Hello, I was genuinely surprised by the sudden release of Warcraft II Remastered. On top of that, I couldn’t resist buying it due to the special discount available exclusively in Korea. Thank you!
About 25 years ago, when Warcraft II Battle.net Edition was released, I purchased the boxed Korean version of the game. Back in the DOS era, playing games over PC communication, modems, or cable connections was almost unheard of in Korea. It wasn’t until StarCraft was released and PC cafés became popular that internet access and network gameplay became widely available. I remember seeing advertisements through Battle.net banners during my military service, which sparked my anticipation of truly enjoying multiplayer games.
(Of course, I didn’t expect that the sales in Korea would be so low. ^^)
While enjoying the remastered version of Warcraft II, there was one thing I was looking forward to that sadly wasn’t included: localized manual documents.
The manual booklet that came with the 1995 DOS version wasn’t all that appealing due to its rough translation. However, the booklet included with the 1999 Battle.net Edition was much better organized, helping players understand Blizzard’s world-building to a certain extent. I had that booklet as well, but due to certain circumstances, I no longer have it.
When World of Warcraft was released in 2004, it helped consolidate the lore of Warcraft. It allowed fans to appreciate the stories of heroes like Thrall, Arthas, and the Stormrage brothers. However, many self-proclaimed Korean Warcraft fans are actually not very familiar with the lore or stories from Warcraft I and II.
These days, people can understand the Warcraft universe and enjoy the storylines through YouTube videos. But for many Korean fans, this retro game is remembered as “the game where you cast Bloodlust with Ogre-Mages” as a nostalgic memory. While the StarCraft series, benefiting from the success of PC cafés, flourished in Korea with a large fanbase, and subsequent games like Warcraft III and Diablo II became beloved classics over the next two decades, Blizzard games released before the PC café era were only known to passionate fans of the company. Even when I didn’t own a personal computer, I would purchase the games just to read the manuals, dreaming of one day being able to play them.
The remastered edition includes a restored PDF of the original booklet, which shows the same attention to detail in game quality as back in the day. However, it was disappointing to see that it was not the Korean-translated booklet I used to read as a child.
The improved manual from 1999, compared to the 1995 version, appeared to have gone through quality translation checks. Unfortunately, due to low sales, the game eventually transitioned from the boxed version to a jewel CD case for inventory clearance. I even used to take pride in being one of the few who owned a Korean manual for Warcraft II.
In this day and age, providing translated manuals for different regions shouldn’t be a significant development cost. Even AI-assisted translations can now produce relatively natural text, but I hope Blizzard could go a step further to provide translations that align with the expanded universe established after World of Warcraft.
Currently, the Battle Chest edition of this remaster has not been released in Korea, and I hope Blizzard takes a little more care to include a Korean manual based on language settings when it becomes available.
Back in the DOS days, there was even a Korean-dubbed version, though it was completely omitted in the Battle.net Edition, so I wasn’t expecting it in this remaster. However, the remastered version has been released in a partially “Koreanized” form. It would be wonderful if the audio could also be localized, but for now, I just hope to see the localized booklet from my memories so I can show my children that nearly 30 years ago, such amazing games were being created.