Tips for Import Gaming

[SH4M4NW0LF]

Does anyone know if PlayStation memory cards are region-locked? Just say if I use my PAL PSX memory card with an NTSC (or Japanese) PSX game + console, will it work or would it only work with one from it's region?

[ssbiglouiess]

how about xbox 360s are they region locked

[AnnoyingNavi]

Are there any sites for PAL region games? I'm thinking about buying Xenoblade Chronicles.

[TheObjo]

I know this vid is older than the 3DS but the 3DS is regioned locked

[volkswagenginetta]

thanks for the tip. the game im planing on buying is Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo Hikari to Kage no Eiyuu which is basically a continuation of fire emblem shadow dragon.

[tvandlust]

@gamma3045 I think kanji is a little advanced for beginner tips like this. The kana I showed in this video is typical of menu navigation/saving in many games, and is good enough to get started. Thanks for the support!

[Dharoz]

your videos rock man!, quite a comprehensive look at importing and playing games from different regions.

[azz578]

No offense or anything, but your talking a load of nonsense. How many Americans can read another language? Most can't even read spanish, let alone any other language. And I've yet to see anyone seriously play a game they don't understand. Most genres would require at least a basic understanding of the language in question.

[tvandlust]

@azz578 No, most genres do not require basic understanding of the language. It's helpful obviously, but I explained why it's not necessary in the video.

I think you missed the point all together. It's not about sticking with what you know; the whole message was about trying something new. What you're saying is not necessarily inaccurate, but it's making excuses for being lazy. This video was not designed for the lazy.

[azz578]

@tvandlust Yes I know you explained in the video & I disagree - playing an RPG without understanding the language would be virtually impossible. I don't think my "muscle memory" would be much help. Really I fail to see what this has to do with being lazy.

[tvandlust]

@azz578 You're sort of cherry picking your arguments. "Muscle memory" is only one point I made, and RPGs are but a single genre. Admittedly, this is very general advice that does not apply to everyone or everything, but it is not "nonsense."

Because, let's be fair: You disagreeing with me is like a blind man disagreeing with the color of the sky. You're speculating, and I'm speaking from experience. If anyone is talking a load of nonsense, it's not me.

[cheazyos]

Pretty interesting video. Thanks.

[ChoasParadox]

I know ive been watching too much anime when I completely understood the words before you said them in English

[donkeymon25]

do you know the reasoning behind starting region locking in the first place??

[VysetheBattleMaster]

Do you play Super Robot Wars? I am planning to learn japanese to play those games and some of the early shin megami tensei titles

[StreetFighterMan4]

Great vid dude =)

[Gameworldish]

hey craig i am so surprised by watching this vid on how much weight you lost. congrats man

[GameMuffinTV]

Hey Craig I Have a Question Concerning Nintendo Licensed Japanese Games Do You Still Get The Nintendo Club Points Or Not ?

[SUPERBOY6]

in need of any play asia expert. i just purchased bleach heat of the soul 7, then literally seconds later i found out that i can buy the game on playstation network for cheaper and i can get it instantly instead of having to wait a whole week. is there anyway i can get a refund seeing as how the game has not been sent yet and this has all happened in the last 30 minutes? Craig or anyone who reads this first, please help. time is a factor

[SymphoniaFan101]

2 questions. Whats the game behind Jump Ulitimate Stars? Would u say that Jump is hard to understand if you only know the words you showed, or easy, or somewhere in the middle? Please reply! (:

[tvandlust]

@SymphoniaFan101 The DS game directly behind JUS is Soma Bringer. Jump is hard to understand, yes, but there is an amazing guide on gamefaqs. Makes the game completely playable.

[SymphoniaFan101]

@tvandlust Cool! Thanks for helping!

[wilkievideo]

Anyone know where to import games from Europe? I want that sweet Demon's Souls European edition.

[wilkievideo]

Anyone know a good place to pick up europe games. I want that sweet Demon's Souls edition.

[dale456654]

My Dreamcast plays my japanese games

[BlueImpulse842]

I'm from Australia and we are paying about $100 to $120 AUD just for new releases.

[Hardcore6750]

Nice vid

[kotmfu]

lol i love you talking about aus in this video.. we certainly do get bent over the table when it comes to game prices... 120aud for a new ps3 game i mean comeon? i jump on ebay and import a us copy for like 70aud delivered.... and thats with like 20 postage its just ridiculous. but great vid mate hope to see more of you in the future

[Futondean]

I think I might get jump ultimate all stars

[ary952]

Im from Sydney and to buy a new release game here it costs 114.95 AUD which in US dollars is $102 USD

SO SHIT

[tvandlust]

Yeah dude, that's gotta be rough. You have my sympathy.

[LiveToby]

@tvandlust

in sweden (europe) new console games cost around 70-75 usd.

how much does an 360 or wii game cost in north america?

[tvandlust]

@LiveToby 360 and PS3 games often cost around $60 USD, and Wii games vary a lot, but usually in between $40 and 50$ USD.

[LiveToby]

@tvandlust

wow thats a bit unfair...

but atleast i dont have to deal with the australian prices xD

[xmikkellaugesen]

@LiveToby In Denmark it cost about 90-100 US dollars or 400-500 kr for a new game.

[roundtr1p]

Most games are import friendly in my experience except for RPG's entirely in Japanese.

[ChiSim768]

like £40 for Yu-Gi-Oh GX Tagforce 3

and didnt even come with the cards!

[vivalastupidity]

at 2:13 the lighting makes you look like the emperor from star wars. Great video!

[foamyfan231]

Nice video :) I want to get Gundam games for the SNES

[InvaderTAK16]

Also worth mentioning is how some games will have an option to play in 100% English. Final Fantasy X International is an example (and it also has English voice overs by default). While others may have English voice work, but Japanese text. Examples of this include Kingdom Hearts Final Mix for PlayStation 2 and Sin and Punishment for N64 (though the Wii Virtual Console version has the main menu translated to English).

[henrry222]

any good websites better than play asia that delivers worldwide? i want a red dsi! and play asia only have the Japanese one....!!!!

[tvandlust]

That's a good question. I'm not sure. We don't have the red DSi here in the US, so maybe you could import from a European store? Do you know if any ship to Russia? I'm pretty sure Europe has the red DSi.

[henrry222]

@tvandlust Thats why im asking if there any good reliable sites for buying games !!

[ashka1024]

Yup, Europe got both blue and red DSi.

[NESSNESMASTER]

Fantastic Vid Bro!

[starwarsnut77]

Cool vid man. Yeah playing a Japanese RPG is hella hard. LOL Also shipping from Japan is way expensive.

[delchavez]

Great Video bro!

[J29tv]

awesome video! this is very informative

[SilverMongooseVideos]

Personally, I don't bother importing since I cannot even keep up with all the games in North America.

Great video. Very informative.

[welshwilderbeast]

before i try importing anyone know if demon's souls is coming to the EU?

[TheCodedArm]

Well done video, especially the Japanese text for "yes", "no" and "save". That stull will be good to know when I play Japanese demos or any games I want to import on my PSP.

i really need to buy a copy of Macross Frontier.

[iWiiReviews]

very useful video! Surprized that ps3 isnt region locked!

[wessouthern]

2:05 thank you! Easy Kanji faq!

[TR4VI5]

its not Kanji, Its called "hiragana" >:]

[tvandlust]

Technically, it was both hiragana AND katakana! ;)

[TR4VI5]

yeah u right, "save" xD

btw, rly good video, very informative!

[wessouthern]

Importing is absolutely a necessity for the Sega Saturn. Not much need for language in vs. fighters or shooters.

[luisronaldofigo]

you should be a salesman :P

[druidking9884]

Hmm...didn't know that PS3 had no region codes...I'm gonna try this out!

[KieranD212]

very good tips, i learnt a few good things from this

thinking of getting my saturn region modded as im in the UK, its got a lot of nice shmups

[Propel3453]

I'm taking german.......yeah! Smart stuff. I couldn't learn Japanese if I tried.

[NewbtasticGaming]

nice to see a fellow import game colelctor, great video

[captainnintendo]

It's funny. Im from Denmark and when im thinking of importing im mostly thinking about US game since we always have to wait longer here to get them... Demon's souls's for example might never even get released here. SSBB was almost half a year delayed too.

The language barrier is something i have ALWAYS lived with in the gaming world since NO games for the older consoles got translated into Danish so i was really able to play games like Zelda until i got older

In Denmark, games costs about 120$

[Andresmees]

damn and I thought in Estonia we have overpriced games. Our games(new) cost about 90$ Also, I have never played a mainstream game in my language.

[captainnintendo]

It depens on the game of course but its just about what we pay.

I also remember when the PS3 just came out. I payed what equals 1100$ at that time.

Now a days a PS3 only costs 600$ so it so expensive anymore

Yeah it sucks when you can't understand a word in a game. More games comes with translations today but it's still very very rare and it almost NEVER includes audio. Only subtitles. I think that during the NES, SNES and N64 lifetime. Only ONE game came out in Danish. And that was Lego Racers

[vipor29]

rising stuff is another good place as well for imports

[jecklejuggalo]

Can you play import games on XBOX 360 cause i want to get a PAL version of Mortal Kombat vs DC

[NewbtasticGaming]

playasia have a compatibility list you can check for reigon blocks on the 360 games

[TheTypeRTheory]

The DSi won't play fake games, wheras the old DS/Lite would.

[Snip3rFire]

For my DSi (EU) I cannot play the games that I bought from America.

Is the region lock just for Europe systems?

[matman125]

There is one game that the non-Japanese DSis won't play; The Idolm@ster: Dearly Stars game. I had to import a Japanese DSi to play that.

However, you can play that game on any DS and DSLite system, it's just region locked for the DSi because it uses the camera feature. A dumb reason, but blame Namco Bandai.

NCSX is another online import shop that I use besides Play Asia. It's cheaper on shipping since they're based in NY.

If you use a deputy for Japan, Yahoo Japan Auctions. Cheap games prices.

[YoshiLight]

the game I wanted to play is Mario Super Sluggers

[Xpert74]

I enjoy importing games :) I have about 7 or 8 games that are from Japan or Europe, and it's great to be able to play games that aren't released in North America for whatever reason (or simply for collector's purposes; I have the Japanese version of Contra 4 :p).

I don't have experience with every system, but when it comes to the SNES at least, you can always just buy a cartridge converter, or cut the plastic tabs out of the bottom of the cartridge slot so you can fit Japanese games in there.

[Chipsturs]

Thanks for the tip craig :), i will check that site out, sounds like an adventure.

[Immafirinmahlazer]

By 'Australia really gets sticked on game prices' I hope you mean 'Australia and New Zealand'.

Christ, $150 for new releases? Fuck.

You should have mentioned the trouble with plugs and step-down/step-up transformers when importing consoles.. which I will probably face when my TG16 comes.

[tvandlust]

Yeah, that's a good point. But I figure that goes without saying with any electronic device. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that here in North America; Japanese consoles plug in and work just fine.

[Immafirinmahlazer]

Lucky bastard. I'm going to have to spend like $30 on various adapters and shit since I don't own any. The only other system I've imported is the Wonderswan Colour, and that just takes a AA battery.

[Yanoss1313]

tell me about it, they think we'll pay $120 for modern warfare 2 over here in Australia... i never would... but many do...

[GelatinousEncore]

lulz this was like a video review of the article in your site

[tvandlust]

Well, I did say they go hand-in-hand at the end. :P

There's a bit of cross over between the site and Youtube, mainly because the audiences are not always the same.

[GabeLaneG]

Cool video, I've always wanted to get into importing. I enjoy some niche genres/series that seem to get the short end in NA. Now I feel like importing Disaster Report 3. =D

[RuthlessKenpachi]

im inporting games to its very handy

[thenintendogamer]

oh heck yeah new games comming out are freakin expensive in mexico. they're like 90-100!

[tacklegibson]

i just realized u dont have resident evil 4... thats not good...

[tvandlust]

I've owned RE4 on Gamecube for years.

[guitaristdude0]

thanks for the video... yea i want to start getting some imports real soon

[POKEMONMASTERDARIUS]

i saw the japanese version of naruto ninja council 3 at gamestop used

[crammage]

i want to buy aero fighters for the snes

but its over $100!!

so pal version sounds like the way to go!

[dommiesan]

Excellent video! Great tips and advice. I jumped into import gaming a few years ago, but was interested in it since the early NES days. Back then, it was next to impossible to get imported games/hardware because the internet didn't exist.

Here's my tip: be careful importing retro game stuff directly from Japan. Many older legacy systems (like Nintendo Color TV Games, etc.) are considered "cultural artifacts" and illegal to export and may be seized by customs.

[famicomdork]

I've never heard of the cultural artifacts thing before. I got a CTVG 15 console from Japan, and the box/console was in great condition. Didn't look like they messed with it at all.

[dommiesan]

I don't know how strict they are with enforcing it, but I've heard of it happening. I'm not sure how new of a law it is either. But that's the main reason I heard for the lack of available Color TV Games and other older systems on world markets like Ebay, etc.

[RodGamer35]

so am i lol

[ivantopito]

The first game i ever imported was tatsunoko vs capcom for the wii. my all time favorite characters from old anime like gatchman were playable so it was basically a no-brainer to me. I had a little trouble with the wii region lock but i got around it with some easy tweaking.

[159329]

but if you cut out the tabs of the snes you can play super famicom games

[tvandlust]

This is true. There a few different ways to play import games by making alterations to your hardware, whether it's simply cosmetic or something more involving. But it's not something I do, and not somethin I'd personally recommend.

[159329]

at my local retro game store has that very wonderswan

[danman55555]

I've got JUS!, and I'll have to agree, it's a great game to start out with.

[SplatterTrigger]

I must say that this is one of the best videos I've seen in some time. Questions...1. What Ds title is behind JUS? 2. Is that the FFVII box set?Didn't that come with a soundtrack and a figure(Cloud?)

[tvandlust]

Thanks man. The game behind JUS is Soma Bringer. I did a review on it a little while ago. Awesome action RPG from Nintendo. The FF box is actually a limited edition WonderSwan Color.

[SplatterTrigger]

Yes it is!I guess I'm just shot in my old age. On another note since you like play-asia check out ncsx(dot)com

[tvandlust]

Oh wow, that site is awesome. Thanks a lot!

[evilslothman]

i prefer to use yesasia instead of playasia because of the free shipping and customs which i had issue with when buying my original japanese ds a few years ago but that could have been a isolated incident.

this is a very good guide to people starting out and should be very helpful.

jump ultimate stars is an awesome game and sits pride of place in my collection.

my first import game was naruto gekitou ninja taisen 3 on the gamecube.

[RedSouthCity]

Wow this is great. I am looking into going import on my N64. Thanks for the tips.

[YoungBloodGamer]

first!!!!!!! :P

[Dziller]

second!!!!!!!!!!!!!!