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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It's sad but when there is a newer version of a PS4 game on PS5 I'm always tempted to get it. Like I know Caligula Effect 1/2 are likely very similar to the PS4 copies, but those do tempt me, and I'm sure if I haven't played them by the time they go cheap, I'll get them again!
 
nitrosmob said:
It's sad but when there is a newer version of a PS4 game on PS5 I'm always tempted to get it. Like I know Caligula Effect 1/2 are likely very similar to the PS4 copies, but those do tempt me, and I'm sure if I haven't played them by the time they go cheap, I'll get them again!
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This is when you really need to embrace your inner CAG, OG style. As long as the price is right! ;)
 
Vinny said:
Signed up but authorization request email though after 10 minutes not even in spam.
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Have you signed up for one of these offers before? They want new email addresses, not one they already have on their mailing list. If you have a gmail, make it a ‘new’ address by adding a period in the middle of it or adding a + to the end prior to the @. It’ll still go to the same email box.
 
Twilightsparkle said:
Have you signed up for one of these offers before? They want new email addresses, not one they already have on their mailing list. If you have a gmail, make it a ‘new’ address by adding a period in the middle of it or adding a + to the end prior to the @. It’ll still go to the same email box.
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On a side note to this, doing this trick with gmail also works well for signing up for streaming service deals when your current account goes through the same email. So [email protected] could be signed up for hulu's $1/mo deal and you can just cancel that and use [email protected] or [email protected]... etc... and it'll think it's a completely new account if you also use a different credit card. Once everything is up and running you should be able to change the payment method back to the other card. This is how I churn services with good deals ($20/yr peacock, $1/mo Hulu, ...etc).
 
Twilightsparkle said:
Have you signed up for one of these offers before? They want new email addresses, not one they already have on their mailing list. If you have a gmail, make it a ‘new’ address by adding a period in the middle of it or adding a + to the end prior to the @. It’ll still go to the same email box.
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Oh.. darn, didn't realize this. Sucks, prob past the 6k at this point.
 
nightc1 said:
On a side note to this, doing this trick with gmail also works well for signing up for streaming service deals when your current account goes through the same email. So [email protected] could be signed up for hulu's $1/mo deal and you can just cancel that and use [email protected] or [email protected]... etc... and it'll think it's a completely new account if you also use a different credit card. Once everything is up and running you should be able to change the payment method back to the other card. This is how I churn services with good deals ($20/yr peacock, $1/mo Hulu, ...etc).
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I use the . trick all the time. It's really convenient they go to the same place.
I didn't know you could also do stuff like +1 though on the same account, that's handy
 
Pheria said:
I use the . trick all the time. It's really convenient they go to the same place.
I didn't know you could also do stuff like +1 though on the same account, that's handy
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The +1 could be anything in place of the 1. So +hulu would work... or whatever. Nicely too you can create a filter rule so the emails that come in with the modifiers can go to separate folders. This makes it easier to sort between current accounts and older accounts. Though really with any of these streaming services you should only ever need two accounts, a current one and then a previous/next one. Churning the yearly offers is a lot easier juggling two accounts.

Last year I switched everything over to a new gmail account just for streaming devices (I bought a bunch of $20 Onn 4k GoogleTV devices from walmart) and streaming services because I realized that my current email address was getting a bit long to type into streaming apps. Gmail has a minimum of 6 characters for an address ... so my new one is at the minimum with four of them being numbers which are super easy to type in on any of the virtual keyboards. This also separates my youtube account from the account I use on streaming devices.
 
TheKbob said:
I never got my Persona patch, even though I got an email and everything about it. Kinda lost interest.
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Postal sorting machine probably ate it. The envelope mine arrive in was in rough shape. Think they were just thick enough to cause issues with the mail sorting machines.
 
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Twilightsparkle said:
PostAl sorting machine probably ate it. The envelope mine arrive in was in rough shape. Think they were just thick enough to cause issues with the mail sorting machines.
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Same here, they used the thinnest envelope possible to ship that patch to me. I was really surprised it arrived in one piece.
 
super1upqueen said:
Same here, they used the thinnest envelope possible to ship that patch to me. I was really surprised it arrived in one piece.
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They probably tried to keep the thickness under what gets an extra charge for non-machined mail, but cutting it that close and then sending it through the machines causes the machines to jam/eat mail.
 
Twilightsparkle said:
They probably tried to keep the thickness under what gets an extra charge for non-machined mail, but cutting it that close and then sending it through the machines causes the machines to jam/eat mail.
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Humorlessly enough, a veteran employee at my local post office told me there's no such thing as hand-sorted mail. Everything goes through the sorting machine, whether it has a "non-machinable" sticker on it or not. So, paying extra for hand-sorting is a waste of money.

In other words, pack everything carefully. When I sell things online, I assume everything will be dropped from a large height and thrown against a door and I pack accordingly lol
 
Seconded. Though even when i double or triple bubble wrap stuff I've had it arrived damaged. Luckily the buyers were very understanding and reasonable. And mercari tends to side with the seller and bare minimum requirements for stuff are photo of the item.

even then buy the insurance as often the postal and shipping companies sone have just evil on occasion.
 
Vinny said:
Ugh... seeing this makes me re-think my P3 Reload CE PO.
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I am really excited to play P3 reload; was going to get it on day1. But I am NOT paying for that collector's edition. That is a $100-$120 CE and the value simply isn't there. So I'm not buying that, and it's causing me to also want to wait for discount on the regular version. $69.99 for the base version is absurd.

I'm someone who wants to buy the game but probably won't. No idea what they're thinking, or when Atlus got this greedy. Bc it's another game that will be $40 in a month.

That really isn't healthy for your brand.
 
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I am excited to play P3 reload as I prefer P3 to P4 especially and bit to P5 (I haven't beat it yet *insert shocked Pikachu.jpg*). The Answer wasn't that good honestly unless you really love the dungeon crawling aspects, and I was burned out by the time I played and finished some hours of it (got bored). I was replaying P3 (didn't finish the first time so restarted around 3/4 through) and did enjoy the other FES things like Aegis as a social link (don't think this was in the original), the Elizabeth dates and the dog (forget the name) social events. I never played P3 Portable mainly cause it was ugly as sin. I also liked the explorable world, although I could see menu based travel being superior. I will someday and play the Fem MC as everyone raves about those social links. I will be playing reload on Gamepass. Way too expensive to purchase on release likely for the release it is.
 
nitrosmob said:
I am excited to play P3 reload as I prefer P3 to P4 especially and bit to P5
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man of culture.

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Funny thing, my copies of OG P3 from LRG just shipped a couple days ago heh. If the new game weren't coming out I'd just play that. But gotta play the new one. Not going to play both this year.
 
Granblue Fantasy: Relink Demo Impressions after beating it after 1 hour (do this to get completion bonuses for when the game releases):

I know this is going to get a massive amount of flak to start but this feels like Genshin Impact x Toukiden I guess. To start with the art style screams anime and is a nicer looking Genshin/Honkai game. I did the voice acting in English and it seemed decent enough. There is a lot of talking with many generic feeling anime cliche characters. Your group feels like a rag time bunch of cliches. It's not terrible, but generally standard stuff. The story is also extremely typical about your group being lead to free people and defeat big evil. I don't feel this will win any game of the year awards for story of the year, but like Genshin/Honkai I'm sure the story will be decent enough to keep people interested.

This is an action RPG somewhat MMORPG feeling game where you have weak and special attacks with skills similar to Genshin. This game plays like a button mashy fun action game which is where I compare to Toukiden. Many of the stronger monsters feel like HP sponges and you fight them similar to Toukiden when facing big monsters except you don't attack certain body parts and just them in general. You get blocks and dodges although these feel floaty at times, so I'm guessing getting perfect dodges will take some practice. It all runs decently well on the PS5 and I didn't notice slowdown that hampered my gameplay. The gameplay feels Ys like in speed and Genshin like in just about everything else. You have 4 party members in your team and maybe you can switch between them, but I didn't do that in the demo and don't remember anything like that in the tutorial.

The exploration of the world feels OK. You find blue spots that get items, treasure chests, and maybe other things when the game comes out. There are enemies roaming the land like Genshin, and you can fight them. You can follow quest lines by markers. It doesn't feel massive like Genshin, but is bigger than a straightforward romp. Overall the graphics for the world and characters where decently nice. They weren't mind blowing, but felt like Genshin+ graphics. Nothing too crazy, and other than a lot of effects from skills making things hard to decipher, it all looks clean.

I feel this game will be overrated by action RPG starved players. It plays decently well, has an okay enough story to tell (feels a bit generic already along with the cliche feeling characters), seems straightforward, has a lot of MMORPG things like loot and exploration (likely grinding too), and will be a decent game. I don't feel greatness from this at all, but will still get it as good action RPGs are rarer nowadays. It feels like a good game, but I will have to wait and see if it will be a great game. It would get around 8/10 on my scale currently (very good...not amazing rating) which is very worthy of playing. Play the demo and get the rewards. It feels like a good one.
 
Souffrir said:
I have two copies of P5 and I haven’t even played it yet. I don’t need a third for a system I don’t even own, do I?
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I'd probably bite in your situation if a physical copy of Royal isn't among those two.

I have the the vanilla and royal ps4 CE's so I am holding off hoping for a further drop. Also reluctant because to pull off the Akechi bag I feel like I would also need to commit to the haircut.
 
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Nothing- said:
I am really excited to play P3 reload; was going to get it on day1. But I am NOT paying for that collector's edition. That is a $100-$120 CE and the value simply isn't there. So I'm not buying that, and it's causing me to also want to wait for discount on the regular version. $69.99 for the base version is absurd.

I'm someone who wants to buy the game but probably won't. No idea what they're thinking, or when Atlus got this greedy. Bc it's another game that will be $40 in a month.

That really isn't healthy for your brand.
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What about the fatlus tax they had back in the 3ds gen? I still remember the bs when they did it for Stella glow and they not only did nothing for that game but let it release with numerous translation errors including equipment and accessories.
 
Nothing- said:
I am really excited to play P3 reload; was going to get it on day1. But I am NOT paying for that collector's edition. That is a $100-$120 CE and the value simply isn't there. So I'm not buying that, and it's causing me to also want to wait for discount on the regular version. $69.99 for the base version is absurd.

I'm someone who wants to buy the game but probably won't. No idea what they're thinking, or when Atlus got this greedy. Bc it's another game that will be $40 in a month.

That really isn't healthy for your brand.
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I had the standard edition pre-ordered with Gamestop back when they mistakenly listed it for $60, but I ended up canceling. Between the lack of FES and Portable content, questionable voice acting, and my continued frustrations over Atlus' business practices, I don't need to get it at launch. To be honest, I always enjoyed the FeMC version of Persona 3 over the original experience.

I'm sure I'll enjoy P3R just fine...when it's on sale for $40, and I doubt I'll be waiting long.
 
gospelman said:
I'd probably bite in your situation if a physical copy of Royal isn't among those two.

I have the the vanilla and royal ps4 CE's so I am holding off hoping for a further drop. Also reluctant because to pull off the Akechi bag I feel like I would also need to commit to the haircut.
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I have vanilla with the steelbook, and just the normal Royal. To be honest, I’m not all that tempted, the CE goodies don’t look super appealing to me. I miss when Atlus included soundtracks and artbooks.
 
I have the original game autographed by several of the VA's (I got the first autograph before Royal came out, so I just went with it from then on), and Royal on PS4 and Switch... and I was still considering getting this for my nonexistent PS5.
 
P5 Tactica tempting even though I haven't beaten Persona 5 Royal yet. Might pick up the PS5 version. I'll probably get the Persona 3 remake when it hits $30 too.
 
Tactics games are pretty niche and I'm sure they're a lot of copies out there under Sega. P5 is super milked now too. Just a lot of things lead to it dropping quickly. I would guess it will eventually reach around $20 (similar to P5, P5 Royal, other Persona games not cheap already), but if you want to play the price is pretty solid for a niche game.

I have noticed (mainly cause of Wario64 on X) that super niche stuff like Otome games fall in price too. If I am not as interested I'll wait for those too. $30 is what plenty of niche games fall too, and then generally become sold out. Some drop lower but generally are games that likely bombed in sales (Monark and Soul Hackers 2 come to mind).
 
Follow your Yuri heart. I always follow my Moe one. I'm slightly tempted by Another Wonderful Life Special Edition for $29.99, although I have felt swamped by Story of Seasons games lately. The Switch is a very good visual novel machine, and those games are pretty much only otherwise available on PC (was in a good bundle in Fanatical a while back). It's your choice though. I still remember back in the day I bought the Atelier Totori Special Edition without owning a PS3 yet.
 
Persona 3 on PSP is one of my best timing's as a CAG.

I bought a new copy from Amazon for $20 on June 2012. I already had a digital copy I had bought while traveling for a semester abroad. I wanted a physical copy too but never had a reason to open it. Sold that thing for $425 in May 2021, I think it was about a year and some change after that they announced the new versions.
 
Pheria said:
Persona 3 on PSP is one of my best timing's as a CAG.

I bought a new copy from Amazon for $20 on June 2012. I already had a digital copy I had bought while traveling for a semester abroad. I wanted a physical copy too but never had a reason to open it. Sold that thing for $425 in May 2021, I think it was about a year and some change after that they announced the new versions.
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Huge sell. nice job. That pays for an entire new console.

and I don't want to listen to anyone who wants to drone on about "the inevitability of the all-digital future".

That type of capitalizing you just created is still possible.
 
Archetype Arcadia impressions after 90ish minutes on the Switch:

This is a visual novel that takes place in a world where there was an apocalypse where a sickness eats away at peoples' memories or something. This eventually offs them. Our main character is a guy who never was able to get into technology, specifically Archetype Arcadia that requires a headset. In this VR experience you experience a world of stuff to make you feel better outside of the awful apocalyptic world. The MC's mom says for him not to use this and they have a daughter and die off later due to said pandemic. Now he learns that this VR world is where those like his sister can get cured of this disease. He doesn't know how it works to heal the condition (you find out in the first 90 minutes how this works but no spoilers), and later when his sister goes down in the real world with an error on her headset he goes into this VR world.

This VR world is cool looking and all, but is pretty much a ruined world where gods rule regions and you have very typical (at least the first god) OMG I'm so evil let's beat everyone silly and laugh about them losing their memories and bleeding to death. Pretty much this VR MMO has it where if you lose memories in the world (that is how you use your abilities...all about memories) you pretty much vanish from the world and I'm assuming die in the real world (it's freakin' a variant of Sword Art Online where die in the game you die for real). The MC has a special guest tag where he does die in the VR world (it happens so early) and actually revives. He is super weak though as something is holding him back from becoming empathic with his memories, and in this world he wants to save his sister, but what are his true aspirations? Also does beating the gods in the world mean beating the game?

Frankly this is a kind of Shounen feeling anime story with a grimdark world with ultra over the top villians. The main character is a guy who believes in the good of people and seems to put others before himself. He has issues from his past that keep him from empathizing with others and his own past. He meets other characters lost in the world, and also others who fight to beat the game and get memories I guess. Frankly I think this story would be so much cooler if it just stuck to an adventure in the real apocalyptic world. You can have villians and such among survivors, but instead we get this VR world where the story takes place. The MC is a typical MC who doesn't believe in himself and just wants to help others while trusting others who may hurt him. If this sounds like a typical Shounen MC it is because it is. Nothing too original here other than the action taking place in a VR world.

The music is actually quite good. I didn't expect to be surprised by the quality of the tunes, but they sounded nice. The voice acting is alright enough with lots of that over the top acting during action scenes. The graphics are pretty decent for the character arts. It isn't amazing, but is very passable. The avatars that do combat look silly and don't do great action scenes. It's a visual novel so these chibi avatars moving across the screen is the action you get. Overall it's a bit above average for all the presentation, but not a lot better than average.

This game feels typical even though the setting is somewhat unique. I'm sure there will be some twists and turns and the MC will become empathetic somewhere along the way. I'm guessing you will "Win" the game, but who knows. It seems to be an OK enough story to hold it along, but for now the characters hold it back a bit by being very cliche. Still a decent enough time and I could see myself playing it 30 minutes a night. It runs wonderfully on the Switch and is great to play before bed. 6.5/10
 
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