HeroQuest's Many Languages... many!

[Leander]

It can't be that difficult...however, it would be a bit odd if the Japanese version really had different quests as the rest of the countries had the same quest book.

[drathe]

Either they do have different quests, or someone did a fantastic job of faking it on a couple Japanese Websites.

[knightkrawler]

I think they have different quests.
Someone at hq-cooperation.de uncovered them.
And there's a generic background world, too.

[drathe]

Courtesy of Derfel Link from www.heroscribe.org and the fine fellow at blog.goo.ne.jp/80-cafe, we have scans and images of Japanese HeroQuest!!
The scans are not in printable quality, but click the images of the Instruction Manual and Quest Book to view a full PDF copy of each book!
If anyone can read Japanese, it would be great to have translations of the Quests and reports on any differences in the rules.

[knightkrawler]

Different Goblin icon.
Weird.

[Derfel Link]

Attached are the HeroScribe map files for the japanese HeroQuest, on a first look this seem to be the comparison with the uk version:

01ja-01uk
04ja-04uk
05ja-12uk
08ja-07uk
09ja-09uk (not sure)
12ja-10uk

Others might be the same but it's hard to tell; I've tried some OCR on the text, but image quality is not good enough and I'm afraid any translation will need to be done manually.

Generally, the japanese version shows a ridiculously low number of monsters and traps.

[Leander]

That's what I thought, too...not that many monsters...but maybe they are stronger in general or have multiple body points? An Orc might have 3, a Chaos Warrior 8. LOL

[Daedalus]

In the 11th picture above with the spell cards, there is a Monster Card for the Mummy. The stats are Move 4, Attack 3 , Defend 4, Body Points 1, Mind Points 0. That's on par with the EU monsters.

It's a bit interesting that the box has an MB logo. Seems this copy is on the up and up. The box cover also shows the game as an RPG. I guess easy-to-recognize English letters translate cross-culturally better than a translated word like boardgame.

It reminds me of a scene from Lost in Translation that goes something like this: The still photograpgher for a Suntory whiskey add campaign wants Bill Murry's character, Bob, to inject more of a James Bond verve into his look. Bob: "...more like Sean Connery." Photographer: "No. The good one. Roger Moore."

[TMU]

That Swedish Edition appears pretty unique. I wonder what the odds are of finding a copy or someone who owns a copy of it are?

http://www.huuto.net/kohteet/hero-quest-lautapeli--2-lisaosaa/248857172
There's one in Finnish auction place. Finland is bilingual country, Finnish and Swedish, so...
I'm thinking of buying that, all parts are fine exept for two broken swords, broken candles, torture racks levers broken and weapon rack in two pieces.

[knightkrawler]

Here's the link to the scans of the Japanese game system materials. All of them.
It's been confirmed there were no expansions.

Thanks to HQ-Killy from Flint's German hq-cooperation.de forum we're allowed to share and do with them what we want.
So, up with it, drathe!

HQ-Killy made contact and got these scans, from which he will translate into German.
My task then is to translate into English, if nobody's faster.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B47Van3P5U9YUnA5YkQ3QnJLbVU/edit?usp=sharing&pli=1