Foreign Editions Post

[Beld VanGuard]

Apologies if there is something like this already here, either in a forum post I have missed or a part of the main website I haven't seen yet, but I've seen some various posts about, full of some very useful information regarding differences big and small between Japanese and US games. I was thinking maybe we could compile a post or a website section dedicated to this information. Whether it be trying to save money on different versions like I was helped with (Cotton having English options in the Japanese version, as well as being much cheaper than the US release), in the game being completely different difficulty wise (Exile II) or even just minor things people want to know out of curiosity (The shopkeep not talking in the US version of Lords of Thunder) I think this would be a very helpful and popular section. Would also help people decide which version to buy, if not both, and knowing if a Japanese version is playable without much lost (Obviously RPG's have alot of text/voice acting but some games are not so obvious till you get them home)
Sadly I don't have any foreign games, so I don't think I personally (least for now) could help with this much, but I know we got some dedicated collectors and information hounds here, this could be a fun project. Worst case, I have a girlfriend who is learning Japanese, maybe she can translate some crap heh.

What do you all think? Again I apologize if there is something like this already on here, I looked before posting I promise heh.


*EDIT*  Clearly a work in progress. Gonna list the US titles and examples. I'll be cleaning this up as I collect more info or think of nicer ways to display it

HuCards/TurboChips
    
Aero Blasters         
Air Zonk  - Title Change "PC Denjin",  Moo Moo the Cow has massive udders? The Charge up Bomb is a Coiled pile of Feces. Playable as an English speaker? Yes    
Alien Crush - Title difference "Alien Crash" Playable as an English speaker? Yes       
Andre Panza Kick Boxing - Title difference "Kick Boxing", no Andre Panza license in Japan. Playable as an English speaker? Yes   
Ballistix     
Battle Royal     
Blazing Lazers  - Title difference "Gunhed", very different title screens. Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Bloody Wolf - Cinematic intro Street Fighter II style in Japanese version. Playable as an English speaker? Yes but some minor text will be missed.     
Bomberman        
Bomberman '93     
Bonk's Adventure - Title change "PC Genjin", level names are present in Japanese, none in US. Stage 2 of meat transformation is very feminine/homosexual (makeup, flower) as opposed to angry/burnt in the US. Playable as an English speaker? Yes       
Bonk's Revenge - Title change "PC Genjin 2", Playable as an English speaker? Yes        
Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure - Title change "PC Genjin 3",    Playable as an English speaker? Yes    
Boxyboy        
Bravoman          
Cadash - Intro is in "Engrish" as opposed to English Playable as an English speaker? Yes but minor text will be missed. Talk to everyone.          
Champions Forever Boxing    
Chase H.Q.    
Chew-Man-Fu    
China Warrior           
Crater Maze    
Cyber-core    
Darkwing Duck - US Title Only!
Davis Cup    
Dead Moon    
Deep Blue    
Devils Crush    Title Difference "Devils Crash", Pentagram removed in US version, Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Double Dungeons     
Dragon Spirt     
Dragons Curse    
Drop Off    
Dungeon Explorer            
Falcon - US Title Only!   
Fantasy Zone        
Final Lap Twin     
Galaga `90 - Title Change 'Galaga '88 (Came out first in Japan) Playable as an English speaker? Yes    
Ghost Manor        
Gunboat - US Title Only!   
Hit the Ice    
Impossamole        
Jack Nicklaus Turbo Golf        
Jack Chan's Action Kung-Fu        
JJ & Jeff  - Title change "Kato & Ken", lots of crude humor, farting attacks etc not present in US, No urinating. Character face artwork has been redone.    
Keith Courage - Title Change "Wataru", based off an anime in Japan, different title screen, and character art, related to anime. Playable as an English speaker? Yes         
King of Casino    
Klax        
Legend of Hero Tonma    
Legendary Axe        
Legendary Axe II - Nudity (Boobs) in Japanese version. Playable as an English speaker? Yes               
Magical Chase              
Military Madness- Title difference. Nectaris in Japan. Playable as an English speaker? No        
Moto Roader    
Neutopia -   Playable as an English speaker? Maybe. Game Hints would be unreadable, resulting in possible confusion/getting stuck
Neutopia II -   Playable as an English speaker? Maybe. Game Hints would be unreadable, resulting in possible confusion/getting stuck
New Adventure Island    
Night Creatures     
Ninja Spirit-    Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Order of the Griffon -    US Title Only!
Ordyne         
Pac-Land        
Parasol Stars     
Power golf        
Psychosis - Title difference "Paranoia", levels are switched between versions. Alien no longer tells you to "f*ck Off" (really? wow lol)   
Raiden             
R-Type - Game was released in 2 parts in Japan.  Both were finally released together in Japan on CD called R-type Final. Playable as an English speaker? Yes 
Samurai Ghost             
Shockman    
Sidearms        
Silent Debuggers         
Sinistron - Title Change "Violent Soldier" Difficulty and routines of certain bosses/areas of levels have been changed. Difficulty between the 2 games fluctuates between versions for various reasons.  Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Soldier Blade    
Somer Assault- Title Change "Mesopotamia" All religious aspects of the game have been removed.  Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Sonic Spike    
Space Harrier          
Splatterhouse - Terror Mask is White and very Hockeymask-esqe instead of a purple voodoo mask. The green flying head is in it's original form as a gold inverted cross. Several small edits in gore and other religious icons (Specifics?) Golden Cleaver isn't gold in the Japanese version(can anyone confirm?) Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Super Star Soldier    
Super Volleyball            
Takin' it to the Hoop    
Tailspin - US Title Only!    
Tiger Road    
Timeball    
Time Cruise    
Tricky Kick    
Turrican    
TV Sports Basketball    
TV Sports Football    
TV Sports Hockey         
Veigues Tactical Gladiator    
Victory Run    
Vigilante    
World Class Baseball    
World Court Tennis    
World Sports Competition    
Yo'Bro       

CD

Addam's Family
Bonk 3 - Bonk's Big Adventure - US Title (CD) only! Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Buster Brothers
Cosmic Fantasy 2 - Status Effects missing from Japanese version. Floppy Disc mini quest not present in US. Playable as an English speaker? No, RPG, Text and item heavy.
Exile - Playable as an English speaker? Maybe. If prices are memorized of items and you don't mind missing the story, it's playable. Buy the "price" of an item you want, and talk to everyone once to make sure you don't miss a plot point.
Fighting Street - Playable as an English speaker? Yes      
Final Zone 2 -   Playable as an English speaker? Yes. However you'll miss some of the "story" via cutscenes, and miss out on the 'awesome' US voice acting
It Came from the Desert - US Title Only!   
Jack Nicklaus Turbo Golf    
J.B. Harold Murder Club    
Last Alert    
Lords of the Rising Sun - US Title Only!        
Magical Dinosaur Tour    
Monster Lair
Sherlock Holmes Vol.1
Splash Lake
Valis 2        
Valis 3        
Vasteel
Y'S Book 1 & 2- Playable as an English speaker? Highly not recommended, as it is an RPG. Text heavy
Y's 3 Wanderers from Y'S- Playable as an English speaker? Highly not recommended, as it is an RPG. Text heavy

SCD

Beyond Shadowgate - US Title Only!
Bonk's Adventure (3 in 1)
Bonk's Revenge ( 3 in 1)
Camp California - US Title Only!
Cotton- Japanese version is drastically cheaper than US versions. Has text option to be in Japanese or English. Playable as an English speaker? Yes, especially since English text can be selected in options
Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes - Playable as an English speaker? No, RPG, text and item heavy.
Dungeon Explorer II - Playable as an English speaker? Yes, minor amounts of voice acting and text will be missed, game still playable, no major issues.
Dungeon Master Theron's Quest - Playable as an English speaker? No, RPG, text/item heavy
Dynastic Hero
Exile II: Wicked Phenomenon            
Forgotten Worlds - Enhanced Sound options in JPN version. Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Gate of Thunder - Playable as an English speaker? Yes    
Godzilla
John Madden Football - US Title Only!   
Loom - US Title Only!
Lords of Thunder - Title Change "Winds of Thunder", the shopkeeper talks and her lips move as opposed to static graphic and text. Intro is narrated. Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Might and Magic 3
Prince of Persia
Riot Zone - Title Change "Crest of Wolf" Playable as an English speaker? Yes but why would you want too?
Shadow of the Beast - Cutscenes are full screen instead of windowed in Japan's version, but the loading time is atrocious. Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Super Air Zonk
Syd Mead's Terraforming                
Shape Shifter - Character is wearing a shirt in Japanese version as opposed to topless. Playable as an English speaker? Yes
Sherlock Holmes Vol.2
Sim Earth           
 

[runinruder]

Many cited HuCard-game differences in this thread:
http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=3489.msg50352#msg50352

I wrote up a couple detailed comparison posts:

Cosmic Fantasy 2 JP vs. US
Violent Soldier vs. Sinistron

[SignOfZeta]

This is a pretty good idea. Semantically speaking though, I consider US games to be the "foreign" versions since all this stuff comes from Japan in the first place with extremely few exceptions.

I guess the easiest way to do this would be to just take the US release list and use it as a template. Its not a very long list. Then the users could edit it.

Some to think of it, this would work well as a Wiki.

[Beld VanGuard]

Yeah see, we have info for this kinda stuff all over. The 3 examples I cited in my post, I have found reading this website and forum all over for info. Having a compiled area would be very helpful, be it a sticky post, a wiki, or whatever.
Again, I'm more than down to help with whatever, just wish I had some of the games heh.

On a side note, pointing out the Splatterhouse differences, When you beat the floating heads/cross/whatever, in the US version, there is a long musical scene with Rick standing in front of the exit of the cathedral room, wish 2 candles blowing. This scene plays 2 types of music, 1 happy, 1 scary, with a big gap in the middle, for a total of like 40 seconds. NOTHING is happening, I've assumed something massive was cut here for years, am I right? Or do I have some kinda wonky version?

[Black Tiger]

If you run the japanese Dragon Slayer with a 2.0 card you get a huge omake mode where you can sample all kinds of stuff.

Each region of Dynastic Hero has some nice unique artwork when you try a 2.0 card.

Some(all?) of Dragon's Curse's (trick)passwords are different than Adventure Island's. Each game has a unique title screen and title music.

Wataru, based on the anime, became Keith Courage to avoid licensing fees and the title screen is different.

Gunhed and Blazing LaZers have very different title screens and it seems that people have trouble getting the invincibilty (and possibly other) tricks from one version to work on the other.

Lords of Thunder got a name change and dropped the intro narration from Winds of Thunder.

Gate of Thunder Turbo has 3 HuCard games built-in plus a cool Bonk game select screen.

Psychosis mixed up the stage order from Paranoia.

Cratermaze retains the original Booby Boys theme, the PCE version is Doraemon themed.

Cadash had its english intro text rewritten.

[awack]

The Jpn shadow of the beast has full screen cutscenes but the loading is sloooow.

The Jpn version of forgotten world gives you more options, one of those options is the choice between arcade or Jpn voice, this changes the cutscene voices as well as the moans and groans the character makes when hit or dies, the Jpn voices are better in quality.

In the Jpn version of shape shifter the main character starts out wearing a shirt, in the US version he is shirtless, yes, i notice things like that.

The US exile II had some parallax scrolling added.

[Beld VanGuard]

Got the list started. I'm leaving out a few things that have been mentioned for 3 reasons

1: I need confirmation as I've heard conflicting reports.

2: I'd like a cleaner way to present it, still working on that for some.

3: I don't understand wtf it means (Someone explain the Crater Maze differences?  I've never played it)

Something I also need help on, is the whole Adventure Island series mess. Theres ALOT of games in the series in Japan from what I understand, Dynastic Hero, Dragon's Curse etc, and all the titles got moved around due to Adventure Island in the US. Can someone clarify this for me?

Also, the full titles of the Bonk games in Japanese, and the 4 games released in the US not in Japan (I forgot them all, I'm awesome, sigh  ) would help alot.

Thanks for the input, I'll keep on this.

[nat]

Something I also need help on, is the whole Adventure Island series mess. Theres ALOT of games in the series in Japan from what I understand, Dynastic Hero, Dragon's Curse etc, and all the titles got moved around due to Adventure Island in the US. Can someone clarify this for me?

And confusing it is. The series started as the "Wonderboy" series, as developed by Westone for SEGA. Due to licensing issues what with SEGA retaining the rights to the "Wonderboy" name and Westone retaining rights to the actual game, the games are named something different on nearly every platform they were ported to. Sometimes they even differ in name on the same platform, between regions.

Without going into things too much, here's a quick legend for you:

Wonderboy (1st game)
Wonderboy (SMS)
Adventure Island (NES)

Wonderboy in Monsterland (2nd game)
Super Wonderboy in Monsterland (SMS)
Bikkuriman World (PCE/TG16 JP)

Wonderboy III: Monster Lair (3rd game)
Wonderboy III: Monster Lair (PCE/TG16 JP, Genesis)
Monster Lair (PCE/TG16 US)

The Dragon's Trap (4th game)
The Dragon's Trap (SMS US)
Monster World II (SMS JP)
Adventure Island (PCE/TG16 JP)
Dragon's Curse (PCE/TG16 US)

Wonderboy V: Monster World III (5th game)
Wonderboy V: Monster World III (Genesis JP)
Wonderboy in Monster World (Genesis US)
Dynastic Hero (PCE/TG16 both regions)

There may be some other minor platforms these games appeared on, but I listed the main/most common ones here. Only the first game saw a port on the NES. Speaking of the first game, it's also the only game that didn't make it to the PCE/TG16. The Turbo game New Adventure Island is very similar to the first Wonderboy, and I view it as a "remake" of the original with greatly improved graphics (added parallax) and level changes. Some of the level cues are taken directly from the first game but it's not a straight port.

As you can see from the list, "Adventure Island" on the NES and "Adventure Island" on the PCE were actually ports of different games in the series. You might also know that 2 sequels were made on the NES (Adventure Island 2 & 3). These games have nothing to do with the "Wonderboy" series and were spin-offs done by Hudson (not Westone).

There was a 6th game on the Genesis called "Monster World IV." The "Wonderboy" name was dropped from the title on that final game (probably because the hero is a girl) so it's technically not a part of the series.

That's basically the gist of it.

[runinruder]

Sinistron - Title Change "Violent Soldier" Levels have been switched around between versions (Which ones?)

This is incorrect.  Levels were not switched around.  I provided a link earlier in the thread that details some Sinistron differences. 

[Necromancer]

Someone explain the Crater Maze differences?

Like Black Tiger said, the characters in Cratermaze (US) were based on Booby Boys, but in Doraemon Meikyu Daisakusen (Japan) they were based on the Doraemon franchise.  Go to PCECP.com or the PC Engine Bible and look 'em up to get an idea of how the characters were changed.  They're essentially the same game, but with different sprites and such.

Also, the full titles of the Bonk games in Japanese, and the 4 games released in the US not in Japan (I forgot them all, I'm awesome, sigh  ) would help alot.

The Japanese titles (with US equivalent) were PC Genjin (Bonk's Adventure), PC Genjin 2 (Bonk's Revenge), PC Genjin 3 (Bonk's Big Adventure).  There's also PC Genjin 3 Taikenban, which was a Japanese market only promotional version of the third installment.  The US market exclusively received Bonk's Big Adventure CD, which was a SuperCD version of the third game that added a redbook soundtrack and a small two player vs mode.

If I'm not mistaken, there's many more than four US exclusive titles.  In addition to Bonk 3 CD, the others are Falcon, Gunboat, Lords of the Rising Sun, Beyond Shadowgate, Darkwing Duck, The Addams Family, Talespin, Loom, Order of the Griffon, Camp California, Yo Bro, John Madden Duo CD Football, It Came From the Desert, Implode, Meteor Blaster DX, and Meteor Blaster DX - SE.  If you want to call 'em games, then you can add Bikini Girls, Hawaiian Island Girls, and Local Girls of Hawaii to the list.

*edit* - corrected my lameassedness

[Beld VanGuard]

Ah maybe it's 4 HuCards that the US got, not games total. I know the #4 was important in there somewhere.

I'll go correct the mistakes I made and update the list with the new info.

Thanks much

[guyjin]

If I'm not mistaken, there's many more than four US exclusive titles.  In addition to Bonk 3 CD, the others are Falcon, Gunboat, Lords of the Rising Sun, Beyond Shadowgate, Darkwing Duck, The Addams Family, Talespin, Loom, Order of the Griffon, Camp California, Yo Bro, John Madden Duo CD Football, It Came From the Desert, Implode, Meteor Blaster DX, and Meteor Blaster DX - SE.  If you want to call 'em games, then you can add Bikini Girls, Hawaiian Island Girls, and Local Girls of Hawaii to the list.

wow. I had no idea there were that many US exclusives. None of those were released in Japan?

[Necromancer]

wow. I had no idea there were that many US exclusives. None of those were released in Japan?

I don't think so, but I've been wrong before.  Once back in the late '80s.

[runinruder]

If I'm not mistaken, there's many more than four US exclusive titles.  In addition to Bonk 3 CD, the others are Falcon, Gunboat, Lords of the Rising Sun, Beyond Shadowgate, Darkwing Duck, The Addams Family, Talespin, Loom, Order of the Griffon, Camp California, Yo Bro, John Madden Duo CD Football, It Came From the Desert, Implode, Meteor Blaster DX, and Meteor Blaster DX - SE.  If you want to call 'em games, then you can add Bikini Girls, Hawaiian Island Girls, and Local Girls of Hawaii to the list.

Wasn't Lords of the Rising Sun released as Rising Sun in Japan?

I think Loom got a JP release as well.  

[Beld VanGuard]

wow. I had no idea there were that many US exclusives. None of those were released in Japan?

I don't think so, but I've been wrong before.  Once back in the late '80s.

I like the cut of this man's gib.

Please keep in mind as I update this, that I have personally played very very few of these in both formats (it's under 10) so if I end up accidently typing out my ass about something, by all means, please correct me.