File this under pretty cool. Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters, a 2016 Nintendo 3DS game developed as part of the App Monsters multimedia initiative, has finally received a full English translation. It is of course a fan project and a labor of love.
Never released outside of Japan, Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters was part of an entire era of Digimon that missed the boat on that score, as the anime it's based around—App Monsters—never received a dub. (The same thing happened with the subsequent anime, Ghost Game, but perhaps the success of Digimon Story Time Stranger and other fare helped turn things around, as the ongoing series Beatbreak has a dub.)
To raise awareness
There isn't much to say about this one. I want to help spread awareness to my fellow Digimon fans, and it's worth a shoutmon to the staff who put countless hours into the cause. Geo-guided main translation, graphics editing, programming, text editing and testing. Romsstar helped with programming, while text editing was supported by birdboy2000, who also participated in testing along with Ren D. and Lys T. Fat Cat worked on additional translation, and LouLilie did the English adaptation of the title logo.
The dub's website, which includes a download link for the English localization patch, is available here. Here's what the site has to say for its efforts:
“We are proud to present the final result of the effort to bring Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters (the 3DS game) to English-speaking audiences. The project began in late May 2025 and finished in just under a year, in May 2026. The game is fully translated and playable in English from start to finish on a modded DS console or a remastered DS console. to the end, as well as to anyone who followed it from start to finish!”
A year turnaround is honestly amazing. I remember how long it took for Xenosaga: Pied Piper to get its translation, even though it also meant redoing the game from scratch, so… apples and oranges. But the Crossbell games from the Kiseki series – Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure – were Herculean efforts that took a while to get through. They have since received official localizations as well.
Speaking of which, if you're just getting into localization fandom 101, Geofront is the group that tackled the two Trails games. And they've also worked on The White Witch and more. They're looking for help from hackers and programmers, so if that floats your boat, check them out!
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