Like most entertainment mediums, what games any individual person can play is severely limited by what language you are capable of reading. While most titles nowadays get translated into many languages, in the past many great games would be released in only a single country. Thankfully, these titles haven’t been lost to history forever as if a game is popular or historically important, there’s a good chance that some dedicated fans will take the time to translate the game into English themselves.
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While many of these titles will get overshadowed by actual new games getting released, fans of retro gaming must take the time to play these titles. Below is a list of some of the best and historically important titles that have been made playable thanks to dedicated fan translations.
10Tokimeki Memorial
Gaming’s Most Iconic Romance
Tokimeki Memorial is one of, if not the most, important games ever released by Konami as the modern dating sim genre (not to be confused with the typical Visual Novel genre) can be almost directly traced back to this title. The gameplay loop of visiting locations to increase specific stats in order to talk to increase your standing with one girl and maybe even go on a date with them is addicting. Add on the fabled difficulty of getting into a relationship with Shiori and you have a recipe for a timeless classic.
After the runaway success of the first title, Tokimeki Memorial would go one to become a nine-game series and even receive a remake on the Nintendo Switch in 2025, but despite being a milestone game with historical importance for the company and the fact that this style of game is now popular in the West, not a single title in this franchise has been officially localized, making fans rely solely on fan translations to play through even a single one of these titles.
9Policenauts
Kojima’s Break-Out Hit
Policenauts
Not even a well-known video game industry entrepreneur like Hideo Kojima can avoid the curse of one of his games being barred from a worldwide release. One of his first titles was a Visual Novel known as Policenauts which had the unique-for-its-time premise of a detective investigating the murder of his ex-wife in a hard sci-fi setting. Many later Kojima titles would make references to Policenauts, with the most apparent reference being how Meryl from Metal Gear Solid technically debuted in this game.
Policenauts may have never reached English gamers, but Konami did see potential in this title as it was quickly ported to the PlayStation One and Sega Saturn. Thankfully, due to the popularity of other Hideo Kojima games like the Metal Gear Solid franchise, dedicated fans have translated this title into English so that the whole world can see just how much of Kojima’s later works take influence from or directly reference this classic PC-98 visual novel.
8Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War
The Darkest Fire Emblem
Fire Emblem: Genealogy Of The Holy War
While the Fire Emblem franchise has recently become one of Nintendo’s flagship titles and a large part of theSuper Smash Bros roster, the series wasn’t always given respect by Nintendo of America. Nearly half of the Fire Emblem franchise has remained Japanese exclusive to this day, but perhaps no title stings more for fans than being unable to buy a legitimate copy of Fire Emblem 4, aka, Genealogy of the Holy War.
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Many classic Fire Emblem fans consider Genealogy of the Holy War to be one of the greatest games in the series, with its incredibly large maps and two generations of units (a premise that the franchise would later return to years later). While it is tragic that this title will likely never receive an official localization or remake, a popular franchise like Fire Emblem has fans dedicated enough that they were able to fan translate this title years ago, giving Sigurd his dues as a popular lord in the western fandom.
7Mizzurna Falls
Gaming’s Twin Peaks
Mizzurna Falls
During the late ’90s, Twin Peaks had hit its peak popularity in Japan. Not only was the show being frequentlyReferenced in games like Persona, but in 1998 Human Entertainment released Mizzurna Falls, a game which wore its influences on its sleeve and truly made gamers feel like they were playing a Twin Peaks video game with its automosphere and supernatural mystery.
While unrecognized and never translated in its time, Mizzurna Falls is now considered a very important title in gaming history for one important reason: its open-world city design. Depending on one’s definition, this may in fact be the very firstOpen-World gamein history. Because of that historical significance and the newfound popularity of Twin Peaks in the younger generation of gamers, this title was picked up and fan-translated.
6Princess Crown
Princess Crown
Not every game on this list is important because of its effect on gaming history, some titles had an effect on just one individual, such as the 1997 side-scrolling beat-em-up game Princess Crown from Atlus, which was directed by George Kamitani who would later go on to found the game company Vanillaware, which would later release a spiritual successor to this title called Dragon’s Crown.
Princess Crown itself is a fantastic reminder of how great 2D games on the Sega Saturn looked, while they were often overlooked in their time as gaming transitioned to 3D, games like this look absolutely stunning to this day. If you want a good time and to be reminded of a long-gone era of gaming, consider tracking down a copy of Princess Crown and installing its fan translation.
5Namco x Capcom
An Iconic Crossover
The Project X Zone series is considered one of the greatest and most ambitiouscrossovers in gaming, however, despite that status, the very first game in this series, Namco x Capcom, remains Japanese exclusive. This title had characters from dozens of games meet each other for the first time and to this day is referenced as the canonical first meeting of the Street Fighter and Tekken casts.
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Gameplay-wise, Namco x Capcom can be quite rough compared to later games in the series but there is still plenty of fun to be had with this title. The cast in particular has plenty of deep cuts which later games would neglect such as characters from Namco’s arcade game era. If you are a fan of crossovers in general, then you may want to track down this important historical meeting between gaming casts.
4Super Robot Wars A Portable
Mechs meet Strategy
On the subject of gaming crossovers, the Super Robot Wars franchise is one of the longest-running SRPG franchises in gaming, with each title taking mechs and characters from dozens of different anime and retelling their stories as if they took place in the same world. The franchise is one of the titans of the strategy game genre, which makes it such a shame that all but four titles have remained Japanese-exclusive over the years.
Thankfully a popular franchise like this one can always rely on dedicated fans to pick up the slack as multiple titles such as Super Robot Wars A Portable and Super Robot Wars J have been picked up and translated into English. If you want to play a great SRPG and Fire Emblem isn’t scratching that itch anymore, then consider giving these titles a try.
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3Valkyria Chronicles 3
The Horrors of War
Valkyria Chronicles III
The Valkyria Chronicles franchise is considered to be one ofSega’s best modern franchises, with its unique twist of SRPG gameplay which combined the ARMS system of Sakura Wars with ranged weaponry and the horrors of war. Nearly every title in this franchise is critically acclaimed, but one sadly of these titles remains Japanese exclusive to this day: Valkyria Chronicles 3.
Considered to be the darkest title in the franchise, Valkyria Chronicles 3 stars the Nameless squad who secretly fought alongside the cast of the first game. This title and its acoustic guitar soundtrack is a fantastic companion piece to the first game, if you are a fan of the Valkyria Chronicles franchise at all verify you take the time to track down and play this title.
Nintendo’s Japanese Legend
Placing at the silver rank position on this list is a game whose Japanese exclusive status is so famous that Nintendo themselves have made multiple joke sketches about how fans keep demanding it: Mother 3. This famous JRPG is a sequel to 1994’s Mother 2 (known in America as Earthbound), which due to theprevious title underperformingin America did not get localized.
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The gameplay and music of Mother 3 are a direct improvement over the previous game’s music and gameplay in nearly all ways to form an almost perfect game. Mother 3 is often considered one of the most fundamental JRPGs from gaming’s sixth generation, as its tone, visual designs, and gameplay has inspired many indie games such as Undertale. While this fundamental title will likely never reach Western shores officially, its placement in gaming history is undeniable.
1Sakura Wars 2
Sega’s Blooming Classic
Sakura Wars 2
The Sakura Wars franchise has always been one of Sega’s greatest, with hundreds of thousands of fans and a scope that reached all forms of media, it was an unstoppable force in Japan for years. Sadly, only two titles reached Western shores. Being very large visual novels released exclusively for the Sega Saturn, it took nearly two decades for fans to translate the first two games into English themselves.
Most people who play through Sakura Wars 2 consider it to be one of the greatest titles ever published by Sega, if not one of the greatest games of all time. Every aspect of this game from the visuals to the music has been perfected. Any gamer who appreciates the medium of gaming owes it to themselves to track down and play the Sega Saturn Sakura Wars titles.
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