When Square Enix revealed the official US theme song for Final Fantasy XIII, fans of the series let out a collective “Huh?”. Producer Yoshinori Kitase explains why they choose Leona Lewis’ song and the answer is surprising.
In an interview with the Dutch Official Playstation Magazine, Kitase explains that Square Enix originally wanted to translate the Japanese theme, ‘Kimi Ga IruKara’, but things just didn’t work out.
We have tried to translate the original theme song, but the singer had difficulties with that. This is a new type of tactic, an experiment if you will. Why not use a different artist for every region?
So exactly why did they go with Leona Lewis’ ‘My Hands’ for the US theme?
If both the content and atmosphere of the song would match with the game, then we would expect it will score better within that particular region. Square Enix as a company is thinking more and more internationally and localization plays an important part within that strategy.
I hate to be the burden of bad news for you, Square Enix..but going with Ms. Lewis song isn’t going to help FFXIII ‘score better’ in whatever regions it is being used in. Why? 90% of Game reviewers are males and those same 90% most likely aren’t fans of her music. Why not just use the original Japanese theme anyway? One of the most requested features by JRPG fans is for the original Japanese voice-overs for the title, not that the theme be changed. While the theme won’t hurt the games overall review score, it’s certainly not going to help.
Hey, there’s still some good news..the voice-overs for America/ Europe seem to be pretty good (Tidus from FFX!? GAG!) plus Square Enix went back and redid the lip syncing, a first in the series.
Final Fantasy XIII will finally be released on March 9th. Are you ready to enter the world of Pulse to help Lightning and crew take down Cocoon?
