How to Transfer Region on PS3 Game Saves

This week, I'm going to show you how to easily transfer your PS3 game save to another region (e.g. Japan to US, US to EU, etc.). This method is incredibly effective most of the time and everything should work 100% once transferred—all your progress, trophies, stats, etc.

In this guide, I'll be using as an example a Dynasty Warriors 8 Japanese game save which I will be transferring from Japan region to US region. 

Requirements:

• Save data from the game and region of your choice
• Title ID of the game with region you want transferred to
• Playstation 3 console (can be original firmware or custom)
• USB stick/drive - to transfer game saves from PS3 to PC and vice versa
• PC with Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8
• Bruteforce Save Data

 

STEP 1:  Copy your game saves to your PC  

You will need to have your game save stored and accessible on your PC as you will be modifying its contents. The easiest way to do this is to insert a FAT32 formatted USB stick in your PS3 and copying the game save to the stick, then copy them onto your PC. 

When copying from PS3, the game save should be located on your USB stick in PS3\SAVEDATA.

Copy the entire game save folder to your PC. Put them somewhere you can remember, such as the desktop.

Important! Always make a backup of your game save in case anything ever goes wrong. I recommend creating a new folder called "SAVEDATA BACKUP" and putting an extra copy of your game save there. I will not be held responsible for any damages caused to your game save if you fail to make constant backups.

STEP 2: Download and configure Bruteforce Save Data

Bruteforce Save Data is a powerful game save data swiss army knife for PS3. It allows one to decyrpt and encrypt game save files, add cheats, transfer region, transfer saves to another owner and more.

Download Bruteforce Save Data here. 

Once it's finished downloading, extract the RAR file and run the installer. Do not launch the program yet.

Create a new folder on your desktop or anywhere else you like and name it "SAVEDATA". This folder will be the folder where you store all your game saves for usage with Bruteforce Save Data. Make sure that wherever directory you store it in is NOT write protected

Drag/copy your game save folder (e.g. NPJB00325-SAVEDATA) to this "SAVEDATA" folder. 

Now it's time to run Bruteforce Save Data.

If you receive an error message regarding msvbvm50.dll missing, you need to install Visual Basic Runtime 5.

You may be also requested to download Microsoft Visual Basic C++ 2010 (x86) if you don't have it installed in your system. Downloading and installing this is a must!

If all is well, you should be greeted with a nice big window.

It may ask you to update cheats repository, click the "Download" button to download the latest database. This is important because it will update your game.conf file with the latest game keys to ensure saves can be decrypted and encrypted.

Ignore any of the program's requests to input a console ID and User ID. You don't need to setup a PARAM.SFO template either. Just leave them all at default.

The first thing we need to do is click on the "..." button and select the "SAVEDATA" folder of where our game save is (the one we created earlier). So go ahead and do that. Once selected, your game save should show up.

SAVEDATA folder selected as the path.

Take note of the "Key" section, there should be numbers in this field. If it's empty, you'll need to select the game save and hit F6 to Bruteforce the key. Once it's Bruteforced, press the "Refresh" button to refresh everything. The "Key" section should have now some numbers.

STEP 3: Decrypt game save files 

Back in the Bruteforce Save Data window, make sure the game save is selected on the top window and click on "Decrypt PFD" button then "Decrypt All Files". You can also simply use Ctrl + D to decrypt.

How to decrypt game save files

After it has successfully decrypted, you should see the window turn green. This indicates the game save files are decrypted. Ignore any disc hash key errors you get.

Game save files successfully decrypted

STEP 4: Change Title ID of game save

In order to change a game save to another region, we need to change its Title ID.

To do this, right click on the game save and select "Change Title ID/Region". You can also simply hit Ctrl + I to do the same task.

How to activate Change Title ID/Region.

You should now get a pop-up window requesting you to enter the new Title ID. Replace the current ID with the Title ID of your destination region. In my case, I want to change the Title ID to NPUB31234. This is the Title ID of the US version of the game I'm using—Dynasty Warriors 8. Your Title ID will be different if you're using a different game. You can use PS3Index to find the Title ID of your game in its region.

Changing NPJB00325 to NPUB31234.

After you hit "OK" it will duplicate your existing game save and convert the new one into the new Title ID you've entered. Your window should then look something like this:

Title ID/Region successfully changed.

STEP 5: Encrypt game save files

In order to actually use the new game save on the PS3, we need to re-encrypt it. If you leave it decrypted (green), the game will tell you its corrupt and force you to delete it and create a new one.

In Bruteforce Save Data with the newly created game save selected (top), click the "Encrypt PFD" button then select "Encrypt All Decrypted Files".

How to encrypt the decrypted game save.

The green will vanish and the window will return back to white color. If you get an error dialog box indicating "Missing secure_file_id", the game save needs its key first. You can get the key easily by clicking on the game save, then hitting F6 (Bruteforce). Once Bruteforced, click the "Refresh" button. The key field for that game save should then be populated with numbers.

New US game save encrypted.

As an option, you can also re-encrypt the bottom original game save as well with the same steps.

STEP 6: Transfer game save to PS3, test it out and resave

You are pretty much done. All that's left to do is to transfer the newly created game save to your PS3 and test it out.

If you're transferring from Japan region to US/EU or vice versa, you'll probably notice that the game save still retains all its Japanese or English title, description text and icon; even though we completely changed the Title ID/Region.

Don't worry about this regardless, just copy it over and replace your current game save with it. When you save over it again in the actual game, it will then convert all the Japanese or English text and the game icon to the Japanese or English counterparts.

NEED HELP?

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