Region 3 or "Asian" imports

[Niku-Sama]

any one have any leads on good places to get some Region 3 games for import?

Some times i know you can get them with english menus and such and theres a few PS3 games i wanna grab and would like to navigate the menus at least

i have a few ps2 games, one of which being marvel vs capcom 2 that was the "korean" version i bought from some one on here a looooong time ago.
its region 3 and has english menu optioins

[Aussie2B]

I don't have many Asian English games, but I have bought them from Play-Asia before. They'll have good sales on them sometimes too. I'm pretty sure I've seen them on Amazon from third-party sellers as well, though I don't know if the prices are great there.

[kupomogli]

Second Play-Asia. I know there used to be another location called HeavyArms which you used to have to log onto a Facebook page and then send a message to them that you're wanting a certain title, they then sent you a payment link and you'd pay then message back they'd send the item. This was a long time ago so not sure if they're finally doing it through their website or not, but they seemed to get a lot of English items you couldn't find on Play-Asia. You'd just scroll through their Facebook to see as new stuff came in that is popular, like FF10-2 on Vita or I Am Setsuna for Swtich, etc.

But yeah, I think Play-Asia is the best go to place. I would say though is if you see something come up as English or multi language and it's a preorder, wait, because LRG are scumbags and there's been multiple games that went from multi language to Japanese only and then shortly after have released with a LRG version in English. You can actually Google One Step From Eden Twitter post where they state the import is going to include English on disc and prior to the release it did state multi language but then disappeared, then it later appeared on LRG in English and people just put two and two together. The same exact thing happened to Assault Suit Leynos 2 and if you go watch an import video on Youtube, everything is in English except for the games storyline, like, literally everything is in full English, just not the story, and voila, LRG shows up that the game will be English and of course, that's why it went from multi language to Japanese only but coincidentally has full English, because LRG are assholes. I hate LRG as a company, they are trash and I would never purchase from them again if I didn't really want SOME of these games. If I had other options I would never purchase from them again, because new update, you add a box to your order, their shipping costs increase by around four dollars, so adding a box is an extra $6 to your order instead of $1.99.

[Steve W]

I just came across it yesterday, there's a site called Carousell from Singapore that has a bunch of Asian games, some of which are Japanese but translated into Chinese and English. I'm looking around the site taking note of games I'd love to get, since there's games that never made it here that are only available in English in places like Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan. I think Singapore and Malaysia was the only place in the world that had an English version of The Last Guy on physical disc.

There's a place I check out from time to time but haven't ordered from, nin-nin-game.com for Japanese games. They're mostly Japanese with some European stuff mixed in, but not much covering the rest of Asia.

[kupomogli]

Oh yeah 365games.co.uk. Apparently if you live in the UK it's free shipping. I did buy some games from here that were released in Europe. Pretty good shipping costs and much quicker shipping than Play-Asia. Watch Dogs Complete Edition released in Europe but never did release over here and it's complete on disc. Now, Arkham Knight on the other hand is a voucher, disappointed on that purchase, threw it away as soon as I opened it knowing the resale value was practically zero.

I will post some modern and past games that are in English though as sort of Japanese import recommendations-esque.

Chocobo Dungeon: Every Buddy on Switch. The Japanese PS4 version is English language despite the listing not stating as such. It's an HD remaster of the Wii game minus the card game and all monsters can be acquired as usable allies.

Super Robot Wars games. PS4 has Super Robot Wars Original Generations: The Moon Dwellers, V, X, T, and 30 all have Switch and PS4 releases. I like The Moon Dwellers a bit better because it's a harder game, but I did think most of V was pretty great. I never did play any of the others on the current gen console, but out of all the ones I did play, I do like the Original Generations storylines on the GBA and Moon Dwellers on PS4 better than the only other SRW I played, V.

Like a Dragon Gaiden the Man Who Erased His Name. I haven't played Gaiden, but either I'm getting burnt out on the series, or the move to Yokohama, a much larger area than Kamurocho just makes playing Like a Dragon and Lost Judgment feel like a real chore. Apparently Gaiden only has one chapter in this location and the remainder of the game takes place in Sotenbori, this is the secondary location on Yakuza 2 and Yakuza 0 that's one of the smaller cities in the series as well as this area called The Castle, an entertainment hub/arena. Anyways, this game has multiple multi language versions and I think the cheaper of the two is the one without the English cover(there is no western version of this game.)

Grandia 1 and 2 HD is at Play-Asia on the Switch. LRG recently sold the PS4 version so that one may be arriving at some ponit.

Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 1 and 2. Instead of being robbed by LRG, those that waited for as long as they did now have the ability to get both of these excellent games for cheaper than you could have purchased a Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 1 from LRG separately. Two for the price of, less than, one. LRG is trash. Now, I liked Castlevania 3 as a game due to its premise, but I did not like how unfair Castlevania 3 was in its design, especially the late game. Stages weren't just short, they were extremely soul crushing experiences, where I think Curse of the Moon 1 and 2 captured what Castlevania was at that time and just perfected it just like Castlevania once did with 4, Bloodlines, and Rondo of Blood. Curse of the Moon 2 is the better of the two, harder game and much better design overall. If you happen to complete everything available within the game, you can even play through the game with either the main for, the original four from the previous game, or any of the seven characters can solo the game(although this one is way too hard, maybe some of those speedrunners who can perfect a game without a single error can, I can't, though I do refuse to play easy.)

Gundam Extreme Vs Maxi Boost On. So a question. Do you like Federation vs Zeon or Gundam vs Zeta Gundam on the PS2? Then get this game. Gundam Extreme Vs is basically the modernization of what was initially Federation vs Zeon. The series continued getting gradual enhancements and rereleased as what's basically a 2v2 fighting game in the same open area like setting of Federation vs Zeon. Gundam Extreme Vs Maxi Boost has a new mission mode specifically for this game that has 300 different single player missions throwing the 2v2 out for a more mission based design structure. It still drops you in these arenas but it's basically missions that are created in the design of Federation vs Zeon. Now these types of missions have always existed as the arcade mode, where you choose different routes, and that still exists in this game, but you now have where you play through over 300 individual missions and all bosses that you'd have had access to within the arcade mode(every version of the last boss can be played which required you to do well enough in the arcade mode to battle one of the others.) This game has over 180 mobile suits so there is a lot of variety, also features local co op to play through the arcade mode together, online co op, and while the online is mostly dead, there's probably one or two rooms that open up once a week from the pro level players that play this game and only this game that will likely crush you(I am actually really good in this game but not even comparable to the better players --- they added a solo online versus mode that I've seen a lot go in my favor, the last time I faced someone, I must have played a dozen matches and destroyed his mobile suit once, not win, he still destroyed my suit three times and won the match.)

If you own a PSP, here's a few very English friendly games I'd recommend. Now, if you know "anything" about Gundam, the Gundam Battle series. These games are not fighting games and not like Federation vs Zeon. These ones are actually mission based games. Now, each game is mostly the same game with each new game being what's essentially an expansion pack, so there's almost no reason to get any past release. Gundam Battle Universe is the latest in the Gundam Battle series and that will include every mission from the past game. Now, what's so unique about this series. Is let's say you start 0079 as a soldier for Principality of Zeon, you start with a Zaku 2 and you get Zeon mobile suits as you play through various missions on the Zeon side of the war. You'll play completely different missions and collect Federation mobile suits playing on the Federation side and 0079 timeline will also take you through missions in the 08th MS Team and 0080. Now, once you finish 0079 and you move onto 0083, it gives you the option to change sides. You keep all of your Zeon/Federation suits and you can choose to start 0083 as either Zeon or Federation, after finishing 0083, when you get to 0087, you then get to choose from three, being the AEUG, Axis, or Titans. You can also start a brand new game at whatever area in the game you want to start at, so if you want to start at 0087 first you can do that, there's no need to play past timelines. So anyways, there's an absolutely massive amount of content and it's a great game. Now there is a game called Gundam Assault Survive that released afterwards and that one I didn't mention as the last one because what they do is while they have the same mission structure, Gundam Assault Survive has you moving from different maps like area A, area B, area C, etc and you defeat enemies in a sort of Dynasty Warriors like tower defense game. Now, the gameplay is not Dynasty Warriors, it's still the same exact game, but you're helping defend multiple areas until you complete the mission rather so it's a bit different than the others so if you get Gundam Battle Universe, you can still have a different game with Gundam Assault Survive.

If you like TRPGs, a pretty good indie game is called Fell Seal Arbiter's Mark. Now, I own the regular version, but they later released a complete edition afterwards which includes the expansion DLC called Arena's and Monsters and adds a lot of monsters as playable allies(and apparently the monsters all have their own classes as well.) The game does start off great, but the problem is when you start unlocking late game classes like the gunner or double attack. Once you unlock dual wield there's almost no reason to use most skills over a regular attack because your dual wield regular attack will deal more damage and if the special attack can use dual wield then that's even better. The gunner can attack halfway across the map, so a gunner with dual wield is far better than any melee unit that needs to be next to the enemy in order to attack, even with their lower damage. So while the class system is actually extremely good early game where everything feels useful and everything feels balanced, late game just feels so broken and enemies are often these higher level classes so you're pretty much required to use this broken stuff to even be comparable to the enemies.

[Aussie2B]

This is straying from the topic a bit, but on the subject of European releases, does anyone have any recommendations for ways an American could buy older English-language European releases, where the only English release is the European release? I've picked up a couple on eBay over the years, but I run into a dead end on the low-demand, obscure games that I assume European eBay sellers don't feel are worth selling internationally.

One game in particular that I've been wanting to get is Cosmetic Paradise for DS, which is a game that, frankly, probably nobody but me even cares about, haha. (The sequel came out in the US as Imagine Makeup Artist, and there's a third game that never left Japan.) I doubt it's worth much, but I can't find it for sale anywhere. I did come across the French release, but unfortunately, it's a game where not every European copy contains English as a language option. So I need to specifically find the UK version to get it in English.

[Natty Bumppo]

Play Asia is usually pretty good about saying if something has an English option - but with Japanese ones they sometimes don't list it when it is on it. So if there is something you are interested it is worth tracking down into - usually on the developers website - case in point the Japanese Kemco RPG collections Playasia doesn't list English but if you go to the Kemco website they have English listed for that series of games.