Xbox 360 USA/Jap/Asia - Concerns?

[Asura]

I'm still thinking of getting a 360, and I currently live in Japan, so a PAL one is out of the question.

I'm torn between Asian, American and Japanese models.

The Japanese and Asian models can be bought online for around 40k yen, or 170 quid-ish. The American model can be bought in Akihabara for 60k yen, or around 260 quid-ish (if anyone can offer a better quote, please do, that's from Game Hollywood).

I have concerns though. First off, the American one can play English language Xbox1 games; whereas the Jap/Asian ones can't (I assume in the case of the Asian ones) and Xbox 1 games can be scarce in Japan.

Secondly, I'm buying it almost purely for Live, as I miss having Live on the old Xbox from when I was in the UK. If I get an oriental machine, will I have issues with Live? Or if I change the menus to English, will it then act EXACTLY like an American machine, apart from the region encoding?

Also if anyone can point me to an FAQ about asian 360s that would be great too.

[bootmonster]

Buy a Jap/Asian 360, and use the 20k yen difference to buy yourself a modded Original xbox for your original xbox games. Seriously, you'll have access to a lot of excellent games, and the prices are considerably cheaper. Most Jpn 360 games are in English anyway.

Had my Jpn 360 for a while now and games like bullet witch and senko no ronde, which I'm sure a lot of guys on this forum haven't had a chance to play yet are ace. Might pick myself up a cheap PAL core unit eventually to catch some stragglers, but you really will have a better experience with a Japanese unit.

Oh yeah and 2 little words

Blue Dragon

BTW, all Live stuff and the like is the same regardless of the region, it's just the language you set it to.

[Asura]

Buy a Jap/Asian 360, and use the 20k yen difference to buy yourself a modded Original xbox for your original xbox games. Seriously, you'll have access to a lot of excellent games, and the prices are considerably cheaper. Most Jpn 360 games are in English anyway.

Had my Jpn 360 for a while now and games like bullet witch and senko no ronde, which I'm sure a lot of guys on this forum haven't had a chance to play yet are ace. Might pick myself up a cheap PAL core unit eventually to catch some stragglers, but you really will have a better experience with a Japanese unit.

Oh yeah and 2 little words

Blue Dragon

Oh yeah, and all live and the like is the same regardless of the region, it's just the language you set it to.

The problem though is I have no interest in playing Japanese-language games, unless they're fighting, mecha, puzzle or driving games - ie. games in which the text is often superfluous. I can't read Kanji, and Katakana/Hiragana can only get you so far. I'm concerned if BD does come out and the USA version is region locked.

[Asura]

I've also just found out the USA version of Amped 3 will not work on a Japanese 360, and there is no Japanese version. Amped 3 is one of the main reasons I wanted the damn machine!! Grrr...

[Asura]

And the USA version of Phantasy Star Universe won't work either.

This is looking worse and worse by the moment.

[eastyy]

think most asian version games are english language (even if the japanese versions are not)

[EJG1980]

One exception to that is Blue Dragon, which I believe is 100% Japanese in both the Japanese and Asian versions.

I agree with Bootmonster, I went for a JPN / Asian version as there are some games available that won't be released in the west (I second the shout out for Senko No Ronde, brilliant game, JPN only).

[Asura]

Hmmm, I'm really put off by Amped 3 and PSU though; they were amongst the 5 or so games I REALLY wanted for the machine. I don't know what to do now.

[Sane]

I'd say you're best off with a USA machine. A lot of the asian releases are region free so you still get cheap games on a regular basis and you won't have to worry about big text heavy releases not being region free (2007 will bring quite a lot of RPG's and adventure type games) but you will miss out on stuff like senko etc. It all depends on what's most important to you.

[Asura]

Senk no Ronde is an arcade game though? If it's the game I think it is, my local arcade has it, and it looks for me like more of a curiosity than something that I would play a lot. Is Bullet Witch any good?

[eastyy]

bullet witch is not to bad i got the japanese version i did get pretty bored with it very quickly though


i got a japanese x360 primaly incase if there were any japanese only games (like senko no ronde) also asian version games are cheaper (trouble is i did hear that a asian 360 may not play some japanese games i am not sure what though but i did not want to take that risk)

[EJG1980]

I'd agree with Sane, if there are games you REALLY want that you can only get on a USA console then it makes sense to get a USA console.

My main reason for getting a JPN Xbox 360 was actually because there was no stock in this country at the time and I was too impatiant to wait so I imported one Getting JPN only games was a side benefit

I actually have an Asian console now as well and all my Japanese stuff plays on it with no problem. There are only about two JPN games that won't run on the Asian 360s and both of them have Asian releases so you don't miss out. I forget which games they are, but someone did mention them in another thread ages ago!

[Asura]

This really annoys me. I would definitely go for a Japanese machine if it wasn't for PSU and Amped 3. I seem to get the impression that the majority of Japanese games, when they're released before the western version, will not work on an American 360 also. This is irritating, as it'll remove any chance I have of going "up the road" for Armored Core 4 and Virtua Fighter 5.

[charlesr]

So, 3 months on. Any reason to choose particularly between Asian or JPN 360? Or doesn't it matter? What's the power supply / stepdown situation?

I see forza is getting an asian and jpn release. Any ideas which is more likely to have english options?

As you can probably figure out, I'm just looking for the cheapest possible way to play Forza 2.... It's the 1/4 Scot in me.

[EJG1980]

I'd still say go for the Asian 360. I've yet to encounter a Japanese game that won't run on it and I'm saving a chunk of space behind the telly where my big 300W stepdown used to be. And very soon I'll be grabbing the Asian versions of GRAW 2, Major League Baseball 2K7 and Crackdown for a mere £75