Topic: Switch Physical Boxed Games List & Release Dates (US & CA)

@Teksetter
It's not the first time that there's been a physical release that removes a language option, because another release in another region was snapped up.
This happened with One Step From Eden, the Asia region physical release had English language (and only English language) removed because of Limited Run Games.

The situation has me speculating that LRG will be publishing Schim.

@RupeeClock
Yes I’ve seen English omitted or removed from Japanese or Asian physical release in the past, allegedly so LRG or whoever distributes the game later in the West gets better ROI. Recently, Assault Suit Leynos 2 was advertised with English at first, but did an about-face not long before release, about the same time Red Art Games opened up preorders. Hmm…

@Teksetter
Yeah, it's a dodgy practice that I don't care to see.
I recall that for One Step From Eden, the physical cart does have English language support on there, but installing an update will remove that option. I don't have the cart to confirm that any more though since I gave it away after getting the LRG version.

Whenever browsing Play-Asia pre-orders I keep an eye on language options.
Rabi-Ribi is finally getting a Switch physical release after LRG gave it PS4 and PS Vita physical releases many, many years ago.
Play-Asia's initial listing didn't state it to be multi-language, but it now does and lists English among them.
https://www.play-asia.com/rabi-ribi-platinum-edition-multi-la...
https://www.play-asia.com/rabi-ribi-platinum-edition-multi-la...
Interestingly, the Asia region release states that French, German, and Spanish languages are supported whilst the Japan region release does not.
LRG having previously done physical releases for Rabi-Ribi is no guarantee that they'll do the Switch release. They did not do a Switch release for Nightmare Reaper, for example. That was Super Rare Games instead, whilst LRG did the PS4 and PS5 release.

For SCHiM specifically, the Japanese release is listed as only supporting Japanese, Chinese, and Korean languages. Items listed as multi-language do not necessarily support English so it is worth paying attention.
https://www.play-asia.com/schim-multi-language/13/70h57n
For a game like SCHiM which I don't expect to be dialogue heavy, it should be fine to play without English language.

@RupeeClock
“Dodgy” is a good word to describe that practice of scrubbing English from Japan/Asian releases. “Sketchy” is another way to put it. The sad thing is, there are English speakers in those regions who’ll have to import games from NA or Europe when they could have just bought locally.

As bad as navigating all these multi-region releases is, though, I remind myself to give thanks for the lack of region-locking on Switch. Having full access to physical, eshop, and even NSO games from Japan is pure bliss!

@Teksetter
As I recall, the region for certain Asia region releases with English language support being produced, is because of Asian countries like Singapore.
Poor internet connectivity in some parts is also why they do data complete releases, such as Final Fantasy X and X 2 being complete on-cart instead of making the second title redeemed via a download code or update.

@RupeeClock
That sounds right to me — I think English has become a kind of lingua franca in some parts of Asia, so including it in the language options makes marketing sense.

As for on-cart completeness, it's so aggravating that devs cut corners and leverage the internet service of those people fortunate enough to have it, rather than reduce their margin fractionally to just print the whole game/trilogy/collection on the cartridge in all regions.

My first and most memorable run-in with this was The Banner Saga Trilogy physical release, a game I really wanted to try at the time, which only included the first game on the cartridge. I never bought it for that reason.

Mushihimesama secondhand prices about to go cray cray.

As if LRG-release flipping wasn't ugly enough already.

FWIW, LRG's counterpart in Japan, Superdeluxe Games, has Mushihime-sama physical standard and deluxe editions up for preorder right now in Japan, with an Aug 29th release date. It's listed as having English, too.

Maybe that will keep price gouging down for the summer, at least.

@Teksetter
Capcom had been one of the worst for this, with their physical releases of the legacy collections for Mega Man and Mega Man X.
The second volume was a pack-in download code for international physical releases, although there are separate physical releases for Rockman X Legacy Collection volumes 1 and 2 in Japan.
Infamously however, they only did a physical version of Rockman Legacy Collection volume 2 as part of a 5-in-1 special Rockman box (which includes Rockman 11).
This is the only way that Rockman 9 and 10 have ever been available as a physical release in any form, this box set sells second-hand for a lot of money now.
I was fortunate to get mine at retail price from Amazon JP.

In any case, the decreasing costs of flash memory is why publishers are now more willing to go for 16GB or even 32GB carts without requiring mandatory downloads for the other titles.
At the very least, they'll entertain doing an on-demand physical release such as through LRG. Bigger publishers like Konami, Ubisoft, and Bethesda have been doing just that.

As for Mushihimesama, it sucks to see this one get digitally delisted after it was inaccessible internationally for so very long. I have my LRG physical of that, but at least Superdeluxe Games is doing another print.
Maybe that's part of why it's getting digitally delisted, though...

Hmm, was happy to see all of Wargroove 1 on the Wargroove 1 + 2 double pack.

Looks as though Wargroove 2 continues to be updated?

Win some, lose some...I guess.

This confounds me. I know I've inquired about this once before. Games like Unbound: Worlds Apart and Zapling Bygone are all I can think of currently that I wanted previously.

But I just saw Protodroid Delta, Fearmonium, and Planet Cube: Edge get PS release announcements physically when they exist on Switch and I don't understand why. Do the sales numbers for these games on switch suck? Is Rabi-Ribi hope that these games might get physical releases in the future (until Switch 2 comes out, I guess...)?

The Spyro "physical" collection takes up so much space on my girlfriend's Switch. I finally caved and bought Life is Strange Arcadia Bay Collection despite the second game being download only. And don't even get me started on the digital download in a box release of Power Wash Simulator ONLY for Switch. Every time it gets a DLC update I get mad all over again.

I wish I knew why these weird decisions got made.

Oh, and BTW, does anyone know why my NintendoLife profile shows I've only made 3 comments ever on this site, when my notifications show at least a dozen people replying to comments I made that aren't even on that list of 3?

Comments are on articles, the posts tab shows forum comments/posts.

OMG I didn't even see that tab on mobile! I had to scroll over. Thank you so very much!

So turns out iam8bit are doing a US physical release of SCHiM, shipping October 25th 2024.
https://www.iam8bit.com/collections/schim/products/schim-nint...
Whilst the page doesn't state languages, it probably has English language support.
It's an "iam8bit Exclusive Edition" so I'm not sure if that means "only avaialble through our site", or "You can go find this on Amazon later".

A little annoying considering the Japanese language release is next week, July 18th.

@RupeeClock Typically the iam8bit version has different box art exclusive to their online store.

@Magician
Yeah, though what I'm getting at is that their iam8bit listings tend to appear before any others, so they make it unclear if there will be any other options at all.

I would guess that the retail version of SCHiM uses the same cover art as the Japanese release, I happen to prefer that cover.

Sigh...
I wish publishers would coordinate somewhat and kindly let us ignorant consumers know which games are printing in which regions. I do prefer to buy the NA or Europe release of Western-developed games if I know it's coming.

I preordered the Japanese SCHiM together with a few other games to bundle into a shipment with my copy of the Nintendo World Championships Famicom special edition, also releasing on July 18th. What with the combined shipping and the exchange rate, importing from Japan isn't really costing me significantly more this time. I wouldn't even lament the lack of English in such a game, if indeed they strip it from the Japanese version.

Some day when my kids inherit my games, though, they'll probably be annoyed by all the Japanese-only titles I own...

Yeah I canceled my play Asia copy of Ugly recently after they announced the NA version out of nowhere. They were really cool with it, but I don't feel like doing that every time. It's not so much I dislike getting an Asian release of a game as much as I hate feeling like a NA release announcement was withheld until we all bought it elsewhere. It happens with so many games. More and more often, it feels like.

@RupeeClock Wow iam8bit actually publishing a game? All emails I get from them normally is just soundtrack vinyl.
Hmm, might just wait for the Amazon version as I don't need more "gaming junk" as my wife calls it

@Bunkerneath
Yeah, way too many emails about Vinyls which I don't collect myself.
The only one I own is the Xenoblade vinyl by virtue of it being part of the collector's edition set.

iam8bit do physically publish a far few games though, with other things this year like The Stanley Parable, and Outer Wilds.