PS2 Japanese Imports that are English-friendly?

[Austin]

I picked up a Japanese PS2 last week and have been on an importing kick again. However, I've been out of it for a while, so I'm looking to see what sort of "English-friendly" games are out there that perhaps I was unaware of. I'm mostly interested in stuff that's fast paced, you know, action, arcade, racing, fighting, music.. the usual stuff players like us typically import. Although, it would be interesting to know if there were any English-friendly, say, role playing games (doubt it!). Quality here doesn't have to be the best, I am mostly just interested to know what is out there, whether it's great or not, so long as it's at least English-friendly and not currently available in the US.

Here's what I know of so far (I can list specific titles in certain game series in a later post):

Classic arcade or console game conversions, remakes and/or compilations:
- Hamster's Oretachi series of discs (arcade conversions or emulations, mostly revolving around early '80s games like Time Pilot and Pooyan, but also later featured releases like Akumajo Dracula, Contra, Sonic Wings, etc).
- Taito Memories compilations (arcade compilations spread across at least three separate packages; features more titles than what the US got with the Taito Legends series)
- Hudson Selection series (Adventure Island, Bonk 2, Star Soldier, Lode Runner)
- Sega Ages/Sega 3D Ages (3D remakes of Sega Arcade games, i.e., OutRun, After Burner II, Golden Axe, etc.; later dropped the "3D" tagline and consisted of solid ports of other popular Sega games, like Panzer Dragoon, Virtual On, Decathlete, etc.; some released on US Sega Classics Collection disc, but a majority were Japan-only).

Music/Rhythm:
- Konami Bemani franchises (i.e., Dance Dance Revolution, BeatmaniaIIDX, Drummania, Keyboardmania, etc).

Pinball:
- Akira Psychoball (Kaze), and Ultimate Pro Pinball.

Racing:
Hresvelgr
Initial D series (?)

Fighting games:
Were there any import exclusives worth checking out? It seems we got a pretty nice allotment of them in the 'States.

Shmups
(since the Xenocide Files on the main shmups site seems incomplete; I am most interested in these since this was the main reason I bought an import system again):

Ibara
Mushihimesama
Espgaluda
Strikers 1945 I & II
Gunbird I & II
Sengoku Ace and Sengoku Blade
Dodonpachi Dai-Oujou
Thunder Force VI
Psyvariar Medium Unit / Revision
Triggerheart Exelica
Radirgy Precious
Homura
Chaos Field: New Order
Trizeal
Shikigami No Shiro (for those that don't want to bother with the butchered re-theming of the US one)
Giga Wing Generations
Psyvariar 2
Choaniki
The Shooting: Shienryu Double Pack
XIII Stag

Anything else I'm missing, feel free to chime in. I am interested in seeing what else is out there that would be worth checking out that's English-friendly.

[xorthen]

Sengoku Basara X is english friendly and fun as hell. The Hokuto No Ken 2D fighter from Ark on PS2 is also playable. Rumble Fish is also playable.

[KAI]

Arcade ports are always English-friendly.

[Austin]

Arcade ports are always English-friendly.

Generally speaking, yes. But do you know of any that were released for the system?

Asides from shmups, fighters, the music games, and not counting conversions of classics, back in the day I didn't really follow what arcade ports were made for the system. I'm not sure what is available when it comes to arcade ports (and of course, not counting what was released in the US, like a lot of the light gun shooters).

[xorthen]

The Japanese game market is littered with boring text only dating sims. I don't know of many really great Japanese games coming out lately, especially on PS2.

[BulletMagnet]

Fighting games:
Were there any import exclusives worth checking out? It seems we got a pretty nice allotment of them in the 'States.

Off the top of my head, there was the KoF NESTS collection, the Melty Blood duo, Power Instinct Matrimelee (actually a reworked version), the Savage Reign/Kizuna Encounter pack, the Galaxy Fight/Waku Waku 7 pack, the Last Blade pack, and the "ADK Tamashii" pack, which includes Ninja Master's and a few other games (most notably Twinkle Star Sprites). There was also a PS2 release of Garou: MotW, though you can get that stateside on Dreamcast, though IIRC there are a few minor technical issues with it.

[Austin]

The Japanese game market is littered with boring text only dating sims. I don't know of many really great Japanese games coming out lately, especially on PS2.

Yeah, I figured the PS2 was pretty much out of production (or close to it?) in Japan. On that note though, I didn't keep up with much when it came to non-music, fighting or shmup imports back in the early 2000's, so now that I have a Japanese PS2 again, I'm mostly curious if there was anything import-friendly I missed out on.

Off the top of my head, there was the KoF NESTS collection, the Melty Blood duo, Power Instinct Matrimelee (actually a reworked version), the Savage Reign/Kizuna Encounter pack, the Galaxy Fight/Waku Waku 7 pack, the Last Blade pack, and the "ADK Tamashii" pack, which includes Ninja Master's and a few other games (most notably Twinkle Star Sprites). There was also a PS2 release of Garou: MotW, though you can get that stateside on Dreamcast, though IIRC there are a few minor technical issues with it.

Very cool, I didn't know most of those had come out!

[BIL]

Chain Dive is a pretty fun sidescroller, should be fairly self-explanatory.

[Austin]

Chain Dive is a pretty fun sidescroller, should be fairly self-explanatory.

Nice! This looks like something that would be worth checking out, and it doesn't seem too expensive to obtain either (sub-$30 range).

[BIL]

Definitely a cool lesser-known for sidescroller fans. ^_~

I looked around a bit and it doesn't seem any more documented than it was a few years back... basically, smack baddies with your blade to freeze them, then hit R1/2 to grapple & smash into 'em, keep doing this for combo bonus. Really satisfying Bionic Commando-style action. dial911 has some good videos.

[shmuppyLove]

There's a PS2 port of Panzer Dragoon?

Well damn ...

[Austin]

There's a PS2 port of Panzer Dragoon?

Well damn ...

Yeah, after the mostly-failed attempted "3D" remakes of some of their classics, Sega's PS2 Sega Ages line switched to being more or less tried-and-true ports of some of their stronger Saturn-era titles. Games like Virtua Fighter 2, Panzer Dragoon, Dragon Force, Fighting Vipers, Last Bronx, Decathlete, Dynamite Dekka (Die Hard Arcade), etc., etc. It's a shame they didn't do Panzer Dragoon Zwei though, that would have been a nice addition to the lineup.

[CStarFlare]

FFX International can be set to English. Sadly, that didn't extend to SE's other rereleases (KH2 Final Mix, FFXII International), though I think by this point most of them have fanmade patches.

[KAI]

But do you know of any that were released for the system?

Gundam Seed Destiny: Rengou VS Z.A.F.T II PLUS
Zoids Infinity Fuzors
Battle Geear 3
Kinnikuman Muscle Grand Prix 2 Tokumori
Initial D Special Stage
The entire Neo Geo Online Collection series
Fate/Unlimited Codes

Non-arcades
Macross
Berserk: Millenium Falcom Chapter
Sega Rally 2006
Twinkle Star Sprites: La Petite Princess

[Doctor Butler]

Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

[Ghegs]

Some of the better english-friendly JP-only racing games, though a few of them did get ports in Europe.

Battle Gear 2
Battle Gear 3
OutRun2 SP Special Tours
Sega Rally 2006
Sega Rally Championship
Shinseiki GPX Cyber Formula: Road to the Infinity (1, 2, 3 and 4)
Touge 3
Wangan Midnight

[D]

Touge 3

his has got to be one of if not the worst racing game ever made. You must be thinking of the Kaido Battle games, which I don't like that much either, but they're far better than Touge 3

[Ghegs]

Touge 3

his has got to be one of if not the worst racing game ever made. You must be thinking of the Kaido Battle games, which I don't like that much either, but they're far better than Touge 3

Nope, I'm thinking Touge 3. It's a decent title, and extremely drift-happy.

[ryu]

iirc we've had this exact same thread sometime last year. should be worth looking for since it had a whole lot of recommendations inside i think

[Austin]

OutRun2 SP Special Tours

We received OutRun 2006: Coast2Coast in the US. I was under the impression it was the same thing as the Japanese SP version. Does anyone know if there are any worthwhile differences? Big OutRun fan here, so that would definitely be worth checking out if there is different content.

[D]

OutRun2 SP Special Tours

We received OutRun 2006: Coast2Coast in the US. I was under the impression it was the same thing as the Japanese SP version. Does anyone know if there are any worthwhile differences? Big OutRun fan here, so that would definitely be worth checking out if there is different content.

Big Out Run fan here too, hi. I'd be curious too. I have read that the graphics are nicer in the Japanese version.
Maybe there are a few extra songs in the Japanese version?
But the Japanese version does not have the LAN link capabilities.

I do know however that the Japanese xbox version of Outrun2 got the extra scud race tracks. I one day need to play that!

[Fudoh]

OR2SP: The japanese version has MUCH BETTER framerate stability compared to the Western PS2 releases. There are exactly 2 scenes in which the game drops frames, probably due to data streaming from the disc. The US version was all over the place in terms of fps stability. You also get wheel support with force feedback (Logi G25 and others) in the japanese version. Other minor tweaks and changes as well (female co-drivers don't wear bras anymore).

What you don't get on the japanese version are cheats, so no way to buy everything away. I've been playing this since the release and still haven't been able to buy all courses.

[Obiwanshinobi]

NamCollection - even Ace Combat 2 is entirely in English... with added Japanese captions.

Gunvari Collection + Time Crisis.

ChainDive (I believe it's meant to be played with analogue stick).

Ikusagami - make of it what you will, but I read the PAL version ("Demon Chaos") is unoptimised and devoid of 60 Hz option.

Tsukiyo ni Saraba - (a.k.a. 10,000 Bullets in PAL, where it's got 60 Hz option).*)

*) The reason why I can't recommend Japanese Gregory Horror Show is that it's rather wordy, but the PAL version outputs 60 Hz too.

Air Ranger: Rescue Helicopter should be import-friendly, but I intend to order the PAL version (complete with 60 Hz option, although I read the tutorial video is 50 Hz-only; not a biggie). When I make some progress with some games of my backlog, that is.

(I don't think ADK Tamashii is worth getting for Twinkle Star Sprites in particular - slows down like hell and doesn't look all that great - but Ninja Master's and Ninja Commando are perfectly serviceable there, whether you're after vs or co-op 2 player action.)