Wednesday, 25 November 2009

  • "But I Wanna Play!": Untranslated Games

    Some great games come from the good ol' US of A, and are all set for English speakers to play. Other great games come from Japan and need to be translated into English (or Spanish, French, etc.) for the West. While many of them eventually get here, there are other games that just don't make the cut. Sometimes people really want these games, but they just aren't picked up for one reason or another. Here's my list of games that I think should definitely be brought over into English:

    The iDOLM@STER



    Released on: XBox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS
    What it is: Do you like singing Japanese girls who want to be pop idols? I do. You play as a manager of a record label, and you manage the girls' careers. There are original songs to rehearse, minigames to play, and careers to make or break. To me, this seems like the perfect game for a Morning Musume fan (like myself) and I'm itching to play it. However, it's only released in Japanese, without even a Korean port for me to stumble through. Sucks!

    Princess Maker



    Released on: PC, PSP, PS2, Nintendo DS
    What it is: You are a retired hero, and the gods bestow upon you a 10 year old, which you need to raise to age 18. Depending on where you have her work and what she studies, she can end up as a farmer, a magician, a bondage queen, or a princess! (Bet you can't guess which one is the winning occupation.) There are 5 games, each with a different daughter and slightly different mechanics, but the premise never changes. Princess Maker 2 for PC technically has an English version: it was translated by an American company and never released officially, but it can be found if you'd like to try it. Games 4 and 5 have Korean and Chinese translations, but nothing in English is planned. Darn.

    DeathSmiles


    Released on: XBox 360, Arcade
    What it is: A side-scrolling shoot-'em-up featuring gothic Lolita characters. If you liked playing as Amy in Soul Calibur 3, don't you want to play a game that's full of the darn things?

    Sakura Taisen



    Released on: Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, PC, Gameboy, PSP, PS2, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii
    What it is: You play as the new commander for a troop of lovely ladies that act in musicals and hunt demons in psychic powered steampunk mecha. On top of being a strategic game, it's also a dating sim, so you can save Tokyo/Paris/New York AND get a girlfriend by the end of the game. The girls actually perform the musicals too, so for anyone who likes musical theater, that's another plus. Note: Sakura Taisen 5 is being released in English in 2010 for PS2/Wii. Buy it!

    What are some games that you've always been interested in but haven't been translated into English?

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