Hacking The Quest for the SNES Edition 3DS: Region Change Questions

[VOFluff]

Hi, hope someone could clarify a few things for me.

I really want to get a SNES edition 3ds to replace my original AUS (imported before they were available in the EU) Blue New 3DS XL. A friend of mine is willing to buy my current console to offset some of the cost.

The prices/availability are pretty bad on EU eBay for EU models - I did note that there are a few unboxed JP consoles that seem in decent condition, and the EU/JP SNES edition consoles are pretty much the same apart from Super Nintendo vs Super Famicom on the faceplate, and I can always get replacement faceplates if it bothers me down the line, so it could be an option.

I understand that a region change isn't usually recommended due to it breaking the eShop, but I don't plan to use the eShop at all as I have never owned a title on there... The JP 3DS would become my new primary unit, so I would prefer to have English menus, etc. I know Luma will allow region free, but I would still like English menus if it doesn't hurt me too much.

Other than losing eShop access (Which I don't care about because FBI is a thing...) is there anything else I should take into account? Will online games still work after a region change? Not that I play online much anymore, but it would still be nice to have the option. Will I still be able to update games normally, or will it all need to be sourced elsewhere? Is there anything else that won't work?

Let me know if this is a really bad idea or not - Thanks for reading

 

[assassinz]

If you can't access eshop, you won't be able to use dlc for some games such as Rusty's Real Deal Baseball that require you to access the eshop via the in-game store to unclock the dlc.

Even if you have cfw on your system you can't install the dlc for this game without accessing the eshop and having a NNID. At least that is my experience and I don't know of any alternative to get all the dlc for the game installed.

So I would look into which games unlock dlc only through in-game purchase using eshop and decide which games you can do without having the dlc.

 

[MSearles]

I'll never understand why some people will pay more for something just because it has a specific appearance on the outside. Internally, it's the same exact hardware as any other one. But some people are willing to pay an exorbitant amount just because it has a fancy appearance on the outside. I'm completely okay with my dull gray N3DSXL

 

[lilyuwuu]

Game updates come from eshop. Japanese eshop only has Japanese updates, and region changing breaking eshop means you can't get eu updates from eu eshop. You'll have to sideload everything.

A few games can misbehave even with region free (particularly tomodachi life). If the console is kept on jpn, specifying locale may be necessary for some games (use Luma locale switcher) or they may not boot.

A way to get eshop access is to system transfer that jp 3ds to another jp 3ds to completely clear out Japanese title associations. From there you can region change the original jp 3ds and eshop should work.

 

[assassinz]

A way to get eshop access is to system transfer that jp 3ds to another jp 3ds to completely clear out Japanese title associations. From there you can region change the original jp 3ds and eshop should work.

And that can be expensive, as they would have to buy 2 JPN New 3DS's because you can't transfer from New 3DS models to the old models.