Interesting games for region-free consoles/handhelds?

[desocietas]

Hey all, I was wondering if folks had any interesting titles they might want to suggest for consoles/handhelds that aren't region-locked.

I don't have many import games because of language barriers, but I picked up a few for my DS and PS3 & Vita since they're not region-locked and the games were of interest.

So far I have:

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
Last Window: The Secret Of Cape West
Steins;Gate - El Psy Kongroo Limited Edition (EU)

The first two are in Japanese, but since they're basically Elite Beat Agents, I figured the language difference wouldn't be *too* much of a problem, though I haven't tried to play them yet.

Last Window: The Secret Of Cape West was never released in the US but is the sequel to the Hotel Dusk, which I enjoyed quite a bit.

Steins;Gate sold out for the US version of that particular edition, so EU was the only way I could get those goodies

Someone else in another thread mentioned Carcassonne for the DS, which seems to only have come out in Germany or such but has an English language setting available.

What other titles might be of interest to people? I, unfortunately, only know English, so the game would need to be in English or not rely heavily on text to play it. I'm open to learning Japanese, however, if it's not too complex (might encourage my Japanese studies ).

[maximo310]

Jump Super Stars/Jump Ultimate Stars- Super Smash brosesque kind of fighting game for the NDS
Ketsui Death Label- A stripped down version of Cave's shmup Ketsui, thats good for short spurts of time (NDS)
Neo Geo Heroes Ultimate Shooting- Pretty decent shmup SNK crossover game (PSP)
Okami(PS3)-
Strider (PS3)
D&D Shadow of Mystara(PS3)
Wipeout HD Fury(PS3)
dariusburst(psp) and dariusburst chroniclesaviours(ps vita)
- there's a bunch of asian english versions for vita games; can't remember most of them right now tho

[kashell]

I'm going to recommend Tales of Rebirth for the PSP. The good thing about this game is that there are tons of fantastic resources out there if you don't know enough Japanese to understand the story. I used a guide to help me along the way and had a blast with the game.

[desocietas]

I'm going to recommend Tales of Rebirth for the PSP. The good thing about this game is that there are tons of fantastic resources out there if you don't know enough Japanese to understand the story. I used a guide to help me along the way and had a blast with the game.

That's good to know - I haven't gotten into the world of fan translations or anything, and I usually prefer to play the physical version over emulated any day.  That reminds me that I need to go through the other Tales games!

Also, I didn't know that the PSP wasn't region locked!    (I really haven't looked into import game playing at all, haha)

[kashell]

I'm going to recommend Tales of Rebirth for the PSP. The good thing about this game is that there are tons of fantastic resources out there if you don't know enough Japanese to understand the story. I used a guide to help me along the way and had a blast with the game.

That's good to know - I haven't gotten into the world of fan translations or anything, and I usually prefer to play the physical version over emulated any day.  That reminds me that I need to go through the other Tales games!

Also, I didn't know that the PSP wasn't region locked!    (I really haven't looked into import game playing at all, haha)

Oh yeah, the PSP has provided me with some fantastic games from the land of the rising sun. Most of them have been from the Tales series.

There were a few darlings that thought they were going to develop a fan-translation for Tales of Rebirth on the PSP, but the project fell through. They were promising rainbows and unicorns, but then they realized that they actually had to do...what's the word...oh yeah...they had to do work.

[desocietas]

I'm going to recommend Tales of Rebirth for the PSP. The good thing about this game is that there are tons of fantastic resources out there if you don't know enough Japanese to understand the story. I used a guide to help me along the way and had a blast with the game.

That's good to know - I haven't gotten into the world of fan translations or anything, and I usually prefer to play the physical version over emulated any day.  That reminds me that I need to go through the other Tales games!

Also, I didn't know that the PSP wasn't region locked!    (I really haven't looked into import game playing at all, haha)

Oh yeah, the PSP has provided me with some fantastic games from the land of the rising sun. Most of them have been from the Tales series.

There were a few darlings that thought they were going to develop a fan-translation for Tales of Rebirth on the PSP, but the project fell through. They were promising rainbows and unicorns, but then they realized that they actually had to do...what's the word...oh yeah...they had to do work.

Haha, sometimes I daydream about doing translation work... but I'd have a lot of learning to do before then, and even then, there are phrases and idioms that would take time to become familiar with.  Seems like fun, but probably a lot more work than I imagine.

[abe]

I've got some recommendations for Japanese imports.

PSP
-Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA
-Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd
-Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Extend
-Medpoid: the Music#

PS Vita
-IA/VT Colorful

Super Famicom
-Super Puyo Puyo Tsu

[doctorlaudanum]

If you can find it for a good price, I highly recommend Aquanaut's Holiday: Hidden Memories for the PS3. It's a scuba diving simulator, and I promise that's a lot more fun than it sounds. The Japanese version is the cheapest you'll find, but the Chinese and Korean international versions include optional English interfaces. The translation isn't perfect in either version, but I didn't find it hard to understand. If you can, try to buy it off a Chinese site like Taobao. Western sellers will more than likely rip you off.

If you like the Tales series, Tales of VS. for the PSP is a neat little fighting game where you play as various characters from the Tales series. Some knowledge of Japanese would help, but there's more focus on the gameplay than the plot.

The Boku no Natsuyasumi series is about a little boy spending his summer vacation in rural Japan in the 1970s and 1980s. It's mostly built around mini-games, but they have a lot of charm. To my knowledge, the second game is the only one that never came out for a region-free console. The first was later ported to the PSP. 3 and 4 came out for the PS3 and PSP, respectively. Highly recommended, though it would help to know some Japanese for the various diary entries you'll collect. I believe there are English guides online if you need any help.

[desocietas]

If you can find it for a good price, I highly recommend Aquanaut's Holiday: Hidden Memories for the PS3. It's a scuba diving simulator, and I promise that's a lot more fun than it sounds. The Japanese version is the cheapest you'll find, but the Chinese and Korean international versions include optional English interfaces. The translation isn't perfect in either version, but I didn't find it hard to understand. If you can, try to buy it off a Chinese site like Taobao. Western sellers will more than likely rip you off.

If you like the Tales series, Tales of VS. for the PSP is a neat little fighting game where you play as various characters from the Tales series. Some knowledge of Japanese would help, but there's more focus on the gameplay than the plot.

The Boku no Natsuyasumi series is about a little boy spending his summer vacation in rural Japan in the 1970s and 1980s. It's mostly built around mini-games, but they have a lot of charm. To my knowledge, the second game is the only one that never came out for a region-free console. The first was later ported to the PSP. 3 and 4 came out for the PS3 and PSP, respectively. Highly recommended, though it would help to know some Japanese for the various diary entries you'll collect. I believe there are English guides online if you need any help.

Awesome!!! Also, you totally had me at "scuba diving simulator"  I don't know how to swim, but I daydream about scuba diving!

[doctorlaudanum]

In that case, you may like the original Aquanaut's Holiday on PS1, the Endless Ocean series on Wii, or the Everblue games on PS1. All deal with deep-sea diving. I think Aquanaut's Holiday: Hidden Memories vastly surpasses all of them, but they're not bad games in their own right.

[kashell]

I'm going to recommend Tales of Rebirth for the PSP. The good thing about this game is that there are tons of fantastic resources out there if you don't know enough Japanese to understand the story. I used a guide to help me along the way and had a blast with the game.

That's good to know - I haven't gotten into the world of fan translations or anything, and I usually prefer to play the physical version over emulated any day.  That reminds me that I need to go through the other Tales games!

Also, I didn't know that the PSP wasn't region locked!    (I really haven't looked into import game playing at all, haha)

Oh yeah, the PSP has provided me with some fantastic games from the land of the rising sun. Most of them have been from the Tales series.

There were a few darlings that thought they were going to develop a fan-translation for Tales of Rebirth on the PSP, but the project fell through. They were promising rainbows and unicorns, but then they realized that they actually had to do...what's the word...oh yeah...they had to do work.

Haha, sometimes I daydream about doing translation work... but I'd have a lot of learning to do before then, and even then, there are phrases and idioms that would take time to become familiar with.  Seems like fun, but probably a lot more work than I imagine.

It does seem like a labor of love sort of thing. I think it would be fun, but I know that it would require lots of work and programming knowledge.

EDIT: Here's a link with some thoughts I wrote to a translation group. http://forum.tales-cless.org/tales-of-destiny-directors-cut-%28ps2%29/thoughts/