Man the family and I put so much time in on this game and 2 back on the SNES. Even my mom played, she played a LOT of part 2. Sad it's not in English, also the graphics don't look like I remember them either.
English not supported. Perhaps sometime in the future the dev can start with an English Interface translation (Easiest and least expensive). If a fan base develops and increases, perhaps English Subtitles can be added (Most difficult and most expensive). See my explanation about translation.
Perhaps Koei wants to "restore" a few of their games back to being "Japanese exclusive" titles rather than being export titles. As I understand it, Koei Techno and perhaps some other Japanese devs may feel that there are too few "Japanese exclusive" titles to offer to their Japan based customers. That would probably explain why their entire "Winning Post" series of PC games (Except for one English port on the Sega Saturn) are only available as Japanese titles.
I'm thinking it's more likely that something happened with the original localization, done under Koei Corporation of America. Maybe it got lost entirely, and rather than say, reverse-engineer it from a ROM of the original game, they just released it as-is.
That is just one game in their entire library of titles. If what you are inferring is true then I'd think that some IT executive or whomever was responsible for program version control as well as intellectual property security would have been terminated (fired).
Do you really believe that program code which is the "life blood" of a game software company would simply be "lost" without any nightly|daily backup copies being made on separate RAID servers?! IMHO, that would be very highly unlikely! Game software companies, especially giant corporations like Koei Tecmo, pay professional linguists a lot of money to accurately translate various languages for their games which in turn, adds to the cost of a game (Koei Techmo games do not come cheap - They retail for upwards of ~ $130.00 USD)! So you'd better believe that their WIP (Work In Progress) software is backed up nightly|daily and highly guarded - Valuable program code would not simply be "lost"!
Anyway, it's all conjecture from either one of our standpoints. Unless any of us actually work at a high level position at Koei Tecmo, we'll never know the reason why the executives at Koei Tecmo made their decision.
"Do you really believe that program code which is the "life blood" of a game software company would simply be "lost" without any nightly|daily backup copies being made on separate RAID servers?!"
100% yes, especially since many other companies have lost their source code of games through accident, tech upgrades, losing work to corruption, or simple forgetfulness. This game is ancient, man. It's not some new game remastered for the modern audience, it's just been made to run on modern systems, probably in something like DOSBox or equivalent proprietary software. Most likely they had the original source code for their Japanese version of the game, but Koei Corporation somewhere along the line lost their translation work, possibly in one of the many reshuffles or just because localization files weren't seen as all that important to preserve, or both.
Also, those "$130 price tags" (these prices are in CAD btw, not USD; USD it's $105) are on bundles. The top one, Ryza 2, is the Ultimate Edition, which is the season pass unique DLC, the season pass DLC, the Deluxe Edition of the game (two costume sets, Kurken Island Gathering Tour exclusive content, and a gem pack and item set to get you started easier). There was also an early purchase bonus that is entirely unavailable (straw hat) and what was a pre-order bonus costume set, Summer Fashion, that you can now buy individually for $3.39 CAD a pop ($23.73 altogether). The next one down, for ROTK, is ROTK XIV, an expansion pack, and the season pass. The one after that is a bundle of 62 costumes and two characters for DOA6. And so on and so forth. There are rediculous pricings still, sure, especially when you get to something like Lydie & Suelle's season pass being $91 CAD, more than the cost of the game Wild Hearts by $2, but yeah. Thankfully they aren't QUITE up at $130/game... yet.
"100% yes, especially since many other companies have lost their source code of games through accident, tech upgrades, losing work to corruption, or simple forgetfulness. ..."
Can you provide links to RL examples to support what you've said? I'm not doubting the age of the games, dude - Just what you've said about the motives or reasons behind why these games are now Japanese only. If a bank just simply lost money which is their "life blood" due to reasons other then criminal activity (eg. Robbery, embezzlement, ... etc), the FDIC would shut them down immediately after finding out and then begin an investigation! Similarly, if a publicly traded game software company like Koei Tecmo simply "lost" some game code and news if it leaked out, the institutional investors and common shareholders would want to launch their own investigations using the services of profession private investigation teams to find out what the hell happened and how the executives will respond to the findings!
My point was that Koei games are not cheap! If you think that $105 USD, $68USD (or $91 CAD) or even $23.73 is a cheap price to pay for a game or game/DLC(s) bundle then why are you on a warez site trying to get games for free anyway?
Sorry, didn't get a notification for this and only revisited this thread because someone recently gave me karma and I was curious for what, and saw this post.
Look up Ars Technica's 2021 article, "Saving video gaming’s source code treasures before it’s too late"; Here's a relevant quote: "For games made before 2000, Cifaldi estimates that the source code is completely gone for over 90 percent of 'the games we care about.'"
And further: "I'm sure a lot of source was saved at one time, then an office move happened, someone said, 'What's this old DAT we have in a closet? It's probably backed up somewhere, just toss it,'" Cifaldi said. "I think the situation is pretty bad. It's only going to get worse as the people who actually archived this stuff age out and leave the industry, if not this mortal coil."
There's also a Stackexchange post for software engineering titled "how serious is losing the source code" back in 2010 asking about it, with many software engineers chipping in about situations they had to deal with or what the likely outcome would be.
Konami and Sega have also done exactly this multiple times in the past; see the thread on neo-geo.com titled "Those companies..........what? They lost the source codes for their games?" where it is talked about; even Nintendo left a lot of stuff behind in various offices they rented out for awhile then moved on from.
This isn't even touching on all the studios that have gone out of business and had their assets bought up in auction and their IPs scattered to the four winds, either.
Now, to answer the rest of your statement: You asked me if I believed it could be the case, and I answered "100% yes" to that, because I 100% believe it could be the case, NOT that it 100% IS the case, then or now. Games currently in development or in active support status especially in these modern days rarely have their source code lost except through gross negligence or far-reaching freak accident, like the entire office building going up in flames at the same time as the backup servers fried from electrical fault, or something similar. Older products, though? Most likely trashed long ago when not seen as profitable anymore, rather than spend the money to retain it.
And lastly, to quote myself: "There are rediculous pricings still, sure, especially when you get to something like Lydie & Suelle's season pass being $91 CAD, more than the cost of the game Wild Hearts by $2, but yeah. Thankfully they aren't QUITE up at $130/game... yet."
I see. Well, let's just say that there was just some ambiguity in and a misunderstanding of what you were trying to convey when you wrote, "100% yes ...".
This was all eight months ago and I've long since moved on with other things beyond this conversation. Let's just chalk this all up to the old adage, "This is the World and anything is possible".
I'm thinking it's more likely that something happened with the original localization, done under Koei Corporation of America. Maybe it got lost entirely, and rather than say, reverse-engineer it from a ROM of the original game, they just released it as-is.
Do you really believe that program code which is the "life blood" of a game software company would simply be "lost" without any nightly|daily backup copies being made on separate RAID servers?! IMHO, that would be very highly unlikely! Game software companies, especially giant corporations like Koei Tecmo, pay professional linguists a lot of money to accurately translate various languages for their games which in turn, adds to the cost of a game (Koei Techmo games do not come cheap - They retail for upwards of ~ $130.00 USD)! So you'd better believe that their WIP (Work In Progress) software is backed up nightly|daily and highly guarded - Valuable program code would not simply be "lost"!
Anyway, it's all conjecture from either one of our standpoints. Unless any of us actually work at a high level position at Koei Tecmo, we'll never know the reason why the executives at Koei Tecmo made their decision.
100% yes, especially since many other companies have lost their source code of games through accident, tech upgrades, losing work to corruption, or simple forgetfulness. This game is ancient, man. It's not some new game remastered for the modern audience, it's just been made to run on modern systems, probably in something like DOSBox or equivalent proprietary software. Most likely they had the original source code for their Japanese version of the game, but Koei Corporation somewhere along the line lost their translation work, possibly in one of the many reshuffles or just because localization files weren't seen as all that important to preserve, or both.
Also, those "$130 price tags" (these prices are in CAD btw, not USD; USD it's $105) are on bundles. The top one, Ryza 2, is the Ultimate Edition, which is the season pass unique DLC, the season pass DLC, the Deluxe Edition of the game (two costume sets, Kurken Island Gathering Tour exclusive content, and a gem pack and item set to get you started easier). There was also an early purchase bonus that is entirely unavailable (straw hat) and what was a pre-order bonus costume set, Summer Fashion, that you can now buy individually for $3.39 CAD a pop ($23.73 altogether). The next one down, for ROTK, is ROTK XIV, an expansion pack, and the season pass. The one after that is a bundle of 62 costumes and two characters for DOA6. And so on and so forth. There are rediculous pricings still, sure, especially when you get to something like Lydie & Suelle's season pass being $91 CAD, more than the cost of the game Wild Hearts by $2, but yeah. Thankfully they aren't QUITE up at $130/game... yet.
Can you provide links to RL examples to support what you've said? I'm not doubting the age of the games, dude - Just what you've said about the motives or reasons behind why these games are now Japanese only. If a bank just simply lost money which is their "life blood" due to reasons other then criminal activity (eg. Robbery, embezzlement, ... etc), the FDIC would shut them down immediately after finding out and then begin an investigation! Similarly, if a publicly traded game software company like Koei Tecmo simply "lost" some game code and news if it leaked out, the institutional investors and common shareholders would want to launch their own investigations using the services of profession private investigation teams to find out what the hell happened and how the executives will respond to the findings!
My point was that Koei games are not cheap! If you think that $105 USD, $68USD (or $91 CAD) or even $23.73 is a cheap price to pay for a game or game/DLC(s) bundle then why are you on a warez site trying to get games for free anyway?
Look up Ars Technica's 2021 article, "Saving video gaming’s source code treasures before it’s too late"; Here's a relevant quote: "For games made before 2000, Cifaldi estimates that the source code is completely gone for over 90 percent of 'the games we care about.'"
And further: "I'm sure a lot of source was saved at one time, then an office move happened, someone said, 'What's this old DAT we have in a closet? It's probably backed up somewhere, just toss it,'" Cifaldi said. "I think the situation is pretty bad. It's only going to get worse as the people who actually archived this stuff age out and leave the industry, if not this mortal coil."
There's also a Stackexchange post for software engineering titled "how serious is losing the source code" back in 2010 asking about it, with many software engineers chipping in about situations they had to deal with or what the likely outcome would be.
Konami and Sega have also done exactly this multiple times in the past; see the thread on neo-geo.com titled "Those companies..........what? They lost the source codes for their games?" where it is talked about; even Nintendo left a lot of stuff behind in various offices they rented out for awhile then moved on from.
This isn't even touching on all the studios that have gone out of business and had their assets bought up in auction and their IPs scattered to the four winds, either.
Now, to answer the rest of your statement: You asked me if I believed it could be the case, and I answered "100% yes" to that, because I 100% believe it could be the case, NOT that it 100% IS the case, then or now. Games currently in development or in active support status especially in these modern days rarely have their source code lost except through gross negligence or far-reaching freak accident, like the entire office building going up in flames at the same time as the backup servers fried from electrical fault, or something similar. Older products, though? Most likely trashed long ago when not seen as profitable anymore, rather than spend the money to retain it.
And lastly, to quote myself: "There are rediculous pricings still, sure, especially when you get to something like Lydie & Suelle's season pass being $91 CAD, more than the cost of the game Wild Hearts by $2, but yeah. Thankfully they aren't QUITE up at $130/game... yet."
a misunderstanding of what you were trying to convey when you wrote, "100% yes ...".
This was all eight months ago and I've long since moved on with other things beyond this conversation. Let's just chalk this all up to the old adage, "This is the World and anything is possible".