English text in Japanese games

[SOUP]

I've got a decent amount of games imported from Japan. Mostly Dreamcast, but a few others.  The thing I've noticed with a good chunk of them (especially the fighting games) is that all the text in-game is actually in english.

I just got Sonic Jam, and not only are all of the menus in english, but it even includes the english versions of the game manuals from Sonic 1, 2, 3, & Knuckles.
Rez is completely in english, but Space Channel 5: Part 2 doesn't have any.

I was just wondering if anybody knew why this is?

[MadeManG74]

I'm honestly not sure why that would be. I know that the few imported games I have for Dreamcast (Capcom vs SNK 2 and Fire Pro Wrestling D) are completely in Japanese in everything but in-game text (like the characters names or combo counters etc).

I would have thought most Japanese Saturn games were like that too, since I remember SSM making a big deal about Darkstalkers having an Enlgish Language option.


Now, as for why many Japanese games might be in English, I think the big reason would be that English probably the most widely understood language in the developed world (or at least the biggest markets for Video games, US and EU). They can develop the game with English language and not have to translate a great deal when they distribute it overseas. I would also imagine more Japanese can understand english rather than vica versa.

It would make sense that Japan-centric games like Space Channel 2 or the ones I mentioned were in Japanese only since they probably didn't anticipate distributing them worldwide.

[Orta]

English is also cool in Japan.

[crackdude]

Ubisoft's games should all be in French.


I'd say most japanese games are in japanese.. But yeah, some are fully english. I've always found that funny. If I were japanese I'd be pissed lol

[SOUP]

I'm honestly not sure why that would be. I know that the few imported games I have for Dreamcast (Capcom vs SNK 2 and Fire Pro Wrestling D) are completely in Japanese in everything but in-game text (like the characters names or combo counters etc).

I would have thought most Japanese Saturn games were like that too, since I remember SSM making a big deal about Darkstalkers having an Enlgish Language option.


Now, as for why many Japanese games might be in English, I think the big reason would be that English probably the most widely understood language in the developed world (or at least the biggest markets for Video games, US and EU). They can develop the game with English language and not have to translate a great deal when they distribute it overseas. I would also imagine more Japanese can understand english rather than vica versa.

It would make sense that Japan-centric games like Space Channel 2 or the ones I mentioned were in Japanese only since they probably didn't anticipate distributing them worldwide.

I just thought it was a bit odd that it's not so much that they have english language options (to make them easy to distribute internationally), but that they've got absolutely no Japanese text in game at all.
The thought of a game coming out here that was in some other language than english or french, as it's primary language, would just seem odd.
Like if the next Zelda game was full of Cantonese text, but had an English manual to explain things.