Do you think the series would have become more known.....

Exactly. I still dont know to this day why the games werent released here. Its a shame

Yeah. Also TLS was kinda different from the original games in some of the areas

I feel that the series would have become more known if it was released in Europe. Dont know why tho

Btw there was this rumor that the first three games were supposed to get a western release in 2005 but never got it since GBA was at the end of its lifespan. Oh well.

In that Nintendo Life development interview, Hitoshi Yamagami touched on why the first four games were never released outside of Japan.



I don't know if Nintendo and TOSE have explained specific examples and exactly why they may have been too Japanese in style, though.

Kazuki Yoshihara (The Legendary Starfy's Nintendo director) said that the localization team were worried that Moe (Kyorosuke) may be "a little too Japanese in his style".

I'm not sure what he means, but I suppose it may be his speech. He uses Japanese slang オメェ ("you") and maybe it's be hard to bring over its connotations in English. Another speech pattern is Moe referring to himself as オレさま (オレ is apparently a boastful first person pronoun, and the さま makes it sound more arrogant), although Wario refers to himself as 'sama' in Japanese and was brought over.

Another thing is that the first four games had various Japanese cultural references (and possibly many in the text), for instance, one of the items in Densetsu no Starfy 2 is the Zabuton (found in Gluglug Lagoon); a type of Japanese cushion, and you also have to follow a trail of Kobumaki in Torrent's Waterfall. One of the items in Densetsu no Starfy 4 is the Kemari, based on a Japanese Mari ball.



I think that it would have been worth the investment for TOSE and Nintendo to bring over the first four Starfy games over in English though and change any of the things that may have been seen as more fitting to a Japanese audience, because they are great, fun, engaging and interesting games.

I think I may have heard of that rumour. But I can't remember where I may have heard it. I'm interested, do you have a source please?


Yeah. Nintendo Power would have been a great place to promote the games in the US, as well as Official Nintendo Magazine in the UK and Australia. Does anyone know which other Nintendo magazines existed (other than those and Japan's Nintendo Dream)?

Too Japanese is a horrible excuse for anything, really. We have anime, manga, and Pokemon among other Japanese games like Siren, which uses an all Japanese cast.

Nope, I have looked at the games and they do not seem too Japanese at all. I have no idea why somebody would complain about that. Too Japanese is not even a bad thing, actually. So even if the series was too Japanese, it still would not ruin anything in terms of quality.

A green kid running around with fairies is so much more Americanized!

NO! Not true!