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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Pickups from the month so far, kinda a slow month.
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Question for anyone who’s played a significant amount of Crymachina. Played about an hour’s worth of the demo, felt kinda like what if the devs of Code Vein wanted to make Nier Automata by way of .hack// and populated it with lesbians. Is that more or less the continuing experience going forward?
 
Just reached Chapter 17 on Xenoblade Chronicles last night. I think I might be able to reach my goal of completing the game and the Future Connected content before the release of FFVII Rebirth.

You are doing way better than me. I haven't even played since my last update where I'm in Chapter 12. But I have no specific time frame or plans afterwards. I am thinking something smaller though just as a break between bigger games. I still have XC:X and XC3.
 

Sigh, Atlus. Maybe this will be more like a IV Apocalypse scenario, in that it's a sequel and not just a re-release. I got the collector's edition at launch and haven't even played it yet.

This news breaks right after I, uh...bought Persona 3 Reload. It's $60 at Target and over the weekend, I got a $10 off $50 Circle coupon. I didn't want to pay more than $50 for it, so here we are. I'm so ashamed of myself but I really want to play it. I was confident when buying it that The Answer really will just be separate DLC and they won't release a complete edition, but then this stupid V Vengeance thing happens. Atlus gonna Atlus.
 
Around the time of launch people found references to other platforms in the SMTV code so I kinda assumed this was in the works. Atlus loves milking timed exclusivity and enhanced editions like this.
 
Persona 3 is one of my favorite games, but I’m fully in wait and see mode on P3R. Just too many questions about what they may have cut, and what they may be bringing back later.
 
I would assume SMT V is re-release is an excuse to put it on other platforms besides Switch.

D7 is the best in the series since D4 in my opinion.
I know, I want to play it badly. Perhaps I'll just order the PS5 deluxe from Woot, and then instead try to get the Switch CE from NISA later.

I, uh...bought Persona 3 Reload. It's $60 at Target and over the weekend,
WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA whoa there little fella! you caved.
 
This news breaks right after I, uh...bought Persona 3 Reload. It's $60 at Target and over the weekend, I got a $10 off $50 Circle coupon. I didn't want to pay more than $50 for it, so here we are. I'm so ashamed of myself but I really want to play it. I was confident when buying it that The Answer really will just be separate DLC and they won't release a complete edition, but then this stupid V Vengeance thing happens. Atlus gonna Atlus.
Thanks for buying it. Now it'll probably drop to $30 in the next couple of weeks for the rest of us. :ROFLMAO:
 
I should be mad at the SMT V Vengeance... as I just got SMT V during my holiday shopping spree. But I paid $20 for a new copy from Gamefly (yes, I mean new), so I'm not too bothered. I'll probably double down later when the new version is out and it drops to $30 or below.


Sigh, Atlus. Maybe this will be more like a IV Apocalypse scenario, in that it's a sequel and not just a re-release. I got the collector's edition at launch and haven't even played it yet.

"The description says that this is a complete edition of Shin Megami Tensei V with improvements and additional content." (Source)

So, sounds like maybe somewhat like DQ XI-S? Though probably not that elaborate.
 
Eh, I held off on SMTV when I learned that the switch version has performance issues and after it was rumored to come to game pass on day 1 of becoming multiplatform.
 
Honestly, if you haven't played SMT V yet then wait for a huge discount. You're not missing out on anything direly important. I got bored early and stopped playing it on Switch. It is definitely not a five-star or 85 metacritic like reviews would suggest.

Lower your expectations to a game scoring in the 70's and then you might be happily surprised. It's 80-90% running around in the open world and grinding, doing sidequests.
 
WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA whoa there little fella! you caved.
78673923f29f465bc4fd56fc3126b06f.gif

Thanks for buying it. Now it'll probably drop to $30 in the next couple of weeks for the rest of us. :ROFLMAO:
Hey, I haven't opened it yet! I could always return it and then it won't hit $30 until Black Friday! AT THE EARLIEST!
*sigh* what an era of gaming... games are either games as service, war too early remake/remasters, or "super-duper-we-swear-we're-not-holding-back-any-content-complete" editions.
I know, it's really gross. Being an early adopter for most things is never a good idea, but gamers in particular really get fucked over buying products when they come out.
 
Honestly, if you haven't played SMT V yet then wait for a huge discount. You're not missing out on anything direly important. I got bored early and stopped playing it on Switch. It is definitely not a five-star or 85 metacritic like reviews would suggest.

Lower your expectations to a game scoring in the 70's and then you might be happily surprised. It's 80-90% running around in the open world and grinding, doing sidequests.

And it still has massive performance issues and hits as low as 10 fps at times.
 

Sigh, Atlus. Maybe this will be more like a IV Apocalypse scenario, in that it's a sequel and not just a re-release. I got the collector's edition at launch and haven't even played it yet.

This news breaks right after I, uh...bought Persona 3 Reload. It's $60 at Target and over the weekend, I got a $10 off $50 Circle coupon. I didn't want to pay more than $50 for it, so here we are. I'm so ashamed of myself but I really want to play it. I was confident when buying it that The Answer really will just be separate DLC and they won't release a complete edition, but then this stupid V Vengeance thing happens. Atlus gonna Atlus.
You didn’t even wait a month from release.

I’m still holding. My older daughter says P3 is one of her favorites, but we still have a lot of backlog here so no rush. Heck, she just finished Ikenfell which she started 2 years ago, got stuck on a puzzle, put aside and then finally decided to go back to it a couple days ago.
 
Entertainment value is relative, and I don't think paying a higher price is failing as a cag. Especially when many of the niche titles we discuss here legitimately need support and preorder/day1 purchases. Support what you enjoy.

But in this case unload that P3R disc when you're done because that P3R: Cash Destruction rerelease is coming and will displace all collectible value of vanilla P3R.

On the same note I should have sold my smtv cartridge from the $60 CE I bought a while back. Played a couple hours and was too distracted by the grating performance. My #1 want out of a new nsw console is to make games like this, the Xenoblade titles, rune factory 5, etc. less painful to play. Not sure if I'm going to get it.
 
I have zero issues with the performance of the Xenoblade games on Switch. There were some small issues at launch for XC2, but they patched that up nicely. But I do hope we get some performance boosts for regular Switch games on Switch 2.

It's 80-90% running around in the open world and grinding, doing sidequests.

That's pretty much my jam. Set me lose in an open world with random sidequests to find and let me grind at my own pace and I tend to be pretty happy.

Entertainment value is relative, and I don't think paying a higher price is failing as a cag. Especially when many of the niche titles we discuss here legitimately need support and preorder/day1 purchases. Support what you enjoy.

My current tactic to being a CAG is to just be more picky about what I buy at whatever price instead of buying as much as I can for as little per game as possible. That saves me way more than any discount games get as I'm not adding too much extra fluff to my collection and getting mainly games I think will give me the most entertainment. Plus since I buy some games at launch or near launch, I'm not stressing later about tracking down a game in one of my absolute favorite series. So it's a lot less stressful even when I bite early and then there's another better sale a month or two later.
 
*sigh* what an era of gaming... games are either games as service, war too early remake/remasters, or "super-duper-we-swear-we're-not-holding-back-any-content-complete" editions.
I treat all of my collector hobbies the same way now. Video games, MTG cards, movies, figures & toys. The most important aspect is always "buying low". That way you minimize your buyer's remorse. You llimit your annual expenses. There is very little downside risk when you pay fractional msrp pricing on the majority of the collector stuff that you buy. It's also the proper response to the feeling you describe which seems to happen to most purchases these days.

That happened to me once again yesterday, actually. The blu-ray collector's edition box of Neon Genesis Evangelion was on "last chance" sale at the Crunchyroll store for $69.99 this morning. (now it's sold out). That's a box set which all of us whom needed to own it ponied up $175. That one's not as bad, bc it would have sucked missing out on it. But for all other standard issue stuff I'd rather take the 1 out of 5 or 10 chance that the item sells out and becomes OOP, while buying most everything for 50%+ off. That's the only way to collect for the long haul. This discussion also comes up on any of my collector forums or subreddits almost daily too, often in the contextual response of "What is $10 or $20 extra to you? If that's a lot of money to you then you probably shouldn't be buying xxxx." Which is an enormous fallacy bc it's never about the one singular purchase of an item. It's that I buy hundreds of these types of things every single year. That adds up to a few thousand dollars, annually.

Identify the important stuff. Pay full price to get the stuff you can't live without, i.e. steelbooks, the occasional collector's edition, or like the FF7 Rebirth Deluxe Edition right now for example. There are exceptions. But wait until everything else hits 40-60%+ off sale. That's most everything you aren't worried about missing out on, and standard editions that should stay in stock for eternity.

Like this Persona 3 remaster. I look at that I know I will cave at buy it as soon as it hits $29.99. I want to play it badly. But I know for a fact it's going to be that cheap by the summer. it's inevitable. and then there's no regrets after buying a copy at that price, because physical games have real value.
But crap, I could have gotten it at < $19.99...
 
I've echoed approval of that approach before (but have failed to fully embrace it myself).

If you buy things when you want to play them and ignore the rest, you'll usually come out ahead in spite of a few burns here and there. All of us have been burned by our types of games becoming more valuable later and want to avoid it, but it doesn't happen *as* often anymore.

If you wait until you want to play something,
All the times a game you bought to backlog/store until you're ready to play:
Drops in price or has a nice/nicer sale
Gets a newer, better edition/port
Gets a reprint

Will usually outweigh the:
I missed my window and it costs more now for some reason

Being burned by a game being 'expensive now' is more memorable, and may have a noticeable dollar amount tied to it, but if you consider all the games you buy to backlog, and then just bought a newer, better version/port/saw a better sale later. All those small $10-$20-$30's will probably outweigh an occasional "I had to pay twice MSRP secondhand".

It'll be different for everyone depending how many "ooh, sale" games you buy, but for me I'm definitely losing any time I continue building a stash lol

If you like buying games and enjoy building the collection and have a monthly budget or something for that, that's one thing. Or if you enjoy speculating and want to actively buy low sell high that's another, but if you just want to spend the least over time to buy a game when you want to play it I think nightc1's method will triumph.
 
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IMO, there's no wrong way to collect as long as you aren't running up debt and have the space for it... enjoy life. I consider myself a curated collector, I want a smaller (compared to the cag standard) collection that is in line with what I love the most in gaming. At 50, I'm aiming to play about 10 to 15 games a year (so far I'm up to 2 for 2024, lol). So buying more than 15 per year is pushing it (unless there are a lot of 10 hour or less games in there). I don't mind throwing something in the backlog, but it needs to be in a series or just look like something I know I can't miss. And I want to sell stuff off that I know I'm done with. I don't want to leave behind (hopefully many decades from now) so much stuff that it all just gets sold or donated.

But the dollars and cents of it is, I now spend a hundreds a year on games instead of thousands. About $430 in 2022 and $550 in 2023 (including hardware purchases and eshop/digital purchases) That's where I feel most like a CAG. Looking at last year, most of what I bought hasn't been much cheaper than I spent. I saved some stuff like Bravely Default 2 and Harvestella for when they hit $30. I think maybe I could have spent about $50 less for the year had I waited on a few things... but the satisifaction of knowing I got what I really wanted the most and don't have to track anything down is worth $50 easily.
 
I have zero issues with the performance of the Xenoblade games on Switch. There were some small issues at launch for XC2, but they patched that up nicely. But I do hope we get some performance boosts for regular Switch games on Switch 2.
I played Xenoblade 2 a couple years after to come out and there were for sure still performance issues. The framerate chugged hard in the open world and the resolution would drop so low at points that it turned in to a mess of pixels. Digital Foundry did a very good performance analysis. I still liked the game a lot though. Even though the original Xenoblade & X (Cross) were better games imo.
 
And it still has massive performance issues and hits as low as 10 fps at times

Geez... I heard it was bad, but that's horrible. If SMT Vengeance is released on PS5 ill pick it up. It's like the No More Heroes 3 situation. I completely skipped that game because of how bad it performed on Switch. I happily bought it when It released on platforms that could run it well.
 
Geez... I heard it was bad, but that's horrible. If SMT Vengeance is released on PS5 ill pick it up. It's like the No More Heroes 3 situation. I completely skipped that game because of how bad it performed on Switch. I happily bought it when It released on platforms that could run it well.

I played through 120+ hours of XC2 and then another 40+ for Torna. I should verify these numbers, I think it's likely more hours as I loved these game worlds. The performance dips are there but it's never to the point where I felt like it hindered gameplay. Even digital foundary testing only managed to get it to dip to 24fps. Some of this might be due to how the game is played. It's best off of the physical cart, second to that is internal memory, third is microsd (especially if it's not exceptionally fast). Then there's handheld vs docked. I played the game 100% docked. Handheld shows more issues. I also have RBG Range for my switch when docked turned from Automatic to Full Range. This makes a slight graphical improvement to most switch games (IMO). But I'm also not sensitive to slight drops in fps as I've stuck with 1080p and under gaming and max of 60fps.
 
Games wise I definitely purchase more titles when on sale than full price. Especially those sub 10$ games or the buy x get why sales on preorders.

But I don't buy as much these days since I've amassed a backlog.
 
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I played through 120+ hours of XC2 and then another 40+ for Torna. I should verify these numbers, I think it's likely more hours as I loved these game worlds. The performance dips are there but it's never to the point where I felt like it hindered gameplay. Even digital foundary testing only managed to get it to dip to 24fps. Some of this might be due to how the game is played. It's best off of the physical cart, second to that is internal memory, third is microsd (especially if it's not exceptionally fast). Then there's handheld vs docked. I played the game 100% docked. Handheld shows more issues. I also have RBG Range for my switch when docked turned from Automatic to Full Range. This makes a slight graphical improvement to most switch games (IMO). But I'm also not sensitive to slight drops in fps as I've stuck with 1080p and under gaming and max of 60fps.
Yeah due to a memory issue the framerate would stay in the low 20's even when you were back in towns, but if you don't notice dips I understand why it was no problem for you. Xenoblade 2 was my most played Switch game of 2019. Never played Torna. Just wasn't interested enough in those characters. Good game, the performance was just disappointing. I played docked too. Portable was just a mess. I hear they tighted up the issues with Xenoblade 3. I'll know for sure when I finally get around to playing it. It's always jarring to me going back and playing something 720p on Switch. I'm fine with 30 fps too as long as it's steady and properly paced. I played FF16 in graphics mode and loved it.
 
Yeah I don't care if you can only hit 30 fps if it's consistent. It's stuff like smtv that gets into slideshow territory at times, dqm that has ridiculous drops, the last pokemon(didn't play it myself but seen the horrible performance).

Just annoying when it's so obvious.
 
Xenoblade 2 is unplayable on handheld. It's so fuzzy and pixelated, it looks like it's a DS port of itself.

I'm doing my best to only pre-order games I know I'll play right away or very soon after launch, or if they have a special edition I'm afraid will sell out. I've also gotten much better about impulse-buying games on sale, but of course I can't help myself from time to time and grab a game, just to never touch it or get burned when I don't enjoy it. My backlog is a nightmare and I'm really not into adding to it anymore. And yes, I did kind of impulse buy P3R, but I really do want to play it very soon. Not all of my decisions are intelligent ones lol

I have gotten a lot better, though. I've purged a large chunk of my game collection and become, as nightc1 put it, a curated collector, really only keeping games I not only enjoyed, but could see myself playing again in the future. I mean, that's another reason to not buy too many games: if you have a million games, how could you ever play them all, let alone more than once? I'll probably never play most of my collection multiple times, but the option is always there for if I'm in a gaming rut and I just want to try a new team in Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver or if I want to conquer Wind Waker or Xenoblade 1/2 or Persona 2/3/4/5 for the hundredth time. No shade toward those who have massive game collections, of course, but I can't really afford that (especially in this economy), so I'm happy just collecting what I know I'll like and play.

At the end of the day, saving money is always great, but sometimes life is too short to chase a deal. If you can afford it and you really want a game, just go for it! Don't be ashamed to be an early adopter. And I'm not just saying that to make myself feel better *stares at sealed copy of P3R, knowing full well it'll go on sale the second I open it*
 
Another great current example for me is the $180 collector's edition of Granblue Fantasy. Oh no, that would have been cool to own, right?? That's a nice set. I wanted one. But there are several other $100+ CEs I need to buy this year, including a couple from NISA alone. For that much money I can buy a half dozen other standard edition releases. Like all of the stuff I ended up buying the last two months: everything from God of War Ragnarok to Resident Evil 4 on PS5, including about six of those. I could get the entire Kirby collection (of 3 different games) on the Switch, as well as one of the very best games from last year which almost none of us played: Metroid Prime Remastered.

$180 was too much (for me) to spend. That could be most of the rest of the standard issue games I want to own from the previous year. I am not attached to that franchise in any way. People only want it now because it's sold out. Now the owners gloat. because "it's worth money". But the truth of it is we (most of us) didn't want it at $180. Human nature shows that we want things because they are considered valuable or "hard to find".
 
IMO, there's no wrong way to collect as long as you aren't running up debt and have the space for it... enjoy life. I consider myself a curated collector, I want a smaller (compared to the cag standard) collection that is in line with what I love the most in gaming. At 50, I'm aiming to play about 10 to 15 games a year (so far I'm up to 2 for 2024, lol). So buying more than 15 per year is pushing it (unless there are a lot of 10 hour or less games in there). I don't mind throwing something in the backlog, but it needs to be in a series or just look like something I know I can't miss. And I want to sell stuff off that I know I'm done with. I don't want to leave behind (hopefully many decades from now) so much stuff that it all just gets sold or donated.

What if I have the money for it but not the space...? What should I do?
 
I'm wasting all my money on the FFVII collectables. Wave 2 of the FFVII Polygon Mini figure:

I wanted to get all the Play Arts and Static Arts figures for Remake but jebus, it's so hard to justify those prices. And the only ones that eventually went one sale were the ones I already bought...

Definitely getting these Polygon figures though.
 
I'm wasting all my money on the FFVII collectables. Wave 2 of the FFVII Polygon Mini figure:

View attachment 354

Gee, I wonder who that secret character could possibly be? Judging by that silhouette, all I can tell for sure is that it couldn’t possibly be a spikey-haired SOLDIER who actually was in SOLDIER. Other than that it could be literally anybody.

I wanted to get all the Play Arts and Static Arts figures for Remake but jebus, it's so hard to justify those prices. And the only ones that eventually went one sale were the ones I already bought…

Every single Play Arts and Static Arts figure I’ve ever seen in person has had such a bad sculpt for the asking price. The detailing is always just borked, I don’t understand.
 
What if I have the money for it but not the space...? What should I do?

I'll bite,

I feel like most space issues tend to come down to inneficient storage practices. But if you have everything in cardboard boxes and the boxes are stacked from floor to ceiling and you can't wak through your home.... then it's time to either move, start selling stuff, or get a storage unit. But, first... maybe have some reflection about why you have so much. Is this some deep seeded childhood trauma about when your mom or dad gave away your favorite toy.. or how you had to live your younger years with so little while your friends had so much and you are making up for it now as an adult? I was in the camp of making up for a really financially tight childhood. One of my brothers was in the camp of losing everything a couple times in his life which made him borderline hoard. Digging into the "why am I doing this" is a good way to figure out why you are filling up your space so extremely. Also looking at how buying is impacting your living space is a good idea. My house is pretty much clutter free.

For organization: Currently I have all of the media I own (Games, Movies, Music, manga, ... everything) on custom built shelves (built with 1"x6" pine boards) that line a single wall of a small spare bedroom along with half of another wall. That leaves me a wall for a couple bookshelves for larger items and another for a desk. Plus the closet is available as well for anything I don't want out. 6" shelves are deep enough that the top can be used for most older game system boxes from Nintendo, Sega, & Sony (up through PS2 along with PS3 Slim). The PS4 is questionable, the PS5 is a big monster of a box. I think all the MS systems have pretty large boxes as well. Having a room dedicated like this is new for me, I used to just have a walk in foyer coat closet lined with shelves... but then some stuff had to be boxed because the shelves were full. This also made getting something out a bit of a pain and I didn't feel like I had anything on display to look at.

With the shelves I have (keep in mind I have 9 foot walls), if i had built them as efficiently as possible for maximum dvd sized content, I would be able to easily fit over 3000 dvd size cases on the main single wall. I use DVD (0.5" thick) as an average since that covers most modern systems and I'm accounting for wood thickness and supports every 3 feet. But since I have some shorter case stuff like GB/GBC/GBA/DS/3DS & CD/jewel cases... it is more efficient to build some shelves closer together to get more stuff displayable. IF I were to do the whole room and also built some free standing double sided shelves for an even more library type storage space for media... I could easily get 16,000 dvd sized cases on display and easily able to be removed. But hot damn, I don't want to grow my collection but rather continue to shrink and refine it and eventually reduce my shelving needs down so I have more display space or even can remove shelves completely.
 
Hopefully SMTVV won't have a collector's edition (or at least one I'll want), because I'll probably get it on PS5 but keep my original Switch CE since that came with some really awesome goodies. Don't know if I need a second CE for the game (unlike Persona 5 because both base and Royal's PS4 CEs were awesome). So, I'll just continue putting off playing the game until I can get this rerelease for a good price.

Real quick: Gundam Breaker 4! And it's getting localized! That's the coolest thing ever! More Gundam games for the west!
 
Gundam Breaker is one of the cooler Dynasty Warrior type games. I hope 4 is pretty aight. For the SMT game I may get it, but likely will just wait for price drops.

I'm one to want to pair down my collection nowadays. This also includes what I add to my Steam library, though I'll take more chances on stuff there especially from bundles. I categorize most of my Steam so I have a finished/abandoned/junk collection classification along with currently playing, and many genre classifications (RPG/Action game/Platformer/Etc...).

For physical copies I mainly like more niche games for that other than the occasional one in case I want to sell it later (The FF7 remake sequel this month comes to mind). I will buy the visual novels and stuff like Shiren in a heartbeat. I will only get other physical copies if they're cheap and generally I try to play those games more quickly to see if I want to keep them in the collection.
 
They are converting a ton of new to pre-owned tonight/tomorrow supposedly. The worker at the store said a 27 page list printed off and it's the stores responsibility to check every game they have on the list. Sounds insane.
 
Well, that was the most boring Nintendo Direct that I've seen in awhile.

Grimgrimoire-1.jpg


I finally stumbled upon one of those cheap copies of Grimgrimoire at Gamestop. It's in great condition; looks like it was new converted to preowned.

They have Joker, Terry, and Banjo & Kazooie amiibos in stores right now too, if anyone cares.
I got 13 Sentinels for Switch for $8, too. Nuts sale.
 
ININ says IREM Collection Volume 2 is currently postponed because volume 1 was released with several issues. I guess that means an even longer wait for my strictly limited copy. I am excited for Volume 2 because the developers of Metal Slug worked on these games before forming Nazca, GunForce II even looks like Metal Slug. Too bad In the Hunt isn't in Volume 2, seems like it should be.
 
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