Fans of Cam Clarke will lose themselves in despair when they hear this one. Ignition Entertainment’s gorgeous beat-’em-up on the Wii will hit North American shores without any English audio track available. Yup, that’s right. It’ll be arriving in our strange new country, not speaking a word of our language, with no pocket translator and no appreciation for football.

In all seriousness, this is good news, correct? Now we’re being forced to experience the game as intended by the development team, though certainly a great deal of this game’s target demographic would be switching the dialogue to Japanese as soon as they popped ‘er into the console. It is, after all, a mystical adventure through Japanese folklore and myth, presented in an anime-esque, hand-painted package.

As Ignition’s Shane Bettenhausen (who knows his Japanese stuff) told Siliconera, the game is “so deeply steeped in Japanese tradition, mythology, and culture that trying to dub it, trying to make something more Western is really not a service to the product.” Well said, Shane. This is about a development team preserving and presenting Japanese culture in the only medium they’re trained to deal in! Good on ‘em, right?

It says a great deal about the artistic vision and principles upheld by this dev team: to not even provide an English alternative, as has historically been the preferred option when shipping Eastern games o’er West, means we’ll be seeing the game they way they envisioned, whether we like it or not. They’ve made the decision for us in this case, and while it doesn’t bother some of us, there are assuredly a few people who’ll be a little upset at the lack of any choice in the matter: maybe your TV is too far from where you sit to read the subtitles, maybe there’s a Japanese voice actor you really hate, or maybe you’ve been cursed, and hearing spoken Japanese makes your nose bleed.

Bit of a bold move, Ignition. Then again, no guts, no glory!

Via Kotaku