Are there any RPGs on Famicom that are in English?

[vv52]

Hi there! I'm a bit new to Famicom collecting and don't really know any kanji, so I was just wondering if there were any import-friendly RPGs, especially tactics games / SRPGs. I wouldn't have even thought of this being a possibility normally, but I've been an import Saturn collector for a while and those games have tons of English in them, hell Biohazard (JP Resident Evil) is 100% in English!

I'd also be interested in other suggestions as the only FC game I own right now is Getsu Famuden (which is awesome), and I'm currently trying to hunt down a copy of Akumajou Special - Boku Dracula-Kun (the whole reason I got into Famicom games).

Thanks!

[ulera]

Famicom wars I believe just has manning menus so you just need to memorize each action. It's the granddaddy of the advanced.wars games.

I believe 80sfreak actually has Dracula for the famicom disk system in his sales thread.

[vv52]

Thanks for the reply.

I've been looking at Famicom Wars and it looks really nice, same with the Fire Emblem games.

And I just bought a copy of Akumajou Special from manuel. (Update)

[Cheetahmen]

The only one I can think of is Hydlide Special, but that one's just rubbish.

[vv52]

Cue AVGN reference: "Hyyydlide... yuck"

[P]

I really like Just Breed. It's cheap, it has a custom sound chip with nice music and artwork drawn by the 3x3 eyes mangaka. Like the Fire Emblem games it's not very import-friendly though but not many RPGs or SimRPGs are. I think both Fire Emblem games and Just Breed has fan translations though. Famicom Wars is easy to play since it doesn't have much story but it's a pure strategy/warsim with no RPG features (but it's still great).

If you like dungeon crawler type of RPGs you have the Wizardry I, II and III that has both Japanese and English script. It's still made for Japanese people though so you might have to navigate through some Japanese menus sometimes I think.

For normal RPGs we have the Dragon Quest series (I-IV), Final Fantasy series (I-III) and Mother. I recommend them all if you can find a way to play them and understand them (they are all quite text heavy).

However most non-RPGs/Adventures for Famicom doesn't really require any Japanese knowledge at all.

[Cheetahmen]

Does Dragon Slayer IV have Japanese text in it? I think the passwords used were in Japanese but nothing else was.

[vv52]

Thanks for the replies! I'm not interested in translations, as I'm looking for physical copies to start a collection, but I'll keep them in mind if I learn some kanji. So far I think Famicom Wars seems like the best choice for a cheap game that I'll be able to figure out.

[ulera]

You know, life would be simpler for import collectors if they had a game genie like device capable of applying translations to games instead of cheats.

[GohanX]

I'm not offering it yet, but I have been thinking about doing a service of putting fan translated roms onto Fami games, especially RPGs. So far, I've done Dragon Quest 4 (using US Dragon Warrior 4,) Mother (Earthbound Zero rom,) and Kid Dracula.

[vv52]

I'm not offering it yet, but I have been thinking about doing a service of putting fan translated roms onto Fami games, especially RPGs. So far, I've done Dragon Quest 4 (using US Dragon Warrior 4,) Mother (Earthbound Zero rom,) and Kid Dracula.

That's a really cool idea and I'm sure lots of people would be interested! If you ever do, let me know, I'd love to get a copy of Kid Dracula and DQ4!

[P]

Cool! Just Breed is MMC5 though if that matters.
But if DQ4 is just DW4 then you can just get DW4 and a 72-60 adapter, no need to make a Famicom repro of it. On the other hand DW III and DW IV has quite good translations (better than DW I and II anyway) and I understand the coolness of having a Famicom cart of it.

And hack3rcmv if you ever learn more Japanese, Famicom RPGs are perfect because they don't contain so much text as modern games does. The only problem is that kanji is almost never used because of the low resolution. Just Breed has a very nice and big font with kanji though.

[vv52]

Cool! Just Breed is MMC5 though if that matters.
But if DQ4 is just DW4 then you can just get DW4 and a 72-60 adapter, no need to make a Famicom repro of it. On the other hand DW III and DW IV has quite good translations (better than DW I and II anyway) and I understand the coolness of having a Famicom cart of it.

And hack3rcmv if you ever learn more Japanese, Famicom RPGs are perfect because they don't contain so much text as modern games does. The only problem is that kanji is almost never used because of the low resolution. Just Breed has a very nice and big font with kanji though.

I figured that it would be simple, it should serve as a nice introduction to the language I would think. Thanks for the additional info as well, I'll probably hunt down a copy of Just Breed now :3

[P]

You have bad news? Well then spit it out or it won't be of any use.

Anything else MMC5 based?

Among the games mentioned? No I don't think so. Lagrange Point and Madara also have custom soundchips I think.

I figured that it would be simple, it should serve as a nice introduction to the language I would think. Thanks for the additional info as well, I'll probably hunt down a copy of Just Breed now :3

I'm not sure if it's good at an introductionary level. It's just that since the text is less it takes less time to play the game even if you have to lookup every word. You need to know some Japanese grammar or you'll not understand any sentences. But if you know some kanji and can look them up you can at least look up all words in the menus in for example Famicom Wars and write it down on a note. A good tip is to learn proper stroke order from start then it will be much easier to lookup kanji you've never seen before even if you don't know the radicals. It will also be easier to read what you write later on. Learning radicals is also important IMHO.

[vv52]

You have bad news? Well then spit it out or it won't be of any use.

Anything else MMC5 based?

Among the games mentioned? No I don't think so. Lagrange Point and Madara also have custom soundchips I think.

I figured that it would be simple, it should serve as a nice introduction to the language I would think. Thanks for the additional info as well, I'll probably hunt down a copy of Just Breed now :3

I'm not sure if it's good at an introductionary level. It's just that since the text is less it takes less time to play the game even if you have to lookup every word. You need to know some Japanese grammar or you'll not understand any sentences. But if you know some kanji and can look them up you can at least look up all words in the menus in for example Famicom Wars and write it down on a note. A good tip is to learn proper stroke order from start then it will be much easier to lookup kanji you've never seen before even if you don't know the radicals. It will also be easier to read what you write later on. Learning radicals is also important IMHO.

Thanks for the advice. I took Mandarin for two years, is the stroke order the same?