@Dev Its a little different than an onomatopoeia, which is a sound word. In Japanese we have different words for those terms, based on if they are sound words (which we call gionngo) or motion-verb words (which are different than normal words, called "gitaigo"). An onomatopoeia would be closer to the first one.

Anyway, like the author of the article said, the term wara-wara is very, very common in Japan, though I personally use something different, a lot of people use that when they are commenting on something, similar to "lol".

This lawsuit is silly, and any lawyer familiar with Japanese will know that.

And yes, I've lived in Japan for years.

Just remember guys, this series had huge problems for a while. Days of Ruin never even got released in Japan.

Hopefully the series will get a nice reboot for current systems though.

We in Japan have been playing MH3G for a looong time before it came out in the west. It was a huge hit here and everyone loves this game. Nintendo and Capcom did a lot of smart things with it and we're all looking forward very much to MH4.

And you know what, the I've never once played this game with the circle pad, and I love it. Once you get used to it its actually really fun. The camera tracking they used for the L button makes the need for a separate camera circle pad not as high. I love this game, and he should just maybe not try to troll Nintendo every 5 minutes.

Apparently its up in Japan (starting on the 23rd) but people are having trouble getting that first present piece.
Hopefully I start to get it over the next day or so.

This all plus the fact that nearly everybody and their mother (and father, and grandma) in Japan already has a 3DS. Seriously, just walking to the corner store I get like 4-5 surechigai (Streepass, or is it spotpass, I dunno).

And with Luigi's Mansion 2 coming out today (which I just bought) that should help things a bit.

Oh yeah, and Castlevania is out today as well.

Not going to happen, not should it. Besides, it would be pretty difficult to find people in Japan who even know what Super Meat Boy is, let alone have played it.

@AlexSora89 Well, its more that they have it before we in Japan did

What? EU gets River King before us? I hope it comes to us eventually...I still haven't heard anything about it coming

Just remember that although people in the west will eventually get a lot of these retail games they are waiting for, we in Japan still don't have a lot of games like VVVVVV, Mutant Mudds, Mighty Switch Force, Colors 3D, and quite a few others.

@FernandoMachado I realize that, but I think referring to anything as -gate seems kind of dramatic. Advance House-gate, when there isn't even an uproar, or even a real concern over it, is kind of overreacting don't you think?

I mean, as long as the password system is intact, and everyone will be able to play the full games as they were played on the GBC, people will be happy right? I mean, most people weren't even sure if these games were coming out in the first place, so I'm sure everyone is excited right? The "Advance House" seems like such a small thing, so insignificant, that referring to it with a reference to a huge political scandal just seems a bit much.

Lets just be excited about these games, right?

@GeminiSaint Okay...but I really don't think there's a "scandal" of epic proportions with the GBA exclusive shop, if anything it looks like an afterthought.

@Ridley I'm with you. I'd gladly pay money for all of those GBA games. I see like, 7 of those being instant downloads for me. I can always dream...

@Just remember, Japan had to wait for almost 4 months for Ghost 'n Goblins/Makaimura, and a few other games like Mole Mania/Mogurania and Rayman GBC, and we still don't have Gradius or Toki Tori, so it's not a universal thing. And while NA and EU/UK have gotten the news that they are getting Harvest Moon/River King for GBC, we in Japan haven't gotten any kind of information about those games.

Please everyone, stop asking IF you get these games, as you definitely will. There's no way these will be Japan exclusives.

@LeonChamp Everyone forgets Canada exists.

@BakaKnight You know thwy weill get outside of Japan. As far as VC, its not common for games to stay in Japan only. Especially when NoJ makes a big event of a release like this, they WILL get outside of Japan. So stop asking if, just ask when. For all you know, it could be as soon as the first half of March.

So even if you have to wait a bit, pleae be confident that they ARE coming. Its different when its a Japan exclusive game, or a game that was much more successful in Japan than in the west, but the Zelda games? Those WILL come, so please wait for them with anticipation.

That being said, I understand the weirdness of the Warioland games, but then again, they all made it to EU eventually, haha. Hmm, I know that's not a total consolation, but still, just be patient that these games are not Japan exclusive, unlike some games like Kaeru no Tame Ni Kane Ha Naru, which while it was still an amazing Game Boy game, never made it outside of Japan when it was released for the original Game Boy, but the Oracle games were all released in all regions (though on the original GBC, it did take a few months, but I doubt that will be the case since Nintendo is making a big deal out if this).

@FernandoMachado I'm not sure what you mean by -Gate? Could you explain? I don't know if this reference is universal. I was born in a western country (UK), but I've lived in Japan for quite a long time, so my English and western pop culture learning is kind of lacking,.

@SilentHunter382 Yeah, I agree for the sake of completion it would be nice if EVERYTHING was in the VC version, but if it wasn't, the fact that it isn't an addition to the story or a new dungeon is a bit of a comfort. If I never got to see it, just knowing I'm not missing much is nice to know.

Honestly, from what I've read about the Advance House/Advance Shop, it doesn't seem like something that was all that important, just a nice little extra, like a DVD extra that I'd see once and forget about. It seems like there was only 3 new items, and mostly for decoration or to make the game easier.

Just wondering: what is this Advance House? I'm reading on a few forums now, and I see this thing called the Advance Shop. Is this the same thing? Is the Advance House just a new shop where you can get 2-3 new items that are not really all that important to the game. It doesn't seem like the Color Dungeon in Link's Awakening DX, where it was a completely new addition to the game, just a new shop with a few items. If that's the case, the loss of this "Advance House" wouldn't be a huge loss it seems.

@ueI Oh I see. I assumed that all both pairs of games used the cable that was used as an accessory for the Game Boy. I actually never played Pokemon or the Oracle Zelda games, so I thought they connected the same way.

Hmm, why did I assume that? I thought I saw that in a discussion somewhere on the forums.

Oh well, but in either case, its good news, and if the nature of the cable makes it so that the Pokemon games don't come on the VC, Zelda fans should bee happy that passwords were used for the Oracle games instead.

I'm still thinking its not impossible, since something was done about the Sonic & Knuckles connectivity issue on the Wii VC.

Its great because even in Japan, the GBC has been missing for a long time on the VC (since October I believe). With this double, and the possibility of the one-two punch of Harvest Moon GBC/Legend of the River King GBC, its a nice little revival for the platform.

And, since you all know I wouldn't want to start the speculation early, I'm just going to preface this by saying I'm not sure, but...quite a few people were not sure if the Oracle games were going to come out on the VC because of the connection feature that they had, which is the same thing they said about the Pokemon games. Now I know the nature of the Oracle games being connected (to move over items and reach the final ending) and, for example Pokemon Red/Blue being connected (to trade Pokemon) were quite different, but the Zelda games coming out kind of creates a bit of hope for Red/Blue and Gold/Silver.

@ThomasBW84 That's what I'm here for.

oh wait! Thomas. I just checked the Japanese page. You have to update your article to show that the Japanese VC is having a special discount for these two titles from the 27th of February to the 20th of March. Instead of the normal 600 yen they Game Boy Color games will cost, they'll be 500, so it will be easy to buy them both with one 1000 yen Nintendo points card.

I'm practically fainting now. Nintendo is such a troll! We in Japan didn't have a VC announcement on Wednesday, so a lot of us thought that we weren't getting any VC at all next week, which would make this month the lowest for VC in a long time, and then they spring this on us. Sigh...I feel spoiled and teased by them at the same time.

Awesome. Yeah I see the Japanese page was JUST updated. I was waiting for this. Now us Japanese residents have something to look forward too as well, instead of just Japanese developed games moving to the west, we might have announcements of new games! (and yeah I know there's western developed games, but so many of those don't come here).

I'll be waiting in anticipation! (or is it WITH anticipation, or forgot my English).

@SkywardLink98 No, I meant that there only seems to be Direct's announced for outside of Japan, so it looks like it won't be news of new Japanese-developed games, just stuff from Japan being localized for EU and NA, as well as western-developed game. I'm still not seeing anything about a Nintendo Direct for Japan.

@Saren You know, its not like it isn't a logical thing for those games to show up on the VC. Its a reasonable thing to ask for, and enough people would pay for it. They're not harming you by wanting GBA games, so maybe you should leave them alone about it and not be so negative.

I don't see anything about this on Nintendo's Japan website. No 3DS direct for us in Japan then? So...nothing new, just videos announcing releases or Japanese games for the western market I'm guessing?

Would be great if this included VC as well.

One of those copies was bought by me! I love that game...even though I barely get to play it since I'm so busy...

Well, at least there's still a chance for them. I've never played any of these games, but its hard not to feel for their situation. If the studio was as creative and talented as the article says, then this same situation could happen to any company really.

Hmph, why don't they have a promotion like this for the 3DS?

I guess I'm just jealous. Has anyone heard when this 3DS Direct is supposed to be? There's no info about it on the Japanese Nintendo site yet.

Excited for the 3DS version. I hope that both versions will have the same characters. I'm not a fan of console exclusivity for these kinds of games as far as the roster, even though they are both Nintendo systems.

Japan finally has a release date! March 20th.

So...no GBA games on my 3DS then?

I was really really hoping they'd do Wind Waker for the 3DS.
I'd be ha[[y with a port even.

@Chunky_Droid I'm not trying to call you out or anything, but isn't it a bit presumptuous to think you know what franchises are more popular in the west versus Japan? Its a totally different culture with different taste, but I would think its impossible to try and assume whats popular and whats not.

Like I tried to state before, there wasn't this huge universal price cut on the game, and actually the game sold really well in its first few weeks of release, even being in the top 5 ranking. What Project X Zone was a victim of was bad word of mouth, as well as being released right before a bunch of huge games came out. Many copies of this game were being sold at used game shops really soon after release. I saw them pretty much within the first 3-4 days.

@Ulala Yes, it is going to countries outside of Japan. And no, it won't have English voice actors.

@Araknie I have Ni no Kuni for the DS. I can vouch for that game. The story, music and voice acting are sublime. I do wish though that it had been made for the 3DS though. It already feels a little dated playing it on my 3DS, but even so, its an absolute joy to play, and yes, I did cry at the beginning.

I just want to state again that that price cut that was referenced was not a universal thing. One chain store had a surplus and was selling them off at a really low price, but it was a temporary thing. Most stores here in Japan are selling Project X Zone at a much higher price, that being the normal price most games are getting several months after their release.

Fire Emblem isn't on disc! Neither is Monster Hunter (but that's free).

Still no Japanese release date

As someone who played the game for endless amounts of hours, I can say the voice acting is superb. I honestly can't imagine the characters speaking anything other than their original Japanese voices. They chose very talented voice actors for this title.

Just a little add-on to this information. Ex Troopers hits the download service on the 3DS in Japan next week.

I'm glad its doing so well, but I'm not a fan of the art direction they went with after starting the game over from scratch. The style they had used when they were making this in tandem with London Life from Prof. Layton looked so much more appealing to me. When I see commercials on TV for this game I swear I can never tell it apart from the Animal Crossing adverts.

Glad I haven't gotten it yet then!

What ARE their franchises? I actually have no idea.

Hmm, Just as an afterthought, I checked Amazon.jp. Even the cheapest used and new copies of this game, both first edition and current are on sale at most for double what this ad has. I'm very curious about the source of this ad.

@Chobi I'm not sure about that. I live in Japan, and the RPG market here is huge. Just because THIS game didn't sell well doesn't mean all RPGs are. This game was a huge departure in style and gameplay mechanics, it was not a straightforward RPG. If you think RPGs are dying, look at the sales for Bravely Default, Dragon Quest Terry's Wonderland, Fire Emblem Kakusei/Awakening, Soul Hackers, Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Pokemon Dungeon, Etrian Odyssey IV, Medarot 7, Rune Factory 4, and many more.

I'm not going to name my source, but I've heard it said that Namco itself is not doing well, so they are cutting back on many things, including releasing certain games outside of Japan. I don't know anything more specific than that, but this does seem to fit the trend.

Anyway, I find it strange that the source article doesn't have any more information about what this store is that is selling this game at such a low price. I've seen this game at other stores on sale, but the sale price was still triple that what is shown in that ad.

EDIT: Anyway, its strange. When Bravely Default was doing so well at #1 at its start, Project X Zone was the third best selling game that week. While Bravely Default kept its momentum, Project X Zone had a huge drop in sales. Usually bad word-of-mouth or poor reviews cause something like that. I know the game had fairly good reviews. For example Kotaku gave Bravely Default a 38 out of 40, and Project X Zone got a 34.

@Frapp But I don't even know if that's fully describing it, since 3G contains every single thing that Tri did, plus all the extras. That's why I think calling it an "Extended Version" (to copy DVD titles) is more appropriate.

@LavaTwilight This is a Special Edition basically, so it has everything that Tri had, plus a lot of what Portable 3rd on the PSP had, and a lot of extras.

I guess you could call it Monster Hunter Tri Extended Edition.