As I wrote here formerly, I bought a Samurai Shodown RPG "Bushidohretsuden." It cost me 3,900 yen ($32). The price appeared at Nippon-bashi, Osaka-city. But the price at Oosu, Nagoya-city was 5,100 yen ($42). The prearranged price of "Bushidohretsuden" for Sega Saturn is 6,800 yen ($56). What does it mean?
Video-game dealers usually reduce the video-game software price to 90 percent of its value. If the software is not popular, it will be marked down to 30 percent of its value. For example, "D (Japanese: D No Shokutaku)" which was produced by Mr. Kenji Eno has often been admired. Especially the notorious MITI of Japan admired the software as the multimedia promotion factor.
However supermarkets in Japan often reduced the price of "D" by 75 percent.
On the other hand, funny video-game softwares called "Character Game" have been often produced in Japan. Sailor Moon game for NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), Rurouni Kenshin game for Sony Playstation and Magic Knight Rayearth game for Sega Saturn are very famous and not popular.
Some video-game critics blamed "Character Game" developers. But voice actresses are very popular in Japan and Playstation, Saturn, Neo-Geo CD, and etc deal with the voice. If fans of Ms Harumi Ikoma want to hear her voice, many of them will buy the game CDs. In fact, game developers are often much behind in their works. So they often put some drama CDs and music CDs of voice actors to fill up a gap.
As for Magic Knight Rayearth RPG, some critics admired it. As I wrote here formerly, the game system is not similar to Dragon Quest-type RPG system. Moreover because the former system gives players a high degree of freedom, players can play the game according to the original comic story.
However supermarkets in Japan often reduced the price of "Magic Knight Rayearth" by 75 percent.
Well, is the Samurai Shodown RPG more popular in Nagoya than in Osaka?
We must study further.
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