Hudson Soft's 1989 Japan-exclusive role-playing game Tengai Makyou: Ziria (otherwise known as Far East of Eden: Ziria) has just been translated into English, thanks to fans (as spotted by David Shadoff on Twitter).
So if you've ever wanted to dig into this PC Engine CD-ROM² title, but always struggled with the language barrier, there's no better time to give it a try than right now.
According to an announcement post on the PC Engine Software Bible Forums, a small team called LIPEMCO! Translations have been working on the project ever since 2021, but now the project is finally finished and ready to download.
In case you've never heard of it or are unsure why this is a big deal, Far East of Eden: Ziria was one of — if not the first — RPGs of its kind ever released on CD and as a result was mammoth in size compared to other titles of the era, featuring impressive additions like full-voice acting and animated cutscenes. The legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto also composed the soundtrack, making it a title that VGM enthusiasts will want to check out.
Here's a description of the game taken from the project's website:
"Long, long ago, amidst the seas of the farthest reaches of the Far East, there was once a mystical land called Jipang: a beautiful and terrible place where gods and demons, wonders and horrors, men and beasts alike all coexisted in a strange and fantastic harmony. But that harmony is threatened when a foreign religion called the Cult of Daimon arrives on the country's shores and begins spreading across the land, its leaders aiming to steal human souls in order to revive the sealed demon Masakado and transform Jipang into their own utopia. Will Ziria, the fated hero descended from the Fire Clan which once sealed Masakado, stop the wicked Daimonists – or will Jipang's oriental beauty burn in demonic hellfire?
Tengai Makyou: Ziria is the debut entry of the Tengai Makyou series. Published by Hudson Soft for the PC-Engine CD-ROM² system in 1989, it was the first RPG ever released on CD and served as a showcase for the new medium, with elaborate visuals and voice acting far beyond what any competing title could offer. Its success led it to become the first in a popular series, very little of which was ever released outside Japan.
Oh, and don't pay too much attention to that first paragraph. The game may wear the trappings of a serious plot, but the real theme is "what foreigners mistakenly think Japan is like."
A download for the patch is available here. You can watch a video of the game with the patch enabled below.
We also recommend heading over to The Cutting Room Floor, to check out all the brand-new info that the project's lead hacker Supper uncovered while working on the patch.