Of JRPGs and Gamestops

Maybe I should order my JRPGs online from now on, I never seem to have any good experiences when I do so (save my Disgaea experience, where I got a new copy for free + $35 dollars at the expense of a guy probably getting fired cause he's couldn't keep his tasks in order). If you're a JRPG fan of any caliber, you're probably familiar with the usual "What did you say?" "How do you spell that?" "I... don't think we have those in stock." (After you stare at it on the shelf for 5 minutes) that you get from major retailers, but today I had a fairly funny experience that I felt the need to share.

Today I went to FINALLY buy Atelier Ayesha. I'm pretty sure you've never heard of it, but all you need to know is that it's from an entire Atelier series and is the 4th one released on American PS3 (8th in America overall iirc, if you care).

I strolled into Gamestop while giving a friend a rundown on how to play Sakura and I went to the back. Checked to see if it was on the shelf... why, I really don't know. I live in an area where if I want to buy a game such as this, it'll be there for months. And it was. So I walk up to the counter and tell the guy "I want to get Atelier Ayesha on ps3."

"You want what?" .... Atelier Ayesha. Nothing really out of the ordinary, especially since I atelier isn't a common word (and I pronounce it as they do in the game... I double checked the phonetic spelling years ago cause it sounds awkward, but it checks out.) Anyway, the guy starts typing it into the system... with an I. "I... don't know if we have any~~ I don't know how to spell it" A-t-e-l-i-e-r. Again, nothing horribly surprising. It's not a common English word (it's actually French), don't expect anybody to know how to spell it off the top of their head. "Yeah, we have that" Well no shit, it's relatively new and it's on your shelf. Why wouldn't it be? .... "The Alchemist of Dusk, right?" uuuuuuuum... -thinks- Yeah, that's it. I admittedly wasn't expecting him to compare subtitles, and I didn't know Ayesha's off the top of my head, BUT SHE AIN'T FROM ARLAND SO WE'RE GOOD TO GO, lol.

So he goes to the drawer to get a copy. He digs around for 3 minutes and pulls out a cd cover, manual and the game. New copy but no case?... ooook. He walks to the PS3 section and grabs the case. At this point, I'm not really thinking too much beyond "lol they got like, 3 copies of this game on release. Sounds about right." So he goes to put it in the case, and thankfully he did this in my face. Cause lo'and'behold, he grabbed Atelier Meruru (the 3rd one on PS3). I looked at him and calmly say "Hey... that's actually not the right game."

He looks at me crazy for a second, then looks down at the label on the cover. The label actually did say it was Ayesha, but that just means somebody at Gamestop didn't pay too much attention to their stocking job. I tell him again "Yeah, that's Meruru. That was an older one that came out last year." He stares at the label again, then at the game..... then at the label.... and back at the game.... and back at the label. (I'm not making this up). He stares at the label for about 10 seconds and questions "Um... how did this happen?" Like the whole world collapsed because somebody doesn't know their weeaboos. No big deal.

Now what gets me is what he does next.

He digs in the shelf again for "the copy of Ayesha", but can't find it. After looking for a minute... he opens the top shelf and grabs the new, shrinkwrapped copy. Like........ seriously? What in the world possessed you and kept you from doing this in the first place.

Shakin' my head.

I dunno what it is about buying JRPGs and why dumb stuff happens, but it always does. It's rare to have a smooth entry/exit with a game, even if you hold the only preorder in the region (which I've done with a few titles). Regardless, it never ceases to amaze me that dumb stuff happens.

Figured I'd share this one. Enjoy