Blue Protocol – Bandai Namco “Confirm” English Release

So I’ve received countless DMs on Twitter, messages on Discord, and.. well I’ve received a lotta messages over the last 24 hours regarding Blue Protocol.
Here I was thinking this would be a nice, relaxing weekend away from home, but when I heard the news I flew home as fast as I could, recorded this and decided to post it as fast as I could.
This is important information after all!

Okay, jokes aside, there was a Reddit post made over the weekend by a user named Seven linking to a job posting by Bandai Namco.
The job posting in specific is in Japanese, ’cause.. I mean naturally. Why wouldn’t it be? The game and company are both Japanese so.. Now, I’m going to take a moment and go over exactly what they’re looking for and what this means for the game and its Western release.

Now, Bandai Namco are looking for a “Localization Director,” that will be in charge of localizing Blue Protocol. They will be in charge of General UI, text, cutscene voices and.. yeah, I don’t know what “culture rise” means. Not at all.
This is probably just a translation issue and would make sense if I spoke Japanese. A little further down they note that regarding the translation and recording work – so recording work meaning the cutscene voices mentioned, will have “culturization instructions” provided by publishers in each region.
I think – and don’t quote me here as this is all purely speculation – that “culturalization” is more to do with making the game make sense in each language it’s released in.
Take Anime as an example. Some jokes don’t make sense in Japanese, but when translated into English, although technically they’re a little – and hell even sometimes a lot different – they make sense to us. Though they lose the initial meaning, we’re still capable of understanding and following along with it, and I feel that’s where they’re going with this.
A little further down they mention that they want someone with development experience with consumer titles released worldwide.
A lot of information thus far is pointing towards the fact that Bandai Namco are aiming to release this everywhere throughout the world, right? Like, “publishers in each region,” “culture rise rooted in each region,” “general localization.”
I mean yes, even further down they list that they’re looking for someone that has Localization work experience, and English language skills, along with Overseas work experience. This right here, this is the part you’re looking for.
Bandai Namco have officially confirmed that they are looking for someone that has work with localizing games in English, and preferably have experience with localization in English while working overseas specifically. Then they go on to say they want someone aggressive, that can take initiative preemptively without input from the company itself.

And that’s the entire job posting.
It’s exciting. Finally, after what? Half a year or more, months after their first beta – which is still under NDA by the way, we finally have a confirmation that we’re going to get the game.
When some Reddit user – I forget who, mentioned that the game would not release in the West and that Bandai Namco had no intention of releasing over here, people lost their minds. Yet I told people to relax, because that just meant that specifically, at that single point in time they weren’t ready to release outside of Japan.
I’d much rather have them focus on developing a good game for Japan first, and then release worldwide later on, after the game is worth playing. And they did – months passed, they remained pretty silent on the matter, but they gave us the news we wanted, the news we needed this year: Blue Protocol is getting an English release.

Blue Protocol is probably 2020’s most anticipated MMORPG. Not only does the game look ridiculously good, but players have confirmed that it plays equally as good as it looks. I’ve seen various videos from the game – showing footage, actual gameplay footage, battles, showing other players out in the world, and I’m very impressed.
But I mean.. I’m a pretty large Bandai Namco fan. I love the Tales of game series, and they develop them – Tales of Arise looks so good, I feel like this is probably one of my favorite developers right now. Code Vein, Tales of Arise, God Eater 3, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, and now Blue Protocol in English? Hell yes.
A AAA MMORPG title developed by a company with tons of funding as opposed to some small indie dev that is going to take a decade to release, and even then.. we all know how most of those turn out. The combat is pure action combat.
From the various videos I’ve seen – which I won’t link to here because the game is still under an NDA and I don’t feel like getting in trouble because of that – it looks similar to KurtzPel. Probably even better than KurtzPel, honestly, and KurtzPel is an action-game that prides itself on its combat.
It looks like what KurtzPel should’ve been if it were an MMO. There are various traditional classes you can choose between, there’s plenty of character customization, and the game is going to be completely open-world. I think the towns might be instanced?
Honestly that’s probably the only info I’m not entirely certain on, but you’re supposed to be able to see hundreds of other players out participating in content – as players confirmed during the beta.

I know a lotta you have been looking forward to the game, and the news that you’ll be able to play the game. I know you were all destroyed when Nexon cancelled Peria Chronicles. When Genshin Impact turned out to be a 4-player co-op RPG instead of an MMO you were a little disappointed but the game looked too good for you to really care that much.
Project BBQ? Hah, that isn’t coming out any time soon. It is a Nexon MMO after all and we all know how Nexon MMOs go. They’re all Anime games that we’ve been looking forward to over the last several years. I’m a huge Anime fan, I love Anime, Anime games and Anime MMOs. So knowing this is coming out in English is a treat for me.
It doesn’t currently have a confirmed Western release date – it doesn’t have a confirmed Japanese release date yet. It’s expected to release in Japan this year, but given that they’re already looking for a localization director.. means that they’re interested in getting this started as soon as they possibly can.
While it’s highly unlikely we’ll see an English release this year, it’s definitely a possibility to get the game in 2021, with either an Alpha or Beta test this year.

And that’s it. You’ve all been asking for anything regarding the game, and here you have it. An official confirmation that the game is not only going to release in English, but probably other languages as well, which is even more exciting! And the game will have fully-English cutscenes and audio.
Here’s hoping it’s Bandai Namco quality and not your traditional South Korean MMO voice overs.