Localization is a lot more work than it initially seems:
- text rendering system must support unicode
- all used fonts have to support all the necessary glyphs
- text has to be hoisted from code to external text files (slowing down development every time a piece of text needs to be changed during development)
- gui layout must support and be tested with variable length text
- text must be translated
- changes to text after translation work is complete must be kept to minimum, making further development of the game harder
Yes, it can be done, but like Sol said, every feature takes time to implement, test and debug and it all adds up.
Development time for LoG was about 10 months and we practically ran out of money before the game shipped, so unfortunately some corners had to be cut...