Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

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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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Throwing away steam keys in the steam thread if you want animu shovelware. I'd do it in this thread but y'all bully me too much.

 
Crystar will be censored in the West for PS4... because Ofcourse.

"In the PlayStation®4 version of the title, the pre-title-screen cinematic has had approximately 0.5 seconds of footage depicting Rei’s naked buttocks removed." :whistle2:k
CoIoZZM.png


 
Some Anime-Expo announcements since no posted them and I like them. When Sekai Project, Mangagamer and I believe JAST USA have their announcements, I'll post them all.

Robotics;Notes Elite coming west for PS4, Switch, and PC in 2020, followed by Robotics;Notes DaSH

Fishing Star: World Tour physical edition launches in 2019

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town coming west

Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars coming west for PS4, PC on November 5 in North America, November 8 in Europe

For these announcements I'm most excited for the 2 Robotics;Notes games. Wanted to play both for a long while. I also want to play that fishing game. Story of Seasons is a remake of one of my favorite Harvest Moon games (played it a lot on GBA), but the graphical style is not very nice. It looks cheap. Reminds me of Hometown Story, which was one my least favorite 3DS games. I tried so hard to play it but it ran horribly and just wasn't fun. Also I'm weary about Conception Plus because I didn't like Conception 2 much.

 
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Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town coming west

Story of Seasons is a remake of one of my favorite Harvest Moon games (played it a lot on GBA), but the graphical style is not very nice. It looks cheap. Reminds me of Hometown Story, which was one my least favorite 3DS games. I tried so hard to play it but it ran horribly and just wasn't fun.
I had the same reaction. I really wish they would have used the slightly-taller character models from the Story of Seasons games instead of the semi-deformed style that's closer to Magical Melody. I don't like most characters' sprites looking like children.

 
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https://www.spike-chunsoft.com/news/conception-plus-localized-release-update/

Conception Plus was a January 2019 release. These changes are standard western release changes. Sony had them remove a touch thing from the Japanese release that showed up during some VN segments. Events would occur where you were supposed to touch the character's head or hand but would usually highlight her boobs or lips for an alternate outcome.

 
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https://www.spike-chunsoft.com/news/conception-plus-localized-release-update/

Conception Plus was a January 2019 release. These changes are standard western release changes. Sony had them remove a touch thing from the Japanese release that showed up during some VN segments. Events would occur where you were supposed to touch the character's head or hand but would usually highlight her boobs or lips for an alternate outcome.
I appreciate how Spike Chunsoft is calling out the changes on all of their releases. Nothing that's been changed in their releases so far has bugged me personally, but I do think it's ridiculous how pedantic Sony is being on the censorship front. My favorite example so far is the removal of the literal half-second of ass in Crystar.

 
The 2 I remember sold outside of NISA are Culdcept Revolt (sold at Fry's) and YS VIII (LE-lite sold on Amazon)

Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
Best Buy had Culdcept Revolt also, as well as Birthdays the Beginning PS4 LE (which is still in stock). Their most recent NISA CE was Lapis X Labyrinth LE for both PS4 and Switch (both I believe are OOS now at BB).

 
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I had the same reaction. I really wish they would have used the slightly-taller character models from the Story of Seasons games instead of the semi-deformed style that's closer to Magical Melody. I don't like most characters' sprites looking like children.
Same here. Still will probably buy it though if fans say it's a good remake of FoMT, since I heard that's one of the best games. I'm so excited for RF4S and RF5 so I have that to look forward to either way

 
I'm glad that otome games have a stable western audience. I don't have any particular feelings about the genre one way or the other, but good for people who like them.
 
More Anime-Expo announcements. Going to do Mangagamer later as they haven't had their panel yet. Any game names by themselves are links to vndb and are considered NSFW.

Nekonyan announced Aokana Extra1. Also remember their Kickstarter is going on for Aokana physical goods here.

VNDB (NSFW)

JAST USA

Majikoi 500 copy limited physical edition on J-list for $79.99 plus shipping i'm guessing.

Link (NSFW)

Eiyu*Senki GOLD

Mamono Musume: Paradise with Slime and Scylla

Princess X Fan Disc: Fiancees Forever now available here (NSFW)

Song of Saya Remastered releasing in July 2019!

Sumaga releasing Winter 2019 (Finally!)

Togainu no Chi

Yamizome Revenger

Sekai Project

Putting a D after the title if Denpasoft is also releasing the 18+ version.

9-nine-: Episode 3 (D)

Alice Escaped!

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkU_mkt6ovA[/media]

Amatsutsumi (D)

Baldr Sky in Steam review with a projected Q3/4 2019 release (Finally!)

Love’s Sweet Garnish 2 (D)

Muv-Luv photonflowers* releasing this Summer

The Ditzy Demons Are in Love With Me – Fan Disc (D)

The Seventh Sign -Mr. Sister- (D)

Tobari 2: Dream Ocean 
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1IMRLeHKs[/media]

Unity Unions

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DOY14iCrCc[/media]

Victory Project (D)

Denpasoft

Glass

Magical Girl Alisa’s Quest from ShiroKuroSoft (Eroge RPG)

New Glass

SF

The Secret Atelier from KENZsoft!

Two doujins from Rubi-sama fully uncensored called The Fallen Charismatic Cosplayer and This is Really a Maid’s Job?!

Lemnisca has acquired the rights to localize doujin/indie sci-fi VN Compass of Dei Gratia. Kickstarter will be going in a few months to fully fund this localization project.

I will give my thoughts and mini summaries for these new announcements in a future post.

 
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Links are NSFW. Also including my thoughts and short summaries of the announced VN and other games and such.

Mangagamer Anime-Expo announcements

Endless Torment (aka. Mugen Renkan)

Funbag Fantasy: Sideboob Story 2

Rance 01 – The Quest for Hikari

Rance 02 – The Rebellious Maidens

My thoughts and ramblings for all of these

Aokana Extra01 deals with just one character Mashiro' after story. I'm sure Aokana is awesome, and this will be an easy buy.

Eiyu * Senki Gold is an alternative universe take on the original game and kind of is an improved version of it. I will play this,  though I haven't played the original. Seemed a bit repetitive and shallow, but could be fun. Will buy.

Mamono Musume is about a pirate who washes up on a small island. He finds a slime girl and a scylla girl whom ask to be trained up to be marine girls. I love monster girl games, so this looks like a must play. Will buy.

Princess X Fan Disc: Fiancees Forever is 13 episodes set after the original dealing with the original girls and others. I never played the first game, but I heard it was darker than expected and not too great. I need to play it first to decide if I get this. Maybe buy.

Song of Saya Remastered needs no explanation as it is a cult classic. I haven't played it so I will wait for the remaster,  since it releases this month. Will buy.

Sumaga and the Baldr Sky games releasing this year is amazing! I've been wanting to play both for a while. Sumaga I believe had engine issues and Sekai was slow on the other two. Lots of good looking games that are must buys for me. Will buy.

Togainu no Chi is a BL game where Japan is divided after a third world war. It stars Akira who has a woman appear before him. He is forced to participate in a deadly game where you must take down the king to survive. Looks very unique for a VN story. I'm not into BL, but Nitro+ doesn't disappoint. Will buy.

Yamizome Revenger is a story about Kazunori who is normal guy. One day his soul becomes linked with a demon king. A goddess sends some heroines from another world to take him down, but they're weaker in his world. The demon king says he can control them and make them his harem. This looks a bit dark, but could have some fun overtones. Nonetheless it's a must play for me. Will buy.

9-Nine episode 3 is a must buy. Very pretty art and looks to be an interesting story. Will buy.

Alice Escaped!, Tobari 2 and Unity Union look like alright doujin games. I generally get those on sale. Nothing too amazing looking, but could be fun. Unity Unions is also a kind of beat em up/shoot em up like Dynasty Warriors, so it could be alright. Will buy with deep discounts.

Amatsutsumi is about a guy named Makoto who has the power to manipulate people with his voice. He leaves his village, but can't survive on the street. He ends up collapsing and meets a girl named Oribe Kokorom who can help him. Looks like it could be a really good one. It's from the same people who did Hapymaher (very good) and Chronoclock (decently good). One of my highest priority of the announcements. Must buy.

Love's Sweet Garnish 2 contains after stories for the 2 original girls and 2 routes for the others. The original was short but sweet and the other 2 girls deserved some routes. The first had a decent story as well. Will buy.

The Ditzy Demons  was one of the funner nukiges I played this year. The fan disc contains after stories for the main heroines and full routes for the sub heroines from the first game. It also has a harem route. This will be a must play. I love the art in these games too. Play the first if you love fun nukiges. Must buy.

The Seventh Sign -Mr. Sister- is about a guy, and one day his sister shows up and has cat ears that come and go. This is a story about what they do about that condition. Looks short but sweet and could be interesting. Will buy.

Victory Project is a localized Chinese VN I believe that stars Ramon. He has been serving a life sentence for helping politicians to launder money. After 2 years in jail, he get amnesty and is sent to an island surrounded by beautiful girls. Supposedly the plot gets sinister or such after that meeting. This looks unique and has a story that doesn't sound similar to others. Will buy.

Glass, New Glass and SF are all short visual novels with real time 3D models. I might check them out, but i'm a bit unsure. Still will likely support them. I just don't like the 3D model games much, but these seem to have a story at least. Maybe will buy.

Magical Girl Alisa’s Quest looks like many other eroge RPGMaker likely games. I don't play these often if at all. I think I've only played one. Will buy on deep discount. The Secret Atelier looks like another of the 3D model games, but that may just be eroge scenes. Wont buy. Will buy both doujins cause those are usually OK.

Endless Torment is the story of an immortal slave girl who escapes the clutches of her horribly abusive captors and embarks upon a journey through the ages. I generally don't play these games, but the premise sounds interesting. Likely wont buy.

Sideboob Story 2 is set 5 years after the last game, and the kingdom is having dark times. Lute is bedridden and hasn't been seen for a month. A red haired amnesiac called Mask washed up on the harbor shore and is sent to fight a monster. Somehow I bet they're the same person haha. These games are really good, though the last one was a bit more repetitive in its storytelling compared to the first. These are some of my favorite medieval eroges. Must Buy.

Rance 1 and 2 I believe are remakes of the original games. I haven't played a Rance game, but they have a strong reputation. This seems like a good place to start. Will Buy.

Plenty of amazing announcements all around, and most of them will be buys. Also glad to finally have a release window for Sumaga and Baldr Sky. Very excited! Also been playing VNs again alternating between old nukige from the JAST USA sale (quick reads) to ones I should finish up.

 
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If you're looking into getting the Neptunia OVA off the Playstation Video store from Japan, it appears to be region locked but will let you go through with a purchase. The Season 1 anime store page pops up a warning that the content cannot be viewed in your region and exits out.

 
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All NSFW links below.

Sol Press Anime-Expo announcements

Happiness! 2 Sakura Celebration

Hyper→Highspeed→Genius

Vikki Hornee: World's Horniest Housewife

Witch's Garden

Also release dates for their previous announced games:

Kimi o Aogi Otome wa Hime ni - August 16th release
 
OniKiss - September 27th release
 
Shitsuji ga Aruji o Erabu Toki - October 27th release
 
Nukitashi - November 22nd release
 
Himawari to Koi no Kioku - February 2020 release
Also missed for Sekai/Denpasoft

Kanojo no Seiiki

 
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I finally got around to playing Bloodstained for more than just a glimpse. I was enjoying my first couple of hours, but after fashioning Yukiko Amagi with gag glasses I'm loving the game. I'm using fire skills, I have an item to boost Intelligence/Magic, and I have a Familiar following me around like a Persona. Finding a red headband would be great, but I don't mind the red beret. Yukiko wore one in one of her Dancing All Night outfits.

To get the moustache you have to start a fresh game with AWESOMEVIDEOGAMES as your save file name.

k4LJi2Q.jpg

 
I finally got around to playing Bloodstained for more than just a glimpse. I was enjoying my first couple of hours, but after fashioning Yukiko Amagi with gag glasses I'm loving the game. I'm using fire skills, I have an item to boost Intelligence/Magic, and I have a Familiar following me around like a Persona. Finding a red headband would be great, but I don't mind the red beret. Yukiko wore one in one of her Dancing All Night outfits.

To get the moustache you have to start a fresh game with AWESOMEVIDEOGAMES as your save file name.

k4LJi2Q.jpg
Sounds awesome, especially they're voiced by the same person in Jp.
 
I haven't seen it posted here yet, but if anyone is interested in the Kill la Kill IF Limited Edition, it was just added as an exclusive to the Arc System Works store.

Switch

PS4

Also, a demo for the game was added to the Playstation Store yesterday. For some reason the demo for the Switch version won't be available until the release date.

 
Finally Vita 2 is coming!!!... wait... what??
gonna be a pass. I was waiting for the revision only for this to come. Seems annoying that you need the detachable joy cons for some games; might as well get a regular switch. Also doesn't seem like you can dock this to play on TVs either.

 
Seems annoying that you need the detachable joy cons for some games
Yes, it is. But with this coming release I doubt we see another new game force players to use a detached joycon (mario party style)

I get impatient with nintendo's attempted gimmicks. Just give me the quality games.

 
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It's a cheaper, entry level portable like the 2DS was. Seems fine to me.
The 2ds was undesirable in comparison and the 3ds has like 10 versions. It's not entry level or very portable still however. And like others said for the price it costs you may as well just buy a normal switch given that all it does is take features away without providing anything noteworthy in return. For 45$ more or so you could just buy a regular switch.

What they should have done was make it as small as they feasibly can/add a screen cover, and possibly 3ds bc. And bam it would be like the ds lite. A Highly valued handheld.

 
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gonna be a pass. I was waiting for the revision only for this to come. Seems annoying that you need the detachable joy cons for some games; might as well get a regular switch. Also doesn't seem like you can dock this to play on TVs either.
This to me is the clearest indication Nintendo is conceding the expensive Joy-Con features didn't work out and that it doesn't have many new ideas for them.

I agree with gospelman that you won't see any more Nintendo first-party games that use those joy-con features missing in this device.

 
Well there you go everyone who has been waiting for a dedicated handheld.

Today I get to laugh at my friend who has been stubbornly waiting 1.5 yrs for a Switch (Pro) hardware revision.

 
The 2ds was undesirable in comparison and the 3ds has like 10 versions. It's not entry level or very portable still however. And like others said for the price it costs you may as well just buy a normal switch given that all it does is take features away without providing anything noteworthy in return. For 45$ more or so you could just buy a regular switch.

What they should have done was make it as small as they feasibly can/add a screen cover, and possibly 3ds bc. And bam it would be like the ds lite. A Highly valued handheld.
I'm going to wait and see one of these things before passing judgment on whether the size is adequate, etc. That being said, obviously there are features being stripped away here in order to get the price point down. That's the whole reason this exists. Expecting them to implement new features for a "Lite" model is silly.

 
I like everything about the LITE except the lack of docked option... but that was expected.

However, I have no reason to buy one. My Switch works just fine. 

 
Constructing a handheld like this is always going to be a challenge. When you shrink electronics, it is usually more expensive to produce them, not less expensive. Even taking the time past into account, we are still talking about miniaturization. So they wanted to produce a smaller system, with largely identical performance, and yet still charge less for it. The costs were going to get cut somewhere.

In this case, the costs got cut in the controls and the docking. By not adhering to the existing dock functionality, they can cut out components that had been dedicated to video output. It also frees them up to construct the body any way they want, since it no longer needs to fit in the existing dock. It also means they won't have to produce an extra device to bundle with the system. And on top of all of that, they won't have to worry about locking out third parties from using the video out from the USB-C port. Perhaps most significantly, it allows them to construct the shell of the system from fewer pieces, which will cut costs considerably in both production and assembly. No steel rails for Joycons, either. Pretty much the whole thing can be plastic.

Considering that the innards are largely feature-identical, the $200 price point is actually pretty reasonable. But I am still concerned by the size, and by the minimal increase in battery life. I would have really liked to see a sizable bump up in battery life, that would have been a selling point. The kind of increase they're talking about is piddly. Barely worth the trouble. And the size is smaller, but not that much smaller. I still can't imagine putting this thing in my pocket. (and I am fond of big pockets) It doesn't strike me as all that much more portable than before.

 
Constructing a handheld like this is always going to be a challenge. When you shrink electronics, it is usually more expensive to produce them, not less expensive. Even taking the time past into account, we are still talking about miniaturization. So they wanted to produce a smaller system, with largely identical performance, and yet still charge less for it. The costs were going to get cut somewhere.
Nintendo made money on the $300 OG Switch and they ain't losing money on this one.

I think that most Nintendo customers are in one of two camps: those that wanted a dedicated handheld and others whom wished for beefier performance. However, I'm not sure that either camp is pleased in this case.

 
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Nintendo made money on the $300 OG Switch and they ain't losing money on this one.

I think that most Nintendo customers are in one of two camps: those whom wanted a dedicated handheld and others that wished for beefier performance. However, I'm not sure that either camp is pleased in this case.
That's right. I'm just going to wait until the refresh of the current model, and even then, wait until a price drop.

By then, I'm sure there will be at least 25 games on the system I want (my self-made marker for when a console is "worth" it).

 
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I like the Switch Lite, it addresses a lot of the gripes that I had with the original Switch. Since my wife and I both use the Switch currently, I'll probably buy a new one so that we can each play Pokemon without having to share one console later in the year.

 
You guys are weirdly missing the point. It's mainly released as a Pokemon console for multi-kid families. Pokemon has never been multiplayer on a single console, and doesn't require a huge screen.

For all other in tents and porpoises, just ignore the Lite.

 
I can definitely see how this Switch revision will make retail partners and third-party accessory companies VERY happy. It's not a clamshell design, so cases for this thing are going to sell like hotcakes. It comes with no controllers or dock, so it's going to fit an extremely small box, and physical stores will be able to stock it with even less shelf space than the original Switch, which was itself already nicely compact. And it still pairs with extra controllers, so first and third party controllers will still be in demand. And of course, screen protectors and SD cards will still be a given. (I see that SD slot on the bottom)

This thing is designed to sell alongside the original Switch, not replace it. And it shows. It's part of the reason why they aren't going hard on the price. Next to the Switch Lite, the Switch still seems like a pretty good deal, so sales of it won't drop off for anyone who still wants the option of playing on their big screen. For someone who only wants a portable system, they get to save $100.

 
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