Have you ever beaten an unstranslated Japanese game?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I have done this thrice, mostly out of a combination of impatience and stubbornness.

The first one was Panic Bomber!, which was not a big deal -- gameplay is self-explanatory and there isn't much dialogue. I do think I missed out some by not being able to read what the opponents said, but that's about it.

The second was Summon Night 2 on the DS, which had a TON of text... but game lets you skip or automate most of it, anyway. Again, I missed out on the actual plot and story (which Summon Night games are known for), but I was able to throughly enjoy it and I'm actually going at it again this very second.

And the third one was Magic School Lunar! (the only Saturn game I have ever completed), which was such utter hell to beat that I actually went and wrote a "thank you" email to the guy who created a step-by-step walkthrough of it because I simply would have never figured out how to tackle it otherwise (and believe me, I tried).

Oh! And I guess I played a couple of arcade-y ones on the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 as well, but those hardly count, since most of the critical commands were in English.

I kind of don't recommend doing this at all (specially for freaking RPGs) but maaaan... there's something utterly satisfying about seeing everything click after memorizing what the menues and buttons do and finding your rhythm.

What about you? Ever did this?

 

[Miles]

I've never tried to lol

 

[dropsmegamega]

A few japanese PC point & click games that either didn't had much text, or strangely, had english dub and japanese text. It still required a bit of luck though... and knowing the true basis of all communication: はい and いいえ

 

[Boo Man]

Yes! i beat a game called "Hokuto no Ken: Raoh Gaiden - Ten no Haou"
in the random game challenge thread :)

Random Game Challenge!!!

I got an untranslated dating sim for the PS1. I guess I should see how far I can get without having any idea what's going on. 1734350629 Well I tried to use a japanese handwriting site and wiktionary to maybe get some meaning out of the text, now my head hurts a lot. I think I know what the...

retrogametalk.com

(its a fighting game so translation didn't matter)

 

[Samatonic Samatonic]

Uhh, Technically yes. I got these two (Virtua Cop 2 and Pepsi-man) were in Japanese and completed it without understanding anything.

 

[Segadude113]

outside of fighting games? Nope. lol

 

[TentaclesMod]

Completing an rpg in a language you don't know is mind boggling. I have done this, but only with the kind of game that doesn't really require navigating any menu beyond the main one. The games I completed like this are Kyatto Nindent Teyandee (aka, Samurai Pizza Cats) and Mitsume Ga Tooru (The three eyed one), both of which are nes platformers. The latter only has small blurbs of text after you beat a boss and the descriptions of the shop items. The former has long cutscenes (in the nes!) but it has no effect in the gameplay.

 

[ArtistofLegacy]

I've played through a handful of games before they ended up getting translated later down the line. Kurohyou 1/2, Zero/Ao no Kiseki, Fate/Extra CCC, and 7th Dragon 2020-II. There was also Material Brave but I don't think that one got translated. And Fafner PSP and Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi which I know didn't get translated.

 

[Yoshiro]

I have done this thrice, mostly out of a combination of impatience and stubbornness.

The first one was Panic Bomber!, which was not a big deal -- gameplay is self-explanatory and there isn't much dialogue. I do think I missed out some by not being able to read what the opponents said, but that's about it.

The second was Summon Night 2 on the DS, which had a TON of text... but game lets you skip or automate most of it, anyway. Again, I missed out on the actual plot and story (which Summon Night games are known for), but I was able to throughly enjoy it and I'm actually going at it again this very second.

And the third one was Magic School Lunar! (the only Saturn game I have ever completed), which was such utter hell to beat that I actually went a wrote a "thank you" email to the guy who created a step-by-step walkthrough of it because I simply would have never figured out how to tackle it otherwise (and believe me, I tried).

Oh! And I guess I played a couple of arcade-y ones on the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 as well, but those hardly count, since most of the critical commands were in English.

I kind of don't recommend doing this at all (specially for freaking RPGs) but maaaan... there's something utterly satisfying about seeing everything click after memorizing what the menues and buttons do and finding your rhythm.

What about you? Ever did this?

I have done this thrice, mostly out of a combination of impatience and stubbornness.

The first one was Panic Bomber!, which was not a big deal -- gameplay is self-explanatory and there isn't much dialogue. I do think I missed out some by not being able to read what the opponents said, but that's about it.

The second was Summon Night 2 on the DS, which had a TON of text... but game lets you skip or automate most of it, anyway. Again, I missed out on the actual plot and story (which Summon Night games are known for), but I was able to throughly enjoy it and I'm actually going at it again this very second.

And the third one was Magic School Lunar! (the only Saturn game I have ever completed), which was such utter hell to beat that I actually went a wrote a "thank you" email to the guy who created a step-by-step walkthrough of it because I simply would have never figured out how to tackle it otherwise (and believe me, I tried).

Oh! And I guess I played a couple of arcade-y ones on the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 as well, but those hardly count, since most of the critical commands were in English.

I kind of don't recommend doing this at all (specially for freaking RPGs) but maaaan... there's something utterly satisfying about seeing everything click after memorizing what the menues and buttons do and finding your rhythm.

What about you? Ever did this?

I'm from Brazil and until I learned english basics all I did was beat games in a language I didn't understand and japanese games was no exception. I know at this point it's a shame I don't know nihongo but I still playing some games in Japanese even if it doesn't have english fan translations. Some time ago I've played the remake of Super Robot Taisen for PSvita in Japanese, I've got the platinum trophy for the Gundam Breaker trilogy and only the third has an official translation for the Hong Kong region. One game that I would never forget that Ive played first on japanese was Persona 5. It launched in 2016 only in Japan and I was so hyped that I've bought it for PS3 and played it a lot. Than when the global launch came i bought it for PS4.

That's one thing about loving games, you can play it even without understanding it's language haha.

 

[Scotty]

I've beaten a couple. Namely, the "Sailor Moon" beat 'em ups (This was back when only "Sailor Moon R" had an English patch), "Ghost Sweeper Mikami" on SFC and "Mappy Kids"... before I learned how patch ROMs lol.

 

[qw90700]

Until PS1-era played lots of Japanese games that I can't understand shit, but eventually I learned it thanks to PS1. Especially Racing Lagoon helped me a lot because the game is so【Educational】lol. It taught me about cars, philosophy, psychology, and physics too! Way more than even what high school could teach me!!! lol

Until I played Morrowind I played English games without understanding shit too. I only knew simple stuff to enter games and do basic stuff. Back then only playing Metal Gear Solid 1 in English made things hard because the game is not clear on what to do but I somehow beat it. I wish I had the Japanese version of the game anyway but I borrowed from a friend by trading my Driver 2. Anyway fast forward few years later I wanted to play Morrowind so bad I literally beat the game using English dictionary and I realized I know English just like after watching too much Jackie Chan movies I realized "wowza I know kung fu" lolol. However to actually learn English grammar and communicate what helped me the most is writing codes to develop programs. If you pay attention to how I speak English you may realize it's like I'm programming because of that lolol.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Completing an rpg in a language you don't know is mind boggling.

Eh, it was the only Lunar game I hadn't beat and the English patch seems to have died entirely not even a quarter of the way in.

 

[otogirisou]

yes, a lot

 

[JoystickV2]

Well I was a young lad, I played through Namco x Capcom in japanese, without understanding the plot at all and struggling to finish the missions, but I still like that game, it was my introduction to several franchises xD

Besides that, I also played through Gundam Breaker 2 in japanese as well, but I didn't finish the game sadly, I got stuck on a mission.

 

[diapered]

No, and never again. This came up in the mtg thread, and I thought I could try the dc game, since I know what the cards do and how to play, but it was a terrible idea >_< I do not recommend games with lots of menus you cannot read

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Some arcade style games and fighting games, but nothing super dialog heavy.

 

[jon2]

Gundam Wing: Endless Duel
Ginga Sengoku Gun'yuuden RAI
Dai-4-Ji Super Robot Taisen (AKA SRW 4)
MS Gundam F91
Super Robot Taisen Alpha
Shin Seiki GPX Cyber Formula: Aratanaru Chousensha
SD Gundam G-Generation F
Aura Battler Dunbine
Macross VF-X2
Super Robot Taisen ADVANCE
SD Gundam G-Generation ADVANCE
Gundam CLIMAX UC
SDF Macross (PS2)

As anyone can see, some games have already been fan-translated but I finished these games before the translations were released. The latest, SDF Macross, was just finished last year, courtesy of RGT!

Thanks RGT!

P.S. as you can see, it is mostly mecha

 

[Taukyrie]

I've beaten a handful of them, with my most recent ones being SRW UX and BX.

 

[Rox00]

I have beaten untranslated JP games before. My first one was SRW MX and it's a special one for me. This was back when I was new to JP still and deciding to ball on a game I felt was right and went with SRW MX for the roster. Very worth it. SRW in general is my thing so yeah naturally I'll always play more, the only downside is that they are long af.

I'll definitely be doing more untranslated JP games such as VNs and probably more RPGs whenever I have time lol.

Post automatically merged: Today at 2:14 AM

Gundam Wing: Endless Duel
Ginga Sengoku Gun'yuuden RAI
Dai-4-Ji Super Robot Taisen (AKA SRW 4)
MS Gundam F91
Super Robot Taisen Alpha
Shin Seiki GPX Cyber Formula: Aratanaru Chousensha
SD Gundam G-Generation F
Aura Battler Dunbine
Macross VF-X2
Super Robot Taisen ADVANCE
SD Gundam G-Generation ADVANCE
Gundam CLIMAX UC
SDF Macross (PS2)

As anyone can see, some games have already been fan-translated but I finished these games before the translations were released. The latest, SDF Macross, was just finished last year, courtesy of RGT!

Thanks RGT!

P.S. as you can see, it is mostly mecha

A beautiful selection of games fellow SRW and mecha enjoyer, SRW Alpha will always be my favorite to play. : )

 

[Bonkers225]

Yup. Through some bootleg 20 in 1 Taiwan GB cartridge. Great game too.

 

[Stare best girl]

yep, I finished untranslated RPGs

-Soul Hackers(PS1)
-Devil Summoner(PSP)
-Devil Children Black Book and Red Book(PS1)
-Xenosaga 1 & 2(DS)

I'm sure that I can play and finish SMT NINE but... I don't have OG Xbox or a enough powerful PC to emulate

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

Mostly Famicom because I don't have a nes This whyball my Nes are japanese games (yep I beat a Super Mario bros 3 jap ver where little hard like power stack but once hit back to small mario)

And PS1 All Dance Damce Revolution from 1st mix.to 5mix

My first pokemon is also japanese pokemon green

For Rpgs I play Princess Crown on psp with translation I played when I was in high school.

 

[thatguynamedxel]

I did it with Shadowrun on the Sega CD. I heard that one has a fan translation on the works. I am quite proud of having done it before it was finished, heh.

 

[GundamJehutyKai]

Most of my Sega Saturn games were japanese and I had no clue what it was saying back in the day. and my friends and I just tried out stuff systematically to figure out how things worked. That was how we were able to create our own custom vehicles in Vatlva!!

And all the PS2 SRW games I finished with no translation. Namco X Capcom too.

Then there was...

Macross (PS2)
Gundam Battle Chronicles (PSP)
Macross Ace Frontier (PSP)
The Another Century Episode Trilogy (PS2)
Queens Gate Spiral Chaos (PSP)
Project X Zone (3DS) and once I finished it, the game was announced for a western release...

And those are the ones where understanding menus and objectives mattered. I didn't count arcade games or fighting games.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Me and my family used to beat Pepsiman a lot, once i think we even 100%

Spoiler: It was worth it? No

All that for just a skin swap

Also in my local market we had an arcade with Magical Drop III, the Japan one, playing without understanding the tutorial was likepassing a test with all the answers done randomly