Sega announces Monster World 4 (a Japan only Genesis game) to be translated

[insertnamehere]

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/05/12/monster-world-iv-a-japan-only-genesis-game-is-coming-to-the-west-in-english/

Sega is localizing a seventeen year old Sega Genesis game for Wii and PlayStation 3.

First thing I've really liked that Sega has done in quite some time, hopefully they'll keep bringing new stuff like this.

[Eusis]

Sorry for modding the topic name, but I feel you missed the most important point there. Especially since it was on GameTap in Japanese for quite while.

[Aeolus]

What's so amazing about this is that it's coming on the VC. Usually when dealing with Japan only imports, and really, every other game released for the service, absolutely no changes are made to the Rom. It's been this archaic reasoning that's kept a LOT of Japan only games from continuing to ever see the light of day on the VC. Imagine all the games that could've come out for the VC had Nintendo allowed for localizations for games that didn't originally have one. Bahamut Lagoon, the Romancing SaGa trilogy, Seiken Densetsu 3, Fire Emblems 1 - 5, Treasure of Rudra, Live-A-Live, Treasure Hunter G, Ys IV & V, Final Fantasy's 2, 3, & 5, and so on....

But of course, this is all wishful thinking because we're far more likely to end up with maybe the options screen translated badly and nothing else.

[Eusis]

But of course, this is all wishful thinking because we're far more likely to end up with maybe the options screen translated badly and nothing else.

If you bothered to poke around in the linked story before posting you'd see that they said it'd be fully localized. Unless you're referring to the other games, but admittedly this is probably being localized partially because of how light the game is in comparison to others.

That, or they DID localize it years ago but never bothered to publish it, much like Mother 1 and Final Fantasy V, but then I'd wonder why it wasn't in English on GameTap.

[Aeolus]

I am well aware of the situation. I'm just simply stating my complete and utter disbelief at this turn of events. This was something I greatly anticipated back in '06-'07 when the Wii was brand new and the promise of games flowing plentifully on the VC, not in '11 when we're on the eve of the unveiling of the Wii's successor and the VC has since proven itself to be an utter disappointment.

The only games I've gotten from the VC thus far are Sin and Punishment (was already fully in English, down to the voice acting), Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo of Blood (completely untranslated), Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (because I didn't want to track down a physical copy, though I have since tracked down the PSX port), River City Ransom (from the reimbursement deal offered to those who purchased the Internet Browser), Gunstar Heroes, Shining Force 1, & Puyo Puyo (from the one and only sale ever on VC games, the last of which is completely untranslated, and thus completely superfluous as I've already had Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine on the Genesis).

The tl;dr is that there are other games that have come out on the VC that would've been worth the effort of receiving a localization like Rondo of Blood, but didn't get one (although that particular case had voice acting and was better off left alone). As for Puyo Puyo that's more of the case of it being Puyo Puyo and thus not worth the effort.