Best import purchase?

So we've all had THAT game you just couldn't wait for, so much so you felt compelled to purchase from another country, just to sample it's pleasures. So lets have those games people, and maybe some of your best import video game stories too :) I'll get the ball rolling: I used to purchase Winning Eleven, the Japanese version of Pro Evolution Soccer, each year for PS2. What ya got?

Hard for me to list one since playing games in Japanese just is a normal facet of my routine, but off the top of my head:

• Vib-Ribbon. Such a wonderfully unique implementation of music as a central gameplay mechanic. It baffles me that a game so low-fi in terms of production values and the console it ran on remains one of the few music games to get procedurally generated levels right.
• Sin and Punishment. An arguably dodgy value proposition considering it lasts all of an hour long, but damn if it isn't an hour filled with good set piece battles from start to finish. But as a Treasure game, that's probably to be expected.
• Catherine. The first game that really got me over my hesitation to play a heavily story-driven game outside my native language and see it to completion and the game that would ultimately compel me to basically buy all of Atlus' games from that point onward in Japanese. Certainly not without legitimate criticisms, but an experience that I felt balanced its disparate elements well. Paid $100 to get it the day after its Japanese release with the fastest shipping out of Japan money can buy. No regrets whatsoever.
• Valkyria Chronicles 3. Like the rest of the series, it continues to be one of the few SRPGs I find myself actually able to enjoy. It also just goes so far out of its way to have both a better story and a likable cast compared to 2 it just makes that game look even more pathetic than it already did. A damn shame that most fans outside of Japan that aren't bilingual like me will have to resort to a translation patch to get their hands on what may very well be the series' best entry.

Hokuto Mosou (Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage) - I've only imported a few games but this is definitely my favorite out of all of them.

999, because it wasn't released in PAL territories and, thankfully, the DS is region free. Fortunately, VLR was released in Europe (and with Japanese voices too!), since the 3DS isn't region free.

Also, all of the Pokémon games. I live in Spain and every single fucking game is translated and dubbed into Spanish... which I can't stand, so I import the UK version of the games (sometimes, like for Platinum, the US version, but that's usually more expensive).

My local game store has a japanese saturn, but no games. im wondering what games i should look for, and how difficult or expensive theyd be to import or find already imported!

@JoeyRavn said:

since the 3DS isn't region free.

What...

I just bought a 3DS yesterday because I wanted to upgrade from my DS and thought it was still region free. I didn't even think to look to see if they'd taken that out. I mean, why would they?

I just feel so...

But on topic, The best import I purchased was Gundam Extreme Vs.

Bought Persona 4 Golden and Virtue's Last Reward from the US a few days ago for my new Vita. 
P4G I just couldn't wait for, and for VLR I want those english voices. 
It would have been much cheaper too if not for those shipping and import fees almost doubling the price...

Demon's Souls and Devil Survivor when they weren't available in Europe (don't think Devil S ever came out here).

The only game I've imported was Clannad for the PS3, but that was because there was no way that it'd ever come to the states. And yes playing a VN in Japanese with no real ability to read it has made it a slow go (been using a fan translation of the PC version to read it)

I haven't yet, but plan to buy the Ni No Kuni soundtrack. I feel Pretty good about that.

Only game I've ever imported is Persona 3 Portable from Canada, several months before release in Europe
 
I would have done the same with Persona 4 Arena but....fuckin' regionlock

999, and Radiant Historia. Imported them from America because neither were released in PAL regions.

Ys: Celceta no Jukai 25th Anniversary Edition. Also going to be buying whatever special edition they have for Sen no Kiseki. <3 Falcom

Red Seeds Profile for the PS3.

Jump Super Stars, spent a lot of time playing that game quite a few years ago and it was never released outside of Japan.

@Vexxan said:

Jump Super Stars, spent a lot of time playing that game quite a few years ago and it was never released outside of Japan.

Same though I'm in for the sequel Jump Ultimate Stars. Fantastic Super smash style game for the DS. I also have an import copy of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom before it came state side, seriously was under the impression it would never come due to the licensing issues.

Bayonetta. Even if it was the insanely inferior PS3 version it still made me fall in love with it. Also the two Cave shooters Espgaluda(?) 2 and Mushihimesamasomethingorother.

The best RPG on the Wii and I'd say top five for the whole generation of systems. Truly a wonderful game that could have been even better if the Wii's technical limitations didn't kill the fidelity.

Rez + Trance Vibrator

I have imported shmups, for the most part. The ones that I got were:

• Mushihime-sama Futari ver 1.5
• Muchi Muchi Pork! & Pink Sweets
• Bullet Soul
• Espgaluda II Black Label
• DoDonPachi Resurrection (Europe)

I'm feeling tingly.

My soon to be aquired Pikachu 3DS.

@smokeyd123: Nope. It's not region free. Neither for the games nor for the eShop. It's a bummer, I know, and I too don't understand why they would region lock games. The eShop I can understand, but games? Meh.

only thing I imported was the FF XIII soundtrack. Which I really liked (obviously)

Catherine and Yakuza Kenzan (which doesn't have a page on here it seems)

@Sooty said:

Catherine and Yakuza Kenzan (which doesn't have a page on here it seems)

That's because the latter would be under its Japanese title, Ryu ga Gotoku: Kenzan. Kind of surprised it wouldn't at least have Yakuza: Kenzan as a wiki alias, but that's the long and short of it.