If anybody happens to find a script of the game, please share it!

I'd be interested in mining parts of the game into my SRS, but having to pause the game and type it up really ruins the flow of the game for me.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:

KREVA Wrote:Why is the pre-order English version nearly half the price of the Japanese/Asian versions on eBay? >.>

This is due to the cost of media in Japan, which is far more expensive than it is in America. That's why you will see the price of Blu-ray in particular jump far above the cost of blu-rays in America. It's a shame, but it's the price we pay for having an abundance of awesome media, I guess?

I was under the impression that there's some kind of price gouging going on based entirely on how likely the game is to sell. I mean, that's the only explanation I can think of as to why American-made PS3 games tend to max out at around 5000 yen new, but games like Final Fantasy run much higher. Hell, when Bayonetta came out, I saw it going for around 8300 yen at places, and it wasn't even a special edition.

Mcjon01 Wrote:I was under the impression that there's some kind of price gouging going on based entirely on how likely the game is to sell. I mean, that's the only explanation I can think of as to why American-made PS3 games tend to max out at around 5000 yen new, but games like Final Fantasy run much higher. Hell, when Bayonetta came out, I saw it going for around 8300 yen at places, and it wasn't even a special edition.

Why does everyone scream 'price gouging' when it's just supply and demand at work? People are willing to pay different prices for different games. Period. In this case, American games don't sell well in Japan and price themselves lower to get the needed sales.

"Price gouging" is different entirely. It's when someone has an emergency need for a basic staple like wood or water and the stores hike their rates in response to the emergency. This is still 'supply and demand', but it is specifically illegal because lives are at stake.

Mcjon01 Wrote:I was under the impression that there's some kind of price gouging going on based entirely on how likely the game is to sell. I mean, that's the only explanation I can think of as to why American-made PS3 games tend to max out at around 5000 yen new, but games like Final Fantasy run much higher. Hell, when Bayonetta came out, I saw it going for around 8300 yen at places, and it wasn't even a special edition.

CDs, DVDs, and games are all just far more expensive in Japan. DVDs, for example, go for like 4,000 yen or even more (about 40 bucks). Even crappy awful movies.

Just a bad choice of words, I suppose. It's not like I'm furious that the life-giving nectar of Final Fantasy XIII is being withheld from me or something, just pointing out that there doesn't seem to be any kind of MSRP concept at play in Japan, like there is in America. So, whereas in America, you can pretty much bank on the fact that any new, non-budget game is going to be 59.99 new and either 64.99 or 69.99 for the special edition (depending on just how special it is), it's much more fluid in Japan. So yeah, supply and demand, but with much less restriction, unwritten or otherwise. Which is why, I suspect, the American preorders are cheaper than the Japanese copies that are already out.

I mean, on top of electronics just being plain more expensive here, of course.

Mcjon01 Wrote:Just a bad choice of words, I suppose. It's not like I'm furious that the life-giving nectar of Final Fantasy XIII or something, just pointing out that there doesn't seem to be any kind of MSRP concept at play in Japan, like there is in America. So, whereas in America, you can pretty much bank on the fact that any new, non-budget game is going to be 59.99 new and either 64.99 or 69.99 for the special edition (depending on just how special it is), it's much more fluid in Japan. So yeah, supply and demand, but with much less restriction, unwritten or otherwise. Which is why, I suspect, the American preorders are cheaper than the Japanese copies that are already out.

Well that's probably true... But Japan is actually closer to how capitalism is supposed to work. What we do is pretty close to price-fixing. The only reason it isn't actually price-fixing is that the companies haven't met and decided on a price together... Someone set a price and everyone decided to use that same price. And then recently, someone set a higher price and everyone uses that now.

The true prices (technically 'value', not 'price') for American games come out a few months after launch... Some games are still $60 at that point (and selling well) and some are down to $20 and still not selling at all. The Japanese just get a bit of a jump on that.

Their system doesn't irk me because I look at every game the same way: Am I willing to pay that price for that game?

In the case of FF13, I was willing to pay like $117 for the Japanese one, and I'll likely pay another $60 for the US one when it comes out. There's not many games that I'd pay that for.

BTW, FF13 is epic so far, a few hours in. It'd have to go terribly wrong from here to stop being worth the money. (I don't use the word 'epic' very often, and I mean it in its true sense: A grand adventure that's hard to wrap your mind around.)

wccrawford Wrote:BTW, FF13 is epic so far, a few hours in. It'd have to go terribly wrong from here to stop being worth the money. (I don't use the word 'epic' very often, and I mean it in its true sense: A grand adventure that's hard to wrap your mind around.)

Heh, good to know. I probably will still end up buying it, once I get some new income coming in. Unless one of my folks back home ends up grabbing it for me off my Amazon Christmas wishlist, though that's looking increasingly doubtful.

I'm curious, though, what the "feel" of the game is. I mean, in terms of all the Final Fantasies before it, which is it most like? Of course, if it's totally doing it's own unique thing, that's great too.

Mcjon01 Wrote:

wccrawford Wrote:BTW, FF13 is epic so far, a few hours in. It'd have to go terribly wrong from here to stop being worth the money. (I don't use the word 'epic' very often, and I mean it in its true sense: A grand adventure that's hard to wrap your mind around.)

Heh, good to know. I probably will still end up buying it, once I get some new income coming in. Unless one of my folks back home ends up grabbing it for me off my Amazon Christmas wishlist, though that's looking increasingly doubtful.

I'm curious, though, what the "feel" of the game is. I mean, in terms of all the Final Fantasies before it, which is it most like? Of course, if it's totally doing it's own unique thing, that's great too.

I've tried to keep this spoiler-free.

FF12, kinda... Active Time Battles are very strong... but instead of a single action, you have multiple... Sorta. It works out really well, even if it's hard to describe. The pace can be set to 'normal' or 'slow'... I had it on slow for a while so I could get used to what was happening, but it wasn't long before I went with normal. 'Normal' means you're doing something every couple seconds, so it's pretty satisfying, even though I'm really still just button-mashing here at the start.

Running around the world feels like FFX, though. It's all very linear so far... I assume I'm still in the intro and that there will be some FF12-style free-roam eventually.

The minimap shows where you and your companions are, along with enemies, save points, and plot points. At plot points, control will be taken from you and you'll see a cutscene, then regain control. Walking up to random people results in them saying some random thing.

Battle companions do their own thing in battle... I haven't figured out any way to take control of them or assign them priorities or anything, but there's probably a way that I haven't found yet. (If the game showed me how, I missed it... Lots of really hard Japanese in the tutorial texts. Well, hard for me. Heh.)

The level of spoken conversation is just barely above my head, I think... I get the gist of it, and the subtitles help, but the actual details of what they are discussing elude me. They tend to throw around FF13-specific names without defining them, too, which is a bit confusing. You're probably seen the names in any previews on the web, though.

TBH, I didn't like FF12 much... I had to struggle to keep playing it the whole way through. It finally got 'okay' halfway through, but never better. FF13 is fun from the start.

I would love to, but I'm assuming it hasn't been released for Xbox 360 yet. I'm also guessing the Japanese version will be region locked, making it impossible for me to play it on my Swedish Xbox 360 anyway, if I can even find it online when it leaks and download it.

Tobberoth Wrote:I would love to, but I'm assuming it hasn't been released for Xbox 360 yet. I'm also guessing the Japanese version will be region locked, making it impossible for me to play it on my Swedish Xbox 360 anyway, if I can even find it online when it leaks and download it.

It's PS3 only in Japan. I'm not sure if they're going to release an xbox version, but it doesn't look like it.

Grinkers Wrote:

Tobberoth Wrote:I would love to, but I'm assuming it hasn't been released for Xbox 360 yet. I'm also guessing the Japanese version will be region locked, making it impossible for me to play it on my Swedish Xbox 360 anyway, if I can even find it online when it leaks and download it.

It's PS3 only in Japan. I'm not sure if they're going to release an xbox version, but it doesn't look like it.

Oh I see, it's only coming for Xbox 360 in the US and Europe. Guess there will be no Japanese for me

wccrawford Wrote:Yeah, I haven't found any characters that don't have voiceovers yet... Even the mindless drivel of random people you walk up to. It's pretty immersive. Most of them even have subtitles as well!

Even the new Chocobo Theme Song is voiced over lol that's right! it has lyrics!

Tobberoth Wrote:

Grinkers Wrote:

Tobberoth Wrote:I would love to, but I'm assuming it hasn't been released for Xbox 360 yet. I'm also guessing the Japanese version will be region locked, making it impossible for me to play it on my Swedish Xbox 360 anyway, if I can even find it online when it leaks and download it.

It's PS3 only in Japan. I'm not sure if they're going to release an xbox version, but it doesn't look like it.

Oh I see, it's only coming for Xbox 360 in the US and Europe. Guess there will be no Japanese for me

Buy a PS3 Fully region free for gaming!

Grinkers Wrote:If anybody happens to find a script of the game, please share it!

I'd be interested in mining parts of the game into my SRS, but having to pause the game and type it up really ruins the flow of the game for me.

I did a little googlefu but have so far been unsuccessful. I did however find the script in BOTH LANGUAGES to for Final Fantasy IX. Makes me wish my fancy new ps3 was backwards compatible. >_<

Link: http://lunar.littlestar.jp/stardust/engl...disc1.html

If anybody finds a script for XIII please post!

Grinkers Wrote:Buy a PS3 Fully region free for gaming!

I only bought the PS3 originally because I got one for $150, but it has been a God-send for Japanese gaming. (And European as well...)

Plus the fact that you can share games with up to 4 friends (I've heard it'll be 2 friends soon tho) means that if you have a European friend and a Japanese friend, you each buy the titles from your own area and share them with each other. (Sadly, I end up being both the US and JP friend in my set, but oh well.)

Edit: Fixed typo.

kerosan41 Wrote:

Grinkers Wrote:If anybody happens to find a script of the game, please share it!

I'd be interested in mining parts of the game into my SRS, but having to pause the game and type it up really ruins the flow of the game for me.

I did a little googlefu but have so far been unsuccessful. I did however find the script in BOTH LANGUAGES to for Final Fantasy IX. Makes me wish my fancy new ps3 was backwards compatible. >_<

Link: http://lunar.littlestar.jp/stardust/engl...disc1.html

If anybody finds a script for XIII please post!

nice find!!

wccrawford Wrote:In the case of FF13, I was willing to pay like $117 for the Japanese one, and I'll likely pay another $60 for the US one when it comes out. There's not many games that I'd pay that for.

0_0 Trust me, I had thought about buying it a few times as well, but then I'd suddenly remember how much fun I've been having playing FF7 and FF8 that I bought from the PSN Store a couple weeks ago. However, I will still keep my eyes open on eBay for hope of getting FF13 for about 50-60 dollars, maybe. We'll see. I find that if you are consistent enough with searching for something on eBay (checking on a daily basis), eventually your item will spring up, sometimes more rewarding than you thought. I did this with searching for a Japanese PS3 about 1.5 months ago. Eventually a 60GB (backwards compatible!^_^) Japan PS3 sprung up on eBay and I bought it for approx. $250. That also reminds me that that was the same way I got my Japanese 360 a year or two back. Thank God for eBay.

Someone mentioned 「龍が如く見参！」. This is my first and only game for the PS3 right now. I have only played like 20 minutes, but I like it so far. Take all the color out of your TV and make it makes for a nice retro-esque gaming experience like a good ol' Kurosawa film.

Mcjon01 Wrote:

Ryuujin27 Wrote:

KREVA Wrote:Why is the pre-order English version nearly half the price of the Japanese/Asian versions on eBay? >.>

This is due to the cost of media in Japan, which is far more expensive than it is in America. That's why you will see the price of Blu-ray in particular jump far above the cost of blu-rays in America. It's a shame, but it's the price we pay for having an abundance of awesome media, I guess?

I was under the impression that there's some kind of price gouging going on based entirely on how likely the game is to sell. I mean, that's the only explanation I can think of as to why American-made PS3 games tend to max out at around 5000 yen new, but games like Final Fantasy run much higher. Hell, when Bayonetta came out, I saw it going for around 8300 yen at places, and it wasn't even a special edition.

I'm not sure what's going on, but I just thought that a nearly half price cut is a bit steep, so I'm starting to believe that the prices are due out of hype for the game. The fact the the Japanese/Asian versions are the only ones out right now suggest THERE IS MONEY TO BE MADE (whether from die-hard fans of the series or Japanese trainers (Pokemon reference there) like ourselves who are casual fans of the franchise looking for some fresh media to indulge in. I see the prices dropping slightly maybe after the holidays.

KREVA Wrote:0_0 Trust me, I had thought about buying it a few times as well, but then I'd suddenly remember how much fun I've been having playing FF7 and FF8 that I bought from the PSN Store a couple weeks ago. However, I will still keep my eyes open on eBay for hope of getting FF13 for about 50-60 dollars, maybe. We'll see.

I haven't got that much patience. Besides, if I was willing to wait, I'd probably have bought the US version instead... Especially since I'll buy it anyhow just to make sure I fully understand the game. My Japanese just isn't good enough yet to get the whole experience. In a year or 2 it's going to be an awesome way to practice Japanese, though... Along with Rorona no Atelier and Gundam Musou 2.

wccrawford Wrote:

KREVA Wrote:0_0 Trust me, I had thought about buying it a few times as well, but then I'd suddenly remember how much fun I've been having playing FF7 and FF8 that I bought from the PSN Store a couple weeks ago. However, I will still keep my eyes open on eBay for hope of getting FF13 for about 50-60 dollars, maybe. We'll see.

I haven't got that much patience. Besides, if I was willing to wait, I'd probably have bought the US version instead... Especially since I'll buy it anyhow just to make sure I fully understand the game. My Japanese just isn't good enough yet to get the whole experience. In a year or 2 it's going to be an awesome way to practice Japanese, though... Along with Rorona no Atelier and Gundam Musou 2.

I fully understand, but you never know, you might find a script floating around within the next couple months so that it will be much easier for your to look up the vocab you want to learn. That's what I'm hoping for. As for me, If I can't get my hands on the Japanese version, I probably won't end up buying it at all. My Japanese is good enough to where I can understand to a decent extent without using English translations, but it's just the lack of vocabulary, the long and steep ladder to the top of ownage for intermediate stage learners so I've heard and I also tend to agree with, that keeps me from understanding fully.

Also, I would like to just put this out there for RPG fans and owners of PS3's (or PSPs!). There are tons of great classic PSone RPG's on the Japanese PSN Store that you can get for 600円 (1,500円 for the Final Fantasy games I think). Anyways, the fact that you can play these games on the PS3 or PSP is amazing. If you are curious, then simply (or not so simply) create a Japanese PSN account, then go to the PSN store to see what they have. (Also, you don't even need a PS3, if you have a PSP, you will also receive the same results)

KREVA Wrote:I fully understand, but you never know, you might find a script floating around within the next couple months so that it will be much easier for your to look up the vocab you want to learn.

That's true. And once I play through the game, if that exists, I'll probably SRS it and see what I can do from there. It's certainly got enough content in it... And so far, there's been quite a bit of repetition of words that I don't know. Plus all the item names and such.

KREVA Wrote:Also, I would like to just put this out there for RPG fans and owners of PS3's. There are tons of great classic PSone RPG's on the Japanese PSN Store that you can get for 600円 (1,500円 for the Final Fantasy games I think). Anyways, the fact that you can play these games on the PS3 or PSP is amazing. If you are curious, then simply (or not so simply) create a Japanese PSN account, then go to the PSN store to see what they have.

And not just the classics... There are quite a few downloadable PS3 games there, too, like Mainichi Issho that have good dialogue. And others like Qruton and Elephunk that don't have much dialogue, but are still good fun and don't break immersion.

thurd Wrote:Since I'm at the beginning of KO2001 (600 sentence) I'm bound to have even more problems than some of you. I'm going to try it anyway but I'm confused about an approach I should take:

1. Create a word list and later add example sentences with those words into SRS
2. Type only sentences that are n+1, max n+2 into SRS
3. Type each sentence I don't fully understand into SRS

Each has pros and cons both gaming and study wise, I'm interested with the most efficient study method and consequently leaning towards second option. There's also the question of when to do actual study/reviews

Since nobody here answered your question, I'll go ahead and answer it while posting something I've wanted to for a while. Also, if this reads a little... strongly, please don't take it as a personal attack, it isn't.

The basic sentiment here is going to be: Don't worry about this kind of stuff! This simply gets in the way of your language learning.

Forget the wordlist, forget n+1/n+2, and forget typing each sentences you don't fully understand into the SRS (are you INSANE!?) You will burn out so, so quickly by doing this. Trust me, this is coming from a person that tried all of these methods. Yet, in the end, they all fail. Because the only thing they accomplish for you is making both the media you took those sentences from and the SRS an enemy.

Here is what you have to do: have fun. Does this sound familiar? If you read AJATT, it should. However, the problem there is people went on and took all his notes and everything and started analyzing them and figure out the most effective learning patterns, etc. This is a waste. In all that time do you know how much studying (read: reading/playing video games/watching TV) you could have done?

Now look, I'm all for Heisig and KO 2001 as active studying, but make that the shortest amount of stuff you do in Japanese. Do Heisig (fast, obviously) but then hit KO 2001 as a much slower goal. Spend the rest of the time watching Japanese and reading Japanese.

Yet, this isn't even the most important thing. The most important thing is to remember this while you do that other stuff: Forget about the SRS! Don't read everything thinking, "Oh man, I should definitely SRS this." It's probably about a 90% chance that you shouldn't. When something really, really cool pops up, you'll know it and that's when you write it down to be SRS'd LATER (don't stop what you are doing).

Here's why:

1) Your brain is a very, very cool thing. You might not even realize that while you read, in a sentence that is n+1 or n+2 as they call it, you can fill in the word you don't know. Without using a dictionary, you will be able to understand that word, just by context. Try it out. Stop thinking a dictionary is necessary, and stop looking up everything. That's not fun.

2) Here's the core message. And for this, we need to ask two (2) questions. What is a SRS? How do we learn languages?

Let's take it from the second one:

We learn languages by MASSIVE EXPOSURE. This means out brain needs to see and hear a lot of this language for us to really take it in. One can not become good at a language using textbooks. There simply aren't enough and they aren't varied enough. So, to really learn a language, we must read and listen a lot in that language. Great, now on to what is a SRS.

A SRS is a way for us to gain massive exposure to ONE SPECIFIC THING. It allows us to single out an aspect of something and become good at it quicker through massive exposure. Sure, do we need a SRS? Absolutely not. By just reading a lot we could gain the massive exposure necessary to become fluent (I hate this term, but it's easiest to use here) in a language. That's ALL it is. It is NOT some magical tool that will grant us all this power because we use it to study. No, it is simply a way to have more exposure.

So, what's the thing to think about here? You can do this without a SRS. Hell, one of the best non-native Japanese speakers I know learned everything from playing all his video games in Japanese (he plays A LOT) and then rooming with a Japanese guy. Now, all our Japanese friends confuse him for Japanese sometimes (he's Korean).

/rant

That was my little rant. I hope it helps you to have fun, so you don't grow to hate Japanese in about a year like most of my other friends do.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:Now look, I'm all for Heisig and KO 2001 as active studying, but make that the shortest amount of stuff you do in Japanese. Do Heisig (fast, obviously) but then hit KO 2001 as a much slower goal. Spend the rest of the time watching Japanese and reading Japanese.

Bingo! While I am by no means fluent, I am a LOT further than I'd be if I tried to approach Japanese like something that needs to be studied.

Don't get me wrong, I -do- study... But only for 10-30 minutes a day, max. (And most days, not at all.) Every day at lunch I read manga while I wait for my food. In the evenings I might read a manga or watch an anime (with subs... have to enjoy it) or play a game.

I haven't cut out English stuff, either... No 'immersion' for me.

The end result is not only that I'm further than I expected, but I got here quicker than I expected as well!

I have started playing, but I crashed and burned very early, I just have too few words in my portfolio to understand it yet :~-(. Well, it was worth a try.

When facing the very first enemy, Lightning says this:
そこで見てろ
I translate this as "Look at that!" (soko -> that thing, de = particle for place of action, mitero = ???)

It's obviously 見る, whose te-Form would be 見て. But what is that ろ after that good for? I could not find that verb suffix in any grammar book I posess It would be great if someone could explain.

stupiddog Wrote:I have started playing, but I crashed and burned very early, I just have too few words in my portfolio to understand it yet :~-(. Well, it was worth a try.

When facing the very first enemy, Lightning says this:
そこで見てろ
I translate this as "Look at this!" (soko -> that thing, de = particle for place of action, mitero = ???)

It's obviously 見る, whose te-Form would be 見て. What what is that ろ after that good for? I could not find that verb suffix in any grammar book I posess It would be great if someone could explain.

Look up ている in that grammar book instead. てる is informal.

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/teform

Edit: Oh, and btw, don't let the fact that you don't really understand stop you from playing. I'm only slightly beyond you and I'm still going. You'll get a LOT of good exposure to Japanese from this game.