Pieces

Pieces
Also known as: Jigsaw Party (JP) Developer: Prism Kikaku Publishers: Hori (JP), Atlus (US) Platform: SNES Released in JP: July 22, 1994 Released in US: December 1994 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has regional differences.

The first in a couple of puzzle games from Prism Kikaku (later to become Nippon Ichi Software), this game was also one of the Pieces to make it over to the US, courtesy of Atlus.

Get it? ...Pieces?

Build Dates

Two different build dates are present starting at 0xFF00.

Version	Build Date
Japanese	[LINK]Fri Mar 25 09:10:40 1994 [ROMW]Thu Mar 31 10:46:43 1994
US	[LINK]Tue Sep 06 11:35:30 1994 [ROMW]Fri Sep 09 09:17:06 1994

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	US

The Sea Queen gained a bra in the US version. The characters below the title were also shifted around, due to the expanded copyright statement. The background is brighter in the US version, and, the very typical "Press Button" instead of "Push Button".

Japan	US

Tinker Bellganoff shows up in Jigsaw Party to assemble the latter part of the title out of puzzle pieces. Since the US version's title is only made out of a single word, Tinker instead holds up a puzzle piece depicting... herself, and flies away with it.

1P vs CPU

To do: Removed/localized onomatopoeia in competitive difficulty select Different selection of puzzles in competitive mode

Revengeful Ryoko

Japan	US

Ryoko gives the middle finger when she loses in the Japanese version- a gesture that might make sense for a ghost upset at losing a heated round of competitive jigsaw puzzling, but perhaps less so if you're a localizer conscious of imagery that might offend a US audience.

Sea Queen

Japan	US

The Sea Queen's other appearances in the game continue the trend of giving her additional cover, in addition to localizing the "O-hohoho" to a "Ha Ha Ha".

Ending

Japan	US

Once again, the Sea Queen gets some blue up-top.

Credits

Some Japanese names in the credits were romanized for the US version, and many that already were gained lower-case lettering:

Japan	US
PROGRAM
SHINICHI	Shinichi
べつくん おりんだ	Bekkun Orinda
GRAPHIC DESIGN
スウローズV	Swallows V
アレク	Alec
MICRONYAN	Micronyan
すいか	Suika
SOUND COMPOSE・PROGRAM	SOUND COMPOSER・PROGRAM
のぶゆき	Nobuyuki
LEADER
YOSHITO OHGA	Yoshito Ohga
SUB LEADER
JUNICHI OSHIMA	Junichi Oshima
SUB LEADER TURBO
とみざわ じゅん	Tomizawa Jun
SPECIAL THANKS
オジャマムシ	Ojamamushi
おじゃまむし ノム	Ojamamushi Nomu
IKECHAN	Ikechan
MAX	Max
KKS-IMAI
IWAZA-H
シーKンプシャー・マコト?	Shi-Knpusher・Makoto?
TSUKA-T
しはる	Shiharu
ラーゲ MASTER KEN	RA-GE MASTER KEN
MASSIVE BASSER K-TA
M-OZAWA
IM MASTER ACHO-	IM MASTER ACHO
さんきち	Sankichi
超王子様	Cho-O・Kosama
GOOD-P!	Good-P!
DIRECTOR
きたやん	Kitayan
PRODUCER
SADAO HASHIGUCHI	Sadao Hashiguchi

Girls/Animation Puzzles

Perhaps the most notable localization change made is the replacement of an entire genre. The Japanese version features the "Girls" genre, consisting of illustrations of, well, girls. Likely due to a combination of the heavily anime-styled artwork as well as some of the puzzles containing somewhat risque poses, it was entirely replaced with the "Animation" genre in the US version, which features more American styled artwork. Atlus even managed to sneak the Rockin' Kats cover art in there.

To do: The Animation puzzles have 8 pixels missing from the top and right Do the animation puzzles other than Rockin' Kats come from somewhere else?

Puzzle 1

夏 (Summer)	Rockin' Kats

Puzzle 2

らくがき (Scribble)	Monstrous Appetite

Puzzle 3

うたたね (Take a Nap)	Grid Iron

Puzzle 4

青空 (Blue Sky)	Special Forces

Puzzle 5

ファニーフェイス (Funny Face)	Wild Wacky West

Puzzle 6

放課後 (After School)	Chillin'

Puzzle 7

夜の街 (Night City)	Vacation in Paradise

Puzzle 8

リフレッツュ (Refresh)	Beasts of Prey

Art Gallery

After the credits roll in the Japanese version this screen will show up, telling you to enter B, X, Y, A on the Hori copyright screen.

Doing so will cause the Hori screen's background to change color and bring you to an Art Gallery mode. Selecting the arrows allow you to view all pages of the game's puzzles, split into genres.

None of this appears in the US version- after the credits roll the game goes back to the title screen, and attempting to enter the code on the Atlus screen will get you nowhere.