My new Nintendo 3DS arrived from Japan and it’s just great

I initially bought an American 3DS for Devil Survivor: Overclocked. Atlus was my go-to RPG studio and because they haven’t had a publisher for the EU at that time my only choice was importing. The whole experience was a little disappointing not only because the hardware was slow and a little lackluster. I sold it shortly after and bought a Vita on launch day. Sounds like I only did that because I didn’t like the 3DS. That wasn’t the case so. I was even thinking about importing a Vita from Japan. When I became more and more interested in learning Japanese and got a little better my interest towards playing games in their original published language grew.

And you can really say a lot of bad things about [easyazon_link asin=”B00NAW5R0I” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”japateas-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]Nintendo’s handheld[/easyazon_link] but it has a great library. Not so much at the beginning but seriously which console or handheld ever had that.

Because the original 3DS hardware wasn’t exactly my cup of tea I was waiting for an XL. Which just inevitably had to come sooner or later. And it finally came. Summer 2012 and I was seriously thinking about [easyazon_link asin=”B00NAW5R0I” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”japateas-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]importing one[/easyazon_link] from Japan. But I held back. I knew that I wanted to visit Japan soon and was planning on picking one up there in person.

Originally I wanted to repeat that procedure but with all the supposedly difficult transfer of your data from the old 3DS to the new one I just ordered one. After all you even need a small Philips screwdriver if you want to get to your microSD card. I really didn’t plan on packing one.

That’s exactly what I did. Got the white LL in the Tsutaya building at Shibuya crossing. Together with Animal Crossing and Fantasy Life. It was great. I went on to buy a lot more used games at Book Off. There was just so much great stuff available.

Over the course of the last two years I played a couple of games on the system but the screen and resolution was just so disappointing. Whenever I played with it and had a look on your phone shortly after I just thought “what the fuck”. Yeah, there is a big difference in price between an expensive smartphone and a 170$ 3DS but the Vita got it right. Sony delivered a great handheld which feels perfect. Didn’t help much financially wise when the games are not coming out but it was definitely not because of the hardware.

I nearly completely stopped playing games on my 3DS in 2014 because reading Kanji on the screen was just a pain and I clearly preferred my Vita. For the last three years it was my go to gaming system. Even the launch of the new 3DS left me cold. I had absolutely no interest in better 3D which seemed to be the key feature of the new model.

But then I heard of the new size of the screen in the regular model which was slightly bigger. And the fact that the improved 3D really made for a much more vivid picture. My vacations started and I really got into Fire Emblem which I got for free last year with Nintendo’s but 3 get one free offer. Of course I didn’t touch the game for nearly a year. But suddenly I had the time, tried it and was instantly hooked.

I began to read up on the new 3DS and it seemed like the machine I always wanted from Nintendo. The screen could still be better but especially in comparison to the XL the picture is crisp and clean. And the improved 3D. Never cared for it. But now I love it. It really is that good. The 3DS is finally a great machine to play some games with and practice reading Japanese.

If you were always hesitating to get a Japanese system for playing some Japanese games on it now is the perfect time to do so. Especially because the US only got the XL model. And I have to admit. Cover plates look pretty awesome.