Segagaga director addresses fans’ call for an English version of Sega’s bizarre Japan-exclusive Dreamcast RPG 

In its short lifespan, many unusual and iconic games were released outside Japan on Sega’s Dreamcast, including Shenmue, Space Channel 5, Jet Set Radio and Seaman. Segagaga, a strange “Sega simulation game” that parodies the videogame industry, was one of the last titles to be released for the Dreamcast in March 2001. The critically praised Dreamcast swan song never made it outside Japan, but that hasn’t stopped it gaining a cult following of overseas fans. On September 11 2024, Segagaga’s director Tez Okano addressed queries from fans who would desperately like to play the bizarre RPG in English one day. 

In a series of X posts, Okano looked back on the development of Segagaga and revealed that he would love to see the game get an English release after all these years. Furthermore, he expressed that he would like to be involved in the project. However, Okano stresses that whoever wanted to take on the task would have to approach Sega to get permission.  

In Segagaga, the player steps into the shoes of Sega Taro, a young man who must save Sega from losing to their rival DOGMA. The game clearly parodies the real-life console wars between Sega’s Dreamcast and Sony’s PS2, and it goes full-out with satirizing the game industry. Sega employees have been locked inside the company building for years, turning into mutants due to the sheer amount of work stress. Taro must conquer each RPG dungeon-like development studio, “fighting” employees by hurling insults. If he wins the battle, the employee will join him, if he fails, he will lose a month of development time.  

In the studio management sim part of the game, the player gets to assign employees they have rescued to different game dev jobs depending on their skills. They can also choose whether to have their dev teams make a small number of high-quality games or churn out shovelware in the hopes of generating some quick cash. Balancing time, money and output so that DOGMA doesn’t run Sega out of the game market is key. 

As Tez Okano mentions above, translating and re-releasing the craziness that is Segagaga would not be an easy task. The rights would likely be a complicated matter. Although made in-house by Sega, the game features parodies and characters from loads of different games that launched on Sega consoles throughout the company’s long history. Issues with rights to specific characters, music and sequences could make Segagaga a tricky game to bring back. 

Recently, Okano has been sharing even more behind-the-scenes information on Segagaga’s development, including how he made it in secret, as “it was highly likely to be stopped if shown to many people.” Those who are interested can read more on Okano’s X account. His studio, Huga, is currently working on Final Re:Quest The Movie, a pixel art film set in an old-school RPG style world.