Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition Coming Stateside

In a quite bizarre move, Nintendo announced last year that Pokémon would be crossing paths with the Japanese strategy RPG series, Nobunaga's Ambition, last year. The game is all about Japanese warlords, some of which are based on real people, duking it out with a number of different Pokémon. It was released last month and due to the obscurity of the series Pokémon was crossing paths with, many people, myself included, doubted it would ever come stateside.

Well, I was wrong because Nintendo announced today that the game will be coming to the states on June 18th for the original Nintendo DS under the title Pokémon Conquest. Which makes sense, it's more likely to sell copies with a generic name rather than attached "Nobunaga's Ambition" on the end.

Still, it just goes to show where NoA's priorities are when it comes to localization. If this game involved, say, Fire Emblem, rather than Pokémon, it's likely it wouldn't have gotten localized. But since it's Pokémon, and will likely sell because of it, it's localized without question. We have to fight tooth and nail for games like Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story but if an obscure Pokémon game comes out in Japan that not nearly as many people care about, it's no big deal to localize it. Ah well. At least we are getting all three of these games. Hopefully Nintendo will announce a US release for Fire Emblem: Awakening next.