Arc the Lad and Alundra are sitting comfortably on PlayStation Network, ready for anyone who has a PSP or PlayStation 3 and internet access. The game that kicked off the Arc the Lad series is now easy to find, but bringing these RPGs to PlayStation Network was a quest in itself.
"Regarding Arc the Lad and Alundra, its been a long hard road," John Greiner, CEO of MonkeyPaw, reminisced after I asked him how the licensing worked out. "These titles are Sony’s originals. While Working Designs did the translations, the licensing had to come from Sony. Since the games were published long ago, its hard to find the decision-makers on deals like these, especially in a huge Japanese multi-national company like Sony."
"But Sony was very accommodating and after a year or so of effort, we finally get the games live. So in the end, its all about perseverance and working with good people."
I asked Greiner if MonkeyPaw had other Japanese RPGs in their hands or paws.
"These games are MonkeyPaw’s first foray into the world of RPGs but they won’t be the last. The genre is so tied to Japan that we wouldn’t be true to our charter if we ignored the many great RPGs that need to release in Western markets. So we will continue with the Arc Series and have more cooking."
Arc the Lad II and Arc Arena are probably on deck for release since the ESRB re-rated both games a few days ago.
