Anearth "debug" version

[m1savage]

Yeah, another Anearth subject. I do play other games, I promise. 

As many of you probably know, there's three versions of Anearth Fantasy Stories for the PC Engine floating around the  internet. There's the original version, the taikenban version (which contains the Cychorider shooting game), and a "debug" version.

Does anyone here have any information where the debug version may have come from? Who is TWI Soft? Why are the debug menus in English? What was this used for? I noticed that if you press the menu button during the game, it will give you the X and Y coordinates of where you are at. Why did they put pictures of wrestlers and other strange folk in the game? Inquiring minds want to know! Here's a couple of pics from the game so you can see what I'm talking about.

 


I noticed they used Thief, Magician, Fighter, Priest instead of Thief, Wizard, Swordsman, Monk like I did on my walk through. Trying to decide still which is better/more correct.

So, does anyone here have the scoop on this version? If not, wild guesses will be fine. 

[Necromancer]

This version is part of the The Watchman International's attempt to prepare for when the Lord walks the earth (a.k.a. - Holy Night).  They had planned on translating it into English and Hebrew in an attempt to engender an interest in prayer amongst kids, but they abandoned the project after realizing that the awesomeness of the PCE is proof that the Lord already walks amongst us. 

I'd like to think that TWI Soft (whoever the heck they are) was trying to translate it for the U.S. market, but '95 was likely a bit too late in the game for such an ambitious endeavor.  I'd guess that they were just behind the scenes programmers that Hudson farmed the game out to (in whole or in part).

[SignOfZeta]

I don't know anything about any of this, but debug menues in general are usually in English in any place I've seen.

A theory: This may have something to do with the fact that debug code has to run on top of the regular code. Using a standard ASCI set instead of the enhanced might use less memory. Also keep in mind that there is no accommodation for Japanese characters in most low level programing languages, especially back then.