Sega Saturn Game Imports

[AdamGomez1987]

Just curious from anyone that knows, did Sega Saturn come out with much better imports over in japan than what we have here in the states? I'm looking at some titles over there and I can see why the system lasted in japan much longer than it did over here which is why I was comparing the PSP to the Sega Saturn in terms of crappy American Marketing and the dingus that said that rpg's dumb and American's don't like em...lol

Reason why I bring this up because I see a very noteworthy deal for a huge lot of them and wondering if I should tackle it. The beauty of the PlayStation is that they came out with hundreds of games and they're small and compact where in the US They came out with these big huge bulky cases like when the PSOne came out with their first year of video games such as Street Fighteer Alpha 1 and Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV.

[BananaXX]

In my opinion yes, imports are better but thats purely based on what genre's you like. I for one love shumps and big beautiful brightly colored sprites and no other system has that like the Japanese Saturn line up. And atleast Japanese titles come in regular sized CD cases. If you can get that lot for a decent price and it contains note-worthy titles then why not jump on it?

[ZenErik]

A majority of my Saturn games are imports. If I could read Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana well enough almost all of my games would be because I would get the cheaper Japanese versions of all the great JRPGs.

[AdamGomez1987]

It just might be my goal in life to learn kanji, xD!! I love thsoe brightly colored sprites where the American games are mostly dull cubes where color animated sprites feel more timeless with the animation cinematic and all which to me gives a game more timeless.

[aaron]

absolutely. the saturn ntsc-j library is fantastic, and filled with some of the best 2D gaming available. a lot of the games are pricey but there are some great deals to be had on some awesome 2D (and 3D) software that is sometimes 10x the price on the american counterpart.

i hope that makes sense, because i'm not retyping it. it's really, really late.

[synbiosfan]

Yes but do some research on the games you think you want to get. A game like Final Fight Revenge is expensive and it pretty much sucks. There are a number of great games that can be had for rather cheaply. Buy 5 or more games at a time to help take the bite out of shipping charges.

[flamepanther]

Imports took the Saturn from one of my least favorite systems to one of my top three. Import-friendly games are mostly sh'mups and fighters, so hopefully you like those genres a lot, or your mileage may vary. If you can read Japanese, you get some great RPGs and the best version of Policenauts.

[scarper]

The answer is hell yes.

The Saturn did leaps and bounds better in Japan than everywhere else, primarily due to the colorful game selection and "hardcore gaming" feel of its library. You will find a lot more shmups, fighters, and J-RPG's in Japans Saturn library than in America. You'll even find a decent handful of 2-D platformers and general adventure games as well. Here are a few suggestions:

Radiant Silvergun:
You have probably heard of it, and I'm sure it's already been mentioned in this thread. Brilliant Treasure shmup.

Princess Crown:
Fun to play 2-D action RPG that doesn't have a terrible language barrier.

Darkstalkers series:
Awesome Capcom fighter with gothic style characters.

Ports of SNK games:
Most of them were released in Japan, and they all kick ass.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night remake:
You get enhanced audio and better 2-D visuals, as well as a character selection between Allucard (standard game mode) Richter, and Maria. All of which offer a different feel in how the game is played and how you explore the castle.

Silhouette Mirage:
It is a Treasure platformer. Need I say more.

Keep watch for some of the Saturns not-hard-to-find-japanese-versions-of games that you would normally get an American version of. Some of the Survival-Horror games are pretty sweet, like Deep Fear and Enemy Zero. Policenauts is Hideo Kojima's contribution to the Saturn, and it is awesome. Konami also released a lot of their great older games in 32-bit like Twinbee and the Parodius series.