Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

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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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scorponok said:
I don't know if that many people know this, but the European import versions of Shenmue II was sold at EB Games.
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I remember that !!

Shenmue was like this fabled game that was super hard to find. I never played them. only the two software boutique stores at the Mall of America ever got them in stock.

Then we started buying games like Suikoden III instead. There was always something about Playstation...
 
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Vinny said:
It didn't hit me as to how old I am until recently but I was dropping off my 19 year old cousin to her dorm and she made a comment about why some people are so touchy about 9/11. And I was like... da fuk?!? before realizing she was born after 9/11.

Seeing the DC's 25th anniversary made me feel even older...
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I feel like, with any tragedy, people should understand them.
 
Pheria said:
Admittedly, it's hard to say if I would've picked that as my '1 console' that gen when OG Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube would have also been there by that time though. I don't think I would have appreciated all the weird and neat IP they had at that age/point in my life as much as I do now.
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While I was huge into DC, I didn't avoid GC, PS2, or OG Xbox. I got them all. XBox and PS2 in part because of how Sega pushed a lot of games to them ... GC, I was always going to get. All of the systems from that gen have truly great games... and I'd add in the GBA & PSP.
 
nightc1 said:
While I was huge into DC, I didn't avoid GC, PS2, or OG Xbox. I got them all. XBox and PS2 in part because of how Sega pushed a lot of games to them ... GC, I was always going to get. All of the systems from that gen have truly great games... and I'd add in the GBA & PSP.
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True for me as well...except I did avoid the PS2. I was angry at it. I only got a PS2 this year in fact.
 
Agreed, it was a great generation overall.
I did eventually get a PS2 while it was still the current gen- my friend's fell off their desk and wouldn't turn on anymore. Their parents bought them a new one, but I asked if I could have the broken one. It turns out it was just the power button's ribbon cable was disconnected. I still have and use that PS2 to this day, haha. I barely scratched the surface of the PS2 library back then though, I mostly used it for DDR/Amplitude. I somehow hadn't realized I was a weeb in regards to games yet (though I guess DDR kinda sorta counts)

Same for my GBA SP from then - still have and use the same one.

Eventually got a GameCube during the next generation when GameStop had them for like $30 (and a used OEM component cable for about $15? $20?, thanks GameStop).

Didn't get Dreamcast until waaay later though, probably around 2012 and then what a mess it was trying to figure out VGA boxes and modern displays (since most TV's also had VGA ports, but the DC standard is weird) during that time.

That's also when I tried to play Space Channel 5 and learned how horrible my setup at the time was for lag even in game mode.
 
Cross posting from the Fanatical thread as there are plenty of niche games here.

Build your own Bento Bundle (BundleFest Edition)

3 + Games $2.00/Per item
5 + Games $1.80/Per item
10 + Games $1.50/Per item

Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy
Banner of the Maid
The Chrono Jotter
CORPSE FACTORY
GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon
The Last Act
The Legend of Tianding
Love n Dream Triple Pack
Love's Crescendo
Maid of the Dead
Persha and the Magic Labyrinth Double Pack
Project Heartbeat
Shards of Chaos
Shenmue III Deluxe Edition
Sunny Cafe

Newest iteration of the Bento Bundle with lots of new to bundle games and lots of interesting games regardless. I'm getting this one early in case any keys run out.
 
scorponok said:
The Dreamcast was the first console I bought a lot of games for. I had over 90. I was always hanging out at the arcades when I was a kid, so of course I loved the Dreamcast, so many arcade ports. Of course, I sold off my collection when it wasn't worth much. I think the last game I bought was Under Defeat in 2006 then sold the collection shortly after.

This is one of my favorite Dreamcast memories. I don't know if that many people know this, but the European import version of Shenmue II was sold at EB Games. It wasn't advertised, it was just in their computer. I preordered it and they actually got it in. I can still remember picking it up and everyone in the store came up to the counter to check it out.
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Yeah my older brother did the same. I remember going to Babbage's with him and he got the EU version on Shenmue 2 brand new. With the blue case & slip cover. He still has that copy to this day. I don't remember how he found out about that though. We didn't have cell phones or a computer back then. It was a cool moment in time. When he left home he took the Saturn & Dreamcast collections. I kept everything else.
 
You had to buy a special disc that allowed the US Dreamcast to play EU region games. I don’t remember how I got the game, but maybe some game magazine mail order, i didn’t know how to import anything otherwise. I know that’s how I learned about it at least, probably still have the magazine. The only foreign region game I bought up to more recent years. Shenmue 2 was bigger, and better in some ways, but less refined than Shenmue 1. All the attention paid to trivial small details is what I like best about Shenmue 1, and the atmosphere.
 
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Xenogears said:
You had to buy a special disc that allowed the US Dreamcast to play EU region games. I don’t remember how I got the game either, but yeah, probably the only foreign region game I ever bought up to more recent years. Shenmue 2 was bigger, and better in some ways, but less refined than Shenmue 1. All the attention paid to trivial small details is what I like best about Shenmue 1, and the atmosphere.
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My bro was big on fighting games back then so he imported a lot of Saturn & PS1 games like X-men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Capcom, Dragon Ball Z Legends, Dragon Ball Final bout, All of the KOF games. We had the ram cart for Saturn games and the converter for PS1. We used a import place called express.com. It was in the back of game magazines. It wasn't actually a website Lol! You called and placed your order over the phone. So the Shenmue 2 situation was cool being able to just walk in and get a import.
 
nightc1 said:
While I was huge into DC, I didn't avoid GC, PS2, or OG Xbox. I got them all. XBox and PS2 in part because of how Sega pushed a lot of games to them ... GC, I was always going to get. All of the systems from that gen have truly great games... and I'd add in the GBA & PSP.
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While I agree the PSP has an amazing library, it’s part of the generation after all the other systems you mentioned.
 
Xenogears said:
You had to buy a special disc that allowed the US Dreamcast to play EU region games. I don’t remember how I got the game, but maybe some game magazine mail order, i didn’t know how to import anything otherwise. I know that’s how I learned about it at least, probably still have the magazine. The only foreign region game I bought up to more recent years. Shenmue 2 was bigger, and better in some ways, but less refined than Shenmue 1. All the attention paid to trivial small details is what I like best about Shenmue 1, and the atmosphere.
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I sent my Dreamcast away to have a region-free bios installed within a couple of years of getting my Dreamcast (I was late and got mine in early 2001), so I was importing PAL and Japanese DC games pretty early on, comparatively, 'Shenmue II' PAL included. That same Dreamcast is still running (!) now with an added Noctura fan, replacement battery and capacitors, and DC HDMI mod.
 
Looking back on things, and comparing relative evolution of tech over the years, I would say that the PS2 was the most satisfying one to own (for its time) among each of the systems. It felt like a completely natural step up from everything we liked about how the original PS performed, with memory cards and loading. congruent controllers. It felt like a proper technological and graphical leap, and the games felt modern and robust.

I wish we could go back to that kind off (offline) system design philosophy. Then again, that's precisely what the Switch does now.
 
Some visual novel news:

The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~ released on both Switch and Steam which is a remake on an older game with a scenario from Yuji Horii. It's a bit expensive for supposedly not being very long. It also has English and a few other languages other than Japanese in the Japanese version physical release.

Steam
Nintendo eShop
Play-Asia

Nekonyansoft have put the release of Happiness! Sakura Celebration! as coming out this month. This looks very cute and I'm looking forward to it.

Steam

JAST USA announced that Mojika - Truth Rears Its Ugly Head will be releasing in February 2025. This is about a guy who can read minds and is bullied. I'm not really sure why they had to announce the release date now since it's so far out, but it is now up for pre-order on JAST USA (NSFW) and you can wish list on Steam, which likely will get a patch on release.

Shiravune announced Real Anime Situation! DT from Jitaku Studio. This is a nukige similar to the recently released Real Anime Situation 2. This is about a guy and he thinks about virgins giving it all and hasn't had a girlfriend. I'm guessing he'll get that girlfriend. I wasn't as crazy for Real Anime Situation 2, but these are okay cheaper nukige titles.

Steam
VNDB (NSFW)

Sacrifice Villians will be released in Q4 of 2024.

Mangagamer announced Sleepless – A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Sleepless – Nocturne both by Empress. These are both sequels to Starless with Nocturne being a sequel to A Midsummer Night's Dream. The art is always great in these games although the stories and characters are interesting and generally explore lots of fetishes.

VNDB Dream (NSFW)
VNDB Nocturne (NSFW)
 
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Souffrir said:
While I agree the PSP has an amazing library, it’s part of the generation after all the other systems you mentioned.
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It was launched at the tail end of the PS2 but before the PS3. Similar to Vita coming out deep into the PS3 life and with a lot of cross play titles with the PS3... and before the PS4. Looking at the PSP library and PS2 library there were quite a few releases happening between them. Like Outrun 2006 Coast to Coast... GTA LC & VC Stories to match up with the PS2 GTA 3 & VC. Plenty of other games too. Where as Vita was getting the PS3 stuff. Not that there is some hard line in the sand on generations, but I consider PSP the end of the PS2/GC/OG-XBox/Dreamcast era.
 
nightc1 said:
It was launched at the tail end of the PS2 but before the PS3. Similar to Vita coming out deep into the PS3 life and with a lot of cross play titles with the PS3... and before the PS4. Looking at the PSP library and PS2 library there were quite a few releases happening between them. Like Outrun 2006 Coast to Coast... GTA LC & VC Stories to match up with the PS2 GTA 3 & VC. Plenty of other games too. Where as Vita was getting the PS3 stuff. Not that there is some hard line in the sand on generations, but I consider PSP the end of the PS2/GC/OG-XBox/Dreamcast era.
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You’re welcome to classify things however you like, but it came out the same year as the DS and the year before the 360, while it came out three years after the launch of the Xbox, the newest system you mentioned. The Dreamcast came out a year ahead of the PS2 (and two ahead of the GC/XB), and you’re still lumping it with them, right?
 
PSP is kind of a unique beast because it's library was firmly tied to PS2 releases including the ability to link the systems for some games... but late life was beefed up thanks to the PS3 and PS Store. Which was mainly emphasized with the later release of the PSP Go where they ditched the umd drive. I wouldn't say it's only in the PS3 gen as it is so heavily tied to the PS2. It was definitely firmly in both gens but it started during the PS2. Plus the PS3 took a while before it's library really started to get good.

I think more of the VITA as the PS3 gen... even though it was later in life we were getting cross buy games, simulataneous releases, and so on. PSP really didn't get a lot of library crossover with PS3.
 
I got an itch to finally dip into the genre that includes farming and some lite rgp stuff after playing an old Frontier village style game themed on the Oregon Trail on my ipad. After talking with my oldest son about games he'd recommend, I remembered I had Harvestella and would just give that a shot. Overall the opening character creation threw me. You can pick male, female, or nonbinary (or something) but the art doesn't seem to change at all for the character which is very female. So, making the mistake of being male at first... I closed out and came back in and just opted to create a female character. Kind of off putting to even give a choice. They should have just made the character female if they weren't going to invest into each option. The opening few hours of the game took a bit to get used to. Especially how limited the farming aspect is at first (I realize it does expand to other biomes and is season based) but digging deeper into the various story and side missions and I have to say, I really enjoy most of what the game has to offer. The graphics are a couple steps below something like Xenoblade... with simpler areas to go through but still with some really beautiful moments. My only major beef thus far has been the clock. The day is just too short. I realize that's part of the game loop to have a restricted day so you can't just plow through each new area/location and have to chip away at it, but I wish the day was twice as long. Overall, I'm glad I grabbed it on sale and didn't go with the negative reviews. Outside of the inital hurdle it's been pretty solid and stuff unlocks at a reasonable enough pace... but the story side... the characters and overall script is solid.
 
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I just beat Harvestella recently. I really enjoyed it. The daily time limit was kind of annoying. A lot of times I would still be in good shape to explore areas further, but it would get late, and I would have to leave to sleep. It is very hard to finish everything in the game, some stuff is just too time consuming. Like catching all the rare fish or finishing the optional dungeon.
 
Action RPG games are the category for free shipping from Play-Asia till the 18th. This includes stuff that is mainly RPG like pre-orders for Suikoden 1/2 (I wouldn't order it but am just giving an example). I ordered Saga Emerald PS5 myself. This is good if getting one game or a cheaper game, and in my case I didn't want to add this game order to a pre-order likely to ship beginning of next year that I'm going to make.
 
Reyvantis demo impressions after about an hour and a half (I almost fell asleep...was sick but was boring too haha).

I'm going through the pros first. I believe it's a decent looking game. The graphics remind me of a slightly better Tokyo Xanadu. It's kind of on the Crymachina level, but I feel the character models look worse in this one. The environments are excellent looking (this takes place in Tokyo I believe), but they feel like dead environments as the people around aren't very interactive and the shops are basic menus. I believe this is kind of futuristic take on Tokyo. The enemies look like generic nothings IMHO. Maybe the bosses will look cool later but random enemies lack personality. The actual battle effects themselves like skills and moving around look alright enough though I feel it's hard to read some attacks for dodging purposes. Also your basic attack teleports you in the air to attack and feels a bit awkward. The voice acting I thought was pretty solid. It's a little generic sounding, but I wasn't annoyed by any voices. The music is background fodder for what I've heard so far. The sounds in battle are fine enough as well.

Now to start with the cons I feel the story is hogwash. Pretty much you have a drug rampant Tokyo (still unsure of setting I blanked it out) and a group of patrol people who patrol the areas late at night. The government has instituted a curfew for I think 10 PM, but of course it's not really observed by many. The patrol people are here to stop drug deals and junkies who become imbued with power. These magicians I think they're called (forgetting again) are hunted down by the patrolling people. So anyone who uses magic who isn't on this patrol squad is likely to beaten down and thrown in a treatment facility (it's hinted that many don't ever recover). Your main person is a magic user who is a natural one. You're not a junky, but you're still hunted down if you reveal yourself (a silly kind of mini game where you find eyes on the map and go stand in the circle once the 10 second-ish counter starts). Pretty much you want to follow in your dad's footsteps and figure out the true nature of magic or something like that. You really go from marker to marker in a very annoying to track manner for quests, but markers point out side quests and main quests. The side quests are very quickly done in the demo with the two of them being basic find one person and then the other and the other one was finding a junky or something. Very little story was gained there.

The controls are kind of funky too mainly for countering and dodging. The dodging is supposed to light up when you can dodge, but it rarely happens. Also sometimes when dodging this meter appears on screen. You can hold the dodge button and if it lights up fully you dodge and get a lot of energy back for skills. The seems inconsistent for triggering and I've had times when in this screen with the meter it ends maybe cause of a fireball or something. The timing is never consistent on any of these things. When you attack a bunch with the basic attack eventually you are out of stamina and become another state. I forget what's special in this state other than you can't basic attack. Also because your basic attack jumps around comboing itself is very tricky. Also at this early point in the game you have no strong attack and instead have just a basic attack, skills and your dodge.

To sum it all up I was really bored playing the game. The story and characters didn't draw me in at all. The setting was cool, but actually exploring said setting was very bland. The combat is frantic and rarely do I feel the dodge/dodge counter mechanisms work well. It also looks graphically alright, but I felt even Crymachina looked better. The whole demo I felt like I wanted to go back and finish Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ instead of playing this. It's relatively short and can be beaten in an hour easily. This feels like a filler game and I will only get it if it's on a heavy sale (I'm predicting physical values will drop pretty low for this one). I got enough of a backlog to skip this one until Metaphor whatever comes out along with other later year heavy hitters Romancing Saga 2 Remake and DQ3 HD-2D. 6/10
 
I never liked to play demo of RPG games. It was always hard for me to get a true sense if I am going to enjoy the game or not. RPG games just takes longer to build the story and mechanic of the game.
 
I played the Reyvantis demo based simply on the cool marketing/concept art. Actual demo was... bad. Actual visuals/setting gave off a "generic edgy anime" style and the gameplay itself just felt like the devs said "lets take the basics from DMC/Bayo and switch up the buttons".

blueweltall said:
I never liked to play demo of RPG games. It was always hard for me to get a true sense if I am going to enjoy the game or not. RPG games just takes longer to build the story and mechanic of the game.
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That's a good point but in all honesty, I still play nearly every single in recent years and a few surprised me: 7 Remake blew me away/completely changed by opinoin on the game; Granblue Relink and Unicorn Overlord were both fun/accessible. But yeah, a vast majority of them hurt more than they helped... 7 Rebirth (really needed some more/better refreshers on combat), Visions of Mana, any of the Legend of Heroes/Trails games.
 
nitrosmob said:
Action RPG games are the category for free shipping from Play-Asia till the 18th. This includes stuff that is mainly RPG like pre-orders for Suikoden 1/2 (I wouldn't order it but am just giving an example). I ordered Saga Emerald PS5 myself. This is good if getting one game or a cheaper game, and in my case I didn't want to add this game order to a pre-order likely to ship beginning of next year that I'm going to make.
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I couldn’t resist placing two separate preorders for Metaphor (PS4 Asian version) and Tales of Graces f Remastered (PS4 EU version) since both interested me and I didn’t want to worry about either one going OOP or having to find other things for the usual $100 free shipping threshold.
 
I’d never heard of Reyvantis till a few days ago. Looked at the trailer, and just visually, it struck me that the models looked crappy PS3-era, and the animations looked crappy PS2-era. The character design felt pretty uninspired, too.
 
I actually like the demos for RPGs quite a lot. You usually get an hour or so teaser of the game and it's usually at the beginning. Some like the Relink one got me excited for when I do buy the game when it goes cheap. The FF7 remake demo was pretty solid for sure. I'm a demo enthusiast though and I feel demos help more than they hurt unless the game they're demoing for is mediocre or worse. I also think alpha demos are generally worthless overall cause they come off more like tech demos or proof of concepts, but that's more for demos in general. If most games had a demo I would be very happy.
 
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nitrosmob said:
Action RPG games are the category for free shipping from Play-Asia till the 18th. This includes stuff that is mainly RPG like pre-orders for Suikoden 1/2 (I wouldn't order it but am just giving an example). I ordered Saga Emerald PS5 myself. This is good if getting one game or a cheaper game, and in my case I didn't want to add this game order to a pre-order likely to ship beginning of next year that I'm going to make.
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Capture.PNG

This is new to me at Play-Asia. What is "Cover" referring to and why is there price difference? (assuming this is both the Asian region version) Also does it come with a pre-order bonus code too?
 
chibuki said:
This is new to me at Play-Asia. What is "Cover" referring to and why is there price difference? (assuming this is both the Asian region version) Also does it come with a pre-order bonus code too?
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It's a choice between Chinese or English cover art. The actual game is the same. No idea why there is usually a price difference.
 
I got some games from the "free shipping" sale, and ended up with a bundle that would have qualified... got me.

But I did pre-order the latest Kemco release coming up because they're all Hit Point games; the second strongest studio to publish under Kemco, outside of Rideon.

They also have Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ for $21 after discount with free shipping on the PS4. I don't own a copy, so I went ahead and grabbed that, too.

My big boy order is: Disaster Report 4 (PS4), SaGa Emerald Beyond (PS5), Shin Chan: Shiro of Coal Town (Switch), and Tsukihimie (Switch)

It's a choice between Chinese or English cover art. The actual game is the same. No idea why there is usually a price difference.
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It's the exact same reason why people will pay more for ESRB on their cover of the game versus a CERO or Asian release... meaning 95% aesthetics/completion and 5% people who actually care about DLC for a specific release and don't want to deal with international accounts.
 
nitrosmob said:
I actually like the demos for RPGs quite a lot.
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Same here. RPG's, Tactical games, platformers, action games... I'll take demos of everything. The worst case, I'm turned off by something I was somewhat interested in. The best case, something I might have otherwise skipped ends up becoming a new favorite. There's already too many games for me to ever play, so a bad demo is not the end of the world if it means I miss something otherwise good. I don't want just good, I want games that make me glad to still be gaming.

A great example, NEO The World Ends WIth You. I had played the original TWEWY on DS but only up to the end of the first major story section. I stopped there and just never went back. I liked it, but wasn't really loving it. Then about 14 years later here's the demo for Neo on the Switch. I figured I'd try it just to be sure the series really wasn't for me. Instead of confirming it, I ended up loving every second of that demo. I played that demo a couple times and did some level grinding because it was so fun and preordered the game. Even though I skipped Final Remix, I grabbed a copy off ebay and finished it before starting NEO (once neo came out). Now, it's one of the games that I could easily see myself returning to again which usually I don't make much time for.
 
I really enjoyed both the Unicorn Overlord and Granblue Fantasy: Relink demos. I picked up for the former for $25 and waiting for the latter to drop further. I don't usually play out long RPG demos, just enough for a judgement call, unless it absolutely pulls me in.
 
I've found that demos are unreliable for getting a feel of the actual game. since they often have fake stuff for the demo so they aren't real representations and instead false advertising. Or at least ff13-2 tales of Berseria and arise-ia all were.
 
Honestly the best RPG demos are the ones that give you a taste of the beginning of the game and you can transfer data afterwards to the full game. The ones that are random parts of the game (Visons of Mana why!) and specifically built ones (these can be hit or miss) are a little harder to get into. Reyvantis for example shows the beginning of the game and gives you about two chapters worth that you can transfer to the main game when it comes out soon. This is good for seeing how the game will flow and eventually lead to better things. I was bored out of my mind already, so I know it's not one for me to watch and only pick up after many reviews or a very cheap price. I remember some like Etrian Odyssey demos (forget exact games now) that gave a pretty good hint for the game, and made me want to keep playing, which I did from my save file.
 
nitrosmob said:
Honestly the best RPG demos are the ones that give you a taste of the beginning of the game and you can transfer data afterwards to the full game. The ones that are random parts of the game (Visons of Mana why!) and specifically built ones (these can be hit or miss) are a little harder to get into. Reyvantis for example shows the beginning of the game and gives you about two chapters worth that you can transfer to the main game when it comes out soon. This is good for seeing how the game will flow and eventually lead to better things. I was bored out of my mind already, so I know it's not one for me to watch and only pick up after many reviews or a very cheap price. I remember some like Etrian Odyssey demos (forget exact games now) that gave a pretty good hint for the game, and made me want to keep playing, which I did from my save file.
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For me it can go either way. Sometimes the opening is boring because of all the tutorial content built in to pad out the opening... sometimes the opening is just rocking great. Live A Live was rocking great (to me anyway). I could see how maybe the recent DQ Monsters may have appeared to basic with the opening (of course I bought it, I'm buying everything DQ for the most part). Sea of Stars IMO is an example of a great demo that jumps around instead of doing the opening only. It gave me a sense of the gameplay without wasting too much time trying to figure out the basics. I pretty much bought the game the next day. But it can go either way. Sometimes the opening is so great and it's fantastic knowing my prgress moves forwards. Sometimes even when the demo is varous parts of the game they give you a bonus for playing it. Sometimes I'm bored by the opening or completely turned off. Octopath Traveler was a demo that the story for each character was so cliche and just unbelievable that it ended up turning me off of the game eventhough I liked the battle system and graphics.

I'm not sure there's a one size fits all favorite for me. Just let me play something and if it's fun and has an interesting story (or game mechanics for a platformer) then it can probably sway me. I'll take any demo over no demo. Worst case, they don't get my money... oh well.
 
True that demos are a good thing especially with many AA/AAA games going $70 MSRP and even at $60 MSRP games get very expensive with so many coming out. That is one reason I appreciate anyone's impressions/reviews/rants/whatever about actual games they are playing, tried, demoed, trialed/etc... No one has an infinite amount of time and many things are a waste of time/money.
 
I don't think I have ever played a demo before. I kind of know if I will like a game or not, sometimes I'm wrong. The only demo type game I can remember playing was the closed alpha and the beta of Nioh 2. I think I got invited to the alpha of Nioh 2 because I had over 450 hours in the first Nioh. Yeah, I was crazy and did all 999 floors of the abyss, I was kind of addicted to that game.
 
scorponok said:
I don't think I have ever played a demo before. I kind of know if I will like a game or not, sometimes I'm wrong. The only demo type game I can remember playing was the closed alpha and the beta of Nioh 2. I think I got invited to the alpha of Nioh 2 because I had over 450 hours in the first Nioh. Yeah, I was crazy and did all 999 floors of the abyss, I was kind of addicted to that game.
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Funny that you mention Nioh. I rarely ever play any demos, but I happened to play the demo for Nioh and I hated it!

Then later on I only picked it up because it was super cheap at Gamestop. I ended up loving the game and beat it. One of these day I need to rescue Nioh 2 from my backlog...
 
nitrosmob said:
Honestly the best RPG demos are the ones that give you a taste of the beginning of the game and you can transfer data afterwards to the full game. The ones that are random parts of the game (Visons of Mana why!) and specifically built ones (these can be hit or miss) are a little harder to get into. Reyvantis for example shows the beginning of the game and gives you about two chapters worth that you can transfer to the main game when it comes out soon. This is good for seeing how the game will flow and eventually lead to better things. I was bored out of my mind already, so I know it's not one for me to watch and only pick up after many reviews or a very cheap price. I remember some like Etrian Odyssey demos (forget exact games now) that gave a pretty good hint for the game, and made me want to keep playing, which I did from my save file.
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Not sure I agree. The way gameplay feels at the beginning of RPGs is not always a good indication of how it’ll feel further in. The first few hours of Dragon’s Dogma or Pathfinder Kingmaker play out quite differently from 15 or 20 hours in, for example. A good demo needs to walk a fine line between demonstrating what the majority of the game will feel like and introducing how to play the game. And if the story’s gonna be significant, as it typically is in modern RPGs, that complicates matters even more.
 
Dragon's Dogma had a pretty solid demo though. I got a great idea of how the battles would be, basic story (never thought this was strong even in the final product), got to show off the pawn system and some of the open world and like a boss or two if I remember. It got me and my friends to buy the game. I think that's the problem with RPGs though is wasting time in the beginning and otherwise. That's probably why I'm not as into them anymore. It's very easy to get bored in a RPG demo though piddling around though compared to say a roguelite deck builder, which could give you a tutorial and usually area 1 to give you an idea of what the game will be like.

I generally play demos to get an idea if I'll like a game or not and once I am satisfied enough with a demo to say oh yeah I'll play that or ah this game sucks I leave it at that and move on. I also play lots and lots of demos during many Steam Fests so this may not be the norm for someone just playing a singular demo once in a blue moon.
 
Don't get me wrong, I love demos and especially game trials that carry over the progress, I just don't like to use it to gauge if I am going to like an RPG game or not. This is just my preference.

I really enjoyed FFVII Remake demo but didn't enjoyed the Rebirth demo as much compared to the Remake. When those games were finally released I thought they were both really great games, but with Rebirth being the better game overall.
 
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All this demo talk made me remember all the demo discs we got during the PS1 days. Not having a gaming capable PC until we were much older and having been on Nintendo consoles, my brother and I never understood the concept of demo discs until I got my PS1 and it had a mail in offer for a sampler disc. And then there were magazines with demo discs and pre-order bonus demo discs. It was wild to us being able to try games without having to borrow them or rent them.

blueweltall said:
I really enjoyed FFVII Remake demo but didn't enjoyed the Rebirth demo as much compared to the Remake demo. When those games were finally released I thought they were both really great games with Rebirth being the better game overall.
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100% my sentiment.
 
I still remember playing Brave Fencer Musashi (not the most amazing game but unique and had full voice acting!) and getting the FF8 demo I believe. Those were the days. I do remember random PS1 demo disks. Played some racing games and some other ones and never owned the full games. Think it's also where I played Tomba for the first time. I rented a decent amount back then so a demo disk really helped sometimes.
 
Meh the first one was usual low budget effort from tecmo koei that you can expect. I imagine 2 will be more of the same. As is the game isn't worth more than 10 bucks imo. Maybe 20 if you really like the ip with less pron compared to the actual series.

Licensed games tend to be mediocre or worse. So don't expect much out of them normally.
 
nitrosmob said:
I still remember playing Brave Fencer Musashi (not the most amazing game but unique and had full voice acting!) and getting the FF8 demo I believe. Those were the days. I do remember random PS1 demo disks. Played some racing games and some other ones and never owned the full games. Think it's also where I played Tomba for the first time. I rented a decent amount back then so a demo disk really helped sometimes.
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One of the GDOATs for sure. I remember the same experience. Musashi is a fun game too, I may not have picked up otherwise. Great soundtrack.
 
shadowysea07 said:
Meh the first one was usual low budget effort from tecmo koei that you can expect. I imagine 2 will be more of the same. As is the game isn't worth more than 10 bucks imo. Maybe 20 if you really like the ip with less pron compared to the actual series.

Licensed games tend to be mediocre or worse. So don't expect much out of them normally.
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Not to mention anime games tend to be either very good like some Dragon Ball fighting games, decent such as One Piece Pirate Warrior games (good for sure, but I don't know not amazing), and usually mediocre or bad (many RPGs, strategy games, arena fighters, card games....the list goes on forever). I do like when the licensed anime games turn out to be good, but it's not very often.
 
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