After translating one cult PlayStation game after another, fan translation group Hilltop Works announces its most obscure game yet: 'a hidden gem of the highest caliber'

In November, fan translation group Hilltop Works released an English patch for Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 (aka My Summer Vacation 2), a beloved adventure/life sim that fans have been eager to play in English for more than 20 years. After that release Hilltop wasted no time leaping into its next project, which was announced today with an amusing trailer. Hilltop wasn't kidding when teasing it as a "hidden gem"—I sure hadn't heard of it myself.

"Rowdy Princess is a game by venerated game creator Shoji Masuda, the writer and director of cult darling Linda Cubed, all-time classic Tengai Makyō II: Manjimaru, and the beloved Oreshika series," Hilltop tweeted alongside the announcement. Hilltop went on to elaborate that translator Cargodin "has been championing this game for over 10 years," while graphics editing work is being handled by the same contributor who did a fantastic job with the legions of texture edits required for Boku no Natsuyasumi 2.

In an interview I did with Hilltop Works back in November, Hilltop said that he wants every game he does "to completely shock people and show them something they didn't even know they wanted, but here it is." He would only hint at Rowdy Princess at the time, but said that it's "one of the least popular, the most secret, underground games" they've done, and that it's a "tragedy" how unknown it is.

"It is the most exciting game that I’ve ever worked on," Hilltop added.

If you're a certain sort of JRPG fan, you may be excited to hear that Rowdy Princess's character designs are by Kohime Ohse, who also designed the characters in some early entries of the beloved Atelier series. Others may be excited to hear that it has a pretty unconventional battle system, in which your relationships with your party members apparently affect their performance in battle in lieu of leveling up. Take a look, y'all.

There's no word from Hilltop Works on when the translation will be completed, but you can follow the group on Patreon for monthly updates as they progress through Rowdy Princess's localization.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).