Phantasy Star Portable 2 isn’t the most expensive PlayStation Portable game, but it’s not cheap either. Initially there was a digital download version as an alternative, but it was removed from PlayStation Store sometime in 2011. That was a problem when I just got my PSP in 2012.
However, when looking online, I stumbled across a PAL version of Phantasy Star Portable 2. It was less than $20 for a new copy, which is nearly half the price of a used one in North America. Thankfully, the PSP is region-free, so I went ahead and imported it.
While import fees might make the savings null in some cases, it isn’t always a bad idea to check around online. Of course there’s the language barrier problem with Japanese games, but European ones just feature some funny spelling differences, like “practise” or “learnt.”
I’ve seen similar pricing variation with some PlayStation 2 games. Yakuza 2, Haunting Ground and Gitaroo Man hold much higher price tags in North America versus Europe. Be warned, though. Aside from just region-locking, the PS2 does have PAL versus NTSC issues. It’s not a problem for modern consoles. For older platforms, you end up in some sticky situations with incompatibility between your console and TV. I’m sure there are ways to work around it, but I haven’t gotten to investing the time and money.
