I bought the game from play-asia. But the game language is in japanese, I can't understand the instruction during gameplay. I don't think it will let me change the language. Did I buy the wrong product? I thought It'd be fine as long as it's ntsc-j or is it the version that i need to be careful of? eg. Asia, Japan, US? Anyone can shed some light?

here's the product link: http://www.play-asia.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_...br-70-481f.html

This post has been edited by intelpentium4: Jan 22 2013, 03:33 PM

Sorry to break it to you but it stated J as in everything must be in Japanese,

NTSC is English..It'd be fine as long as its NTSC not NTSC-J

I bought my xbox locally. so i supposed it can only play ntsc-j games.

Sadly, I also have a GTA IV NTSC which I couldn't play it at all on my console, it says wrong region code. Suffice to say my console can't play NTSC.

I just want to know in the future how do I choose the game?

This post has been edited by intelpentium4: Jan 22 2013, 01:56 PM

Just so you know NTSC-J has 2 version Japan & Asia, only Asia version comes in English Language.

If you bought your xbox locally, then your xbox will be ntsc-j. It will therefore play ntsc-j games. If the game box just states ntsc, then your xbox might be able to play it. Whether or not your xbox can play the ntsc game will depend on whether the publisher decided to restrict the region.

So therefore NTSC-J is correct. However, you bought the Japanese edition which is not only more expensive but also only in the Japanese language. In the link that you posted, if you scroll down, you will see a compatibility header which tells you whether the game is compatible with your console. Buying Japanese games can be tricky, some of them already have english voices and text but some will be entirely in Japanese.

The correct link is this http://www.play-asia.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_...en-70-40yb.html you will note that in the game information it states that the language is English.

You can buy games from the US and Europe, and they may work on your console, but just check the compatibility information on play-asia before signing over your credit card details.

Thanks for the clarification. I felt so dumb spending hundreds twice not getting the right item. First I bought from amazon the NTSC which failed to run on my console...then I bought the NTSC-J, Japan version from play-asia...

I agreed with you that NTSC might possibly run on the console because I have another game NTSC which runs fine that's why I haven't thought it'd be an issue. very expensive experience.

By the way, do we have a pinned thread discussing about ntsc & version here?

There's no such thread, but you can look at Play-Asia's Xbox360™ Regional Compatibility Guide for what games are for what system. Plus, when you look at the games on Play-Asia, do look out for this image:




Take a look at the circled one, the japanese flag means, although it's a NTSC-J, it's specially designed to work with Japanese console, where most of the time, all menus (and even sounds) are in Japanese. All NTSC games that can run on your NTSC-J console means that the games are region free.

Hope this helps

P/S: Grand Theft Auto IV is region locked. You need the Asian NTSC-J version to play.

This post has been edited by FarCry3r: Jan 22 2013, 09:11 PM

But you can change it back right?

better say know what ur region lock first and then look up for the game.
but most of the famous game i far as i know are region free.

It doesn't work that way dude, NTSC-J also applicable to asian console and NTSC without J designation could mean region free or US region locked version.

Asian console can play all NTSC-J disc but to get english one should get Asian game which you can easily identify from Play-Asia or if wanna less headache, just go to http://forum.lowyat.com/games and look for those reseller.

Well, mine works well with NTSC. But you're right.

Apparently most NTSC games are sold cheaper. isn't that better if we just buy a NTSC console. I noticed most game shops sell NTSC games too.

You'll need a step up/down transformer before you can use such console here. Most game shops that sell NTSC games because they're region free. Good luck finding new release locally if they aren't region free.