Every now and then there is a game that is eagerly anticipated by gamers in North America, but for one reason or another isn’t given a North American release. This doesn’t happen as much as in the 8, 16, and 32-bit eras of gaming, but it still happens on occasion.
Frequently this is done because the task of translating the game’s text from Japanese to English would be cost-prohibitive; especially with RPGs before optic media became popular and all in-game dialogue was written instead of spoken. Games are also frequently not given a North American release due to licensing conflicts. The games on this list were popular (and fun) enough to inspire fans to translate the games themselves.
10 Sweet Home – Nintendo Famicom/NES
Before there was Resident Evil for the PlayStation, there was Sweet Home for the NES. Sweet Home is still regarded as one of the best survival/horror games ever made. It never made it to North America despite the popularity of horror movies in this region. One reason given for this game never getting an English language version is the time and cost of translating the game – it has a lot of text.
This game was based on a movie titled Suwīto Hōmu (which translates to Sweet Home); so licensing might have also been a concern. The game is also fairly violent and gruesome. At the time (1989) Nintendo was very proactive about maintaining a family friendly image in North America.
9 Gley Lancer – Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Gley Lancer is a space shoot'em up (or “shmup”) that was released for the Sega Mega Drive in Japan in 1992. The game's title suffers from a bad translation, and should have been Grey Lancer.
The game features some impressive parallax scrolling in the backgrounds, numerous ship options to try, colorful graphics, and gameplay that is challenging without being overly difficult – a balance that many developers failed to achieve. As a shoot’em up there isn’t too much text during the main game. However, the game has an impressive intro that is over four minutes long that was given a great fan translation. Gley Lancer was re-released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2008.
8 Tear Ring Saga – Sony PlayStation
Do you like the Fire Emblem games? Then Tear Ring Saga is the best game you’ve never played. This game was developed by Shouzou Kaga, who is famous for being the creator of the Fire Emblem franchise. This game looks, and plays, nearly identical to the Fire Emblem games. This would actually cause legal troubles when Nintendo decided it was a little too identical.
The enormous task of translating Tear Ring Saga into English wasn’t finished until 2016 – fifteen years after the game’s release in Japan. The translation has been called “rough” at parts by many, but this can be forgiven considering there isn’t an alternative - a slightly unfaithful translation is better than nothing.
7 Arabian Nights – Nintendo Super Famicom/SNES
Arabian Nights was an RPG for the Super Famicom (SNES) in 1996. Translating RPGs is no small job, but there is an additional reason this game was never given a North American release. The N64 console was released in Japan the same month this game was released – so priority was being given to next gen games. Arabian Nights is a brilliant RPG.
The game’s graphics, music, and story are all well-done. The game also tries to set its battle mechanics apart from other RPGs with the use of Barrier Cards, but fights are ultimately played-out much as they are in most RPGs with turn-based combat.
6 Soma Bringer – Nintendo DS
There is probably only one game on this list (entry #1) whose failure to get a North American release disappointed gamers more than Soma Bringer. This game was published by Nintendo – which is usually a sign that a game is worth playing.
To date, Nintendo has not given a reason for not giving Soma Bringer a North American release. This is an action/adventure game that plays similar to games like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger. The fan translation for Soma Bringer was never fully completed, but the vast majority of the story-based text has been translated.
5 King Colossus – Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Something that was tried over and over on the Mega Drive/Genesis was Legend of Zelda clones. Many of these were not worth playing. Some, like Crusader of Centy and Beyond Oasis, came very close to giving Mega Drive/Genesis their own “Zelda” title to brag about on the school bus.
King Colossus is a great Legend of Zelda clone developed and published by Sega themselves; which makes its lack of a North American release all the more confusing. Sega loved “one-upping” Nintendo back in the day. It may have taken fourteen years, but in 2006 North American gamers were finally able to play King Colossus and understand what was happening.
4 Dragon Force II – Sega Saturn
The first Dragon Force game received great reviews after it was released in 1996, and was available in Japan, North America, and Europe. It had an interesting mix of role-playing elements, empire building/management, and tactical real-time combat with large groups of soldiers.
The game’s story was also highly praised at the time. In addition to the overwhelmingly positive reviews, the game also did well in terms of sales. Taking all this into account, it baffles most gamers that Sega chose to not given its sequel Dragon Force II a North American release. Fortunately, fans gave this incredibly fun game an English translation.
3 Chaos Seed – Nintendo Super Famicom/SNES
This is an odd game. It’s fun, but it’s also hard to assign it to a genre of game – like action, RPG, or puzzle games. The best way to describe Chaos Seed is an overhead action/adventure game (like Secret of Mana) with a dungeon building element that is a little similar to the Dungeon Creator in the Link’s Awakening remake.
The purpose of building these dungeons is to achieve a harmony between the natural forces in the area. As the player attempts to build a dungeon enemies can (and will) appear to stop the player. The graphics in Chaos Seed were way ahead of their time; it would be easy to assume this game was for the Saturn or PlayStation from some screenshots.
2 Policenauts – Sega Saturn And Sony Playstation
Policenauts was made by Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear series. It plays much like another “cult classic” game he worked on before Policenauts called Snathcer – meaning it is essentially an interactive graphic novel. Whereas Snatcher was loosely based on Blade Runner, Policnauts clearly draws inspiration from the Lethal Weapon movies.
Take a look at the entry image again, then do an image search on Google for "Riggs and Murtaugh". This game is extremely text heavy, so it’s kind of difficult to blame Konami or Sega too much for not translating the game into English. The Saturn and PlayStation versions both have fantastic fan translations.
1 Mother 3 – Nintendo GameBoy Advance
Why do you do this to us Nintendo? The North American market likes the cartoony Mother (Earthbound) games, we like RPGs in general, and we will buy almost anything with the word “Nintendo” printed on it. After giving gamers the second game in the series (Earthbound), Nintendo decided not to give gamers in North America the third and final game in the trilogy.
Graphically this game is absolutely beautiful; the colors are bright and vivid, and the art style gives the game an innocence not experienced in most RPGs. The Mother 3 fan translation is one of the easiest on this list to find due to Nintendo’s silent approval of the project.