Game Information | Importing Final Fantasy VII International on PSN

Final Fantasy VII International is the American version of the original game with Japanese text. It allowed Japanese gamers to experience Final Fantasy VII in all its glory, including all the fixes and improvements made during English localization. It also included a fourth disk, which contains bonus materials such as comprehensive image galleries and video clips showing early builds of the game.

On April 10th 2009 Final Fantasy VII International was released onto the PlayStation Store, breaking Square-Enix's long standing stance against rereleasing games on digital distribution services in favor of remakes (the original six games will be coming to the Japanese virtual console in May 2009, with Final Fantasy I and IV coming to the west sometime after).

It is currently unknown if Square-Enix has any plans to release Final Fantasy VII on the US or European PlayStation Store, however it is relatively simple to acquire the game from the Japanese store. It should be noted that unlike all other "International" versions of Square-Enix games, Final Fantasy VII International does not include English language text, so bare that in mind before you consider continuing.

All PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles are region free. Once you've downloaded the game on one of the devices you can also copy it to the other very easily. To download the game you will require three things; a Japanese PlayStation Network account, a Japanese PSN card worth 1,500 Yen and one of the two consoles. If you have a PSP you will also need a memory stick duo with 1715 MB of free space.

  Creating a Japanese PSN account
  Adding Yen to your account
  Buying Final Fantasy VII International

Creating a Japanese PSN account

The first thing you are going to need to do is create a Japanese PlayStation Network account. This can be done on either the PlayStation 3 or the PlayStation Portable, however if you have access to both it is recommended you do this on the PS3 as it is much easier to switch between your Japanese and English accounts. The following steps will outline exactly how to create your account on the PS3, although the process is almost exactly the same on the PSP.

On the PlayStation 3 XMB, head over to the far left and make a new user on your system. This is only local to your system, so name it whatever you like.
Logged in to your new user, scroll back along the XMB to the PlayStation Network icon and click on the PlayStation Store.
Select "Yes, I want to create a new account".
On the registration process page, click continue.
On the next page, set your country of residence to Japan and enter your date of birth. From here everything is going to be in Japanese so follow carefully.
On the next screen select the top option to make a master account.
On the next page, hit the button on the far bottom right to agree to the Japanese licensee agreement.
On the next screen, enter an e-mail address in the top box making sure it is different from the one you've already registered a PSN account with.
In the next two boxes enter your password twice, making sure it has at least six characters, consisting of both letters and numbers.
Check the box under the password boxes.
Put anything you like in the bottom text box, ignoring the drop down box above it. Press the button at the bottom to continue.
On the next screen enter a unique username for the account. Remember it can't be one already registered on PSN worldwide. A good idea would be to add some random numbers to the end as you're never going to play under this name. Click the button on the far right to continue.
The next screen asks for your name and gender information. Fill it with anything you like and press the button on the far right to continue.
This next screen is very important. Put a three digit number in the first box (such as 123) and select the second option in the drop down box (it has three japanese characters). Put anything you like in the next four text boxes. This is your Japanese address. Press the far right button to continue.
On the next screen select the bottom option as I doubt you have a Japanese credit card.
Do not check the box on the next screen. Press the far right button to continue.
Press the far right button to continue again.
Press the only button present on the e-mail confirmation screen to continue.
On the avatar select screen hit the PlayStation button on your controller (the round one in the middle) to make a cancel option appear. Your account has already been made, so click yes.
On the PlayStation XMB go back to the store again and sign in with your new account. Congratulations; it's now all in Japanese!

Adding Yen to your account

The most difficult part of this process is going to be paying for Final Fantasy VII International in Japanese currency. As it is very unlikely you have access to a Japanese credit card we are going to have to resort to acquiring a PlayStation Network card. These come in 1000, 3000, 5000 and 10,000 Yen variations. As Final Fantasy VII costs 1,500 Yen (or about $15) you are going to have extra currency after your purchase. It might be worth researching the price of other titles you are interested in and choosing the card that meets your needs.

As for how you procure the card, you have several options. eBay is a good source of PSN cards, however if you prefer to deal with a trusted retailer both Play-Asia and NCSX have them available. It is worth noting that Play-Asia will mail you the physical card while NCSX will e-mail you the code to save time.

To input the code scroll along the XMB to the PlayStaton Network icon and click on the "Account Management" option. Here click on the second option and on the next screen click on the second option again. The next page will have three text boxes in which you can input the code found on your card. Press on the far right button and you will receive a confirmation that the amount has been added to your account.

Buying Final Fantasy VII International

Once in the Japanese PlayStation Store you will need to track down the game. If it is no longer being promoted on the homepage or under new releases, simply click each of the homepage options until you find the section containing PSone games. From here it should be easy enough to identify the Final Fantasy VII International logo amongst the other titles (see image). On the game's page simply hit the big yellow button on the left to buy the game and proceed to the download process.

Written by CloudANDTidus, April 2009.