Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage

To do: Bonus content: Who is that mascot in the pocket in that one bonus art? The Japanese-only bonus/omake content needs an unofficial translation from a willing volunteer. If you would like someone who knows the game to help with this effort, contact User:SushiKishi. Regional differences: How does the Japanese script use "ESPION-AGE-NTS" in-universe? Mostly as it relates to the following question: Why change the name for the logo, box art, and marketing purposes then use the original name "in-universe?"

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Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage, or "ESPION-AGE-NTS" as it's known in Japan, is a spy game with menu-based, indirect gameplay. The player leads a team to conduct "espionage" using a team of up to four "agents," hence the portmaneau in the Japanese name. The gameplay consists of giving agents orders and managing them through obstacles and objectives as they automatically follow said orders, completing missions as simple as stealing artwork to as complex as breaking into Fort Knox II.

Regional Differences#

While the game received a name change along with its English localization, the team retains the name of "Espion-Agents" in the English localization, using title casing and a single hyphen instead of the full-caps double-hyphenated Japanese styling. The name change only applied to the game's marketing -- the name, logo, box art, and the like.

There are some differences in bonus content between the two versions, as detailed below. This is mostly related to either content cut from the US release, or swapping out the logos where appropriate.

Bonus Content#

Inserting the GD-ROM in a PC reveals a computer-readable segment containing a few generic text files, as well as a folder called PRESENTS that includes bonus artwork and comic panels. This content varies quite a bit between the Japanese and US versions of the game, both in terms of content available and the presentation of the content in common.

Bonus Art#

The bonus content includes dozens of images, including stylized character showcases, stand-alone character portraits, group shots, and more. A series of character bio "slides," which were already in English, were not included on the English version of the game. An image of a currently unidentified mascot was also cut from the US release.

In addition to the removed content, some (but not all) images are in a lower resolution in the US release. All images are provided in both bitmap and JPG format on the disc; the images appear identical between formats, though there may be minor differences due to compression or format differences. Due to the lack of differences, only the JPGs are being showcased.

Japanese Version	US Version
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Bonus Comics#

These comics are only included with the Japanese version of the game. As such, no official translation or localization exists. However, the file names needed to be romanized for the purpose of uploading them to the website, and because the pages are interconnected, it would be helpful to have names for the pages. As of now, however, any translations or descriptions are based on game knowledge, context clues, very limited Japanese, and DeepL-based machine translation.

Omake Page and File/Panel Names	Description
	Vlagimir is leading the kids, Archangel and Kleopatra, through Kowloon II, one of the mission locations in the game. This mission is difficult due to numerous pitfalls and collapsing or retracting bridges which can cut off your progress, or worse, send you tumbling to the floors below. In the comic, everyone is holding on to strings, ropes, or something similar in order to stay attached to each other, not unlike a train or mountain climbers.
	This comic page seems to be based on the same base screenshot as "Train Play," however the dialogue is different and all of the rope is now missing. Vlagimir is yelling "FAITO!" (or, literally, "FIGHT!"), as if a warcry, but a fluent Japanese reader would be required to piece together the context outside of that one line.
	Luria waits for Falloux, Archangel, and Kleopatra to cross a narrow ledge in the Kowloon II mission. In the actual mission, Luria's extra speed from her roller skates lets her leap over gaps like this. She appears to be waiting, quite impatiently, for her teammates to catch up to her. This may be a continuation from "Train Play" and "Passionate Dad"
	Falloux, who looks upset, stands with Ling, both of whom are with Archangel near a vending machine. Kleopatra, in her side panel, appears to have been caught by a guard.
	The filename reads literally as "Papa, Mama..." This panel appears to be the follow up to to "Buy me juice..." The guard evidentally escorted Kleopatra to the rest of the team.
	Ling, with Archangel standing VERY close to her, is in a room with Kleopatra. There appears to be a heart emoji flying out of him. The fourth member, Falloux, in in a separate part of the art gallery than his party members.
	Sanders, Ling, and Luria are in what appears to be a bedroom. The "dialogue box" at the top suggests this is the maid's room. The fourth party member, Archangel, is very well separated from the rest of the team.
	This appears to be a continuation of the story from "We're in trouble!" Archangel's point of view now takes the main "screen," and he seems upset and possibly lost. In the smaller side panels, Saunders, Luria, and Ling appear to be outside, having an interesting conversation. The party members and mission location match that of "Pinch" and "Ugh," though we're now in a separate part of the stage. A fluent reader would be needed to piece together enough context to determine if the story connects between these panels.
	Archangel appears to be walking in on a heated argument including Saunders, Luria, and Ling.
	Archangel appears to be fleeing the scene of the argument he walked in on in "Ah!"

References#