When Fantasian was properly revealed with trailers and the marketing finally kicking off, I learned that Jessica Chavez was a part of the team localizing it for an international audience. I’ve been a fan of her work ever since I discovered Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky years ago and started reading up on how the Trails games were localized. With Fantasian finally available worldwide, the time was right to discuss all things localization with a veteran who has worked on multiple games across different consoles, PC, and mobile and also the Localization Creative Supervisor on Fantasian.
TouchArcade (TA): You?ve had quite a career from working on video games, books, films, and more over the years. How did you get involved with the Fantasian project and Mistwalker again following working with the developer on The Last Story years ago" Jessica Chavez (JC): Well, it started with a message at a coffee shop. I?d just moved back to Japan after being away for 14 years, and I was waiting during the orientation period for my children at the school I was enrolling them in. The message was from an old acquaintance, Mikey McNamara, who had recently launched his own publishing company, Rocket Panda Games. He asked what my schedule was like. I?d been freelancing for about five years at this point after I left XSEED, but between the move and getting the kids resettled I?d only just become available to take on projects again. He had some interesting s...