Complete, annotated list of JPN Mega CD exclusives

[goldenband]

Browsing the archives, we've had lots of discussions about Japanese Mega CD games, but it doesn't look like we have a single thread that:

(a) lists all the Japanese exclusives,
(b) describes them a bit,
(c) talks about whether they're playable if you don't speak Japanese,
(d) talks about whether they're exclusive to the Mega CD and/or available elsewhere in English, and
(e) talks about compatibility on US/EU hardware with a hacked BIOS (i.e. whether they have hardcoded region lockout).

So I thought I'd start one. Work in progress! I'll edit the first post as new info comes in, either from your posts or my research. The archived SegaBase site was a big help with the more obscure games.

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Titles in blue are linked to the corresponding Sega-16 review.

A Rank Thunder Tanjouhen
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese.

After Armageddon Gaiden
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Featured in the Sega-16 article Left in Japan.

Aisle Lord
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Dungeon crawler. Here's a gameplay video.

Alshark
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Featured in Left in Japan. At least one Sega-16 member doesn't think much of it. A walkthrough is available at Gamefaqs. Here's a review at Mobygames and a gameplay video.

Anetto Futatabi
Side-scrolling beat-'em-up. Mega CD exclusive. Cutscenes, title screen and closing credits are in Japanese, but completely playable without knowing the language. Works for me (WFM) on US hardware with Everdrive.

Arcus 1-2-3
RPG. Allegedly playable without knowing Japanese, if you use Zigfried's guide cited in Melf's review. Allegedly a very lengthy dungeon crawler. Featured in Left in Japan, and reviewed by Melf in March 2012.

Arslan Senki [The Heroic Legend of Arslan]
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Racketboy calls it a "turn-based strategy RPG". Featured in Left in Japan. Review at Defunct Games.

Bakuden: The Unbalanced Zone
A "musical action-adventure game", or that's what this guy says at least. Also on the Turbo CD.

Burai
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Also on the MSX and SNES.

Capcom no Quiz: Tonosama no Yabou
According to this site, a historical quiz game. I'd imagine you actually have to be Japanese to play this one.

Captain Tsubasa
Soccer sim. Probably playable for non-Japanese speakers?

Cosmic Fantasy Stories
RPG. Apparently somewhat playable without the language. Two games in one, both ported from the PC Engine. Featured in Left in Japan. Cosmic Fantasy 2 was released in English for the Turbo Duo. Review at Mobygames.

Cyborg 009
Platformer. Cutscenes are in Japanese (and allegedly numerous). Playable without the language.

Daihoushinden
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Apparently hard to find. Featured in Left in Japan.

Death Bringer: The Knight of Darkness
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Dungeon crawler.

Detonator Organ
Graphic adventure. Unplayable without knowing Japanese.

Devastator
Shooter/platformer. Playable without Japanese.

Dynamic Country Golf
Golf game (shockingly enough). Port from Sega System 24 arcade game. Should be playable without the language, I'd think?

Earnest Evans
Platformer. Pretty much identical to the cart version, except with added cutscenes (in Japanese) and Redbook audio. 100% playable w/o Japanese language. WFM on US hardware w/ Everdrive.

Eegawa Suguro no Super League [Super League CD Deluxe]
Baseball game. Sequel to Super League CD (listed below).

F-1 Circus CD
Racing game. Apparently quite different from the cart version.

Faeria (aka Fhey Area)
RPG. In Japanese, but Racketboy and Left in Japan say it's somewhat playable without language skills. Zigfried has written a walkthrough of the game.

Funky Horror Band
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Heavily text-based. A fan-translation may be in the pipeline.

Gambler Jikko Chuushinha 2
Mahjongg game. Apparently it's quite a good one if you're into that sort of thing.

Game no Kanzume Vol. 1 & 2 [Sega Games Can Vol. 1 & 2]
Game collections, most of which are available elsewhere and/or are easily playable without Japanese. The exceptions are the Phantasy Star text adventures, which have recently been translated.

Genei Toshi: Illusion City
RPG. Completely unplayable without knowing Japanese. A translation has been attempted; current status unknown. Featured in Left in Japan. Poster McMasters notes that "A translation of the MSX Turbo R version was released a few years ago but the last 25% of the game was untranslated." Here's a review at Mobygames.

Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf [Aoki Ookami to Shiroki Mejika: Genchou Hishi]
Simulation/strategy. Probably not playable without Japanese, but ported to a zillion other systems. That includes an English version on the Genesis/MD, to which this adds Redbook audio and not much else, apparently.

Heavy Nova
Fighter. Supposedly just the cart version with Redbook audio, more or less, so language shouldn't be an issue.

Ishii Hisaichi no Daisekai [Hisaichi Ishii's Political World]
A political sim? With a title like this, I don't think there's much hope for non-Japanese players.

Jango World Cup
Mahjongg game (not soccer/football as I'd guessed). Supports four players, or so I'm told.

Mahou no Shoujo: Silky Lip
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Heavily text-based.

Mega Schwarzschild
Space RPG, a la Starflight. Probably unplayable without knowing Japanese. Port from MSX and/or PC Engine. Featured in Left in Japan.

Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra
RPG. Probably unplayable without knowing Japanese. PC version, in English, is widely available. Featured in Left in Japan.

Night Striker
Rail shooter. Arcade port, later ported to PSX and Saturn. The whole game is in English.

Ninja Warriors, The
Beat-'em-up. Arcade port. 100% playable in English -- in fact, the whole game is in English, including audio! Only the subtitles for the story scenes are in Japanese.

Nobunaga no Yabou: Haouden
Strategy/sim. Another entry in the long-running series from Koei. Also on the Mega Drive, SNES, and 3DO, but I don't think any of those were translated. If you don't speak the language, it's probably better to stick with one of the localized games in the series.

Nostalgia 1907
RPG/graphic adventure set aboard an ocean liner in 1907. Probably not playable without Japanese. Ported (?) from PC-98.

Pro Yakyuu Super League CD
Baseball game. Apparently it's almost the same as the cart version, just with added Redbook audio (and maybe FMVs). They also say it was ported from PC Engine, but that might not be correct?

Psychic Detective vol. 3: Psychic Detective Aya
Psychic Detective vol. 4: Psychic Detective Orgel
RPG/graphic adventure. Also ported to SNES and 3DO, but not in English (?).

Quiz Scramble Special
The name pretty much says it all. I'm sure it's a lost cause if you don't speak Japanese.

Ranma 1/2: Byukuran Aika [Ranma 1/2: White Orchid Serenade]
A mix of story scenes (still pictures + audio dialogue) and...rock-paper scissors battles. Doesn't sound very appetizing, but might be playable for fans of the series?

Record of Lodoss War [Lodoss Tou Senki: Eiyuu Sensou]
Strategy RPG. Apparently playable without the language, especially for those familiar with the series; that, with a knowledge of katakana, may suffice. Featured in Left in Japan.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms III: Dragon of Destiny [Gekijoban Sangokushi III]
Strategy/historical sim in typical Koei style. Available in English on the Genesis/MD and any number of other platforms. Anything to recommend this one besides the Redbook audio?

Seima Densetsu 3x3 Eyes [3x3 Eyes: Legend of the Divine Demon]
RPG. Unplayable without knowing Japanese. Featured in Left in Japan. The soundtrack apparently has murderous saxophone. Review at Mobygames.

Sengoku Denshou
Beat-'em-up. Ported from Neo Geo. Fully playable w/o Japanese. Apparently a dreadful port.

Shadowrun
RPG. Some say it's unplayable without knowing Japanese, but a knowledge of katakana can apparently go a long way. The Mega CD version is completely different from other platforms (including the Genesis). A translation has been attempted; current status unknown. Featured in Left in Japan. Here's a forum thread with a mini-review of the game and links to the romhacking.net project.

Shin Megami Tensei [New Digital Devil Story / Devil Summoner: The New Adventure]
RPG. Unplayable without Japanese. Supposedly much the same as the PC Engine version, and according to Racketboy there's also a Super Famicom version that's been translated. Featured in Left in Japan.

SimEarth
Sim game, ported in English to loads of other platforms (none of them Sega). Anything special about the Mega CD version?

Tenbu: Mega CD Special
Strategy/historical sim. Another Nobunaga game, but SegaBase has positive things to say about it. Probably not playable without the language.

Tenkafubu
Strategy/historical sim. Yet another Nobunaga game, but SegaBase has positive things to say about this one too. Probably not playable without the language.

Tokyo Mahjong Gakuen (not released, may never have existed)
Sega-16 user xelement5x has researched this game, and based on his findings it appears that it was never released. (Was it ever even a title in development?)

Urusei Yatsura: My Dear Friends
Graphic adventure. Allegedly playable without Japanese, other than not being able to understand the cutscenes. Also discussed a bit on Sega-16 here.

Warau Salesman [The Laughing Salesman]
Graphic adventure? Ported from MSX. Probably not playable without the language.

Winning Post
Racehorse management sim. Part of an acclaimed series by Koei; at least one other entry has been translated into English (for the Saturn), but not this one. Probably a drag without the language.

WonderMega Collection
Collection of games, music videos, and other stuff for the WonderMega. Should mostly be navigable without knowledge of the language. Will this run on other hardware?

Yuyumimi Mix
Anime FMV à la Dragon's Lair. Playable without the language, but you probably won't have more than a vague idea of what's going on.

[CurlyPaul]

Wow nice list, thanks for that.

See a lot of jpn games on ebay but without knowing whether they are playable or not, is a bit of a put off.

[mrbigreddog]

Awesome list! Can I get your opinion on a top 5 JPN exclusive Mega CD?!

[QuickSciFi]

Great list. Very informative.

[timemaster11]

Nice list man.

As far as Winning Post, yes it has been released state side. It is a rare and kind of expensive saturn game.

[crazyteknohed]

Wow! A pretty exhaustive list you have there! Nice one

Anyroad, I would just contest Shadowrun as being 'completely unplayable' without speaking Japanese as I've finished the game myself. Like most Japanese RPGs, though, you will need to know katakana if you want to do any meaningful shopping, else you'll just be buying random weapons and armour.

'Twould be nice if people could give input on how playable/enjoyable some of the heavier text-based games are with no/limited Japanese language. For instance, there is a pretty comprehensive guide to Alshark on GameFAQs so I'd imagine that's quite playable to us non-speakers.

[A Black Falcon]

(a) lists all the Japanese exclusives,

I posted a list of all the Japanese Sega CD releases, at least...

Ranma 1/2: Byukuran Aika [Ranma 1/2: White Orchid Serenade]
Supposedly somewhere between a graphic adventure and a comic book. Might be playable for fans of the series?

Actually, it's more a game where you watch story scenes (pictures with voiced dialog) and then every so often play awful (in my opinion) Rock-Paper-Scissors battles. The Turbo CD Ranma games are decent, there were several platformers, but this one's bad.

Yuyumimi Mix
Anime FMV. Probably at least somewhat playable without the language, but...

It's basically a Dragon's Lair-ish "watch and choose what to do at certain points" game, except it doesn't kill you off constantly, instead just a few things change. You can play it without knowing the language, but the options you choose (when you have to make a choice about what to do) are in Japanese text, and of course the game's all Japanese (voiced), so you won't know what you're deciding to do or a lot of what's going on. Somewhat amusing game anyway though.

There was a later Saturn version as well, also Japan only.

Night Striker
Shmup. Arcade port, later ported to PSX and Saturn. Looks to be 100% playable without Japanese -- is there even any Japanese text in the game?

This is a rail shooter, actually, not a shmup. Fun game in my opinion, despite the mediocre review here and elsewhere I like it. There is no Japanese in the game at all -- the game has no voice acting, and the onscreen text is 100% in English.

Ninja Warriors, The
Beat-'em-up. Arcade port. 100% playable in English -- in fact, some segments have English audio with Japanese subs!

Actually, the only Japanese in this game are the subtitles under the English-language story scenes. All voice acting and menus are entirely in English. The game's a bit boring, but it's worth a look, and as far as understanding it goes, it couldn't be any better than this.

Considering that both of these games (Ninja Warriors and Night Striker) both are entirely English-language titles, Ninja Warriors' subtitles aside, why didn't Taito (the developer and publisher of both titles) publish them outside of Japan? It's too bad, they're good games.

[David J.]

Some interesting tidbits:

After Armageddon Gaiden was going to come to the USA via Working Designs, but didn't happen.

Cyborg 009 is playable if you don't know Japanese - been years since I last touched it though. It was OK at the best.

Dynamic Country Club was going to come to the USA - forgot who was going to bring it over. I wanna say Data East for some reason, but I doubt it was them really.

Heavy Nova is the same as the cart version - just a CD soundtrack, and an underwhelming game for the Mega CD period, as it was one of the first games for the console in Japan.

As for Super League - same as the cart version just with some minor changes like CD soundtrack and maybe some FMV. Port of a Genesis game, never was on the TG-16.

There was a US release of Winning Post on the Sega Saturn...don't know if it was the same as the Mega CD version, but the series did see a US release, just on another console, maybe a PS2 release or two in the USA?

[goldenband]

Thanks to all for your feedback and posts, some of which I've incorporated into the OP!

[David J.]

No problem for the information. I do have ISO's for about 30 japanese mega cd exclusives...and there are like 57 and I may be able to get the other 30 or so easily enough.

Keep in mind that Segabase isn't very accurate, but it was amazing for the time.

[crazyteknohed]

Here are a couple of links you might want to add to the list...

This is a thread that contains a mini review of Shadowrun, written by myself, and also a link to the romhacking.com thread related to the translation project:

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthr...?t=5710&page=2

Here is a walkthrough for Alshark:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/segacd/579202-alshark/faqs/8851

[edojapan76]

[zetastrike]

Man, that list has a lot of unplayable japanese language games. Does anyone ever use the Sega CD region mod for anything other than Sonic CD?

[goldenband]

@crazyteknohed: Thanks!

@zetastrike: I don't know, it's fun to be able to play Earnest Evans CD and Annet Futatabi, even though neither one is a great game (I kinda like EE, but AF is mediocre at best). But yeah, it's kind of shocking how much of the library is basically opaque to those without Japanese skills.

[David J.]

Hey, I have some ISO's, about 30+ for the Japanese Mega CD and someday I might try and give them a shot and maybe provide updates, and can get a good 20+ more...perhaps almost the entire japanese library?

I did play some - as I was able to provide comments but I'll check 'em out. Something about the Japanese Mega CD appeals to me. <3