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[Glowsquid]

Despite the noted unpopularity of western games in Japan, there's been actually quite a few times where port of western games, and even original games by western developers, were exclusively released there. I'm interested in seeing how deep this well goes.

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Rendering Ranger R2

A run-and-gun/shmup mix by Manfred Trenz of Turrican fame. It was a late SFC release, and it was only sold through Virgin stores, guaranteeing a low print run and even lower sales. It’s a shame too, as it’s a fairly fun game and an impressive technical showcase.

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Iron Commando

A Super Famicom beat’em up by French developer Arcade Zone. A PAL release was planned but cancelled, and the Japanese release was only in limited quantities.

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Random 32-bit ports

It was a trend to do ports of random home computer and arcade games to the PS1 and Saturn, and release them exclusively in Japan. Games that got this treatment include Dark Seed, Return to Zork, Ultima Underworld, Quarantine (which was ported by different names and got two different names between PS1 and Saturn), Race Drivin’ on the Saturn, Mortal Kombat II on the PS1, and probably others I am forgetting.

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Gundam 0079 : The War For Earth

A FMV game by Presto Studios (Journeyman Project, Myst III), who were specifically hired by Bandai to do a Gundam game according to the Behind-the-scenes featurette on the official website. A truncated retelling of the first 15 episodes of the anime, it features amusingly bad acting, props and the worst possible actor for Char Aznable.

The original English performance is floating out there, which makes me think the computer version might have seen a very limited release – but I can’t find any online listing or release data.

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Skylanders Wii U

For whatever reason, a Wii U port of the first Skylanders was made exclusively for Japan, where it bombed into oblivion.

So yeah, what are other examples of Western games released exclusively in Japan?

 

[bishopcruz]

Ultima Underworld for Playstation, I was amazed this never came out here.

 

[Xater]

Ultima Underworld for Playstation, I was amazed this never came out here.

Was that port any good?

 

[Glowsquid]

Was that port any good?

this woman seems to like it.

 

[sixteen-bit]

I only know of a couple examples of the opposite like Namco's Rolling Thunder 3 or until recently, Intelligent System's Advance Wars Days of Ruin.

 

[Danneee]

Holy shit at the Ultimate Underworld port!

 

[@MUWANdo]

I only know of a couple examples of the opposite like Namco's Rolling Thunder 3 or until recently, Intelligent System's Advance Wars Days of Ruin.

Those are Japanese-made games released only in the west, the OP is looking for the opposite.

 

[Hayama Akito]

Also The Neverhood was released only in Japan for PlayStation for some weird reasons. It was called Klaymen Klaymen.

 

[discoalucard]

There was also a Neverhood/Klayman "gun hockey" game but I can't remember if it was developed by an American or a Japanese team.

There was a bunch of other adventure games that came out only on consoles in Japan, like Phantasmagoria (under the name Phantasm for the Saturn), Discworld, and Beavis and Butthead in Virtual Stupidity. There was supposed to be a port of The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime for the PS1, that was advertised in Japan, but never released anywhere.

 

[Glowsquid]

Mega Morph

A FMV rail shooter by Psygnosis, released for the FM TOwns Marty. Done in the same style as their earlier games Microcosm and Novastorm (both of which were original developed for the FM Towns before being ported to other systems), it's rare and obscure as hell. Here's some gameplay


The FM Towns Marty inexplicable saw ton of support from Psygnosis, Interplay, and Lucasarts but Mega Morph is the only western game that stayed exclusive to it, as far as I can tell.

 

[@MUWANdo]

It's not exactly what you're asking for but a UK team called Bits Studio worked on several ports of Japanese games that were never released in the west: Gunforce and Genocide 2 for Super Famicom, Ninja Spirit for Game Boy, etc.

Galaxy Force 2 for Saturn is another western-developed port of a Japanese game that never left Japan; the developer was Appaloosa Interactive.

 

[Danneee]

There was also a Neverhood/Klayman "gun hockey" game but I can't remember if it was developed by an American or a Japanese team.

There was a bunch of other adventure games that came out only on consoles in Japan, like Phantasmagoria (under the name Phantasm for the Saturn), Discworld, and Beavis and Butthead in Virtual Stupidity. There was supposed to be a port of The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime for the PS1, that was advertised in Japan, but never released anywhere.

Discworld (1 and 2) had a release on PS1 in the US and EU too.

 

[Sesha]

Also The Neverhood was released only in Japan for PlayStation for some weird reasons. It was called Klaymen Klaymen.

I actually own this. Found it randomly at a Tsutaya. I think the Neverhood games actually sold quite well in Japan. Neverhood is one of those games that wouldn't do very well on consoles in the West. Way too much competition. I don't think any PnCs on PS1 did very well in the West either, though I could be wrong.

 

[Schlomo]

I felt like getting that Ultima Underworld port since I first heard of it, but with the new kickstarter and all, a full-on remake is probably happening any decade now.

 

[Glowsquid]

It's not exactly what you're asking for but a UK team called Bits Studio worked on several ports of Japanese games that were never released in the west: Gunforce and Genocide 2 for Super Famicom, Ninja Spirit for Game Boy, etc.

that's interesting. didn't they develop R-Type DX?

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Creature Shock on ps1 and Assault Rigs on Saturn are other Japan-exclusive ports of western games.

 

[MikeHattsu]

Prisoner of Ice was released on Saturn and PS1 in Japan. Oh, and don't forget Dark Seed II as well since the first one was already mentioned.

Discworld (1 and 2) had a release on PS1 in the US and EU too.

Both were released on Saturn in Europe too.

 

[halfbeast]

Jim Power seems to be only released in Japan on consoles and home computers in Europe. if the wiki's right, it has never been released in the US?

 

[Glowsquid]

Jim Power seems to be only released in Japan on consoles and home computers in Europe.

No, the SNES version was released exclusively in the US.

 

[Phediuk]

The Black Onyx comes to mind. Would be the first JRPG ever if not for the fact that it was made by an American.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Onyx

 

[discoalucard]

Discworld (1 and 2) had a release on PS1 in the US and EU too.

Oh, right! Forgot about those. I only have the JP PS1 version, which I grabbed since I was curious to hear a Japanese voice actor do (what I assumed would be) an Eric Idle impression.

There was a PS1/SAT port of the first Zork, it was redone to look like a sound novel similar to Kamaitachi no Yoru, and it changed the interface so you could construct sentences out of assorted nouns and verbs. Going way back, there was an updated home computer conversion of Sierra's Softporn Adventure, which added brand new graphics and was renamed Las Vegas. The company Starcraft ported a lot of US PC titles to Japan, including that one. I remember hearing they did unique looking versions of a few Infocom games like Moonmist, but I haven't played them.

 

[lobdale]

You could also easily do a thread of games developed in Japan and released only in the US, especially a lot of late-stage NES/Famicom stuff.

 

[Phediuk]

You could also easily do a thread of games developed in Japan and released only in the US, especially a lot of late-stage NES/Famicom stuff.

Yes, but that's too easy and it's been done many times. Around half of the Master System library would fall into that category too (but replace "US" with "Europe").

 

[Superfrog]

Jim Power seems to be only released in Japan on consoles and home computers in Europe. if the wiki's right, it has never been released in the US?

The PC Engine CD version was indeed only released in Japan.

 

[get2sammyb]

Made by Bullfrog. Published by EA. Released only in Japan.

 

[Glowsquid]

There's even more Japanese ports of PC adventure games than I thought. Did the genre have a cult following in Japan?

 

[Father_Brain]

Little Witching Mischiefs is certainly one of the odder stories here.

 

[bishopcruz]

Jim Power seems to be only released in Japan on consoles and home computers in Europe. if the wiki's right, it has never been released in the US?

No, there was an SNES version I think, but yeah the Super CD ports were Japan only.

FM-Towns had the best versions of a few Western games:


Loom, while it lacks voice acting, this is probably better than the PC CD-ROM release.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:

Ultima VI:

This version has voice acting by Lord British nad his bussies. I never heard it, but it must be glorious.

 

[Glowsquid]

Little Witching Mischiefs is certainly one of the odder stories here.

Wow, I had no idea that existed. funny the developers of Star Control made a cutesy fighting game starring magical girls.

 

[bishopcruz]

The Black Onyx comes to mind. Would be the first JRPG ever if not for the fact that it was made by an American.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Onyx

It really is the first JRPG as far as influence goes, but back then RPGs were pretty similar in style worldwide. It was hella impressive for what it did graphically too.

 

[Phediuk]

There are a few Famicom Disk System games made single-handedly by Mark Flint, who is apparently an expat who was also the lead programmer for Smartball on the SNES, of all things.

Fire Rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy30N9kCL10

Moon Ball Magic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctmefO_qjRI

I think there's also a couple more.

 

[Sinatar]

Phantasie IV: Birth of Heroes for the MSX

This one is really bizarre as Phantasie 1 - 3 were western CRPG's that were eventually translated and ported to Japanese systems, but the 4th one was made exclusively for that region while still being designed by Phantasie 1 - 3 creator Doug Wood.

 

[discoalucard]

Little Witching Mischiefs is certainly one of the odder stories here.

I remember hearing that this was actually a redone, super localized version of The Unholy War. (I've never played either so I'm not sure how they compare).

When talking localization, there was Pandemonium, which had its main characters changed and completely redone anime-style cutscenes, released as Magical Hoppers.

 

[Glowsquid]

There are a few Famicom Disk System games made single-handedly by Mark Flint,.

I read somewhere it was just a pseudonym for a Japanese developer, and that the story about being a Texan expat was completely invented.

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Final Fight Revenge

Craptacular fighting game by Capcom's short-lived US developer group. Released on the ST-V arcade board and the Saturn near the end of its life.

 

[Phediuk]

Not quite an example, but still fun trivia: Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 3 were all programmed by an Iranian (Nasir Gebelli) and for FF3, the whole dev team had to move to the US because Gebelli's Japanese work visa ran out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasir_Gebelli#Time_at_Square

 

[Glowsquid]

It's not really an example because the actual game part was done by a Japanese developer, but I found it interesting: The (in)famous, outspoken animator John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy) did the character design and packaging for a Japan-only PS2 game

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoake_no_Mariko

 

[Phediuk]

I read somewhere it was just a pseudonym for a Japanese developer, and that the story about being a Texan expat was completely invented.

Shit, no way ha ha. This appears to be true by the Google digging I did. The Mark Flint story gets more interesting every day. Apparently he managed to keep his identity a pretty damn good secret though, to the extent that it's not 100% clear what his real name is.

 

[univbee]

A bit different than what you're looking for, but I lived in Japan for a few years from 2005 to 2008 and picked up some very odd PC stuff while I was there. One of the few Western PC devs keeping on top of releasing their games in Japan in some capacity was EA, which included Ultima IX (one of very very few PC games with an actual Japanese dub) and the Ultima collection for I-VIII which is...special. If you thought some pre-GOG old game compilations were janky, buckle the fuck in.

Utlima IX: Ascetion

Now Ultima I-VI were released on PC98, so the collection comes with a Windows-based emulator, Anex86. Which is in English. You have to do funky stuff like mounting floppy disk images (the manual explains specifics). VI is special since it has 3 disks so you also have to do some swapping.

Now one of the interesting things with the PC98 and other Japanese PC's it that it can render text on a separate, higher-resolution layer. You can see in the screenshot above that the game itself has chunky pixels (320x200 or some such) while the text is more like 640x400.

Ultima VII was only released in Japanese on Super Famicom, and the version included here is the ENGLISH DOS version. I'm not even sure the copy protection is adequately handled in the all-Japanese manual.

But at least the manual goes into the nice specifics of dealing with the 640K barrier so you can get the game to run.

空きメモリ量について
ウルティマⅦまたはウルティマⅦパート２をプレイするためには、あなたのコンピュータに、少なく
とも640KBのRAMと、合計で2MBの拡張メモリがあることが必要です。
ウルティマⅦ　
あなたのコンピュータに搭載されているRAMの総量に関わらず、DOSの基本メモリに524,000バ
イト（512K）以上の空きメモリ容量がなければゲームは動きません。また、サウンドや会話を聞
きたい場合は、561,144（548K）バイトが必要になります。
ウルティマⅦパート２
あなたのコンピュータに搭載されているRAMの総量に関わらず、DOSの基本メモリに535,000バ
イト（523K）以上の空きメモリ容量がなければゲームは動きません。また、サウンドや会話を聞
きたい場合は、587,000（573K）バイトが必要になります。
インストールの前に、空きメモリの状態を調べるには、CHKDSKというDOSプログラムを使いま
す。DOSプロンプトのルートディレクトリで、CHKDSKとタイプしてください。
（例　C:¥>chkdsk）
一部のコンピュータでは、CHKDSKプログラムは¥DOSディレクトリに入っています。このプログ
ラムがスタートすると、画面にメモリの使用状況が表示され、最後のラインに、どれだけのRAMが
残っているかが示されます。たとえば、最後のラインには565,239 bytes freeのように空きメモ
リの容量が表示されます。
ここで示された数値が、ゲームで必要とされる量を下回っていたときは、必要量を確保しないかぎり
ゲームは動きません。メモリに関する知識のない方は、73ページの“起動フロッピーディスクの作
り方”を見てください。

EDIT A:¥CONFIG.SYS
DEVICE=C:¥DOS¥HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH
FILES=25
BUFFERS=25
これを保存してエディターを終了させるには、次の順番にキーを押します。
□F
□X
□Y
次に、こうタイプしてください。
EDIT A:¥AUTOEXEC.BAT
PATH=C:¥Windows
PROMPT $P$G
SET TEMP=C:¥WINDOWS
C:¥MOUSE¥MOUSE.COM
マウスドライバが別のディレクトリにあるときは、最後の１ラインを書き換えて、正しいパスを指定
してください（5ページ“マウスドライバの用意”をよくお読みください）。

Ultima VIII is Japanese and a DOS/V game, I haven't managed to get it to work right in DOSBox.

 

[Just take it with you.]

Due to Japan's love affair with the Wizardry series, there were about a million ports released across various systems there, a number of which never officially came back to the West.

 

[blame space]

great thread

 

[univbee]

For something more on-topic: Phantasm, a.k.a. an 8-disc (I think this is a record for number of CD's for a game?) Japan-only Sega Saturn release of Phantasmagoria.

Dubbed and all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5AKfh4QQPk

 

[The Orz]

Majokko Daisakusen: Little Witching Mischiefs developed by Toys for Bob, jump-starting a decade's worth of licensed titles until they came up with some game called Skylanders or something. Whatever that thing is.

From the wiki page:

"The company were faxed design documents directly from Bandai which needed to be translated from Japanese before any of them could be implemented. The process was so laborious, the developers eventually stopped receiving Bandai's faxes in order to finish the game on schedule."

 

[Phediuk]

Majokko Daisakusen: Little Witching Mischiefs developed by Toys for Bob, jump-starting a decade's worth of licensed titles until they came up with some game called Skylanders or something. Whatever that thing is.

From the wiki page:

How the fuck did that arrangement come about?

Why not just hire a Japanese dev?

yikes.

 

[MaverickHunterX]

Nice thread! I was expecting MK2 for the PSone, but didn't know about the Skylanders Wii U port.

This was one I always found a bit weird releasing in Japan only:

Anyone know if the ports for Phantasmagoria, Darkseed, or Klaymen, Klaymen actually had English options?

 

[Tain]

This thread rules.

 

[Zee-Row]

Nice thread! I was expecting MK2 for the PSone, but didn't know about the Skylanders Wii U port.

This was one I always found a bit weird releasing in Japan only:

Anyone know if the ports for Phantasmagoria, Darkseed, or Klaymen, Klaymen actually had English options?

Damn , how do Japanese players even get the U.S. jokes?

 

[The Orz]

How the fuck did that arrangement come about?

Why not just hire a Japanese dev?

yikes.

In short, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche were big fans of the SD Gundam games and really wanted to make one based around the Unholy War engine. Bandai loved the idea, but told them they had an even bigger license for them. A HUGE license--so they signed the contract without knowing anything about the project. Then the images started coming in over fax and...yeah...

It's much more amusing hearing it from Ford and Reiche themselves:
https://youtu.be/mJwUO--Hwmk?t=7m53s

 

[univbee]

Loom, while it lacks voice acting, this is probably better than the PC CD-ROM release.

LOOM on the FM TOWNS was basically the straight original PC EGA Version but with VGA graphics and the ability to play in Japanese.

The PC CD-ROM version was extremely weirdly constructed because every single sound effect, piece of dialogue, music etc. was in redbook audio form (a.k.a. will play in a standard CD player), it had a 54-minute (I think?) Track 2 which was just everything laid out one after another. This caused a ton of complications for the game itself.

The core game itself didn't have a lot of memory to work with, ultimately I think it's 4 or 5 megabytes total. There are almost no character closeups, I think it was due to time constraints. I also think you get the "seeing Cobb die" cutscene towards the end regardless of which difficulty you're playing on. A lot of the game was silent because seek times were absolute murder and would lock up your PC, so every 4-note draft would be (load for 2 seconds, note, load for 2 seconds, note, load for 2 seconds, note, load for 2 seconds, note, load for 2 seconds, success/failure sound, load for 2 seconds, dialogue or whatever)

Due to only having 54 minutes for every sound effect/dialogue in the game, all of the game dialogue is heavily trimmed down from the original version. On the plus side I think they got a seasoned radio drama team to do it, so it's actually decently acted which is impressive for what is essentially one of the first CD-ROM games. Also, you could play it entirely without a sound card, simply by plugging in speakers or headphones into the jack on the front of your CD-ROM drive (standard at the time).

This was one I always found a bit weird releasing in Japan only:

 

[Glowsquid]

In short, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche were big fans of the SD Gundam games and really wanted to make one based around the Unholy War engine. Bandai loved the idea, but told them they had an even bigger license for them. A HUGE license--so they signed the contract without knowing anything about the project. Then the images started coming in over fax and...yeah...

It's much more amusing hearing it from Ford and Reiche themselves:
https://youtu.be/mJwUO--Hwmk?t=7m53s

holy shit lol

 

[halfbeast]

No, the SNES version was released exclusively in the US.

No, there was an SNES version I think, but yeah the Super CD ports were Japan only.

I thought there was a SNES version, but wasn't sure. was it called something else?

 

[Glowsquid]

I thought there was a SNES version, but wasn't sure. was it called something else?