Topic: Japanese Switch releases with English support?

This December I will be going to Japan for Christmas & New Years, and I'll be looking into potentially buying some physical Nintendo switch games that are either only coming out in Japan or only getting a physical release in Japan. So far, I know I'll be picking up the Onimusha HD remaster but are there any other games I should keep an eye out for? Thanks

@Yubacore Okami HD got a physical release here in Japan. That's a notable one.

The most reliable way to know if a Japanese release supports English is to make a Japanese account, go to the eshop via the Japanese account, and look for "英語" in the language section. Not all Japanese releases are the international version of a game. Notable games that don't support English in Japan are Splatoon 2, Disgaea 1 Complete (even has a different title, Disgaea Refine) and the Valkyria Chronicles games.

Okami HD, I Am Setsuna, and the Mega Man X Legacy Collection are the popular choices. Mega Man X Legacy Collection received separate physical releases for parts one and two. Sadly, Mega Man Legacy Collection did not. It remains as a half physical, half download offering. Later in December there's also the Capcom Beat'em Bundle which will support English.

Then there's the Southeast Asia-only releases that have English box art. Neo Atlas 1469, Psikyo Collection Vol. 1 (and soon Vol. 2), World of Neverland, and Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master). Taiko no Tatsujin is getting a UK release, so you might decide to skip it. However, we don't know if the song selection will be changed for the PAL region. So it might be worth owning a copy from each region?

@Yubacore
Lost Sphear also support English & other European language as well despite the game box came with TWO Different covers (Outside = USA, Inside = Japan)

What in God's name was the point of making a "region free" system but limit the possible customer base by only supporting a few select languages ???

i mean I'm glad some game makers take advantage of limitless areas (I know UK players appreciate being able to get banned games from elsewhere) but too many other games are left without a blanket language selection

Problem is the market audiences are too small that's why. So unless they can be for certain of the demand doing so can be costly.

@SwitchForce creating an alternate set of available (text) languages for games is minimal in cost, voice acting alternatives, yah $$$, but alternate texts....no

@jhewitt3476 it cost time, money, and labor to do. You are over simplifying the cost.

@SwitchForce I work in the field of physics, I know quite well about "actual" costs, spending 27 years filing appropriation forms, cost analysis and budget reviews,

I also know hiring some college interns studying foreign languages to translate REAL cheap or even free, don't lecture me son

https://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/nintendo-switch-list-of-ga...

@Aurumonado
umm....where did you get that awesome Ridley/Mario cap profile pic ???

@jhewitt3476

https://tenor.com/view/smash-bros-ultimate-ridley-mario-e3-me...

Then good for ya then your but next line you lost it...

This is the line I expect of someone whom backed themselves into a corner. A really cheap shot is what I call this.

@SwitchForce
you maid a vain assumption, yah, I shut you down, that wasn't cheap

@jhewitt3476 Somehow I doubt it is as simple and 'cheep' as you think it is. But more to the point, if a game's target audience entirely lives in Japan, was only released in Japan, and people outside of that nation are unlikely to even know it exists, why would the developer bother with an English language version of all the voice acting and/or text?

@FaeKnight
with Nintendo actually bragging it is "region free", people are going out of the way to find games not released locally, seriously, especially RPG'ers have been going out of their way for games from other regions since the beginning, I remember a cartridge adapter for the original NES, it was a cheat device but also added region conversion, it was called "Pro Action Replay", it was very popular, every game system I've ever seen and/or owened, I always see adapters or soft mod software allowing other region use, it was a huge business, now it has NO region locking, and I'm seeing importers online and at flea markets making ass loads of money solely from reselling overseas Switch games, so yah, the demand is there, the minor amount of extra money spent would be a huge return guaranteed

The idea that Japanese->English translation is a thoughtlessly quick and simple process is an absurdly arrogant and ignorant assumption. Also, “I do physics, ergo I understand translation costs” is the most warped line of reasoning I’ve read in a long time. It’s also a somewhat ironic coming from someone who could really pay a proof-reader to make iron out basic errors like “maid a vain assumption”.

Anyway, let’s bring some numbers to the table, because they’ll give us something more concrete to work with than petty insults.

This is the Japanese Dragon Quest XI Wikipedia page. It has close to 40,000 characters/文字/moji. I know a J->E translator. He is paid 8 yen per character (of course, I don’t have his pay-slips; I cannot verify this. If you want to attack the argument, strike here). Some of the characters on the above page are in English, so unlikely to be counted. If we take a huge underestimate and assume he would only be paid for 35,000 of the characters, this gives a total cost of ¥280,000, which equates to $2465.12 (at the time of converting).

So that’s almost $2.5K (probably over, given the character underestimate) spent just to translate the Wikipedia page; just to describe the game itself. Of course, Wikipedia isn’t an official resource, and there would be no need for a company to actually spend a penny on that, but that’s not the point; it merely serves to illustrate the more general point that professional standard J->E translation costs a non-trivial amount of money. I haven’t been able to find the total moji count for DQXI, but it doesn’t take a lot of effort to conclude that a fully fledged RPG filled with thousands and thousands of lines of dialogue from hundreds of NPCs is going to put the character count very high indeed.

As a scientist of any description, you should really be arguing with the framework; “this is my reasoning, based on the evidence I hereby present”, not making arrogant hand-waving assumptions to grumble about your petty grievances.

The ignorant are the most in need of lecturing, and those who flaunt their ignorance so openly are the most likely to be firmly educated in response.

But it’s cool because you work is physics, which is apparently a prestigious enough position to render reasoned argument inadequate. This is somewhat ironic given that when it comes to physics (or any legitimate field of science); reasoned argument is the whole point.

If it's so cheap and easy, create your own localization company lol

(Also on another note, I already tried cheap translation for japanese -> english. It's terrible, and I feel it's money wasted since even google translate produced something better hahah)

@Maxz and at what point did I hint or presume, "arrogantly and ignorantly" that translation doesn't take some work ???
I did say it is cheap to hire college students, and high schoolers, plus there are plenty who do translation cheap online, not Google translate, I'm talking real spelling, grammar and sentence structure
having to do the things I do, I've had over 25 years of experience acquiring translators
it was however arrogant and ignorant to assume I didn't know that

@jhewitt3476 As others pointed out your sense I know better isn't all it's made out to be.