Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

shivan128

shivan128

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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!

 
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Tothoro said:
No physical PS4 version as of now either. Seems like there's more to the story on Twitter. Maybe one of the limited game companies will be publishing it?

I play my Switch so infrequently that I'll just pick up the PSN version on a sale if there isn't a physical.
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link to twit?

 
There's so many different things it could be. Considering they're having their own logistics issues just getting out Last of Us 2, I can only imagine an all ages version of a Japanese 18+ VN would not get top priority for publishing. 

If you want to delve into a conspiracy theory, Sony could have objected to content in the art book (which would have been packaged in a box with the PlayStation logo) and not allowed it with the resulting disk only package not being worth publishing. A lot of other groups have been resorting to shipping a box without the game inside to get around a couple restrictions. 

 
Does it add any significant content?  As I played the original version on the vita and it's good but not enough to justify playing it again.

 
shadowysea07 said:
Does it add any significant content? As I played the original version on the vita and it's good but not enough to justify playing it again.
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60 fps, HD, JPN voices, and optimized controls, so no it's just a port. I already have the PC version and i'll stick to it myself.

 
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Pretty big sale for Golden Week going on on Steam. Ends next Wednesday. Lots of relevant games. I'm sure if you ask for opinions here you will get answers from me or others. I am going to make a VN news post later. Hoping one thing specifically is released today before I do that.

 
April was a pretty good month.

How did everyone else April pick-ups go?

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My pickups were just Sakura Wars, FF7R and Trials of Mana. Digitally Making Lovers, Yukikoi Melt, and Sakuranomori Dreamers. I support the VN localizers even if I don't get to them right away, with only Making Lovers being mostly played through.

 
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Just P5R and VII Remake here.  Been isolated with flu symptoms for the last couple weeks.. so I'm already done with remake and halfway on P5R. 

I'm considering this $50 SE bundle on the steam sale since DQXI and TZA were already on my wishlist.

Anyone have an opinion on Oninaki?   I thought Setsuna was decent.  Own Lost Sphear but haven't gotten to it yet.

 
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I picked up Sakura Wars, FF7R, P5R and Trials of Mana physically. Got XCOM Chimera Squad on PC. Also got the Neo Geo Mini when it dropped to $30 the other day, so looking forward to giving that a try =)

gospelman said:
Anyone have an opinion on Oninaki? I thought Setsuna was decent. Own Lost Sphear but haven't gotten to it yet.
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I enjoyed the Oninaki demo, but never picked it up, so curious about opinions on it as well for anyone that's played the full game.

 
April's pickups...

PS4

--------------------------

Disaster Report 4

FF VIIR

Summer Lesson - Allison Snow/Shinjo Chisato English Version

Sakura Wars

Switch

--------------------------

Little Busters

The Fox Awaits Me

 
April pickups:

Our World is Ended
Worldend Syndrome
Monkey King: Hero is Back
Saint Seiya Soldier's Soul (Spanish/English physical Ed)

PC-Engine Mini
 
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Every time Squarehard posts I die a little inside.

Mostly because I'm broke and jealous :p

I don't even remember what I got in April... right now time isn't a thing for me.

 
I ended up picking up FF7R and P5R.  And then ordered a few games during the gs b2g1 sale - Darsiders Genesis x2 (got an extra to give to a friend to coop), Pillars of Eternity II, Code Vein, Ghostbusters Renastered, and Raging Loop.  I got pretty lucky, all came with inserts and only one was in a generic case :)

 
I've been playing Trials of Mana on the Switch. I had it pre-ordered ages ago, though I would likely go another version for the 60 FPS, but honestly it plays and looks well enough and I'm playing it portably. The story is OK enough and  I'm glad you get to experience the character back stories when they join. They are quick and help connect to the characters a bit more. Battle system is pretty solid though can be a bit repetitive at times. I'm sure the 60 fps helps non-Switch versions, but I feel the Switch version looks pretty good, and plays alright. I was going to start playing FF7R, but I gravitated to this because of the portability. The music is very decent rearranged with a choice for the classic music, and the voice overs are very OK in English. I do have Charlotte in my party (she is my favorite in the original), and honestly I can tolerate weird dialects and writing in games, and she is tolerable. The baby talk is annoying, but I actually find Riesz a bit more annoying. Her performance so far have been a little wooden at times. If anyone is curious my team is both of them and Hawkeye. It's a fun remake and a bit more simpler overall than say FF7R. I loved the original and this fits the heart of that a lot. Not having co-op is not a good thing, but it's still fun. Just wanted to say something about this version specifically because the others are getting more attention because of the 60 FPS. Also the text on the Switch portably is OK, though a bit small at times. I also don't feel the AI is great for your companions and I don't think they're following my orders on using class strikes. They just never seem to do them even if I have them at the 2nd highest occurrence. Game is about a 7.5/10 so far.

 
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April I got FF7R, Trials of Mana, Sakura Wars, and Atelier Ryza. First two were "gotta play now" games and latter two were "gotta buy now before they become hard to find later" which means they may or may not ever get played.

 
nitrosmob said:
I actually find Riesz a bit more annoying. Her performance so far has been a little wooden at times.
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Completely agree, thought the same about Ingrid in FE3H. While "Lise" was always my favorite back in the day, my first playthrough will probably be Angela. Then later Riesz with JP voices.

 
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Out of the main Trials cast I actually think the Charlotte VA is probably the most talented of the bunch. They wanted a specific performance from her and she absolutely nailed it. Doesn't mean I am a fan of it, but I think she did a good job. Especially when you look at all the minor characters that are supposed to have strange dialects, such as the elemental spirits. With the exception of Shade they all sound pretty amateurish imo. It's like night and day comparing her to any of those voices.

 
I'm almost at the end of underwater ray romano mask of decepticons.  Just got to the point where they invade tuskur.   My least favorite section of the original tv series.

 
2 Major VNs got their English releases.

First of all Frontwing released Yukikoi Melt. It has a 10% off for a bit more than 24 hours. The Steam release is butchered like crazy though. It pretty much cuts out the total of the common route and other routes I think to have one route. This is likely to not have school in the game. Don't buy it if you don't patch it. It will be short, butchered and terrible. I honestly like it. This is the same people that did Grisaia, so it may be expected. It's cute, though one of the female leads probably a bit childish for me. Really annoying route. I've finished 2 of the 4 routes, but it's a pretty nice story. Also the scenes are a bit more in depth than I expected. They're very high quality and a decent amount of them for each character. These aren't super, super vanilla. Just a warning of course. I'm enjoying this more than Making*Lovers. I just couldn't get into that one, though I finished 2 routes there. Very good art and decent voice acting. I'd recommend this one, though it's not my favorite. 7.5/10

Steam

Adult 18+ Patch (NSFW)

2nd of all an English patch for Angel Beats was released by Alka Translations. This has been in the work for a while, and I'm sure will be a quality patch for a good game.

Patch

 
Does anyone know if Walmart has been reliable about getting new releases in? I have to shop there every couple weeks anyway and was wondering if I might be better off just trying to get Xenoblade there rather than wait for shipping.

 
finished utawarerumono mask of deception.  It was alright.  Though a little long winded at times.  There were easily portions where I went 7 hours or more between maps.  Units were all over the place.  Atuy and Kiwru were broken while nekone was pretty worthless, kuon was trash inbetween the beginning chapters and until tuskur where she got a major stats bump and her special attack plus weather conditions made it so she got turns more frequently and solo's the maps.

Middle ground would be the yin yang twins ururuu and saranaa, ougi and jachdwalt.  

Rulutieh turned into a jeigen like kuon but didn't get any bumps at the end to improve.

Things diverged at the end of the game and one or two characters that died in the show didn't in the game among other minor to major changes.  Overall decent game and certainly better than stella glow was.  But man did this game need a gale force like ability on everyone instead of low activation one on atuy.

 
Soma_Cruz said:
Does anyone know if Walmart has been reliable about getting new releases in? I have to shop there every couple weeks anyway and was wondering if I might be better off just trying to get Xenoblade there rather than wait for shipping.
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It usually takes an extra few days before they show up on shelves, but so far all the big releases have appeared. I have a preorder in at Amazon but I'm not a prime member so I get the slow free shipping which means a week or more of extra waiting. If walmart gets it before Amazon ships, I'll cancel the amazon order. If Walmart doesn't get it, then at least I'll get my copy.

 
BBY actually earned huge points with me in this pandemic. Even though Amazon has been cucking people left and right with game shipments, i've still gotten all my niche stuff on time.

BBY has me as a customer until i'm not Elite Plus any more, I guess.

 
I'll wait for Yakuza 7.  I've bought pretty much every Yakuza game released in North America so far... so the inevitable $40 or under deal will happen before I ever get around to being ready to play it.  It worked out well for me and Yakuza Collection and Judgment.  So... yeah...  will wait.

 
I just always will get Yakuza games on release even if they get discounts. I still remember the times when the prices crashed and then we stopped getting Yakuza games after 4. I'm not sure that will happen again, but I like supporting cause I love these games.

 
Splurged since gamestop has the 50% off on 5 preowned games sale going.  Not sure if it stacks with the buy 2 get 2.
 
got
InuYasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask
Grandia II
The Granstream Saga
Monster Hunter: World
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Digimon World: Next Order
 
Monster hunter for 4.99 was a steal.
 
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For everyone who loves my VN news there are releases as well as release date news.

First JAST USA finally released You and Me and Her: A Love Story. This is currently available on their site, and will be on Steam May 25th. This is a Nitro+ novel so you should expect likely some very good artwork and story telling, as well as some plot twists. There may be an 18+ patch for the Steam version. This will be my next VN after I finish Yukikoi Melt. A launch discount is available as well.

VNDB (NSFW)

JAST USA Store (NSFW)

Steam

Sekai Project/Denpasoft released Real Life Plus Ver. Kaname Komatsuzaki on Steam and the Denpasoft store. There is an 18+ patch available. It's about a guy and a girl and the choices they make and how it affects their relationship. Supposedly it has a lot of endings and is kind of short and maybe a little nukige like, so I might get it, though it's not near the top of my play list. There is a launch discount as well.

VNDB (NSFW)

Steam

Denpasoft (NSFW)

Denpasoft 18+ Patch (NSFW)

Sekai Project/Denpasoft also are releasing Victory Project on their store next week May 15th. This is a Chinese VN and is about a guy who money laundered and after spending time in jail is given amnesty. He is sent to an island with beautiful girls, but there is a conspiracy brewing. It looks interesting and is 18+. This was rejected from Steam a while back.

VNDB (NSFW)

Lastly Master Magistrate is leaving Steam Early Access June 12th. It will have a discount on release. This game is a mystery game, that will have 4 separate mysteries in the complete game. There will also be an 18+ patch on release that will have the heroine's seperate routes.

VNDB (NSFW)

Steam

 
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If I didn't mention it I finished underwater ray romano mask of decepticons and now I am working on adventure time pirates of the enchiridion.  mask wise they changed the ending from the anime so a few characters didn't die and go further into kuons background among other things.  So I am pretty happy overall about those changes. Though the one new change kinda ticks me off since the character was holding back basically the entire time and could have killed varai and others if they wanted too easily.

 
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Yeah, another one of those bored days.

Had to bury myself in the games for it to actually spread properly, as I was shocked how video game cases didn't spread as easily as snow, shocked I say.

The clean up part of all of this, well, let's just say I'm not doing this again...

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Squarehard, you know, if you are bored... those game boxes should have games inside you can, you know, play.   Still, nice game angel.

 
Hey it's one way a cag enjoys his collection, seems fine to me.

Personally I would have been too paranoid at the possibility of scuffing my cases.  8-[

 
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Well, 1 month later I've finally finished P5R.  As a digital owner of P5 I wasn't happy about this release at $60.  Ended up doing the $40 amz launch edition (that I posted here) and now feel differently.  Was worth every penny of that.  In my view, I'd call it the single best standalone ps4 game. 

Platinum trophy came naturally right when I finished the game without any extra chasing.  Was probably a little too easy but I'm thankful there was no trophy for navigation lines this time.

 
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I'd have to agree with this. Only a 1/3rd of the way through P5R and rather surprised at how much has been revised, rerecorded, or added to the game from base P5. It's starting to become rather clear why this was not a simple DLC pack and a stand alone (re)release instead.

 
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well I ordered a crap load of games from the 50% off sale for gamestop.  12 games for 70 bucks is not bad.  xenoblade x wiiu being among them rpg wise.

 
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