weird JRPGs that aren't available in English yet...

[edmonddantes]

So I've been looking at RPGs that are still in Japanese, not even having a fan translation, and some of them make me go... "why?"

I tend to find you can tell how interesting a game is gonna be just by its title.

Take, for example... last night I played a game called Down the World: Mervil's Ambition.  So I boot it up and right off the bat... it has a theme song with lyrics. The lyrics are in English (though being an emulated SFC cart, not as clear as a CD would be). Surprisingly despite my limited knowledge of Japanese I actually followed the opening decently well... there's a bunch of guys in a snow fort (or snow-covered castle.  Really cold place either way), it gets attacked, and King Larama (I may be misremembering the name) tells someone named Gaoh to... something.  Mervil is mentioned a lot (Always with this one character after his name which I couldn't read) and then you're sent to see a witch, along the way two battles pop up (this whole sequence is cutscene) which show that the battle system is gonna be... weird.

When it became clear the part with the witch was gonna be more talking, I stopped, though I honestly kinda wanted to test myself more.

But seriously, how can you see a title like "Down the World" and not immediately think, "the hell is that about?"

Another one I found was called Daikaijuu Monogatari (which may or may not be related to the Famicom game Kaijuu Monogatari).  I clicked this wondering if it had anything to do with Godzilla.  It doesn't, but it starts with the world being wrecked by meteors, and the only place safe is this one town where the titular kaijus live.  They gather around a fragment then their town Elder comes and is shocked by it....

Well, its a JRPG that starts with the world being destroyed.  Why is this not fantranslated yet?

Anyway, the last interesting title I discovered... and I can't confirm this is an RPG because I never got far enough to find out...

... Japan got their own exclusive Where's Waldo game.  Under its original European title, Where's Wally.  And in this one you seem to actually PLAY as Waldo--its not just bad scans from the books like other Waldo games are.  I got as far as you go up a screen and talk to Wizard Whitebeard but from there had no idea.  Still, I'm like... somehow there's a Where's Waldo game we didn't get.

All three of these are for the Super Famicom, if you wanna look them up.  Also if anyone ever finds a translation patch for any of these, inform me immediately.

.... Same goes for Sword World.  I don't know what that game is about, I'm just interested in RPGs based off pen n' paper sources.

[kingmike]

Daikaiju Monogatari has been fan-translated, as "Super Shell Monsters Story". Although some have been a bit critical the fan translation author has inserted a bit of politics into the translation.
Yes, it is related. The Kaijyu Monogatari series got two Super Famicom sequels, then a two-game spinoff franchise for Game Boy Color called Poyon's Dungeon Room (which more resembles another Famicom game by the same developer, Dream Master) and another spinoff franchise, a two-game card game called Miracle of the Zone that I never tried.

[dsparil]

Wouldn't Daikaijuu Monogatari roughly translate as Super Monster Story? Super Adventure Island used Dai- this way at least. Knowing nothing about either, I would be surprised if there wasn't any connection given the general trend of integrating the console name into the game name.

[jorpho]

I'm still slightly baffled by the absence of a proper translation for Square's Tom Sawyer (NES) after all this time.

[Discoalucard]

There are a few of these I'm featuring in the Japanese Video Game Obscurities book (like Linda Cube) but one I'm wavering on including is called Love Quest. It begins with your character, who's kind of a mama's boy, about to get married, when his bride-to-be mysteriously disappears. The game takes place in contemporary Tokyo (or a city very similar), and most of the enemies are angry, frustrated women that you need to calm down (or something like that). It's supposed to be really goofy, with a lot of surprisingly dirty jokes and self-referential humor. I haven't played it yet, but apparently there's lots of dialogue that failed Nintendo's S&P rules but instead of rewriting the dialogue they just put things in like "This joke has been cut". Of course, it's possible that that was the intention to begin with it and the game is just making fun of Nintendo's censorship standards, but it has silly things like that. (You can also apparently refuse to go rescue your fiancee at the beginning and then "win" the game with a unique ending.)

It's sort of infamous around the Japanese gaming sphere because it was originally supposed to be released for the Famicom, but by the time it was done, Nintendo had stopped production of Famicom cartridges in 1994, so it had to be entirely remade for the Super Famicom...but it was also released a week after Chrono Trigger and got totally demolished. The Famicom cartridge appeared on auction over a decade ago, but it's never been dumped so it's presumed to just be sitting in a collector's closet. There's some video footage of it out there.

[kingmike]

Mar 25, 2018 12:14:38 GMT -5 dsparil said:

Wouldn't Daikaijuu Monogatari roughly translate as Super Monster Story? Super Adventure Island used Dai- this way at least. Knowing nothing about either, I would be surprised if there wasn't any connection given the general trend of integrating the console name into the game name.

I thought kaiju implied some kind of scaled or reptilian monster.
Daikaiju Monogatari has a connection, as I recall the intro specifically mentions Fat Badger, who was the antagonist of the original game and is seen rising again. Also I believe it does include the three non-human player characters from the first game (certainly DKM2 does, in its intro).

Yes, it is a shame that with Famicom Love Quest, that 20 minutes or so of footage the owner uploaded might be all we see.
Not sure if there is just a scene in Japan which wants to horde unreleased games for bragging or whatever purposes, or just have fear of copyright police striking them down (moreso than their western counterparts, who usually horde out of fear of resale value).
(cases like the Hudson Donkey Kong 3 game where a group of western fans end up buying the game off a Japanese auction in order to get it dumped)

[dsparil]

Mar 26, 2018 17:39:47 GMT -5 kingmike said:

Mar 25, 2018 12:14:38 GMT -5 dsparil said:

Wouldn't Daikaijuu Monogatari roughly translate as Super Monster Story? Super Adventure Island used Dai- this way at least. Knowing nothing about either, I would be surprised if there wasn't any connection given the general trend of integrating the console name into the game name.

I thought kaiju implied some kind of scaled or reptilian monster.

Kaiju (怪獣) literally means "strange beast" i.e. monster although its contemporary usage comes from Godzilla. Mothra is a kaiju despite being an insect.

Edit: Also want to add that I wasn't contradicting your original post. You posted yours while I was still trying to find a game that used Dai- to mean Super!

[kingmike]

The game spells it 貝獣 so it is probably a pun.

[Discoalucard]

Mar 27, 2018 12:06:43 GMT -5 kingmike said:

The game spells it 貝獣 so it is probably a pun.

Yup, 貝獣 is pronounced "kaijuu" but means "shellfish".

"Dai" is a general character that means "Big, large", etc. "Daibouken" is an incredibly common video game world, and literally translated it means "big adventure" but I find "great adventure" typically sounds better in English.

[dsparil]

Is there any reason for the pun? From gameplay video is looks like a regular jRPG with a human party. I would have figured you play as a monster from the title.

[Discoalucard]

Mar 27, 2018 13:27:05 GMT -5 dsparil said:

Is there any reason for the pun? From gameplay video is looks like a regular jRPG with a human party. I would have figured you play as a monster from the title.

I'm not familiar with the game at all, but based on the Japanese Wikipedia article, you control a human character called "The Fire Shell Hero" and most of your companions are shellfish (although they sure don't really look like what you'd think shellfish would look like). The name of the land in the game is also called "Shelldorado".

[dsparil]

That definitely deserves the "weird" label then!

[toei]

It's really a pretty generic fantasy story regardless.

[ResidentTsundere]

Mar 27, 2018 14:03:32 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

Mar 27, 2018 13:27:05 GMT -5 dsparil said:

Is there any reason for the pun? From gameplay video is looks like a regular jRPG with a human party. I would have figured you play as a monster from the title.

I'm not familiar with the game at all, but based on the Japanese Wikipedia article, you control a human character called "The Fire Shell Hero" and most of your companions are shellfish (although they sure don't really look like what you'd think shellfish would look like). The name of the land in the game is also called "Shelldorado".

He looks like a Kirby character! Pretty adorable.

[Arale]

The briefly aforementioned Linda3 is one I'm really interested in. The art in the anime cutscenes and concept art is so nuts.

Kowloon's Gate if you count it as an RPG. And the obscure fucked up Dreamcast RPG deSPIRIA. All crazy interesting games that will probably never, ever be translated. (sob)