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A family friend of mine works for Mandarake Galaxy in Shinjuku, Japan. Mandarake Galaxy is a video game store. In fact, he was one of the first people who introduced me to the wonderful world of gaming. The other day, out of the blue, I receive a fax from him. I quickly glance at it, and its in Japanese. I know a little Japanese but not much. The only thing I could make out was Nintendo DSi (having been to Nintendo Japans website before) that peaked my interest and I called a relative who I know could easily translate this. Now before I continue, yes I thought to call him, but with economic times like these, I can't afford the call.

I took a picture of the document (I don't have a scanner), and e-mailed it to my aunt who called me and translated it to me. My aunt knows very little about video games so she had some difficulty but I was able to fill in the blanks. Bottom line Square Enix and Nintendo are going to release a limited edition DSi. The DSi will be silver, and have Game Boy Advance backward compatibility. The limited edition will also come with Chain of Memories and 358/2 days. Now, the document says quarter 2 2009, but, I'm going to bet it will be probably available in the fourth quarter based on Square's recent delays! Below are two pictures I took with my digital camera:

nice.
ill wait for the bundle.

Oooh... Sounds freaking awesome

October 11, 2008 UPDATE:

My friend from Mandarake Galaxy just faxed me another document. I took it to my aunt, and she said, after reading it, that mostly everything was the same, and only two things had changed. She looked at me and said, "I am tired of looking at this video game nonsense! LOL, that makes me laugh! Back to the point: the date has been moved up. Also, the price that Mandarake Galaxy will be selling the bundle for is on the document:









Enjoy!

This post has been edited by konichiwa: Oct 11 2008, 20:01

Unquestionably a hoax.

1. No less than four different names are used instead of the proper 358/2 Days (that's right, written in English): these include "358/2", "2分の358日間", and "358/2日間". I stress the fact that "358/2 Days" is usually written in English in Japanese materials; if it were to appear written in Japanese, it would simply be the phonetic katakana translation that appears in the game's logo (スリーファイブエイトデイズ オーバーツー, "three-five-eight days over two").
2. Same as the above for Chain of Memories (the only official Japanese being the phonetic translation of チェインオブメモリーズ, "chain of memories"), i.e. "思い出の連鎖" and the hilariously terrible "思い出のゲームボーイアドバンスチェーン" ("memory's Game Boy Advance chain").
3. The design on the front of the DSi is simply preposterous. That ugly, pixelated, 4-bit piece of tripe wouldn't be on anything official.
4. A DSi with a GBA slot. Seriously?
5. This is a less factual problem, but 19888 yen is a really weird number. The overwhelming expectation is for any sales price to end on a zero.

This post has been edited by urutapu: Oct 12 2008, 07:58

While not speaking Japanese, I did a quick translation on google for GBA (GBアドバンス) and Game Boy Advance (ゲームボーイアドバンス) and I didn't see either of these in the document...

I swear that is official. Also if anyone is questioning why it is grammatically incorrect in several places, chances are due to that it is an internal document (as it says so on the upper left hand corner of the document; so my aunt tells me) and not the final product announcement!

One other thing: People need to realize that this was not supposed to be seen by the public! I think these documents were only supposed to be seen by higher ups at Mandarake Galaxy!

My friend works right below the store manager (assistant manager last I knew). I could provide a name if I wanted to... but I'm not about to cause my friend to lose their job. I'm kind of loyal like that!

Also my thinking is that (like the original document) this is internal and is supposed to update Mandarake Galaxy staff on a set price and show that, yes, the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Limited Edition Nintendo DSi does indeed have Game Boy Advance compatibility. I'm thinking (and I don't know this) that this is not to replace the original document, but rather to show what the final DSi will look like, and the real Game Boy Advance port.

This post has been edited by konichiwa: Oct 12 2008, 12:11

Then you didn't look hard enough. "ゲームボーイアドバンス" is on the ninth line of the first page, the third and fourth lines of the second-to-last page, and the fifth and sixth lines of the last page.


Yeah, I still really think you're either (1) really gullible, or (2) lying.

And just to drive the ridiculousness of the GBA slot home, a user at KHInsider (358/2 DSi Bundle - KHInsider.com Forums) noted this really pathetic tidbit: