Playing Final Fantasy XII

Carrie shows you some rules of thumb for playing imports using FFXII as an example.

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Have you ever been interested in a unique Japanese game that had no hope of release outside of Japan? Or are you practically proficient in kanji because you've played every game in the Sega Ages series? Then you've probably got importing on the brain.

Video game importing is both an activity and a lifestyle. It's something that can be done by anyone but is seriously enjoyed by only a few. It has always been possible to import, but the trend of importing has seen bursts of activity during certain console generations and droughts during others. Though you can import a game from any region to another, American gamers traditionally do most of their importing from Japan, since there are a great number of games unique to that region.

So what's importing all about? How do you import? Why do you import? And if you find yourself caught up in a game filled with a foreign language, how do you make it through all those menus? Read on to find out.

GameSpot UK says: European games are often delayed because they need to be translated into multiple languages before they're released. To appease European fans, companies will sometimes add extra content to their games during this process.

Do I Have the Tools?

First you need to know what type of TV signal your country uses.

Before you can play video games from outside of your own country, you need to determine if you're going to face console, PC, or television regional discrepancies. In this endeavor, the greatest problem (in terms of cost-effectiveness) is going to arise between NTSC (National Television System Committee) and PAL (Phase Alternating Line) television sets.

The NTSC standard is for televisions used primarily in the Americas, Korea, and Japan. The major alternative to NTSC is PAL, which is the television format of choice in Europe, Africa, and South Asia. The two signals are unique, meaning that you can't play games from one region on a TV set from the other region, unless you have some method of conversion (like an expensive DVD player) to filter it through. Most regular NTSC televisions do not account for PAL, so it will be quite difficult for people to get their hands on PAL console games if they live in an NTSC region. Alternatively, the PC and handheld game systems are all region-free, so most importing from Europe will happen only in those formats.

Japanese televisions support the NTSC standard (often distinguished as NTSC-J), so any US television set should be able to play Japanese games, as long as you have the proper Japanese consoles to play them on.

GameSpot UK says: Practically every television sold in Europe nowadays supports NTSC as well as PAL. You're unlikely to need a new one if your current TV is less than five or six years old.