The previously untranslated, Japan-only, Germs Nerawareta Machi (or, Germs: the Targeted Town in English) has always been a bit of a holy-grail for us PS1 nerds. An open-world, horror-tinged adventure game that looks like someone gave David Cronenberg a PlayStation devkit, Germs has the same haunted appeal as other spooky PS1 curiosities like LSD: Dream Simulator or Mizzurna Falls. But thanks to its text heavy gameplay and obtuse progression, Germs has long remained an unplayable mystery to English-only players.
That is, until now! Thanks to the hacking and translation efforts of grundo1561, Germs is now fully playable for all. Built off the back of an older Spanish translation from 2021, Grundo themselves warns the player in the hack’s text file that some dialogue may appear clunky or out-of-context. Still, for a game that looks like a total trip to begin with, I think we can manage a slightly wonky translation.