Should I buy a Japanese 3DS ? .........few questions

[BiggKitty]

I live in Europe where I think we are the poor relations in regard to give away goodies, DLC and street pass items. I am considering buying a Japanese 3DS and AC game. My query is, I imagine I would then have the Japanese festivals to visit, but would I receive the Japanese DLC and street pass houses seeing as my wifi is Spanish? I believe there have been a few items and sets like the 7-11 where you actually had to be living in Japan to gain access.

I would be grateful if someone who has a Japanese 3DS but lives in say NA or Europe would please advise me as to exactly what the benefits might be.

 

[Jake]

From what I'm reading, you have a very big misunderstanding on the Japanese game.
The really only pro you'd get would be Japanese events.

You're not going to get more streetpasses because it's not going to make a difference as that's not how Streetpass works (nor does Japan have Spotpass homes to my knowledge) - unless you mean that you can streetpass with yourself, but that seems pointless (Streetpass items aren't that good anyway, I find them sitting in my drawers).
Sure, having the Japanese game may get you Japanese DLC items, but it seems now that the majority of the world are getting all the DLC items together (and even if it is Japan only it's not that hard to find a player who'll give you one).

TL;DR - not worth it.

 

[Midgetsc]

From what I'm reading, you have a very big misunderstanding on the Japanese game.
The really only pro you'd get would be Japanese events.

You're not going to get more streetpasses because it's not going to make a difference as that's not how Streetpass works (nor does Japan have Spotpass homes to my knowledge) - unless you mean that you can streetpass with yourself, but that seems pointless (Streetpass items aren't that good anyway, I find them sitting in my drawers).
Sure, having the Japanese game may get you Japanese DLC items, but it seems now that the majority of the world are getting all the DLC items together (and even if it is Japan only it's not that hard to find a player who'll give you one).

TL;DR - not worth it.

To get Japanese events/DLC, she'd need the Japanese copy of Animal Crossing, which, in the long run, is completely useless unless you can read and understand Japanese. I think it uses Kanji, but I don't have it, so I can't check.

 

[taylalatbh]

yeah, I thought it uses the japanese language, kanji with furigana. As far as I can remember from seeing the screenshots. And unless you can read that I'm sure you won't enjoy the game that much. I guess we're just missing out on the japanese events but if you get a japanese friend can't you just visit them when the events are taking place? I did that the other day and got one of the gifts.

 

[JCnator]

In fact, StreetPass relays DO exist in Japan, but you'd have to go in the actual country to take advantage of. Sure, regularly getting StreetPasses by yourself is a little bonus, but you'd get so many StreetPass items that they'll clutter up your storage (there are still a good amount of people offering them anyway) and it'll take a long while to gain all of the StreetPass badges.

Thing is, 7-11 items are no longer being distributed via 7-11 in the country since a while ago. For some reason, you can still easily find them around the forums if you have a lot of bells to spare.


Having a Japanese 3DS just for ACNL is as pointless and silly as having a second NA/EU 3DS and another English copy of ACNL. The only significant advantage you'd get are the exclusive items that are still easily found anywhere in the Internet. Japanese is the only available language for that specific region, and you would be most likely struggling at first on reading whatever dialog comes up until you have some basic understandings on the rather complex language. Learning that can be time consuming, because it can't be mastered with just a few months, but it's nonetheless interesting.
ACNL isn't the only existing game in your world! There are other games that aren't released outside of Japan. Fantasy Life, Tomodachi Collection: New Life, Digimon ReDigitize Decode, E.X. Troopers, some exclusive Virtual Console and eShop games are the ones that came into my mind. Consider checking the Japanese library of games (including upcoming games), find information for the games you're actually interested and decide if it's actually worth investing for a JPN 3DS.

Prices for Japanese video game materials are generally priced higher than the EU ones. You may want to purchase any game/system when the exchange rate worth more yen. Consider paying a little more money to cover up the custom fees (which will vary per country) and import fees. If you don't have more than $400 you're willing to spare, don't bother importing them.


I've only covered some of the parts to consider before importing any game from another country. There may be more than what I've covered, but it should be good enough for you to decide whether you will purchase a JPN 3DS or not. Someone needs to create a thread everything about importing and explain in a more detailed way.