Imports Puzzle Me - Enlighten Me....

[Asylum Seeker]

Now I know that a lot of people are into collecting imports from Japan but my question would be WHY unless of course:

A) You can read Japanese
B) You are doing it only for the money and have no intention of playing the games
C) You are a masochist

So can anyone enlighten me as to why I should even entertain collecting stuff in a foreign language?

[digitalpress]

Personally I collect Japanese imports only for games that I DON'T need to read Japanese on. And to tell you the truth, that's the vast majority lately. Shooters, platformers, music games, driving games... just about everything but strategy games and RPG's... rarely do you need any grasp of the Japanese language.

And some of my favorite games are imports. Tobal 2, Pepsiman, Guitar Freaks, Beatmania, Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, Manhunter... not a bit of Japanese was needed in any of them.

Now if you're SPECIFICALLY asking about RPG's well then I have no clue. I DON'T bother with those.

[Achika]

I have yet to find a cooking game released in the US in english.

[buttasuperb]

Lots of good fighters and shooters are import only, especially on the saturn and the dc.

[Captain Wrong]

Lots of good fighters and shooters are import only, especially on the saturn and the dc.

Yep. Shmups rarely make the trip across the ocean. Hell, the arcade boards don't even make it over here very often.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I get imports of stuff that interests me - retro collections that aren't released in the US, games tied to anime like Space Battleship Yamato (http://www.thelogbook.com/pf/yamato1/) and Gatchaman (http://www.thelogbook.com/pf/gatch/) that I happen to like, foreign-only updates like Hyper Crazy Climber, and that sort of thing. I don't get Japanese imports to resell - I get 'em, like I do any other game I collect, to play.

Speaking only for myself, that's the only valid reason I can find to collect games - to play 'em. I don't just want to leave them sitting on a shelf. Now, sadly, the realities of time, work, and real life leave a lot of my collection sitting on a shelf or in a drawer anyway, but I do like to play the games whenever possible.

Other than that, I'm convinced that after playing a sufficient number of imports for a sufficient amount of time, I'll turn Japanese. I really think so. :P

[ventrra]

There's no need to read much Japanese in the games I own:
Gradius (famicom) shooter
Sailor Moon S (Super Famicom) Fighting
Sailor Moon (Playstation) Fighting
Just don't try to make sense of the instruction manuals :D

Of course, the Sailor Moon games were never released in the U.S..

[Tetsu]

Blasting aliens, dodging bullets, and kicking ass: truly the international language.

[Asylum Seeker]

So I guess what you guys are saying is that I am missing out eh? So if I want to play imports on my PAL DC then what exactly do I need apart from the games?

[Nature Boy]

I'm with Asylum on this one: even if it's a Racing game, not being able to read even the title screen bothers me.

I've still thought about importing and it's not for me. The costs are high (if you guys/gals can enlighten some of us on how to avoid the costs this would be a great time/place), and there are so many domestic releases I don't have that paying the price doesn't appeal to me. I'm okay with the fact that Japan gets better stuff than we do.

[maxlords]

Well, I, like everyone else, collect only imports that I can play...oes that either don't need any explanation, like shooters and action games, or ones with translation guides that are kinda fun even without being about to read what's on the screen, like Y's IV and Legend of Xanadu 2.

The thing is, some are in English too! :) Occasionally, you'll buy an import and most everything will be in English...a nice bonus! But over half the games made never make it to an English translation, so for some stuff, it's the ONLY way to go.

[bargora]

You will at least have to circumvent the regional lockout. A North America DC can do this if you use any one of a number of boot discs, such as Cheats 'n' Codes. Since both North America and Japan use the NTSC standard, defeating the lockout is enough to do it for me.

In your case, while a boot disc should beat the lockout, I'm not entirely sure what happens to the image when you play an NTSC game in your PAL DC using your PAL TV. You might see black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, but I might be thinking of what happens when you view a PAL game on a NTSC TV.

The people at Videogamedepot.com have always been helpful answering my questions regarding imports. Information about importing and an e-mail link to send videogamedepot.com questions is on this page:

http://www.videogamedepot.com/shop/help/questions.asp#Imports

And I agree that you are missing out by not importing. I almost always get the North American release of a game (if there is one) rather than the JP import, but I still have way more JP than NA games for my Saturn.

[WiseSalesman]

I've been importing for awhile, and I, like everyone else that has posted here, simply don't bother with any game that requires storyline.

Although, now that I speak marginal japanese (and am continuing to study it), I find loading up Prikura Daisakusen and translating the title screen and instructions to be very fascinating.

[Captain Wrong]

The costs are high (if you guys/gals can enlighten some of us on how to avoid the costs this would be a great time/place.)

Not all imports are pricey. When they are new, they usually are, and if we're talking Saturn Shmups they tend to be expensive (really expensive!) The shmup people are nuts though :P

But you can pick up a lot of good fighters for decent money if you look around. It's been my expirence that they aren't too difficult to find either. I think a lot of people imported fighters for the Saturn and there are a lot of them out there. I don't think I've paid more than $20 for a Saturn fighter (though I don't have anything too obscure) which I think is a reasonable price.

I guess it depends on what you call expensive too. I got Battle Garegga for $70 and felt I got a pretty good deal. But I also got Daytona USA for DC for $9 before it came out stateside (of course I couldn't use it for netplay, baah!) Even talking newer stuff, Ikaruga was like $60 I think? That's not so out of line with a new release stateside (which I think is still about $50, I haven't bought new in ages.)

The deals are out there, depending on what you're looking for and what is expensive to you. You can pick up a "common" Saturn import easily for under $20 which is kind of inline with second hand domestic Saturn titles.

[Asylum Seeker]

Can someone point me in the direction of some informative links on the web for a new import gamer....sources, information etc?

[bargora]

I put a link to videogamedepot.com's import questions page above. You can also usually find information on playing imports at gamefaqs.com if you look in the hardware faqs for the individual system you want to use.

BTW, another issue I've heard about when playing NTSC games using PAL equipment is possible slowdown, since NTSC is a 60hz standard and PAL is a 50hz standard. I think that might not be a problem with the Dreamcast, however.

This page is written specifically for UK gamers who want to know about imports:

http://www.gameotaku.20m.com/importguide.htm

Good luck. You've taken your first step into a larger world.

[Neo-Jorge]

A great place to get imports is www.ncsx.com they are very realiable when it comes to shipping especially if you live overseas. I have been collecting Japanese games before game companies in magazines started selling them and before it was trendy to have the latest game first. I can say I have really Collected all types of imports to RPG's to fighters to Racers ect. If your sort of the completist type of colllector like I am I like to have the imports of my favorite domestic games because many feature original art and covers sometimes not seen in the US domestic release. On another sidenote the japanese seem to always offer something extra and bring out limited editions of games giving you a little more at an extra cost but very well justified. The extras varie from game to game but it can be anything from cards to figures, Cd's books, ect ect. The only import RPG I can say I finished was breath of fire on SFC and the only reason being I got help with it from a Capcom guru at a local CES back in the day. Some others things that I guessed help me seek out the imports was always the debate about censorship The japanese games never are while some of the older 8 and 16 bit games are, being a devoted otaku also helps as anime games come out for the overseas market in japan. I remember being blown away playing last battle on the genesis and always saying that the main character looked like kenshiro from Fist of the north star, Well when I finally got around to getting the import version of last battle I was happy to see that it indeed was Fist of the north star and to my surprize the game was uncensored with exploding heads galore. My Fate in collecting Japanese imports was sealed.



Thanks

[ROBOTRON]

I buy shooters and fighters only....most of those are in english anyway. RPGs and some action games you can forget unless you read Japanese.

[Nature Boy]

I guess it depends on what you call expensive too.

I'll first admit to ignorance. I'll second admit I'm talking about new games only as well. But by expensive I mean that it's cheaper for me to wait to get, say, Zelda when it's released in Canada than to import it from Japan.

And of course exchange rates don't help. I think twice about buying from the US let alone Japan. The CAD stinks (in relation to the USD or Yen - I don't mind it otherwise :) ).


But I also got Daytona USA for DC for $9 before it came out stateside (of course I couldn't use it for netplay, baah!)

This is why I asked about importing tricks. How did you manage a new release like that for only $9? Or did they know they'd be flooding the market with that game?

[Captain Wrong]

I see what you're saying. I only import titles that didn't come out over here. Except Daytona and how I ended up with that was the store got a copy for some bizarre reason (they usually imported RPGs and the like) and since it was due to release stateside, they wanted to unload it ASAP.

I'd always check the stores who are know for importing a certain genre of games because sometimes they end up getting a one off they want to unload like my situation.

Now, if I'd only picked up Tokyo Bus Driver when they had it. Sigh.

[Asylum Seeker]

I think I'm particularly interested in the limited editions as that appeals to my better nature and gives you that something extra....has anyone used lik-sang or lan-kwei? I hear that the latter has got some very bad press recently.

[autobotracing]

One answer here


SATURN RAM CART !



you can get so much better games imported for saturn most of the better ones use a ram cart to up the ram so it loads faster and can support better graphics much like the expansion pack for n64


also most import games that are not simulation or rpg's are mostly in english