Preferred English Tama version

Hi all,

I was browsing for a particular shell design for a tama when I realised, I don't actually have any English language tamas in my collection (if I conveniently ignore the fairly limited-featured 20th anniversary rerelease).

I've thought about getting a DreamTown friends (though I've read that it kinda sucks), or a TamaTown (not sure if I currently have space for all the figures). And then there's all the different connection versions. I'm fairly lost, especially where there may be differences between the English and Japanese tamas.

So... what is your favourite English tamagotchi and why? Also interested in knowing which is your least fave!

(つ◕౪◕)つ━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

I have an English iD L so I'm a bit biased, having an English colour Tama. It's not a patch you can download like with the P's either, they just...made a few. I got it new off Taobao at the time of release, rather inexpensively, but sadly they're quite hard to find nowadays and often go for hundreds, and there's really no reason to get one IMO unless you feel a pressing need for one in your collection.

So, uuuhhh, let's pretend the English iD L doesn't exist! *shifty eyes*

As far as I'm concerned, the Tama-Town TamaGo sucks and the Dream Town TF is great. The TamaGo is VERY basic with the one figure it comes with - you really need to buy other figures to get full enjoyment out of the thing, and I adamantly dislike that aspect. Boo, TamaGo. I just wrote a long rambly post on someone else's thread about the TF and why I like it so much, it's built like an indestructible brick, the games are lots of fun IMO, the pixel art is very good, and I'm sort of obsessed with the Dream Town characters. The only things I find weird are the jewelry collecting mechanic in lieu of an actual item shop (stupid) and rather limited options when you're connecting with another TF (lame).

If you're looking for an older English Tama though, I can't recommend the V4.5 enough, which is kind of like an English UraTama. I love the character growth system, the different jobs your character can have, and the characters themselves.

My favourite English-language Tamagotchi is the original P1 - the iconic originator of the virtual pets category. I've always liked the simplicity and the surprising depth of the evolutionary paths. By extension, the P2 also deserves a mention, here, since it's a refresh of the original, but with different evolutions and games. I'd love a modern release that follows on from this structure, where the focus is on raising a virtual pet throughout its entire lifespan.

My least-favourite is the Connexion/Connection line. I feel that those became too bogged-down with extra features which, for me, detract from them being virtual pets, and went against the Tamagotchi line's original slogan - "The Original Virtual Reality Pet". In fact, they don't even simulate a complete life-cycle by this point, as they can only die if you deliberately neglect them - otherwise, they're effectively immortal. For me, this completely defeats the object of a virtual pet, because it completely removes any stakes or risks from how you raise them. I'm not interested in the "virtual friend" or breeding aspects, so the appeal of them getting jobs, getting married, wearing clothes, and so on, but still pooping all over the floor, is lost on me.

The above isn't a knock on the quality of those models, though, so please don't take it as such - they're well-liked and for good reason. They're just not for me. I prefer my virtual pets to be virtual pets, and not miniature nigh-immortal virtual people - my least-favourite virtual pets in the 1990s were the ones featuring virtual humans, because I found that concept to be a bit weird.

TheYatagarasu - I read that post. I believe your bias is that you <3 Dream Town a lot! ( ^_^ ) Did you have thoughts on Tamagotchi Friends vs Dream Town? From what I've read, DreamTown also sounds like it has more mini-games, which is usually a draw for me.

Penguin-keeper - Gets a job, poops on floor That's pretty hilarious to think about (Looks at Tamagotchi Ps - my Kuchipatchi just did that after finishing his job at the park) Since I usually run the color tamagotchi versions, I found when I ran the Osutchi/Mesutchi models for funsies, it was refreshing to have something more simple. So I really get your point! Though it was weird getting the old man/old woman at the end.

One other question, I guess - if i'm going for one of these models (Connection v4.5 or original 1997 P1) is eBay the only place you can source them? Because some of those prices seem near extortionate!

Honestly, the original TF is a little bare. The Dream Town version has tons of minigames - one for each "career path" that your Tamagotchi can pursue at Dream School, and there are many more locations for your Tama to visit. If you're getting a TF there's no reason for you to get the original in place of the Dream Town version, end of.

As for getting good prices on older Tamas - you kind of have to stake places out if you want to get a good deal. And since I think that people overcharging for Tamas are the absolute worst for making a mess out of the collector's market, I happily divulge all my trade secrets so no one ever buys from these people.

With eBay, if you check new listings for "Tamagotchi" often enough, something decent will pop up every couple of weeks, especially for a P1 Tama. Do general searches as well as specific ones - some people selling their kids' old toys legitimately do not know that a V4.5 is a V4.5, and will call it a "Tamagotchi Connection", "Virtual Pet Toy 2005", and other generic things.

Also, Facebook groups! Notifications every five seconds are annoying but there are quite a few buy/sell/trade groups for Tama collectors out there! Since the people posting tend to be Tama enthusiasts, people don't tend to ask for insane amounts of money as often as on eBay.

Oh, and sites based in Asia actually get English versions in more often than you'd expect them to! JapanYouWant has English versions sometimes but they go FAST! Yahoo Japan / Yahoo Japan Auctions is another option. English versions pop up sometimes, and I find prices to be generally more reasonable than eBay. I really recommend getting stuff from there through a service called Buyee online.

And then there's good ol' Taobao. I scored an English V5 off there last year. Shopping services for Taobao have SPECIAL search algorithms though, so don't get too frustrated. I honestly prefer to wade through Taobao pages on the site proper with the grade school Chinese education I received, and use the shopping service just to order the actual thing, if that gives you an indication....

Sorry for the essay but I hope it was helpful!

So helpful!!!

I only ever used Amazon Japan, eBay or JapanYouWant - so good to know there are other places that sell English tamas.

I don't think Japanese and English connections can really be compared, so I wouldn't say v4,5 is an "english uratama", I mean, it's not wrong but there's enough differences to get both and feel like you have two completely different versions (which they are), the only real similarity is most of the characters.

English connections are all very varied. I mostly find the v3 rather nostalgic, and it's pretty nice- not too simple, not too complicated. v2 is also good in that regard but the games SUCK. V4 and v4.5 are great, as everybody mentioned. v5 is a bit different and doesn't really reflect the gameplay of most other connections (but still good to have), and v6 (Music Star) is a very unique version definitely worth a try. I can't really reccomend TF or Tama Go at all but you can give them a try if you want.

I like the V2 because Jump is a short game that I can usually win. Consequently, I don't have to put aside much time for my V2.

My favorite version is the v4.5. I really like fact that I can check mail and get a job (giving me something else to do when I actually need to play with my tamagotchi for whatever reason) and get points for it the next day. V3 was good too, but there's just the fact that the v4.5 was the right level of neediness for me that probably hooked me on it the best. I could also connect to TamaTown and actually transfer points back and forth and do more there too, but it wasn't a requirement (and true, if I didn't want to really focus on the job-hunting aspect I could just ignore it and let the tamagotchi pick for me, like it used to before I got savvy to all of it's features) and overall, it felt like an enhanced v3 rather than a bogged down tamagotchi, especially since there was a lot more I could do with my tamagotchis there in general. That being said, I didn't like the star-shaped antenna, but that's easily fixed if you have the ability to switch shells

My least favorite is the v6/Music Star. I know some people say that it was great when TamaTown existed and everyone could connect online, and maybe I just didn't manage to get into it enough to fully appreciate it, but I really didn't like the thematic way the v6 was set up. I didn't have an option to avoid becoming a music star, and while I could sort of bear the musical theme, I couldn't really deal with the fact that I couldn't skip past band performances, especially since while the sound is on it could get annoying if you needed to turn it off for whatever reason. It also seems like a really easy tamagotchi to manage (at least for me- I've heard others find it hard to deal with) and very goal-oriented, so it feels less like a pet and more like a "game", whereas with previous connection versions there was no goal and so you were just raising a pet for whatever purpose.

I have never had a P1 or P2, or any version before v3, so my opinion may not be a fully educated one, but I still think I might favor the v4.5 even if I did have a P1 or P2. Research and go for what you like best

I'm a little late to the party here, but I like the Connections. I have a 2, 3, 4.5, and 5. I'd say my favorite is the 2 because it has Kusatchi. The 3 is cool and has a lot of great characters as well. 4.5 is neat, but growth up through teen is apparently is mostly random and care doesn't affect adult form (since it's all based on skill points). I've only run the 5 for 2 gens, so I don't have much to say, but it seems to put even less of an emphasis on care (and I somehow managed to get the EXACT SAME ADULTS for 2 generations in a row, which... hrrrmmmm)

This is all super helpful and really interesting to see the differences in what people look for in a tama!

I've been browsing for English tamas since starting this thread, and grabbed a used v4 i think (the shell is light blue with hibiscus flowers) which just arrived today - but it's now 10:30pm so not going to start that one up just yet . I've definitely been thinking of the Music Star - mostly because it just looks really interesting. I did just get a japanese Familitchi (v5?) and was thinking of finding an English one but a) need more storage, and should probably play with the japanese version first!

Unlike most connections, Japanese and English v5's don't really have any difference from what I remember, so it's not a bad choice!