Demon Training Demo Heads to the Japanese 3DS eShop

I wonder how they're gonna localize this one... Americans typically frown on demon references...

cool and true to #1

@Katy There are NL users who are Japanese residents, just so you know.

Anyway, the demo is Oni Keisan. The voice-overs and graphics are very much improved, and everything feels very smooth and user-friendly.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole "demon" thing. In Japan we use the word "oni" in many different ways. Here in this game, its a double-meaning joke. Oni can mean "demon" (I prefer to think of it in English as the word "troll" though, not connected to Christianity demon at all), but "oni" can also refer to someone who is working or studying very seriously. That's what this game is mostly referring to. When Kawashima says his family and friends call him "oni-Kawashima" its referring to how serious and determined he is. Him using the "oni-Kawashima" demon/troll character is making fun of that image.

@PJRandall: somehow I don't think this one would be able to come to the west unaltered if they wanted it to be successful at all — not when it's 'Demon Training', haha. for every person who gets the joke and understands the meaning, there'll be another assuming it's some kind of necronomicon or satanic bible D:

I wonder, who came to the idea to use the demon thematic on this game...

@Tsuchinoko That is one of the many reasons I love Japan.

It sounds interesting, I don't think it will get a localization with this name though.
I really hope they will create "Dr. Kawashima's Japanese training".

@Hyperstar96

This is indeed coming to the west.

My only fear with download games, is nintendo doesn't tell you if you have enough blocks for a game UNTIL you've purchased the points/game and are trying to download it. I can see a lot of angry customers with this.

soo...what is this game called in North America? Have they even said yet?

I had no idea what Dr Kawashima was, until I looked up the NA name for it that is lol (Brain Age....yup, north american name sounds alot more appealing )

Brain Age is a much more appealing name. Indeed.

Why The Heck Are They Sold In 7-Elevens?

They sell phone cards in 7 elevens so why would this be any different, plus this is a different country we are talking about here. It's like McDonalds in different countries whom sell different things based on what will sell in said country.

@TheConsiglio Actually, all convenience in Japan sell these types of cards, but 7-11 in Japan has a special deal with Nintendo to sell a few things exclusively. Other stores like Lawson might sell them as well though, as all of the stores do sell Nintendo Points cards.

Just an example of the special deals:

7-11: Certain Nintendo items, Monster Hunter merchandise, a lot of pop idol group goods (like AKB48, Kanjani Eight are both having big campaign right now), Detective Boy Conan

Lawson: Their big exclusive is anything Studio Ghibl, they also have the Loppi computer system, which sells concert tickets, tickets to sports studios and all that, they also have a line of really good cafe items.

Coco: has a lot of exclusive ice creams

Daily Yamazaki: has a lot of bread items

Well, I mostly know about Lawson and 7-11, as those are the two big ones.

I just checked with my dictionary. It translated "Oni" 鬼 as ogre. I always think of the word troll, but demon or devil is okay too, its just in the west you get Christian images with those two words.

ONI face : D

@Tsuchinoko Actually "Demon" or "Devil" would work in the sense of someone being as strict as hell, at least in the US. Take "Hell's Kitchen" for example, Gordon Ramsey is described as a demon chef, and it's not necessarily about Necronomicon.

And those shiny glasses. Gotta love 'em reflective glasses of both men.

If they don't call it Demon Training here then I won't be buying it.

@HADAA I personally don't see a problem with them calling it "Demon Training". It loses a bit of the cultural aspect of WHY we call it Demon Training, but I think its easy enough to have it explained within the game, or in the manual. I guess its not so culturally specific, but still, "Oni" doesn't specifically mean "demon" or "devil" in Japanese. For hat I actually use the word Akuma 悪魔.

This feels wrong..

They'll probably call it something like "Devilishly Difficult Brain Age" over here. That way his appearance will still make sense, and the joke will carry over.

@Tsuchinoko Awesome, thanks for letting us know

@RR529 haha I would LOVE it to be called "devilishly difficult..." that would be amazing

@RR529 Actually, that totally works! Very nice I don't speak as much English in daily life these days, so a lot of my translations are dictionary based, though I do watch English-language tv sometimes, it does tend to be BBC comedies, haha.

The joke does carry over that way

Actually, "Oni" in Japan can be many different types. There ARE scary Oni, but sometimes there are also cute or nice Oni, funny. I tend to think of them as pranksters. I have studied the Japanese concept of hell or afterlife, and it is really different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oni_%28folklore%29
Here is the Wikipedia article on Oni. Its not the most complete article ever, but its educational.

@Tsuchinoko argh BBC comedies are terrible! Except QI. Still, watch Doctor Who instead!

Most people who frequent gaming sites, I think, will get the difference between an oni and a Demon as defined by western religion. The people who Nintendo would need to worry about taking offense are the non gamers and sensationalist media. I wouldn't give a second thought about buying a game with this title, but many people would. I'm just wondering what the will call it.

@PJRandall While I want to agree with you, I did meet many people while I was living in the states that asked me what the Chinese in their video games/Anime meant. I don't know if that's just being ignorant (I don't speak a word of Chinese, and I've never seen a video game with any on display, well, other than Chinese-language teaching games), but I will agree that most video game players probably know their Nintendo/Sony games come from Japan, not China. That being said, I agree that many video game players probably do at least a minimum of research into this kind of stuff, what an Oni is. I'm guessing that anyone who is going to play a brain-training type game will probably be the type to want to actually learn things

Christian parents are gonna love this...

Unleashed you inner Demon,by solving maths problems.

stupid american market admistrators with their religious fear.
bring jsut anything here, dont buy it if you think its offensive to your belief.

Its a humourously named game, but an exceedingly stupidly named game for marketing purposes. Nintendo can be geniuses at times but complete numpties at others.

Having said that, I'll probably get it....

@Tsuchinoko Yeh I agree people seem so ignorant when talking video games and anime with china and not Japan. I'll admit I'm not the smartest person at my school, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT when kids at my school who usually get all As and are praised for there smarts, tell me to go off and play my stupid Chinese games or watch my creepy Chinese anime, I'm like I even call them BAKA and they wanna know what it means they think that I'm not as smart as I am, at least with knowing the difference like this it actually has meaning in life, unlike getting praised for getting the answer to problem 2 right.