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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BoxPizzaBox said:
Best Buy seems to be the most reliable to be sure of getting a copy, for me, but it almost never arrives on release day.
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I've had pretty good luck with BB. Sometimes things arrive a day or two early, but sometimes it's also a day later. The fact that I don't have to drive to a store (which the nearest one is pretty much a solid hour drive) is a major plus for me. Not that I'm buying a lot these days. The only preorder I currently have is just the next Zelda game and while I could have just picked it up at Walmart, I figure I'll give BB my business as they have been solid.

Something people might want to consider is GameFly for new releases. They seem to be getting niche games and they have discounts already on them. It's not much, but a few bucks off is still a few bucks off.

 
nightc1 said:
I've had pretty good luck with BB. Sometimes things arrive a day or two early, but sometimes it's also a day later. The fact that I don't have to drive to a store (which the nearest one is pretty much a solid hour drive) is a major plus for me. Not that I'm buying a lot these days. The only preorder I currently have is just the next Zelda game and while I could have just picked it up at Walmart, I figure I'll give BB my business as they have been solid.

Something people might want to consider is GameFly for new releases. They seem to be getting niche games and they have discounts already on them. It's not much, but a few bucks off is still a few bucks off.
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That's an interesting suggestion. I've never considered pre-ordering from GameFly.

I've had good luck with Target and Best Buy myself. They both usually arrive a day, or a few days late, but I've always gotten the product. GameStop is just the one that bothers me lately. I know some others have had issues with Target canceling orders, too, though.

I'm reluctantly switching to digital myself. I really just wish they'd fix the "oops, you can't buy that anymore" problems around delistings, licensing, and store shutdowns. Giving money for a product you can digitally copy and deliver shouldn't be difficult, but it is.

 
I'll probably end up giving gamefly a try for preorders at some point.  Seems like every preorder is somewhere between $4 and $8 off.  Pretty sure that you still get free shipping.

 
Anyone got a pending charge for regular edition of Final Fantasy I-VI Collection from the Square Enix store yet? I got an email that they couldn't charge my card because my credit card flagged it as fraud. I authorized the charge the next day but haven't seen them reprocess the order yet.

 
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nightc1 said:
I'll probably end up giving gamefly a try for preorders at some point. Seems like every preorder is somewhere between $4 and $8 off. Pretty sure that you still get free shipping.
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And occasionally there's coupons for gamefly gift cards. I got Pokémon snap and paper Mario origami King through them for 20$ off and 15$ off the 25$ gift card I believe.
 
nightc1 said:
I'll probably end up giving gamefly a try for preorders at some point. Seems like every preorder is somewhere between $4 and $8 off. Pretty sure that you still get free shipping.
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I don't see these pre-order discounts at a quick glance. Are they limited, require a membership, or have some special conditions?

I do see an offer for bonus GameFly dollars if you have an active rental account.

 
blueweltall said:
Anyone got a pending charge for regular edition of Final Fantasy I-VI Collection from the Square Enix store yet? I got an email that they couldn't charge my card because my credit card flagged it as fraud. I authorized the charge the next day but haven't seen them reprocess the order yet.
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I got a pending charge yesterday but it hasn't posted yet, still showing pending. I did a credit card via PayPal.

EDIT* Nevermind, you asked about reg edition. I have the NS CE.

 
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blueweltall said:
Anyone got a pending charge for regular edition of Final Fantasy I-VI Collection from the Square Enix store yet? I got an email that they couldn't charge my card because my credit card flagged it as fraud. I authorized the charge the next day but haven't seen them reprocess the order yet.
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Pending charge popped up for me yesterday.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
I don't see these pre-order discounts at a quick glance. Are they limited, require a membership, or have some special conditions?
I do see an offer for bonus GameFly dollars if you have an active rental account.
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I’m not at my computer for the url, but I look at all price drop switch games and there are a handful of preorders there as well as recent Japanese niche releases with discounts for new copies. I’ve never subscribed to GameFly, but have bought games through them. This might just be a switch thing if you were looking at other platforms.
 
Mini Battle Heroine Crisis review after less than 2 hours on Steam:

This is one step above a puzzle eroge game. Basically it's based off a doujin of Freezing and has character situations from the doujins. You play some guy and  mind break (forget the exact term in the universe) your targets. This leads to a very basic Slay the Spire-ish card game where you break down barriers for the girls and the extra cards afterwards lead to stat changes, leading to hopefully a better relationship. Once you reach some thresholds a scene plays out straight from the doujin's that is some animated eroge nonsense usually about the guy making the girl more comfortable for some 18+ action. They're animated and presented comic book style, which is actually nice. This goes on and on until a final chapter with the girl which usually uses all the cards you collected and puts you against an opponent to finish the route. I ended up almost finishing 2 routes in an hour and 30 minutes. I refunded a bit afterwards.

Now for the bad, which is just about everything else. The gameplay is extremely repetitive and offers very little strategy. It is boring as heck and just is RNG central where you hope the cards you buy match whatever obstacles the girl puts forward in card form. You can cull some cards to not have them come back, but it's still very random. Also the story is not easy to understand and is very badly translated. I read one of the doujins and it was pretty straight forward. They added extra scenes, as most of the doujin was the 18+ scenes. This is very unpolished and I feel the DLC is a rip off as well. It can add extra character scenarios, but with myself getting through almost 2 of 3 scenarios in the original game in 1 hour and 30 minutes I doubt they add a lot. Also costume DLC is expensive.

I gave it a try as it was on sale, but other than the decent voice work and good art, everything else is pretty poorly put together. This feels like a cash grab for Freezing fans, and is just another unpolished gameplay eroge 18+ game. 5/10

 
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gospelman said:
Happy Easter, cags. The ps4 version of P5R has all of the dlc currently free on PSN. I've been waiting for the newest releases to drop in price and now I might just be content with my physical ps4 version.
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0177-CUSA17416_00-PERSONA5RDLCPACK
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Thanks, came here to post this. Was disappointed I learned about it somewhere else before CAG, but good to know that’s just cause I hadn’t visited yet. April 9th also happens to be the day Persona 5 begins in story. I never finished this game, I can only take so much teenybopper’s saving the world dialogue at once, and the game just kept going, but this will probably get me back into it soon.

 
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Outside of dlc, does anyone know if there are any improvements (excluding load times) for the ps5 version of P5R compared to the ps4 pro version?

Xenogears said:
I never finished this game, I can only take so much teenybopper’s saving the world dialogue at once, and the game just kept going, but this will probably get me back into it soon.
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I hear you on this. I'm personally at a point where I'm very tired of "bonds are significant" and "defying fate is like the coolest thing you can do." P5R has a lot of the latter, but it was my primary '20 pandemic game. After snagging the dlc today, I loaded up my save for the first time in a couple years and I saw that I played though 2.5 times for total of 289hr. Safe to say I've enjoyed my time with it.

 
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I did really like the game, but just stopped at some point towards the end, which is pretty rare for me.  Have been wanting to finish at some point, think this will be the incentive for me to do so, even if it is mostly cosmetic DLC.  I can manage fitting another 30-40 hours fighting demons and serial killers in between band practice and my modeling career, just 100+ hours of that in one stretch was frying my brain too much at the time.  The constant schedule decisions get tiring too, you have to time things perfectly to eat enough hamburgers and read enough books about how to eat hamburgers in time to complete the hamburger eating contest before you have to defeat Satan.  It’s funny how this game makes it a real struggle deciding what the priority is at the time as well, while still taking itself seriously.  I think I’d like it better if the personal and side content stuff was even goofier and meant to be more of a joke like the Yakuza series.

 
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I was 60 or 70 hours in P4 quite a few years back, and I just didn't finish. I think I was like 2 places from the end or something, but I just stopped as I was just tired of playing. I never did go back, and likely would need to start all over. I did get P5R PS5 when it got a sale end of last year, but yeah I don't really know why I just said enough and stopped.

Kunado Chronicles also released and has a launch discount of 20% until April 13th. This looks kind of fun, although Purple Software games usually hit some highs, but also many lows for me.

Steam

Steam 18+ Patch (NSFW)

 
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gospelman said:
Outside of dlc, does anyone know if there are any improvements (excluding load times) for the ps5 version of P5R compared to the ps4 pro version?

I hear you on this. I'm personally at a point where I'm very tired of "bonds are significant" and "defying fate is like the coolest thing you can do." P5R has a lot of the latter, but it was my primary '20 pandemic game. After snagging the dlc today, I loaded up my save for the first time in a couple years and I saw that I played though 2.5 times for total of 289hr. Safe to say I've enjoyed my time with it.
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I believe the PS5 one is 60 FPS while the PS4 one, even on Pro or PS5 is still 30 FPS.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
I don't see these pre-order discounts at a quick glance. Are they limited, require a membership, or have some special conditions?

I do see an offer for bonus GameFly dollars if you have an active rental account.
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Here's the URL I use for looking at price drops on switch games. With a little work I'm sure you can do the same for other systems.

https://www.gamefly.com/browse/store/switch-store-pricedrop

Among the games listed that might fit this thread...

Octopath Traveller 2 - $53.91

Tales of Symphonia Remastered - $35.94 (Don't buy, it was cheaper at GS.. and possibly other stores already)

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society - $43.80

Theatrithm Final Bar - $44.93

Ninja Jajamaru: The Great Yokai Battle+ - $26.96

void* tRrLM2()://Void Terrarium 2 - Deluxe - $43.80

Also Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe $53.91

All recent releases and new copies.

Also a couple older games, but still new copies:

DioField Chronicle is also $35.94 for something from last September.

Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythm Festival is $16.85

Maybe it's mainly recent releases? Still it's worth keeping an eye on it if there's no other option for a better deal.

 
nightc1 said:
Here's the URL I use for looking at price drops on switch games. With a little work I'm sure you can do the same for other systems.

https://www.gamefly.com/browse/store/switch-store-pricedrop

Among the games listed that might fit this thread...

Octopath Traveller 2 - $53.91

Tales of Symphonia Remastered - $35.94 (Don't buy, it was cheaper at GS.. and possibly other stores already)

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society - $43.80

Theatrithm Final Bar - $44.93

Ninja Jajamaru: The Great Yokai Battle+ - $26.96

void* tRrLM2()://Void Terrarium 2 - Deluxe - $43.80

Also Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe $53.91

All recent releases and new copies.

Also a couple older games, but still new copies:

DioField Chronicle is also $35.94 for something from last September.

Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythm Festival is $16.85

Maybe it's mainly recent releases? Still it's worth keeping an eye on it if there's no other option for a better deal.
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Ah, I see. Thanks. So it's not an across the board pre-order discount, but many recent releases get price drops? That's handy.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
Ah, I see. Thanks. So it's not an across the board pre-order discount, but many recent releases get price drops? That's handy.
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I don't usually look at the main site, just this one page. Decided to dig further in and it looks like they don't do preorders but just puts most games (at least switch, as that's what I am looking at) on sale around a month after it's been out. Eventually they are on sale long enough they don't show in the recent price drops list as most games seem to be discounted except a handful over the past year of releases up through the 10th of March.

So I guess it's not as great if they don't discount for a month, but then sometimes they seem to discount something not selling pretty heavily. I'd say it's worth keeping as a backup option if the alternative is full price from somewhere else.

 
Not really game related but did the cost of shipping figures skyrocket recently? I bought the Sporty Dress Tifa Static Arts from 1999.co.jp for 17k yen but shipping and tax (not sure why they're charging me tax?) is another 8k yen...... seems kinda nuts. 

 
Vinny said:
Not really game related but did the cost of shipping figures skyrocket recently? I bought the Sporty Dress Tifa Static Arts from 1999.co.jp for 17k yen but shipping and tax (not sure why they're charging me tax?) is another 8k yen...... seems kinda nuts.
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Recent-ish. I noticed a pretty big jump around July of last year, it's possible there was another more recent jump though. Haven't imported any figures since October or so.

 
Vinny said:
Not really game related but did the cost of shipping figures skyrocket recently? I bought the Sporty Dress Tifa Static Arts from 1999.co.jp for 17k yen but shipping and tax (not sure why they're charging me tax?) is another 8k yen...... seems kinda nuts.
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It's been going up since shipping resumed after COVID. A lot of services haven't been restored, and DHL etc are charging like $30-100 to ship anything. TOM's free shipping, and GSC's flat rates have been the only thing still sane. Some of them started collecting sales tax when shipping to the US also.

 
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Vinny said:
Not really game related but did the cost of shipping figures skyrocket recently? I bought the Sporty Dress Tifa Static Arts from 1999.co.jp for 17k yen but shipping and tax (not sure why they're charging me tax?) is another 8k yen...... seems kinda nuts.
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They started charging sales tax around the end of last year. As "compensation," they've actually had a 20% discount on shipping going since then (or at least, they still had it the last time I ordered something from them in mid-March).

 
Just got this email from PA on FF Pixel Remaster, they're shipping in batches. This seems kinda crazy, either SE is playing hard to get or SE really missed the demand mark.

Date of order placement --- Production Completion

On or before 2023/02/22 --- April 20, 2023

2023/02/23 – 2023-02/25 --- May 05, 2023

2023/02/26 – 2023/03/05 --- May 19, 2023

2023/03/06 – 2023/04/05 --- June 02, 2023

2023/04/06 -- --- June 19, 2023


* Includes Day 1 DLC as part of the publisher’s first batch production.

Not sure what the * note at the bottom goes to since I don't see anything asterisk'd.

Souffrir said:
They started charging sales tax around the end of last year. As "compensation," they've actually had a 20% discount on shipping going since then (or at least, they still had it the last time I ordered something from them in mid-March).
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Oh yeah, I remember that... too bad that wouldn't help here though since the first released long after that.

 
I got in on April 5th so looks like I'm early June.

Glad to see they're producing quantities to meet demand, unlike Square itself in NA.

I can see this becoming one of the higher dollar aftermarket titles if the SEA variant dries up.
 
TheKbob said:
I got in on April 5th so looks like I'm early June.

Glad to see they're producing quantities to meet demand, unlike Square itself in NA.

I can see this becoming one of the higher dollar aftermarket titles if the SEA variant dries up.
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I think I missed the 1st deadline. My order date is late into the first cutoff date in the US, which would mean it's the follow day in Hong Kong. :whistle2:(

Really wish they'd make more PS4 copies though. Or even a asian PS4 release.
 
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This whole situation is ridiculous.  Square is leaving money on the table.  They're so focused on their GAAS models, digital distribution, gouging CEs, mobile nonsense, and newsletter stuff. 

There's no reason that there should not be another run with widespread physical distribution for the FF Pixel Remaster on both consoles except that SE must think they can profit more through selling it digitally for full value. 

In any case, yet another instance of them really screwing the fans on this one.

You'd think that a smart business would realize that hard copies of these main line games, and shelf presence + visibility, is what drives sales for all your other nonsense.  e.g. NIntendo puts out a new Fire Emblem game every few years, not bc it is immensely profitable, but because that is what drives mllions upon millions in revenue for Fire Emblem Heroes (gacha mobile), continual merchandising, bringing in new customers, and IP awareness. Those pillar IPs bolster and support your overarching brand. 

 
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90% of Square's revenue is digital (which includes microtransactions) and over 2/3 of the full games they sell are digital according to their most recent financial releases. That makes a small piece of the pie to them and I think they'd rather lose a few sales from people who won't buy digital and didn't get in on the initial batch than deal with distribution logistics and reduced margins from retailers. I hate it too, but this is the "digital future" that companies want.

In other words - it's more effort and less reward for them to distribute it in a customer-friendly manner. It does seem like they missed the mark a bit on the size of the print run, but after all of the comments I saw balking at the price of the collection I guess maybe they expected it to not sell particularly well.

 
Vinny said:
Not sure what the * note at the bottom goes to since I don't see anything asterisk'd.
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I think it's just saying all the pre-orders will get the preorder bonus, not just the first batch. I'm in the first batch though, so I won't be able to confirm.
 
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Nothing- said:
This whole situation is ridiculous. Square is leaving money on the table. They're so focused on their GAAS models, digital distribution, gouging CEs, mobile nonsense, and newsletter stuff.

There's no reason that there should not be another run with widespread physical distribution for the FF Pixel Remaster on both consoles except that SE must think they can profit more through selling it digitally for full value.

In any case, yet another instance of them really screwing the fans on this one.

You'd think that a smart business would realize that hard copies of these main line games, and shelf presence + visibility, is what drives sales for all your other nonsense. e.g. NIntendo puts out a new Fire Emblem game every few years, not bc it is immensely profitable, but because that is what drives mllions upon millions in revenue for Fire Emblem Heroes (gacha mobile), continual merchandising, bringing in new customers, and IP awareness. Those pillar IPs bolster and support your overarching brand.
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While some of that is true fire emblem series is pretty popular, low budget and sells well much like Pokémon. That is to say it does well for itself and not that it has sales numbera identical to Pokémon or specifically scarlet And Violet had. Just that they sell millions of copies for something cheaper to produce vs say kh, dq or ff. And they even pulled a triple version release (though Revelation is digital only and lost to the void outside of the ce) much like Pokémon did prior to gen 5.
 
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shadowysea07 said:
While some of that is true fire emblem series is pretty popular, low budget and sells well much like Pokémon.
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You're either greatly overestimating Fire Emblem or greatly underestimating Pokemon. Scarlet and Violet sold over 20 million copies in their first six weeks and Three Houses (the best-selling game in the FE franchise) sold fewer than 4 million to-date.

 
Tothoro said:
You're either greatly overestimating Fire Emblem or greatly underestimating Pokemon. Scarlet and Violet sold over 20 million copies in their first six weeks and Three Houses (the best-selling game in the FE franchise) sold fewer than 4 million to-date.
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I'll go back and edit since lawyer rules seem to apply.
 
I mean obviously nothing will ever hit pokemon numbers short of a real crazy miracle.  That series prints money in every aspect and was a merch golden egg to an unimaginable degree.  If they optimized things and ran the games better (because the release state of scarlet and violet is quite laughable. Especially for something that went on to sell that many copies) I can only imagine how much more profitable it could become.  

Pokemon go was an opportunity to jump into the mobile market and we all see how that is going currently with niantic repeatedly messing up while trying to force group in person raids.

Back to fire emblem the things that and pokemon have most in common are besides being rpgs obviously would be they are exceedingly cheaper to create and develop with likely quicker dev times than the average aaa or first party titles have. 

but yeah selling nearly 4 mil copies though which is of last reported numbers from a while ago I might add is nothing to sneeze at.  Most rpgs don't break 500k let alone 1,000,000. Them hitting the big time when prior to awakening their titles didn't receive large prints or get localized in general is a big deal. Fire emblem and xenoblade are the odd series that nintendo for whatever reason didn't support until they did and then they became huge series.  

 
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finished chapter 2 for trails from 0.  trophy % was another drop down to 45%.  Seems the final story trophy is around 34% if they go in order. so much higher than i expected the way it was dropping so quickly. next 3 chapters are much smaller drops. Unlike the crappy play in cold steel this one was decent to watch as they put a minimum amount of effort into the dancing and such.  Shame it couldn't have had music and or singing though especially given that falcoms bread and butter is good quality bgms I heard. 

Noel Joined and left so that's 2 temp party members so far.  Her large base attack range was useful.  If I put two attack +25 accessories on her and upgraded her equipment and quartz load out she'd be nice for trash mob sweeping.  I wonder if the +1 gun attack range accessory is equippable to her.  As that depending on the radius size could make me waffle between that and the attack one. 

 
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Do they have all the trails games on one system? Even the spin-offs? And physical?

 
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shadowysea07 said:
Noel Joined and left so that's 2 temp party members so far. Her large base attack range was useful. If I put two attack +25 accessories on her and upgraded her equipment and quartz load out she'd be nice for trash mob sweeping. I wonder if the +1 gun attack range accessory is equippable to her. As that depending on the radius size could make me waffle between that and the attack one.
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Noel does benefit from the range accessory IIRC. Best crossbell girl. Among protagonists, anyway.

nagpo said:
Do they have all the trails games on one system? Even the spin-offs? And physical?
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Sadly, no. Steam / steam deck is the only option for everything. For NA NSW physical, I suspect the Sky Evo games would happen before anything happens with CSI&II.

 
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if you are clearing trash mobs remember if you stun them try hitting them again a few more times if the lvl difference is decent you can just defeat them that way.

shadowysea07 said:
finished chapter 2 for trails from 0. trophy % was another drop down to 45%. Seems the final story trophy is around 34% if they go in order. so much higher than i expected the way it was dropping so quickly. next 3 chapters are much smaller drops. Unlike the crappy play in cold steel this one was decent to watch as they put a minimum amount of effort into the dancing and such. Shame it couldn't have had music and or singing though especially given that falcoms bread and butter is good quality bgms I heard.

Noel Joined and left so that's 2 temp party members so far. Her large base attack range was useful. If I put two attack +25 accessories on her and upgraded her equipment and quartz load out she'd be nice for trash mob sweeping. I wonder if the +1 gun attack range accessory is equippable to her. As that depending on the radius size could make me waffle between that and the attack one.
Click to expand...
 
maxdragon said:
if you are clearing trash mobs remember if you stun them try hitting them again a few more times if the lvl difference is decent you can just defeat them that way.
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Yeah I remember that from cs1. Much like it you need to be significantly higher to trigger that. And the rewards are super small for auto win making it not worth the effort.
 
What's the deal with the MegaMan Battle Network game selling out?

I figured I could wait for it to get dirt cheap like other Capcom titles.

Think it's just a fluke?
 
I assume it's just a fluke. Zero collection was gone for a few before coming back again and other niche games like Digimon sold out before restocking too. 

 
TheKbob said:
What's the deal with the MegaMan Battle Network game selling out?

I figured I could wait for it to get dirt cheap like other Capcom titles.

Think it's just a fluke?
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A lot of more niche stuff tends to have a small initial print run these days. For companies like NISA and Koei-Tecmo that would usually end up being the only print (until VGP stepped in, at least). Capcom usually does a better job outside of CEs, so I think it's just a matter of waiting for more copies to move through production.

 
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