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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Whoever wrote and designed the final section for atelier escha & logy ruined an otherwise good time. The boss is beyond ridiculous and is arguably worse than some of the superboss monsters. Heals itself 1k hp each turn, removes debuffs and buffs itself, attacks multiple times usually with full screen stuff, has attacks that automatically hit you every few turns. Status ailments that didn't exist prior including one that removes supports and party member switching.

Just why? Especially in a series known for being otherwise braindead easy would you implement that?
 
scorponok said:
I didn't know those existed. I don't really pay attention to most digital only releases. I just looked those up and origins came out in 2012 and was delisted in 2014, that didn't last long!
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Capcom had some other games like Dungeons & Dragons Chronicles of Mystara being pulled as well at that time. Nicely everything went on sale before hand and I bought them all digital thanks to frequenting cag and the ps deals thread back then. Folks were good about spreading the news of upcoming delistings. Also I made sure to get Ultimate MvC 3 on Vita physical for a similar reasoning. The only major things (I think) I missed were TMNT & SImpsons arcade games on PS3, but I think before I bought a couple PS3's for the house and was digging deep into the library as games were cheap.
 
Vigilante said:
GameStop has the DQ3 remake listed at $49.99 for preorder, $10 less than everywhere else unless this is the actual MSRP (a bit nicer IMO):
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SE themselves list it as $59.99 ...

https://na.store.square-enix-games.com/dragon-quest-iii-hd2d-remake

I hesitate to order anything through GS, but this might be worth it since it should be new/sealed as a preorder.

Went ahead and added it to my cart... $64.10 after $6.99 Shipping & Handling + $7.12 tax. Which my tax is 10%, which GS is charging the 10% on the total plus shipping and handling... actually they are charging more than 10% even on that. So it's saving me about $1.89 to buy from them. No thanks.
 
nightc1 said:
SE themselves list it as $59.99 ...

https://na.store.square-enix-games.com/dragon-quest-iii-hd2d-remake

I hesitate to order anything through GS, but this might be worth it since it should be new/sealed as a preorder.

Went ahead and added it to my cart... $64.10 after $6.99 Shipping & Handling + $7.12 tax. Which my tax is 10%, which GS is charging the 10% on the total plus shipping and handling... actually they are charging more than 10% even on that. So it's saving me about $1.89 to buy from them. No thanks.
Click to expand...
Yeah, no longer qualifying for the free shipping threshold ($59+ for preorders) is definitely the downside to this. I might just get two copies and take my chances with returning one in-store since I do want to play this at release.
 
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scorponok said:
For me the most surprising announcement at the Nintendo direct was the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. No one thought these games would ever get released for consoles again because of licensing. I think the last time a Marvel Capcom game came out for consoles was 22 years ago with the release of mvc2 PS2.
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For real, I flipped my lid for that announcement. I never actually owned a MvC game, but I played it a lot at arcades and friends' houses, so hearing "I wanna take you for a ride!" is like a syringe of nostalgia injected right into my veins lol

So I've got about 110 hours in FFVII Rebirth and am close to the end (I think) of chapter 13, and I'm really just ready to finish this up. This is a very twofaced game, with half of it having interesting story beats and amusing callbacks, fun gameplay, and great side content, and the other half full of unnecessary changes from the original's plot, sections that drag on with tedious mechanics, and a slew of minigames that were clearly not playtested. They really should have stuck to just a handful of minigames they could devout plenty of time to refining, instead of 50 that are mostly broken. Even the one that seems like it had all the work put into, Queen's Blood, just straight up shits the bed at the end. Spoilers for final card duel: when you finally get to the Shadowblood Queen, after spending the whole game learning all the rules and refining your deck for the perfect strategy, you have to play against a bitch who straight-up cheats, playing cards that don't exist. Plus, she starts with the ultimate card already on the board. I had to look up online how to beat her, and I'm really good at Queen's Blood, having been on a winning streak for most of the second half of the game.

Listen, I know a lot of these minigames are optional, but a lot of them aren't, and it really starts to wear on you when you just want to get the plot moving. Plus, when side content makes up half a game and a lot of it sucks, that should absolutely affect a game's score. You can't excuse poorly-implemented mechanics just because they're optional, since developer time still went into creating that content and it's fair for players to expect it to be at the same quality as the main stuff (which, in Rebirth's case, also shows some poor design choices).

Anyway, I haven't hit the games "polarizing" ending yet, but I'm almost there. I'm leaning toward a 7 or 8 out of 10 so far, and I'm really hoping the third game isn't as bloated as this one is. Having said that, there have been a lot of things I really liked in this game (I somehow managed to get Yuffie for the date despite favoring everyone equally and that was such a pleasant surprise), I just wish it had a little more focus and less filler. This is definitely a good example of the recent trend of JRPGs being way too big.
 
Weird, I beat the final QB opponent on first try without issue. The ones I looked up were the challenges that feature a gimmick I didn't have the patience to figure out by trial and error. (The overdramatic solo monologues for QB felt like a rehash of FFXIV Ardyn cutscenes)

I put the game down again right around where you are, once again when it forced me into set parties. I'm going to have to force myself to finish.

On the other note, the direct announcement I'm most excited over is Ace Attorney Investigations.
 
gospelman said:
Weird, I beat the final QB opponent on first try without issue. The ones I looked up were the challenges that feature a gimmick I didn't have the patience to figure out by trial and error. (The overdramatic solo monologues for QB felt like a rehash of FFXIV Ardyn cutscenes)
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, I looked up the solutions to the Costa del Sol puzzles, too. I like playing Queen's Blood, not being forced to put my cards on certain spots of the board to solve a puzzle. I probably just didn't have the right deck to beat the last duel since when I looked it up and saw the cards recommended, I instantly understood the strategy and was able to make a good deck to implement it.

...I love Ardyn.🙃 I legit felt he was the best FF villain in a long time. It's why I hated FFXVI's villain so much since he was just some generic god/monster/demon/alien who spoke in riddles and had no personality. Meanwhile, Ardyn is destroying Insomnia in his DLC and quipping, "Ooh, that's going to be hard to replace..."
 
super1upqueen said:
...I love Ardyn.🙃 I legit felt he was the best FF villain in a long time. It's why I hated FFXVI's villain so much since he was just some generic god/monster/demon/alien who spoke in riddles and had no personality. Meanwhile, Ardyn is destroying Insomnia in his DLC and quipping, "Ooh, that's going to be hard to replace..."
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Unpopular opinion: Overall, I think FFXV was better than FFXVI, or at least I liked the characters, world, and OST (Shimomura-san doesn't miss) of XV more than XVI's.
 
Vigilante said:
Unpopular opinion: Overall, I think FFXV was better than FFXVI, or at least I liked the characters, world, and OST (Shimomura-san doesn't miss) of XV more than XVI's.
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Oh, not unpopular with me. I adored FFXV, even if it was clear the game was fairly unfinished and had a very radical direction shift halfway through. I liked FFXVI for the first two thirds of it, but its gameplay and story didn't keep me engaged in the end the way XV's did. That final campfire with the bros is one of the most emotional scenes I've watched in a game.
 
nightc1 said:
Capcom had some other games like Dungeons & Dragons Chronicles of Mystara being pulled as well at that time. Nicely everything went on sale before hand and I bought them all digital thanks to frequenting cag and the ps deals thread back then. Folks were good about spreading the news of upcoming delistings. Also I made sure to get Ultimate MvC 3 on Vita physical for a similar reasoning. The only major things (I think) I missed were TMNT & SImpsons arcade games on PS3, but I think before I bought a couple PS3's for the house and was digging deep into the library as games were cheap.
Click to expand...
Yeah I got most of the Capcom stuff except JoJo's Bizzare Adventure. Also Missed Konami X-Men & The Simpsons before they were delisted.
 
Not instant buy prices in that IFI sale for standard editions ($30/ea)... though tempting to pick back up buying Neptunia games. It's a shame they don't have screen shots and gameplay video in their store for each of the games. Death End re;Quest sounds interesting on paper but I'd have to research it to see if those two games are something I might like. Same for the Fairy Fencer F games. Probably staying on the sidelines on this sale... though Megadimension Neptunia VII is tempting.
 
gospelman said:
Weird, I beat the final QB opponent on first try without issue. The ones I looked up were the challenges that feature a gimmick I didn't have the patience to figure out by trial and error. (The overdramatic solo monologues for QB felt like a rehash of FFXIV Ardyn cutscenes)
Click to expand...

That's impressive. I honestly cannot imagine how you accomplished that. I was pretty good at QB outside of the gimmicky trials (like at the Gold Saucer or at the Costa Del Sol store) but that final QB match was complete and utter non-sense.

And I know love for FFs are always debated but FF15's story made absolutely no-sense after that mid-point but agree Ardyn is top tier FF villains.
 
I am interested in the Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord Limited Edition PS5 but it's not enough for free shipping. Not really interested in tactical games, I just want to try it because I like the first game. Anyone find it weird how easy they made it to max level 999 late game in Advent Dark Force? It only took me less than an hour to do it.
 
Took me exactly five tries on the final Queen's Blood match.

A couple of the latter matchups are just RNG. when opponents finally get to manufacturing additional overlap, removal cards outta thin air.
 
nightc1 said:
Not instant buy prices in that IFI sale for standard editions ($30/ea)... though tempting to pick back up buying Neptunia games. It's a shame they don't have screen shots and gameplay video in their store for each of the games. Death End re;Quest sounds interesting on paper but I'd have to research it to see if those two games are something I might like. Same for the Fairy Fencer F games. Probably staying on the sidelines on this sale... though Megadimension Neptunia VII is tempting.
Click to expand...
Fairy fencer f gameplay is similar to cold steel, arc the lad twilight of the spirit, Neptune series of course among other things. The games are made to be pretty easy.

As you get more swords to put in the ground outside of the dungeons you enter you get bonuses.
 
scorponok said:
I am interested in the Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord Limited Edition PS5 but it's not enough for free shipping. Not really interested in tactical games, I just want to try it because I like the first game. Anyone find it weird how easy they made it to max level 999 late game in Advent Dark Force? It only took me less than an hour to do it.
Click to expand...
I'd assume it was over compensating for the Neptunia games being grindy as hell.
 
Finished FFVII Rebirth last night and holy shit, fuck that final boss. How many phases is enough? Seven? Eight? Nine? TEN?! Shit's putting MegaTen to shame. And that final phase, good god. Took me four or five tries to get it. All told, the final boss battle was about two hours long for me. And all for a really unsatisfying ending. This game had a serious inability to just let scenes breathe. You'd have an emotional (and iconic) moment and before anyone could mourn or meditate on what happened, BOOM big loud battle! Action sequence! Goofy shit! And the constant word salads from Sephiroth and even Aerith were getting more and more grating, until I just didn't care anymore during the finale. I don't know where in the hell this story is going to go because it's clear the dev team is just uninterested in making any sense. The implications of what's to come in part 3 are unappealing to me, with the exception of Zack because he was the best part of this game's finale and if we have to do this horrific, multiverse nightmare, at least we have Zack to possibly save the day. God, I'm so sick of multiverses and mystery boxes.

7/10. I wanted to go down to a 6 but I know it's better than that. I'm just exhausted after the slog, man.
 
Touhou Luna Nights '5-Year Anniversary' physical editions announced for PS5, Switch

The standard edition will include a printed color manual and special sleeve. The limited edition includes a printed manual, an original soundtrack double CD, three alternative inlays, a serialized certificate of authenticity, and a SteelBook case, all housed in an oversized collector’s box.
Click to expand...

Depending on the price, I might be in for the LE thanks to the steelbook:
Touhou-Luna-Nights_2024_06-25-24_022-1024x1024.jpg
 
Figured some here would want to know...

Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II coming to the west​

mynintendonews.com

Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II coming to the west

It has been revealed on X that The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II will be coming to the west, though a release date has yet to be announced. The game was set to be announced for western…
mynintendonews.com mynintendonews.com


EDIT: some decent deals in that PA sale. This might be the one that gets me.
 
nightc1 said:
Figured some here would want to know...

Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II coming to the west​

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Good, as expected. They've been saying there would be a significant reveal on 7/5 at the expo event with Falcom's president. I've assumed it would be news that's less expected than the localization of Kuro II.
 
gospelman said:
They've been saying there would be a significant reveal on 7/5 at the expo event with Falcom's president. I've assumed it would be news that's less expected than the localization of Kuro II.
Click to expand...
I was already thinking a Sky / Sora release on nsw was coming. And today I read from Kondo: "the early titles are difficult to play due to hardware issues, and it's not easy for new users to get into the series... I think there are many people who want to play from the start of the series. We are currently preparing something to respond to such voices, and we would like to announce it somewhere around the 20th anniversary. So, please wait a little longer."
So I'll go ahead and say "a little longer" is to the announcement on 7/5.
 
www.play-asia.com

Search Result for -jpngamessale0624-

Online shopping for Import Video Games, Digital Codes, iTunes Cards, Mobage & PSN Cards, Movies, Music, Electronics, Computers, Software, Books, Apparel, Personal Care, Toys & more.
www.play-asia.com www.play-asia.com

So Play-Asia is having this Japanese games with English language sale. Stellar Blade is among them. I guess I'll take this chance to finally grab it, along with 2 other preorders for free shipping ($100 min). Japanese region games are cheaper to import that straight-up buying the western version.

I don't buy from them often, but where does one enter coupon code? Is the coupon box disabled because there's a game that's on sale in my cart?
 
chibuki said:
www.play-asia.com

Search Result for -jpngamessale0624-

Online shopping for Import Video Games, Digital Codes, iTunes Cards, Mobage & PSN Cards, Movies, Music, Electronics, Computers, Software, Books, Apparel, Personal Care, Toys & more.
www.play-asia.com www.play-asia.com

So Play-Asia is having this Japanese games with English language sale. Stellar Blade is among them. I guess I'll take this chance to finally grab it, along with 2 other preorders for free shipping ($100 min). Japanese region games are cheaper to import that straight-up buying the western version.

I don't buy from them often, but where does one enter coupon code? Is the coupon box disabled because there's a game that's on sale in my cart?
Click to expand...
This is probably the case--sometimes Play-Asia's promos don't allow coupon codes to also apply, so they hide the coupon-code box.
 
chibuki said:
www.play-asia.com

Search Result for -jpngamessale0624-

Online shopping for Import Video Games, Digital Codes, iTunes Cards, Mobage & PSN Cards, Movies, Music, Electronics, Computers, Software, Books, Apparel, Personal Care, Toys & more.
www.play-asia.com www.play-asia.com

So Play-Asia is having this Japanese games with English language sale. Stellar Blade is among them. I guess I'll take this chance to finally grab it, along with 2 other preorders for free shipping ($100 min). Japanese region games are cheaper to import that straight-up buying the western version.

I don't buy from them often, but where does one enter coupon code? Is the coupon box disabled because there's a game that's on sale in my cart?
Click to expand...
Look for an option to apply code during checkout. I think it's the 3rd or 4th step in checkout among several screens.
 
The Neptunia motorcycle game Neptunia vs Titan Dogoo (which shows a logo of 'Neptunia Riders vs Dogoo' when the system language is English) is a short game made up of 5 worlds with 3 levels each. The $21.99 is pretty much the right price point. Each level can be beaten in under 2 minutes and consists of driving around a motorcycle building a ball of Dogoo (Neptunia's slime equivalent.) There's only a time trial challenge and a "Finish level without an AI Partner" challenge on each level as far as replay value goes. Digital Deluxe gives three more costumes for 5 of the 6 playable characters (Big Neptune only gets her default outfit, and it's a spoiler to explain why.)
 
chibuki said:
www.play-asia.com

Search Result for -jpngamessale0624-

Online shopping for Import Video Games, Digital Codes, iTunes Cards, Mobage & PSN Cards, Movies, Music, Electronics, Computers, Software, Books, Apparel, Personal Care, Toys & more.
www.play-asia.com www.play-asia.com

So Play-Asia is having this Japanese games with English language sale. Stellar Blade is among them. I guess I'll take this chance to finally grab it, along with 2 other preorders for free shipping ($100 min). Japanese region games are cheaper to import that straight-up buying the western version.

I don't buy from them often, but where does one enter coupon code? Is the coupon box disabled because there's a game that's on sale in my cart?
Click to expand...
You can't use a coupon if you're buying any items associated with a featured sale.

The box where you enter the coupon won't even show.
 
East Asia Soft is doing a Tokyo Clanpool physical release:
www.gematsu.com

Tokyo Clanpool coming west in 2024 for Switch, PC

eastasiasoft will release Compile Heart-developed dungeon RPG Tokyo Clanpool for Switch and PC via Steam in 2024, localized in English and Traditional Chinese for the first time, the publisher anno…
www.gematsu.com www.gematsu.com

"Physical editions for Switch will be available to pre-order in standard and Limited editions via Play-Asia starting July 4 at 8:00 a.m. PT / 11:00 a.m. ET "

Been getting back into retro more, myself, lately. I was out of the loop on NES homebrew, but there is some interesting stuff.
Most of these are from the past 1-4 years, so not new, just new to me.
Littlesoundsoft from Japan has made Over Obj, a cool looking NES shmup:

They also made F-θ (F-theta). Which is a very short, simplistic looking top down racing game. The animations of the track girl before/between races are probably the major accomplishment and reason to play it lol:

Littlesoundsoft also made a short Visual Novel NES game:
www.beep-shop.com

うたかたシノプシス； / LITTLE SOUND｜BEEP ゲームグッズ通販

サークル様より■「うたかたシノプシス；」（FC/FC互換機用カセット）アニメＤＶＤ付きコマンド選択型のアドベンチャーゲームです。とくにハマることなく1時間ほどで最後まで行けるようになっており、アドベンチャーゲームというよりは昨今のノベルゲーに近いかもしれません。Ｙｏｕｔｕｂｅ、ニコニコ動画で無料公開している自主制作アニメをゲーム化した物になります。ストーリー自体はアニメと同じになっており、番外編や続編ではありません。ジャンルとしてはＳＦ＋姉萌えとなっております。ほぼすべてのシーンで口パクや目パチのアニメが入っています。同梱のＤＶＤについては、DVD-Video形式の動画で、ゲームのデータ...
www.beep-shop.com www.beep-shop.com
that follows the same story as a YouTube animation they made, but neither is in English:

Also pretty simplistic: Amazon's Running Diet (very bottom of page, free English download provided by Gotta Protector's dev Ancient)

みんなでまもって騎士　姫のトキメキらぷそでぃ - ニンテンドー3DSダウンロードソフト

ニンテンドー3DSダウンロードソフト『みんなでまもって騎士　姫のトキメキらぷそでぃ』の公式サイトです。
www.ancient.co.jp www.ancient.co.jp
An endless runner about avoiding cake and drinking water to lose weight.
LimitedRunGames also produced an NES cart under Amazon's Training Road that was jokingly localized "as if it were 1989". Box art dramatically changed, Amazon isn't in a bikini anymore, she collects hearts and avoids bombs instead of water/cake now. And when you lose it doesn't say:
"GAME OVER
-FALLING ASS BOMB-"
anymore.
 
Souffrir said:
They keep porting the earlier Ys remakes, when are they finally gonna get around to remaking V?
Click to expand...

Isn't that the one that's two parts or am I thinking of some other game in the series? Maybe they just don't think they could recoup the costs of porting/remaking that one...
 
Vinny said:
Isn't that the one that's two parts or am I thinking of some other game in the series? Maybe they just don't think they could recoup the costs of porting/remaking that one...
Click to expand...

No, it’s just a single SNES game. Is there one in two parts? 4 had two completely different versions, but both of those were rendered non-canon by the remake, Memories of Celceta.
 
Souffrir said:
No, it’s just a single SNES game. Is there one in two parts? 4 had two completely different versions, but both of those were rendered non-canon by the remake, Memories of Celceta.
Click to expand...

Had to look it up, yeah you're right- there is none. I always thought one of the games had 2 parts but I was just thinking of IV and it's two releases.
 
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