What do Japanese Tales limited editions include?

A Japanese Tales launch is built to be collected. Beyond the standard edition, major titles receive retailer-exclusive Famitsu DX Packs and Lalabit Market editions bundling figures, tapestries, drama CDs and art goods, and preorder campaigns that treat paper as a headline feature. When Tales of Xillia 2 preorders opened in 2012, the ¥8,380 package (about US$105 at the time) included a prequel novel by the scenario writer, an art book, alternate costume downloads and seventeen custom console themes, on top of the game.

Hardware joins in. Xillia's 2011 launch was marked by a PlayStation 3 console bundle carrying the game's livery, the X Edition, and console bundles and themed accessories have accompanied major releases since. Anniversary titles get anniversary treatment: the 15th, 20th, 25th and 30th anniversary years each layered special editions and goods programs over the games themselves.

The Western pattern was historically thinner: standard editions, occasional steelbooks, and only in the modern era true collector's editions, Arise's among them, shipping with a figure of its heroes. Even now, the deepest bundles, the DX packs with their tapestries and figures, are Japan-only programs sold through Japanese retailers in Japanese launch windows.

For this Library's purposes the limited editions matter because they carry the designers' work in its purest printed form: Fujishima, Inomata, Okumura and Iwamoto illustrations reproduced as art books, tapestries and covers rather than game assets. A DX pack is a small art exhibition for one game, and the Japanese aftermarket treats it that way.