Should I import a game even though it only has Japanese text

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There's a good chance I'll be getting a Playstation 3 this year for X-mas, and one of the great things about the PS3 is the fact that the games are not region locked so you can import games from other countries and play them on the system.

There's this one game I thought about, Capcom has released an HD Collection of Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil Code Veronica, and I'm more interested in Resident Evil 4. Sadly in the US and Europe the game is being released as a download only but in Japan and Asia the games are released together on disc. The only problem with importing those games is that while the voice acting is in English, all of the text is in Japanese.

I don't think the Japanese text would really prevent me from being able to play the game, I owned the game before on the PS2 and beat it several times so I pretty much have every part of the game memorized by heart. But the thing is the readable files and descriptions for the weapons and treasure would all be in a langauge I don't understand and I really enjoy reading those things.

I guess it would be OK to import it just for the chance to play Resident Evil 4 in HD graphics and to play as my favorite character Ada Wong again, but I want to know what you guys think about importing games that are in Japanese only?

Do it. Nothing wrong with it. Actually in america, they have released imported games on the psn network with Japanese text. The fun comes from figuring things out on your own. I was actually thinking of importing games too from Japan.

I've imported a couple of region-free games on my 360. I'd say go ahead and import the games since PS3 is region-free (which reminds me, I need to import the PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia).

Well I think the only real downside would be that I couldn't read the game files, they help explain peices of the story. But it would still be the same awesome game.

no

Depends on what the game is. things like pokémon are easy to play even in another language but others might not be so. I import a lot of my games from japan.

Get the US or Europe version so you can understand what the hell they're saying, even if it's download only.

Who cares if you have a physical copy?

Personally I think it depends on the games, I can give three examples from personal experience.

An example of a probably 'not so good' is Ganbare Goemon on the Playstation 2 - I'm a huge Mystical Ninja fan and I was frustrated I never got the chance to play it, so I imported it. Trying to play it was a disaster from day one (to be honest the game wasn't so great in general but) it was an adventure game, like Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Now I'm going to assume that you've played it, but imagine that you couldn't read what to do on OoT and just had to figure it out for yourself, trying to work out that it was the Sword and Shield you needed, let alone how to get them. With games like these unless you can have a guide to hand to aid you on everything getting through the game, it's pointless (and refering to a guide kind of takes away from the fun of the game)

An example of a 'great game' would be pretty much any generic fighting game (in my case the Keroro Gunsou game for PS2). Lack of the Japanese language is really not an issue, you just figure out the menu (which in most cases with a character guide in front of you it's possible to translate as they're in katakana using english words.) From there it's easy to just pick up and play.

Then the example of a 'possibly' for me was Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix+ - now I've played KH2 religiously, so I already had an idea of what to do to get through it. Sure, I had to use a Katakana guide (although eventually I found a proper guide on GameFAQs) to translate the abilities, but I had no issue getting through for the most part (apart from the Zexion battle where knowledge of Japanese is paramount). If I'd no idea of what the game was like before, I'd probably struggle to play it.

I'd say with Resi you'll be pretty safe, seems like you've had a past of playing RE games so I'd say go for it - in this case I'd put it under the third example : ) if you struggle to remember what happens at a certain point, just look up a guide to trigger your memory.

If you're a fan of horror games have you tried out Amnesia? That truly is the definition of a horror game. Had me frightened to death whilst playing lol. Although as someone said it (I think it was the web series Extra Creditz) most companies have truly lost touch with what a horror game is - especially the franchises, and now have turned their games from horror to an action game with horror elements. Which I totally agree with.