Is it worth getting a Japanese PS2?

[Rebel Ninja]

I have been enjoying the shmups on my japanese 360,but I was wondering if it is worth getting a japanese PS2 for shmups. Also what would be the best place to get one and what sort of price would I be looking to pay? Thank You

[jpj]

one or two have made their way over to PAL land, like dragon blaze, raiden 3, homura, strikers 1945, etc - but they're generally poor ports with long loading times, and put on a blue cd-rom disc (which makes my ps2 sound like a washing machine).

i would recommend it. if you already have a PAL ps2 though, you could look into buying a swap magic 3 disc, which allows you to boot up ntsc-j games. if you enjoy bullet hell games, espgaluda and dodonpachi doj are both really great

[Hibachi]

Look into getting the machine chipped. It will cost about the same as as JP machine.

I did it and it was well worth it.

Unlocks the region coding on PS1 stuff as well just in case you fancied Raiden DX or Einhander.

[BulletMagnet]

My JPS2 is one of my favorite systems, as there are loads of great shmups and whatnot to get for it, doubly so if you snag the PS1 stuff. I don't know much about the available mods and such, but I definitely recommend some method of playing PS2 imports.

[TodayIsForgotten]

If you're going to actually buy the games - get a jps2. If you don't have the money for all the games, there are soft mods you could do that are relatively cheap, say, under 50 bucks.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Modded is the way to go. It's kind of like having an all-region DVD player. No reason to have a separate DVD player for discs of different region and honestly, who likes the inconvenience of swapping discs to play a game. It helps keep your TV stand tidy too with less cables.

[Rebel Ninja]

What price does Espgaluda, Ibara and Mushihimesama on the PS2 usually go for on the trading station? Also are the ports themselves good? I'm not really looking into Dodonpachi as I hope the patch on the 360 will be worth the wait.

[BulletMagnet]

Galuda was made by the same guys who did the PS2 port of DOJ, and is considered a nice-quality port - Mushi and Ibara were done by Cave themselves, and didn't turn out as well, but oddly enough tend to be more expensive (haven't checked the exact prices in awhile, someone else will have to answer that). I don't regret buying any of them, but then again I got them all for retail price, as opposed to the more inflated sums they tend to go for these days.

[brentsg]

It's so easy to just soft mod and install the games on a hard drive... I think that's the way to go, then the region doesn't matter. I had no issue installing any of my Cave ports in that manner.

I did have problems with Raiden III, XII Stag, and Gradius 3/4 but I'm not using the latest and greatest revisions of the soft mod stuffs either.