I have a strange version of Castlevania SOTN?

[flojocabron]

hello everyone out there! A few days ago when i saw this post http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 44&t=31149 it was of japanese games with english sound or text.

I saw my JP copy of Castlevania SOTN and was gonna post about it, but then I realized that my copy does not match any of the pics I've seen on the internet! I checked here http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/196885-castl ... ght/images and other places on line and they dont match mine.

I'm starting to think that my copy is a bootleg, although its very convincing! I bought this game at my flea market about a year ago. It looks very much like a real copy. The style of the disc doesnt seem to be like a blatant pirate disc, They look very similar to original JP playstation games.

I've posted some pics so all of you can scrutinize and explain about what I own. I'm sure all of you experts out there can surely tell me if my copy is legit or not!

[flojocabron]

here are the boxes to the games. I do own both copies of them the us version and the JP version.

the JP case is similar to the original thicker ones that came out.

The JP game has the US box art, not the Jp box art as seen in gamefaqs.

[flojocabron]

The back covers are different as well! the JP version does not have a barcode like the us version. And the information is the same as well on both of them. I cant tell about the back of the original JP game.

the JP game has a cover card and a manual as well.

The US box has just the manual.

Both the US and the JP manuals are just about the same. The only differences are the first page and the last page

[dedalusdedalus]

Looks like it might be the PAL version...

Not completely sure on that though.

[flojocabron]

here is a close up of the information of the JP castlevania disc.

It has the code of SCPS 45196. This number doesnt match the release data on gamefaqs.com

[flojocabron]

just for $hits and giggles I tried both games in all of my playstations and this is what I found out.

* The JP game works in a JP playstation (I own one)
* The JP game works in a modded playstation
* The JP game does not work in a US un-modded PSone

*The save file of the JP game is recognized in the memory card menu of all the playstations. As well as the US save.
* But the JP game will not recognize the US save game of castlevania on the load menu of JP castlevania
*The same is said of the US version, It does not take the JP save of castlevania

dont know if this helps but I did it anyways, just to see whats up!

[dedalusdedalus]

I was way off base with my PAL suggestion. Guess it could be a bootleg...but it does look like an extremely well made bootleg. Interesting.

[flamepanther]

I could be wrong, but I also suspect you've got a very clever bootleg. As far as I can tell though, that game was never released under the "Castlevania" name in Japan. It should be Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku (a.k.a. Demon Castle Dracula X: Noctourne in the Moonlight). It's also very unlikely that the manual would match the US one down to the advertising. Unless there's a very rare "U.S.A. Edition" or "International Version" as occasionally happens, it may indeed be a fake. Hopefully someone can shed some more light on this. Thanks for sharing this interesting find!

[vlame]

some googling shows that it is the NTSC-Asia (Japanese Region Coded) English version. Basically the Chinese version that is in English.






Rip and add the data to REDump.org for archival purposes

[Hobie-wan]

That is very odd. I'm leaning toward bootleg though because of the code even though it looks high quality. Games released by Sony in Japan are coded SCPS for Sony Computer. Games by other companies are SLPS, presumably for Sony Licensed. For US games they are SCUS and SLUS respectively. So the fact it has a first party code despite being a third party game, US artwork, and is a Japanese region game is all wrong.