Why are the Japanese versions getting cheaper?

[Handlebar-Orion X.]

It's been a while since I posted in these forums. 

I was looking around on amazon, and I found that mainly the discounted versions of Rockman DASH 1, Rockman 64, Tron Ni Kobun, and Rockman DASH 2 are anywhere between $19 and $25. This makes me wonder, why are the "this is old so now" editions of the Japanese versions of the Legends games cheap, yet the US versions even under "Greatest Hits" are still anywhere between $68 to $200+?  You would think they'd all be the same prices.

[RyanLEO]

Probably since they released both for PS3, so people can get them digitally now for a cheaper price instead of buying online. I think the japanese versions have been out longer, maybe that was for PSV can't remember.

[Chiz]

It's not just the PSN rereleases, although that's certainly part of it...DASH and DASH2 were also rereleased on the PSP as discs not that long ago, not to mention being Japanese games, they likely had larger press runs over there in the first place.

And then you have the size of the market - Japanese games are really only attractive to Japanese-speaking people, which is limited to the maybe at most 200 million people in Asia that can speak Japanese fluently enough for it to not be an impairment. Meanwhile, English copies of the trilogy can easily be enjoyed by any of the 2.5 billion English-speaking people of the world, with NTSC vs PAL not being at all a concern with most of not-North-America generally accepting that, yes, you're going to need to import a console or two eventually (that being said, PAL copies are generally going to be even more expensive.)

Between all of that, and I'm sure a few other reasons, you end up with that massive price disparity. Personally, I see no shame in giving yourself a discount and buying the Japanese PS1 games, or even the Japanese PSP rerelease that had 80% the same files on the disc, if you demand a physical copy.

[Handlebar-Orion X.]

This is pretty sweet because this means I could eventually import Tron Ni Kobun, and once I get a Pocket Station and the means to play import games on US hardware, finally unlock Servbot 41. The most underrated Servbot in existence.

[Bean]

Mega Man Legends has had multiple re-releases in Japan whereas we just have the digital versions on the PS3. For people that like physical copies, the only way to get them is still on the PS1. Kind of wish Capcom would do a physical collection, but I doubt they think that's worth it.