Nintendo has been pretty stupid about localization this generation. Especially with Cing. Localize Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk but leave their sequels to Europe, meaning their stories are incomplete in North America? Gee, thanks.

As for importing The Last Window, Elite Beat Agents pretty much only exists because people imported Ouendan so much. (But, then, Elite Beat Agents is a new game in the same style and Nintendo might rightly assume that the people importing The Last Window won't buy it a second time.) I'm considering importing it, but I'm not sure if I really want to play it without the great Treehouse script. Those guys do a stellar job.

If I was interested in Mother 3, I wouldn't buy a Japanese copy, though. I draw the line at buying games I can't even play.

Quote Originally Posted by Vivi22 View Post
The way I see it, piracy when, there's no option to legitimately support something in the first place, can't really be considered piracy.
You... see it wrong, then. Whether it's morally ok in your opinion is one thing, but it is unquestionably piracy.

Quote Originally Posted by screaming onomatapeia
Where my particular situation specifically departs from this is that I don't think the cost of importing on top of the game's retail price is worth it for me to grab Last Window legitimately. Simultaneously, I feel that I'm punishing a publisher for not putting the game out in my region. I don't want to reward them with my cash if they don't want to release in my region. As someone noted, this is a little more borderline considering the company went under and that's probably largely to blame for the lack of NA localization.
I don't think so. The game is done except for the North American script, which would be handled by Nintendo and not Cing. Plus, I'm fairly certain Nintendo owns the IP, considering Hotel Dusk was in Smash Bros. Brawl.

By the way, the last time I checked, it wasn't really clear what happened to Cing. They definitely went bankrupt but whether they simply closed up shop or stopped production on whatever the were working on or were secretly bought by someone isn't really known. The obvious idea would be for Nintendo to buy them but I don't know if they're really good enough to be a Nintendo-owned studio. Again was pretty frigging awful.

Quote Originally Posted by Peegee View Post
Imagine if Super Mario Bros 2 were never translated and imported from Japan to be playable in the SNES - what would you do? The only way is to buy a famicom and the game cartridge nowadays, or download a rom which takes a few minutes.
Well, these days, you can buy it for $6 on the Virtual Console. One of the great things about digital distribution of old games. I totally own legit copies of two Cho Aniki games. Woo!