where to get a jap 360 for shmups

fraggore · Post by **fraggore** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:01 am

just wondering where is the cheapest place for me to get hold of jap 360 core system been looking on playasia and the prices are very steep.
iam missing out on all then jap shmups dame the region locking.

tommyb · Post by **tommyb** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:56 am

play-asia actually isn't that expensive.

I got my Japanese arcade system from them for somewhere in the low 200s, shipped.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 6:07 am

The two places that I use for imports are NCSX and Play-Asia. NCSX is in New York, so if you live in the US, they can often offer faster & cheaper shipping than Play-Asia, which is in Hong Kong. Both companies have been good to me, but I usually use NCSX for the aforementioned shipping advantage. Play-Asia has a much better online shop layout, however.

You won't go wrong with either if you ask me, and they both carry Japanese 360s.

fraggore · Post by **fraggore** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 10:28 am

ok thanks

freddiebamboo · Post by **freddiebamboo** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:34 pm

Judging by the amount of complaining in the ketsui/DOJ thread, the trading station might be the cheapest way

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:36 pm

freddiebamboo wrote:Judging by the amount of complaining in the ketsui/DOJ thread, the trading station might be the cheapest way

I doubt people will sell their JP 360s just because one single port is bad. There's other reasons to own it too, you know. the idolmaster

lawnspic · Post by **lawnspic** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:35 am

Unless there is another reasons to own a Japanese X360 other than region locked shmups i dont see the point. Most "Big" releases are already region free. Off course there could be missing content. Maybe US RFA may be missing some bells and wistle's, maybe not.

Doctor Fugue · Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 5:53 am

There are several games other than the shooters only available for JP 360s; but it certainly depends on your Japanese fluency and which sort of niche genre you prefer.

There's that convenience store simulator (Conveni 200X), a few sim/adventures by Idea Factory, Idolm@ster (is it getting an American release?), Clannad, the Zegapain mech games, Janline mahjong (there's another mahjong game I think) and some more that don't come to mind right now. Nothing huge, but perhaps something worth looking through for an interesting gem.

For newer releases, I'm somewhat excited to see Samurai-dou 3, and I'm quite excited to see how Chaos; Head Noah turns out. 5pb knows how to deal with that game, right? The second trailer on the XBL Marketplace is great.

One on-topic note: NCSX does not yet have the newest Jasper arcade units with the built-in memory. Their site listed the units as being Jaspers...I ordered one and it was not a Jasper. I returned it and told them of their misleading description. They have since removed the listing for Jaspers and hopefully will get them in soon.

fraggore · Post by **fraggore** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:01 pm

well it would be only for the shmups and maybe a few asian RPG's in english part from that my uk one is fine.
just thinking about it like but are the shmups like raiden 4 and and the parodious worth going all out to get a jap 360? mmmm but death smiles is comming mmmm

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:21 pm

Doctor Fugue wrote:There's that convenience store simulator (Conveni 200X), a few sim/adventures by Idea Factory, Idolm@ster (is it getting an American release?), Clannad, the Zegapain mech games, Janline mahjong (there's another mahjong game I think) and some more that don't come to mind right now. Nothing huge, but perhaps something worth looking through for an interesting gem.

For newer releases, I'm somewhat excited to see Samurai-dou 3, and I'm quite excited to see how Chaos; Head Noah turns out. 5pb knows how to deal with that game, right? The second trailer on the XBL Marketplace is great.

Do you know Japanese? Chaos;head Noah is a Japanese visual novel. Also, Chaos;Head Noah is getting a backport to the PC by the translation team which translated the original PC version. If you're a fan of the series, this should be good news.

CLANNAD is the same, so there's no point in buying either unless you're a fan and absolutely must have them, or you know Japanese. iDOLM@STER and the sequel are both playable without the knowledge of Japanese, but no, they're not getting localized (ever). I heard the Zegapain games were rather poor, actually. It isn't worth seeking out EVERY import title for the 360, since it's just not worth it. I was planning on doing this, but since I don't know Japanese and since some games are text heavy, I decided to pass once I started seeing stuff like Spectral Force 3 and Apocalypse pop up.

Spectral Force 3 was actually localized, and is compatible with JP 360s. I've been waiting for the price to come down on it though, and I'll buy it shortly. There's also a bunch of non-import only titles worth buying, like Street Fighter 4.

Doctor Fugue · Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:44 pm

My Japanese skills are poor at best right now, but I'm spending a lot of time learning and visual novels are more fun than reading textbooks or going back to school. I never "played" Chaos;Head on the PC, so I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully there aren't long loading times! ha ha.

Being an elitist/purist, I also enjoy playing most games in their original language, even if it has been localized. I should have just bought a JP 360 a long time ago, but I'll be happy with one of the recent revisions.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:51 am

Idolm@ster doesn't have a chance in hell of being localized.

If you're looking at a Japanese 360 and you don't speak Japanese, you're not going to be getting much exclusive stuff other than the shmups. Pretty much all other action games get a quick release elsewhere. I'm happy the 360 is getting so much JRPG love, but I don't know how long that will last. Sure hope it keeps up though.

Doctor Fugue · Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:32 am

Of course, there is also the upcoming Dream Club where you attempt to get to know hostesses by plying them with alcohol and questions.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:21 am

I recommend playing Eternal Sonata in Japanese. Even though the game was localized, and even though there's English and Japanese selectable in the options, the game's story makes absolutely zero sense. It consists of "this girl can heal, which means she's dying, and this guy's trapped in his own dream, and becomes a psycho, while the towns leader tries brainwashing everyone". No sense at all. Beautiful game, though. It's probably one of the best looking jRPGs I've ever touched.
'
As for chaos;head noah, well, you're not going to know what the hell is going on. The entire game is just text and pictures. Not because the story sucks, but because it's complicated. It's about a hikikomori who spends his life collecting figures and playing MMORPGs, and he gets caught up in a murder case. Eventually he becomes a suspect but it turns out all the murders were staged. I need to play through the PC version again because my memory is still hazy. There's also a lot of plot holes in the game that weren't explained, like the first murder cases, and stuff I can't get into without massive spoilers.

Anyway, it appears 5pb's coding sucks. Someone I know managed to hack the chaos;head noah 360 version and extract all text, sound and images, and now they're working on a backport. I'm really looking forward to it. In case you don't know, I did import chaos;head noah for my JP 360, but it's about because I can, and because I don't make sense.

Anyway, not all JP 360 titles are good. A-Train HX and Conv Store 200X are fairly poor titles. In fact, I'm willing to bet that Agarest Senki, Apocalypse and Diario are also "fairly poor" just like everything else that Idea Factory have ever created. It doesn't kill the curiosity but seriously, just because the game is in another language, doesn't make it superior.

Doctor Fugue · Post by **Doctor Fugue** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 4:52 pm

I'm sure no one would suggest the originating language determines the quality of a game, but I do tend to find more interesting or addicting experiences among JP titles -- even poorly-received games. That A-Train game looks like fun, I'll give that a try.

For visual novels, I do actually know what they are, and have read a few. I will know what's going on, but it just happens to be an extremely slow process.

Thanks for trying to keep your description spoiler-free. Staged murders seems like a big spoiler, but honestly I would probably rather find out about some cheap gimmick like that before I invest a ton of time.

Do you (or anyone else) think Clannad would be a better choice? I don't have regular access to a PC so having a visual novel on a 360 would be great.

Baron · Post by **Baron** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:44 pm

I've been preparing to buy a Jpn region 360 system for shmups over the last year, looking for good prices on region-free US games I want, and the like. I even bought a 360 Hori arcade stick already. But I am blanching and having second thoughts when it comes to getting the system. With shipping it'll be almost $350. That's a big chunk of cash that I'd kind of rather spend on other things right now, to say nothing of the possible and demonstrated reliability of the Xbox 360. I may just forget the whole thing for now and instead focus on enjoying the shmups I already own, maybe expanding my mediocre Saturn library or something. The price of entry is just too prohibitive for me right now.

I'm sure to you PCB shmup buyers out there $400 is a drop in the bucket, but for me it's too much for what could possibly be a doorstop in 2 years.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:08 pm

Doctor Fugue wrote:Thanks for trying to keep your description spoiler-free. Staged murders seems like a big spoiler, but honestly I would probably rather find out about some cheap gimmick like that before I invest a ton of time.

It's difficult not to spoil chaos;head because the game doesn't pick up until some insane shit starts going on. It tries to block you and the character out of the picture. Do note, the translated PC version took me 38 hours to complete. The 360 version adds 6 routes, with no furigana, so uh..

Doctor Fugue wrote:Do you (or anyone else) think Clannad would be a better choice? I don't have regular access to a PC so having a visual novel on a 360 would be great.

I never beat CLANNAD but I know it's 300 hours long, translated. The 360 version has additional chapters to download, but I don't own the game and I didn't bother finishing the PC version as it just feels like I'm reading a "boys first love" novel. It's also in 720p and it's fully voiced, but again, if you don't know Japanese then there's practically no point in purchasing it unless you a) want to watch characters talk to you in Japanese, 2) want the gamerpoints or 3) just want the game for the hell of owning the game.

A-Train HX was localized to a PAL port by 505 GameStreet, but it's region locked and it wno't work on US consoles. Convi Store 200X doesn't look like my sort of thing, although I have always wanted to check out Spectral Force 3 and thankfully that's translated. It's on special on Amazon.com (down from $50 or $60 to $20).

I think Atlus will continue to localize obscure 360 games like Spectral Force 3, I just don't know when. I just wish they wouldn't region lock games like Operation Darkness, which the US version won't work on JP consoles. Oh well.

originalz · Post by **originalz** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 11:33 pm

Elixir wrote:I just wish they wouldn't region lock games like Operation Darkness, which the US version won't work on JP consoles. Oh well.

It's not that bad though, the Japanese version of Operation Darkness is in English if your system setting is in English.