Playing Russian & Polish versions in English

Thanks NRieh!
It's good to know I have an alternative in case everything else fails. I wish it worked like with inquisition but nooooo.... anyway I'm grateful for the info. Also angry we have to go through all this pain :/

Heya, any luck with it? If it matters, I was able to change the audio and text of Titanfall 2, the other Origin game by following this guide -

Could a similiar thing be done for Andromeda?

'Tell me you have something'(c) Commander Shepard @ Mordin


Ok, a possible solution.

Suggested by this man. This one had been originally used to bring Russian subs into English, but it is REPORTED TO BE WORKING PLEASE TRY it vice versa AND CONFIRM here!

- Reg-editing.

1. Download the files from my link in the OP, I've added the new file - original English .exe 
2. run regedit windows utility
3. Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\BioWare\Mass Effect Andromeda
4. Change Locale variable from ru_RU (or PL) to en_US
5. Do the same with
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Origin Games\1019025
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Origin Games\1019025_oa
6. Run Origin & MEA
7. Check your in-game language settings

It would be a good idea to turn off the autoupdate first and (probably) to log into offline mode. Author says that online mode is also working.

My registry (win 8) has another string for the Andromeda, which is 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\BioWare\Mass Effect Andromeda', author does not mention it at all, but it's probably worth editing too. 



Considering how much had they changed, I would not put my life on the answer. Your game is as good as any regular Origin purchase. Once you activate it - you own it, and  you get full access to DLCs.

ME3 DLCs used to be region-free from the start (they had used the language from your in-game settings), DAI - I've only bought 'Trespasser' for my 'native Mexican' game, and I did it via VPN (to avoid any issues, the price had been same anyway - if not cheaper). MEA? Hell if I know what they do to us this time. 

Also I don't have a HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Origin Games\1019025_oa, but editing the rest didn't help, am I missing something? I am simply a lost lamb in the slaughterhouse of EA's foreign market policy. Oh why couldn't ME just be on steam...

Didn't work for me too. But I noticed that the only file that really makes difference is ru.toc (or pl.toc) in the ../patch/Win32/loctext/ folder. If it's present, I can rename any other *.sb file to ru.sb or change paths in the original file and the game still runs. If I just rename any other file to ru.sb, I don't get any text while if I use the original I still get Russian even if I changed the paths inside to en/fr/es/pl etc.

If I change ru.toc to any other *.toc file, the game crashes on startup.

Changing files in the Data folder doesn't influence the game at all, even when I removed ru.toc and ru.sb. Game still works.

I opened *.toc files with HEX editors but I don't see what I can change there. They look encrypted.

Also, the structure of en.sb file is different in many parts from ru.sb.

Doesn't seem to work for me. Added/replaced files, edited the registry, game autoupdate is off, but no text language selection appeared in-game.

I see, thank you.

guess I'll wait for cdkeys.com to release deluxe ed then, if they ever do. and worry about future dlcs when they come out.

not really sold on this whole vpn thing. heard contradicting opinions about it, like the payment getting through just fine and game ending up in english, but people were unable to play the game without the program running. not sure what would cause that, as far as I understand it's only needed to put the right item into the "basket". unless the date was somehow what was causing the issue? bought a version that was playable on 21st, but their country released the game on 23rd so origin blocked the game if they tried to play it without vpn before 23rd. could that be a thing? I wonder.

gotta say, never tried it myself. my solution for region-locked games before was to just buy the game normally and screw that. don't download it via origin, then torrent the same version of the game but in english and just play offline. never really cared about playing online anyway.

but yeah, that assumes the game got cracked already. and if you're really nitpicky it may not be fully legal for you... dunno why it wouldn't be tho, as long as you download the same version you bought (if you only bought base game then only torrent base game, obviously). you have a proof of purchase so...

Had you looked into game 'launch options'? That's where the game starting language is defined. It should also be possible to change them in-game.

From what I can see, this regedit trick does work for EN-->RU, but NOT vice versa (for now).
The very last thing to try - is to entirely remove the trial exe from your folder (if you have it). Little hope, I know, but it's not like we have something to lose, right?

I'm going to add that regedit thing into OP, in case some people need to add RU subs later. I'd appreciate someone linking th Russian exe\folders to put it there.


As the owner of two 'global' games on my Ru-Origin, I can 100% confirm that it's not true. If you have English (global) version tied to your account - it's not going anywhere, it's English and it's..well, 'global'. VPN only defines the IP for your 'location' when you buy it.

Technically it's 100% same as buying a global disk elswhere (which had been recommended here by EA support couple of pages ago), or buying a key. Just more expensive and with no 3rd party retailers involved.

Now Steam is the different story, they have all kind of flags defining where the game version can or can not be sold\gifted\activated. They use those flags instead of cutting out the languages, to keep the regional pricing within the regions. E.g. if someone buys cheap CIS version via VPN 'from Russia' on Steam, they are dead-locked with having VPN on all the time (that's if Steam does not detect proxy connection and\or ban them for good). I can't gift anything to my EU friends, because most of the games can not be activated in their countries. Origin is not known for its complex logic. Hell, it took them 10 years to add a 'gift' option, lol!

DAI .toc localisation files weren't encrypted, that's why it worked (and you had to edit them). I have it right now on my PC and I compared the files. It's the same in NFS Rivals iirc, but many Frostbite games have them encrypted. Someone figured out that encryption for BF3, but I tried using the method and it doesn't work with Andromeda, apparently it didn't work with BF1 too, so they changed the key and/or file structure back then. Besides you can see in the file header that version is changed.

I get ya. was just saying I saw a few people complaining they couldn't launch the game without vpn. whatever the reason for the issue was it's no big deal, but still interesting why it occurs for some people.

gonna admit tho, that -at least polish prices- are quite cheaper on kinguin/cdkeys than on origin actually. A+ for that, you get whatever language you want AND you pay less. you just have to remember that buying directly via origin is generally safer.

I personally don't like steam nor origin. both cause more headaches than it's worth it. sticking to gog for as many games as I can, if they're steam/origin exclusive then, oh well, bring on the headaches. but I'm definitely not gonna complain that at least origin still has some workarounds for region locks.

Superb logic on EA part. They punish Poles and Russians with region locks yet global keys on shady reseller sites are 20% cheaper than the equivalent of 60 dollar premium I'm expected to drop in Poland on Origin.

I just can't wrap my head around the absurdity of this situation.

Righto, so I've found a way to make it work.
It's something of a last resort and not permanent but hey, I no longer have to suffer russian text.
Simply ask a friend of yours with an EN game to let you use their origin account, log in, it's gonna do the file checking and then you'll be able to play in english. Go offline and block both origin and ME:A in firewall and done. not perfect, no mp, but a solution nonetheless.