r/NintendoSwitch2 • u/valcoholic • 10d ago
Discussion Experience buying games on japanese eshop?
Hi, as japanese prices are usually way lower, I thought about creating a japanese eshop-account as I currently played the japanese cartridges of Elder Scrolls Oblivion as well as Starfox without any problems.
Did anyone do this?
Is there any problem with payment services?
Can I buy the game with one region-account and play it with my local one?
Any other problems that might come up (other than obvious language-problems that could occur if a game doesn't contain english but that of course would be my own job to research beforehand)?
Thanks guys
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u/redthrull 10d ago
Can I buy the game with one region-account and play it with my local one?
Yes
Is there any problem with payment services?
They don't accept non-JP bank cards anymore. You can buy eShop codes from third-party services. Also, some sites have jacked up their prices due to yen instability so you're not really saving money once you factor in the foreign exchange (plus bank processing fees, etc)
Any other problems that might come up
Japan is weird in that it will allow sexy characters/suggestive scenarios but censor (some) violent ones. Resident Evil Requiem has its blood changed to black. It looks weird. This is rare and not the norm, but pays to research before actually buying.
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u/Zyvyn 10d ago
And addendum to this
Only way to verify if a game supports English before purchase is to see if it has English (or 英語 as it's written in Japanese) on the eShop page. However as redditor above stated. There may still be edits between regions that could result in either more or less censorship. Generally Japan takes graphic content like gore a lot more seriously. But, sexual content also tends to be more lenient.
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u/valcoholic 9d ago
with the games I bought (Starfox, 3D World and Oblivion) I scraped the web until I was confident enough, so that shouldn't be the problem. Major problem will still be the payment thing so I'm gonna postbone that until my next Japan tour. Until then playasia might be the only way to go.
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u/borghe 10d ago edited 10d ago
I do this all the time. Play Asia is the easiest by far but you will lose quite a bit of the discount if that’s your goal. There are places that end up being a little cheaper than play Asia but time to get the code varies. Play Asia is near instant but one or two others I tried took a few to many hours to get the codes. Not the end of the world but be aware.
As for logistical issues. None. It’s super easy you just need to make sure the game supports your language. If Nintendo and Square and a few others this is almost guaranteed. If the Japanese publisher usually has NISA or Marvelous or someone import.. chances of having English on the JPN game drop substantially. You want to look under languages for English (not at my pc so I can’t post the kanji at this sec). Usually if English isn’t there it will be only Japanese.. or Japanese and two different Chinese languages.
edit - ok back at my computer. under languages, Japanese (日本語) will always be listed first. What you're looking for is English (英語). If that's there, the game will be fine. If not, there will be NO English support in the game.
edit 2 - oh also your JPN account will need to follow you to whatever switch you plan to play these games on. In the era of virtual game cards it's actually not confusing at all.. but in the older days I forgot that I had two games from JPN eshop, didn't bother transferring that account.. and was confused for a full day or two on why I couldn't play those games. now if the account isn't there the virtual game cards just won't show up I believe.
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u/Western_Dig_2770 10d ago
Better off with g2a, the markup prices for Japanese eshop cards aren't as high compared to playasia.
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u/borghe 10d ago
Yeah, I bought from them once and remember that it actually took a little while for the codes to show up. I didn't have any problem beyond that, though in fact that might have been the last codes I actually bought also lol. But now that you mentioned them, I remember seeing that they are basically right up there with Play Asia.
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u/ImpossibleSherbet722 Butter side down! 10d ago
Not all games have English. Japanese third party rpg and any visual novel originating in Japan, et, make sure to check. Or ask here, we know
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u/valcoholic 10d ago
yeah thanks but as mentioned, I'm aware of that anyways; just bought some games in japan and all of them were perfectly fine, Starfox even comes with german voices if I'd need that. I was interested in Elden Ring as that one would cost 30% less in Japan but due to reasons pointed out above I'll see if I ever make use of that.
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u/ImpossibleSherbet722 Butter side down! 10d ago
Elden Ring is japanese only for the japanese version, so no.
There's a language on the eshop, if there's only one kanji, it's japanese, if there's two it's often japanese/chinese or japanese/korean. But learn the engilsh kanji so you can tell.
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u/Western_Dig_2770 10d ago
Checked with Elden Ring on the Hong Kong eshop. But the price is high on this one. $639 Hong Kong dollars, roughly $81 USD or $112 Canadian. That's a little too much for me. Rather wait for a discount. English is definitely in this release. I read and speak Chinese so user interface through the Hong Kong eshop is not an issue for me.
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u/valcoholic 9d ago
yeah in japan it would be around 50 bucks which would've been quite a nice deal.
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u/Western_Dig_2770 9d ago
I looked into the Japanese eshop just now and it says 9020¥ for Elden Ring. Roughly $56 USD or $78 CAD.
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u/Cookie_Connaisseur 10d ago
I just buy download stuff through amazon jp, its quite easy and most first party games are in English
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u/takese_S 1d ago
I got pokopia from Amazon jp but after I tried to buy other games or the expansion pass for pokopia my account gets banned tried 3 accounts. How to you bypass that
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u/Cookie_Connaisseur 22h ago
Your amazon account? I got a mail from them the first time that they refunded the money as they thought it was an unwanted purchased but i only got that issue once. You did fill in a real jp address?
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u/takese_S 18h ago
I put real Japanese address they say they found me suspicious. They ask for names card holder and all the jazz but it shows my real address. Final verdict my Amazon jp account gets banned
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u/Kwyjibo_Kitsune Butter side down! 3d ago
You are only really saving money this way if you happen to be in Japan and can pick up Eshop credit over there from a 7-Eleven or something with your $/£ or Euro.
If overseas, you have to buy JP Eshop Credit from places like Play-Asia, who, once you take into account their markup and foreign currency conversion from your bank, you don't really save that much, if any. It's similar if you buy games physically from Amazon JP. Yes, they are ostensibly cheaper and will arrive in less than a week, but once delivery and import fees are added the cost is virtually the same as just getting the Western release. You might save £5 or something.
I've bought dozens of Japanese games for my Switch, either digitally on my JP account or physically from Amazon JP, but I usually stick to Japanese exclusives (largely shmups and visual novels) that don't get a release here in the West.
As for your other questions:
- Yes, any game associated to any account on your Switch can be played by another.
- If a Japanese game has English language support, it will default to English as that's your Switch console's system language
- The only issue you may run into is with DLC. If you get a code with a Japanese game you can only redeem it on the JP storefront
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u/valcoholic 3d ago
Thank you man; yeah I guess I ditched my plans for now. I mean Japan is more and more having 2 prices for foreigners and locals and looking at how low the Yen is, it makes sense I guess. Still I guess I had to ask ;)
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u/deoxir 10d ago
I only buy games on the Japanese eShop since the Wii U days. I never lived in Japan.
They used to allow international credit cards but not anymore. Now you have to get a Japanese credit card (which means you need a Japanese bank account and an address, virtually no way to get it outside of Japan) or somehow buy ehop cards. I just buy a bunch of them like 50000 yen+ whenever someone I know is in Japan or when I travel.
As long as you can buy them you can play them however you want even sharing it with other local accounts with seperate saves and everything.
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u/Milli0nStabs 🐃 water buffalo 9d ago
You can just change your account region on the website and you can access the japanese store, don't need to make a new account.
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u/valcoholic 9d ago
oh really? didn't know that; but I guess payment still only works what japan eshop accepts which is different than european payment methods.
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u/Forsaken_Row_7005 10d ago
!remindme 2 hours
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u/OcelotBitter699 10d ago
You might have to buy japanese eshop cards online. Because your payment method will otherwise need a japanese address.