x.jpg Over at Namakoteam, Trevor 'Jiji' Wilson has been pointing out much weirdness regarding the Western release of a new Irem PS2 title, as follows: "Just as with Agetec's previous release of Disaster Report (aka Zettai Zetsumei Toshi), the publisher is attempting to make Raw Danger more palatable to US audiences."

How so? "They've done this by changing location and character names to be non-Japanese, and have made both of the main characters blonde. But it seems that their fiddling has caused some possibly unexpected results [YouTube link]." Hah! As he notes: "It looks to me like they've modified one or two hair textures that are actually used for most of the characters onscreen as a memory-saving measure. So by making the main character blonde, they've made... everybody else blonde."

But on the other hand, Jiji says: "I'm of the opinion that measures like the ones Agetec has taken with localizing this series amount to going a little too far, but this is just hilarious. But then again, the above video is from last February, so there's a possibility things have been tweaked since this build." He's also been monitoring the changing ESRB rating, shifted down from a M to a T. Wow, and the cover is all kinds of wacky too.

Anyhow, the first Disaster Report was pretty interesting in its puzzle-y passivity, if not an amazing game - we'll see how this one (which is apparently based around the aftermath of a tsunami, as opposed to an earthquake in the first title) fares when it comes out.

[UPDATE: Game Of The Blog has been doing some extra research, revealing a possible $19.99 price point at EB, but: "Release date is today but you can't actually order it yet. A call to local stores says that it's in the computer as being out, but no one has any copies. I would have pre-ordered this and have been trying to for months, but they never had it listed."]