There seems to be an ongoing trend with SquareEnix's online stores. In the past, the North America store stocked a good amount of stuff that was about on par with that in the Japan shop. But gradually as the years passed, the NA store had less and less stuff to buy while the Japan shop just kept expanding its inventory.
It's been a while since I last saw the NA store, but a recent visit had me rather shocked at how stark the selection had become. Check out the North America SE Shop compared to the Japan SE Shop.
Aside from the obviously different site designs, the amount of merchandise available in each shop is so significant I don't see how no one has complained yet. At least in the past, the NA shop had some Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts Play Arts figures, but now there's just games and soundtracks. Okay, maybe NA people weren't buying Play Arts and the other stuff in droves as much as Japanese fans, but c'mon. It's an online store; it's not like they're physically stocking shelves. Why not let NA people buy the same stuff that's offered in the Japan shop? Does it take up that much server space to host more pictures and text? I mean, for goodness sakes, most of the figures in the NA shop are DC COMICS! Did SquareEnix suddenly become disassociated with Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts?? I don't get it. (I'm sorry, Tetsuya Nomura's design of Miku just looks creepy. No offense to the guy, but the VOCALOIDs don't really lend themselves all that well to the Final Fantasy look.)
I mean, really, it's not like the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts stuff are out of production since they're still being sold in the Japan shop. So why omit so much merchandise from the NA store?
Not cool, Square. Not cool at all.
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