Do Japanese gamers ever get screwed over.....

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 7:17 pm

when it comes to videogames? It seems like they always get the best stuff. Has US and Euro developers ever manage to release an inferior verison of a game to the Japanese gaming public?

I ask this because it always feels like us Americans and Europeans are constantly not getting the best stuff.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 7:21 pm

The Japanese version of Magi Nation has some spiky haired guy instead of Tony Jones. The faq I read of it makes it sound somewhat toned down compared to the US version, despite the fact that the US one is GBC and the Japanese one is on GBA.

Japan got the worst version of the GBA Astro Boy. The US and EU versions have more variations of enemies, less slowdown, better levels (or so I heard), and a new hard mode (IIRC, their normal is our easy and their hard is our normal, though all modes have differences from their closest Japanese approxmation).

Sonic Adventure 1 DC JP has more slowdown and camera angle problems than its US counterpart.

Post by **Ghegs** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 7:29 pm

On occasion a game gets refined from its japanese release for the western releases. Devil May Crys had their difficulty levels tinkered with, Final Fantasy X (or one of them, anyway) got extra bosses 'n stuff, Silpheed: The Lost Planet was made harder (but not better, unfortunately), etc.

Icecap Veiwin · Post by **Icecap Veiwin** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:26 pm

The Japanese also got an easier version of The Adventures of Bayou Billy, from what I've heard.

Zach Keene · Post by **Zach Keene** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:31 pm

Wipeout 3 Special Edition has never seen an NTSC release anywhere, making it an odd case where both Japan and the Americas got screwed.

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:52 pm

The US Sega Rally was refined over its Japanese counterpart.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:59 pm

As far as I know, Rolling Thunder 3 wasn't released in Japan. We also got Decapattack.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 9:26 pm

Japan initially got screwed with Star Ocean 3, which was packed with bugs. A "director's cut" was released that existed mostly to fix bugs, and this is the only version America got. Technically we both got the same product in the end, but America never had to deal with the shitty version.

It's also not uncommon for western games to have their art changed for Japanese release. Whether this is good or not depends on how much you love giant eyes and if you think absolutely everything drawn would be better with them.

Finally, there are plenty of western developed games that don't make it over there. Again, whether this is good or bad depends on which style you prefer. I imagine it would suck to be a FPS fan in Japan.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 9:48 pm

Most of those RPGs that are tweaked for foreign release are re-released in Japan as "International, Director's Cut, Reloaded" or some other term. Japan has proven time and time again that they'll pay for something repackaged... especially if there's some added goodies to it. Even the English dubbed Shenmue was resold in Japan... a game that didn't do so hot in the first place. While there are a few select "shafgting" cases, all in all, they still get better stuff than US/EU hands down.

Most shops in Akihabara offer a free trinket when you buy new games (there are 4 or 5 different types of Mushihime-sama telephone cards), and Yahoo Japan is almost scam free to boot. No Ebay morons.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 9:56 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:Most of those RPGs that are tweaked for foreign release are re-released in Japan as "International, Director's Cut, Reloaded" or some other term. Japan has proven time and time again that they'll pay for something repackaged... especially if there's some added goodies to it. Even the English dubbed Shenmue was resold in Japan... a game that didn't do so hot in the first place. While there are a few select "shafgting" cases, all in all, they still get better stuff than US/EU hands down.

Most shops in Akihabara offer a free trinket when you buy new games (there are 4 or 5 different types of Mushihime-sama telephone cards), and Yahoo Japan is almost scam free to boot. No Ebay morons.

Well, they get better stuff when it comes to Japanese-developed games, definitely. But what I'm saying is that they often get shitty versions as well. I know I'd be miffed if I bought SO3, found it full of bugs, and then had to re-buy it just to get a properly working one.

As for trinkets, I know they do the same thing with albums as well. However, an album in Japan costs a fair deal more than an album in America, so the tradeoff doesn't seem worth it to me ("hey, this cost me over twice as much as a normal album here, but I got some stickers with it!"). I don't know much about game costs, though.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:05 pm

As far as I know, the NES Legendary Wings only came out in the US.

Dice · Post by **Dice** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:06 pm

Super Punch-Out!! was a US release.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:29 pm

Was Mike Tyson a US exlusive for the NES Punch Out?

UnscathedFlyingObject · Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:31 pm

Most recently, we've got Nanostray and them no. Good Shmup for those who haven't tried it, but for the next game, please fix the perspective problem.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:42 pm

We also got Project S-11, a pretty good European style shooter for GBC.

ThirdStrike · Post by **ThirdStrike** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:50 pm

The US versions of Soul Calibur 2 have extra characters not found in the Japanese version.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:01 am

ThirdStrike wrote:The US versions of Soul Calibur 2 have extra characters not found in the Japanese version.

They are limited to a few modes, though. Weren't they originally just generic extras for the Weapon Master mode?

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:46 am

Well, IMO, they got screwed over when Power Strike II was not released for the Sega Mark III. But that's about the only instance I can think of, at least in terms of shmups.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:56 am

BrianC wrote:Was Mike Tyson a US exlusive for the NES Punch Out?

I found the answer to my own question. Unlike the US version, there is no special character like Mr. Dream or Mike Tyson in the Japanese version of Punch Out. As far as I know, the final oppoent in the Japanese version of Punch Out is Super Macho Man. Was "Another World Circuit" also exclusive to versions outside of Japan? If it was, it would mean that they really missed out in Japan with Punch Out.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:23 am

Difficulty in Elemental Gearbolt was raised.

Numerous changes in Astro Boy: Omega Factor! Can't remember them all, sure there's a web site detailing them all.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:26 am

I once read that the japanese SNES Mortal Kombat II was censored - green blood.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:40 am

LoneSage wrote: Numerous changes in Astro Boy: Omega Factor! Can't remember them all, sure there's a web site detailing them all.

I mentioned this.

"Japan got the worst version of the GBA Astro Boy. The US and EU versions have more variations of enemies, less slowdown, better levels (or so I heard), and a new hard mode (IIRC, their normal is our easy and their hard is our normal, though all modes have differences from their closest Japanese approxmation)."

A more detailed explaination of the differences between the US and JP Astro Boy can be found here. http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadva ... 18953.html

I once read that the japanese SNES Mortal Kombat II was censored - green blood.

Edit: I "tried out" the Japanese version to check this out and it is indeed true about the green blood. Very odd.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:48 am

Oh yeah, sorry about that Brian. Totally skipped your post.

But you forgot the bosses had health bars, aha!

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:57 am

TWITCHDOCTOR wrote:The US Sega Rally was refined over its Japanese counterpart.

Other way around. The Japanese version is refined over the US version... not to mention it was released about a month later. Diehard Gamefan covered this way back when and www.segagagadomain.com has a small write-up about it too. Considering I've played both versions I can certainly attest to the fact that the Japanese version is better.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:12 am

Kiken wrote:
TWITCHDOCTOR wrote:The US Sega Rally was refined over its Japanese counterpart.
Other way around. The Japanese version is refined over the US version... not to mention it was released about a month later. Diehard Gamefan covered this way back when and www.segagagadomain.com has a small write-up about it too. Considering I've played both versions I can certainly attest to the fact that the Japanese version is better.

From what I heard, it's SEGA Rally 2 DC US that's refined over the Japanese one. The US SEGA Rally 2 has a more steady 30 FPS framerate and the Japanese version has a framerate of 60 FPS that drops more often. There is actually a code in the US version to play at the Japanese framerate and the difference is definatly noticable. Despite the fact that the US one has a better framerate, the arcade version is definatly superior to both home versions. I actually like the US DC version despite the framerate problems, though. Still, it could have been much better.

Regulus · Post by **Regulus** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:25 am

I don't know... there are a lot of games that English speaking countries don't get, but it seems like a lot of games are fixed up when they come over here. Off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure the english release of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance had added secret characters, a retooled law system, and a few other things. Too bad the games still sucked compaired to the original. Ironically, we lost a bunch of stuff in the english PSX FFT... namely a few item minigames and the soundtest.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:40 am

Metal Gear Solid Integral was released over there just to show off the great english voice acting, and the original game had only 1 difficulty level: the equivalent of the "Easy" we got here in the american continent.

azmun · Post by **azmun** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:10 am

FatCobra wrote:Has US and Euro developers ever manage to release an inferior verison of a game to the Japanese gaming public?

Yeah, there have been some cases. The US release of Virtua Fighter 3tb fixed some of the bugs and graphical flaws of the earlier Japanese version.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 10:42 am

The Mega CD version of Snatcher (US/EU only) is known as the best or most complete one (lightgun support, new areas, basically nothing censored etc.). I've even heard people say that the voice acting is better in the Mega CD-version, from people that know both languages. Great acting nevertheless, fantastic game.

Mega Turrican, among many other good games was never released in Japan.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:38 am

I found the answer to my own question. Unlike the US version, there is no special character like Mr. Dream or Mike Tyson in the Japanese version of Punch Out.

I'm by no means a Famicom expert (or really even fan for that point) but I would say that's false advertising. It even says, "Can you beat Mike Tysson?" on the back.

Dave: The Megadrive and Master System both bombed VERY hard in Japan. There are more than a handful of games for both systems (even some Japanese developed I believe) that didn't come out in Japan.

Seth: As for the "it costs more" argument. Well... besides cigarettes, just about everything else costs more in Japan. It's quite relative to be honest, although they do try to justify it w/ the packaging. I'm not saying your argument isn't totally correct... but when you live there, you can say that about almost everything. Games, I've always found were pretty cheap in comparison. $50-$60? I've spent that much in a cab before, and can blow through that in two hours of drinking no problem.

shmups.system11.org

Do Japanese gamers ever get screwed over.....

Do Japanese gamers ever get screwed over.....

Re: Do Japanese gamers ever get screwed over.....