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Operation Rainfall is a fan campaign attempting to persuade Nintendo of America to localize three Japanese RPGs for the Nintendo Wii. It is commonly abbreviated as OpRa. The three games, Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower, have all been released in Europe and Australia now. They have all been well received by fans and critics alike. Largely thanks to Operation Rainfall, they will all be enjoyed by Americans as well.

Background[]

The campaign began on June 23, 2011. On that day, the marketing manager of Nintendo France, Mathieu Minel, stated that Nintendo of Europe wanted to show Xenoblade Chronicles at E3, but that "Nintendo of America wouldn't let them because they didn't want to show products they aren't planning to sell." 11 days later, Minel's departure from Nintendo was announced. In response to this statement, fans of RPGs, or Role-Playing Games, started a fan campaign dubbed Operation Rainfall the next day on the IGN Message Boards, specifically the Nintendo Wii Lobby. They hoped to persuade NoA to localise Xenoblade Chronicles, as well as The Last Story and Pandora's Tower. The main organisers of the campaign are focusing on these three games currently, but they do not exclude supporting other titles for American localizations.

Success[]

So far Operation Rainfall's Facebook page has reached over 12000 Likes. Xenoblade reached #1 in Amazon.com's Top 100 game sales, #1 in all Wii game sales and #1 in Wii action game sales on 25 June, 2011. Operation Rainfall succeeded in bringing the first two games, Xenoblade (under the name Xenoblade Chronicles) and The Last Story to America. Xenoblade Chronicles was released on the 6th April, 2012, while The Last Story has been confirmed for a June 19, 2012 release date, nearly a year after the campaign's beginning. But after a long time of campaigning, they decided that they had spent enough time and money on Pandora's Tower, and gave up the effort.

Xenoblade's American release was announced on NoA's Facebook page on 2 December, 2011. Fans had to wait a while longer for the confirmation of The Last Story's release, which was officially announced on 22 February, 2012. However, The Last Story will not be published by Mistwalker; the American release is going to be released by XSEED Games. A localisation for Pandora's Tower has finally been announced, on 17 January 2013, more than a year after Xenoblade. It is also going to be published by XSEED Games. The release date is set for Spring 2013. Even though OpRa had given up on the game, it is largely due to their efforts that it is being localised.

Operation Moonfall[]

Operation Rainfall was so successful and well-supported that other fan communities came up with inspired ideas. The most successful of these is Operation Moonfall, supported by much of the Legend of Zelda community. After the release of Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS, a remake of the original, Eiji Anouma, director of the Legend of Zelda series, suggested that a remake of Majora's Mask was not an impossibility. Following this statement fans began their own fan campaign, Operation Moonfall, to convince Nintendo to release Majora's Mask for the 3DS.

The petition reached 10000 signatures within 5 days. Representatives from Nintendo have said that it is quite possible that they will end up making Majora's Mask 3D, but they wish to create an original Zelda 3DS title first.

External Links[]

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