Monster Hunter Portable 3rd sold 2.58 million copies in Japan within two weeks, which made it the fastest selling PSP game ever there, and it never came out in English. The PSP had a lot of games like that. One of them even had its official English translation almost finished before the release was cancelled.
We surveyed players about playing these games in English: 297 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 date, so you know what you're downloading.
10. Fate/Extra CCC (2013)
Fate/Extra CCC is set in the same digital world as Fate/Extra, the 2010 game that did come out in English, but it takes an alternate route, which is why people call it both a sequel and a side story. The Holy Grail War's participants find themselves copied to the far side of the Moon Cell, where an AI called BB has built a labyrinth, and your hero has to find a way out.
Despite its success in Japan, it never got an international release, so the fan patch is the only way to read it. It is a complete translation that aims for the feel of an official English release, and it even fixes a couple of bugs from the Japanese version. The same team also updated their Perfect Patch for the original Fate/Extra.
Patch: Fate/Extra CCC English Patch by the CCC Translation Team, version 1.0, last updated August 12, 2023.
9. Digimon Adventure (2013)
Digimon Adventure retells the anime series: a group of kids get caught in a freak snowstorm and end up in the Digital World, where they meet the Digimon and try to find their way home. It came out in Japan on January 13, 2013 for the series' 15th anniversary, with the anime's voice actors and its theme song, Butter-Fly.
Version 1.2 of the patch is a full English translation, and you apply it to a clean Japanese copy of the game with an xdelta patcher.
Patch: Digimon Adventure English Patch by Kazari, version 1.2, last updated March 23, 2018.
8. 7th Dragon 2020 (2011)
7th Dragon 2020 moves the DS original's dragon war to near-future Tokyo, and director Kazuya Niinou of Etrian Odyssey came back, along with producer Rieko Kodama and composer Yuzo Kushiro. Hatsune Miku turns up too, with a cameo and an alternate soundtrack she sings.
You still pick your own classes and build your own party, and you still get stomped on by monsters. The patch translates the complete game except for a few inessential graphics, and it was edited to read smoothly. Its version number says 0.91, but the translator calls the game fully translated.
Patch: 7th Dragon 2020 English Translation by Pokeytax, version 0.91, last updated March 28, 2016.
7. Grand Knights History (2011)
Grand Knights History is Vanillaware's first turn-based RPG, a war story about a band of knights serving one of three nations, and it carries the studio's painted look onto the PSP. Xseed Games planned a Western release, with the translation almost complete, but Vanillaware was busy with Dragon's Crown and couldn't help, so Xseed cancelled it, and the European release went with it.
Players who have tried it rave about it. The fan patch translates the whole single player game, after earlier partial patches. The online War mode was never finished, because the game's servers are no longer supported, so stick to solo play.
Patch: Grand Knights History English Translation by justfuit, version 1.16, last updated February 3, 2015.
6. Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity (2011)
Phantasy Star Portable 2 came out in English in 2010, but its upgraded version, Infinity, never left Japan. It adds a whole new story mode next to the original one, a new playable race, harder missions with semi-randomly generated maps, and a Rebirth system that resets you to level 1 while keeping some of your stats.
The patch took over half a decade, and it is a full English localization. Among players who patched it, it is a favorite, and some call it the best Phantasy Star of all. Is it really that much better than the version you could buy? According to the patch notes, it has twice the storage space, at least.
Patch: Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity English Localization by Weyu and JamRules, version 2, last updated August 23, 2022.
5. Final Fantasy Type-0 (2011)
Final Fantasy Type-0 began as Final Fantasy Agito XIII, and it follows Class Zero, a group of cadets fighting a war across the land of Orience in real-time missions much like Crisis Core. Its story was written to be darker than other Final Fantasy games, and the PSP original never came out in English. Only the HD remaster did, in March 2015.
The fan patch covers everything, from menus and skills to the story and the graphics, and it merges both discs into one ISO. It also has a history: after legal threats from Square Enix, the patch was taken down from its home site. It still needs every bit of power a PSP has, so turn off your plugins first.
Patch: Final Fantasy Type-0 Translation by Skybladecloud, version 2, last updated June 18, 2014.
4. Danganronpa (2010)
Danganronpa started on the PSP in Japan in November 2010, a murder mystery visual novel where you solve class trials by shooting at arguments. Writer Kazutaka Kodaka's dark scenario caused controversy inside Spike over how violent it was. The first official English release only came in 2014, on other PlayStation hardware.
So the PSP original belongs to the fans. Project Zetsubou translated everything into English, but read the fine print first: the patch only works with the PSP the Best edition of the game.
Patch: Danganronpa English Translation by Project Zetsubou, version 1.0.
3. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (2000)
Persona 2 is two games, Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, and the West got them crossed: Eternal Punishment came out in English on the PS1, while its PSP remake stayed in Japan, and Innocent Sin did the reverse. So until recently you couldn't play both halves in the same version, in English.
Players waited years for this patch, and it delivers: it ports the official PS1 translation into the PSP remake, and the translation for Tatsuya's scenario was used with permission from other translators. It also comes with a PDF guide that explains everything that changed, which is helpful, because there is a lot.
Patch: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment English Translation by eiowlta, Sayucchi and DarTisD, version 1.0, last updated July 27, 2022.
2. Valkyria Chronicles 3 (2011)
Valkyria Chronicles 3 follows the Nameless, a penal unit of criminals and deserters whose real names have been erased, as they run black ops for Gallia in the same war as the first game. Because Valkyria Chronicles II sold poorly, the third game was never localized, even though both Japanese and Western critics praised it.
Many players say it is the best of the PSP pair, better than II in story and gameplay, and some rank it at the top of the series. The patch translates the plot and the menus, along with the mission briefings. Some mission objectives stay in Japanese, though, and so do the encyclopedia and the DLC missions, so you'll occasionally be guessing.
Patch: Senjou no Valkyria 3: Extra Edition Translation by the Valkyria Chronicles 3 Translation Project, Patch 2, last updated January 6, 2014.
1. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (2010)
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd adapts the core of Monster Hunter Tri into a new single player campaign, with new regions, new monsters and a revised Felyne combat system. In Japan it was the fastest selling game in Capcom's history, and it reached 4.8 million units by June 2011. It even got an HD remaster on the PlayStation 3 in Japan.
None of that came west, and it tops this list by a wide margin. Players call it one of their favorite Monster Hunter games, a new and improved take on Freedom Unite. The patch is complete for the most part, though a lot of monster and item names have changed, so they take some getting used to. You can patch the ISO or run it as a plugin on a PSP with custom firmware, and some DLC quests come translated too.
Patch: Monster Hunter Portable 3rd Translation Patch by Team Maverick ONE, version 5.0, last updated June 15, 2013.
