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Advance Wars for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance was a surprise hit when it released in September
2001 and, even today, can often still be found on lists of the greatest video games of all
time.
The turn-based tactics game sees you command battling armies in a story involving the nation
of Orange Star and their war against the neighbouring nation Blue Moon.
Now back in 2001, Nintendo was heavily under the impression that a game like Advance Wars
wouldn't sell very well outside of Japan due to its more complicated tactical gameplay.
Due to this, the game was originally planned to be a Japanese exclusive.
However, the developers decided to try and do something about this and make it a little
more accessible to Western players.
From this came about an in-depth tutorial that didn't require players to read the manual
and more easy to understand game mechanics.
This helped to ease Nintendo's concerns and so it was green lit for Western territories.
And, with how popular the game ended up being, it then paved the way for many more games
like it to be released outside of Japan following it.
Furthermore, the game's designer, who is also a designer for the Fire Emblem games, explained
in an interview that it was Advance Wars which convinced Nintendo to release Fire Emblem
in the West 2 years later.
In fact, Advance Wars, which was originally planned to be a Japanese-only game, wouldn't
even be released in Japan for more than 3 years AFTER the Western release.
This was not intentional on Nintendo's part though, and was due to the unfortunate timing
of the game's original scheduled release date and the events of September the 11th.
This led to the game being shelved in Japan whilst sensitivity was still high.
The US on the other hand released the game only 1 day before the events occurred.
Instead, Japan released not just Advance Wars but also its sequel Advance Wars 2: Black
Hole Rising in a dual package in November 2004.
Western countries, however, never got a bundled version and both the first game and the second
game were released separately.
As for the games themselves, some interesting changes can be found to the main characters'
designs outside of Japan.
For example, the character Olaf actually originally looked somewhat similar to Santa Claus in
the Japanese version.
In the English version, his hair was dyed brown and his hat was redesigned.
There's no word on why changes like these were made but Olaf was far from the only character
to get redesigned in the West.
The character Drake was dressed in a pirate-themed outfit in the Japanese version, whereas outside
of Japan he was given more sailor-themed attire.
Kanbei in the Japanese version actually resembled a samurai.
In the English version however, his clothes are based on a Japanese military outfit.
He also interestingly lost the ponytail overseas.
Grit on the other hand wore a cowboy hat in the Japanese release, whilst in the English
version this was changed, as well as having some small alterations made to his jacket.
Some curious changes were also made to Sonja, who wore pink clothes and had glasses over
in Japan.
Over in the West though, her outfit was tinted green, she lost the glasses and she was also
given a hat.
Then there's the changes made to Nell, who showed a little more skin in the original
Japanese release.
For the West, Nell's skirt was lengthened and her sleeveless top was extended so that
it fully covers her arms.
Again, there's no explanation for why these changes were made but it was most likely a
decision based on feeling that these new designs would be something that the West would prefer
and find more enjoyable than the ones used in Japan.
Now, as mentioned earlier, Advance Wars was released in Japan with the second game also
included.
The second Advance Wars game didn't have as many changes as the first but there were still
a few redesigns made, although these were all characters that also appeared in the first
game.
The characters didn't look entirely the same as before though, as you can see with Olaf's
original Japanese design and how he has lost the Santa Claus resemblance somewhat.
Due to his new hat and jacket over in Japan, the English version decided to only dye his
hair brown rather than changing any of his clothes.
Sonja and Grit also returned and, as you can see, Grit lost the cowboy hat again and was
given a new one.
Sonja also lost her glasses overseas and, again, had her outfit's colours changed.
What do you think about these ways that Advance Wars was changed outside of Japan?
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Until next time, thank you for watching!