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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Draekon said:
Since we're at the end of November, I'm curious what thread related lesser known games that other people in this thread have played and really enjoyed in the last year. I'm talking about the games that don't get big recognition such as Persona, Tales of, Final Fantasy, Nier, etc. Since it's technically not the end of the year and I doubt many have played much of November's games, I'll say the release window is from last November to current. If you could also give a small blurb for the game too and mention one thing you didn't like or thought the game could do better as well. It's not a requirement though.
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Not surprising but Atelier Firis is my GOTY. Firis got mixed reception among Atelier fans. Older fans didn't like how much it changed, and newer fans didn't like the return of the time limit. It was in a tough spot. But I loved the game.

The world felt vast and well designed. I can wander through the hills and forests for hours. It wasn't linear and I could skip entire towns and events and come back to them later. The game has so much content, I have 80 hours in it and still didn't get all the endings. It's probably been the most fulfilling Atelier game I've played to date.

The characters are mostly enjoyable. Some moreso than others but Firis is always a hoot to play with. She's cute and funny. Speaking of which, the character dlc are reasonably priced and offer quite a bit of extra content including additional events and character endings.

The combat makes a comeback from the horrid combat in Sophie. It doesn't do anything too special but it works. The combat for Lydie and Suelle looks like they're taking it to the next level. Atelier Firis is now one of my favorite Atelier games, and I hope the next game builds on that to deliver an even bigger experience.

 
Draekon said:
Since we're at the end of November, I'm curious what thread related lesser known games that other people in this thread have played and really enjoyed in the last year. I'm talking about the games that don't get big recognition such as Persona, Tales of, Final Fantasy, Nier, etc. Since it's technically not the end of the year and I doubt many have played much of November's games, I'll say the release window is from last November to current. If you could also give a small blurb for the game too and mention one thing you didn't like or thought the game could do better as well. It's not a requirement though.
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2017 Releases I Completed: The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild, Final Fantasy XV (+DLC 1 & 2), The Fractured But Whole, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash, Collar X Malice, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk, Fire Emblem Warriors

A lot of these were surprisingly disappointing (my personal opinion obviously), but here are my top three:

3. Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash: Aside from the obvious "plot", it's a surprisingly solid third-person shooter. I tend to dislike what I refer to as "squad-based shooters" (Overwatch and the like), but PBS was a light-hearted romp that wasn't online-only and offered a pretty complete experience offline. Customizing gear and trying out different loadouts was fun and the mechanics felt surprisingly solid for what I expected to be a generic spin-off title.

2. Zero Escape: The Nonary Games: Zero Escape is a solid VN franchise that doesn't get the love it deserves. TNG was my first exposure to the franchise, and the polish on 999's remake was excellent. Virtue's Last Reward was a little clunky in comparison, but I enjoyed watching the series unfold. I typically don't play games in a series back-to-back (I get burned out too easily), but I marathoned The Nonary Games and Zero Time Dilemma shortly after. It's a great value (which I'm always a fan of) and one of the best stories I've experienced in video games period.

1. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice: I feel like it wasn't advertised very well, because I was expecting more of a third-person action/adventure game and in reality the game is more of a walking simulator with puzzles and occasional combat sections. Ninja Theory did an incredible job with this title. Each of the different components feel great; combat is super-fluid, the puzzles are interesting and work well, the story is thoroughly engaging, and it all fits together perfectly. I don't want to go into too many details for spoiler reasons, but they take a very serious subject and address it in a thrilling and immersing manner. If you do play this, heed the warning to play with headphones; it makes a world of difference.

And just for fun, my biggest disappointments:

3. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk: Berserk is one of my favorite franchises of all time. I thoroughly enjoy muosos as well. This game manages to bastardize both. The first major arc of Berserk (The Golden Age) is handled fairly well, but each subsequent arc skims the story quicker and quicker, and some smaller arcs are omitted completely. It's also just a bad muoso. You're alone most of the time, there's very little variety in the gameplay, surprisingly few characters (and even fewer who are relatively viable), and the extra mode is a horrible grindfest.

2. Final Fantasy XV: I almost feel like it's cheating to put this on the list, but everyone knows the issues by now. Great worldbuilding, interesting characters, and it all flounders out halfway through the game. The first DLC (Gladiolus) was pretty great - felt a bit like a FF/Dark Souls crossover and had some pretty challenging aspects to it. The second DLC (Prompto) was just decent, but with a God-awful snowmobile minigame mode. Seriously, the physics are laughable. I don't know how the minigame made it through quality assurance.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: I love Zelda. Majora's Mask is my all-time favorite game. The series has been near and dear to me since I started playing games. BotW did not feel like a Zelda game. It felt like successful pieces of major games from the past five years were pieced together into an incredibly polished, but ultimately generic and non-unique experience. It really feels like each Zelda component was added as an afterthought; the game could be reskinned and sold as a completely new IP. Dungeons are gone, getting new equipment is gone, story is (mostly) gone, and instead we're left with a vastly empty, almost too open world.

 
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IS IT OVER? I suppose it's safe to call it that after this week. Technically there's still Tokyo Xanadu eX+ next week, but I doubt that it's on most peoples radar. I don't think there's anything particularly interesting western wise this week either. Though I think I'm going to stop posting things published by SakuraGame because of shit like this and their terrible machine translations that does nobody any favors.

Other stuff that released without warning last week (Assume PC unless otherwise noted):
- Reformers (RPG | Chinese Only)

Weekly Releases (November 26th - December 2nd)

Nintendo 3DS (Super Nintendo Entertainment System Edition)
- Platform(s): 3DS
- Genre: Hardware

STAR OCEAN™ - THE LAST HOPE -™ 4K & Full HD Remaster
- Platform(s): PS4, PC
- Genre: RPG / Action
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: PC version looks to be using Denuvo DRM.

Resident Evil: Revelations Collection
- Platform(s): Switch
- Genre: Survival Horror
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Includes Revelations 1 & 2 as well as all previous addons. Second game seems to be a digital-only download code which takes up 26GB.

ACA NeoGeo: World Heroes
- Platform(s): Switch
- Genre: Fighting
- Demo: N/A
- Online: Local only.
- Comments: Digital only.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Platform(s): Switch
- Genre: RPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A

Elminage ORIGINAL - Priestess of Darkness and The Ring of the Gods
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: First-Person Dungeon RPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: I assume this is a port of the PSP version. Hopefully it has the 3DS localization.

VoiceActress
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel / RPG?
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Expect a machine translation.

Game Tengoku CruisinMix
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: SHMUP
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Degica published. Japanese language only.

A Day For A Kitten
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: RPG?
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese dev.

春风 Spring Breeze
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese dev.

Starlight of Aeons
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese dev?

Cassandra's Fabulous Foray
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel / Simulation
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Not Japanese.

Crimson Imprint plus -Nonexistent Christmas-
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese language only.

Puzzle Sisters Foer
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Puzzle / Q&A
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese language only.

わがままアリスと百日戦争
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel / Adventure
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Japanese language only.

Past Releases
November 19th - November 25th
November 12th - November 18th
November 5th - November 11th
October 29th - November 4th
October 22nd - October 28th

 
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I humbly agree that what Sakuragamer does is pretty bad. I have bought a few of their titles, but honestly I'm stopping unless it's amazing. Machine translations are garbage and a decent amount of the games are looking OK at best, usually just getting popular for their adult content, or them giving away free games. Just bad practices, especially since I usually love VN games.

 
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nitrosmob said:
I humbly agree that what Sakuragamer does is pretty bad. I have bought a few of their titles, but honestly I'm stopping unless it's amazing. Machine translations are garbage and a decent amount of the games are looking OK at best, usually just getting popular for their adult content, or them giving away free games. Just bad practices, especially since I usually love VN games.
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I got Sakuragame mixed up with the Sakura games and I felt bad about buying them haha.
 
Supplice said:
Shinobi Refle: Senran Kagura already at the top of the Japanese eShop charts
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They're probably calling up the Senran Kagura VAs this morning in Japan to schedule new recording sessions for more DLC, if they haven't already planned it. Aside from the voice assets and some new 2D art, it's pretty much all recycled from the other games meaning they can quickly churn out more $10 expansions.

The main plot has Asuka (or Yumi) trapped in a Shinobi Barrier with the player. Massaging her hands brings out a number of dream scenarios with a different personality. Each personality has 5 different color coded responses to the massage based on where the player touches. Seeing enough of each type unlocks the ending an illustration. Seeing all 5 responses puts the personality in the dressing room.

 
Draekon said:
Since we're at the end of November, I'm curious what thread related lesser known games that other people in this thread have played and really enjoyed in the last year. I'm talking about the games that don't get big recognition such as Persona, Tales of, Final Fantasy, Nier, etc. Since it's technically not the end of the year and I doubt many have played much of November's games, I'll say the release window is from last November to current. If you could also give a small blurb for the game too and mention one thing you didn't like or thought the game could do better as well. It's not a requirement though.
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I haven't played too much, at least not from this year. Mainly:

Cyberdimension Neptunia 4 Goddesses Online

A huge improvement for the franchise, it's a total reworking of how the series plays, while still keeping the humor and cutesy characters. The graphics, story, dialogue, music, gameplay is all great and possibly the best in the series yet. Neptunia used to be an underdog compared to the other JRPGs, but this one ranks it up there with some of the better regarded ones. The online portion is great too, and presents an experience not seen in other JRPGs. Ultimately, I highly recommend this one.

Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash

Another terrific game, and really deviates from the other SK games. I was iffy going into this one, thinking the shooting would be wonky but it actually works really smoothly. The bit that stands out however is the balance of the game's weapons and abilities, and the great upgrade system that really keeps you playing. So there is a ton of variety in this game, and earning all these different weapons/cards feels satisfying. The only disappointing thing is how the online portion is handled, without any real lobbies or rooms. If this was handled better, playing with friends would be such a blast. But the single player does make up for it.

 
 
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Heh I haven't really played many games let alone ones that released this year.  I suppose my list would be 

#1  .hack remake g.u. vol 1 

#2 steven universe save the light.

 
Time for Nero.

This Nero.

original.jpg


Not this one.

fate-extella-1.jpg


 
So one of my favourite games Rainbow Moon is getting another re-release along with its sequel Rainbow Skies through Playasia.

They also have collectors edition as well for each coming it looks like Feb 2018.

Does Playasia charge right away? Wanna make sure I score these.

Rainbow Moon and Rainbow Skies

Their twitter page:

If you order by credit card (not PayPal checkout), you will only be charged when your order ships.
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unfortunately i found fate very meh.
It's very very repetitive with repeating stages & scenarios. The enemies are very limited, like 4 types, with stick figure style designs. The fighting also gets repetitive once you find each characters' best combo & milk it. And going for platinum is a brain dead grind.
However the main 3 fate characters nero, tamamo, & altera are super cute to interact with throughout the campaign, definitely living up to waifu material levels.
 
NISA is having their Cyber Monday sale with a lot of really rare sold out games back in stock. I won't post the link so CAG twitter can't steal it and then lurkers come and buy everything out. I'm sure all of you know how to get to the store.

Edit: aaaaaand Nights of Azure is gone... I should've gotten it...

 
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BlackRockWaifu said:
NISA is having their Cyber Monday sale with a lot of really rare sold out games back in stock. I won't post the link so CAG twitter can't steal it and then lurkers come and buy everything out. I'm sure all of you know how to get to the store.

Edit: aaaaaand Nights of Azure is gone... I should've gotten it...
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What was the good stuff that is gone now?

 
Guess I don't watch these items enough to realize they were rare.  The most enticing thing I saw was the prinny hat

Meanwhile, I can't decide if I want to pick up danganronpa v3 vita during the psn sale that ends today.

 
lakers714 said:
Damn never even heard they would restock some of these
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They hold back stock same as LRG, and at certain points, they offer the extra's. It may be online, or at Anime conventions they attend, etc.

Every rare Vita game they have, I bought originally, but I always like to grab an extra if I can. For trade, or to use for something else I may need or want in the future. I completely didn't even think of them offering anything today, so I wasn't even looking.

 
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