Notable Japan-only Games

[Cooper]

Azumanga Donjyara Daioh for the PS1 is the only particular Japan-only game on my mind as of now.

It's basically the Azumanga cast playing Donjyara which is, to my knowledge, a kids version of Mahjong.

[LauriAJ]

Man, it's awful that Live A Live didn't get released outside Japan at all... Anyone heard of that game before?

[Dazz]

I've heard of many of these games, I'll likely cover a fair few of these in the future.

In the last month I've written another 14 scripts which we're beginning to produce now. We'll have more coming over the next few weeks so be sure to check them out each Sunday.
We'll be streaming each one, too.

[saifors]

Well I don't know if it's that notable for most but for me one notable was Digimon Story Lost Evolution on DS as it's kinda strange that it didn't come over to the west despite the previous two Digimon Story installments making it over to the west and bringing something the franchise hadn't had in the decade it had existed: consistency, things were actually picking up and the franchise finally saw some actually good ratings from critics but then come Lost Evolution they didn't localize it.

[Goemar]

Man, it's awful that Live A Live didn't get released outside Japan at all... Anyone heard of that game before?

I think it's definitely one of the more well known ones

[SuperFlomm]

Speaking of Digimon. Digimon World Re: Digitize for PSP. It's an amazing game. The gameplay somewhat resembles the original Digimon World on the PS1. It's just great and I love it! A fan translation patch was released in 2015.


(Fun fact: I had to put an extra space in the title or it would turn into a smiley. Digimon World Reigitize)

[miyabi95_]

kouryuu densetsu villgust is a really cute action rpg for the famicom. pretty confusing though, it may as well be open-world because i could not figure out what to do, even with the well-made fan-translation.

[Demonlemon]

I feel like I need to mention the bistro recipe series, because none of them were ever released outside of japan even though the cartoon for it did, also the gameboy ones are pretty fun

[Cloud6625]

I guess I'll throw a few games in here. Princess crown on psp and Sega Saturn as well as Order Knights on the psp both by Vanillaware are excellent Japanese only games. Order Knight has a fan translation.

Super Tempo on the Saturn is also a fun platformer. The entire Summon Night series up to 4 or 5 on psx and psp. Shin megami tensei 1 and 2 on nes or the snes remakes. Phantasy Star Online 2 mmo. King's Field 1 on psx. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on psp is actually my personal fave game in the series, and it's only in Japan .

[Raccoon Sam]

Sutte Hakkun (Super Famicom)
It started out as a series of Satellaview games, got a Nintendo Power cart download release and a real retail game very late in the console's lifespan.
It's a cute and fun but eventually INSANELY hard puzzle game, and so far the only pre-N64 game that has a URL in the game graphics; your progress is hashed to a password you could enter to Nintendo's web page and get to leaderboards.
The more you move, the more points are subtracted from the level's starting score. Walking subtracts 1 point per step, sucking/blowing/jumping 3 points and quicksaving 10 points etc.
It's a "hidden gem" and a very niche game but I like it a lot even though it gets infuriating in the later levels.

[Gors]

i completed the main game without any hints and fucking hell it was hard

i didnt even attempt the extra levels because theyre downright evil

[megamario1234]

One of the good rpg games that was not released worldwide but only in Japan was Soma Bringer. Soma Bringer is an action RPG game that Monolith Soft (creator of Xenoblade Chronicles) created for the Nintendo DS. Yasunori Mitsuda (famous composer of Chrono Trigger) worked with Monolith Soft to compose the music of Soma Bringer. This was Monolith Soft's first handheld game to develop (released in February 28, 2008).

[Cooper]

Actually I now have another one.

There was this other Japan-only game I'm fond of that's on the Sega Saturn and PS1. It was called "Gakkou no Kowai Uwasa - Hanako San ga Kita!!" Based on the 1994 anime of the same name.

I didn't understand much about the show or game since most of the stuff I find on is written in kanji which I can't read for shit (but am trying to learn how to). I do know, however, that it's a point-and-click game with lots of FMVs judging by some videos I watched.

You may know that Hanako-san was a ghost rumored to haunt school toilets that took the appearance of a little World War II girl. She would kill people by dragging them down into the toilets.

However, this Hanako-san is different. She instead protects people from various evil spirits terrorizing innocent folk. At least that's the best I can interpret of it at the moment. Oh, and she has a cute little fluffball as a companion too.

If you want to see more about the show, search it in it's Kanji writing: (学校のコワイうわさ 花子さんがきた!!) You'll get more results this way.

[Kendotlibero]

well:
1.Umihara kawase (a really cool platform with a grapling hook made of rubber)
2. Touhou (pretty popular, but i always love to talk about that)
3.Bemani series (awesome music games, would be a pain to record, arcade only)(beatmania, sound voltex, pop 'n music, gitadora, reflec beat, drummania and so on)
4.Spica adventure (another arcade similar to umihara kawase, with an umbrella that adds a lot of movement, has a mobile version)
5.Cave shooters (they are now on steam some of them, but they are too good to be left over)
6.Idolm@ster (idol managment simulation, i heard it's preety cool, japanese is a big wall tho)
7.Maijin Tensei series (smt meets final fantasy tactics)
8. Smt if... (the game that inspired persona)
9.Live A Live
10.Zelda games for satellaview
11. famicom detective club series
12.project utahime (audiosurf meets touhou)
13.love plus (dating sim from konami, the ds killer application in japan for many people. Realationship are pretty realistic)
14.Twilight Syndrome series (horror game with a sidescroller prospective, quoted in danganronpa 2)
15.Chunthm (music game made by sega)
16.Taiko no Tatsujin (music game made by Namco, quoted in smash 4 in one of the attacks of pac-man)
17.Madoka magica portable (rpg for psp, you can change the events of the story of that anime, and seeing it in the eye of other magical girls)
18. Grief Syndrome (beat-em-up with madoka girls, made by twilight frontier, the guys from the touhou fighting games)
i will edit if something pops out in my mind... But i think that you knew this games already

[Goemar]

Isn't Umihara Kawase on Steam now? Might even be on PSN for the Vita or something else well.

Great game, but I don't think it's Japanese only any more...