jp 360 or na 360? (cave region free)

[2dvertical]

for those of us who havent made the xbox jump what would you do? Another thread on games to own leads one to believe all you would miss out on is deathsmiles (skeptical on localization)..i was set on a jap unit but all this region free news with cave and the fact that besides cave a majority of folks here seem to list raiden iv and rfa as shmups to own (na version cheaper). And whats the deal with the units with only 256 mb storage? please help me with my decision

[evil_ash_xero]

for those of us who havent made the xbox jump what would you do? Another thread on games to own leads one to believe all you would miss out on is deathsmiles (skeptical on localization)..i was set on a jap unit but all this region free news with cave and the fact that besides cave a majority of folks here seem to list raiden iv and rfa as shmups to own (na version cheaper). And whats the deal with the units with only 256 mb storage? please help me with my decision

Well, no one knows if ESPGaluda II is going to be region free yet. We should know soon. But DDPBLEX is NOT region free, and I would say almost surely Ketsui would not be(not released by CAVE).

So, right now, honestly, it's a little soon to know. But with a NA console, probably the most you would get at this point is Mushi and (MAYBE)Galuda II. You'd miss Deathsmiles(unless it gets localized), and we don't have any clue about future ports. In a few weeks we should know about Galuda II. It's not looking that positive at this point, since things are so quiet on that front.

If you have to get a system now, i'd get a J one, and you can just not worry about any of this stuff, and enjoy all these games now. DS is awesome, and who knows if it'll come out here. And if these games get localized, you'd be waiting maybe a year for each one. I mean, DS came out in April.

Sure, you'd be paying a bit more, but it's the nature of this hobby unfortunately.

[Naiera]

I say get a Japanese 360 as well. Many games are region free if you come across something cheap locally, and it's the only way to go if you want to make sure to be able to play all the great shmups that are coming out in Japan. In my opinion, Death Smiles alone is reason enough to get a J360.

[Elixir]

Asada said that importing Futari would have a direct impact on whether Galuda 2 is region free or not, and according to the sales charts, it had no impact at all.

[evil_ash_xero]

Asada said that importing Futari would have a direct impact on whether Galuda 2 is region free or not, and according to the sales charts, it had no impact at all.

Have any numbers been released since that first initial week? Any specific numbers on export sales?

[Jockel]

get a hackable 360 and do the JTAG hack, so you can boot any game on it.

[Mad Mage]

Asada said that importing Futari would have a direct impact on whether Galuda 2 is region free or not, and according to the sales charts, it had no impact at all.

Wait until we know that ESPGaluda is or isn't region free before passing judgment. but yeah, lack of news is a bad sign.

[Schrodinger's cat]

I wouldn't recommend hacking your Xbox at all if you want to download DLC, upload scores, or watch replays due to the recent Xbox live ban wave. If you don't care about any of that then go for it.

If I were you, I would wait for any announcement regarding ESPGaluda II's region status before deciding whether or not to buy a domestic or J-360.

[Nico87]

No reason you should own an american 360 over a japanese one.

[Mad Mage]

No reason you should own an american 360 over a japanese one.

Unless you want to buy and play games released for the 360 in English.

[Rob]

I bought a NA system a little over a year ago and I think it paid off. Cheaper system, cheaper RFA and Raiden IV. The unexpected bonus was Futari. Do you own a PS3 or play PC games? If you like games other than 2D shooters, there are going to be some that aren't region free (like Oblivion - also no Japanese release planned for Final Fantasy 13).

Mainly comes down to price, availability of a small number of games and the potential issue of hardware failure/replacement (not sure how that's went for J-360 owners).

[yyr]

No reason you should own an american 360 over a japanese one.

Unless you want to buy and play games released for the 360 in English.

It is worth mentioning that many American games will play on a Japanese console. Almost all Japanese games are region-coded for Japan...the same is not true of American games. Quite a lot of them are region-free.

My advice: look at the list of Japanese-exclusive 360 shmups (it's floating around here). If there are at least two or three that you really want, then you likely want a Japanese console.

And whats the deal with the units with only 256 mb storage?

Those are nice. Newer units have 512MB, I think, but the 360 consoles produced for the first few years had no internal memory at all.

[drunkninja24]

Asada said that importing Futari would have a direct impact on whether Galuda 2 is region free or not, and according to the sales charts, it had no impact at all.

I still don't see why they wouldn't just do it. It's not like it costs them any more money to do so, and it shuts up the few fans outside of Japan (ie. us) that want to play their games with US systems.

[GaijinPunch]

Asada said that importing Futari would have a direct impact on whether Galuda 2 is region free or not, and according to the sales charts, it had no impact at all.

Well said. And... wrong. They are fully aware that plenty foreigners bought Futari. Whether it's enough to warrant a region free game is another story. required reading.

[orange]

ugh fuck videogames

[GaijinPunch]

ugh fuck videogames

The only way to truly be free.

[Nico87]

No reason you should own an american 360 over a japanese one.

Unless you want to buy and play games released for the 360 in English.

Well, like other people have mentioned, alot of US games are region-free. Also, like 99% of the games released have been, or are being, released in Asia, with English, and other, languages selectable.

[mesh control]

I've been debating getting a J 360 as well, i purchased the NA MW2 version when it was released so it might be too early to get another console...

[Nico87]

MW2 is region free.

[mesh control]

i was talking about the MW2 console.

[Nico87]

Oh.

[Elixir]

Asada said that importing Futari would have a direct impact on whether Galuda 2 is region free or not, and according to the sales charts, it had no impact at all.

Well said. And... wrong. They are fully aware that plenty foreigners bought Futari. Whether it's enough to warrant a region free game is another story. required reading.

Wrong? That basically confirms that it had no impact and that making it region free is more trouble than it's worth.

[Jeneki]

Well, like other people have mentioned, alot of US games are region-free. Also, like 99% of the games released have been, or are being, released in Asia, with English, and other, languages selectable.

I have to admit, it made me very sad to see people playing Halo on my J360 at Nebraskon 2009.

There's always the chance that Cave are using Futari export sales numbers more for leverage on potential licensees, instead of as a plan for future region-free titles. Think "See, people will buy these in your region, here's some stats" while secretly thinking to themselves "We can make more money from a licensee than importers."

[Exarion]

Well, like other people have mentioned, alot of US games are region-free. Also, like 99% of the games released have been, or are being, released in Asia, with English, and other, languages selectable.

I have to admit, it made me very sad to see people playing Halo on my J360 at Nebraskon 2009.

There's always the chance that Cave are using Futari export sales numbers more for leverage on potential licensees, instead of as a plan for future region-free titles. Think "See, people will buy these in your region, here's some stats" while secretly thinking to themselves "We can make more money from a licensee than importers."

And the people who otherwise would be importing can get the games at a lower price. everyone wins.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Well, like other people have mentioned, alot of US games are region-free. Also, like 99% of the games released have been, or are being, released in Asia, with English, and other, languages selectable.

I have to admit, it made me very sad to see people playing Halo on my J360 at Nebraskon 2009.

There's always the chance that Cave are using Futari export sales numbers more for leverage on potential licensees, instead of as a plan for future region-free titles. Think "See, people will buy these in your region, here's some stats" while secretly thinking to themselves "We can make more money from a licensee than importers."

I fucking hope not, while its great news for ppl in the US and Canada, the rest of us will probably get bugger all if cave go for licencing.

[2dvertical]

Thanks guys. Bit the bullet and bought a jp360 (arcade) and deathsmiles along with mushi futari. I own a ps3 so this is mainly a shmups system. I like the comfort of knowing that I dont have to worry about the region free issues, but at the same time I just spent 300 on an arcade unit (could have gotten a na unit with an actual hardrive for that much) for a couple of shmups. I think ill be happy with my descision in the end as long as we get more releases after esp2.

Can someone fill me in on this arcade version of xbox360? So it has 256mb on board memory and no harddrive? And when you buy a harddrive and install it does that mean I void my warranty if I get the red ring of death or whatever its called. I am just trying to make sense of this 256mb memory thing, wont that dissappear pretty quickly just from game data?

[Schrodinger's cat]

So it has 256mb on board memory and no harddrive?

Yes.

And when you buy a harddrive and install it does that mean I void my warranty if I get the red ring of death or whatever its called.

You definitely won't void your warranty that way. Newer systems supposedly have way less of a chance getting the RROD, so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

I am just trying to make sense of this 256mb memory thing, wont that dissappear pretty quickly just from game data?

Yep. You're absolutely going to need a new hard drive if you want to download DLC or install games.

Congrats on the J360. You're going to be having a lot of fun

[evil_ash_xero]

You're absolutely going to need to get a hard drive. Stuff like "Death Smiles MBL" and "Mushi Futari BL" take up some space, and are well worth it.

[chempop]

Not having a hard-drive has kept me from both Black Label's. I want to score a cheap 20gig drive, thinking about if a Hong Kong unofficial ebay deal is my best route (certainly the most affordable unless I find someone who upgraded and has an old one kicking around).

Nice going with the J360, definitely worth it if you are into Cave bullet hell.

[2dvertical]

Mother Fuck! My jp360 was due to arrive today, that would have been nice to have a weekend full of shmup goodness. Now its being held up in customs because play asia sent the wrong commercial invoice. So this fedex bitch sends me this FCC form to fill out with these fields like "tariff number" "model # of item" blah blah, pretty much asking for things I could not possibly know besides where it shipped from. For fucks sake, its a video game!

Ok, Im done bitching now.