Games That Never Came West?

[Moonface]

Now I know technically you can play any game that was released exclusively in Japan by importing it, emulating it, etc. but for the purposes of discussion if the game never officially got a Western release, then it counts here.

I'm not super familiar with games that didn't see a Western release besides Mother 3, so right now I can't say there are games I would love to see ported over or think are interesting, etc. so for now I'll have to just make do with asking if anyone else here knows of any games they found interesting or wish were brought over to our shores?

[Maniakkid25]

There are a good chunk of SMT games that never made it outside of Japan. Hell, the first SMT game only got a localization on iOS, and its now impossible to obtain outside of buying an old iPhone with the game on it thanks to the Appocalypse killing all 32 bit apps on the store. SMT II, ...If, Majin Tensei, most of the Devil Children series, even the original Megami Tensei games on NES. There are a lot of games that just never got a localization.

I've also talked about it before, but the Wonderswan never made it outside of Asia, so almost all the games for it are in Japanese. There are still some playable games if you have no knowledge of the language, but outside of those the games are few and far between. The only game that was ever released in English was because it was a Hong Kong release, and it was a Digimon game. Very nice.

[Moonface]

Looking up the SMT series, it's wild to me that Atlus did a remaster of 3 in 2021 but have done nothing with the first two games. I get that remastering 3 likely does better sales because there's worldwide nostalgia for it, but even just throwing a translated version of the first two games out digitally worldwide would be a cheap way to port games that Atlus doesn't feel confident enough in to do further work than that on them.

[Maniakkid25]

Honestly, it's kind of surprising SMT I got a localization at all, because there's a rather disturbing sequence in the game involving Alice, where the area that she's in is controlled by two demons that killed all the residents and forced their spirits to be toys for the girl in question for all eternity. It's pretty f***ed up, even for a series like SMT. There are plenty of other games in the series with objectionable content like that, which is why the series has a very firm M rating in the US.