Topic: Regional version

Hey you all,

I am about to open a copy of Paper Mario: TOK, and I have several available. However, I just noticed today that the one I was saving for me has a PEGI rating. As far as I know, that's the European rating system (which is weird, since I imported it from the U.S., and all my other games has ESRB).

My question is, is there some difference between the regional versions? I need to know not only for myself, but for the others as well, since they are intended for sale (there is no Nintendo distribution in my country).

Does the text/vocabulary change? Or anything else at all.

It shouldn’t- I think it’s mainly the rating/cover that can change, but you can always adjust the language settings.

Switch is fully region free so it's functionally identical. A significant number of my switch games are PAL because they're cheaper than buying in Canada (NTSC)

There could be a few language differences between American and European English though.

@Aurumonado pardon me if I'm not understanding correctly, is there still a PAL/NTSC difference? (The only thing I know about the subject is the N64/Switch Online issue and how it worked back then)

@javierferrerm The Switch console is region free. The games are the same. Although, if you buy a physical game from region where the national language is different, some physical games may not have the language pack for your language on them. If you get a physical game that doesn't have your language on it, the Switch will download the language pack for your language if your language was supported for the game.

In some very rare cases, there can be some region specific cosmetics in-game, like a country-specific outfit, but the games are identical otherwise, and will run on any Switch console in the world.

Switch is Region free system but it's the game itself if it doesn't have option for other language as text in voice or either one then it makes it harder to play the game. But if you get another game from Different Language region and DLC make sure to have second account on NIN and Switch so that you can switch to that account to get the DLC. This has been talked about before so if you need more on that lookup on NL that chat for that.

Thank you for all of your replies! I decided to go with the U.S. version to keep consistency with the rest of my collection, but at least I know there's no problem. I have seen European versions on sale and I was unsure about the copy given the different font layout on the side of the box.

@javierferrerm No physical difference with the games as far as PAL/NTSC goes nowadays, but they they are still sometimes referred to as PAL / NTSC regions. As others have said, only difference might be box art (usually just different ratings logo) and maybe language support. There are still some region exclusives, but they work fine on any Switch console (if you can get a hold of them via import)

This is not entirely the case. Some games have optional language packs (or rather optional voice packs while still supporting text for additional languages without such a download), and there are cases where language support has been added via software updates, but there are instances where regional variants of a game are not considered the same unit of software (and will spawn separate icons on your Switch menu) and may not support all languages within a single release.

For example, there are often instances where a Japanese release may support English, but the English-language release does not support Japanese (several of Koei's releases spring to mind).

It is rare that this is the case, but it should not be disregarded for the purposes of importing, and one must not assume that all languages are supported in physical releases. As a general rule, try and stick to importing games that correspond to your respective region's eShop.

DLC is also locked to the region of one's NNID, so if somebody imports a game that is not available in their region's eShop, then they will not be able to make use of the DLC without creating a separate user account (and NNID) that corresponds to that particular region. I recently imported the Asian/Japanese release of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. Now, this is considered a separate unit of software to the Australian/European eShop-exclusive release (which is titled Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water), and so, downloading any DLC for the version available in the Australian eShop would prove a waste of time/money. Further to that, my copy included a download code for a costume, but it can only be redeemed in the Hong Kong eShop. I have a Japanese account for the purposes of downloading demos and redeeming Japanese codes for any physical releases that I may have, but the code is not usable with my account as the code is region locked to the eShop, not the version of the game card (the Asian release merely repackages the Japanese cartridge).