20 years after it was originally put aside, a lost English version of the PS2 game Kaena has surfaced online in the hands of a video game collector.
If you haven't heard of Kaena before, we don't exactly blame you, as it isn't exactly a project that has generated a ton of attention over the years, with only those who have extensive knowledge of French animation or bizarre Japanese game releases having any chance of actually knowing about it. Nevertheless, it's a pretty fascinating history that apparently dates all the way back to the mid-90s.
According to various sources online, the game was originally envisioned by Chris Delaporte, a French computer graphics artist who previously worked on Amazing Studios' Heart of Darkness, before growing into a cross-media project that also included a CG-animated film.
After years of development, the film eventually came out in 2003, boasting an impressive English voice cast including Kirsten Dunst, Anjelica Huston, Keith David, Tara Strong, John DiMaggio, and Richard Harris (in his final film role). But the game was only ever given a limited Japanese release in 2004, under the publisher Namco, with the English voiceover being dubbed over in Japanese. This is despite Namco also advertising an English release for the game in some video game magazines at the time.
It's not exactly known why the game never came out in the West, but the prevailing theory seems to be that the film's poor box office performance had something to do with it. Regardless, though, it appears that a debug copy of this elusive English version (dated 2003) has now resurfaced, with a collector named Robin Davies sharing his impressive find over on Twitter.
In a thread, Davis posted a summary of the game's history, before posting two video clips demonstrating some of the gameplay and cutscenes.
Elsewhere, he also stated that he intends to share it and wrote "Game preservation is good for us all." So if you vaguely remember reading an ad for Kaena 20 years ago, it seems like you'll soon be able to try it out for yourself, in English, for the very first time.