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Before a Japanese-developed game makes it out to the West, it goes through a localization process from in-game text to character designs. The localizers make sure everything makes sense for the intended market. While a lot of the localization remains true to its Japanese counterpart, some things get lost in translation, especially the cover art.
Cover art between Japan and the United States is notorious for having vast discrepancies due to either cultural differences or appealing to the current trend. For example, Japanese cover art tends to be more artistic or cute, American covers tend to lean toward dark, edgy, or downright nonsensical.
7 Mega Man
One of the earlier examples of a different cover for the American market is Mega Man. Known as Rockman in Japan, the cover art for their domestic market shows him alongside the various Robot Master bosses he encounters throughout the game.
The American cover shows a confused-looking individual who has no idea how he ended up there. Holding a gun while trying to look tough, it seems like it was trying to garner the attention of fans of action movies which was at their peak during that time due to titles like Rambo.
6 Yakuza 3
The Japanese cover of Yakuza 3 features series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu staring into the distance surrounded by the Kamurocho lights. Kiryu's stoic look with the cigarette in his mouth completes the crime drama vibe the series is well known for.
In America, Yakuza fans got a cover where Kiryu looks like a lost tourist looking for the nearest washroom. That confused look does not give off a powerful vibe of a powerful crime syndicate. Behind Kiryu's lost face, there is an awkwardly placed Dragon of Dojima tattoo on a red gradient background that completes the awkward cover.
5 Scarlet Nexus
Scarlet Nexus tells the story of Yuito Sumeragi and Kasane Randall as they try to defend their home from mysterious creatures from space known as the Others.
In the Japanese cover, Yuito, Kasane alongside their comrades are shown, while the Western box art has two dark hooded individuals. While it is normal to have the enemies on video game covers, the ones on Scarlet Nexus look very generic. It doesn't scream RPG. The cover could be applied to any other video game out there, it is very similar to Sony's Killzone series.
4 Chrono Cross
While Chrono Cross didn't light the RPG world on fire like its predecessor, Chrono Trigger, it still provided a sense of adventure. Traversing through the seas was a large part of the exploration done in the game. The Japanese cover art captures that mood well. The boat, clouds, and the ocean give a good explanation of what a player should expect.
The cover that was released in America tells a different story. It is just another generic-looking RPG cover that shows the characters in battle position. For anyone picking up Chrono Cross at that time, it could have just been another RPG.
3 Kirby Series
The lovable pink blob Kirby always seems to have a smile on their face regardless of the opposition or situation. So throughout the years, gamers wondered why Kirby always looked so angry on the American cover art.
One of the directors of the series Shinya Kumazaki explains that an angry Kirby would make him more appealing to American audiences, while a cute one attracts the Japanese home market. With the release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Kirby is angry no more, but it still provides the memes and remains the poster child of cover art localization changes.
2 Phalanx
Released in 1991 for the PC and Super Nintendo, Phalanx is a shoot 'em up where the player takes control of a spaceship as it battles its way through the depths of space. While there are other shoot 'em ups from that era such as DonPachi that had a lasting legacy with the genre, this game is notoriously known for the cover art that was released in America.
What does an old man with a banjo have to do with a game about blasting aliens in space? Nothing at all, but it did one thing right, and that is the art cover still manages to spark up a conversation to this day.
1 ICO
Perhaps one of the more infamous examples of where the American cover is significantly worse than its Japanese counterpart is ICO. Ico tells the tale of a young boy aptly named Ico who tries to escape an abandoned castle alongside his companion Yorda. The game later gained a cult following due to its unique narrative approach.
The Japanese (and European) box cover reflects that. Hand drawn by the director (Ueda Fumito) himself, it mirrors the artistic nature of the game. Meanwhile, the American cover erases art in favor of a caricature of a family photo from the early 1990s.