My main picks are, like, entire bottom 3 as of right now haha.
I really don’t see the appeal of Deltarune. Why not play the American game in English?
I’m willing to stretch that one as basically a game with 2 equivalent viable options for language considering how the creator is fluent in Japanese and working directly on that version. It certainly seems to be how he views it given his unwillingness to go through normal localization for languages he can’t personally have input in.
Some of these are just edge cases; I played Death Stranding in Japanese but that had to be a dub over motion captured English actors for a Japanese game. If it was a random JP localization of an English game I’d feel differently but I think either version are both Deltarune originally in a real enough sense.
That said if I was totally choosing on my own I’d probably rather wait til it’s finished though, heh.
That’s a lot of context I was missing. Thanks!
Personally, I would recommend both but given that this is for learning Japanese it’s an interesting one
The localisation is honestly really good and you get to experience the game in a different way with both. The humour necessarily has to change, but I think they do a really good job with it. There are also some interesting writing techniques that are used based on certain characters’ speech quirks (eg: Spamton using bits of goroawase in his speech or using レ instead of し to indicate his broken speech style)
And like was mentioned, Toby Fox is heavily involved in the localisation so it can also said to be fully his vision (and is likely also why it turned out so good)
All that to say, it’s a good game to play in either Japanese or English
With a few days left to go, Pokémon’s in a narrow lead. Still time for it to be unseated or gain more votes.
What are the pros and cons of a Pocket Monsters win, from a game availability perspective? (And minor notes on dialogue/gameplay differences.)
Game Boy Release
Game Boy games use a battery to retain saved game data.
How are my Japanese Pocket Monster saves looking?
| Game | Release | File Selection Screen |
|---|---|---|
| Red | 1996-02-27 | |
| Green | 1996-02-27 | |
| Blue | 1996-10-15 | |
| Yellow | 1998-09-12 |
Green’s battery is dead. Others are still going. But for how much longer?
How do you keep your saved game data if the game has a dead battery?
- Option 1: Buy a new battery and specialized tools to open a Game Boy cartridge.
- Option 2: Play on a system where you can keep the game turned on and running 24/7:
- Official Game Boy with a battery pack that can be plugged in (if one exists).
- Third-party Game Boy system that you can plug in to power/recharge the battery (I imagine they’re all like this, but haven’t checked).
- Play on a GBA and keep it plugged in and turned on.
- Play on a Super Game Boy on the SNES and keep it turned on.
- Option 3: Get hardware that lets you copy the game to your computer to play it there instead.
- I have a Raphnet USB cable that lets me plug an N64 controller into my computer. With a Transfer Pak plugged into the controller and the game plugged into that, I can copy the game over and the saved data in either direction.
A note on dialogue: Yellow has additional characters and dialogue, and some added minigames. Otherwise, the dialogue matches the other color games.
Virtual Console Release
These games were also released on the 3DS Virtual Console, but 1) you had to have a Japanese 3DS to buy them and 2) the 3DS eShop is no longer available.
There is currently no first-sale option to buy the Game Boy titles, physically or digitally.
Game Boy Advance Release
Pocket Monsters Red and Green were remade for the Game Boy Advance, released as Fire Red and Leaf Green.
We have reached the era of solid state storage, so no battery needed to keep that saved game alive!
How does this remake differ from the original?
Surprisingly not much until the new post-game content.
The male player character is changed, you get faster movement (eventually), and managing your inventory of monsters is much improved.
While there’s probably an allowance that people playing different releases of a Game Club pick may see differing dialogue here and there, the dialogue in Fire Red and Leaf Green was rather intentionally left unchanged for the game’s main content.
If you try to buy English copies of Fire Red and Leaf Green online, there’s a 99% chance you’re getting a bootleg copy. I don’t know if that’s the case for Japanese copies. (I bought my copies back when they came out in Japan.)
You can also buy these titles for the Switch:
But expect a hassle to get a copy in Japanese:
Not only do you need to either switch your Nintendo account to Japan/Japanese or else create a second account as such (I recommend the latter), but even then you probably can’t use your debit or credit card, or your PayPal account, unless you are in Japan. If you’re not in Japan, then you can only give Nintendo your money via buying a prepaid Nintendo eShop card.
Let’s Go Switch Release
This one’s an interesting one.
It differs from the Game Boy and Advance versions in the following ways:
- You can select Japanese text even on an English copy of the game.
- The player and rival characters are replaced.
- This isn’t just a character sprite swap, as was the case with the Advance remakes. The rival in this release is a whole new character with new dialogue and interactions with the player.
- The original player and rival do appear, having set out on their journeys before the events of Red/Green occur.
- Battling wild monsters was replaced with a Pokémon GO-inspired catch system.
- Offhand, dialogue looks to match the original release outside of character changes and new cut scenes, but I’m sure there’s a fair bit of new dialogue added here and there.
There’s also an option to play with kanji. But it’s an either/or between kana and kanji. There’s no furigana option.
I saw in one game, I don’t recall if it was Let’s Go or Sword/Shield, where some dialogue differed slightly between the kana and kanji options, with the kana version using simpler words at times.
Wait… Is Pokedex a localization? They just call it ポケモン図鑑?!
It’s almost a bit of a letdown if you think about it too much (the Japanese name).
But it helped me learn the word ずかん way back when, which prepared me for the two or three times I’ve encountered it in the ~30 years after, so I can’t complain.
They also use it (as モンスター図鑑) in the Final Fantasy games, where it’s always localized as “Bestiary.” Because of that, it has a more clinical tone to my ear in a way that really clashes with the whimsy of “Pokédex”. But I don’t know if that’s how it sounds to a native speaker.
I’m probably more inclined to play Ghost Trick anyway, but I never picked up Let’s Go when it came out and this would give me an excuse to get it 
I own Let’s Go Eevee but I think I’d rather emulate FR/LG than replay Let’s Go. I’m less scared of a full-kana game than I was last time around, but I’d also prefer Ghost Trick since I haven’t played it before. My first pick would actually be Atelier Marie, but I’d play either of the frontrunners right now.
I’m definitely out for Ghost Trick because I played it too recently, but it’s really great so I hope you all do it honestly.
Ghost Trick would be a good excuse for me to play it, especially because it’s by the Ace Attorney guy (still need to finish AA1, almost there)
new here. bummed i missed two games i really wanted to play. throwing a vote for atelier. 
And by a narrow win looks like the winner is Pokémon!
I also forgot let’s go existed and could technically be an option so that’s cool too
I’ll try have the home thread up this week ish and we’ll see about a rough schedule
If you’ve gained sudden inspiration for a game you’d like to play with the club feel free to nominate it any time!
Really excited for this club because everyone playing different versions and having different Pokémon teams can chime in with their own experience! There’s the actual game script shared by everyone but then everyone will also have their own personalized learning experience depending on what Pokémon they decide to train and move to teach, playing the remakes will also have abilities and so on… this is going to be fun! I am playing the original Green at the moment so I will chime in with my own experience week by week!
I noticed Paper Mario is still in the nominations list but it’s not in the poll, was it removed?
It was indeed.