JRPGs that never left Japan

[TheGooberingHasBegun]

Cosmic Wars. It's Gradius as an RPG. (No seriously it's a Gradius spinoff)

 

[owari_da]

If anyone's interested, here's a link to the Bitmap Books Guide to Japanese Role Playing Games book (as a pdf) MegaLink
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Hey, thanks! And btw, I was looking for same books with videogame maps from retrogamebooks, nes, snes, megadrive, maybe you have any of them? ?

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Summon Night 1-4 we only got the fifth and that one has no voiced dialogues only texts. The remakes of Super Robot Wars Masoukishin 1& 2 either on psp or nds would have been great.

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

The first growlanser, every gundam you can think of, San goku shi and nobunaga no yaibou, days of memories, Xenosaga 1 2 (nds) , Houkago shounen, Sigma harmonics, etc.

 

[Duwen]

Hey, thanks! And btw, I was looking for same books with videogame maps from retrogamebooks, nes, snes, megadrive, maybe you have any of them? ?

Sorry, I don't. I only have the JRPG one because I pre-ordered the physical book and the pdf was an added bonus.

 

[DanCalibur]

I'm quite curios about Segagaga for ages now?

 

[Aika]

I wish Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (1995) gets an English Translation someday.

 

[TheGamesArchivist]

The Magic Knight Rayearth games, sadly...save for like, one...but it was a horribly botched effort by Working Designs (to the surprise of absolutely nobody)

Thank the digital gods for fan translations.

 

[OnTarget]

There's the various early Megami Tensei games; MT1 and 2, SMT1, 2 and If, Majin Tensei 1 and 2, Last Bible 2 and 3 (the first game eventually got released in the West as Revelations: The Demon Slayer). All of these have fan translations, and I feel like all the mainline ones at least are worth playing once; though if you want to try MT1 and 2, I would recommend playing their Super Famicom remake, Kyuyaku Megami Tensei; its graphics are much improved from the Famicom version and while the games are still difficult, they're not "go fuck yourself" hard like the originals.

Planet Laika, which gets called an RPG, but really there's no RPG mechanics other than there being random battles during certain sections of the game. There's no stats except your health (which only increases its cap when you beat a boss) and the battles themselves are this bizarre Pong-like minigame. That said, I'd recommend giving it a try just because it's so weird. I seriously can't think of another game like it.

 

[Karaswinglet]

Wow! So much games I've never heard of in this thread and so much gems!
I'd mention two titles that always caught my eyes in terms of graphical style and atmosphere, probably thanks to the designs made by Yasushi Nirasawa: Cyber Doll (Saturn) and A-Rank Thunder (Sega CD).

 

[Emerald Flowsion]

I really need to try this JRPG, since it has a translation now.

 

[quixotic_kimchi]

You are most likely right... there hasn't been any updates in a really long time.

However, the Summon Night 3 translation has been going on for longer and is still very much a thing. Who knows, maybe the patch will just drop one day...

wld b a dream to finally play this gaem. luvd 1 n 2 soooooooo much.

n this game >_< i rec it HARD. if ur into gud games, DL the fan translation n grind 2 hype vocaloid trax.

 

[tigg]

There are so many RPGs that never saw the light of a western release.. and I want to play them all LOL
I have even been on a search to find a good way to learn to read Japanese just so I can play them, but haven't found a way that really suits me yet

 

[gekiganwing]

In the early 2000s, I played the fan translations of Dragon Quest 5 and DQ6. Good stuff. At the time, there were no planned remakes, and I thought any hope of official translations had ended with the SNES era.

Since then, I've enjoyed fan translations... but only borderline console RPGs. Retro Game Challenge 2 was enjoyable, even though its Guadia Quest Saga segment is only part of the package. The three Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side titles probably qualify as simulation games, but I liked them on the DS. So yeah, I should probably install EmuDeck on my Steam Deck, since I'd like to play Sakura Wars for Sega Saturn.

 

[dapperley]

This is one of the reasons why I loved Cdromance and now Retro Game talk! All the patched/translated games I get to discover. I have discovered so many neat ones here.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

This is one of the reasons why I loved Cdromance and now Retro Game talk! All the patched/translated games I get to discover. I have discovered so many neat ones here.

Seconded ?
It’s how I discovered shining ark and blade!

 

[hazys]

There are a bunch of Mystery Dungeon games that haven't been translated which I'm keen to play, especially Shounen Yangus for PS2 (starring a kid version of Yangus from DQVIII) and Fuurai no Shiren Gaiden for Dreamcast, starring Shiren's female counterpart, Asuka. Both look great.

There are many other JRPGs that have and haven't been mentioned here which I'd love to play, but I'm especially interested in the very cool-looking Kowloon's Gate for PS1, which seems to have similar art direction to one of my favorite games, Garage: Bad Dream Adventure. There's a team working on a translation for that one, I hope they pull it off.

 

[Deleted member 1816]

I'm always interested in learning abut Japan exclusive JRPGs that never got fan translations. Let's make thread where we list titles that we would love to play in English so this way we all may discover some unknown gems. As per rules all types of JRPGs are allowed - turn based, action RPGs, strategy RPGs and even we can include dating sims in style of Tokimeki Memorial which also have stats based gameplay.

I will start with RPGs made by Namco. Obviously their first game that comes to the mind is Tales of Rebirth but Namco is more than just Tales series.

7: Molmorth no Kiheitai and Venus & Braves are two titles that are virtually unknown outside the Japan. Both of them use rotation battle system which seems to be very unique and interesting mechanic, they also have fairy tale book aesthetics that reminds me a bit Saga Frontier 2 and Vanillaware games.

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Khamrai is real time RPG that set in the world that resembles ancient China/Japan, it also uses character relationship system that have impact on the battles. Game looks quite nice for PS1 and quite fun to play

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I actually have a rom of Khamrai installed and I'm thinking of playing it later on duckstation

 

[homesforgnomes]

My favorite which I never see anybody talk about: Bealphareth.

It's an isometric action RPG on the PS1 with beautiful spritework, a great soundtrack, excellent character writing (with friendship/romance endings for each member of the main cast), character art by the old Fire Emblem (SNES era) guy, and a pretty neat story. It's one of the few as of yet untranslated games I consider to be REALLY good, unless you absolutely hate isometric action.

 

[fishboneKiller]

the one that absolutely drives me nuts is the first Devil Summoner. i watched Marsh's youtube video about it a while ago and REALLY wanna play it, but its never left japan, and the fan translation for it still isn't done. someday i'll get to experience the insane adventures of kyoji kuzunoha... but not today

 

[KaizerAvalon]

From 2000 to 2003, Atlus released a JRPG spin-off series to SMT called Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children, which essentially was SMT but for a kid audience. Most of the games never made it to the west barring Light Book and Dark Book for the GBA. They were localized and released as Demikids Light Version and Demikids Dark Version respectively.

 

[Hikaru1057]

Gunparade March, what's unique is that it's gameplay consist of SRPG mechanics with Social Simulation elements, and they are more intricate and innovative with a radar like map with symbols depicted as units, you can input the action code based on the player's choices, with parameters and statistics playing a key role in their social lives

 

[Karaswinglet]

It's the first time I hear about Bealphareth and, wow, it's another demonstration of how the Ps1 is such a treasure chest of hidden treasures! What a beauty, I'll have to research more about this game.

 

[Xarr]

Treasures of the Rudra snes, Lennes II-Paladins Quest II snes, Mystic Ark this is a sequel too the 7th Saga on snes, Slayers snes. I haven't played any of these yet but I plan to at some point.

 

[Guinea]

Treasures of the Rudra snes, Lennes II-Paladins Quest II snes, Mystic Ark this is a sequel too the 7th Saga on snes, Slayers snes. I haven't played any of these yet but I plan to at some point.

Same, all of these are on my backlog. I really can't wait to get around to playing Treasures of the Rudras, and especially Mystic Ark because I love 7th Saga.