Square Enix is always a big part of Japan's annual Tokyo Game Show, and 2015 is no different: Square Enix announced a number of different titles, and more importantly, when players can expect to get their hands on them. Among the announcements was the latest entry in the long-running Star Ocean RPG franchise: Star Ocean 5: Integrity and Faithlessness is set to hit the PlayStation 4 on February 26, 2016 — in Japan.
While it's not entirely surprising that the Japanese version of the game and its release date were announced at a Japanese trade show, it's still a little surprising that no news of an international edition was revealed. Sure, Star Ocean isn't as popular in America as it is in Japan (you could say the same thing for most JRPG franchises), but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a dedicated following abroad. Star Ocean has always done relatively well with Western audiences — aside from Final Fantasy, it's one of the more popular ongoing JRPG franchises out there.
So, what does the lack of a Western release date really mean? At this point, it could mean anything: the most likely theory is that Square Enix wasn't going to worry about an international release date at a solely Japanese trade show. It's also possible that the team simply isn't ready to talk about it — localization takes a long time, and if the studio is only halfway through translating the game, then Star Ocean 5's English release date could be quite a bit later than its Japanese counterpart.
At this point, there's no telling when Star Ocean 5 will be hitting American consoles — but considering it's not hitting Japan until next February, don't expect to see the game's Western debut until sometime later next year.
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