Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

[shivan128]

Welcome to the Japanese niche games deals and discussion thread!  Feel free to talk about local and import Japanese games here.  Our goal is to maintain a thread dedicated to active deals on niche games including RPGs, Visual Novels (VN), Shoot'em ups (Shmups), Musou, etc.  Also maintained are pre-orders for standard, limited and collector's edition games with key release dates provided.

I've wikified the thread to make it more friendly and open to others that can actively update with important information. You can find the wiki post directly below this one.

NOTE:  Please, leave the censorship discussion away from this thread.  It's common for japanese games to have questionable content outside of the country.  We want to keep discussions to the game itself and not about cultural/societal tolerance.

A message from Thorbahn:

Our CAG Japanese Niche Games Thread also has a community on PS4, where you can interact and game with other members of the thread.

Our moderators are: Draekon, Las_Hole, and Waffleswanton

You can basically friend any of our members, or any moderator, and you will be able to request to join the community under "Communities friends are in" tab, and a mod will approve your request.

You can also leave your PSN ID in the thread, saying you want to join, and we can invite you directly as well.

As always, have fun and enjoy your stay!

 

[Sunnymuffins]

Anyone play Eiyuden Chronicle? I don't think I've seen it mentioned at all and I honestly forgot I had the game (KS backer) for weeks now. Reviews are kind of a mixed bag too...

As someone who plays almost nothing besides JRPGs exclusively with a few turned-based strategies scattered in occasionally, I'm really enjoying it! I give it a solid 8.5/10 up to this point, and best estimate is I'm sitting at about 60% of the game completed excluding post-game content. I can't compare to anything in the Suikoden series as I sadly have yet to get around to any of those. (Seriously Konami, what the hell is the holdup exactly on the I/II remaster!?) I also know there have been issues with the Switch version, but I'm playing on PS5 and don't have any firsthand experience with that. A few things stand out, subjective as they may be.

THE GOOD

• Music: Motoi Sakuraba's music never disappoints! He's had a hand in composing stuff for most (if not all) of the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile titles as well as many games in the Tales of ... series.
• Characters: I appreciate the effort that went into creating all of the characters' distinct personalities, and I haven't really felt like there are a bunch of characters with the same generic personalities (yet). Some characters definitely stand out more than others though; favorites include Perrielle, Francesca, Falward, and B'baba.
• Graphics: I love the pixel style that's been come back in style lately; colors are bright and crisp.
• Combat: The auto-battle implementation is surprisingly robust, and it reminds me a lot of the gambit system in Final Fantasy XII. I also appreciate the use of gimmicks in some battles to try and help get rid of some of the monotony of battle.
• Card Battle: This mini-game is simple to learn, fun to play, and includes a fair bit of strategy. I like the CCG aspect of it as well.
• Growth: Exp seems to scale based on character and enemy levels both, so it's easy for lower-level characters to catch up. As a result, even characters than join 10 levels lower than the party are viable after several battles.

THE BAD

• Mini-Map: There is no option to lock the mini-map orientation so that north remains facing up. I hate having to constantly rotate the map to get my bearings. This is a pretty standard QoL option nowadays, and I can't imagine it would have been difficult at all to include. I would love to know why/how this was overlooked.
• Faye: The only character so far that I can't STAND! Her personality is annoying, her voice is even more annoying, and she seems to be an extremely weak character.

THE MIXED

• Items/Equipment: Each character only has a single weapon that can be leveled up at a smithy, which I don't care for. Armor, accessories, and runes can be found in treasure chests and bought in shops though. Towns have only had a couple random treasure chests so far - the majority are found in battle areas. I have yet to find a single hidden item in a pot, in a drawer, on a shelf, on a table, etc.
• Story: Up to this point, the plot has been ok but nothing amazing that's really got me hooked like some other games have. As the assumed main antagonist, very little has been shown on-screen of Dux Aldric, his ultimate goal (because world domination is NEVER enough), and his motivation. An event as pivotal as the supposed assassination of the Galdean emperor, presumably masterminded by the Dux, happens off-screen. I feel like showing this on-screen, or even the Dux plotting beforehand, would better impress the gravity of the situation. Even information on the Runebarrows, who created them, and their purpose has been virtually non-existent so far - really hoping the story fills in more soon. A well done plot twist or 2 would also be welcomed.

 

[keyblader1985]

I wish the game was on my radar when it was on sale for three dollars. It does look good.

 

[gospelman]

I wish the game was on my radar when it was on sale for three dollars. It does look good.

That was Rising. The above conversation is about Hundred Heroes. Two separate games.

 

[keyblader1985]

Oh, I thought we were just talking about Rising.

Also turns out I did buy Rising at some point and just completely forgot..

 

[nitrosmob]

Oh, I thought we were just talking about Rising.

Also turns out I did buy Rising at some point and just completely forgot..

I have to check bundle games almost one by one most of the time because I have them many times over. The perils of having a too large game library especially digitally. This is similar for PSN games as well. I need to play a bunch of RPGs, but I'm trying to figure out what to play. I think I'm playing Loop8 next since there is a higher chance I'll likely not like that one. Otherwise probably finishing up the FF7 Remake (Pt 1) is in my future.

Also on another note AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~ came out from Shiravune and has a launch discount of 20% off. This is one I believe about a guy going home and meeting up with some ladies from his past. It's very much a moege and has some nice art. It's on Steam, JAST USA (18+) and Mangagamer.

Steam
Steam 18+ Patch (NSFW but a safe looking page)
JAST USA (NSFW)
Mangagamer (NSFW)