{"id":1215,"date":"2013-02-10T13:19:04","date_gmt":"2013-02-10T13:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2018-08-31T17:29:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T17:29:55","slug":"1215","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/archives\/1215","title":{"rendered":"Best Japanese-Only PSN Classics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/psn.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/psn-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"psn\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1216\" \/><\/a>Before my PS3 died (twice) I had two PSN accounts.  I would peruse the Japanese store  every few weeks, downloading demos and seeing what was new.  However, I can&#8217;t recall the login and haven&#8217;t checked the store in a while.  This weekend I signed up for another Japanese account and had a peek at the store&#8217;s new layout this morning.  There are some great classic games that aren&#8217;t available in the U.S. that I&#8217;m considering picking up.  <\/p>\n<p>PS1 and PC Engine classics cost 600\u00a5, that seems reasonable!  As of today, 600\u00a5 translates to just under $6.50 US.  Nice!  However, I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s possible to use a U.S. credit card on a Japanese account.  Over at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.play-asia.com\/\">Play Asia<\/a>, you can get a 1,000\u00a5 card for $17.  That&#8217;s&#8230;not so reasonable.  1,000\u00a5 wouldn&#8217;t do me much good, I&#8217;d need 2,000\u00a5 (three classic games w\/ 200\u00a5 to spare) but those two PSN cards would cost me $35.  Certainly not worth it.  I may not dive in and get anything, but I thought I&#8217;d talk about what&#8217;s good on the Japanese PSN Store that isn&#8217;t yet on the U.S. store!<\/p>\n<p><b>Playstation 2<\/b><br \/>\nI&#8217;m starting with the PS2 because none are really great. All cost 1,200\u00a5 (~$13) but since the originals are region locked (are these?) even if you owned the titles, you couldn&#8217;t play them on the PS3.  The games I looked at:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Capcom Fighting Jam\n<li>Capcom Vs SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001\n<li>Castlevania\n<li>Neo Contra\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, <b>Capcom Fighting Evolution<\/b> was the U.S. title and the game was just plain bad.  That was a bad time for <b>Capcom<\/b> and it was before the company really started listening to fans.  <\/p>\n<p><b>CVS2<\/b> is widely regarded as a good title, but since I never liked <b>SNK<\/b>, I only played it for a short while.  And I never chose <b>SNK<\/b> characters!!!<\/p>\n<p><b>Castlevania<\/b> was subtitled <b>Lament Of Innocence<\/b> here and it&#8217;s a title I never beat.  The dungeons were so repetitive and devoid of character.  Its sequel appeared to remedy some of these things&#8230;but I never beat that one either.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, <b>Neo Contra<\/b> was the second <b>Contra<\/b> on the PS2 and while it was not anything like <b>Shattered Soldier<\/b> in layout or difficulty, I had fun playing it!  I even wrote a <a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/faqs\/neocontra.txt\">mini FAQ<\/a> on it.  Is that worth $13?  Nah&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><b>Playstation 1<\/b><br \/>\nThe PS1 had an impressive library of games and as the years pass, the games look worse and worse.  However, a few titles piqued my interest, and for 600\u00a5 each, they&#8217;re manageable downloads.  There were two titles I didn&#8217;t expect to see, and all games were shooters.  Let&#8217;s see.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/dodonpac.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/dodonpac.gif\" alt=\"dodonpac\" width=\"220\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1218\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>DonPachi &#038; DoDonPachi<\/b><br \/>I am a big <b>DDP<\/b> fan (evidence <a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/beestorm\/\">#1<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/images\/gaming\/ddp\/\">#2<\/a> \/ <a href=\"www.peacefuldeath.net\/ddp\/\">#3<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/faqs\/ddp3.txt\">#4<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/faqs\/ddp4.txt\">#5<\/a>)  While these are just the PS1 ports, they&#8217;re <b>DDP<\/b> on an American PS3!  I can probably skip <b>DonPachi<\/b>.  However, until <b>DDP3<\/b> came out, <b>DoDonPachi<\/b> was my favorite shmup ever.  The game is just incredible and this title trumps part 3 with its metal soundtrack.<br \/>\nWorth a few bucks?  Absolutely.  I&#8217;d pick this up in an instant.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s not all&#8230;the Japanese store also has <b>ThunderForce V<\/b>, the two <b>Ray Crisis<\/b> titles and <b>Einhander<\/b>.  The latter now fetches a ton of money in its original packaging and I regret selling it all those years back to fund a new PS1.  I don&#8217;t know why it&#8217;s not available on the U.S. store, but I remember it being such a solid title, with different paths, awesome weapons and a pretty cool soundtrack.<br \/>\nAnd to think, everyone doubted <b>Square<\/b> could put out a good shooter!!!  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Board-DevilsCrush.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Board-DevilsCrush.jpg\" alt=\"Board-DevilsCrush\" width=\"255\" height=\"704\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1217\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>PC Engine<\/b><br \/>\nMy friend Dan got a TurboGrafx-16 way back in 1990ish and we all know nostalgia is a very powerful thing.  Of course, I&#8217;ve gone back to play a lot of these games since, but without the hardware (and Japanese hardware at that!) there are many games I missed out on.  And I much prefer the living room experience over<br \/>\nthe PC\/emulator one as the former is much more comfortable.  <\/p>\n<p>The Japanese store has all three PC Engine <b>Ys<\/b> titles.  <b>Ys Books I &#038; II<\/b>, <b>Ys III: Wanders From Ys<\/b> and <b>Ys IV: The Dawn Of Ys<\/b>.  Sadly, none are viable purchase options as my Japanese is weaker than ever.  Fortunately, I have <b>Ys Chronicle<\/b> and <b>Ys: The Oath In Felghana<\/b> on the PSP (Vita) and those cover I-III and <b>Ys: Memories Of Celceta<\/b>, the remake of part 4, will be coming to western shores this autumn.  While I love <b>Ys<\/b>, I don&#8217;t need these titles.  <\/p>\n<p>Shooters were still the rage back in the early 90s and there are a number of good titles available.  <b>Blazing Lazers<\/b>, <b>Super Star Soldier<\/b> and the Turbo Duo title <b>Gate Of Thunder<\/b> are all there.  For 600\u00a5, that&#8217;s pretty good.  Again, I&#8217;ve already gone back to these titles in recent (~10 yrs now) years.<\/p>\n<p>However, there was one title in particular I searched for.  I&#8217;d easily drop the yen on this one.  <b>Devil Crash<\/b>!  As a kid I&#8217;d play the US title, <b>Devil&#8217;s Crush<\/b> and have great memories.  Even going back to this a decade ago (thus <a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/faqs\/devils_crush.txt\">the FAQ<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/dc\/\">the site<\/a>) has a special place in my heart.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d go back to this game in an instant.  The three levels, numerous little secrets (I still don&#8217;t know how to get the red ball), high score chasing&#8230;it&#8217;s just awesome.  It&#8217;s one of the things I don&#8217;t like about this generation.  With online leaderboards all the rage, we lose out on local high scores.  I love the top-10 lists.  Nowadays, games often just keep your best score which destroys local competition and doesn&#8217;t even allow me to chart my progress.  <\/p>\n<p>In any event, the tame is awesome and I would love to go back and play through it again.  It&#8217;s only a couple of bucks.  Worth it???<\/p>\n<p>So&#8230;all in all&#8230;with 2,000\u00a5 I think I&#8217;d have to pick up <b>Einhander<\/b>, <b>DoDonPachi<\/b> and <b>Devil Crash<\/b>.  These three would be worthy entries into my PS3 collection and none require heavy translation.  Alas, none are really necessary, so I may just avoid them all and save a few bucks for the impending release of the PS4.  Oh, and that had <b>BETTER<\/b> have full PSN implementation.  The new system won&#8217;t be backwards compatible, I&#8217;m almost certain, but I&#8217;d love to have PSN game purchases available.  That would be awfully nice.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before my PS3 died (twice) I had two PSN accounts. I would peruse the Japanese store every few weeks, downloading demos and seeing what was new. However, I can&#8217;t recall the login and haven&#8217;t checked the store in a while. This weekend I signed up for another Japanese account and had a peek at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15,145,18,4,42,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-worst","category-blog","category-castlevania","category-dodon-pachi","category-games","category-lists","category-ys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1223,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions\/1223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}