Ricedigital Reviews 

This is not so much of a review of the website, I do use it from time to time. I really enjoy their reviews and they have fantastic collectors editions.I was at MCM this year in London. I check out the Rice Digital stall everytime too. This MCM was a bit rough for me as I'd recently lost one of my family members though. So stress levels were high.The crowds this year were especially insane, combine that with the fact I have agoraphobia. I was quite stressed and scared. I wanted to pick up the new Root Letter game quite badly. After battling the crowds of people and getting to the Rice Digital booth, I set about getting Root Letter. The stall was very busy though, all the members of staff were tied up with other people.Normally not an issue, but I started to feel scared and ignored. The crowds, noise, and everything around me, I started to hyperventilate and shake, I'm not even sure why as I felt okay beforehand.Then I was suddenly taken away from my panic slightly as someone grabbed my hand from over the table, it was one of the members of staff at Rice Digital. An American who asked me if I was okay. He noticed me shaking and having a panic attack.I stumbled to respond and felt like I was going to just break down in tears, he suddenly started to tell me to breathe in and out to relax. Asking me my opinions on the games around the stall, despite my nonsense blabbered words I gave him, he listened to every word.After a few minutes he calmed me down and we talked about Root Letter, we actually just chatted for about 10 minutes about the game, as well as what sort of anime we enjoy, how to better deal with panic attacks, and a bunch of other things. He even gave me a hug. I ended up buying not only Root Letter, but a few pieces of Steins Gate merchandise. The staff even gave me some Stiens Gate 0 Art Cards for free. This gave me an experience that I didn't get anywhere else. Cheered me up a fair bit. So to Denis especially and the rest of the staff, thank you so much for helping me ^-^ Rice Digital has some of the nicest people working for them and they obviously care about the industry of niche Japanese gaming. I cannot wait to see everyone again.

I've only ordered from RiceDigital a couple of times but in each instance it's been great.

Quick delivery and I was updated when a stocking issue was going to lead to a delay in dispatch.

Top work guys.

I had a great experience with Rice Digital. The product was easy to order on their website, they shipped it when they said they were going to ship it, included tracking information, and I received my order in perfect condition as it was packaged professionally. Overseas delivery in 2 days! The free shipping included in my order was a HUGE selling point. I would like to see them continue this tradition with other PQube game pre-orders as the current $30 fee is a little steep. Assuming shipping promotions, I will absolutely deal with Rice Digital again in the near future.

Being an avid online buyer since 20+ years, I can say I had very few experiences this bad before. I suppose that when things go alright, everyone is happy, but the best way to tell if a site is pro or not is when problems arise.

This will be an updated review after Dennis, from Rice Digital UK, finally stepped in. I had to deal with the french cousin of RD and it seems communication should be polished a good bit there.
All in all, what happened? A product not being released on schedule, which is fine to me, as long as customers are updated about the situation. Problem is when you've already paid for your product and get next to nothing in terms of news about your purchase, it can lead to some frustrating experience.

As stated above, Dennis is the person you will most likely get in touch with if any problem happens, Luckily for you, this is one of these people who's extremely passionate about what he does, and places customer satisfaction at the very top of his list. A plus. Let's hope this kind of behavior is very, very, contagious within Rice Digital ranks, because let's face it: they have some neat collectors for people who like me, enjoy to treat themselves, and we, collectors, should have more shops like this around.

As of today, everything's been fixed bu it was a rough ride if I'm honest. Part of the fault, in RD's defense, belongs to the editor of the product I ordered.
Because they didn't protect it good enough, all figures (Anima's collector edition) have been shattered during their trip to RD's warehouse... slow clap Badlands (the editor), very slow clap....

Will i order again from RD? I'm an geek, a nerd, and my age aside, I still enjoy filling my shelves with crazy stuff. Most likely, but I will go the extra mile to deal with the Uk website this time, just to play on the safe side. ;)

I have purchased two times from them already and I am very satisfied with their service. It is nice to see that they have some games that are unique with a physical release Rice Digital has it for the U.S. customers. Great company does good things so far only thing is the shipping is kind of pricey, but overall great company. Keep up the good work.

Brilliant 5 star service from placing order to receipt of quality goods.

Quick dispatch, and fast to reply on detail received Gundam Breaker 3 on release date brilliant service

Payment and delivery service was very secure and very quick. Package arrived sooner than expected. Very happy with experience and would use again.

I have ordered with them a few times and the service has been great.
Items are received in excellent condition and well packaged.
They do hand out 5% coupons every now and then which is a rather nice touch and something you don't see often is stores offering imported games from overseas, given that the choices are limited at the moment, hopefully we'll see more as Japanese developers start applying English translations to their games. But also by ordering import games here you do avoid the possibility of getting that nasty nasty import tax that ruins the experience by stacking addition costs on top of what you've already paid for.

Great overall, but some complications with recent puchases

I bought many videogames from Rice Digital to Italy and I never had a problem. Good prices.

(There's a TL;DR at the bottom, if you don't want my life story.)

I've been shopping with Rice since 2014. Had a flyer of theirs passed to me at a game convention and decided to check them out. The fact that it was a UK based company focusing on a niche market that I love, they struck a chord with me instantly. The exposure of Japanese games in the UK has been pretty dire over the years, and Rice were really trying to change that. The shop was still in it's infancy at the time, but it was obvious that it wasn't all about a 'quick business win' or 'filling a gap in the market'; you could tell from the offset that they actually cared about that. Exclusive pre-order bonuses and special editions that they don't even get in the States, pricing that's even competitive with the likes of Amazon - the effort going into it was visible. I was ready to jump in and buy some stuff.

The first experience was crap. I bought 3 games, all pre-order well in advance of release date and 2 turned up late (3-5 days after release day) and one didn't turn up at all. I called several times, struggled to get hold of anyone and the few times I did the conversation always ended with the lady saying: "I'll just find out and call you back" to which I never received said call back. At that point I filed a complaint through an email and after a bit of defiant back and forth, eventually it all got sorted and they gave me a refund for the missing game (as I had bought it again elsewhere). I was pretty annoyed that the process of getting a refund was so arduous, but I figured that it was still early days for them and were still ironing out the kinks, and I wanted to support a company doing good things for a niche market. So I decided to try again.

The next couple of orders went without a hitch but then I bumped into yet another problem with an order of 5 games I did during a sale. This was a massive pain in the butt. These were all non-preorder games that were on sale, of which I only received 2 of 5 within a week of ordering. Again, attempting to call customer support was a drag. The same lady was answering my calls as before and I was met with the same vague correspondence and never received any concrete answers. 3 weeks later. I had 4 of 5 games that I ordered. I started to realise how ridiculous the situation was and called one last time to put an end to the whole thing and demand my last game or a refund. And that's when things started to change for the better.

Uncharacteristically, my call is answered first try and quite hastily too. An unfamiliar voice is on the other end, an American gentleman named Dennis. I know this because he introduced himself to me happily and politely. I was actually a bit worried that I would have to explain this ordeal to somebody new and not the lady who normally answered and knew my situation; but I began my convoluted and long-winded explanation of all the crap that had happened with this order. He listened patiently and responded with genuine empathy which put me at ease instantly. He said he'd need to do some digging and asking around due to the complexity of all the back and forth of calls and emails that had already happened, as he was new to the case and the member of staff who previously dealt with me was seemingly no longer with them. He didn't want to put me on hold so he said he would call me back. Not long afterwards I receive my callback to find Dennis giving me a thorough explanation of what had happened with the order (it was a clearance sale and even though I ordered the game while it was in stock, they no longer had any stock left due to an error). While this wasn't the news I wanted to hear, the transparency of the explanation was a breath of fresh air and he was genuinely apologetic for the matter. He instantly refunded me for the game and gave me a % off code to use on any order within 12 months for my troubles.

From that day onwards, everything has been a breeze with ordering items from Rice. Granted, I've actually still had items turn up late and one more item go missing (which is usually ALWAYS Royal Mail's fault), but when I call up Customer Service, Dennis is always there to put me at ease with information about when my order was dispatched, if there has been any problems at their end (let's face it, they don't have the infrastructure that Amazon and the like have - these things happen) and picks up the slack on logistical problems that aren't usually Rice's fault. The one game that went missing in the post (out of 10 or so that I've ordered since the last big issue) was replaced with no hassle whatsoever.

The reasons I'll keep coming back to Rice is that they are doing wonders for a niche market, not only for the UK, but the whole Western world with their US/CAN/OCE shipping, allowing them to get their exclusive pre-order bonuses and Special Editions. (They even now import SEA versions of games that aren't released in the West. which I've taken advantage of twice now. It's dispatched from their UK depot so you don't have to pick up a customs charge or go through the effort of trawling through a website in Chinese and trying to figure out where the page with the shipping costs is! Trust me, it's a ball-ache!) They now have fantastic customer service. You're treated in a polite, friendly, personable and empathic manner, as a human being, but more importantly, as a fellow gamer and fan of Japanese culture. It's obvious that Dennis really cares about what he does and he is the one reason why I continue to do business with Rice, because I was ready to jump ship prior to his great support. They also stock more then just games! Anime, figures, peripherals - anything a fan of Japanese games could want. They also do great editorial content and reviews. I keep meaning to check out some of the YouTube videos.

TL;DR: Had a few issues in the past, but these days everything goes smoothly with great communication when there's a hiccup. They've earnt a loyal and long term customer.

8/8 would shop again

Bought Steins;Gate last year, game came quickly with no problem.

I'm not the type to give out 5 stars to every experience, but this shop perfectly matches their niche, prices are normally much lower than other shops for Japanese produced games and some of these come with their own great pre-order bonuses (custom t-shirts, etc.) , and this still stays under the average price. The only time I find myself going to another website for these types of games is when I am worried a limited edition print may not appear on the shop before they are sold out, and that means I go to the source.

You shouldn't ignore this site if it caters to your taste

Bought doax3 recently, game came quickly and kept updated as it was on its way.

Ordered a few things when they were unavailable in NA or just plain more expensive. Everything arrived ahead of date specified and in perfect condition. I don't normally order international stuff, but when i do i go to Ricedigital first.

A great site to import games/items that are unable to the United States. No issues of having the items shipped to the USA. Use a currency exchange website to confirm if the price is right to buy for you.

At first, I wasn't sure but when I saw something I wanted, I had to get it. An excellent range of eastern developed games and anime on DVD/Blu-ray, reliable shipping for in and out of the UK, clean interface for the site and solid pricing!

Easy to navigate filled newsworthy updates and interesting articles about stuff that gamers like.

Good selection of the best and, sometimes exclusive, japan games.