PS2: Non-Shmups NTSC-J exclusives worth checking out?

[CDexWard]

Hi,

are there any NTSC-J games that are not shmups but are still worth checking out?
They should be playable without any knowledge of the japanese language, so all japan-only rpgs are irrelevant.

The only one I know of is the korean version of Final Fantasy X because it is in english and the only NTSC release of the international version you don't need to know japanese for.

[Kaiser]

Chain Dive, 'nuff said.

[Ghegs]

Off the top of my head...Chain Dive, Battle Gear 3, Initial D: Special Stage, Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box, the four Taito Memories packs...some of them have some Japanese in the menus, but they are easily figured out.

[CStarFlare]

The Japanese version of FFX International can be set to English as well.

IIRC so can XII, but I never tried that one.

If you're into special controllers, every Bemani series has PS2 entries that are worth your time.

[steveovig]

Adventure Island and Bonk!

[Marc]

Off the top of my head...Chain Dive, Battle Gear 3, Initial D: Special Stage, Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box, the four Taito Memories packs...some of them have some Japanese in the menus, but they are easily figured out.

Did the UK/US releases and up missing much?

[Ghegs]

Off the top of my head...Chain Dive, Battle Gear 3, Initial D: Special Stage, Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box, the four Taito Memories packs...some of them have some Japanese in the menus, but they are easily figured out.

Did the UK/US releases and up missing much?

Looking at Wikipedia's list, the JPN releases have 32 more games in total, including stuff like PuLiRuLa, Darius II, Bubble Memories and Chase HQ.

[AntiFritz]

IIRC so can XII, but I never tried that one.

I don't think FFXII IZJS has english. There's a translation patch but the game doesn't I don't think by default.

[CIT]

Sega Ages Vol. 29: Monster World Complete Collection
Sega Ages Vol. 32: Phantasy Star Complete Collection
Sega Ages Vol. 33: Fantasy Zone Complete Collection
Oretachi Ge-sen Zoku: Akumajo Dracula
Oretachi Ge-sen Zoku: Contra
Oretachi Ge-sen Zoku: Thunder Cross
Raging Bless (did get a PAL release as Raging Blades, but no NA release)
Tori No Hoshi

Quite a few interesting 2D fihghters as well, such as:

Hokuto No Ken
Melty Blood: Act Cadenza
Rumble Fish
Sengoku Basara X
Spectral Versus Generation
...and more

[Jonathan Ingram]

Think there was a thread like this a few months ago.

Anyhow...

Berserk
Seaman 2
Technictix
Yoshinoya
Coloball 2000
Mojib Ribbon
Kamiwaza
Kenka Bancho 1-2
Yoshitsune Eiyuuden Shura
Hungry Ghosts
Kengo 3
Nights into Dreams
Tokyo Bus Annai 2
Densha de Go! Final
DreamMix TV - World Fighters
NeoGeo Battle Coliseum
Heavy Metal Thunder
Front Mission 5(English patch)
Monster Hunter 2 Dos(English patch)
Dragon Quest 5(English patch)
Shadow Tower: Abyss(English patch)
Namco x Capcom(English patch)
Phantasy Star Generation 1(English patch)
Final Fantasy XII: IZJS(English Patch)

[Edmond Dantes]

Think there was a thread like this a few months ago.

Anyhow...

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum

That is NOT a Japanese-exclusive.

[CStarFlare]

IIRC so can XII, but I never tried that one.

I don't think FFXII IZJS has english. There's a translation patch but the game doesn't I don't think by default.

Damn. Maybe that's why I didn't buy it when it came out, haha.

[KAI]

Melty Blood Actress Again
Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku: Bonnou no Kaihou
Arcana Heart
Suggoi Arcana Heart 2
Psychic Force Complete
Another Century Episode series (1-3)
Beatmania IIDX series
Critical Velocity
Gundam Seed Destiny: Rengou vs ZAFT II Plus

[louisg]

Those later Sega Ages games are great

[stryc9]

Fate Unlimited Codes
ADK Tamashi
Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box
Monster World Collection
Vampire Collection (is that what it's called? Darkstalkers anyway)
Melty Blood Actress Again

Seconding the Arc System fighters as well, as broken as Hokuto no Ken is it's still the best game in the franchise, impressive graphics and voices.

[Kiken]

Arcana Heart

Officially released in North America (NTSC-U/C) by Atlus.

[iconoclast]

King of Colosseum II - the best 3D wrestling game of all time.

[Obiwanshinobi]

For what it's worth Silent Bomber is perfectly import-friendly and the Japanese voice acting makes THAT much difference. Nights into Dreams and ChainDive indeed, as well as Virtual-On (arcade-perfect port substantially enhanced). Dynamite Dekka if you are into the genre. ADK Tamashii for Ninja Master's and Ninja Commando (upscaled and filtered graphics, but if you crave 2 player action on PS2, be it cooperative or competitive, there's the good place to start).
Now, I'm not sure how easy to play without the translation patch Tobal 2 dungeon crawl mode is, but I found other DreamFactory dungeon crawlers pretty good.
Surely something else deserves mentioning (other than "smaller" Sega Ages releases like Puyo Puyo Tsu PERFECT SET). Have yet to play the Gain Ground remake.
NamCollection - games exactly the same as PSX versions, but on one DVD and you can save on PS2 memory card. Ace Combat 2 is all in English, with Japanese captions tacked on.

[KAI]

Technictix

Technictix/Technic Beat was localized without Card Captor Sakura's Purachina

[Specineff]

None has mentioned the Sega Ages Galaxy Force release. (It's not a shmup, so it counts.)

[Nana]

I made a similar thread a little while back, so there might be some suggestions that were missed over here:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45013

Personally, I've been having a blast with the Simple Series of games so far; I'm sure you know of them, and not sure if you're into kusoge or not; but if you dig bad games, so far I have:

The Maid Uniform and Machine Guns - terrible goddamn controls, pretty much only one song in the whole game, and horrible scoring mechanics. Lots of fun for some simple beat em up + machine gun action. 8/10

The Overwhelming Hell (The Tairyu Jigoku) - very very strange survival horror game, but I'm digging it so far. I'm pretty sure this might have been intended as softcore eroge, if you're into some bug on girl action. Awful controls, but that's the norm for survival horror. Some pretty cool tunes though, and it's dumb enough to be a fun conversation piece. 7/10

Earth Defense Force 2/Chikyuu Boiegun 2 - how has this not been mentioned yet? An absolute MUST, some of the most fun I've had so far.


and for non Simple-series games, I'm also loving Poinie's Poin. This game's a total trip: completely nonsensical, made for kids, but has so much strange language and humor that it really doesn't have a target audience. It's entirely in english (with options for japanese voice and audio -- lots of attention to detail for this game, strangely enough), so no issues playing it. If you're into straight up weirdess, I can't recommend it enough.

[Marble]

For the record Spectral Versus Generation also has a PAL release.

[ACSeraph]

Tons of fighters, most have been listed already. I'm going to place a vote for Melty Blood Actress Again as the most significant of them, though plenty of the others are quite good.

As for non fighters, check out the two upgraded Onechanbara games, Onechanpon and Onechanpuru. Good stupid fun, with very solid timing based fighting.

I'll also second Berserk and Gundam Seed Destiny vs Zaft.

Personally I think RPG's are a snooze fest if you can't understand them so stear clear of them.

[Gespenst]

Gundam Seed Destiny vs Zaft.

This. RvZ2 is basically the most awesome thing ever exist before GvG NEXT and EXVS.

Also whatever SRWs (especially Z, Alpha 3) and SD Gundam G Generations (either the first 2 3D titles or the more traditional Spirits and Wars).

[mirkvid]

The Japanese Metal Slug 3 is way better than the version included in the US Metal Slug collection. there isn't any loading time.

[ZellSF]

I've always been curious if the PS2 Metal Slug standalone releases are ports, and not emulated like the games included in the collection are...

Earth Defense Force 2/Chikyuu Boiegun 2 - how has this not been mentioned yet?

Probably because it isn't a NTSC-J exclusive, it was released in Europe.

[CDexWard]

Thanks for all those recommendations!

Quite a few interesting 2D fihghters as well, such as:

Hokuto No Ken
Melty Blood: Act Cadenza
Rumble Fish
Sengoku Basara X
Spectral Versus Generation
...and more <--- !!!!

Could you elaborate? 2D Fighters are awesome!

[Fudoh]

I've always been curious if the PS2 Metal Slug standalone releases are ports, and not emulated like the games included in the collection are...

yes, they are. And they have considerably lower lag than the versions in the collection. The XBox versions are the best ones though (native 480p support).

[CDexWard]

Speaking of Metal Slug, how is the 3D one?

[KAI]

It's crap.

Lots of 2D Fighters on the Neo Geo Online Collection, the localizations don't count cause almost all of them are shit.