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I downloaded the Japanese ROM of Arabian Dream Scheherazade (which is the game that was made into The Magic of Scheherazade for the US), and holy freakin', OMG!! We definitely got the better end of the bargain here...





The title screen looks different, and it's rather nice, but don't let it fool you. It's the only thing that could be considered better than the America version (though I like the calligraphy of the American version's title block more.) The rest is downhill from here.





The hero's sprite is totally fucked up. I don't mind cutesy things sometimes, but that just looks really bad. And he's not animated anywhere near as well as the American version. He has a very stiff two frame walk. And no feather on the turban to flop around.

And what gives with the trees? They look like they're disintegrating!





Slightly-different townspeople sprites. They're more cartoony. I could live with either these versions or the American versions.





Overworld enemies have slightly-different sprites, too. The giant wasps looked the same, though. One thing I noticed is that in the American game, the overworld music doesn't change for all enemies. It doesn't change for the wasps or fish, only the Thieves, Grim Reaper, Djinni, Ifrit, and if you disturb the Sandbeasts. In the Japanese version, the music changes for ALL enemies, even the wasps and fish.

Speakin of the music, it's all completely different, too, and man does it suck! The opening title theme is just a generic-sounding slow NES song. Nowhere near as attention-grabbing as that "BAHM, ba-ba-ba-BAHM-BAHHHMMM..." (etc.) title song of the US version. And the rest of the music ranges from bad, to annoying, to forgettable. The first town did have the Shop Theme from the US game but it's used as the TOWN music. The shop music itself is different. It seems like every place that used the 3-Step Waltz (Time Door, when talking to someone), has no music at all. The sound effects are bad, too, nowhere near on the same level of quality as the US version. It appears to be missing the crashing waves, and the battle sound effects are lame. The sound effect for picking up a coin was directly ripped off of Super Mario Bros. They're identical.

I wonder if that's what that Wikipedia article meant when it said the music was done by a concert pianist named Kume. Maybe Kume did the Japanese version and Neon Kidd did the American version.



Here is a battle scene. (The music here is particularly annoying.) I'm guessing those are what was made into the Pandarm and Pharyad enemies in the US version. They're definitely not drawn as well and nowhere near as colorful. They look 2-dimensional, like paper cut-outs.



This game is practically like a whole different game. Even the layout of the first world is almost completely different. I found an MP Star. In the American version, there is no MP Star in the first world.

I know a lot of times people complain about the changes made from the Japanese versions of games to the American, but I can honestly say that Culture Brain definitely made these changes for the better.

LOL! I was just trying to think of some way to describe it and that's better than anything I came up with. He looks way too young and happy for the scripted role.



THIS, I can believe is a hero had been on many adventures and had fought demons and confronted a powerful wizard. THIS, I can believe has a romantic relationship with a princess.


THIS...I cannot. This looks like a little kid on ritalin who was just let loose in a toy shop.