Hideo Kojima made Policenauts between Metal Gear 2 and Metal Gear Solid, and an English version was planned for the Saturn before it was cancelled over technical problems with the translation. It took Metal Gear Solid's success to send fans back to it, and the PlayStation patch finally arrived in 2009. The rest of this list is a tour of what Japan kept, from a Square racing RPG to a small American town modeled on Twin Peaks.
We surveyed players about playing these games in English: 361 recommendations in all, and a pick other players backed counted a little extra. Every entry ends with the patch to get, its version and its release date, so you know what you're downloading.
10. LSD: Dream Emulator (1998)
LSD: Dream Emulator has no objective. You explore surreal places, and touching almost anything warps you somewhere else. The artist Osamu Sato built it from a dream diary that an Asmik Ace employee had kept for over a decade, and it got only a limited release in Japan.
It fell into obscurity and then came back as a cult favorite thanks to how strange it is. The patch is a full English translation of the 48 text dreams and the main menu, so you can finally read what the dream journal was trying to tell you, for whatever that is worth.
Patch: LSD - Dream Emulator by Mr.Nobody, version 1.0, released May 1, 2020.
9. Community Pom (1997)
Something has been snacking on Woolly Village's Meymeys, and everyone blames the rabbit-like Poms that showed up when the moon vanished five years ago. Young Lulu knows better, so she takes the magic staff the Poms gave her and sets out to build a community where they can live in peace.
It is an action RPG with a community to build, and the patch makes the whole thing fully playable in English.
Patch: Community Pom by LIPEMCO! Translations, version 1.0, released October 4, 2021.
8. PoPoLoCrois Monogatari (1996)
PoPoLoCrois began as a manga by Yohsuke Tamori in 1977, and Sony turned it into a series of PlayStation RPGs aimed at a young Japanese audience, with a general theme of love and compassion. This first game scored 31 out of 40 in Famitsu.
The fan translation arrived in 2022, and the sequels followed: PoPoLoCrois Monogatari II in 2024 and PoPoRogue in 2025. The patch is complete, and later versions restored the original colors in the anime cutscenes and fixed a few freezes.
Patch: PoPoLoCrois Monogatari by Stardust Crusaders, aishsha and paul_met, version 1.3, released November 20, 2022.
7. Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere (1999)
Ace Combat 3 came out everywhere, but not as the same game. The Japanese release spans two discs, with 52 missions and five endings. Financial constraints cut it down for North America and Europe, to 36 missions on a single side.
The patch puts the Japanese version in English, everything except some incidental radio chatter and three audio-only sections, and it comes with deleted scenes, interviews and other extras. It still carries a beta number, but players keep telling each other to skip the Western release and play this one.
Patch: Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere by Team NEMO, version 0.9b1, released January 1, 2024.
6. Harmful Park (1997)
Harmful Park is a cute horizontal shooter set in a theme park, where a scientist called Dr. Tequila has made the rides go berserk and another scientist sends her daughters to take the park back. It resembles Konami's Parodius games, and it was the last game Sky Think System made.
The patch translates all of the cutscenes and nearly every background element and sprite. Japanese shooters often play fine without a translation, but this one has jokes, and now you can read them.
Patch: Harmful Park by Hilltop, version 1.1, released June 11, 2022.
5. Persona 2: Innocent Sin (1999)
Innocent Sin is the first half of Persona 2, and Atlus chose not to translate the PlayStation original, mostly because the team was busy localizing the second half, Eternal Punishment. Before the PSP remake came out in English in 2011, it was known as the only untranslated Persona.
This patch got there first, in 2008. It translates the original 1999 version, where a group of high school students tries to stop Joker, a villain spreading rumors that become real.
Patch: Persona 2: Innocent Sin by Gemini, version 1.0a, released October 15, 2008.
4. Mizzurna Falls (1998)
Mizzurna Falls is Human Entertainment's search for a missing classmate in a small American town, and its setting and story borrow from Twin Peaks. It simulates the whole town, and it is now seen as a forerunner of open world games like Shenmue. Its writer and director, Taichi Ishizuka, later retired from games and became a tour guide in the Canadian Rockies.
The translation had a rocky road. An earlier, unfinished patch was pulled after a copyright complaint, and in 2021 a new team finished the job. Their script had to be rewritten to fit on the disc, and it was, without losing the plot.
Patch: Mizzurna Falls by Cirosan, version 1.0, released March 30, 2021.
3. Racing Lagoon (1999)
Racing Lagoon is Square's street racing RPG, set in Yokohama in 1999, where a new racer tries to learn about his forgotten past and a legendary race from ten years before. It got mixed reviews in Japan and never left the country, but it still sold over 140,000 copies there.
It is best known for its moody 90s look and a jazzy soundtrack by Noriko Matsueda, and players call it a strange, memorable mix of racing and RPG. The patch translates everything, from dialogue and menus to the loading screens and FMVs, and it widens the name entry so English names fit.
Patch: Racing Lagoon by Hilltop, version 1.1, released November 30, 2021.
2. Tales of Phantasia (1998)
Tales of Phantasia started the Tales series on the Super Famicom in 1995, and the PlayStation remake from December 1998 stayed in Japan. The first official English version only came on the Game Boy Advance in 2006, and the PlayStation version also made Suzu, a young ninja, a playable character for the first time.
The fan patch is 100% done and runs on real hardware. It lets you pick romanized or translated ability names, and it adds subtitles for the skits and the spoken prologue. Players who tried it keep recommending it as the version to play.
Patch: Tales of Phantasia by Gemini, version 1.0, released December 25, 2007.
1. Policenauts (1996)
Policenauts is a hard science fiction adventure written and directed by Hideo Kojima. Jonathan Ingram, an LAPD officer trained as a police astronaut, drifts into space for 24 years after an accident at the colony Beyond Coast, and when he is found, his ex-wife hires him to investigate a disappearance. It plays a lot like Kojima's earlier Snatcher.
The patch is a complete translation of all the Japanese text and graphics, down to the credits, and it also fixes graphical glitches and crashes from the original game. It is the most recommended PlayStation translation on this list, which is fitting for what the patch itself calls Kojima's most sought-after Japanese exclusive.
Patch: Policenauts by JunkerHQ, version 1.0, released August 23, 2009.
