A nifty guide to signing up for the Japanese PSN. Considering that the demo for Catherine, the Atlus/Persona team's first HD game, hits the PSN in Japan sometime TONIGHT, I figured it was a great time to check it out.
Some nifty things I happened upon in my journeys:
-A demo for the PS3 Wizardry title, prospects of localization = bleak [DLC is plentiful. Stats and gear?]
-Videos for Catherine, in beautiful HD
-Demos and videos for dang near every obscure import you can think of, such as Umineko no Naku Koro ni -The Ronde of the Witch and Reasoning-, a neat visual novel recently ported to the PS3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN2qXxWuFSE
-Nifty Super Robot Taisen content, and clips for games that are getting US releases, such as No More Heroes PS3, and Final Fantasy XIII-2. Why the US PSN isn't sharing these, I can only wonder.
Creating an account took a matter of moments. I suggest using another user on your PS3, then going nuts. There's literally nothing to lose, and quite bit to gain. (Unless you want to start buying stuff, then it gets tricky.)
I finally got around to making myself a Japanese PSN account a few months ago, and I have to agree---it's pretty cool. Also, I, too, have noticed quite a few things whose exclusion from the US PSN is completely baffling. For example, Japan got a playable demo for King of Fighters XII---an extremely limited demo, but a demo nonetheless. Surely, this sort of thing might have improved KoFXII's extremely chilly reception in the US?
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, it didn't take me long to throw down some cash to pick up a few things (most notably the PS1 version of Policenauts), though the cost is definitely steep: from Play-Asia, a 1000-yen card costs $16.99, though, given current exchange rates, that's not too bad of a markup; at a Kinokuniya here in California, I just paid $10 for a book with a cover price of 550 yen.
My other favorite thing on the Japanese PSN is the show GameDiggin. It's a series designed to showcase the Game Archives of PS1 and PC-Engine titles available for purchase. The first bunch of episodes are all hosted by Japanese entertainment personality Teppei, accompanied by Araji Yatsuka, who happens to be one of the directors for Famitsu. Every episode consists primarily of the hosts attempting to play the showcased game of the week, accompanied by various special guests from the Japanese game industry. The later episodes all have a brief section in the middle where they give brief summaries of other games similar to the one currently being played (and all conveniently available for purchase on the PSN).
All together, there aren't too many episodes, and they're all pretty short, but they're definitely all enjoyable (except for the hideously boring episode showcasing the boxing management sim Boxer's Road).
Sadly, there's about 20 demos or so that were once on the store but are now gone. Kenza, Yakuza 3 and Yaluza 4 were all up at one point. So were others!
ReplyDeletebuying isn't really tricky, only expensive.^^'
ReplyDeleteI order my yen codes via ebay. Hell, most time i start up the PS3, it's just to play my various japanese PSX and PCE games.
I would hardly play PS3 if it weren't for the japanese PSN Store
Thanks for reminding that the Catherine demo is out! Played it twice in a row: love it! The dialogue is witty as well, still on the fence whether or not I should import (so expensive... why don't any of the DenDen town shops ship international :( I used to buy games at launch for 25% off RSP)
ReplyDelete