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[TheMan]

Back in the 90s and 2000s, importing console games could open up access to a whole world of games that would never come to the US, or at least let you play games waaaay in advance. Nowadays, things are much different I think- most games comes to the US.

Anyway, back in the 90s I was just a kid and I could not have afforded to buy japanese consoles or import games. But, I sill had a fantasy of learning Japanese so I could play the exclusive games or even go to Akihabara and bring home a pile of awesome shit. Never happened, but earlier this year, I kind of fulfilled my dream and imported a Saturn along with a handful of games from an ebay seller in Japan. Barely play them but I did it!

 

[ReBurn]

No. All of the Japanese games I wanted were ported and released on hardware I owned. I do still want a Super Famicom, though. I've passed up a few at cons and swapmeets in the past year or so because I know I won't use it. But I want it.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Yes intermittently. I used to from time to time if I really like the title I would buy the Japanese version just for the collector's sake, something like Xenogears.

These days my only reason for import are functional, so I've imported quite a few switch games that didn't get physical releases in the West but still have English language available. Example in this case being some of the Final Fantasy ports to switch not getting Western release.

 

[drotahorror]

I imported Motorstorm Apocalypse from Australia as they were the only place that got the game on the scheduled release date. Due to Japan earthquakes, game was delayed in NA until May.

Absolutely had to have it.

 

[Doom85]

Naruto: Clash of Ninja 4 (Gamecube)
Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition (PS4)
IA/VT Colorful (Vita)

 

[StereoVsn]

Yep, used to import all the time. I even got pretty decent at reading kana/kanji and with listening at one point. Mostly I Imported Sony fare, bunch of PSX, PS2 and PS3 games. Although I did get a decent amount of Saturn/Dreamcast games as well (Saturn game prices in the West are lol).

I haven't really imported much last 6-7 years though and what I did was mostly through Play-Asia and couple other places. Haven't shopped on Yahoo Auctions and redirect services in years. Used to get some cool retro Japanese hardware through that like mini disk systems.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Some shmups on 360 (they are region free). And most of my Saturn and PC Engine/Duo collection is Japanese games.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Before I couldn't because I didn't know how to import, plus at that time the consoles had region restrictions.

In 2007 I started importing on the Zavvy page from England, and then Japanese games that either never made it or were niche games.

Currently I already import Japanese games without problem.

 

[Naked Lunch]

Started with Ikaruga Dreamcast.
Then Rez + Cosmic Smash Dreamcast.

On to Radiant Silvergun, Battle Garegga and many others on the Saturn.

On the 360 I made sure to import the full 360 Cave shmup catalog before they went to insane prices.
The 360 is still the best way to play those games on a console with the least amount of input lag - even in comparison to PS4/switch ports.

Those were magical times back then - and you felt like you were finding buried treasure.
Those are still some of the best games I ever played - and totally worth the money and effort to play them.

 

[Valonquar]

Import games were insanely marked up back in the day. Oddly enough, they were about the cost of console games today when you include the season passes and next gen tax.

 

[[Sigma]]

Yes, from JRPGs to fighting games. It was expensive but I enjoyed the games and funny enough to experience of doing it. I haven't had to do that in a long time though.

 

[Quasicat]

I bought the Rockman Complete Works set from Japan mainly because I loved the artwork on the discs. They were later rereleased on PS3 on the NA PSN and I got them all again!

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I always wanted to play on the N64 wonder project j2 and the Evangelion game... But at that time it was almost impossible and I missed those games.

 

[Arioco]

Yes, but being from Europe I imported way more RE games from the US that never made it to the PAL region.

 

[rabbity-thing]

Not in the past, no. Now that most games don't have region locking, though, I have imported my fair share of titles. I love how easy its become.

 

[Crispy Gamer]

Yup MK2 for ps1

 

[swaffles23]

I imported Resident Evil 2002 HD remaster on PS3 because there wasn't a physical release in NA at the time.

 

[AmuroChan]

Yes, as I used to be a game collector. I've traveled to Japan multiple times in the 90s and 2000s and bought probably several hundred games there.

 

[semiconscious]

hell, yeah! among other things, that's how i got to play demon's souls a year before the rest of you:

 

[JimboJones]

Not that often.

Imported my og DS phat from LikSang to get it early.
Then Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan because it looked awesome.

Got a really cool memory card for my gamecube from that site too, you could plug it in to a PC to back up your saves, I was actually able to import saves from it years later into dolphin.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I use to. Those were the days. I imported ShenMue on the Dreamcast from Gamecave. It took a while, but I got it when it launched in Japan. I even paid someone to mod my Dreamcast to play it. I really wanted Code Veronica, but that was sold out. My last fond memory was importing Demon’s Souls from NCSX and Play Asia. Play Asia sold me the Japanese copy with Japanese text while the Chinese + Korean version was all in English. I got to beat that game before it came to the west. That was one of the last “underground” moments of my life. I felt like I had played something not a lot of people knew about. Those loading screens were epic at the time.

My favorite imports are PS1/PS2. I’ve owned Saturn and Super Famicom games. I still own my Japanese SS and SF systems. I bought a lot of PS1 imports like Einhander, Ergheiz, and Tobal 2. I had Japanese Saturn version of Snatcher and Policenaughts. Some of favorite PS2 are the Japan only fighting games. One day I just stopped. The games were awesome, but I was playing more modern day games. Phantasy Star Nova on Vita had an English translation, but I owned the Japanese physical version. I didn’t want to go through the hassle. I owned FFXII International Version and guess what… we got that later on.

I would still do it. I did plan to go to Japan with my spouse, but idk if that’ll work. If I do, I’m bringing along a suitcase for the games. It’s hard for me to justify it. The stuff I want back is expensive now. One perk that was nice was having the Japanese version is cheaper.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Yes, I have quite a few games I imported from Japan. I have a lot of Trails / Kiseki games not our imports because I didn't think some of them were going to be released in the United States but recently were.

Senran Kagura, Tales of Hearts, some Final Fantasy and the Samurai Shodown RPG (yes, there is a full-blown RPG for this series) as well as a few others I can't think of right now.

 

[Dream-Knife]

Not games specifically, but the japanese take much better care of hardware. During the pandemic I imported the light guns for PS2 from Japan to play time crisis 2. Basically new.

 

[consoul]

Yep, and still do. Japan still has great exclusives, new and old.

 

[Sakura]

Yes I had a Japanese PS2 and Xbox 360. Most of my game purchases over the last 15 years or so have probably been Japanese.

 

[F0rneus]

Lots of 360 shumps yeah!

 

[bender]

Far less frequently now but I still import Switch games that don't get physical releases in the US (Ghost Trick most recently).

 

[OverHeat]

Viewtiful joe on GameCube was the last time I did

 

[20cent]

Buying imports, yes. Especially in the 90's when games would come in Europe years later, if ever. Imports were a big section of VG shops until the early 2000's

My first imported game from memory was a TMNT game

Then I had a lot of imported JP games on Megadrive, SNES, Saturn etc... all re-sold for pennies in order to purchase a German imported N64 because it came months earlier than France...it hurts every time I think about it.

The Dreamcast was the last console I bought imported games I think..

Well, actually no. Nowadays I still buy imported games when I want a physical version, US or EU, since I live in Asia.

 

[SpiceRacz]

I was a huge Dragon Ball fan back in the 90s and imported all of the Super Famicom games. Those Super Butoden games required no understanding of Japanese.

Also imported several N64 games before US release, like Pokemon Stadium.

 

[Northeastmonk]

Far less frequently now but I still import Switch games that don't get physical releases in the US (Ghost Trick most recently).

Did you get any train themed Switch games and the train controller?

 

[ranmafan]

Yes I did import a lot, starting mostly with the dreamcast shortly after its Japanese launch. That was an amazing time. Ironically now I import some games from the west now that I live in Japan.

 

[Victor Omega]

i have a Japanese PSN.

Some fully translated games only release on the Singapore PSN.

 

[Beechos]

Street fighter 2 for the super Famicom. I think I paid about $150 back in the day. It was worth every penny! It was glorious being the only person with it for a while.

 

[Ulysses 31]

1080 Snowboarding
F-Zero X

 

[SegaManAU]

I was never a big fan of importing,. the only ones I remember doing it for are the PSP and the 3DS. I remember getting the PSP a few months before it was released in Australia with Ridge Racer and something else which I can't remember right now.

 

[Three]

I only ever imported twice in the past but now releases are so uniform globally there's no need anymore. I think the games were SoulCalibur and some other PSP game that I don't remember the name of.

 

[Arsic]

I imported demons souls before the Altus version was ever a thing but I think that was the Chinese version that had full English. Even got a buddy to do it.

Oh and I did ff13 cuz I couldn’t wait for English version. I think my large enjoyment of that game stems from playing it in Japanese and just reading translations online of chapter summaries instead of knowing wtf anyone is talking about.

 

[FinalBossWithTheMostPower]

Dragonball Z Legends and GT Final Bout

 

[yet_another_alt]

First one I imported was SRW OGs after Atlus refused to localize it. I haven't really imported lately. I think the last time I did so was for the Vita and PS4 versions of Gundam Breaker 3: Break Edition but those were Asian versions.

 

[cartman414]

Last import I remember was the Japanese PS3 LE D&D Mystara Collection.

 

[Danjin44]

Only one...

 

[Freelance Yakuza]

Well, I dodged the bullet in 2011. Looks like I tried to buy Duke Nukem Forever for PS3 and got the Xbox edition. I did it because games from Play Asia were extremely cheap compared to the Brazilian currency (R$).

 

[AJUMP23]

Nope.

 

[wyvern_bloodfist]

I import games from japan , china , Korea, and Europe ; I only buy physical media (I write and speak japanese , and korean also some chinese) so it works for me.

 

[Kings Field]

I have a nice collection of Famicom Disk System games and also Famicom and Super Famicom games. I like to collect Japanese games especially if they were originated from there plus a lot of the time the Japanese imports for older games are cheaper like Chrono Trigger and the like.

 

[YukiOnna]

Yeah all the time. None of the localization companies ever release Limited Editions on the same caliber and then there's the shop exclusive bonuses. I need my tapestries, bro.

I also did it early on because they refused to put in Dual Audio in certain games back then and I'm not doing english dub.

 

[Icymanipulator]

When I was younger ya, some dragon ball games mostly. But this was in a time where that shit wasn’t ever coming here and anime wasn’t as popular as it is now.

 

[kunonabi]

Had a local anime store that modded consoles so I've been playing imports since the ps1 days. Plus it was mandatory if you wanted to get any real use out of a saturn and it was super easy on that console since you just bought the pro action replay and were good to go.

 

[fatmarco]

What sites do you guys use to import games from Japan? Play-Asia is extremely expensive these days.