I believe this has been done before, though the requesting is on Namco Bandai's own forum.
Moving on, as much as this is worth a shot, perhaps we shouldn't do this, not for iM@S at least.
We can do something, yes. But should we? In my opinion, no.Breakdown:
Point one: Imagine if it does, Atlus will soon decide over dub or sub. It would be awkward that a good portion of the game is Japanese, and it will only have subbed communication. The Producer's case, being a silent protagonist, makes it more awkward as it would look like speaking two different languages yet full understanding. We could also go to the point of dub for commus only, the songs don't change. That would work, until some fans (the unpleasable) would complain for the choice of voice actors. Though at that point,
your mileage may vary, so some may see it good. Some, bad. Others, don't care.
Point two: Let's say they worked something out. The fans are very pleased with whatever decisions Atlus made. But here's the part where it matters most: Who would get the game? Sure, Atlus have sent us good translations in the past, but that doesn't mean they'll keep on doing it for
anything if they see that both they and the other company won't profit much from it.
Sorry if I seemed pessimistic there, but I'm not trying to be such and instead be realistic. I mean, majority of the people who own an iM@S title understand Japanese, and has gone through many stuff JUST to get the game (a brilliant marketing strategy for Namco may I add). Some people who have heard of iM@S will instantly label this game as some cliche Visual Novel (as I saw in the forum link you posted).
If you want my true opinion, yes, why not? It's Atlus, the same people that gave us English versions of Izuna, Draglade, Super Robot Wars OG, Summon Night, Disgaea, KOF Neo Blood (*shot*), Guilty Gear (the first of the series), and Arcana Heart (*drools*). They can probably pull this off. But enter fan haters, those damn extremist who judge things before the label. Which is why I like the unannounced stuff.
I love iM@S, and I respect Atlus. That's why most of me is against this, to prevent those people who has and will give this game a bad name, sometimes without even an honest reason. I'll support this motion when and if some damn people stop trying to ruin the image of some games and us fans. If it does, I want subs. I trust some subbing, but I don't play risks at stakes this big.
At the moment, the only thing I want Atlus translating is Draglade 2. >X3 [spoiler]IT'S BEEN OVER 3 YEARS, ATLUS! THREE WHOLE YEARS!![/spoiler]
I wonder if instead of bringing the game over, Atlus could work with Namco to make an English patch that could be applied to the game. Make a couple more language patches, and put them on sale. Even if you had to pay like 600 yen or something to get a language patch, it'd be better than having to repurchase the game. I dunno, I'm sure at some point even if it's years from now this game will probably find it's way over here.
Patching would be impossible in that case. What a patch does is fix
minor gameplay issues or to add, disable or remove bugs and accidental game breakers. If you will look at the case of Street Fighter IV, they could've just make a patch for the new characters, gameplay changes, etc. but it was deemed too big of a change to be called a patch.
If we apply that to iM@S standards, that would mean changing the coding for every commu, menu bars, etc. In that sense, was it way bigger than SFIV's case. Rewriting an entire game is instead the only solution.
