History Main / CountrySwitch

It should be noted that there is an explanation to the examples outlined below: As the PS2 was sold before the arrival of the Blu-Ray scheme, most of Asia is covered under NTSC-J and the consoles sold in the region are ''Japanese despite the fact that most people in the region do not speak or understand Japanese in the first place'' (as a matter of fact, most of Asia comprises of countries belonging to the British Commonwealth, and former US, Dutch or UK territory). Late in the [=PS2=] era, Sony realized that one of the reason piracy was rampant in the region is that many people want games in English, and thus began to officially include English subtitles and text in their Japanese-region games- going as far as to re-release some NTSC/UC games for NTSC-J consoles with no modifications.

It should be noted that there is an explanation to the examples outlined below: As the PS2 was sold before the arrival of the Blu-Ray scheme, most of Asia is covered under NTSC-J and the consoles sold in the region are ''Japanese'' despite the fact that ''much of the region are unable to speak Japanese in the first place'' (as a matter of fact, most of Asia comprises of countries belonging to the British Commonwealth, and former US, Dutch or UK territory). Late in the [=PS2=] era, Sony realized that one of the reason piracy was rampant in the region is that many people want games in English, and thus began to officially include English subtitles and text in their Japanese-region games- going as far as to re-release some NTSC/UC games for NTSC-J consoles with no modifications.

* Setting the menu language to Japanese on ''BatmanBegins'' and ''BatmanGothamKnight'' magically adds a Japanese track, removes most other languages, and forces subtitles in some places. If the menu language is English, the Japanese track is completely invisible and can't be seen or selected in any way.

<<|VideogameCulture|>>

A related phenomenon is that in some European releases with multilanguage support, the system's language settings will effect which language the game is played in; even in cases where language is not selectable per se, the media would have all languages. So if a, say, French or Spanish gamer bought a game from the UK, the game would play in their language even if there's no mention in the instruction manual or the packaging that the disc contains any language other than English. This is less prevalent in later games as the disc space becomes more of an issue.

** ''Fatal Labyrinth'' becomes ''Labyrinth of Death'' with kanji in the title, and plays in Japanese.
** ''{{Streets of Rage}}'' changes to its Japanese name ''Bare Knuckle'', among other changes. The sequel also becomes ''Bare Knuckle 2'', but only if you change the country setting ''in the middle of the game''.

* ''Super Wonder Boy: Monster World'', the Japanese version of ''WonderBoy in Monster Land'', plays in English on a western SMS-- with a slightly different translation from the western release, no less. Even the title is slightly different (instead of ''Wonder Boy in Monster Land'', it becomes ''Super Wonder Boy: Monster Land'').
** Playing ''Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap'' on a Japanese console will change the game's title to ''Monster World II'' and will enable FM sounds if an FM Sound Unit is installed. The text will still be in English though.

* Due to Capcom's unusual release schedule of the second and third {{Ace Attorney}} games, many imported them from Japan. If the Nintendo DS was set to English, the import games would display their titles in English on the main menu. If the DS was Japanese, so were the titles.

* Playing ''Konami's Collectors Series: Arcade Hits'' on a console set to Japanese will change the menus and text to Japanese. It will also change the version of ''Gradius'' included in the compilation from the "USA" version (which is actually the ''Nemesis'' variant with the logo on the title screen changed back to the ''Gradius'' one) to the Japanese original ([[DifficultyByRegion which has some difficulty differences]] compared to ''Nemesis''). The ''{{Contra}}'' logo also changes to the Japanese one. Strangely, all the other games which had different names between regions (such as ''RushNAttack'' and ''[[TwinBee Rainbow Bell]]'') remain unchanged.

[[AC:[[GameCube]]]]

* Playing the Japanese version of ''Super StreetFighterIV'' on a western console causes the game to swap M. Bison's, Balrog's and Vega's name to match the western releases of the game. No doubt that if a western version of the game is played on a Japanese console, the reverse will happen.

* Playing ''Konami's Collectors Series: Arcade Hits'' on a console set to Japanese will change the selection and configuration menus to Japanese. It will also change the version of ''Gradius'' included in the compilation from the "USA" version (which is actually the ''Nemesis'' variant with the logo on the title screen changed back to the ''Gradius'' one) to the Japanese original ([[DifficultyByRegion which has some difficulty differences]] compared to ''Nemesis''). The ''{{Contra}}'' logo also changes to the Japanese one. Strangely, all the other games which had different names between regions (such as ''RushNAttack'' and ''[[TwinBee Rainbow Bell]]'') remain unchanged.

*** Averted with ''Streets of Rage 3'', since each regional release is coded to worked on its specific console.

* ''Super Wonder Boy: Monster World'', the Japanese version of ''WonderBoy in Monster Land'', plays in English on a western SMS-- with a slightly different translation from the western release, no less.
** Playing ''Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap'' on a Japanese Master System will change the game's title to ''Monster World II'' and enable FM sounds (the text is still in English though).

** ''{{Streets of Rage}}'' changes to its Japanese name ''Bare Knuckle'', among other changes. The sequel also becomes Bare Knuckle 2, but only if you change the country setting ''in the middle of the game''.

* Playing ''Konami's Collectors Series: Arcade Hits'' on a console set to Japanese will change the selection and configuration menus to Japanese. It will also change the version of ''Gradius'' included in the compilation from the "USA" version (which is actually the ''Nemesis'' variant with the logo on the title screen changed back to ''Gradius'') to the Japanese original ([[DifficultyByRegion which has some difficulty differences]]). The ''{{Contra}}'' logo also changes to the Japanese one. Strangely, all the other games remain unchanged.

* Playing ''Konami's Collectors Series: Arcade Hits'' on a console set to Japanese will change the selection and configuration menus to Japanese. It will also change the version of ''Gradius'' included in the compilation from the "USA" version (which is actually the ''Nemesis'' variant with the logo on the title screen changed back to ''Gradius'') to the Japanese original ([[RegionByDifficulty which has some difficulty differences]]). The ''{{Contra}}'' logo also changes to the Japanese one. Strangely, all the other games remain unchanged.

* Playing the Japanese version of ''Super StreetFighterIV'' on a western console causes the game to swap M. Bison, Balrog and Vega's name to match the western releases of the game. No doubt that if western version of the game is played on a Japanese console, the reverse will happen.

* Playing a non-US version of SuperStreetFighterIV on an US console causes the game to swap M. Bison, Balrog and Vega's name to match the US release of the game. No doubt that if the US version of the game is played on a non-US console, the reverse will happen.

* The Japanese version of ''WonderBoy in Monster World'' plays in English on an American SMS-- with a slightly different translation from the US release, no less.

* Some applications [[IdiotProgramming weren't coded]] with the different locale settings in mind. Using them with the "wrong" locale can give results that range from text not fitting on the screen to crashing at launch. Or in particularly bad cases, corrupting data.

Blu-Rays can't be multi-region, but they can use the menu language for similar effects within the same region. Note that Japan and the USA are in the same region. The changes need not have anything to do with menus.

See [[http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/opcfg/converterfun.html this link]].