, I'm kind of glad I'm not ordering the SE. It's sounds like it's more trouble that it's worth. Besides, I don't know whether I can afford the $100 plus shipping price tag anyway.

Oh well, I'm still happy that the game is coming out in English. I looove Studio Ghibli films, and I enjoyed Rogue Galaxy, so this is right up my alley!

[Sailorneorune]

Sorry for scaring you... I hope everyone's opinions spur Namco Bandai to allow the Ni no Kuni SE to become available elsewhere.

[SEGA_Queen]

Sorry for scaring you... I hope everyone's opinions spur Namco Bandai to allow the Ni no Kuni SE to become available elsewhere.

Don't worry about it. I can't order it from Namco's site anyway because I'm in Canada.

[Gameguy]

Don't worry about it. I can't order it from Namco's site anyway because I'm in Canada.

It's weird, but looking at the checkout it seems like they might ship to Canada too. At least the information selection for billing offers selections for provinces as well as states(I selected Ontario and it showed up), and lists postal codes as well as zip codes. The country selection only offers US locations but I'm not sure if it could still be sent to Canada anyway if only the country would be written incorrectly. Maybe they think Canada is part of the US?

Or the checkout is very poorly designed, which is extremely possible too.

[SEGA_Queen]

It's weird, but looking at the checkout it seems like they might ship to Canada too. At least the information selection for billing offers selections for provinces as well as states(I selected Ontario and it showed up), and lists postal codes as well as zip codes. The country selection only offers US locations but I'm not sure if it could still be sent to Canada anyway if only the country would be written incorrectly. Maybe they think Canada is part of the US?

Or the checkout is very poorly designed, which is extremely possible too.

Yeah, I noticed that too. However, I checked their shipping FAQ, and it specifically says that they only ship the the US. It doesn't mention anything about Canada.

[xelement5x]

Very cool, I'm excited that they're bringing out a special edition but the crappy shipping worries me a bit. I may sit on this a bit before I decide if I want to order...

[Zama]

I actually placed a pre-order not too long ago I'll take my chances on this one and hope it arrives safely.

[PapaStu]

I saw Digital River did their shipping and had an early sad, as i've been annoyed by Capcom's stuff (though not screwed over), had no problems with THQ's stuff, and been royally annoyed over by SquareEnix's stuff (they do that one too).

Nothing done has prevented me from getting my games or damaged them, but their customer support when there are issues is slow and in Square's case, nothing was resolved and I just ended up waiting an additional 2+ months for my games because one was still out of stock (ordered 5 PSOne GH games off Square's site, one went out of stock after in cart, they held the entire order for over 5 months until that 5th game showed up to ship out. No matter what I said or asked, they wouldn't ship the rest of my order out until it arrived and honestly didn't even seem to act like they knew what was going on. Totally stupid).

[Lady Jaye]

Well, that's really, really dumb to have a North American branch of a game publisher that will only ship to the US. Geez, do they know that we actually get the same releases as the US? *rolls eyes*

[TonyTheTiger]

What's the deal with this game? First I've heard of it.

[Ryudo]

Pre ordered the limited edition from Namco. Can't wait. Level 5 + Studio Ghibli = Heaven

[SEGA_Queen]

Well, that's really, really dumb to have a North American branch of a game publisher that will only ship to the US. Geez, do they know that we actually get the same releases as the US? *rolls eyes*

Rich Bantegui, the community manager at Namco, has posted an interesting statement on his Twitter account:

"We appreciate & hear our Canadian fans re Ni no Kuni: Wizard's Edition. We're looking into making it available in Canada! We'll let u know."

So, perhaps we may get it over here after all!

[TonyTheTiger]

Why didn't they translate the title? It's like they don't want people to have any idea what the game is about.

[j_factor]

Ni no Kuni literally means "Second Country", which isn't exactly a catchy title. A more liberal translation would be something like Another World. The protagonist of the game is a kid in the "real world" who enters a parallel world/reality/dimension. Too bad Another World is already taken. Something like Parallel Reality or Alternate Dimension would sound like sci-fi, which it isn't.

Translating the whole title isn't really necessary, considering the audience. Did you enjoy New Goddess Reincarnation: Nocturne?

[TonyTheTiger]

Ni no Kuni literally means "Second Country", which isn't exactly a catchy title. A more liberal translation would be something like Another World. The protagonist of the game is a kid in the "real world" who enters a parallel world/reality/dimension. Too bad Another World is already taken. Something like Parallel Reality or Alternate Dimension would sound like sci-fi, which it isn't.

Translating the whole title isn't really necessary, considering the audience. Did you enjoy New Goddess Reincarnation: Nocturne?

Second Country doesn't sound like a bad title at all. No less catchy than "Ni no Kuni" at least.

And I never played Nocturne. Also, yes, not translating that series title was kinda silly, too, although from what I can tell the series is ludicrously Japanese so maybe it works better that way. Although for the sake of brevity, altering the title a bit might help, using "rising" instread of "reincarnation" or something. Then again, I think the terseness ship has sailed considering some of the titles in the series.

But, seriously, most of the time leaving things untranslated can only pigeonhole the potential audience. I doubt "Akumajo Dracula," "Zelda no Densetsu," or "Hoshi no Kirby" would have made nearly the splashes they did. Sometimes it can work when the word, while technically having a meaning, is brief to the point that it becomes essentially the name of the thing itself (Tekken, Hadouken, or even Nintendo) rather than something more broadly descriptive, or a foreign word used for the rule of cool (Ehrgeiz). But "Ni no Kuni" just feels like a title that's arbitrarily being left untranslated...just because.

[Zama]

I believe that "Ni no Kuni" is quite catchy and charming in its own way Props to the translators/marketing team for keeping it as it is instead of "Westernizing" the words which can either be a good or a bad thing (Think of the early days of NES/SNES games).