Gaming How can I load my English DS games on my Japanese 3DS in English?

[Dr. Dew]

I am trying to load my US version of Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship 2008 on my Japanese 3ds, but every time it loads, it is in Japanese. Is there any way to fix this? I do have CFW and I am able to fix some of my 3DS games to load in English via NTR cfw but no luck with DS titles. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[James310]

Why do people put these in the tutorial sections? Isn't there a option for language in system settings? What you can do but dangerous is to region change your system

 

[Dr. Dew]

Point me where I should post it and ill be glad to do so. Yeah probably not gonna do that just for this lol, thanks for the help anyways man.

 

[MRJPGames]

This seems like a more appropriate place: https://gbatemp.net/forums/3ds-games-content.199/
And that's mainly because the tutorials section is ONLY for tutorials not questions!

As for the anwser if you can set your 3DS' language to english in the settings you can play the game in english, if you can't and the US version also has japanese text included you cannot change this unless you change the region of your 3DS to one that has english as a language option.

 

[leon315]

Nha, as far as I know, all ds cartridges are region free, at the first place, the game will load ur systems default language, change jpn to engage, simply, isn't it?

 

[MRJPGames]

Nha, as far as I know, all ds cartridges are region free, at the first place, the game will load ur systems default language, change jpn to engage, simply, isn't it?

Yeah, the cards are but it could be that english is not a language option on JPN 3DS' (probably it is an option but it just might not be) and if it's not an option you can not play the game in english if the DS game includes japanese because it selects that one then.

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

Nha, as far as I know, all ds cartridges are region free, at the first place, the game will load ur systems default language, change jpn to engage, simply, isn't it?

Yeah, the cards are but it could be that english is not a language option on JPN 3DS' (probably it is an option but it just might not be) and if it's not an option you can not play the game in english if the DS game includes japanese because it selects that one then.

Japanese 3DS units doesn't have a language setting option, even for DS games (well no 3DS unit have a separate option to DS cartridges languages either).
There's no way right now to change the language on those multi-language auto-setting DS carts that relies on DS/3DS language.
EDIT: I have in my household a japanese 3DS and a 3DS LL, so I know that those consoles don't have language settings.

 

[MRJPGames]

Japanese 3DS units doesn't have a language setting option, even for DS games (well no 3DS unit have a separate option to DS cartridges languages either).
There's no way right now to change the language on those multi-language auto-setting DS carts that relies on DS/3DS language.
EDIT: I have in my household a japanese 3DS and a 3DS LL, so I know that those consoles don't have language settings.

This does make me wonder, could it be done with a flashcard? Probably not because it probably can't spoof the languege but just wondering.

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

This does make me wonder, could it be done with a flashcard? Probably not because it probably can't spoof the languege but just wondering.

Actually running the ROM at a flashcard would be easier to fix this issue if you can patch the ROM to bypass the language checking and fix it at the English option.
Or if your flashcard kernel allows cheating you can patch the RAM through it to change what setting the game will see while checking.
But I don't know how to search and patch those things, so I can't help on it myself
EDIT: My previous answer was assuming that OP is trying to run an actual DS cartridge and not a ROM in a flashcard.
With an actual cart you can try running it through an AR-like device that have a compatible bootloader with the 3DS and patching the RAM to alter the language setting flag, but still, you'll need to search this values.

 

[WiiUBricker]

Not sure if this works, but if you happen to have a DS around, start the game in english and save. The next time you start it on your japanese 3DS it will perhaps be in english.
If you don't have a DS then you must have a way to restore save files to DS cartridges. There are dongles for that. Or you use a flashcard. Play the game in desmume or via a flashcard and restore the save to your cartridge.

 

[leon315]

Japanese 3DS units doesn't have a language setting option, even for DS games (well no 3DS unit have a separate option to DS cartridges languages either).
There's no way right now to change the language on those multi-language auto-setting DS carts that relies on DS/3DS language.
EDIT: I have in my household a japanese 3DS and a 3DS LL, so I know that those consoles don't have language settings.

this is new to me, I've both pal ds and 3ds,never known that jpn's 3ds doesn't have any other languages

 

[The Real Jdbye]

It's a tough one, the original DS and DS Lite had a language setting (even on Japanese models) so games could be played in English even on a Japanese console, but the 3DS has no such setting. NTR-CFW's language emulation plugin won't help either, because it's made to run in 3DS mode. Something similar could be made for DS flashcarts, maybe even an universal AR code that works in all games would be possible. I don't know of any such code though.

I found this one for DQIV, maybe similar codes exist for other games:

22109E4C 0000000X

X:
0 = Japanese
1 = English
2 = French
3 = Dutch
4 = Italian
5 = Spanish

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

It's a tough one, the original DS and DS Lite had a language setting (even on Japanese models) so games could be played in English even on a Japanese console, but the 3DS has no such setting. NTR-CFW's language emulation plugin won't help either, because it's made to run in 3DS mode. Something similar could be made for DS flashcarts, maybe even an universal AR code that works in all games would be possible. I don't know of any such code though.

I found this one for DQIV, maybe similar codes exist for other games:

Well, the japanese DS had a language settings because it was a region free console.
The 3DS not only have a region lock, but the japanese units seem to be sold exclusively in Japan, Nintendo doesn't seem to include Japan in the "General Asia market area". It's different from playstation consoles where you can try to sell the same game to all the Asia area, including Japan on it (even if their taxes are different, the reason why there are Japan and "rest of Asia" releases of games).

 

[Dr. Dew]

Not sure if this works, but if you happen to have a DS around, start the game in english and save. The next time you start it on your japanese 3DS it will perhaps be in english.
If you don't have a DS then you must have a way to restore save files to DS cartridges. There are dongles for that. Or you use a flashcard. Play the game in desmume or via a flashcard and restore the save to your cartridge.

The japanese 3ds still switches the language to Japanese, there is no option within the game to change the language. Well its looking likely ill have to program something in order for it to run in its native language.

 

[ootnes2]

The japanese 3ds still switches the language to Japanese, there is no option within the game to change the language. Well its looking likely ill have to program something in order for it to run in its native language.

Region change your emunand to US and you can run your DS games on that, including DSi games that are region locked.

 

[WiiUBricker]

The japanese 3ds still switches the language to Japanese, there is no option within the game to change the language. Well its looking likely ill have to program something in order for it to run in its native language.

Do you speak from experience? I would think that once saved, the language can't be changed unless you starta new game.

 

[Dr. Dew]

Do you speak from experience? I would think that once saved, the language can't be changed unless you starta new game.

Yeah from experience with my yugioh game for ds. I have a lot of hours in this game cause i played it on my US DSi and US 3DS in English. When i popped the cartridge in my Japanese 3DS, it switched the game to Japanese even if it had a English save file, so i continued where i left off in the game but it was all Japanese haha.