Final Fantasy Tactics On PSN In Japan
See Full ImageEuropean PlayStation 3 owners often complain that they don't receive anywhere near as much PSN content as North America. Well, US gamers often have the same complaint concerning the Japanese PSN, especially when it comes to PS1 classics becoming available as digital downloads.
If you have a Japanese Store account, however, you have no worries, right? You've got the best of both worlds and you don't care in the slightest if it isn't exactly kosher. Besides, you get access to three more original PS1 games as of today, and that includes the great strategy/RPG, Final Fantasy Tactics. You can download and play it on either your PS3 or PSP and all you need is 1,000 yen (about $10); it's at a premium price just like Final Fantasy VII, so you'll just have to accept it and fork over the money. The other two games added this week probably won't mean much to you if you haven't been living in Japan for a decade, but they're Arubarea no Otome and Zeus Carnage Heart Second. However, the bottom line is that if you own a PS3 but were too young to see a company called Squaresoft pump out gem after gem, you can now pick up both FFVII and FFT and experience the majesty for yourself. Of course, you need to keep an open mind in terms of graphics, and it's probably an unfortunate fact of life that if you weren't there at the start and have no strong pangs of nostalgia, these games may not mean much to you. But even so, for those of us who were there, having FFT available on the Store is awesome.
Now, if only we can get FFVIII and FFIX on there, we'll be in business. It's too bad that the North American PSN can't get some of this greatness, but really, how hard is it to have a Japanese account...? Not that we condone such behavior.
5/13/2009 Ben Dutka
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Comments
lloyders212209
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 10:43:48 AM
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Powershifter
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 10:45:18 AM
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Also - if both of those came to the US PSN, I'd buy them. That way I wouldn't have to risk scratching the original discs ;)
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Nynja
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 10:58:01 AM
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TheHighlander
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 11:07:54 AM
Never done it myself, but I am certain it's possible.
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Byakko2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 11:44:32 AM
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Powershifter
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 11:47:38 AM
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Zapix
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 2:02:08 PM
Last edited by Zapix on 5/13/2009 2:02:52 PM
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tes37
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 3:56:07 PM
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TheHighlander
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 4:11:47 PM
The thing is that 720p/1080i/1080p are the same in NA, Japan and Europe, PAL and NTSC are meaningless when you're talking about HD, so PS3 Japanese games will work just fine.
That said, I'm not so sure when it comes to PS1 games on the PS3. You may want to create a user profile for a Japanese user just in case.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 5/13/2009 4:13:32 PM
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TheHighlander
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 7:11:25 PM
I haven't been able to find anyone who can confirm this one way or the other. PS3 and PSN titles are definitely region free on PS3, but a PS1 classic downloaded from the PSN may still be region locked.
However, PS1 games are run entirely through emulation on PS3. So it is possible that there is no region coding, but I haven't been able to test it, and I haven't found anyone online who has tested it yet.
The most likely way for it to work is for you to create a user profile on your PS3, including PSN account, for a user resident in Japan. You will need a real Japanese postal code and address that at least makes enough sense for the postal code to work. PSN uses your profile to determine which Home instance and PSN store you see. So is is possible that the PS1 classics downloaded from PSN may also use the same mechanism to determine which region your PS3 is 'from'. No guarantee, but it's a possibility. Good luck if you try it, please comment about it if it does work. If I manage to try this myself, or find someone who has I will post about it if there is an appropriate thread here and in the forums.
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TheHighlander
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 11:06:54 AM
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This is a perfect example of one of the major problems with Sony's 'silo' existence in NA and Europe. Copyrights and licenses are poor excuses when the owner/publisher of a game can bring it to PSN in Japan, but no where else. It's not like there are *any* localization issues, the work necessary to release these games via PSN is minimal. So where are they? Why is it that Sony America is so piss poor when it comes to PSN releases, especially PS1 and PSP games? I could point out that Sony America hasn't exactly covered itself in glory with it's handling of other online content such as SingStar and Home, but that might be a little gratuitous.
</rant>
Please Kaz, please get a clue when it comes to PSN, Home and the SingStore. I promise you will see more revenue if you do.
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Jiggy
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 11:07:56 AM
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Oyashiro
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 11:13:04 AM
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migabyte
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 11:17:41 AM
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TheHighlander
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 11:35:05 AM
It's all relative. The UK and Europe is better served for PSP content, and you have PlayTV as well as vastly superior SingStar support. There is also a free to use (ad supported) music service coming to Europe and other parts of the world, but not the US.
Europe also got the Go Camera and GPS add on for PSP, something that the technological backwater called the USA may never see.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 5/13/2009 11:36:11 AM
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Mr Bitey
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 11:40:59 AM
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If they were to release FF VII on the US and EU PS Store, it would sell like hot cakes. Since there is minimal expense involved it would mean virtually pure profit for Square Enix. So what's the hold up? I would guess that it's probably coming, but knowing Square Enix they might not do it because it would be "unfair" to the 360 users...
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Powershifter
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 12:19:57 PM
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Oyashiro
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 5:30:04 PM
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Byakko2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 12:19:15 PM
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Ultimadream
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 12:31:57 PM
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Id love FFVII-IX saved on my PS3, Them 3 games alone define gaming for me.
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DaNgerSteVe
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 12:51:43 PM
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Arvis
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 1:15:22 PM
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-Arvis
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Arvis
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 2:28:23 PM
-Arvis
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Byakko2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 2:38:19 PM
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vulcaroth13
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 1:35:09 PM
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shindelion
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 2:32:31 PM
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shindelion
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 2:52:19 PM
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Ogibillm
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 3:14:29 PM
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shindelion
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 4:09:10 PM
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TheHighlander
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 4:19:01 PM
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BikerSaint
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 5:17:17 PM
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Just wanted to let you know that this non-tech savvy guy's always learning some new tech stuff(at least for myself) from all of your posts here.
So you'll always be a "10 thumbs up" in my book(even if that icon isn't representing)!!!!
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TheHighlander
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 7:05:55 PM
I wanted to do some checking about just hwo region free PS3 is or is not..
For PS3 games The PS3 is completely region free, this includes all PSN titles that are actual PS3 games and all region's PS3game discs. There is one exception, or restriction to this. If you buy a PS3 in a PAL region, say for instance in the UK and you are not using HDMI with a 720p/1080i/1080p display, then you will have problems. The game will still run no matter what, but because the PAL analog TV signal uses a different refresh rate and signaling standard you will experience problems if you are playing your PS3 games on a regular TV. Any analog connection, composite, component, S-video or SCART will suffer from this. This is not an incompatibility with the software or region coding, it's simply that the PS3's TV chip that generates the analog signal is specific to each region. The HDMI chip is the same on every PS3 regardless of region, and the HD signal standards (720p/1080i/1080p) are the same in every region, so as long as you are at least running over HDMI in 720p or 1080i, your PS3 will play ANY PS3 title whether on disc or downloaded.
As far as I know, if you have a PS3 that includes PS2 backwards compatibility, the PS2's region coding may still be present present. I haven't been able to verify this one myself, but what I can find on the Internet suggests that a UK PS2 game will not work on a US PS3 with backwards compatibility - even over HDMI.
I believe that the same may be true for PS1 game discs. However I cannot confirm this, I need to buy a couple of UK games (PS2 and PS1) from ebay to test it.
The final category of game is the PS1 classic downloaded from PSN. I believe that this may be treated in the same manner as PS1 game discs, so it may not work if you try to download a PS1 classic from Japan and play it on a US PS3.
However since the PS3 runs PS1 games entirely through emulation, there is no PS1 video hardware present. It's possible that because of this, PS1 games - in particular those downloaded - may play correctly assuming that you have created a PS3 user profile for a user that is resident in Japan. I've not been able to get any confirmation of this and am skeptical about the possibility of it working.
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AntDC
Thursday, May 14, 2009 @ 12:01:43 AM
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TheHighlander
Thursday, May 14, 2009 @ 3:40:45 PM
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I've found a couple of people posting online that say that they have purchase PS1 classics from the Japan PSN store and are running them on NA PS3 models. However they also confirmed that PS1 games on disc do not work right.
I also found some comments from users on Play Asia confirming the same thing, that PS1 classics downloaded via PSN from Japan work on non Japanese PS3 models.
Either the game has been modified, or the game ISO file has, but it seems that the PS1 classics bought over PSN are just ever so slightly different from the actual discs, and that difference seems to be the absence of region locking.
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rell
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009 @ 10:33:53 AM