ペルソナ３ポータブルDXパック。

[Quemaqua]

ほしいんですよ。

I enjoyed what I played of the game on PS2, but my wife was *really* addicted. I never beat it, and ironically enough I kept thinking "Man, I wish this was portable" every time I'd play it. It's the kind of game I love to take with me and play everywhere I can. It's getting rough for me to finish RPGs at home now.

I really want to order this in Japanese, though, which sucks because I'm nowhere even close to being able to read anything. It would take me 20 minutes to attempt to translate each sentence. I'm guessing I'd need at least a year of study to be able to so much as barely muddle through it, and I'm only just at about 3 months now. Arg.

[Suter]

I'm pretty sure they'll make it available in English fairly soon. Personally, I'd start with something simpler like a puzzle game if you must import a handheld title. Any RPG worth its salt will be quite difficult to someone who hasn't studied intensely.

That being said, I'm right there with you on wanting this game. I'm curious to see what they've added and changed.

[Quemaqua]

I picked up the original Persona PSP rerelease in English, which is pretty cool, but lately I have a hard time justifying spending any time playing games because I feel like I should be studying, hence my desire to play games in Japanese because then I feel as though I can entertain myself while studying. Obviously this isn't the game to start with, and you're right, Persona 3 and 4 were both immensely popular in North America so I'm sure an English localization will be forthcoming, but I'm thinking I may get the Japanese version and just wait until I can play it in the original language. Or I might not... we'll see how impatient I get.

Plus I'm a sucker for preorder tie-ins and collector's editions. The DXパック on that page I listed is just... so tempting...

[Musouka]

Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the NDS has a nifty Kanji look-up feature:

http://naruhodojapan.blogspot.com/2007/ ... kanji.html

http://www.1nichi1kai.com/2008/08/ninte ... ith-zelda/

Play-Asia is running a special on it (to clear stock, it seems). You can have it for $24.9 (plus shipping)

[Quemaqua]

It's funny you mention that, because it's in my cart at Play-Asia right now, along with Dragon Quest IX, both of which I found via this article. I sort of wanted to play both games, but playing them in Japanese increases my desire to do so well over what it would have been otherwise since they're both pretty light games. I'll be sure to post impressions at some point for other beginners, depending on when I get around to starting them.

[YesJapan Dave]

I picked up Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (used) for under 1000 Yen at Tsutaya in Shibuya.

The "kanji help" feature is great for reading practice.
But you have to be careful with the stylus -- if you tap and HOLD the stylus, the furigana pops up. But if you aren't careful, the system reads this as a simple tap and moves to the next text screen.