I finished ニノ国 and sold it off so now I'm looking for a new game. It's probably better to get a slightly older one to avoid the absurd prices (read: $80-100+) that sites like play-asia have games listed for. I do also check on eBay when I get the chance as it seems like there are good options; however, the problem is which games to import.

Initially I was looking at Yakuza 4 (having no experience with the franchise) which seems quite fun. Any issues that arise will come from the higher reading comprehension required. Also it's only $35.

I also came across Imabi Kisou which is a sound novel adventure as some people call it. Might be interested but I don't know if a novel-type game is worth $40-50 for me.

I already have FF13 and 13-2 in Japanese but for some reason don't want to play them. I really should, and yet... maybe I'll get to them in due time. So any recommendations you can throw at me?

If you like grinding and a good RPG battle system, you can try "End of Eternity" (called "Resonance of Fate" in other countries).

You can also try "Catherine". It's a very underrated game and still unknown to many people.

Awards that Catherine received:

IGN Best Story, Best PS3 Story
1UP.com, TeamXbox Biggest Surprise
1UP.com Most Daring Game
411mania, GameZone Most Original Game
Famitsu Rookie Prize
GameZone Best New Character (Vincent) (Runner-Up)
GameZone Best Puzzle (Runner-Up)

The titles are different for the Japanese versions of the games, but I'm a big fan of the Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, and Warriors Orochi series of games by KOEI.

This one's new and probably will cost you an arm and a leg, but worth it IMO: Dai-2-ji: Super Robot Taisen OG 2

I've really enjoyed the Metal Gear Solid series. A lot of dialogue with good voice acting. I'm currently playing Ookami, which has good kinda Zelda-ish gameplay with a traditional Japanese Shinto theme and a lot of text-dialogue with furigana, but I find it to be kinda slow though.

They're all older games for the PS2 that have been ported to the PS3 as HD editions. I'd like to think I got them for very good prices off Yesasia with the free shipping of items over $39 in value, but I can only really compare with Swedish video game prices that are probably much higher than American ones.

Valkyria Chronicles (戦場のヴァルキュリア). Great game, and lots of military vocabulary.

Tales of Vesperia - best jRPG of the generation imo.

Valkyria Chronicles was a game I wanted to play since it came out but I didn't have a PS3. Tales of Vesperia might also be good but I'll have to think about it only because of the fact I just played 70 hours of a JRPG. It seems like nobody is really backing the Yakuza games?

And Zlarp is this the game you're talking about? I'm having trouble finding gameplay videos. All there are is cutscenes and crap like that.

http://www.play-asia.com/Dai2Ji_Super_Ro...-4a7s.html

TheVinster Wrote:Valkyria Chronicles was a game I wanted to play since it came out but I didn't have a PS3. Tales of Vesperia might also be good but I'll have to think about it only because of the fact I just played 70 hours of a JRPG. It seems like nobody is really backing the Yakuza games?

And Zlarp is this the game you're talking about? I'm having trouble finding gameplay videos. All there are is cutscenes and crap like that.

http://www.play-asia.com/Dai2Ji_Super_Ro...-4a7s.html

It is chock full of cutscenes indeed. It's basically a game somewhat similar to Advance Wars, a turn based strategy game. (in the way it is played, at least, the actual game is more RPG-y, you don't build stuff) - all those cutscenes you see are attack animations. You can turn them off, but they're really well made and to me it's part of the charm.

Edit: Sorry for giving you the wrong title with the "2" at the end. I actually thought that was correct despite knowing what "dai2ji" means, it's just that the whole series is so convoluted and has so many entries that it's really hard to keep things seperate in your mind: http://superrobotwars.wikia.com/wiki/The...ries_Guide

Metal Gear Solid 4- If you like action/shooting games you won't regret it!

Final Fantasy 13 was, while admittedly not as awesome gameplay as some of the older games, quite a decent story and I found myself enjoying it a lot. It was also the first game I played in Japanese. Also very shiny. Shiny is good.

^Those two have an incredible amount of talking (+top notch voice acting) and MGS is quite high level. Both good stories.

The Yakuza games can be fun and there's a decent amount of dialogue. What to relate them to.. maybe like a tame and less open-ended version of Grand Theft Auto... Japanized. Ok so that doesn't really explain it well but that's the best I can do.

drdunlap Wrote:The Yakuza games can be fun and there's a decent amount of dialogue. What to relate them to.. maybe like a tame and less open-ended version of Grand Theft Auto... Japanized. Ok so that doesn't really explain it well but that's the best I can do.

There's a hefty dose of Shenmue in there, too. I'm liking the fifth one so far, but it's a bit pricy. If the fourth one is cheap, though, I recommend it.

drdunlap Wrote:Metal Gear Solid 4- If you like action/shooting games you won't regret it!

Final Fantasy 13 was, while admittedly not as awesome gameplay as some of the older games, quite a decent story and I found myself enjoying it a lot. It was also the first game I played in Japanese. Also very shiny. Shiny is good.

^Those two have an incredible amount of talking (+top notch voice acting) and MGS is quite high level. Both good stories.

The Yakuza games can be fun and there's a decent amount of dialogue. What to relate them to.. maybe like a tame and less open-ended version of Grand Theft Auto... Japanized. Ok so that doesn't really explain it well but that's the best I can do.

Yakuza = GTA + Shenmue

The 龍が如く (Yakuza) games are awesome! I definitely recommend them. All of the cut scenes are spoken with subtitles (which is a definite plus)! I played Yakuza 4 at a friend's awhile ago and I just got the PS3 emblem edition (comes with the PS3 system, a bunch of extras and Yakuza 5) over the weekend in a 福袋 at ヤマダ電機 for a little over $250, and from what I've played of it so far, it's great! While 4 was really good (and I can definitely say with confidence that you should play it!), 5 is even better with tons of different regions and accent differences that probably won't be rendered well if at all even if it ever does make it over to the west. There are a ton of mini-games in it too, so it's more like getting 10 games in one I'd say.

The only downside to them is probably the really heavy use of kanji (although that's not really a downside in my opinion). When I first played Yakuza 1 a few years ago it was really hard to follow the story even with a dictionary since the font is super tiny. I sometimes couldn't puzzle out what kanji was being used since I didn't know what Japanese to expect in what situations, couldn't see the said kanji in any real close up detail (and so couldn't look the words up well), and I wasn't all that familiar with a lot of kanji to begin with. I'd say it was especially tiresome at first since they sometimes don't use the usual kanji you'd even expect to encounter in some situations, like using 判る instead of 分かる or 訊く instead of 聞く.

All in all I'd definitely say get it! You'll get a ton of hours of reading in that way too lol.

TheVinster Wrote:Tales of Vesperia might also be good but I'll have to think about it only because of the fact I just played 70 hours of a JRPG.

Tales games do tend to be on the longer side. I played the 360 version for over 100 hours, and still haven't done everything, and the PS3 version includes even more (missable, if you play it you might want to look up a guide) sidequests. It makes them good value, though, especially as it'll cost a bit to import. Still, you might be able to get it quite a bit cheaper now since there's a best of PS3 version (same game, just priced cheaper).

It's not my favourite Tales game, thought the story had flaws, but I still enjoyed it a lot, recommend it. (Disclosure: I'm a big Tales of fan, my desk in front of me right now is covered in figures of the characters. So I might be just a teensy bit biased. XD)

Kingom hearts 1.5 is coming out soon for Japan That's what I am waiting for it has kingdom hearts 1 and chain of memories in HD its for the ps3

jordan3311 Wrote:Kingom hearts 1.5 is coming out soon for Japan That's what I am waiting for it has kingdom hearts 1 and chain of memories in HD its for the ps3

That's awesome, thanks for bringing that to my attention
It's coming out mid march.

I was actually just coming to these forums to check if anyone has played ニノ国. So I am wondering if it is any good for language learners and what is the vocab like? From the trailers it looks like a game that would have furigana, does it?

And most importantly, is it actually a good game?

Babyrat Wrote:I was actually just coming to these forums to check if anyone has played ニノ国. So I am wondering if it is any good for language learners and what is the vocab like? From the trailers it looks like a game that would have furigana, does it?

And most importantly, is it actually a good game?

I'll give my quick opinion. It's good for language learners with furigana on EVERY kanji. I did learn a bunch of new words but I don't know how to describe the vocab to you. Seems standard for a game, perhaps? Unfortunately the Ghibli art is the best part and it's otherwise a relatively predictable, standard JRPG. The combat was really great at first but nearing the end of the game you get one spell you just spam so any strategy there was is thrown out the door. I put 70 hours into it completing everything except one sidequest. That's about it.

Friend told me that Anarchy Reigns (JP title: Max Anarchy), which came out today for $30 in America, has options to completely change it to JP; interface, voice, subs. I'll probably buy this for now. I mean I loved Bayonetta and these are the same people who made that.

Most of my recommendations have already been mentioned. I'd add Tales of Graces F -- it has a "PS3 best" edition which is nice and cheap.

Doesn't look like it's been suggested yet, so if you haven't already and are looking to save money, make a Japanese PSN account and download games through the PSN store to avoid the high cost of importing stuff. There's a good selection of games on there.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=14868403
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ful...on_3_games

How are you purchasing them? Because you still need either a Japanese credit card or the Japan version of those PSN-points-whatever, right?

You need to buy the PSN point cards, but that's easy to do, although not super cheap. For example you can buy them at play-asia and they seem to send the code via email.

http://www.play-asia.com/PlayStation_Net...-3xk6.html

just googling Japanese PSN cards will give you many results, although I atleast trust play-asia, even though they are expensive.

Thanks, I knew they existed but I guess I considered them to be a hassle. I'll be looking for some stuff and comparing prices.

Dark Souls

Amazing game, not too much japanese