Regional Differences in Games (Part 1)

 

Ever since I found out that the US version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was very different from what Japan got, I have been curious about the difference in experiences that I got versus someone who grew up in Japan, and the ‘compare and contrast’ type of essay we sometimes have to do for English class was always my favorite assignment. 

During the NES and SNES days, information on this type of thing was scant. The internet wasn’t around to easily spread the details, and the only sources were monthly magazines and (even more rarely) the occasional newspaper blurb. I only found out about the SMB2 thing because of a small allusion to it in an issue of Nintendo Power. Since having access to Japanese games either through emulation, collections (like the Mega Man Legacy Collection or Castlevania Collection), or from the Nintendo Switch Online Famicom games, I have really enjoyed finding all the little tiny differences between versions.

There are many reasons for such changes. Sometimes it’s because there was a several month gap between the Japan release and the international release to give them time to translate/localize the game, and the developers were able to get some feedback from players to make some improvements. Other times it’s because the developers ran out of time before the game shipped, so they used the localization time to put the final polish on it. What follows is a list of types of changes with some examples. 

Different Media

The most obvious changes are ones where the physical medium had an effect. Kid Icarus and Metroid were on disks and had save files in Japan, while they were on cartridges and had password systems in the US. The Zelda games were on cartridges and had save files (getting the best of both worlds), so the loading and waiting times as well as having to change sides of the disc were eliminated for the US audience. The FDS games also often utilized the extra sound channel to enhance the music or sound effects which had to be cut out for the cartridge release. This type of change isn’t limited to regional differences, though, as it can also apply to any kind of port. Ports from an Arcade machine won’t need quarters to run, but also will come with a downgrade in graphics. Ports from PCs won’t have a whole keyboard to use, so a lot of adjustments will need to be made to be able to play it with a controller. 

Small Improvements (usually)

Often there are tiny bug fixes or slight changes to correct oversights, such as putting a small 1-block notch in the back of one of the ships in Super Mario Bros. 3 that makes it possible to get back on the ship without being “stuck.” Sometimes the sprites got garbled in the process of finalizing the game or a math error was found that causes unwanted behavior in enemy AI. Occasionally there’s a palette change due to unforeseen problems with sprites clashing or something. 

Cultural Issues

Sometimes it comes down to the differences in cultures that compels the changes. Capcom changed Phoenix Wright’s base of operations from Tokyo to LA in the text, even though the graphics weren’t changed at all. Also, references to ‘ramen’ were changed to ‘hamburgers’ as being the default fast food option. Many games that were steeped in Japanese culture were just not released internationally, as it would take too much effort to explain why kids were wearing uniforms to school or why the whole family bathes together in a game. However, since the popularity of manga and anime has exploded, many aspects of Japanese culture are more well known to the world and so games that wouldn’t have gotten an international release now can do so.  

Difficulty Change

Some of these regional differences are simple things, like Mega Man 2 having an option to select either a normal or hard difficulty, while Japanese players only got to play the hard mode. Super Mario Bros. 3 in Japan was also harder because getting hit always made Mario revert to Small Mario, whereas the US version would let Mario go back to being just Super Mario. For some reason the transition between the map screen and the level starting was also sped up. It was also clear in this game that the Princess’s name is Peach, something we didn’t learn in the West until Super Mario 64. Ironically, the US release of Ninja Gaiden 3 was made more difficult so that the game couldn’t be rented and finished over a weekend, forcing players to purchase the game and “get gud” if they wanted to complete it. In fact, it was the perceived difficulty of the original Super Mario Bros. 2 that inspired Nintendo to completely overhaul Doki Doki Panic into the western release that we know and love. 

Title Rename

Another oddity is that sometimes games are called by completely different titles, so games that are obviously from the same series in Japan don’t always appear as such in the US. For example, the games Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana were intended to be parts 1 and 2 of a trilogy (one where the third game never got released in the US) called the Seiken Densetsu (Legend of Sacred Sword). Nintendo of America thought it would sell better under the Final Fantasy name, so it renamed the first one and called the second one Secret of Mana. (Earthbound and Mother is another example of this). Square also didn’t release the 2nd, 3rd, or 5th Final Fantasy game in the US, so 4 was renamed to 2, and 6 was renamed to 3 so we Americans didn’t feel like we skipped a game. It just so happens that when Final Fantasy VII was switching teams to the Sony Playstation was when the internet started to take off, and we could find out why the games were numbered 1→ 2→ 3→ 7. 

A non-video game example is how the Transformers franchise came into being. There were two separate companies in Japan making toys that turned into robots. One was mostly cars and planes that changed into robots, while the other was made up of everyday objects like cassette tape players, microscopes, and guns. Japanese kids could play with these toys as is, but American audiences needed a backstory. So the American toy company gave them team names (Autobots and Decepticons) and wrote a story and created an animated series out of it. Voltron and Power Rangers kinda got the same treatment, where separate animated series were linked together under the same name in the US creating a connection unintended by the original creators in Japan. 

Translation Issues

Occasionally the translation changes the meaning of the original intent of the Japanese authors. In the case of the Final Fantasy games, the Japanese developers didn’t leave enough memory for text in other languages because Japanese is such a compact language when written down. As such, Ted Woolsey had to try and compress it down and make it fit and the result is that some of the story beats are simplified or changed entirely. Nintendo of America renamed The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods into A Link to the Past to avoid religious connotations, and decided that this game was a prequel (at least according to the back of the box) instead of the sequel that Miyamoto had intended. Some things were translated more literally, such as the infamous, "It is a secret to everybody" quote, and some were just really bad Engrish. 

Censorship

Many of the differences can be chalked up to censorship and cultural reasons. Nintendo of America had a fairly strict policy against religious things (as previously noted) and anything considered not family-friendly. The spell called “Holy” was changed to “White” in Final Fantasy 4, and to “Pearl” in Final Fantasy VI, while 'priests' were changed to 'clerics' or 'shamans,' and ‘prayers’ into ‘wishes’ in several instances. Castlevania had some background statues that resembled the Venus de Milo changed to look less nude and more covered up, many crosses were taken out, and Medusa was changed to look like a male. Several sprites were more covered up in Final Fantasy VI as well. The cigar-chomping gorilla’s stogie was taken out of Little Nemo, and the wording of the hint to call Edna in Maniac Mansion had the suggestive connotations removed. Many games had words like, ‘dead,’ or, ‘killed’ replaced by softer euphemisms like, ‘eliminated.’ Blood was removed from some games (Mortal Kombat) or had it changed to green (Ocarina of Time) or to look like sweat or vomit (Street Fighter 2). Wine was changed to Grape Juice, and bars (called cafes) serve milk for some reason. 

What’s interesting is how certain things got let through, like the cross on the shields and the graves for the first two Zeldas, even though the “Temples” were changed to “Palaces” in Zelda 2.

Regional Differences in Hardware (Part 2)

Regional Differences in Zelda Games (Part 3)