Have you ever completed a retro Japanese RPG in Japanese?

[boxhead]

I remember when I was younger, I completed a few Japanese RPGs without guides. some snes and some PSX but i think the hardest game I beat was final fantasy VII.

I remember being stuck a lot and at one point having to click every single pixel in some dwarf town in order to continue.
When i finally got hold of the english version I remember being slightly annoyed by the story as it wasn't anything like the one that I'd created in my mind.

Other games I've beaten are:

Front mission
Bahamut lagoon
Fire emblem 4
castlevania SOTN

what about you guys??

[nakamura]

Final Fantasy VIII was the last one I completed traditional RPG wise back in 1998 ish.

Racing Lagoon I finished a coupe of months back. It was awesome.

[noobish hat]

I never understood people who imported the Japanese versions of story-driven games. Quite apart from having to progress via unenjoyable trial and error, you're also ruining the experience by not understanding a word of the story.

[boxhead]

I get what you're saying noobish hat, but you end up making up your own story so its actually pretty good. plus, back then, RPGs had the best graphics and music in my opinion so it was kind of worth the trade off when you considered most of the games i was playing didn;t get released over here.

I remember importing street fighter EX + turbo or whatever it was for the PS1 and there was a pretty cool training mode which was all in japanese so I translated all the commands to english through trial and error and almost filled a whole notepad doing it.

[wakka]

10/10 effort Boxhead. I think the only RPG I have actually finished in Japanese was Pokemon Ranger, which isn't even really an RPG. Nor a particularly good game. I was just desperate for some Pokemon action on my new DS back then I think!

[speedlolita]

I completed Pok?mon Soul Silver before it was actually released in Japan. Given it was leaked 3 days before release, I had got all 16 badges and beaten Red by the time there was 1 day before release. Not sure if that counts when it is so similar to Pok?mon Gold/Silver but hey, I did it!

Also beat Pok?mon Red in Japanese, but that was long after I'd invested thousands of hours into the English version - which I know like the back of my hand.

[noobish hat]

Not the same, but as I recall, my younger brother beat Pokemon Red in English before he could read, which has always amazed me.

[Asura]

Never, though I've never willingly subjected myself to an RPG I couldn't understand.

I've played a great deal of a few games where I had little to go on though - stuff like Another Century's Episode.

[boxhead]

thats quite brilliant! how old was he?

[boxhead]

Not the same, but as I recall, my younger brother beat Pokemon Red in English before he could read, which has always amazed me.

thats amazing, how old was he?

[noobish hat]

I think he was 5 or 6. I think my older brother helped him through the final dungeon, but as far as I'm aware, he did the rest of it on his own.

[speedlolita]

I don't think that is an especially difficult feat.

[boxhead]

I don't think that is an especially difficult feat.

True. Your brother sucks. Why don't you come back when your brother does something really noteworthy, like completes a heart transplant or invents a time machine.

[speedlolita]

That's a silly way to spin my post.

Unlike most RPGs, Pokemon is pretty devoid of challenge - especially if you use a single Pokemon all the way through. The text is almost superficial too.

I wasn't much older when I was a fully fledged Pokemaniac.

[Zaki]

Final Fantasy IV for me Still my favourite one - I then played it in English many times!