File this under Pretty Cool. Digimon Universe: App Monster, a 2016 Nintendo 3DS game developed as part of the multimedia App Monster initiative, has finally received a full English translation. Of course, it's a fan project and a labor of love.
Never released outside of Japan, Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters was part of an entire Digimon era that missed the boat on that score. Because the anime it's based on, App Monsters, has never been dubbed. (The same thing happened with the later anime Ghost Game, but perhaps the success of Digimon Story Time Stranger and others helped change things, since the ongoing series Beatbreak has a dub.)
raising awareness
There's nothing to say about this. Shoutmon is worth it to the employees who want to help spread awareness among their fellow Digimon fans, and who have invested countless hours to make it happen. Geo led the major translation, graphics editing, programming, text editing and testing. Romsstar assisted with programming, text editing was assisted by Birdboy2000, who participated in testing with Ren D. and Lys T. Fat Cat, and LouLilie worked on the English adaptation of the title logo.
The dubbing website, which includes download links for the English localization patch, can be found here. The site's efforts are described as follows:
“We are proud to announce the final result of our efforts to bring Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters (a 3DS game) to an English-speaking audience. The project began in late May 2025 and was completed in less than a year, in May 2026. The game is fully translated and can be played from start to finish in English on any modded 3DS console or emulator. We would like to thank everyone who helped us complete this work. A huge thank you to everyone who followed from start to finish!”
The results in one year are honestly amazing. I remember how long it took for Xenosaga: Pied Piper to get a translation. Of course, that also involved rebuilding the game from scratch… so it was apples and oranges. However, the Crossbell games in the Kiseki series (Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure) were huge efforts that took a long time to succeed. It later received official localization.
Speaking of which, if you're just getting into localization fan teams 101, Geofront is the group that covered both Trails games. And they also worked on The White Witch and more. They are looking for help from hackers and programmers. So if that's an issue for you, go check it out!
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