Japanese Region Mobile/Cell Phone Games (e.g. Square-Enix)

[layzee]

How does one acquire them?

A little information about me first: For various reasons, I like to collect Japanese-region games. So while I realise that some Japanese mobile phone games were translated and localised for non-Japanese audiences (e.g. Final Fantasy IV: The After), I am still only interested in the original Japanese versions (i.e. with Japanese text). Mobile games that are exclusive to Japan (e.g. Final Fantasy Legends: Warriors of Light and Darkness) of course, need not be mentioned as a counter-point (I also want them). Basically, "buy/download the local English versions" is not a valid option for me.

In order to acquire these games, it would appear that I would need a Japanese mobile phone. If I was to import a Japanese phone, which would be the best in general for my purposes? That's assuming of course that I can access the Japanese networks in order to download the games. Since I don't actually reside in Japan, I assume I can't. Note that I don't know anything about Japanese mobile phones, their networks nor anything else related to that subject.

A quick browse of the Square-Enix website reveals Apple iPhone compatibility which may be a better alternative due to it being more "in use" widely and thus, hopefully more standardised. However. the problem of accessing Japanese networks remains and not all games (especially older ones) are compatible. Looking at the Square-Enix webpage above, I assume that's multiple networks, based on those icons to the right. Of course, other issues exist like me not actually needing a new phone and the fact that iPhones are pretty expensive but that's irrelevant (to this thread). Having said that, I would like a new phone...

Another possible method that may eliminate the regional obstacles is "dumping". or the process of transferring data from one medium (e.g. cartridge, mobile phone) to another (usually PC). Technical and legal implications may apply to this method however.

Anyway, if you have anything to add to this topic, please throw out what you have.

To get an idea of the sort of things I'm after, here is my undoubtedly incomplete "Want" list so far. Everything listed below, I would like to collect and own. If you know of any more Japanese mobile phone games that you think I might be interested in, please make some suggestions or direct me to a website that has a convenient list. Since I'm interested in multiple game franchises from multiple companies, the information available is a bit fragmented. I am even interested in re-releases, just to see what changes they have made. For example, Seiken Densetsu on the iPhone has its gameplay interface changed a bit (since it's a touch pad) and cosmetic changes were also made on the "Ring System" menu with character portraits, etc...

Anyway, it's about time I get to the list:

Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII ビフォアクライシス -ファイナルファンタジーVII -
Breath of Fire: Ryuu no Tsuri-shi ブレス オブ ファイア 竜の釣り師
Capcom Girl no Mind Puzzle カプコンギャルのマインドパズル
Chaos Rings ケイオスリングス
Chocobo de Mobile チョコボ de モバイル
Chocobo Panic チョコボパニック
Chocobo to Crystal no Tou チョコボとクリスタルの塔
Chokkan! Rockman 直感! ロックマン
Choube! Rockman 跳べ! ロックマン
Chrono Trigger クロノ・トリガー
Code Age Brawls コードエイジブロウルズ
Crystal Defenders: Vanguard Storm クリスタル・ディフェンダーズ　ヴァンガード・ストーム
Crystal Guardians クリスタルガーディアンズ
Densetsu no Ogre Battle 伝説のオウガバトル
Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode -Final Fantasy VII- ダージュ オブ ケルベロス - ファイナルファンタジー VII- ロスト エピソード
Dragon Quest - Mobile ドラゴンクエスト モバイル
Dragon Quest Battle Road - Mobile ドラゴンクエストバトルロードMOBILE
Dragon Quest III: So****e Densetsu e? ドラゴンクエストIII　そして伝説へ?
Dragon Quest Monsters ドラゴンクエストモンスターズ
Dragon Quest Monsters - Mobile ドラゴンクエストモンスターズMOBILE
Dragon Quest Monsters Wanted! ドラゴンクエスト モンスターズ WANTED!
Dragon Quest Monsters: Battle Road Victory Special Movie ドラゴンクエスト　モンスターバトルロードビクトリー　スペシャルムービー
Dragon Quest: Fushigi no Dungeon - Mobile ドラゴンクエスト 不思議のダンジョンMOBILE
Dragon Quest: Motto Fushigi no Dungeon - Mobile ドラゴンクエスト もっと不思議のダンジョンMOBILE
Estpolis Denki DX: Inishie no Denki Doukutsu エストポリス伝記 DX いにしえの洞窟
Final Fantasy - Mobile ファイナルファンタジー モバイル
Final Fantasy II - Mobile ファイナルファンタジーII
Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street - Mobile ファイナルファンタジー in いただきストリート MOBILE
Final Fantasy IV ファイナルファンタジーIV
Final Fantasy IV: The After - Tsuki no Kikan ファイナルファンタジーIV THE AFTER -月の帰還-
Final Fantasy Legends: Hikari to Yami no Senshi ファイナルファンタジー レジェンズ 光と闇の戦士
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children - Larger-than-Life Gallery ファイナルファンタジーVII Advent Children - Larger-than-Life Gallery
Final Fantasy XIII - Larger-than-Life Gallery ファイナルファンタジーXIII Larger-than-Life Gallery
Front Mission - Mobile フロントミッション モバイル
Front Mission 2089 フロントミッション 2089
Front Mission 2089-II フロントミッション 2089-II
Ganso Hanjuku Eiyuu 元祖 半熟英雄
Hoshizora no Nakama-tachi 星空の仲間たち
Itadaki Street Mobile いただきストリート MOBILE
Kingdom Hearts - Mobile キングダム ハーツ モバイル
Kingdom Hearts Coded キングダム ハーツ コーデッド
Knights of Crystal ナイツオブクリスタル
Kobun ga Tobun? コブンが飛ぶん?
Kobun Tokei コブン時計
Kumitate Kobun 組み立てコブン
Makai Toushi SaGa 魔界塔士 サ・ガ
Musashiden II Episode Zero 武蔵伝II EPISODE ZERO
Oshioki Kobun おしおきコブン
Rockman Bug Sweeper ロックマン バグスイーパー
Rockman DASH Golf ロックマンDASH ゴルフ
Rockman DASH: 5tsu no Shima no Daibouken! ロックマンDASH 5つの島の大冒険!
Rockman EXE Legend of Network ロックマン エグゼ レジェンド オブ ネットワーク
Rockman EXE Phantom of Network ロックマン エグゼ ファントム オブ ネットワーク
Rockman GP ロックマンGP
Rockman Panic Fire ロックマン パニックファイア
Rockman Pinball ロックマン ピンボール
Rockman Slot ロックマン スロット
Rockman Space Rescue / Rocket Christmas ロックマン スペースレスキュー / ロケットクリスマス
Rockman Tennis ロックマン テニス
Romancing SaGa ロマンシング サガ
Romancing SaGa 2 ロマンシング サガ2
Seiken Densetsu 2 聖剣伝説2
Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden 聖剣伝説 -ファイナルファンタジー外伝-
Seiken Densetsu: Friends of Mana 聖剣伝説 FRIENDS of MANA
Sigma Harmonics Coda シグマ ハーモニクス コーダ
Song Summoner: Utawarenu Senshi no Senritsu ソングサマナー 歌われぬ戦士の旋律
Song Summoner: Utawarenu Senshi no Senritsu Kanzenban ソングサマナー 歌われぬ戦士の旋律 完全版
Square Enix Melody Full スクウェア・エニックス メロディフル
Square Enix Melody Full Plus スクウェア・エニックス メロディ-Plus-
Star Ocean: Blue Sphere スターオーシャン ブルースフィア
Tactics Ogre: Unmei no Wa - Special Promotion Application タクティクスオウガ 運命の輪 スペシャルプロモーションアプリ
Tales of Breaker テイルズオブブレイカー
Tales of Commons テイルズオブコモンズ
Tales of Mobile: Craymel Check
Tales of Mobile: Craymel Lab
Tales of Mobile: Groovy Arche
Tales of Mobile: Klondike
Tales of Mobile: Reversi
Tales of Mobile: Scramble Land
Tales of Mobile: Tales of Quiz
Tales of Mobile: Tales of Wonder Casino
Tales of Mobile: Whis Battle
Tales of Tactics テイルズオブタクティクス
Tales of the Abyss: Mieu no Daibouken
Tales of the Abyss: Mieu no Fonic Gojiten
Tales of the Abyss: Mieu no Jikken****su?
Tales of the World: Material Dungeon
Tales of Wahrheit テイルズオブヴァールハイト
Tobal M トバルM
Voice Fantasy ボイスファンタジー

Finally, since I assume that the subject of this thread is pretty niche (or at least, my requirements are) and the people with the knowledge to help probably even more sparse, I made multiple threads on multiple forums with the intention of scraping together what knowledge I can manage to receive. Apologies in advance if my actions (posting same threads on multiple forums) offends your sensibilities.

[fuse]

The iOS stuff will be significantly easier to obtain - as long as you've got the hardware (could do a recent iPod Touch if an iPhone doesn't take your fancy), all of the downloads are done via iTunes and quite easy. You'll need someone to pick you up a J-card but creating an account / downloading is straightforward enough with no region/IP locks to get in your way.

Aside from this I don't know what's popular in keitai tech these days - but I can imagine most of the games still only being available directly on the phones themselves (probably via horrendous platforms like iMode); everyone I know who's lived out there has expressed frustration of how locked down their mobile platforms/networks/phones are too. My only successful experience of playing a J-mobile game was the Beatmania IIDX game, where the java file was successfully dumped and uploaded to the public internet; it worked "ok" on other j2me devices but there were still issues... plus it was pretty arse. Not sure if you are looking to do this 'legit' or not, but your collecting angle suggests you are looking to pay.

Best method I can think of would be to try and find someone out there to buy a phone, load it up with all the games and then post it out to you. As you've pointed out though, not everything will be compatible with the one phone/network. Trying to get access to new ones once the phone is in your hands will undoubtably have many more obstacles though (CDMA / roaming / data limits etc).

Not sure if this is actually any help but I'd appreciate if you could update with your progress. This kind of stuff interests me!

[wakka]

Imported Japanese mobile phones won't work in Australia (I assume that's where you are from your location), and even if they did you would only be able to connect to domestic networks anyway, not DoCoMo, Softbank or KDDI like you'd need to to get the games you want.

As Fuse pointed out up there, the only way to play will either be via dumps that you could load onto another Java compatible game, or to get someone to preload a phone then send it to you. Even then, you'd only have access to the games that were available on the network that that phone was tied to, and you wouldn't be able to add any more yourself.

Aren't most of these games meant to be rubbish anyway? It just seems to be endless FF and Rockman rehashes. You'd be better off spending your money on an iPod touch or iPhone to play the games that Square Enix have released on there.

[layzee]

The iOS stuff will be significantly easier to obtain - as long as you've got the hardware (could do a recent iPod Touch if an iPhone doesn't take your fancy), all of the downloads are done via iTunes and quite easy. You'll need someone to pick you up a J-card but creating an account / downloading is straightforward enough with no region/IP locks to get in your way.

Is the J-card you speak of similar to the Microsoft points system where, in order to access markets in a region that differs to the one you reside in, you need to purchase the correct region points/cards?

Aside from this I don't know what's popular in keitai tech these days - but I can imagine most of the games still only being available directly on the phones themselves (probably via horrendous platforms like iMode); everyone I know who's lived out there has expressed frustration of how locked down their mobile platforms/networks/phones are too.

One of the possible methods to achieve what I want was to get a Japanese citizen to buy a phone for me and download the games that I want. If as you say, there are barriers between competing mobile platforms, networks, and phones, then I imagine I might have some difficulty in collecting 100% of the games on my list.

My only successful experience of playing a J-mobile game was the Beatmania IIDX game, where the java file was successfully dumped and uploaded to the public internet; it worked "ok" on other j2me devices but there were still issues... plus it was pretty arse. Not sure if you are looking to do this 'legit' or not, but your collecting angle suggests you are looking to pay.

My personal collecting angle is to pay for "physical software". In other words, I'm not really a fan of digital-only game software so for me, a best case scenario would be someone in Japan to dump everything on my "Want" list (properly i.e. 1:1 copy) and then I'll just go figuring out how to run it, whether that's playing them on a standard PC using an emulator, or transferring it back to a phone of my choosing.

Best method I can think of would be to try and find someone out there to buy a phone, load it up with all the games and then post it out to you. As you've pointed out though, not everything will be compatible with the one phone/network. Trying to get access to new ones once the phone is in your hands will undoubtably have many more obstacles though (CDMA / roaming / data limits etc).

Yep, that's my main concern with this method: I can't use my new Japanese phone to get future games. I can only use it for the games that were already installed before it left Japan.

Not sure if this is actually any help but I'd appreciate if you could update with your progress. This kind of stuff interests me!

No problem, if I make any significant progress or learn of something worth mentioning, I'll report back to this thread.

Imported Japanese mobile phones won't work in Australia (I assume that's where you are from your location), and even if they did you would only be able to connect to domestic networks anyway, not DoCoMo, Softbank or KDDI like you'd need to to get the games you want.

As Fuse pointed out up there, the only way to play will either be via dumps that you could load onto another Java compatible game, or to get someone to preload a phone then send it to you. Even then, you'd only have access to the games that were available on the network that that phone was tied to, and you wouldn't be able to add any more yourself.

Correct, I reside in Australia and yes, those are valid concerns.

Aren't most of these games meant to be rubbish anyway? It just seems to be endless FF and Rockman rehashes. You'd be better off spending your money on an iPod touch or iPhone to play the games that Square Enix have released on there.

One could describe the games listed as rubbish, but these are Final Fantasy-branded and Rockman-branded rubbish, which is more than can be said for the other general mobile phone game rubbish.

And that's reason enough for me to start looking into this subject.