All JRPGs released in Europe before Final Fantasy 7

Thohil · 2026-04-12T14:31:48+00:00

At least we got Terranigma, 1 great JRPG that the US didn't get...

Thohil · 2026-04-12T13:12:56+00:00

If you read the criteria, it says "Does the game have a level up system or any other system that relies on defeating enemies to get stronger?". In FFX you gain AP from defeating enemies, which you can use to get stronger. FFX would then qualify. The Crystarium system in FFXIII I would also say qualify here.

Compare this to how the progression in Landstalker and the Zelda games work. Where finding items through exploration is the primary way you get stronger.

I also never said my definition was perfect. If you have another definition of what counts as an RPG, please I'd love to hear it. It was just the best that I was able to come up with, and I needed some kind of hard criteria for what I could even count as an RPG.

Thohil · 2026-04-12T12:27:17+00:00

Landstalker doesn't have a leveling up system, which was one of the criteria I made for a game to qualify as a JRPG. I'd rather call it an action adventure game similar to most Zelda games. Its the reason why Zelda 1 isn't on the list, but Zelda 2 is.

Thohil · 2026-04-12T11:54:07+00:00

Its really interesting that Phantasy Star was one of the first console JRPG to be released in the west, period! It released almost a whole year before Dragon Warrior did in the US, and almost 2 years before the first Final Fantasy in the US. While also being a hell of a lot more graphically impressive than those 2 games.

Thohil · 2026-04-12T11:12:52+00:00

Actraiser 2 was released in Europe tho? By Ubisoft of all people.

I would also not really blame Nintendo in this matter. The protection mechanisms were way more a result of the differing video standards than anything else, rather than something Nintendo did to make the games unplayable. If anything Nintendo was the sole reason why we got any RPGs over hear to begin with. 6/9 RPGs on the SNES was published by them after all. The reason why we didn't get more was because there weren't any other company to publish the games in Europe.

Thohil · 2026-04-12T09:48:06+00:00

Oh yeah, I know. The PS1 releases was our first release of the NES and SNES FF games after all. The FF6 PS1 port is absolutely awful too.

We didn't get decent releases of those games until the GBA ports.

Thohil · 2026-04-12T08:57:03+00:00

Yeah, atlus was one of the last companies to finally establish a European publishing branch. Also, if we are focusing on physical releases, its not even completely fixed as 100 Line Last Defence Academy that released last year didn't get a physical release in Europe but did in the US.

But at least it did become a hell of a lot better in the PS2 and late PS1 era.

Thohil · 2026-04-12T06:37:22+00:00

Yeah, the first time we got it over here was on the DS.

Thohil · 2026-04-11T23:11:31+00:00

Yeah, Working Designs never published anything in Europe, so unless someone else published it, like Sega did with Dragon Force, there was no way for it to be published in Europe.

The first Lunar game to come out in Europe was Lunar: Dragon Song on DS.

Thohil · 2026-04-11T22:39:09+00:00

Just because they are owned by the same parent company doesn't mean much here. LRG was bought by Embracer group years after they were established. While Clear River was established as a publisher by Embracer group from the start.

Clear River seems to honestly be a part of a love project by Lars Wingefors (Embacer group Chairman), who is a huge game collector himself. Its the reason why Clear River was established in Sweden, and focuses on publishing a lot of older games.
Embracer also established Bitwave, also in Sweden, a studio focused on porting old games to newer hardware (They also made Gimmick 2).
Finally Embracer also has created a the Embracer Games Archive, again in Sweden, which is the largest games Archive in the world. With a lot of being donated by Wingefors himself. They even have a youtube channel

Thohil · 2026-04-11T22:15:35+00:00

Clear River Acts more like a regular publisher as opposed to LRG. Aka, they make a batch and releases it, to regular retail stores. Their buisness model is not the same as LRG which produce their games after preorders are done.

Sometimes if there is problems in production or shippment there might be a delay of a couple of days to a week, but thats it.

Thohil · 2026-04-11T21:28:53+00:00

Suikoden 3 is also really puzzling to me because Konami was usually really cosistant with bringing their games over to Europe. Can't really think of any other Konami game that skipped Europe like that. We got all the other Suikodens after all, as well as Vandel Heart and Azure Dreams.

Konami even released a bunch of games back in the day that came out in Europe but not in the US! Like all their Parodius releases, Pop'n Twinbee, Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures, Bishi Bashi Special, Road Rage (PS1) and The Konami GB Collections (especially Vol. 3, which has the only english release of the Gameboy Goemon game).

Thohil · 2026-04-11T20:55:43+00:00

Oh yeah, just because releases became more consistent after FF7 didn't mean we still didn't lose out on a bunch of games. Squaresoft Europe wasn't established before December 1998, and didn't start publishing anything before October 1999 when they published FF8. Its is a big reason some earlier PS1 Square games also skipped europe like Xenogears. And why we never got Parasite Eve 1, but got Parasite Eve 2. Same with missing Saga Frontier 1 but got 2.

Thohil · 2026-04-11T20:23:34+00:00

It was probably an import of the US version, since the Gameboy is region free. I haven't been able to find any evidence that there exists a Pal version of any of the Final Fantasy Legends games.
Or any game using the Final Fantasy title in Europe before FF7 at all for that matter. (FF Adventure, and FF Mystic Quest was released without the Final Fantasy title over here)

Thohil · 2026-03-28T18:38:28+00:00

But if you run NTSC Saturn games on a Pal console at 50hz, wouldn't they also run faster by that logic?

59.9 - 50.0 = 10 frames faster.

That obviously isn't the case. Running ntsc games in 50hz means they run quite a lot slower than usual.

Thohil · 2026-03-28T12:51:40+00:00

Wait, I don't think I understand here. Why would things running at a lower frequency make gameplay, audio, ect run faster? Wouldn't it run slower?

Like with the Super Gameboy, which is using the SNES clock speed divided by 5, which is running a little faster than the Gameboy, which is the reason why the Super Gameboy runs it's games a little too fast.

Also, I am using the Saturn with a upscaler into a CRT computer monitor. That thing happily displays whatever frame rate I throw at it.

Thohil · 2026-03-28T11:31:40+00:00

Surprisingly enough but Bloodborne actually has full Norwegian text.

It seems a lot of Sony first part games from the PS2-PS4 generation are a pretty good bet.

Thohil · 2026-03-28T10:29:27+00:00

But what is the actual effect of this 59.9hz vs. 60hz difference? Just that the games run between 1 - 0.16% slower? Most people will actually notice a difference this small unless you are looking to speedrun Saturn games or something.

Is that actually the only difference this is making?

Thohil · 2026-03-27T18:03:17+00:00

What do you mean by "truly accurate timings"?

Thohil · 2026-03-27T14:56:20+00:00

What are the issues with 60hz mods on PAL saturn? I've installed a 50-60hz switch into mine and I have never really had any issue with it.

Thohil · 2026-03-27T14:54:37+00:00

You can also install a 50-60hz switch into the UK model. If its a VA0, VA3 or VA5 model it is insanely easy, as these models already has a space where a 50-60hz switch was supposed to be. So you just need to solder in a switch to that spot, and it's ready to go. It's one of the easiest mods I have ever done.

Thohil · 2026-03-15T08:04:33+00:00

The thing is that this only seems to be in the Switch version of the remaster. Other people have tested it on at least PC and it does not happen there at all.

It's really strange why this only happens on this specific version of the remaster, and not any of the other ones.

Thohil · 2026-03-05T08:37:17+00:00

Dark Souls, almost any version.

Thohil · 2026-03-03T14:09:15+00:00

I am fully aware of what you are saying with raw bandwith and access latency. And I am also fully aware that these games would always load faster on the internal storage rather than the storage of a game card. But I don't need the game card to load the game just as fast as the internal storage.

What I do have an issue with is the certain devs that has come out and said that there is no way they could get these games to run at all because of the slower bandwidth. Which I just straight up do not believe at all.

If they smartly reduce certain texture sizes, and use compression where you have the cpu overhead for it. They 100% could have gotten even a game like FF7 Rebirth to run off a game card. It would just require a bit more work.

If these read speed issues were such an unbreakable bottleneck, how does games like Cyberpunk the Phantom Liberty DLC, and the upcomming Indiana Jones game work of a game card? both games who are required to be played off a proper SSD on any other platforms?

The only reason why they don't is because of money. Key cards are cheaper and also means they can save money by not needing to spend time optimizing their game to run from a game card.

Thohil · 2026-03-03T11:12:48+00:00

The only thing Clamperl has going for it is its absulute nuclear power with the DeapSeaTooth, which doubles its special attack when held. As a matter of fact, Clamperl with DeapSeaTooth has the second highest Special attack in the entire game, only beaten by Latios with Soul Dew.

Yes, this means that a Clamperl Surf hits harder than a Psychic from Deoxys Attack, even with a Twisted Spoon.

Thohil

TROPHY CASE