Sadly, there was no pasta bowl:
Now I’m certain that there was nothing heavy regarding Snowbound I mean it’s typical otomate, 1 booklet, 2 CDs, game package:
Their customer service was shit too. I asked multiple times why the price was increased and they refused to respond. All they did was say they were changing the shipping to FedEx so it cost 3000 yen instead of 4300 =_=. I have 2 games preordered for December with them. If they pull this shit again…I think I might be done o_o. Honestly it’s hard to leave CD Japan because I have a good amount of points with them, but if they’re gonna rip me off with shipping, then my points are basically paying for the ripoff shipping price and I’m not actually getting any kind of discount. What’s even more rage inducing is that they tell you this shipping increase last minute when you can’t make adjustments to your order or decide how many points you will use. So like yea surprise pay us more money and you have no other options lol! The fact that even the INVOICE fucking says the weight is less than what they charge is amazing.
So well there you have it. For those who shop with CD Japan and don’t have too many points left I would go elsewhere unless you want to donate them money for shipping. I’m shocked that this is suddenly happening and it seems I am not the only one this has been happening to. In other news:
Sigh. I checked the status it says “awaiting credit card processing”. Wow would you kindly process the credit I don’t know maybe the day BEFORE not the DAY AFTER? ( ´_ゝ`)
As revenge for making me wait I’m gonna download that patch and play the whole game with everyone only in their underwear!!! ( ﾟ∀ﾟ)ｱﾊﾊ八八ﾉヽﾉヽﾉヽﾉ ＼ / ＼/ ＼
Edit: I got a response from CD Japan and I quote:
We have own shipping rate, so please do not compare with Japan Post office website.
Our shipping charge is including handling fee.
We are sorry for the inconvenience.Sometimes the item weight information is not correct when we update to our site, to compare the actual item weight.
Therefore it may happen again for the future order, I cannot say it won’t happen again.
Soooo I promptly emailed them to cancel my order. Once I confirm the cancellation, I will go place the order somewhere else. I’m sorry but $15 for handling fee? Even HMV isn’t this terrible. Have fun losing your customers.
かわいいじゃなきゃダメなの！ 
So,are you doing a review for Arcana Famiglia 2.
$56? Wow! That’s the price of a standard Xbox/PS3 FPS/RPGS/3D game.
Yeah, I totally understand. I think I’m pretty much done with them too. I don’t want to pay increased fees. D:
I usually use airmail except during holidays but since they seem to increase fees on everything including SAL I’m pretty much done with them 😡
I usually use SAL when ordering from CDJapan. And omg that handling fee. Too much. I feel like I don’t want to order from CDJapan again, that’s for sure.
Except no? Lol.
Except amazon is a bigger ripoff
now you know how I feel about shipping from CD Japan 😛
Nope. My shipping charges are correct. Henneko~~ ❤ Maybe there is a fujoshi tax? ^_^
Ah yes, amazon. The one place where the shipping charges are even more ridiculous for overseas. Often the shipping is more expensive that the stuff I want to buy.
I can read hiragana and katakana without any problems, and I know some easy kanji, just enough to get the basic idea of what is going on. Having voices also helps me, too ^w^.
i know right? I realize EMS is expensive but it’s now a proven fact that they told me they have an “additional handling fee” lol what the bullshit honestly
I did but I cancelled it now! Not sure if I want to bother because like you said so much crap games lately.
I saw the preview yesterday from the official site and the description is basically kya bishies with bipolar personalities! like I haven’t had enough of that from Diabolik Lovers.
I think I’ll save my money for -8 and Shinobi Koi Utsutsu in January instead!
It seems completely arbitrary. I’ve never had this happen until now all of a sudden but another commenter had mentioned this happening to them in the past month.
If it hasn’t happened to you then I guess you can consider yourself lucky? :S
And comicomi finally shipped my order out yesterday xD But yea from what everyone tells me I probably won’t be bothering with them anymore!
I cancelled my JN order from them and now I’m not sure if I want to bother re-ordering it elsewhere lol
… Oh dear and to think I just ordered Jewelic Nightmare from there too. 8’D I hope they don’t do this to me too… OTL
I got my SBL last week though my shipping was the same as always. Perhaps it’s ‘cos I’m at a closer destination, I haven’t really experienced all these…?
As for comicomi, though it says “credit card processing” it may also just mean that…they’re still readying your order. They can be erratic in when they ship out international orders, but so far they got all of them sent out. I was surprised though that they still hadn’t got Ken ga Kimi up for preorders that I had to email them and they replied saying that they’re preparing it. Hmm.
Ouch, really? Didn’t you get the limited edition ver. of Jewelic Nightmare?
I’ve been feeling disappointed with the otoges near the end of the year. Dunno if it’s the year-end blues hitting or too much OD-ing on just otoges. Even the GHP fandisk didn’t seem as interesting and fun as the original. =/
I usually just buy CDs from CDJapan, but yeah I’ve kind of noticed that their shipping rates are kind of fucked up lately. :((
Yea like you mentioned with AmiAmi, it’s never guaranteed with them so that’s why I never bothered using them.
Thinking about mixing up forwarding services with Amazon or Yodobashi Camera (because of the 10% point system)
We’ll see how things go I guess.
Most otome game tokutens are drama CDs and since I really couldn’t care less for those getting the game cheaper is a higher priority for me now than the tokutens.
Well I’ll see how it goes when I Play it. I liked the way the heroine sounded from the samples on the site so maybe it won’t be so bad.
On the other hand, Jewelic Nightmare heroine seems generic as all fuck so I don’t know if I will be bothering with that one anymore.
I bet they’re having a promo cause they are losing customers due to their sudden handling fee bullshit 😛
ooh I see, I just got a notice today about them finally processing my order.
Thanks for the insight about them though, I only ever ordered PC games through them but now that I’m not stapled to CD Japan I will be trying other places.
I think it depends on how many domestic orders they’ve had to fill and how much lead time you’ve given them. They guarantee that orders placed domestically will reach the customer by the time the game officially launches, so they ship one day prior. And then they process international orders, since that has no shipping date guarantee.
I ordered international from them thrice. Once, it arrived promptly. The second and third times, on a more popular product, it took one week just to get PROCESSED, let alone ship. Maybe I’m just unlucky, but I never did international orders with them again after that.
Wow that really sucks about CDjapan. I was thinking about buying a game there since they’re having a points promotion but meh
I hope you enjoy your games though! I’m playing through Snow Bound Land now and personally I really like it so far.
Shipping woes… The bane of many outside-Japan otogamers. =(
About Snow Bound Land, while i was waiting for my dot kareshi package to arrive, i managed to clear a route in it. Unfortunately, it’s quite disappointing. I’ve heard someone compare it to Beastmaster so i guess the impression’s already there for me.
Without much spoilers, i can say that Kai’s route is reminiscent of Tuxedo Kamen’s predicament in the Sailormoon anime. I dunno if i should pity Gerda, Kai or the both of them for the way they’re portrayed in the game. LOL. I definitely prefer the original Andersen’s Gerda (such a spunky little lass!).
I’ve had the suspiciously high shipping problem with them, too. For me AmiAmi manages to be better despite adding so much dense paper padding that I suspect it raises the weight of each package by one full class.
AmiAmi also isn’t as clear about what tokuten you get. I did order a popular eroge recently and it came with the preorder book/illustration boards, despite them being wrapped separately from the game and AmiAmi not having been advertised by the game company as offering it. Never have NOT received the general preorder tokuten where one exists, actually, but again…no guarantee. One thing I miss about CDJ 😦
MY shopping guide is already full of stores so I won’t be updating it in that sense but I definitely updated my blurb about CD Japan lol
Sorry I’m not sure what easy to read stuff is since I don’t know your Japanese level honestly. Any otome game with a complex stat raising system will probably be “easy to read” as you will spend more of your time “doing things” than reading text in a straight VN.
Good thing that I didn’t order anything from CD Japan yet, but I do feel bad for both you and your wallet x3. If you find a better online store to order otome games, will you update your shopping guide?
This is not related to your post, but I’m planning on buying a bunch of japanese otome games soon (Once I have the money T_T), other than Koibana Days, what other easy-to-read games would you recommend?
that’s about how long it takes for me as well but the packages often arrive all bent up and stuff…but I am pretty sure this wouldn’t make a difference to the fact that CD Japan is stacking hidden fees on to the shipping.
The special order items (that they order for you like a 3rd party) I can kinda understand? But for a regular limited edition otome game that I’ve ordered a million times for the last 2 years this has never happened.
Btw one of the commenters here informed me that they stacked fees on their SAL shipments as well. So if you haven’t gotten hit then I guess you got lucky.
Does SAL take so long? I’m living in Germany and packages always take at max. 2 weeks to arrive. ^^
CDJapan always had some weird EMS handling fees… I mean… Look at those collectible items. THEY ARE RIDICULOUSLY expensive, but if they pull this for normal games… That’s just sad! Because their point system is really nice… Man, it sucks balls… Really. Good thing, that I only order via SAL. ^^
amazon has ok prices but they also tend to ship in separate packages which means more fees for me to combine the packages together…so I try to prioritize stores that will consolidate all your orders in 1 box before shipping out.
Snow Bound land kinda reminded me of LGS which I really liked so I’m hoping it’ll be good in that sense xD but since I”m crawling through otome games lately who knows when I’ll get to it
The anime was dumb and didn’t cover nearly any of the plot lol
I haven’t played AF2 yet but I thought the other games were okay (although lots of incest and pedo if you think about it but I try to put it aside – except for Jolly cause he’s gross)
And I mean for any Animate game. For example limited edition on animate without any special tokutens isl ike 8190 or something but in Yodobashi camera its like 7310 so yea animate charges full price. Even CD Japan at least doesn’t make you pay the Japan tax and makes their limited editions 7800 yen xD
well thats dissapointing to hear since i use cd japan for my games too. good thing ima be in tokyo in january so ill stock up with a list. amazon has some ok prices if you dont mind used games. i got amnesia regular edition new for $30 there.
Sucks to hear about your troubles with CDJapan, although since I’m just starting to get into non english otome games I’m glad I know who not to buy from now lol.
Not exactly post related but I am sooooooooooo happy to hear you bought Snow Bound Land! I take it that means you’ll be reviewing it so I cannot begin to express my happiness at that! Being early in the process of learning Japanese I still live vicariously through awesome reviewers like you and I can’t remember drooling over an otome game as much as I have with Snow Bound Land…so yeah, pretty psyched lol.
You mean their special animate tokutens? I agree that it’s pricey when you use forwarding, since you’ve got to pay the tax, but I guess it depends on what bonuses you want to get for that price. I ordered Snow Bound Land and it was the best bonus out of all I saw. However, I got a bit disappointed with Ken ga Kimi, because they changed it later on, so it’s gonna have less stuff but the price’s still the same! That annoyed me so I’m still deciiding whether I’ll be getting this or not.
Is Arcana Familia interesting btw? I watch the anime and didn’t really like it even though I do understand that anime adaptations shouldn’t be taken seriously. Just curioust^^
ah just checked it. lol handling fees? really? wow $15 is just too much. remind me not to order from cdjapan unless they have awesome bonuses…
ah just checked it. lol handling fees? really? wow $15 is just too much. remind me not to order from cdjapan unless they have awesome bonuses…
yea its annoying when i buy a game and turns out that it sucks balls lol 😀
and sorry quin rose is so annoying to me now I really can’t think of anything I can recommend from them 😦 Not even the Alice remake since it seems like they’ve cut out a lot of CGs from Anniversary/Heart.
My box is like 11 inches by 9 inches. It’s not much different than any other box they ever sent me. Besides I got a real response from them finally and lol surprise handling fee bullshit. So nope I was right after all.
yea turns out its “handling fees”. I edited the end of my post to reflect the exact quote.
I am shocked that they would pull this b/s. I guess they want to lose customers or people don’t actually pay attention to what they are being charged.
I finally got a response and posted it at the end of the post. Lol handling fees, bye CD Japan. Have fun losing a 2 year loyal customer that spent like tons and tons of money on your site.
I like Animate too I got dot kare & tiny x machinegun there but they charge Japanese tax and are super pricey to be honest 😦 Seeing how I don’t wanna pay an extra $8 just for some drama frisbee I’m not too inclined to order from them!
See I am shocked to hear this. All the orders I’ve placed in the past were shipped promptly. I can’t believe this. I’m gonna have to update my shopping guide, what a disappointment.
Well, I’m not really sure about shipping costs and stuff since I don’t order online an dget them somewhere else, but I really hope those games aren’t going to be bad cuz from all your reviews this is a pretty bad year, so I hope they’re good since I’m really looking forward to Arcana 2.
Also random question though, but what quinrose games should I play if I wanna play a marathon of those games? I heard the quality was dropping lately so I’m not sure what to exactly play now.
Wai! This writing using the digitizer is fun!! Sorry. Got a new toy. A real proper tablet.
Check your parcel dimensions. If your parcel is lighter than for its size I they charge by volume. Your parcel looks big for the contents inside. You actually can’t fault them since Japanpost is the one that finally determines the charges. Otherwise I can’t say what is happening since I haven’t run into this problem… yet…
Now excuse me while I go back to playing with my Vaio Duo and the handwriting function.
I have no idea how CDJapan mistaken with your order I mean dude don’t play with money! if you decided to move, try HMV japan? I pretty much order from there and sometimes they have Loppi/HMV limited. and if you’re a member they give you 10% discounts, at least thats for me XD
on the other hand love those contents! I hope you enjoy your games and they don’t turn out to be kuso otoges coz it’s been a bad year…
Have you messaged them about it?
On the other hand, I try not to use CDJapan, because in the end it’s more expensive for me than ordering right from Japan even if I use a forwarding service.
ComiComi is always slow when dealing with overseas customers. I ordered stuff from it recently as well, and it took them almost a week to send out the order even though everything was in stock. I messaged them about it, and they said that they always take longer when shipping internationally, and basically they have written about it on their website.
I ordered Snow Bound Land from Animate, so my copy will arrive in around 6 days, can’t wait for it!
Btw, in terms of shipping preordered stuff Animate is probably the fastest, they charge the money a couple of days before the game’s released and they ship it within Japan on exactly the same day it’s released, and their service always works great.
But there’s also one thing: I ordered some stuff, part of it was in stock, part of it must be ordered from the publisher, and it’s alrady been almost 3 weeks, and the order’s still in process D:
ComiComi takes forever when you order from them internationally, for some reason.
Same card, same person, same account—–it’s faster to order stuff from them to a forwarding address in Japan and then have it sent over to you than waiting for ComiComi to process your international order. True story.
I think my order took like 3 days to process or something. And they have small print in the FAQ somewhere that there are no shipping time guarantees for international orders, I think.
Yeah, I’m wondering the same, but I ordered just a few days after they opened the preorders so really wtf.
Did you also order from ComiComi? Wtf is going on did they run low on stock or something.
My dot kare is in the same state even worse is they have yet to even tell me how much will be for shipping, well I was planing to play it until the 9 anyway so is not like I’m in a hurry but still I would like to know if they are going to send it at all.
yea I’m really upset since I thought really highly of them and their customer service. Well my next order is probably my last chance with them…(´・ω・｀)
yes they always cost that much for the limited editions.
Regular edition is $56.
It feels like they DID misread kg for lbs. and that they refuse to respond to you is dumb. I am sorry you have to deal with that sort of BS.
I am sorry if this is a crazy question. Why is Arcana Famiglia and Diabolik Lovers $76.00?????? Are visual novels normally that high?! Do they come with a lot of stuff?