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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Metaphor: ReFantazio is a pretty draining game. I'm still not feeling the main story as much and the dungeon crawling is draining as all heck. The fights aren't super easy and some classes are better feeling than others. The characters are decent enough and have some back story to them, but again it's not crazy yet for what I've done (pretty much like the first major hurdle). The press turn system takes some getting used to if you've mainly played the Persona games lately, but you get used to it. There are some tough bosses and mini bosses. While there are people that will be like I did the story dungeon in one day on hard, it's likely to take more than that. It's a crazy balance to try to keep up side quests, rank up quest things, bounties and stat time boosters (I wouldn't bother as much in the beginning unless it's keeping you from a quest). It feels like a relatively challenging game. I think I have had more of a challenge for these opening hours than I did P3-5. If you do it on hard good freakin' luck. I still feel the settings of the dungeons/city aren't that exciting and it's very easy to get lost in dungeons. So many areas look like so many other areas, and it's worse in the side quest dungeons. The background graphics just kind of are there and come off as pretty basic at times. It does feel like it's going to be quite a long game and I really hope the story is decent enough because for now I'm not very impressed. The battles are very impressive, as well as the animations and such especially for boss battles. It's all quite challenging and it is fun enough for me to play it like an hour or 2 a day until I beat it someday. Still feels like that 7/10 game, but I know it could go higher.
 
nitrosmob said:
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a pretty draining game. I'm still not feeling the main story as much and the dungeon crawling is draining as all heck. The fights aren't super easy and some classes are better feeling than others. The characters are decent enough and have some back story to them, but again it's not crazy yet for what I've done (pretty much like the first major hurdle). The press turn system takes some getting used to if you've mainly played the Persona games lately, but you get used to it. There are some tough bosses and mini bosses. While there are people that will be like I did the story dungeon in one day on hard, it's likely to take more than that. It's a crazy balance to try to keep up side quests, rank up quest things, bounties and stat time boosters (I wouldn't bother as much in the beginning unless it's keeping you from a quest). It feels like a relatively challenging game. I think I have had more of a challenge for these opening hours than I did P3-5. If you do it on hard good freakin' luck. I still feel the settings of the dungeons/city aren't that exciting and it's very easy to get lost in dungeons. So many areas look like so many other areas, and it's worse in the side quest dungeons. The background graphics just kind of are there and come off as pretty basic at times. It does feel like it's going to be quite a long game and I really hope the story is decent enough because for now I'm not very impressed. The battles are very impressive, as well as the animations and such especially for boss battles. It's all quite challenging and it is fun enough for me to play it like an hour or 2 a day until I beat it someday. Still feels like that 7/10 game, but I know it could go higher.
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How far are you?

I just played the demo for a bit, beat the first boss. It was pretty decent but the boss fight got super boring, super fast and I'm wondering if I should play the demo a bit more or just give up now.
 
Vinny said:
How far are you?

I just played the demo for a bit, beat the first boss. It was pretty decent but the boss fight got super boring, super fast and I'm wondering if I should play the demo a bit more or just give up now.
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I guess you'd give up now if the boss fight was boring.

I'm at the end of the first real dungeon. The rest areas are spaced out weird. Like at 2%,
30%
, and... haven't found one since. There are multiple save spots, but its so harsh on MP.

I'm enjoying the game, personally. It's like Persona 5 mixed with old-school Final Fantasy class systems. You get a lot more than 4 skills at a time, and you can sort of have subclasses.

The story is... fine. Not as captivating as FF16, but hopefully it means it won't fall off a cliff either. This is my biggest fear, since I largely enjoy the game otherwise.

The game teaches you early on that you can just run instead fighting every battle. I think that's my mistake right now.
 
elessar123 said:
I guess you'd give up now if the boss fight was boring.

The story is... fine. Not as captivating as FF16, but hopefully it means it won't fall off a cliff either. This is my biggest fear, since I largely enjoy the game otherwise.
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I mean, it was boring.. wasn't it? Just wind magic over and over again.

And story being fine doesn't help. I've played through plenty of games wherein the game itself wasn't great but the story or characters were at least interesting enough to keep me going.
 
The game does open up a decent amount after the first main story part. It's almost overwhelming of what to do to best further myself. I'll likely do it like Persona games where I value social links highly, side quests pretty high, grinding near the end along with stat ups (both important but can be slow going). I'm guessing this part of the game is more there for furthering the story a bit, but not a major point. It is cool you got a lot of choices though. It is fun for sure and I love class systems. If the characters/story get just a bit better I'm sure it will keep going up in my point system.
 
elessar123 said:
Isn't that any game with different damage types?
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More or less but here, the battle is just the same attack for like 7 or 8 turns since nothing else does any damage- you don't have to worry about dying nor replenishing your MP either. I get it was just a intro boss fight but It could have been much shorter and a lot less pointless.

I just finished CrossCode and I was thinking of starting another RPG but man, those 45 hours just did not feel worth it outside of the decent story. Tons of great ideas/concepts in that game but it's just too much of a slog; could have used less item farming, fewer "long" battles, and fewer puzzles. Maybe I'll play Astro Bot.

EDIT* I took 58 hours to beat CrossCode, damn. And I also have 19/21 tropies, the last trophy was easy to get so... CrossCode just became my 43rd platinum.LOL
 
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Only 10 hours in, but I'm enjoying Metaphor immensely.
It is difficult. Or rather, you don't have many skills at the start. Dungeon crawling and boss battles both require specific classes that can hit weakness. Or setups that can sustain with tank / brawl + heal. The major dungeon gameplay feels just like P5 palaces. But I like the guy in town who sells secrets and tips for dungeons. That is a snappy and interesting new mechanic for these games. I would say the options (armor, spells, classes) the game presents you with in the early hours is pretty enticing overall so far. For instance, I'm against the first major dungeon boss right now and I can see that I have to go back to town and upgrade my weapons (which I previously decided against buying) and change my damage classes in order to proceed.

Not worried about following a guide or anything. These games are meant to be a blind playthrough. It's all about exploration, and learning the game's language. It's fun, and I have to make decisions. There's some trial and error involved.
I'm going to do something I've never done before, and order two issues of Famitsu with my next order from Play-Asia or Amazon JP, with MP on the cover. Continuing to build my own collector's edition, which I like to do for the games I love. I'm a sucker for the enticing images and arts that have been popping up on my feeds.
Things I would enjoy putting in a Detolf display.
meataphor-famitsu-pic.jpg


metaphor-famitsu-cover-2.webp



metaphor-clear-file-1.webp
Another thing I'm surprised I've seen no one mention is that MC is basically Alear from FE Engage. :LOL: like a F!Alear + Marth hybrid.
 
I want to see more collectors editions with Artbooks, making of, and strategy guides. Not these mini artbook turds we usually get, but actual thought out full size books filled with as much design documents, interviews, marketing materials, and guide contents they can. That’s the ultimate sign of “we care about what we created and the contents we are giving you”, to me. Especially all these retro remakes we are seeing, would be perfect for large retrospective making of and marketing material collection books. Strictly limited games does a really great job on their CE book add ons. Could still be better, but one of the few companies I’m aware of that consistently has a pretty good book offering to their releases, and puts genuine effort into them. I’ve started collecting old Brady and Prima game guides. Strategy guides were the harbinger of things to come for physical games dying. Such a different time when just about every random little game had 2-3 competing guides sitting on shelves, and had features in 5-10 magazines.
 
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Xenogears said:
I’ve started collecting old Brady and Prima game guides. Strategy guides were the harbinger of things to come for physical games dying. Such a different time when just about every random little game had 2-3 competing guides sitting on shelves, and had features in 5-10 magazines.
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I started collecting guides during this GC/PS2 era, went back and started collecting for older systems too. By the time the PS3/360/Wii came out online guides/videos were much more convenient and free, so kept buying fewer and fewer guides which obviously coincided with fewer and fewer guides being made.

4 year old pic of my guide collection (and artbooks, and spillover games/other shit). Looking at it now, it's very different- the guides are still there, but just bought a TON of games that I honestly wish I hadn't.
Clipboard01.jpg
 
I still had all my old guides that I got near release for most of my favorite games, and just started adding on to those. The future press guides for newer big games are really well made, but like 1 release a year. Are those Billy bookcases from ikea? I have a similar set up going!
 
I'm coming up on Metaphor after playing it for a good longer on Sunday. First of all the graphics for some things look very blah and bad at times especially random NPCs and some areas you explore. It doesn't bother me as much, but when the enemies/especially bosses are animated and look so good it stands out a lot. The soundtrack is also quite good and I enjoy the generic always with you theme more than some like P3 (that took forever to grow on me). The portraits for characters are also extremely good. After 20ish hours the story is mixing in a lot more unexpected stuff, although I predicted two points from this last story part. The last major dungeon was quite well done and I somehow managed to complete it in one go with strategic item use, class spells/skills, and listening to my party members and going to do other things before the dungeon to level up/get some better equipment. This feels honestly like a more mature Persona themed RPG, and the game world is quite big for what it is. I would recommend what was said in the thread and go at it yourself WITHOUT a guide holding your hand the whole way. I did use a guide in one dungeon though as there were 3 treasure chests mocking me in the middle of the map, and I found out you had a passageway I didn't look at to get into the room. The game has bonds like the Persona ones, but they're not so stringent as you know when they'll level up, so there isn't just using time trying to get bond level ups for nothing. The class system is also very expansive and also quite grindy.

I'm doing the same stuff as I did before prioritizing quests/bonds, getting the main story done (similar to Persona 3-5), and exploring/dungeoneering at the end with stat ups for times when I don't have anything else. It's a pretty good cycle and while I still don't feel the main overarching story is super amazing, the character arcs and parts that deal with your party at the time seem to be getting better as the game goes on. This is one of my candidates for JRPG of the year, although I haven't played the heavy hitters of FF7 Rebirth and others. There is a lot to this game and you can tell there was many years put into the development. I don't think is a 10/10 experience overall, but I'm at an 8-8.5/10 right now and am enjoying my time with it.
 
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I could tell by your tone earlier that you were going to come around, nitrosmob! 😄 almost strangely addicted to this game now, it would seem.

nitrosmob said:
I'm coming up on Metaphor after playing it for a good longer on Sunday. First of all the graphics for some things look very blah and bad at times especially random NPCs and some areas you explore. It doesn't bother me as much, but when the enemies/especially bosses are animated and look so good it stands out a lot. The soundtrack is also quite good and I enjoy the generic always with you theme more than some like P3 (that took forever to grow on me). The portraits for characters are also extremely good. After 20ish hours the story is mixing in a lot more unexpected stuff, although I predicted two points from this last story part. The last major dungeon was quite well done and I somehow managed to complete it in one go with strategic item use, class spells/skills, and listening to my party members and going to do other things before the dungeon to level up/get some better equipment. This feels honestly like a more mature Persona themed RPG, and the game world is quite big for what it is. I would recommend what was said in the thread and go at it yourself WITHOUT a guide holding your hand the whole way. I did use a guide in one dungeon though as there were 3 treasure chests mocking me in the middle of the map, and I found out you had a passageway I didn't look at to get into the room. The game has bonds like the Persona ones, but they're not so stringent as you know when they'll level up, so there isn't just using time trying to get bond level ups for nothing. The class system is also very expansive and also quite grindy.

I'm doing the same stuff as I did before prioritizing quests/bonds, getting the main story done (similar to Persona 3-5), and exploring/dungeoneering at the end with stat ups for times when I don't have anything else. It's a pretty good cycle and while I still don't feel the main overarching story is super amazing, the character arcs and parts that deal with your party at the time seem to be getting better as the game goes on. This is one of my candidates for JRPG of the year, although I haven't played the heavy hitters of FF7 Rebirth and others. There is a lot to this game and you can tell there was many years put into the development. I don't think is a 10/10 experience overall, but I'm at an 8-8.5/10 right now and am enjoying my time with it.
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omg the same thing happened to me last night in the exact same spot. Finished the mini-dungeon and was like how tf can I still not get these chests? checked the rooms again, then had to look at a guide online. oh wow, of course, there are two black crawl ducts I missed.

You've got to like the dungeons overall to like this game. The thing that surprises me is how everything so far feels like a fun diversion. Nothing overstays its welcome. One big criticism you can have with games like this is: 'Uneven gameplay'. The jarring disconnect between running around doing sidequests for an hour, watching 20min. of cutscenes, and then 3 hours of dungeon spelunking. Maybe when you booted up your file you weren't ready for 40min. of text dialogue cutscenes. That is what's called very "uneven gameplay". But I love it in this game. Everything feels like a welcome diversion so far. It has a lot of variety, and variety is the spice of life. It's a pretty great mix of open exploration, and decisions, but well-disguised with a very 'on-rails' main scenario.

My one gripe would be that I get sick of the monotonous daily calendar turnover and it's repetitive cutscene.
 
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Xenogears said:
I still had all my old guides that I got near release for most of my favorite games, and just started adding on to those. The future press guides for newer big games are really well made, but like 1 release a year. Are those Billy bookcases from ikea? I have a similar set up going!
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Yep, those are Billy cases... are your shelves bending? I just noticed that the bending looks a lot worse now than when I got them... Not sure I should be nervous or not. LOL
 
blueweltall said:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1845876054776229987
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Hooray for demos!

A few reviews in, 82 overall but seems like there's no general consensus.

Ys X: Nordics Reviews

Ys X: Nordics is a brand-new adventure set in the northern sea Obelia Bay, featuring young adventurer Adol Christin as the protagonist. The setting is the northern sea Obelia Bay, which is made up of countless islands big and small. After completing his adventures in the Ancient Kingdom of Ys...
www.metacritic.com www.metacritic.com
 
Vinny said:
Yep, those are Billy cases... are your shelves bending? I just noticed that the bending looks a lot worse now than when I got them... Not sure I should be nervous or not. LOL
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Suggestion, even though the shelves won't have the little divit for the peg to rest in, you can just flip the shelves so they are bowed upwards and it might help them appear more flat once all the weight is added back.
 
Ys games like Trails games are generally well regarded and similar enough in ways to not really need reviews as much. I do agree demos are the way to go, and if a demo is for a good game it will generate more sales.
 
Vinny said:
Yep, those are Billy cases... are your shelves bending? I just noticed that the bending looks a lot worse now than when I got them... Not sure I should be nervous or not. LOL
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Mine look similar, where I have maybe 1 or 2 slightly bent shelves per book case, seems unrelated to the weight of anything on them. My oldest shelf is 6 years old and I don’t think has changed much. My worst shelves seem less saggy than your pic, and if you think they look even worse now…doesn't sound good, but I wouldn’t be worried too much about it, other than cosmetics. At worst, a shelf snaps and the books and shelf just shift down 1/2 an inch to the top of the books below them. Doubt that would cause much damage. The bigger concern is making sure you have those things anchored to a wall.
 
nightc1 said:
Suggestion, even though the shelves won't have the little divit for the peg to rest in, you can just flip the shelves so they are bowed upwards and it might help them appear more flat once all the weight is added back.
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I thought about that but I'm guessing letting them bend over and over again prob isn't a good idea either since they weren't meant to bend over and over again; figure they're more likely to snap that way.

Xenogears said:
Mine look similar, where I have maybe 1 or 2 slightly bent shelves per book case, seems unrelated to the weight of anything on them. My oldest shelf is 6 years old and I don’t think has changed much. My worst shelves seem less saggy than your pic, and if you think they look even worse now…doesn't sound good, but I wouldn’t be worried too much about it, other than cosmetics. At worst, a shelf snaps and the books and shelf just shift down 1/2 an inch to the top of the books below them. Doubt that would cause much damage. The bigger concern is making sure you have those things anchored to a wall.
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Mine are about 6 years old as well and yeah, some of the less heavy shelves seem to be more bowed than I would think they would be.

I don't have anything of my anchored, no kids. But given how everything comes with anchors... maybe I should so I don't get crushed to death.
 
Yes, you really want to anchor those things. The weight of the books makes the whole shelf slightly lean forward. Even if it’s lasted this long, and you don’t notice, an external force could start it tipping. That could kill you if at the wrong place at the wrong time, and at a minimum cause serious damage.
 
fuck the poopy timed dungeon with no saves all the way through. That is all.

Guess who ran out of time on the boss and now have to restart the whole dungeon.
 
elessar123 said:
fuck the poopy timed dungeon with no saves all the way through. That is all.

Guess who ran out of time on the boss and now have to restart the whole dungeon.
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Is this regarding Metaphor? Not gonna lie, I keep reading things that make to want to give the game a go but if the game is timed dungeons then that's a hard no.
 
elessar123 said:
fuck the poopy timed dungeon with no saves all the way through. That is all.

Guess who ran out of time on the boss and now have to restart the whole dungeon.
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I know the exact dungeon. I missed a few treasures but I didn't care. That dungeon sucks and the monsters are kind of HP monsters if I remember right. You just have to dodge most fights in there taking on the more non optional ones.
 
Metaphor keeps getting better. The overarching story is still alright, but like in Persona fashion I want to see the character's back story, and the character interactions like the Persona games are top notch. The main party character ones are quite good especially although the characters themselves may not be as complex. The dungeon crawling is generally fun for side and especially main dungeons, and it's always interesting trying to balance bonds, main/side quests, bounties/dungeons, and general character leveling. I feel I'm reaching around the 40-50% mark of the game and still have plenty in front of me. The press turn system I feel is a bit more unique/tougher than the Persona one more system I think it's called. Also you find a lot of junk so you don't have to buy as much equipment after the beginning. I also HIGHLY recommend a certain skill that has a 20% higher chance for items after battle. You can keep the good stuff and sell the junk. I'm taking a tiny break (a day or two) to play some Steam Fest demos, but I'm enjoying the game a lot. I think it's going to be a one and done (the story isn't strong enough although the gameplay is), but it's a good one and done. 8.5/10 so far. Also the class system is very tough overall because you only have so many characters and quite a bit of classes. I'm trying to specialize people and have like one supporter type. It's interesting for sure.
 
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I'm a little bit behind a couple of you guys. just finished the timed dungeon. but...I found maybe an early game hax right before it. Merchant seems really good:

Metaphor-1.jpg


I unlocked the merchant class right away, took it from rank 1 in the Goblin's Nest, and the passive allows you get to all this loot from whacking. I spent about an hour leveling up in the gobbie town and then about another hour clearing about 10 times, through whacking heads. Go and spend the 35K on sales day and get yourself that nice Merchant club for whacking, from the second town. Sure, it was a little bit of grinding. But you're going to need to level merchant anyways. and you MUST do it on the MC for the passive. my characters went from lvl 18 to 24. My money went from 30k to 300k. got a ton of magla. and I unlocked advanced classes on Strohl and Hulk. Swordmaster and Mage Knight get! Left the side dungeon with Merchant rank 19.

You use the Merchant to farm. It's excellent. I got all of that money, a couple of weapon drops, and 7 Desert Robes. Was able to go back and buy a couple of BiS equipments in town. Now everything is a breeze, and I have funds for the future.

So yeah, maybe 1.5hr spent grinding. But I went to the worm belly and cleared the timed dungeon with 5min. left on my timer, easily grabbing everything. When your level is high enough, you bash heads.

Dungeon spelunking and loot acquisition is fun. But my favorite part of the game so far is the class management, and their unlocks. It's an interesting system. requires some planning, or foresight rather. I like how you can switch archetypes on the fly from your equipment menu. Now, the game has partially become about using magla for the best inherits.
 
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Timed dungeons definitely sounds like a auto pass on metaphor. Though nothing does make a decent point on how to slightly bypass the issue. But I'm not a huge fan of semi forced grinding.
 
shadowysea07 said:
Timed dungeons definitely sounds like a auto pass on metaphor. Though nothing does make a decent point on how to slightly bypass the issue. But I'm not a huge fan of semi forced grinding.
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That's just Nothing trying to break the game. I haven't grinded at all, but just completed my bounties/quests and done fine. I don't have as much money, but enough. The class system does require a bit of grinding if you go nuts on it though because the magla for inheritance of skills (important) and unlocking advanced classes can get expensive.
 
I redid the timed dungeon, got everything, and had like 5 minutes to spare. I skipped a lot of enemies.

Then I went to do bounties and they're all really low levels. So maybe I did the dungeon too early.
 
Anyone play the Ys X Nordics demo? I played for 4 hours and there was still more (dunno how much more) but I just lost interest. It was def a Ys game but it also just felt directionless with the gameplay mechanics (the linked combat or whatever) and the ship (which is slow as fuck) and ship battles (also slow as fuck). I think the series needs a major generational update; it just looks and feels too wonky.

And I hate the voice they used for Adol.
 
I look forward to playing Metaphor sometime next year probably.

After I finish up the demos for Next Fest, I'm going back to Xenoblade Chronicles DE. BG3 drew me away, but I got the 100% on it, so back on the digital shelf it goes.
 
Back due to popular demand (and completely unsolicited by anyone on here 😄 I know,) I have a few more thoughts about the main bulletpoints for Metaphor! As a brand new $70 game I know a lot of people haven't bought it yet, but there's a few noteworthy aspects:

  1. This is Persona 6 in all but name. Yet it's still a wholly new fantasy world experience. It feels more and more like a spiritual successor to Persona games with each passing day. most of the systems and structure are similar. The way you feel about modern Persona is the way you'll feel about the importance of playing this game.
  2. The Job system. This game is all about an FF5-like job (class) system. At it's heart this game is about switching these Archetypes on the fly, managing them, and accruing unlocks from them. The satisfying part is that you constantly feel like you are achieving meaningful progression, and planning ahead. Exp feels good.
    You always feel like you're progressing and working towards a goal. You can also play as a fully maxed out rank 20 archetype and when your level bar fills again you get an item for any 1000 job exp to any other archetype.
  3. Politics. I don't want to go so far as to say the themes are Trump-ian, but you will def see a lot of modern parallels and 'what-ifs'. The game has a lot of political allegory. The title means the game is both a metaphor and a fairy tale regarding first-world Democracy, and equality.
    The fictional story within the game hints of our real world democracy, and how those ideals seems impossible to their fantasy world. During the game we are basically in medieval era, displaying a huge separation among races and social classes. Killings, murders, and the conquest for power. Religious theocracy with governing rule. What the country would and could be like without our idealized version of a modern democracy. The overarching story and journey are all about becoming the next king via harnessing the will and popularity of the people. It demonstrates the roadmap to a democracy, through divine intervention. I wouldn't say the story here is a big deal, but it's certainly a small step above your regular 'teenager tries to save the world' trope.
The more I play this game the more I love it. It's my second, near-perfect 95/100 jrpg of the year, and it's basically Persona 6.
 
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I will pick up Metaphor again next week as I'm still going through about 10-15 demos for the Steam Next Fest. I'm almost through T though so I should make it by tonight. It was really bad timing for the Next Fest this year around releases, but I'll get back on that train for sure. I'm one of the more jaded of some people on the site having played loads of stuff over the years and even I think Metaphor is a good game.
 
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Finished Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth on Monday. One of the best RPG's I've played in the last couple of years. 94 Hours and still a lot to do in post game. Going to finish the Sujimon league, Island Resort, Underground Dungeons & Mini games. It'll be a fun platinum to get.
 
DesertLeo said:
Shit...Loop8 sounds so bad...but as a collector I feel like it's finally hitting my price point.
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I've been tempted a few times to get it. $13 for the switch version is solid, but I know the game loop in it is probably going to be too frustrating to really enjoy even though I think the game does a number of other things that I would fully enjoy like the overall game world and even the boss battles with how social progress is your leveling up. The graphics also hit that kind of quirky japanese niche that I do tend to love.

If I were younger, it would already have been ordered and waiting in the infinite backlog of doom. Now, I just keep resisting because I know it's not going to be that great of an experience and I have other stuff I'd much rather play that's collecting dust.
 
As a lover of visual novels and those simple life simulation games (usually doujin games) I hated Loop8 so much. The story was garbo as well as the lame RPG system (this shouldn't have been in the game and it should have been purely a life sim game or a visual novel). Also watch out for dead ends if you play it. Something in the game ended my playthrough and I just quit the game on the spot (I put about 6-7 hours into the game at this point). If the story was awesome and/or the characters I would say go for it with caveats, but I saw no useful character development. It was just a better looking (although much slower in animations/loading) life simulation game. I'm pretty much giving my game to Savers in my area soon when I donate a few things in a few weeks.
 
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Visual novel news.

First of all an actual release came out from Nekonyan Kakenuke★Forward to Our Sparking Youth! . This has a 20% off release discount until November 1st, 2024. It's on Steam and other platforms. For Steam there is an 18+ patch.

Steam
18+ Patch (NSFW)
JAST USA (NSFW)

Destiny Star Girlfriend 2 and 3 are coming out on October 28th, 2024 from Shiravune. These are also on other storefronts while the Steam version needs patches.

Steam 2
Steam 3
18+ Patches (NSFW)

Shiravune have announced a few games. First is a remake of Night Shift Nurses. This is originally an older visual novel about a doctor who moves to a place with some nurses who allow him to experiment. This looks interesting enough and should have an 18+ patch.

Steam
VNDB (NSFW)

They also announced Another Way of Gettin' Paid from Pako Pako Soft. This is a nukige game about a guy who takes part in sugar relationships with a boss and it blows up and becomes quite a few more relationships. I don't expect anything from this at all, and the Steam release will be heavily censored and need 18+ patch.

Steam
VNDB (NSFW)

Mangagamer have announced the released date for Dark Days on October 31st, 2024. This is from CLOCKUP and is considered hardcore, so just be warned. It's the same developers as Maggot Baits. There is a pre-order discount right now. This only on the Mangagamer site for now.

Mangagamer (NSFW)
VNDB (NSFW)

SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky has released from PQube. This one is a spinoff of the main Memories: Off series, which we never got in the west. It's out on PC, PS4 and Switch. I'll be getting my copy in by the end of the week.

PC
VNDB (NSFW)

Select Oblige from kuwa games & Madosoft. This is being released by Hikari Fields themselves on Steam. This is about some elite academy and they allow one student not fit for the elite and obviously that will be the main character. This is the same developers as Wagamama High Spec, which was a decent if not great VN. It says 18+ on VNDB, but I have no idea if there will be an 18+ patch or if the translation will be good. I'll likely buy it if it does have the 18+ content and be ready to refund it if the translation sucks.

Steam
VNDB (NSFW)

JAST USA plans to release Yamizome Liberator in 2024. It has a pre-order page now for 10% off.

JAST USA (NSFW)
 
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