Correct me if I’m wrong but I heard Jast sells their games in several stores?
Can I get some locations and store names? ;_;
uhh Jlist and Jastusa I believe?
Then maybe hendane and righstuf sites?
Are you referring to actual brick-and-mortar locations, fujifruit? If so, I don’t think any actually exist. JAST, Hendane, and Hirameki (when they were still around) brought hard copies of their games with them whenever they traveled the convention circuit, but I don’t think anyone has set up a physical store for mainstream consumers. The majority of retailers that carry visual novels sell their wares online. This method kind of works since possession of a credit card confirms that the purchaser is either of legal age or has obtained parental consent (though this system is certainly not fool-proof).
Just a small list of online retailers that carry English visual novels:
- J-List
- JAST USA
- Peach Princess
- G-Collections
- Right Stuf
- Anime Nation
- Hendane
You can sometimes get lucky on Amazon and eBay; I managed to snag a copy of Private Nurse that way since it was sold out everywhere else. Just be warned that the aftermarket markup can be pretty steep if the seller decides to be an opportunistic prick… Nearly $200 for a possible misprint of Ever 17? I’m fine with my confirmed misprint, thanks…
Tell me about it… nearly $700 for Shoin and I really want to play that game 
I think Fry’s carries JAST titles, but not much.
Yeah was pretty much talking about actual stores.
But thanks!
Also any place to get Japanese eroge besides Paletweb? and non middleman services…
;-;
Consistently? Not any more.
If you’re lucky JList carries some titles. They don’t really have the range to be used as a general preorder store though.
Not many independent/import/retro video game stores exist. If you have one in your region, ask their staff for help. I have seen some Sega Saturn romance games at my local retro store (People Play Games, north side of Chicago), as well as the PC-FX version of Blue Breaker. Since so few unique stores exist, you’re exceptionally lucky if you find any store that will stock small publisher games or adult games.
I have seen a few lingering copies of Hirameki games at my local Fry’s store, but sometime in betwen when I first went to the store in 2007 and the last time I dropped by in fall 2010, the store stopped carrying even Japanese import fighting games with very little text, as well as fully translated region-free European games.
At Anime Central, I’ve purchased a few pro-translated visual novels and H games from Hendane and some other vendor. I know that Hendane also brings a few untranslated games… During ACen 2010, I asked their staff if their copy of Men at Work! 3 would be compatible with the fan translation of MAW2, and they didn’t know, so I bought To Heart 2 XR instead.
Import retailers such as Mad Gear and Video Games New York have also set up shop at ACen. They might have a few fairly recent console romance games, but no H games.
I bought a used copy of Pia Carrot for PC-FX on eBay. AFAIK, it’s rather rare to see adult games on eBay. And it’s exceptionally rare to see any Japanese PC games regardless of content.
Conclusion: if you want a romance game or a VN that’s been released in English, it’s much easier to order online. And if you want a physical copy of an untranslated game not on J-List and similar sites, then you’ll probably have to use Rinkya or other sites which help fans find import games.
Screw that. Those guys are overpriced. Dankedanke is reliable but not ridiculously expensive, especially if you want to source a number of titles. Then you just get titles from Amazon or wherever you want.
Alright thanks.
they sell every JAST release at RACS