I Am Setsuna Director: "We'd Consider the Vita Version for the U.S."
As usual, it's a question of demand.
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Square Enix confirmed yesterday that I Am Setsuna will be arriving on North American shores, but with one notable omission: the Vita version will be staying in Japan. Instead, Square Enix is porting their RPG to Steam. Square Enix isn't totally closing the door on a North American Vita release, though.
I had a chance to interview I Am Setsuna director Atsushi Hashimoto at GDC today; and as we were wrapping up, I noted the disappointment by some fans in North America that the Vita version isn't coming west. He replied that Project Setsuna was ultimately developed with the big screen in mind, but added, "Of course, there is a large Vita market in Japan. If there is a swell of demand in North America [for the Vita version], though, we will consider it."
Unlikely, maybe, but it's nice to know that Square Enix is at least keeping the option open. It was just a couple years ago that fan demand pushed Square Enix to dust off Final Fantasy Type-0 and port it to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
""After you guys posted that article, we started to receive a lot of inquiries at Square Enix, and I started to directly hear our fans' voices," director Hajime Tabata told us in a PAX Prime interview that year. "Without that, and without the influx of demands and requests that we received, this probably would have never happened. And it's because of the fans being vocal about wanting this overseas that it was easier to convince [Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda]. The entire Type-0 development team was also fully onboard to deliver this, and that's how we were able to bring it over to next-gen devices. I'm very appreciative of that."
Of course, at the end of the day, it's the publisher's call whether or not the Vita version of I Am Setsuna ends up heading west. But if fans speak loudly enough in favor of a portable version, it appears that Square Enix is listening.
I Am Setsuna will be out on Steam and PlayStation 4 this summer. Look forward to my interview with Hashimoto later this week on our RPG podcast, Axe of the Blood God.