So I'm currently in Korea for my year abroad as part of my university degree - I'm moving onto Japan next month where I will be spending 12 months at a university there.

I had no idea that the servers for SC2 would be region locked and now am somewhat wary of buying the game as I'd probably opt for the European version (despite the hefty £45 price tag...) so I can play it on my return to the UK. However this means I won't be able to use the East Asian servers while I'm in Japan.

I'm assuming that there's offline skirmish against the AI at least? I'm new to Starcraft so wouldn't likely be jumping into multplayer straight away and was wondering whether the offline options (if the AI provides a decent challenge on higher difficulties and the campaign) is worth it.    

I'm not planning on playing too much MP, but I'm having a blast playing SP.
 
I got the Oceania version (NZ, AUS etc.)

A year of university in Japan sounds like you'll be waiting for quite some time before you can play SC2 back at UK. 
 
If you're really desperate, I suppose you could just buy the game twice. Could sell it used later to someone else when you're about to head back.

" A year of university in Japan sounds like you'll be waiting for quite some time before you can play SC2 back at UK.  If you're really desperate, I suppose you could just buy the game twice. Could sell it used later to someone else when you're about to head back. "

You know, I used to think PC gaming was free of all this region lock crap.... then came Blizzard and all went bad :P

They did mention that eventually they'll get rid of the region-lock, but they have yet to announce a timeframe other than "shortly after release" or something along those lines.

I just want to play the game with all Korean dialogue, that voice acting is just as good as the English. Plus StarCraft in Korean just seems to work.