Who's importing the games?

[Linkachu]

The games are out in Japan in another few weeks, so I figure if anyone had plans to import them from there they'd know by now. Also, while it may be a bit early to say, feel free to vote/comment if you're a UKer, Australian, etc. planning to import them from the US.


Anyways... I never import games from Japan. No matter how jealous I'll be of friends having and playing the games (and they'll hear about it ^^), I'll wait until they're released in English so that I can get the most out of them. That said, at least I'm Canadian. No matter how long we have to wait for the games to be translated, you can bet that the UK will be waiting at least a month or two longer

 

[Alex Bock]

I don't import anything outside of canada or the US. I've been waiting 2 years for this game, a few more months won't kill me especially when there are other games to look forward to aswell. Plus everything would be in japanese so I wouldn't catch the whole story, only parts that were obvious by the characters actions.

 

[QuagsireQing]

I probably won't import the games, but I've definitely got my eyes on this beaut. Someone needs to console me and tell me it's okay to spend $440 on a handheld system.

 

[Linkachu]

o___________O

A handheld system you already own no less

Alright. I'll try. If you have $440 laying around, and you don't need it for rent, classes, food, other games, the new consoles/games coming out this year, or anything else, then why not? If you think the ends outweigh the means and it'll make you materialistically happy - go for it.

Then send it to me. I can be your personal charity case ^^

 

[RLRL]

Technically im not importing.. but ill be in japan so you can work it out for yourself... im going to get a copy of diamond while in out there and going to cry as it will all be in japanese and ill struggle to understand it...
hehehe i can't wait!

 

[Prof. Cinders]

Then I'll prod you into coming over with it. Whether I understand it or not, there's bound to be the odd symbol I'll go "Ooo! Ooo! That means mountain! ... Well, it does sometimes, anyway!" for. ^^"

 

[Doctor Oak]

My copy of Pocket Monsters Pearl has been paid in full and shall be at my doorstep (supposedly) no later than October 1st.



I'm also importing Diamond from America.

 

[Persian]

Then I'll prod you into coming over with it. Whether I understand it or not, there's bound to be the odd symbol I'll go "Ooo! Ooo! That means mountain! ... Well, it does sometimes, anyway!" for. ^^"

Cinders-san, that would be TWO symbols. X3 The games don't use kanji, so "yama" (or "san") would be in hiragana...which would make it two symbols. Heheh.

Anyways, I wish I could import one of them, but first off, I don't have a DS (YET!), and I'm only in the third level of Japanese. T_T If I was in Japanese 4 Honors (NEXT YEAR!) then I probably would consider it, but no...I am but a lowly Japanese 3 student. If the middle school program let us do a full year in one academic year, I'd totally import it...grrr...

I could probably read the game relatively well, since there is no kanji, but my vocabulary isn't very good. I probably wouldn't know enough words and slang or colloquial phrases to enjoy the game to the fullest. My grammar would probably be okay, but if they use super-casual grammar, then I'd probably miss it. T_T

So, unless I pound like, 300 vocabulary words into my skull between now and October, as well as procure a DS, that would be a no...I don't want to have to study Japanese even more than I already have to just to play a game. A game that should be FUN.

Though I'm sure I won't be able to last the 5 months very well. I am a very impatient/curious person with access to the internet. Not a good combination if I want the games to have an element of surprise. T_T

 

[baratron]

Anyways, I wish I could import one of them, but first off, I don't have a DS (YET!), and I'm only in the third level of Japanese. T_T If I was in Japanese 4 Honors (NEXT YEAR!) then I probably would consider it, but no...I am but a lowly Japanese 3 student. If the middle school program let us do a full year in one academic year, I'd totally import it...grrr...

I could probably read the game relatively well, since there is no kanji, but my vocabulary isn't very good. I probably wouldn't know enough words and slang or colloquial phrases to enjoy the game to the fullest. My grammar would probably be okay, but if they use super-casual grammar, then I'd probably miss it. T_T

So, unless I pound like, 300 vocabulary words into my skull between now and October, as well as procure a DS, that would be a no...I don't want to have to study Japanese even more than I already have to just to play a game. A game that should be FUN.

I wasn't going to import Diamond or Pearl for that reason - although I sat down and learnt to read hiragana last summer, it all dropped out of my head. Something about a few months going in & out of hospital and on industrial-strength painkillers... yeah :-\. Since I got better I haven't had time to think about learning Japanese because I'm too busy teaching chemistry. Plus all Pokemon names and a lot of the moves are written in katakana, which I never even got onto. I figured I wouldn't be able to understand a word, so there was no point.

However! then my friends Tim & Peter decided they were going to Japan on holiday, and I was going to be giving them a list of things I wanted from the Pokemon Center in any case, and the price of Diamond or Pearl was £25 (a typical DS game released here costs £29.99+), and it was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

So now I have Pokemon Diamond, and I'm learning to read Japanese by playing the game. God knows what any of the people are saying to me, I have no clue - but slowly, I'm learning to read the move and Pokemon names. I recognise all the existing moves from their statistics, if nothing else - Types have the same colours, and the Power and Accuracy numbers are the same! I'm typing in a dictionary of words and phrases as they turn up in the games. Right now I probably recognise a dozen or so characters without context, and 20 or so move names. If you are already familiar with hiragana and katakana, you have an enormous advantage.

So what I'd say is that if you can afford it and you have a source of reliable imports (no dodgy eBay pirate copies), I would absolutely go for it. You won't enjoy the game as much as you will in English, but you'll still get a huge amount out of it.

 

[RLRL]

I must be the laziest English person playing the game, purely because I didnt even try and learn more japanese from this game, I just walk around clicking A alot.. Still im at the Elite 4 right now and ive only had 1 or 2 hiccups that have mostly occurred from the fact I don't get too much time to play the game. Its still really enjoyable to play when you can't read the japanese, I only had problems early in the game and at times in the shinou underground with all the gems and stuff, but its still really fun going down there and searching for "swag" if you want to be piratey

 

[Persian]

So what I'd say is that if you can afford it and you have a source of reliable imports (no dodgy eBay pirate copies), I would absolutely go for it. You won't enjoy the game as much as you will in English, but you'll still get a huge amount out of it.

Really? Huh...I didn't think it would be that easy. @_@ I guess I could just keep track of some things...huh...

Even so, I don't think I have the money...plus, I want to know when the US version will be out. If it won't be out for another, like, seven months, hey...maybe I will just break down and import. X3

Edit: broke down and imported. X3 ANY DAY NOW (except for Sunday, of course) POKEMON DIAMOND WILL ARRIVE AT MY HOUSE STRAIGHT (sorta...it probably had to go through Hawaii, or something) FROM JAPAN (or wherever Play-Asia ships from)! OMG OMG OMG (well duh)!