What’s the most time it has taken to release a Japanese RPG in English? The release of Romancing SaGa 2 and other older titles got me thinking about the largest gaps between Japanese games and their eventual official English releases so let’s get to counting down the JRPGs that were the most overdue. Before you whinge about the wait for Persona 5 (guilty), remember that it could be so much worse.

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Arc the Lad – June 1995-April 2002 (6 years, 10 months)

Might as well get this one out of the way first. There are other games on this list that took far longer to be released, but Arc the Lad is the only instance where the English version wasn’t a port or remake and actually ended up being released for the Playstation at the end of its lifespan. Why’d it take so long for this short strategy RPG to see an English release? Sony likely passed on their own game due to their supposed policy against releasing 2D titles and refused to license Arc the Lad to two other publishers. Arc the Lad finally hit the US in 2002 courtesy of Working Designs, the masters of elaborate RPG releases and taking their sweet time. This first title might have looked a bit outdated by then (if it already didn’t back in 1995), but it at least came as a collection with its two sequels.

Tales of Phantasia – December 1995-March 2006 (10 years, 3 months)

Namco have always had a spotty record when it comes to localising their Tales games, so it stands to reason that it took so long to release this late Super Famicom game. What a shame then that despite the superior Playstation and PSP versions of Tales of Phantasia, the first official release was the dodgy Game Boy Advance port from 2006. Not only did this version cut out skits and scale back the graphics, but the English script had a lot of mistranslations and hilariously awful voice acting. The jury’s out on whether it’s worse than the existing fan translation by DeJap, but at least nobody “f*cks like a tiger” in this port. And it’s still better than the mobile version!

The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch – March 1994-June 2006 (12 years, 3 months)

Although regarded as some of the toughest titles to localise due to their enormous amount of text, the time it took to release Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky games (six and nine years, respectively) is dwarfed by the gap between the original Legend of Heroes III and it’s English PSP port. Strangely enough, this localised version by MiCROViSion was titled The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch with the fourth title in the series (nine years) being retitled to seem like the first game. It’s confusing.

RPG Maker 2000 – April 2000-July 2015 (15 years, 3 months)

Enterbrain’s popular RPG creation tool for the PC was unreleased in the west for a number of years – not that it stopped anyone using it. An illegal fan translation was created and distributed by a Russian student named Don Miguel; he took the game down after being threatened with legal action, but not before it started circulating the net. Although previous versions of the tool had been released, RPG Maker 2000’s simple PC interface made it a hit with amateur game developers. An official release didn’t come until 2015 when the software was combined with its newer versions in a Humble Bundle of all things. While there might not be much point to using it long after the release of the more full-featured RPG Maker XP and VX, RPG Maker 2000’s classic sprites still have a certain charm and it’s nice that it was actually localised.

Dragon Quest V – September 1992-February 2009 (16 years, 5 months)

It was a long time coming, but the fifth and arguably finest entry in the Dragon Quest series was finally released for the Nintendo DS in 2009. This version of the game featured new characters and remade visuals, but for many players the big draw was being able to play it in English for the first time. Rumour has it that Enix passed on localising Dragon Quest V for the SNES due to the cost of manufacturing cartridges large enough for the English text and the poor sales of previous entries in the series overseas. Other Enix games that took a long time to get an English version include Dragon Quest VI (15 years, 2 months), Shiren the Wanderer and Star Ocean (both with 12 years and 3 months).

Final Fantasy III – April 1990-November 2006 (16 years, 7 months)

Even after the eventual release of Final Fantasy V and the real Final Fantasy II, the third entry in Square’s popular RPG series was a “no-show” in the west for over sixteen years. Like Dragon Quest V, it wasn’t until the game was remade for the Nintendo DS that RPG fans had the chance to play the game officially in English and with new 3D graphics too! Was the wait worth it? Well, it turns out Square was just trying to save us from having our childhoods ruined by the game’s brutal final dungeon. Funnily enough, after being stuck on the Famicom for so long Final Fantasy III has since been ported to mobile devices, the PSP, the PC and even the Ouya!

Zwei: The Arges Adventures – December 2001-January 2018 (17 years, 1 month)

Since the company doesn’t distribute their games internationally, it always tends to take a while for Falcom games to see an English release. XSEED’s release of Xanadu Next was eleven years in the making, but this was dwarfed more recently when they released Falcom’s 2001 action RPG, Zwei. The newest version of this cute action RPG isn’t exactly the same as the original version, though. Zwei: The Arges Adventure takes bits from Falcom’s PSP port to put together the definitive version of the game, complete with an Ys-themed typing tutor. It’s currently the longest gap of any of XSEED’s Falcom releases, but why stop there? Bring on Brandish 2, Sorcerian and DINOSAUR!

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon – April 1990-December 2008 (18 years, 8 months)

It’s surprising after the strong sales of Fire Emblem Fates, but there was a time where a tough tactical game was a hard sell for a family-friendly company like Nintendo. The original Fire Emblem title, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, was originally released by Nintendo for the Famicom back in 1990 and introduced players to Prince Marth and his army of eccentric warriors. Although many English-speaking fans were first aware of the series after Marth’s appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee, it would be thirteen years until any Fire Emblem title was localised and over eighteen years until Marth’s tale was retold on the Nintendo DS. Unfortunately, parts of Shadow Dragon seemed like a step down from the Fire Emblem games that were released internationally and even the rough Famicom sprites might have had more charm than the revised artwork. Still, it’s neat that Shadow Dragon finally made it out overseas, even if it flopped and effectively killed the series in the west until the release of Fire Emblem Awakening.

Shin Megami Tensei – October 1992-March 2014 (21 years, 5 months)

With its religious iconography and baffling title it’s no surprise that Shin Megami Tensei never saw an English release in the more conservative gaming climate of 1992. What was surprising was Atlus suddenly releasing this demon-gathering dungeon-crawler in English for iOS in 2014. This mobile version is based on the Game Boy Advance port of the game and actually holds up fairly well if you can look past the lack of the iconic “press turn” battle mechanic and the need to have a walkthrough open half the time. Atlus localised a number of other Shin Megami Tensei games that were a long time coming including the first half of Persona 2, Innocent Sin (12 years, 3 months), and the ultra ’90s cyberpunk adventure, Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (15 years, 5 months). These rereleases are just scratching the surface of the Shin Megami Tensei series and there’s massive library of games out there that are still lacking even fan translations.

Romancing SaGa 2 – December 1993-May 2016 (22 years, 5 months)

If I had to hazard a guess as to why the Romancing SaGa games weren’t released outside of Japan in the ’90s, it’d be because they were way too challenging and convoluted. This was a time where Square’s idea of what Americans wanted was Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, after all. Still the SaGa games retained some level of popularity with a certain masochistic audience who were finally rewarded for their patience with a mobile remake of one of the most popular entries in the series. This impressive-looking port of Romancing Saga 2 was finally translated into English so audiences outside of Japan can freshly discover that Akitoshi Kawazu hates their guts.

Princess Maker – May 1991-February 2017 (25 years, 9 months)

Originally released by Gainax (yes, the same Gainax responsible for anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion), this daughter-raising title was eventually published in English by Korean company CFK. It’s a big jump from the PC-98 to Steam, but Princess Maker Refine picked up a number of, uh, refinements along the way. This “Lifetime Simulation Game” has players guiding a princess as she grows up to govern a kingdom, but it wasn’t the first time English-speaking audiences had a taste of this unique series. Princess Maker’s sequel was planned to be released in the US by SoftEgg, but was cancelled following a lengthy period of development and bankruptcies (you can read SoftEgg founder Tim Trzepacz’s side of the story here). Despite Princess Maker 2’s cancellation, a completed translation circulated due to piracy and the game would gain a cult following for its unconventional gameplay and bizarre directions the story could go. This unexpected success years after the planned release may have led to Princess Maker 2 eventually being localised and the later launch of Princess Maker Refine. Whatever the reason, the longest gap between the official Japanese and English releases of any RPG would belong to this “father simulator” if it weren’t for a certain Mother.

Mother – July 1989-June 2015 (25 years, 11 months)

The original Mother is a weird one, and not just because it involves beating up hippies with a baseball bat. A localised version of Mother was actually in development by Nintendo under the name of “Earthbound”. Who knows whether it was the weak sales of RPGs like Dragon Warrior or some “inappropriate” enemies like smoking crows (which were actually altered in the final version), but the original game went unreleased for twenty-five years and it was Mother 2 that ended up being titled Earthbound and becoming a cult RPG hit. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t localised, though. Work on the game was apparently near completion and this “Earthbound Zero” prototype surfaced in 1998 – Lost Levels have posted a lengthy tale about its discovery. Even after the ROM was released online it wasn’t until over a decade later that Nintendo would finally release this lost RPG. Retitled “Earthbound Beginnings”, the game was suddenly announced during the Nintendo World Championships in 2015, a reveal that wouldn’t have been out of place at the original competition in 1990. It was a long time coming -longer than any other RPG out there- but the original Mother was finally officially released and you can play it on the Wii U’s Virtual Console right now. Hopefully Nintendo are hiding a fully translated version of Mother 3 somewhere for release in 2031.