Hey long time lurker and resident of Japan (I guess I must make that clear as my first post was removed for assuming I am not a resident of Japan). Have a question about buying games on Switch:
I have a US account and a JP account.
I want to buy a game. On the US store, it is $60. On the JP store, it is 6500 yen.
Can I buy the JP store version w/ my US CC (i.e. it will equate to around $42), then just switch the language to English so it plays just like the US store version?
6 comments
Buy? Yes. They don’t care what country the credit card is from.
Play in English? Depends entirely on the game. Some will have language options, some may not.
It’s been a while since I last tried, but I was unable to use my Canadian credit card directly, and had to buy point cards from Playasia. Aside from paying, double check the info on the JP store page for the game to ensure it has English. Some games(especially anime games) have the languages separated, so JP version only has Japanese, and no other version has Japanese.
But if neither of those are a problem, you should be good.
Check on the game’s Japanese eshop webpage to see if it has English included. Most 1st party Nintendo games usually do but 3rd parties can be all over the place.
Go on the Japanese page, scroll down to 言語 and see what’s included.
Dear OP: yes, but you won’t be able to play the game using your US account. Dunno if that matters to you or not, but for example if the game requires online play you would need a separate online subscription for the JP account.
Also, there are a few games that are simply not available in English when switching the system language. Splatoon 2 for example is locked by region and you can’t change the language. I think the same goes for the Warriors games (Hyrule, Fire Emblem) but I’d double check on that. Basically just check the language settings before you do it.
I bought a physical copy of TOTK in Japan. It was automatically in English because my Switch’s language is set to English.
Along with the advice already given, I would like to add that US sales are massively better than JP sales. I just stuck to my U.S. account. No need to buy anything on the JP side that wasn’t there on the US side. But you might find something you want on the JP side.