When Sony’s first PlayStation console hit living rooms in 1994, it ushered in new ways for video game developers to tell stories: dazzling 3D graphics, pristine 2D sprite work, CD audio and vast troves of storage space thanks to ditching cartridges in favor of CDs. Gaming visionaries like Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii used those tools to level up the epic tales that hooked millions of players around the world on a once-niche genre: Japanese role-playing games, or JRPGs. These games were written in Japanese, and their worldwide success hinged on ensuring their stories — from plot beats to side quests, inside jokes and menu text — were just as enjoyable for players outside of Japan.