Importing

You must have missed the controversy Sony kicked off a few years ago. Despite their handheld being region-free, they started taking lawsuits out left, right and centre against Asain and American gaming companies allowing you to import the PSP and its titles. Some sites got permanently shut down due to the lawsuits and it's one of the most disgusting wastes and abuses of power I've seen from Sony.

You can bet that the major importers (so, the likes of PlayAsia) won't be allowing any Sony handheld imports when they still don't do PSP stuff to Europe.

quote lovelyfisher

Personally I won't be doing this because of the different button layouts and everything. I'm sure there would be a way to change everything, but I'm not gonna risk it because it's so much money lol.

Why does the Japan version have a different control layout?

quote Aurora

quote lovelyfisher

Personally I won't be doing this because of the different button layouts and everything. I'm sure there would be a way to change everything, but I'm not gonna risk it because it's so much money lol.

Why does the Japan version have a different control layout?

Its mainly just the fact that the circle and x buttons are switched up. For example, when I played the japanese version of Monster Hunter on PSP it's circle to confirm etc. Not that big of a deal but it could get annoying

quote lovelyfisher

Its mainly just the fact that the circle and x buttons are switched up. For example, when I played the japanese version of Monster Hunter on PSP it's circle to confirm etc. Not that big of a deal but it could get annoying

Funny, nobody complained about that in Final Fantasy 7 or 8. When FF9 went to an "American" layout (X to confirm, circle to cancel), I switched it back to the old style.

CVG have put out a little guide to help anyone possible importers make their decisions. It's a little bit UK-sided, but definitely relevant for all; some things worth noting include a cheaper launch price in Japan, the fact that PlayAsia are allowing importing for Sony products (hopefully a new leaf for Sony), and that some titles don't even come out close to the US/EU launch.

Anyone swayed by this?

quote Reenee

quote lovelyfisher

Its mainly just the fact that the circle and x buttons are switched up. For example, when I played the japanese version of Monster Hunter on PSP it's circle to confirm etc. Not that big of a deal but it could get annoying

Funny, nobody complained about that in Final Fantasy 7 or 8. When FF9 went to an "American" layout (X to confirm, circle to cancel), I switched it back to the old style.

Probably because it didn't have two consoles of custom predating their releases and due to the fact people who are interested in a niche genre like Japanese RPGs probably know slightly more than the average consumer, which wasn't nearly as broad back then as it is now anyway.