This NES horror JRPG spent 32 years as lost media, but once it was preserved it only took 33 days to get a complete fan translation

Back in November, we reported on the unexpected discovery and unofficial release of Splatterworld, a JRPG spin-off of the horror-themed beat-'em-up series Splatterhouse. Originally scheduled for release on the Japanese Famicom in 1993, it seems unlikely that this game ever would've been officially localized for NES even if it hadn't been canceled before launch, but don't tell that to the romhackers who've already given us a complete fan translation patch of a game that would've been considered lost media just one month ago.

"Just shy of five weeks after the initial ROM dump became available (33 days, to be precise) we now have a complete translation patch for the game," fan translation group Aeon Genesis says in its announcement of Splatterworld's translation patch.

It's impressively short work, especially given how little was known about Splatterworld up until the ROM's unofficial release this past Halloween. Its name wasn't even documented online until 2024, when a promotional tape featuring a bit of info about the game was archived by a Japanese Famicom researcher. When we covered the ROM's release, I speculated that it would probably be quite some time before we got a fan translation, but in this instance I'm very happy to be wrong.

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We did a thing! My first RPG translation is 1: Of an unreleased game, 2: in one of my favorite franchises, and 3: with a rom hacker that partially inspired me getting into translation in the first place. Super proud to have helped bring this out in *checks notes* just over a month!
— @rahanakero.bsky.social (@rahanakero.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-12-03T22:27:07.442Z

Splatterworld is an example of, perhaps, the rarest gift that game preservation can provide – a damn-near complete, fully playable version of a game that never actually made it to market in its time. The fact that it's something as interesting as a JRPG spin-off of a beloved-but-oft-forgotten beat-'em-up series filled with tributes to classic horror media is just icing on the cake.

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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.