Experimenting with japanese versions of the game.

[Nadian]

Some of y'all might be aware that I'm working towards obtaining a legit Celebi from the Japanese Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disc. Unsurprisingly, this will require playing through games in a language I don't know at all.

I don't have a japanese Pokemon Colosseum or a japanese Gamecube yet (those are gifts from my parents and Play-Asia is having trouble getting Pokemon Colosseum) but I have begun playing around with ordering and playing Japanese versions of some games.

For example, I have the Japanese versions of Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Emerald. For starters, a Japanese GBA box looks like a candy box. I literally handed it to a friend without telling him what it was and he paused, looking at it, and began guessing "pokemon... candy?"

I have verified that these Japanese games can be played on a US Gameboy Advanced, and, more importantly, I have verified that they can successfully trade with the US games. Now there's a good start. I've also set up the Japanese Pokemon Ruby to have its National Dex so that, once I have the ability to obtain Celebi, I'll be able to immediately test to see if there's an easy way to obtain multiple Celebi.

However, the project you might not be aware of is that yesterday I received a Japanese version of Pokemon Diamond that I ordered. Why do I care about having a Japanese DS game? Well, actually, on July 19th (through September 30th, I think) in Japan is when their Shaymin event occurs. Most noteworthy, however, is that you can also obtain a Regigigas by pre-ordering the tickets.

I'm sure that just hearing that you're not sure why I'd mention Regigigas in such a positive light. It's not like we can't get them, right? Well, it is kind of interesting that he's got a move that Regigigas can't normally learn, but really the more interesting point is what he and Shaymin will be holding. They will both be holding event-only berries! Two of the four event-only berries, most specifically! That Regigigas is important because he's holding a Custap Berry, the most strategically noteworthy event-only berry, in my opinion.

The reason that event has me interested is because my brother and his girlfriend will be going to Japan July 13th/14th. That means there might be a chance to obtain these event-only pokemon and items! W00t!

Last night, I verified that the Japanese Pokemon Diamond and the US Pokemon Diamond can trade with eachother. Yay! smile  

[Nadian]

You know, there's something appealing about playing a game, not knowing what the text says, but still making excellent progress.


I've been playing through the Japanese Diamond at the same time as a new US Diamond game I bought recently. That's been kind of fun.

But, I played a little Japanese Pokemon Colosseum last night and that was surprisingly entertaining as well. Exploring the Celebi Bonus Disc and trying to guess what the messages were was pretty fun!


So, I've been planning on importing Pokemon Platinum when it comes out later this year, not intending to play through it immediately, but now I think I might want to play through it anyways. Hmmm...