
XSEED Games (XSEED JKS, Inc.) is an American video game publisher founded by former employees of Square Enix's American branch that specializes in localizing Japanese video games from various companies for the North American market, similarly to Atlus USA and NIS America.
Known for their colorful localizations with a strict adherence to the spirit of their scripts, the company has gained a reputation for publishing games that could be considered too niche or uncertain for larger companies to localize, friendly and transparent PR open to fan feedback, excellent in-house PC ports, behind-the-scenes blog posts, and frankly insane work ethic.
The company has formed a partnership with Marvelous Entertainment USA to publish some of its games in North America (which then lead to its acquisition by Marvelous in 2013), and a publishing partnership with Falcom, essentially making XSEED the primary publisher of the Ys and Trails Series games starting with Trails in the Sky in North America, prior to the decision to move to NIS America beginning with Cold Steel III. They are also responsible for localizing most of Media Vision's games, including the Wild ARMs series.
Find their website here. You can read their localization blog here
.
Games published:
- Akiba's Trip
- Akiba's Trip: Undead and Undressed
- Akiba's Beat
- Ark of the Ages (Android, iPhone/iPod)
- Avalon Code
- Brandish: The Dark Revenant
- Brave Story: New Traveler
- Bullet Witch (PC version)
- Corpse Party
- Corpse Party: Book of Shadows
- Corpse Party: Blood Drive
- Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient
- Daemon X Machina (PC version)
- Drill Sergeant Mindstrong
- Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground
- Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space
- Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star
- Fishing Resort
- Flower, Sun and Rain
- Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
- Granblue Fantasy Versus
- Grand Knights History (Cancelled)
- Half-Minute Hero (PSP version)
- Ivy the Kiwi? (DS, Wii)
- Ju-on: The Grudge
- Killer is Dead (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- KORG DS-10 PLUS
- KORG DS-10 Synthesizer
- The Last Story
- Little King's Story
- Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven
- Lunar: Silver Star Harmony
- Onechanbara Z2: Chaos
- Nitroplus Blasterz Heroines Infinite Duel (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 with cross-gen multiplayer support)
- Orgarythm
- Pandora's Tower (Wii release)
- Populous DS
- Potionomics
- Ragnarok DS
- Retro Game Challenge
- Rune Factory Frontier
- Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
- Samurai Shodown Sen
- Senran Kagura Burst
- Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus
- Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit!
- Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson
- Senran Kagura: Estival Versus
- Shadow Hearts: From The New World
- Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4, Vita and Wii U retail versions)
- The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces
- Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (NA version only)
- Story of Seasons
- Sumioni: Demon Arts
- Trails Series
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (up to Cold Steel IInote )
- Unchained Blades
- Valhalla Knights
- Valhalla Knights 2 (and the Battle Stance Updated Re-release)
- Valhalla Knights 3
- Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga
- Victorious Boxers: Revolution
- Way of the Samurai 4
- Wild ARMs (starting with the fourth main installment)
- Wild ARMs 4
- Wild ARMs 5 (10th Anniversary Edition)
- Wild ARMs XF
- The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road
- Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls (iPhone/iPod, PlayStation 3)
- Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls - The Red Shadow of the Sister
- Xanadu Next (PC)
- Ys (till Ys SEVEN)
- Ys Origin
- Ys: I & II Chronicles (Premium Edition)
- Ys I & II Chronicles+
- Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PC, PSP)
- Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim
- Ys SEVEN
- Ys: Memories of Celceta
- Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection
Tropes associated with XSEED
- Determinator: Neither complicated Japanese wordplay nor size of script, nor years of time, nor broken code shall stop them from releasing their games.
- Fanservice:
- Several, but the Senran Kagura franchise is their biggest example, something that they are very well-aware of.
- Subverted, as they plan to no longer release any more fanservice games
that aren't related to Senran Kagura. It's because that series is Marvelous' most successful one, and also because they can see its potential beyond its famous fanservice.
- Friendly Rival: With Aksys Games.
- I Read It for the Articles: Even in their more fanservice-heavy games, the staff are more likely to talk about their favorite characters, the writing, and what makes members of the cast good female role models rather than the copious amount of breasts and panty shots.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: They occasionally post pictures of their cats on their Twitter.
- Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Several of their releases and re-releases include special editions that are slightly more expensive yet still reasonably priced, and include all sorts of bonus features such as artbooks, soundtracks, and collectibles, the Senran Kagura series and the Trails Series being some examples.
- Promoted Fanboy: Most members got their start fan translating games in the early days of the internet.
- Retraux: The localization of Zwei II in particular was done with the spirit of 90s anime in mind, both in voice acting and writing, thanks to the retro feel of the game's mechanics and characterization.