Back in the mid 2000s, the gaming scene saw a whole slew of exclusive games released for portable cellphones, with a wide variety of them running under a build of Java for mobile phones, and in the case of Mega Man, the franchise saw quite a handful of titles exclusive to these now forgotten mobile devices.

The Mega Man franchise saw 8 releases on feature phones, with the titles specifically being Rockman Pinball, Rockman GP, Rockman Panic Fire, Rockman Bug Sweeper, Rockman Dash: Great Adventure on 5 Islands, a trial version of Rockman 1 (Mega Man 1 on NES) with the feature to add as Roll in the game, and lastly, the two titles that we'll be focusing on today, Rockman EXE: Phantom of the Network and Rockman EXE: Legend of the Network, which follow a very similar play style to that of the GBA Battle Network titles, with completely new characters, stories and settings.

These games originally came from a Panasonic P-06C phone, and thanks to a very thorough debug cable technique, these games have been properly preserve for posterity at the end of 2023 by SciLab Secrets, with the games being fully playable through the DoCoMo Java (or DoJa) emulator, with the SquirrelJME emulator being planned to support these titles later on.

Now thanks to the collaborative effort of talented hackers and designers from The Rockman EXE Zone, people outside of Japan can fully experience these long-forgotten titles in the Mega Man franchise with a full English localization, which they didn't only localize the entirety of the games, but also added some extra features, updates and changes:

• Added Buster MAX Mode, similar to Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection.
• Restored the online ranked virus battle mode in Phantom of the Network.
• Restored the animated backgrounds from the EZweb version of Legend of the Network.
• Added in-game methods to obtain BattleChips required to 100% the game, which were previously Chip Trader-exclusive.

Those interested in trying out the English localization for these titles can do so from the blog post released on the Rockman EXE Zone. Be mindful that you are required to obtain the original Japanese i-appli game files for both games in order to do so and to play them through an emulator.

The credits for the full English fan localization are as follows:

• MegaRockEXE: Logo Design
• MidniteW: Editing, Promo Artwork
• Midori Woodley: Translation
• Prof. 9: Programming, Editing

Source

 

[ZeroFX]

Localization or translation?

 

[AndorfRequissa]

in todays age with AI tech I am hoping that one day soon we will see english translations of every JP game

 

[ShadowOne333]

Localization or translation?

Localization, at least that's how they're marketing it.

 

[RupeeClock]

Localization or translation?

Localization, the team at Rockman EXE Zone are very thorough with keeping translations accurate to the Western English releases in terms of character naming, motivations, speech patterns and nuances, as well as terminology and naming conventions.

This isn't their first time doing a translation, either! They provided a full localization of Rockman EXE 4.5 Real Operation, which takes the added step of incorporating dialogue for special holidays not observed in the Japanese release (as the game features a real-time clock with calendar support).
They also provided a fan translation of the unlocalised Boktai content that was infamously cut from the international releases of Mega Man Battle Network 6, as well as the Rockman Operate Shooting Star; a DS re-release of Mega Man Battle Network 1 featuring new cross-over content and a new scenario based on the Mega Man Star Force series.

Honestly these guys do phenomenal work with all things Battle Network and Star Force, and I'm thrilled to have the chance to play these long inaccessible entries in the Rockman EXE series.
They are a bit janky, given their nature of being made for Japanese flip phones running Java, but they really are full fledged games comparable to the GBA games.
They're basically equivalents to a Battle Network 3.5 and 5.5, that's how significant they are.

 

[The Catboy]

Ooooh! I am always happy with more Battle Network games

 

[ZeroFX]

Localization, the team at Rockman EXE Zone are very thorough with keeping translations accurate to the Western English releases in terms of character naming, motivations, speech patterns and nuances, as well as terminology and naming conventions.

This isn't their first time doing a translation, either! They provided a full localization of Rockman EXE 4.5 Real Operation, which takes the added step of incorporating dialogue for special holidays not observed in the Japanese release (as the game features a real-time clock with calendar support).
They also provided a fan translation of the unlocalised Boktai content that was infamously cut from the international releases of Mega Man Battle Network 6, as well as the Rockman Operate Shooting Star; a DS re-release of Mega Man Battle Network 1 featuring new cross-over content and a new scenario based on the Mega Man Star Force series.

Honestly these guys do phenomenal work with all things Battle Network and Star Force, and I'm thrilled to have the chance to play these long inaccessible entries in the Rockman EXE series.
They are a bit janky, given their nature of being made for Japanese flip phones running Java, but they really are full fledged games comparable to the GBA games.
They're basically equivalents to a Battle Network 3.5 and 5.5, that's how significant they are.

Hmm, nice, I've played the exe and ryuusei games in japanese, maybe I'll check these versions when I want to play them again.

 

[MultiKoopa]

fascinating

are the games even remotely good? lol, huge battle network fan, but, y'know

 

[SDA]

That's cool. I hope all the Japan-exclusive cellphone Mega Man games (mainline series) get translated to English as well.

 

[DragonMals]

> You will need to obtain the original Japanese i-αppli game files for Rockman EXE Phantom of Network & Rockman EXE Legend of Network in order to apply the patches.

And how the hell is this even achievable without getting the game through other means? I don't even know anyone that even has the original on them unless they're living in Japan that surprisingly had the game when it was released during that time period.

 

[Marc_LFD]

in todays age with AI tech I am hoping that one day soon we will see english translations of every JP game

Can the AI translate like a human would?

Japanese to English is drastically different and that's why we don't see it happening too often for old games, sometimes it takes year till someone picks it up.

Example... Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butōden.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

Localization or translation?

I really hope you're not trying to slander the work these people are doing because their work is top notch and honestly some of the best and most dedicated I've seen.

 

[Robert Newbie]

I'm always thrilled when these obscure games get a second chance. Preservation, translating, what more can fans ask for?

This reminds me that there's a 2006 mobile version of Seiken Densetsu (Final Fantasy Adventure) that's still lost to time. It looked like a decent remake. I'm hoping it surfaces someday.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

I'm always thrilled when these obscure games get a second chance. Preservation, translating, what more can fans ask for?

This reminds me that there's a 2006 mobile version of Seiken Densetsu (Final Fantasy Adventure) that's still lost to time. It looked like a decent remake. I'm hoping it surfaces someday.

Oh I heard of that, wasn't it like iphone exclusive or something?

 

[Robert Newbie]

Oh I heard of that, wasn't it like iphone exclusive or something?

Funny enough, I think it predated the iPhone by about a year. It was a cell phone "mobile" game, so we're talking bricks and flip phones. I do wonder how well it played, but the art style definitely looked great. I hate to sound negative, but this game might be a tough one to find and preserve, if it isn't backed up somewhere right now.

 

[ShadowOne333]

> You will need to obtain the original Japanese i-αppli game files for Rockman EXE Phantom of Network & Rockman EXE Legend of Network in order to apply the patches.

And how the hell is this even achievable without getting the game through other means? I don't even know anyone that even has the original on them unless they're living in Japan that surprisingly had the game when it was released during that time period.

I know that you know.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

Funny enough, I think it predated the iPhone by about a year. It was a cell phone "mobile" game, so we're talking bricks and flip phones. I do wonder how well it played, but the art style definitely looked great. I hate to sound negative, but this game might be a tough one to find and preserve, if it isn't backed up somewhere right now.

Yeah for sure... its a shame really, though I remember seeing a video in like the past year or so that talked about the original Seiken game. That there was a GBA remake that took heavy liberties then another remake that was possibly for mobile that was more akin to the original looks wise n whatnot but I'm not sure when or where that one was released or if it's similar to the one you're speaking of. Maybe that one should be somewhere?

 

[eyeliner]

Can the AI translate like a human would?

Japanese to English is drastically different and that's why we don't see it happening too often for old games, sometimes it takes year till someone picks it up.

Example... Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butōden.

It can, but the problem is the context. Coming from text with segments separated by button presses, it makes the gathering of sense somewhat difficult.

 

[KingBlank]

From what I've heard, Legend of network might have a better story than some of the main series GBA games.

 

[Robert Newbie]

Yeah for sure... its a shame really, though I remember seeing a video in like the past year or so that talked about the original Seiken game. That there was a GBA remake that took heavy liberties then another remake that was possibly for mobile that was more akin to the original looks wise n whatnot but I'm not sure when or where that one was released or if it's similar to the one you're speaking of. Maybe that one should be somewhere?

To be honest, I think the original Seiken Densetsu has been remade about three or four times. You mentioned the GBA one, Sword of Mana, and I think Adventures of Mana on the Vita was another. Considering how many fans there are of Mana games and Square-Enix products in general, maybe there's a chance it'll surface at some point.