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From: Massachusetts USA Registered: 2011-08-01 Posts: 787

(The rationale bit has been moved down to the 'AQUA' section, so this post now commences with ... The List)

Game name in bold means it's verified as voice and text localized.
Game name in italics means it's verified as text-only localized (no voices, or voices not in Japanese.)
Game name not emphasized means it was listed as supporting Japanese but it's not yet verified.

Alan Wake
Voice and text in Japanese

Bioshock Infinite
(GearBox Software)
Action-RPG
Fully localized audio and text (minus some menu options and in-game signs)

Borderlands 2
(GearBox Software)
Action-RPG

Chantelise - A Tale of Two Sisters
(EasyGameStation)
Originally in Japanese, so completely localized for it; not fully voiced, most dialogs are in text only. Apparently a console game port.
Kawaii Action-RPG, Demo Available
Language controlled by Steam's 'Game Properties'.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Partially localized, text only is in Japanese.

The Darkness II
(Digital Extremes)
Localized text (minus some menu options and skill names), English audio
Action

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
(Bethesda Games)
Almost completely localized in Japanese - All menus, voices, and texts have been localized. Only artwork has not been localized, so the signs in the rendered world are still in English.
Widely acclaimed, high budget fantasy adventure game, Action-RPG.
Language controlled by Steam's 'Game Properties'.
Only one language is installed at a time. Switching between languages involves (re-)downloading a substantial amount of data.
Localized in: USA, Sweden
May not be localized in Poland.

Rage
(id Software)
Fully localized audio and text
First-Person Shooter

Resident Evil Revelations / Biohazard Revelations UE
(Capcom)
Fully localized audio and text (with the exception of some common menu/gaming terms)
Action/Horror
A horror-survival style game with some action elements, from the famous horror series. Language is controlled by in-game menu; the story appears to be totally localized but not all the game menu terms are.

Fable - The Lost Chapters
(Lionhead Studios)
Fully localized in Japanese.
High-budget Action-RPG.
No demo.

The Last Remnant
(SQUARE ENIX)
High-budget console RPG port.
Language controlled by in-game menus.
Voices and text in Japanese for dialogs; there is some English text during combat ('Lockdown', 'Side Attack', etc.) but all the substantial content is localized.

Limbo
(Playdead)
Localized in Japanese.
Dark (literally and figuratively) side-scrolling run-and-jump game that plays like a puzzle game not an action game. While it is localized in Japanese, that localization consists of a very small amount of text and no voices, this is very language-sparse game.
Demo available, and supports Japanese.

Magic 2014 — Duels of the Planeswalkers
Text-only localized in Japanese.
Computer version of 'Magic: The Gathering' trading card game.

Orcs Must Die!
(Robot Entertainment )
Fully localized in Japanese.
Action/Strategy: Combination of trap-setting strategy game and first-person shooter style combat.
Demo available, and demo supports Japanese.
Language controlled by Steam's 'Game Properties'.

Orcs Must Die! 2
(Robot Entertainment )
Fully localized in Japanese.
Action/Strategy, similar (of course) to Orcs Must Die!
Language controlled by Steam's 'Game Properties'.

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale
(EasyGameStation)
Originally in Japanese, so completely localized for it; not fully voiced, most dialogs are in text only. Apparently a console game port.
ChouKawaii RPG game, a hybrid between shop simulation and action/dungeon exploration.
Demo Available.
Language controlled by Steam's 'Game Properties'.

Serious Sam 3: BFE
(Croteam)
Localized text but not audio
Action/First Person Shooter

Sid Meier's Civilization® V
(Firaxis Games)
Only text is localized in Japanese.
One of the famous hybrid nation-building simulation/wargame series.

Sonic Generations
(Devil's Details)
Text and voices are localized into Japanese (although the Steam Store page doesn't reflect that). There was an earlier report that cut-scenes were in English, but for me, cut-scenes are in Japanese.
This is a collection of action games featuring the famous SEGA standard-bearer, Sonic the Hedgehog.
Language controlled by Steam's 'Game Properties'.

Spec Ops: the Line
(Yager)
Localized text but not audio
Action/Adventure (3rd person shooter)

Super Brothers: Sword & Sorcery
Unique style of puzzle oriented RPG.
Fully localized in Japanese, but almost all the dialogue is text and the characters rarely speak.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
(CD Projekt RED)
Text-only localization (according to Steam's notes and semi-confirmed by a non-steam version of the same game).
RPG

X-Com (2012)
Partially localized: Text in Japanese, Voices in English

Yosumin!
(SQUARE ENIX)
Originally in and fully localized in Japanese.
Kawaii Puzzle-RPG.
Demo available in Japanese.

Gyromancer
(PopCap Games in collaboration with SQUARE ENIX)
Purportedly localized in Japanese.
Puzzle-RPG
Demo available, but the demo only shows me a black screen (with music playing)

Lost Planet™: Extreme Condition
(CAPCOM)
Text is localized in Japanese
3D action game with advanced graphics.
Demo available in Japanese, but the voices were in English.
Language controlled by in-game menus.

A.R.E.S.: Extinction Agenda
(Extend Studio)
Allegedly localized in Japanese.
Side-scrolling battle-suit action game.
Demo available, but the demo was not in Japanese.

Alien Breed Trilogy
Alien Breed: Impact ; Alien Breed 2: Assault ; Alien Breed 3: Descent
(Team17 Software Ltd.)
Allegedly localized in Japanese
3rd-person action/shooter
Demos available - I tried a little of the 'Alien Breed: Impact' demo and it was text-only localized, voices still in English, and the text seemed to contain either errors or peculiar jargon.
Language controlled by Steam's 'Game Properties'.

Nation Red
(DiezelPower)
Text localized in Japanese. I didn't hear any voices other than incoherent zombie moans in the part that I played. The text, however, is very blurry and hard to make out unless you're already very familiar with the word you're looking at (you can't really make out individual strokes in the more complex characters).
Action, 3rd person shooter, Zombie themed.
Demo available.

SEASON OF MYSTERY: The Cherry Blossom Murders
(SQUARE ENIX)
Allegedly localized in Japanese, and from a Japanese developer.
Hidden Object mystery
No demo.

Front Mission Evolved
(Double Helix Games)
there appears to be no actual Japanese option, even though the store lists Japanese.
Mecha Action game

Hydrophobia: Prophecy
Dark Energy Digital Ltd.
Allegedly text-only localized in Japanese with voices only available in English.
3rd person action.
No demo available.

Guild Wars
Allegedly text-only localized in Japanese.
Voices can allegedly be in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish or Korean.
MMORPG. Sold as multiple games and content increases, but I'm going to lump it all under this one entry.
No demo available.

Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike Source, Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal, Portal 2
(Valve Software)
These are Steam's own games, pretty much all built all the same lines as action games (albeit with very different themes). I've listed the set of them that claims on the Shop Page to support Japanese (but not listed content expansions or splits for the same game.)
Valve (the company that owns Steam) tries to provide text file localization for Japanese (but didn't go back and localize older games). They don't redub voices, so all the Valve Games with voices are only partially localized.
Team Fortress-2, at least, had text elements that were not localized so an English menu item or message will appear here and there in the middle of the game.

--- AQUA (Answers to Questions Un-Asked) ---

Steam is, essentially, an online store for games... why does it get its own thread? It's effectively the online store for games, with the vast majority of online-purchasable games for PC and Mac. Right or wrong they have a near-monopoly in that area. (Of course you can always buy disks in boxes.) They also support the PS3, although on that platform, they have to compete with the Sony store.

Because it's really quite difficult to figure out what's going on with the games purchasable through Steam, I'm going to write out what I've discovered. If other people provide information, I'll try to keep a list.

You can, of course, see if a game claims to support a language on that game's shop page, however that may not be 100% accurate and certainly the level of support is not apparent. There does not appear to be any way to search for games by the language(s) they support. Whether or not a game's description is localized bears no relationship to whether or not the software is localized.

At the moment, I only have Steam on the PC, using the USA store. I don't know the details but understand there is regionalized differences, so what those of you living in Japan can see or obtain may be different. I'll try to make a note of regional differences too if they are provided.

I won't do a detailed review because you can get those from 'metacritic' (Steam's in-game links go there, I'm sure there are other review sites as well). I will try to give an idea of the flavor of the game if I know.

Last edited by SomeCallMeChris (2013 August 07, 6:13 pm)

wccrawford Member

From: FL US Registered: 2008-03-28 Posts: 1551

Sonic Generations - Menus are Japanese, voice overs and movies are English.

SomeCallMeChris Member

From: Massachusetts USA Registered: 2011-08-01 Posts: 787

Ahh, that's unfortunate, but not surprising since they don't even claim to have localized.
I suppose any/all bonus messages and such during the game are in English too?

It doesn't really matter for one with such limited localization, but, in general if you know what it takes to get Japanese that'd be nice to know too. Of course, I don't expect people to reinstall multiple times with different configurations (I'm certainly not going to!).

But if you happen to know whether it's detected by your environment, or a setting in the steam client, or a setting in the game when mentioning a game that has some localization, that could be helpful.

Thanks for the info!

JapanesePod101 Sponsor

TheVinster Member

From: Illinois Registered: 2009-07-15 Posts: 985

All Valve games (Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, etc.) should have Japanese subtitles, but not audio. Other than that I have no idea. Although this is about Steam games, I'd like to bring up how I wish all games had the options that Vanquish does (for consoles). Even in the demo you could change audio and/or text between Japanese and English. It was awesome, and if a game already has pre-existing Japanese assets they should do this more often.

SomeCallMeChris Member

From: Massachusetts USA Registered: 2011-08-01 Posts: 787

Oh, I only made it a new thread about Steam Games so the list wouldn't be buried in the bottom of one of the other threads (about PC import games or about American games localized in Japanese or whatever), as long as it's still about games in Japanese, I'm not worried about a little topic drift.

Unfortunately, not -all- Valve titles are localized in Japanese. Unless I'm really being very blind, 'cause my screen says for Half-Life:
言語: English, フランス語, ドイツ語, イタリア語, 韓国語, スペイン語, 中国語 (簡体字), 中国語 (繁体字)

I am quite curious as to why so very few of the Japanese developed games have their Japanese localization on Steam. Steam seems to have quite good multi-language support built in from the beginning... I suppose there must be a sense that everyone outside of Japan would prefer English and that it wasn't worth the little effort of including the already existing content. (And granted, the amount of the learning community that is interested in playing games in Japanese is that insignificant, but there's foreign exchange students, emigrants and their descendents, those working abroad, etc... that adds up.)

Apache Chief Member

Registered: 2011-02-04 Posts: 39

Vanquish had like 6 languages, all fully dubbed with interchangeable subtitles. That seriously impressed me more than any game has in the language department. Though it is a bit surprising to me how many Japanese developed games (like Vanquish) use English for their primary or sometimes only dub. I guess they want to focus on the most marketable language.

Gaijinme Member

From: Romania Registered: 2011-12-02 Posts: 61 Website

Apache Chief... so I should just buy a normal Vanquish PS3 game and turn my system to japanese and the game will be also like this?
Or I need to buy the japanese version?

Vanquish US version on play asia: 22$
Vanquish Japanese version: 75$

My PS3 console was bought in Europe

Last edited by Gaijinme (2012 January 09, 9:30 pm)

Apache Chief Member

Registered: 2011-02-04 Posts: 39

I played the American game on an American Xbox, and I would imagine it's the same with PS3. The language settings are within the game itself, so you don't need to change anything in the console.

wccrawford Member

From: FL US Registered: 2008-03-28 Posts: 1551

SomeCallMeChris wrote:
Ahh, that's unfortunate, but not surprising since they don't even claim to have localized.
I suppose any/all bonus messages and such during the game are in English too?

It doesn't really matter for one with such limited localization, but, in general if you know what it takes to get Japanese that'd be nice to know too. Of course, I don't expect people to reinstall multiple times with different configurations (I'm certainly not going to!).

But if you happen to know whether it's detected by your environment, or a setting in the steam client, or a setting in the game when mentioning a game that has some localization, that could be helpful.

Thanks for the info!

The only English I saw was the logos at the beginning, 'Press Start!', and the voices. Even the menu after pressing start was Japanese.

As for how, Steam has a 'language' option under the properties for the game. I switched it to Japanese there to make all that happen.

SomeCallMeChris Member

From: Massachusetts USA Registered: 2011-08-01 Posts: 787

Okay, thank you. I made a little update to the list above, and added 'A.R.E.S.' to the list of things allegedly localized but the demo wasn't.

I think it's high time I put my computer environment in Japanese though, that may be the source of some of the trouble with demos not being in Japanese, and I've already got gmail, the steam client, itunes, and several other applications in Japanese, not to mention my cell phone. I suppose there's nothing to fear about switching the desktop environment itself when the majority of my activities are already in Japanese!

I do hope that other people will take a minute to check and to speak up if they've already bought (or decide to buy) any of the listed games. I certainly can't afford to go buying all the games to see what level of Japanese support they have.

Gaijinme Member

From: Romania Registered: 2011-12-02 Posts: 61 Website

I managed to play Orc Must Die (steam) in japanese.
I had it already (purchased in another country)... Now I just logged in Japan, change the language @ steam settings to japanese and the game downloaded a patch (it does this everytime I switch from english to japanese but its not that big).
Very fun game, not much talking ofc but you have an excuse playing it tokidoki because its in japanese.

It seems Guild Wars supports japanese. (But GW2 will be out soon).
Also, there are unofficial japanese mods for: Shogun 2 Total War, Fallout 3, Deus Ex. I didn't test any. Can anyone try and confirm the translation packs work with Steam versions?

It seems The Witcher 2 will get a japanese version or a patch including the language
http://www.en.thewitcher.com/community/entry/42/ Any news?
The first game has an unofficial work done but I cannot try it yet.

Also Warhammer Dawn of War in japanese? Source here but my steam version doesn't have an option to change language and even if i change to japanese in steam settings doesn't work.

SomeCallMeChris Member

From: Massachusetts USA Registered: 2011-08-01 Posts: 787

Ah, okay, thanks for the info. I made notes about Orcs Must Die! and Guild Wars (which, btw, appears from the Steam page to be a text-only partial localization).

Yes, one of the reasons for this thread is that, convenient as Steam is, there's no particular guarantee that what you buy from Steam is the same as what comes in a box. I'd looked at the WarHammer stuff earlier and found no indication that any WarHammer game supports Japanese (but there's a -lot- of them and I didn't check them all.)

I'm not confident about The Witcher either, but we'll see. I think one reason for the lack of Japanese support is when different publishers divide exclusive rights for the English and the Asian language editions but, ehh, 正直に詳しくないんです。

shintemaster New member

From: Melbourne Registered: 2008-05-14 Posts: 1

Would love to play Shogun 2 in Japanese... *runs to check steam* (It's study AND fun)

SomeCallMeChris Member

From: Massachusetts USA Registered: 2011-08-01 Posts: 787

While Shogun-2 is on Steam, it does not appear to support Japanese in the Steam version, though it seems to have a ton of other languages fully supported:

言語: English*, チェコ語, フランス語*, ドイツ語*, イタリア語*, ポーランド語, ロシア語*, スペイン語*
*音声吹き替え対応言語

There is a Japanese version available in the Japanese video game market, but you may have to import it rather than playing it through Steam. If there's a way to patch it, that would be great, but I don't really know. Please let us know if you find a way... or if the language is actually available but undocumented.

SomeCallMeChris Member

From: Massachusetts USA Registered: 2011-08-01 Posts: 787

Nation Red popped up as free-play for this weekend, and supports Japanese. However, the only language involved is in the menus, titles, tutorials, and such. The game play itself is straight-up 3rd person shooter with a Zombie theme. The gameplay is ok, but trying to read the blurry kanji when choosing level upgrades is some kind of awful. Give it a try only if you love 3rd person shooters and/or zombie games.

Orcs Must Die!, I have to say, is pretty fun, and the hero is constantly talking (in Japanese if you have that as your language), so while it's not the most useful practice in the world and is very repetitive, there is a language experience involved beyond menu selections. I only have the demo so I don't know if there are any more cutscenes after the opening movie, which was kinda silly. Well, the whole game is all kinds of silly. I put it on my wishlist anyway, maybe I can get it at 75% off one day.

ta12121 Member

From: Canada Registered: 2009-06-02 Posts: 3190

I haven't used steam in such a long way. It's probably been like 6 years now or even more. Might just run it back up now.

wccrawford Member

From: FL US Registered: 2008-03-28 Posts: 1551

Saint's Row 3 - Has Japanese on the Language selection menu, but absolutely nothing is in Japanese.

TheVinster Member

From: Illinois Registered: 2009-07-15 Posts: 985

I bought Shogun 2 during the Christmas sale for $8 but my computer has been broken since I returned from Japan. I should get it back today or tomorrow, and I'll double-check if you can't use Japanese to any extent.

ta12121 Member

From: Canada Registered: 2009-06-02 Posts: 3190

wccrawford wrote:
Saint's Row 3 - Has Japanese on the Language selection menu, but absolutely nothing is in Japanese.

I got Fear 3 a few months back and I was surprised that when I switched my PS3 to Japanese, almost the whole game was in Japanese(both audio+text). Some of the CGI was in English for some reason but the rest was in English. Pretty surprising that some games can switch languages, even though it doesn't say it can.

Last edited by ta12121 (2012 January 13, 10:22 am)

Aetheus Member

From: Malaysia Registered: 2011-12-19 Posts: 12

For those of you that haven't played it yet, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines is available through Steam, and apparently has a Japanese text option (via the Unofficial Patches. The latest patch was 7.9, if I recall). However, I've never tested it, and I uninstalled the game quite some time ago, so I can't verify it right now.

Still, it's a fairly entertaining game. Buggy and unpolished, but that's what the Unofficial Patches are for. The game has a quite a bit of dialogue, and you can choose your own responses when speaking to NPCs, which should be a fairly entertaining way to test your proficiency in the language. Sort of like Dragon Age or Star Wars: KOTOR.

If you're interested in an action/FPS/RPG with multiple story branches and a decent amount of onscreen dialogue (+ vampires), give it a shot.

Last edited by Aetheus (2012 January 13, 1:30 pm)

TheVinster Member

From: Illinois Registered: 2009-07-15 Posts: 985

Killzone 3 has an option in the menu to change it to Japanese (audio + text). Again, not Steam, but we don't need so many of these random threads about games in Japanese for every damn piece of hardware.

SomeCallMeChris Member

From: Massachusetts USA Registered: 2011-08-01 Posts: 787

(@ta12121 : Was that the Steam version, the version on disks, or a version from another online store?)

Anyone can feel free to post what they like in this thread that might help the Japanese-as-a-second-language gaming community, of course, but I was only going to list in the top post games that (on whatever platform) are available through Steam and support Japanese.

I could, on the other hand, change the goal, and list (non-import) games for the PC, but I'm not really up for keeping track of every game for every platform in every distribution medium.

I'm not sure if anyone is using Steam much for XBox/PS3/Mac games although it's my understanding that games for all those platforms are distributed through Steam.

Last edited by SomeCallMeChris (2012 January 13, 5:10 pm)

SomeCallMeChris Member

From: Massachusetts USA Registered: 2011-08-01 Posts: 787

Adding 'Front Mission Evolved' from Double Helix Games. The Publisher is SQUARE ENIX/Eidos Interactive, so I'm hopeful that it's correctly localized.

It's on a 1-day-opportunity sale (12 hours left, 66% off) so I'm impulse-buying it, just like they intend me too. Guess they got me.

(What am I saying, I've got a thread I'm maintaining about their store because they're too lazy to put in a proper advanced search that would make keeping track of these things ourselves unnecessary... they got me good a while back! Heh.)

I might go to bed before it downloads though, so I may or may not confirm its level of Japanese support before the sale is over.

thurd Member

From: Poland Registered: 2009-04-07 Posts: 756

Can anyone post Japanese localisation files (audio+subtitles) for Skyrim? Turns out because I bought the game in Poland Steam won't allow me to have any other language than from my region.

astendra Member

From: Sweden Registered: 2009-07-27 Posts: 350

thurd wrote:
Can anyone post Japanese localisation files (audio+subtitles) for Skyrim? Turns out because I bought the game in Poland Steam won't allow me to have any other language than from my region.

Are you sure about that? It works fine for me in Sweden. Maybe you could contact them about it.
The voice files are like 1.3GB, so uploading them would be a major hassle.

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