English Friendly Wonderswan Games?

[megasdkirby]

Recently obtained a Wonderswan Color, and I am looking for "English Friendly" Wonderswan games.

By "English Friendly", I refer to those games that can easily be enjoyed without the need to know Japanese.

For example, there is no way I can play any of the console's RPGs, like the Final Fantasy Remakes, nor can I play Clock Tower. However, games like Pocket Fighter, Guilty Gear Petit, or even Klonoa (from what I can tell, there is barely no need to know English, correct?).

I exclude sports games as well as casino/card games, since I won't play with them anyway.

I even saw there was a version of Ghouls and Ghosts for Wonderswan, as well as a few Rockman games as well. Are these playable and "English Friendly"?

Thanks in advance.

[98PaceCar]

It's not cheap, but Judgement Silversword is english friendly and a very good game if you enjoy shmups.

[j_factor]

It has a pretty decent version of Mr. Driller.

[mobiusclimber]

Ghouls & Ghosts (Maikamura) is very playable, as are the Rockman titles (but I think there is at least one that has more Japanese text than a Rockman title should... Exe I think?). There's also Buffers Evolution, which seems to be a side-scrolling brawler from what I've played of it. There are plenty of ports on the system too, like Space Invaders.

[theclaw]

I can't find a thorough list of its English games. I'd looked a few days ago myself, I'm aware there should be one or two at least.

[mobiusclimber]

Risingstuff has a list in the forums, but the site seems to be down right now.

[pepharytheworm]

Here's all the Wonderswan games I own and all are easy to play without knowing Japanese.

SD Gundam Operation U.C.
Gunpey
Buffers Evolution
Guilty Gear Petit
Ultimate Muscle ( not sure of the name but its from that series)
One Peice Swan Colisseum

[Manhattan Sports Club]

As you can see from my signature, I have a full wonderswan masterlist for english speaking users. I am also working in a 'Wonderswan Misc. Questions FAQ' which is not yet done or published but will be available soon. It answers your exact same question through the following:



Q: What games are playable on this system without japanese knowledge?
A: Here are the titles that I believe are the most accessible to non-japanese speakers:
-Battle Spirit: Digimon Frontier
-Beatmania
-Buffers Evolution
-Crazy Climber
-Dicing Knight
-Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit
-Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit Ver. 1.5
-DJ Battle -Turntablist-
-D's Garage 21: Tane wo Maku Tori
-Final Lap 2000
-Final Lap Special
-Ganso Jajamaru Kun
-Glocal Hexcite
-Golden Axe
-Guilty Gear Petit
-Guilty Gear Petit 2
-Gunpey
-Gunpey EX
-Judgement Silversword
-Kaze no Klonoa: Moonlight Museum
-Kurupara
-Lode Runner
-Magical Drop
-Makaimura
-Mister Driller
-One Piece: Grand Battle Swan Colloseum
-Pocket Fighter
-Puzzle Bobble
-Puyo Puyo Tsuu
-Rainbow Islands ~Putty's Party~
-Rhyme Rider Kerorican
-Rockman EXE WS
-Rockman & Forte ~Mirai kara no Chousensha~
-RUN=DIM -Return of Earth-
-SD Gundam Operation U.C.
-Space Invaders
-Tarepanda no Gunpei
-Tetris
-Xi [sai] Little

Please see my WonderSwan masterlist on this website for more information on these titles. Some games that were initially exclusive to the WS did see a release stateside on other consoles (like the GBA), such as Riviera and Digimon Battle Spirit, among others.

Also, this is strange but true: some wonderswan games were officially released in english outside of Japan by Bandai Asia, to english speaking asian countries like Hong Kong, for example. There is a version of Robot Works (the software cartridge that comes with the WonderBorg) that has a bilingual option. The other two are Digital Monster Ver. Wonderswan, and Digimon Anode/Cathode Tamers: Veedramon Version, which is the english version of Digimon Tamers: Digimon Medley. In addition, because of its western origin, Wizardry is another game which can be played bilingually by changing the language settings in the options menu.


Hope that helps! ;)

[Nebagram]

Xi Little is not only playable without any Japanese knowledge but is ttbomk the only handheld version of Devil Dice and therefore a reason to get a Wonderswan in itself.

[mobiusclimber]

I didn't know run=dim was "playable" without knowing Japanese. I mean, I've played some of the Dreamcast title, and while I'd say it was certainly playable and fun, there's a LOT of Japanese in the game.

[Einzelherz]

How about Makaitoushi SaGa?! HOW ABOUT THAT!

:(

[Manhattan Sports Club]

I didn't know run=dim was "playable" without knowing Japanese. I mean, I've played some of the Dreamcast title, and while I'd say it was certainly playable and fun, there's a LOT of Japanese in the game.

Isn't the DC one an adventure game as opposed to a side-scrolling shmup?

Anyways, IMHO, the best games in the Wonderswan's library are RPGs, and in my personal opinion from having studied the system extensively, most of the english-friendly titles are merely ports of games we've seen so many times before that they're no longer novel (like Space Invaders, Puzzle Bobble, Magical Drop, Tetris, etc.) and the few originals like Dicing Knight and Judgement Silversword are good, but from my point of view not good enough to shell out 100-300 for either one unless you are a diehard collector, as you could find a dozen cheaper games which you would enjoy much more than those titles anyway. That and since its Bandai, most of the games are anime licensed which may strengthen or weaken the appeal of them depending on your interest in anime and/or the series in which a particular game is based.

Since Digimon is actually a true first-party franchise, I give them somewhat more creative credit especially since you can use the Digimon Link Station as a mediator between the digimon LCD keychain toys and the Wonderswan itself to transfer your digimon to your roster in the Digimon RPGs.

Having some knowledge of japanese, the ones I played and enjoyed the most (which were exclusives) are games like Chocobo's Dungeon (the WS version is its own game, really), the Digimon RPGs (WonderSwan's answer to Pokemon), Digimon Card Game, Wild Card (a squaresoft card RPG), and a few others that I can't name off the top of my head but will mention eventually. The puzzle games are great too such as Gunpey, which was one of the launch titles and still better than its updated predecessors on the DS and PSP.

Other Notes:
-Terrors 1+2, and The Ring Infinity are horror-adventure games that play like graphical novels with the traditional right-to-left, top-to-bottom writing style and require more japanese knowledge to play efficiently. I never got into them much because of that and also because they look WAY too dark on every model Wonderswan I ever tried playing them on, even Crystal.
-No need for FF1/2/4 because we already have seen them on PSX and GBA and there isn't anything special about these versions.
-Although I think the Digimon RPGs are good, you can forget about the Battle Spirit games, poor fighters, which also got released in the USA on GBA and nobody cared because they were not really that great.

I could go on, but basically I think you'll enjoy the WS library more if you learn some japanese and then try to play some of said RPGs because they really only require beginner to intermediate japanese knowledge.

[mobiusclimber]

The Dreamcast run=dim game is a strategy/rpg (with some farming sim elements, in the beginning anyway). I just looked up the WSC game and gamefaqs has it listed as an RPG. You're saying it's a shmup??? That's... weird.

[kupomogli]

I'd like to play Arc the Lad Kijin Fukkatsu. Would someone care to make it English friendly?

[blue lander]

Dicing Knight is another very playable Zelda-style dungeon crawler that's all in English. Dicing Knight, Judgement Silversword, and Mr. Driller would be my recommendations. Front Mission for the WSC is all in Japanese, but if you're familiar with Front Mission games you can sort of guess your way through it.

[megasdkirby]

Thanks everyone for your recommendations and input! :)

Really have this urge to play Dicing Knight, as recommended by blue_lander, as it is all in english! :)

Some games require some knowledge of japanese, but overall it's possible to enjoy them nevertheless.

And some games are very expensive! I saw Judgement Silversword, as first recommended by 98PaceCar, and it's over $200!!!

What are the most expensive, rarest games (that are playable) for the console?

[mobiusclimber]

Judgement Silversword and Dicing Knight, definitely. After that, probably run=dim.

[98PaceCar]

Judgement Silversword and Dicing Knight, definitely. After that, probably run=dim.

This. I believe that Dicing Knight holds the top spot though. Judgement Silversword went through at least 1 reprint and I've seen sites that say there was more than 1 reprint.

[blue lander]

I definitely bought my copy of Judgement Silversword after the first reprint was released. Does anybody know if only the reprints are "rebirth edition", or did the original one have that title too?

I didn't realize Dicing Knight was so valuable. I'm glad I picked it up when I had the chance.

[98PaceCar]

I definitely bought my copy of Judgement Silversword after the first reprint was released. Does anybody know if only the reprints are "rebirth edition", or did the original one have that title too?

I didn't realize Dicing Knight was so valuable. I'm glad I picked it up when I had the chance.

It picked up the Rebirth Edition when it was first put on cart. The original Wonderwitch version did not have the rebirth name attached. The first cart release is missing a small logo on the upper right of the box.

This is a first run of the cart:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Judgement-Silversword-Wonderswan-japanese-Used-/310210693542?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item4839ff89a6

This is the second run of the cart:
http://cgi.ebay.com/JUDGEMENT-SILVERSWORD-wonderswan-wonder-swan-/350352893623?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item5192a8e6b7

[The 1 2 P]

I wish I could help but for some reason I have never played either my Wonderswan Crystal or Color systems. I only have five games but I haven't touched any of those. I really need to get on that.