According to Kitase, "Traditionally the Final Fantasy numbered series, it takes about half a year between the release in Japan and the release in North America, and another half a year before it's released in Europe. But we would like to minimise this, this time." Steps taken to minimize the wait include recording English voices during the development of the Japanese game, not after. English text localization is also in progress concurrent with work on the Japanese version.
Square Enix must have finally realized that the sooner it gets North American and European versions out, the sooner it can sell the game in Japan again as the "International" version.
