Almost fifteen years since its release in Japan for the Super Famicom, Falcom’s Brandish 2: The Planet Buster is finally playable in English, thanks to a patch released today by Synchronicity Translations.

Unfamiliar with Brandish but still curious to play a 16-bit dungeon crawler that never made it to the States? HG101’s piece on the series is an excellent starting point.

According to Synchronicity, the translated script is “absolutely 100% faithful to the original”. And the game, from what I hear, is also absolutely “not for bitches”.

On a related note, I love Brandish 2’s PC98 box!

[Thanks, denpanosekai!]

tags / brandish 2 / snes / super famicom / synchronicity translations / imports / patch / falcom / homebrew / koei / ec

I’ve been meaning to link to this all week, and now it’s getting pretty close to the wire! NCSX’s Sale of the Week is brand new, sealed Ys III: Wanderers from Ys Famicom cartridges, for $30.90.

Ys III isn’t exactly the best or most representative Ys game, and I can’t imagine the Famicom release being the best version of Ys III, but new Famicom carts! And it’s so pretty. I think.

tags / victor / falcom / ys / ys iii / ncsx

Two ARPGs for only $10 each! Not a bad Amazon deal. I don’t think this comes with the soundtrack, though.

[Update: Atlus’ newsletter indicates (but doesn’t flat-out say) that this sale does include the soundtrack. Yay!]

tags / ys / atlus / falcom / deal / amazon

The DS ports of Ys Book I and II came with a soundtrack CD in Japan, but only when purchased in the Special Box, a 9,800 yen bundle of both games that came out two months after the original, separate release of the games.

In contrast, Atlus’s North American release includes both games — as well as the soundtrack, if you preorder from a “participating retailer” (probably Amazon and GameStop) — for $35. Awesome. Along with the announcement of the soundtrack bonus, Atlus put up some samples at the link.

tags / atlus / falcom / ys / soundtrack / jc

Why would Atlus decide to localize a game that sold fewer than 2,000 copies in its first week in Japan? I’m pleased they have decided to set themselves up the bomb, because the game is Ys Book I & II on the DS.

To their credit, Atlus is releasing Legacy of Ys on one cartridge for $34.99 rather than two for about $50 each, so maybe people will be a bit more willing to pick it up.

But the fact remains that Interchannel’s DS remakes bombed in the country where people know and like Ys. Not to mention the fact that the DS game faces competition from the PC Engine CD-ROM version of the exact same thing, which is available for download on the Wii — for $8.

I guess it comes down to how much the classic Ys battle system bothers you. If you want an attack button, get the DS game. If you want to bump into stuff, get the Virtual Console version.

tags / atlus / ys / arpg / falcom / jc