The "Falcom Special Offer" Thread

[mik0]

I got reply... from the other addess I used (Gmail).
I don't know what to think. I also asked in the mail if there's any problems with my other address and that they missed to reply to my 2 previous mail but they limited themself to reply to the order as usual (they probably fill my information in a tool that send the order mail without other info).
However:
Price (Japanese-yen)
10,000 yen :0801 Ys Complete set
7,000 yen :shipping and handling
-----------------------------------
17,000 yen :total

I'm from Italy and well, 7000 yen it's truly a lot.
When I ordered YsI&II + Felghana Limited postage was 4600 yen (almost 28.5 euro). Now is 7000 yen (almost 43.4 euro). There's a big difference.

The funny things is that I troubled myself to write the name of the product (non officially reported in the special offer page) in japanese because I didn't know how to call it. In their reply is simply Ys Complete Set

I hope they'll hire someone that can read and write in english to reply their mail because I wanted reply about the matter of the missing mails and even my english is not that good as you can see.
I wonder now the reason why other people I know didn't get their reply, it's hard to think that all fo them had their mail filtered (by whom?).

[mik0]

Got the order confirmation mail, they'll send me the games the 23rd of january.
They was slow this time, 1 day for the confirmation and the game sent the next week (probably because they need more than one day to package and ship). I think they always send on thursday.
They've already blocked the amount I own them on my credit card.

However no reply for the past order and the other person who ordered the LoH offer with a gmail account didn't get reply either. That's not good for Falcom image.

Now I'm waiting...

[layzee]

Falcom took about 2-3 days to reply to my first order email. Then I changed the items that I wanted to buy a bit and sent another order email, that of which they replied in about 12 hours. They then replied to my "The order is OK" email within 5-6 hours. FYI.

As well, Falcom will be sending my items on the 23rd of January.

By the way, does anyone remember what versions (e.g. standard or limited) the Sora no Kiseki games in the recent special offer were?

That's right, I am ordering them after the offer has supposedly lapsed.

mik0 said:

I think they always send on thursday.

Checking my past few Falcom emails, it does seem they send on Thursdays (depending on time zone). Though they did send on a Friday on one of my past orders.

[mik0]

layzee said:

By the way, does anyone remember what versions (e.g. standard or limited) the Sora no Kiseki games in the recent special offer were?

That's right, I am ordering them after the offer has supposedly lapsed.

Lucky you. I don't have enough money to buy them all especially with that shipping price (that is almost 40% of what I spent, almost 3/4 the game price).
However Falcom should reply to every mail, not just ignore them, it's unprofessional. A simple "too late" would be enough.

I'm keeping updated a thread for my italian buddies with all the Falcom Offers and the way to order from them (to help every person who want their games).
So:
SnK FC Popular edition (not Vista)
SnK SC Popular edition (not Vista)
SnK the 3rd Limited edition (but also the only avaible)

[FM-77AV]

Falcom's shipping fees are indeed extreme. Even for EMS shipping, it's much more expensive than it should be. That's really a shame, and I generally don't order anything from them because of that.

[layzee]

mik0 said:

SnK FC Popular edition (not Vista)
SnK SC Popular edition (not Vista)
SnK the 3rd Limited edition (but also the only avaible)

Cheers.

admin said:

Falcom's shipping fees are indeed extreme. Even for EMS shipping, it's much more expensive than it should be. That's really a shame, and I generally don't order anything from them because of that.

Got any examples of the "extreme" shipping? From my past purchases they seemed reasonable and fair.

For example, for my 4x Original Soundtrack special offer, the quoted EMS shipping price was the actual shipping price. For 2 of my past standard 2x Game special offer purchases, the quoted EMS shipping price was 700 yen more than the actual price. Which is still fair since you're already saving money by getting the special offer in the first place plus Falcom is a company worth "donating" money to anyway.

Although I suppose Falcom could just justify the extra 700 yen profit as the "handling" charge (i.e. Shipping and handling).

[mik0]

It's indeed true that is better to buy from them than from others (play-asia for istance) but I think the shipping price is a bit high.

My first order: Ys I&II + Felghana Limited
4600 Yen (29 euro) Shipping
This order: YsI&II + Felghana Limited + YsVI + Origin + Artbook
7000 Yen (44 euro) Shipping T_T"

well 15 euro difference is a lot. I paid 105 euro and 44 are shipping cost... and I did not even paid VAT.
The only good thing is that their packaging is damn good and delivery fast (1 week for me).

Probably buying from ebay et similar cost less in shipping cost.

However I wonder if there's a table that let me see how the price change with the number of item you purchase.

[Leroy]

EMS shipping is expensive.. you can't blame Falcom for that. I wish they'd offer airmail or something but it's probably just safer and easier for them to use EMS for international orders as it's insured, confirmed, etc. Plus that Oath if Felghana Limited Edition (is it really limited if they're still trying to clearance it out every month?) is mad heavy.. that's what adds to the cost for the most part.

[mik0]

leroy said:

EMS shipping is expensive.. you can't blame Falcom for that. I wish they'd offer airmail or something but it's probably just safer and easier for them to use EMS for international orders as it's insured, confirmed, etc.

I don't blame them for that, it's a lesser problem (but still a problem).
I blame them for not reply to mails, not giving better support to foreign customer that probably would make them rich if they translate their game (and I think it's not that difficult to do professionally and they could earn a lot from all over the world), for not making Vista patch for the game they had converted to Vista (I don't have Vista, but I don't see a reason not to do so).
The most important was obviously translation.
But they are great indeed for being one of the few software house making this kind of game for PC mainly.

leroy said:

Plus that Oath if Felghana Limited Edition (is it really limited if they're still trying to clearance it out every month?) is mad heavy.. that's what adds to the cost for the most part.

Uhm.. I don't know. I always see Italian customers paying 4600 yen for 2 games of every type so I think that the weight of the Limited Felghana is not that important.

[layzee]

mik0 said:

My first order: Ys I&II + Felghana Limited
4600 Yen (29 euro) Shipping
This order: YsI&II + Felghana Limited + YsVI + Origin + Artbook
7000 Yen (44 euro) Shipping T_T"

well 15 euro difference is a lot. I paid 105 euro and 44 are shipping cost... and I did not even paid VAT.
The only good thing is that their packaging is damn good and delivery fast (1 week for me).

Probably buying from ebay et similar cost less in shipping cost.

However I wonder if there's a table that let me see how the price change with the number of item you purchase.

Japanese EMS shipping rates

The price of shipping depends on two main things: weight and location.

From your two orders above, there is a 1.5 kilogram price difference which sounds about right. Ys Origin is relatively heavy because of the artbook and the 4th game will probably bring the shipping cost to the next threshold.

leroy said:

EMS shipping is expensive.. you can't blame Falcom for that. I wish they'd offer airmail or something but it's probably just safer and easier for them to use EMS for international orders as it's insured, confirmed, etc.

You could try asking for that option? Although as you said, they'd probably decline for the reasons stated above. I'm sure the last thing Falcom wants to deal with are buyers who claim to not have received the item. EMS pretty much guarantees delivery and peace of mind (for both Falcom and buyers).

[Varion]

layzee said:

By the way, does anyone remember what versions (e.g. standard or limited) the Sora no Kiseki games in the recent special offer were?

What mik0 said was what they listed, but they actually sent me a Vista edition of SC - not that I've had any problems with any of the non-Vista games I have. Just for the record.

And yeah, I don't like EMS either, but it's worth it to take advantage of the offers. I can't think of any other company in Japan who ships their games internationally, you usually have to rely on Himeya (lol ripoff), Play-Asia (lol customs), or Paletweb for them. Didn't get charged customs or VAT on the Sora package either, so more props to them. I think you overrate how much profit they get from international orders and how much they'd get translating something with the text volume of Sora though. Companies have considered it before, it's just not profitable.

[layzee]

varion said:

What mik0 said was what they listed, but they actually sent me a Vista edition of SC - not that I've had any problems with any of the non-Vista games I have. Just for the record.

Do these "vista" editions differ in any way from the non-vista versions (e.g. packaging, extra or less content, etc)? Apart from the fact that they are presumably fully compatible with Windows Vista of course.

varion said:

I think you overrate how much profit they get from international orders and how much they'd get translating something with the text volume of Sora though. Companies have considered it before, it's just not profitable.

Agreed. I'm sure Falcom has considered this already, but they obviously concluded that the costs are greater than the benefits. If a company wants to expand into new markets, they first need to make sure there is sufficient potential demand for their products. I personally can't see that demand for their Ys series of games, much less their other games.

[Leroy]

layzee said:

Do these "vista" editions differ in any way from the non-vista versions (e.g. packaging, extra or less content, etc)? Apart from the fact that they are presumably fully compatible with Windows Vista of course.

They're the same games though they do appear to have a "Windows Vista" banner on the side of their boxes. Also note that the original games all work on Vista with a few extra initial steps as the games freak out due to the "Application Data" folder being moved in Vista. Falcom has a program to point the games to the new folder (or it creates the folders they need, I don't think the games themselves need patched at all).

[Varion]

layzee said:

Do these "vista" editions differ in any way from the non-vista versions (e.g. packaging, extra or less content, etc)? Apart from the fact that they are presumably fully compatible with Windows Vista of course.

Just a little logo on the side and front, that's it. You can see the front one here if you look on the front of the SC box. Even with the non-Vista ones just patch them and they should work (I didn't have to do anything else related to the Application Data issue that was discussed, it just put the saves elsewhere automatically).

[mik0]

layzee said:

Agreed. I'm sure Falcom has considered this already, but they obviously concluded that the costs are greater than the benefits. If a company wants to expand into new markets, they first need to make sure there is sufficient potential demand for their products. I personally can't see that demand for their Ys series of games, much less their other games.

I really hope they'll make their mind to translate their game at least in english. It doesn't require too much effort because they don't need to reverse their code and need only to translate the text. There's probably people that would do that for free or lesser paid but probably even at full cost it won't be too much.
Once the game is traslated I'm sure that more people would buy them. The problem is that at that point they won't be able to bear the great request that will come.

[FM-77AV]

Yahoo Japan is cheaper.

[Leroy]

Other than the Legend of Heroes games, Falcom's games don't appear to be very text heavy. I seem to recall Deuce charging through Ys Origin's translation in a couple of days time (give or take). Since he relies on tools somewhat for his translation process, I'd have to imagine that a professional translator could have even had it completed in less.

Honestly, if Falcom had a more streamlined process for international orders or a small distributor stateside (which would probably be preferred to prevent the high shipping costs), I think they could probably make some decent lettuce from even a niche audience if they developed English versions of their games. Legend of Heroes excluded due to the amount of text there is, as noted.

[mik0]

wyrdwad said:

Well, by that logic, why don't more American companies translate their games to Japanese in-house, too?

The answer is, because American game companies seek to sell games within America. And just doing THAT usually requires all the manpower they've got (believe me, I know this first-hand!). I imagine it's much the same for Japanese companies... there's simply no time, budget, or need to translate their games in-house. It would be more trouble than it's worth.

-Tom

I don't know. Many unofficial translation took 1 or 2 people with great effort but in their spare time. A professional translator need less time and however he have to work only on the script. Adding a script is not that problem and I doubt that this will delay the develpement. Also Falcom sell its games even many year later so the translation is worth.
We are few people that buy their game and enjoy them but I think that probably more people would be encouraged to purchase them if they can understand what is written on screen.

American company doesn't have this problem because english is considered a main languages and should be known by all people (teorically, my english sucks for example). I'm italian and the games here are not translated too often and when they are most of the time are not worth but it's a different case.

Last chance is to help unofficial translator to translate their game giving them the script and some tools to put the text in the game (or doing that themself). It's a thing that can bring benefit to anyone (they sell, we enjoy).

[mik0]

wyrdwad said:

I agree that that would be really cool, but honestly, I don't see how it would be possible. A lot more goes on at game companies than you'd think, and there's already so many factors to worry about... adding one more is often simply NOT AN OPTION.

Planning a game that can be translated is not something that take time in the long period. Many game was developed with the simple use of different file for the various script, I don't think that programming something like that for them is so difficult.
It's probable that they don't think a translation is worth in first case and really think that the only market is in japanese territories. They also convert games for psp, I think that a translated version would sell a lot more and they are already doing the work of converting the title.
I only think that is a waste that such a good game company keep itself so distant to the rest of the world.

wyrdwad said:

Personally, I think what Falcom does already is impressive enough. I know you've had some trouble with them, but the mere fact that they ship internationally from in-house is really pretty astounding.

Yeah is impressive, this doesn't change. I saw worse order and delivering service from company with a real store.
The trouble I had however could be avoid with the same people and worktime and not reply to an order is not cool.

[Leroy]

I don't see how it would be the huge, epic problem you're making it out to be, Tom. Translating most of their games into English would be a VERY small task. That cannot be disputed. But.. I think other factors prevent them from considering it including having to provide support in English and the influx of international shipping they would be tied down to and possibly other small, annoying factors that I'm not thinking about at the moment.