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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It's certainly better than re zero was. But that was a visual novel /puzzle point and click thing to be fair which isn't most peoples cup of tea.
 
Good wise I don't think I ever played a bad yugioh one which is probably shocking given that pachinko company makes them xD. Probably the most mediocre one was the switch combination of the series thing duelist link or whatever.

It has a lot of duels but skipped over some of the most important story ones per arc for whatever reason. Especially towards the duel disc tournament finale.

The jaden arc one is also hurt by the majority of unlocalized content from there so I had no idea what was even going on.

But on the plus side you can play either characters and or use your own decks you craft together from the cards you got from buying in game packs.

It had too many duels to be honest so I reached burnout after every mc change/arc give or take. A lot in og yugi moto since that one covered a portion of the original series. Kingdom arc with Pegasus the disc arc with kaiba and marik blishtar and the oricalcos sp? With heterochromea dude.

Obligatory the 5 card instawin set exodia or whatever is op and unfair when an antagonist has it. It's lame that seemingly impossible to get for yourself.
 
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There are definitely bad Yu-Gi-Oh games, but they're mostly the oldest ones. For all the hundreds of hours I poured into it, Forbidden Memories on PS1 is objectively a bad game. Their idea of difficulty was giving the enemy all their best cards immediately, and modifying their hand on the fly (from within their card pool) to counter anything you play. Also a great deal of the best cards cost 999,999 star chips to buy, and the maximum number of star chips you can get per duel is five.

The game did have some interesting concepts though, like instant fusion without requiring Polymerization or the fusion card. The sequel Duelists of the Roses took everything Forbidden Memories did right and expanded on it.
 
Wasn't duelist of the roses a weird srpg thing?

Agreed on ps1 that game wasn't good. I think I dropped it shortly after the maze bosses.
 
^Yeah, it fused the card game with SRPG/Tower Defense, and the end result worked way better than it had any right to. It was incredibly fun and strategic, and the music was absolute fire.
 
I owned most of them as well including the spin-off with Duke decklan sp? The dice game. Only ones I didn't get were the yearly championship whatever ones iirc as I got one of them but didn't pick up the others.
 
It was really weird that the NIS Classics compilations skipped the PS ecosystem. Makes me wonder if there was a timed exclusivity thing, but NIS is a small enough team that I'd also buy that they just didn't have the manpower for porting. Either way, glad I'll be able to play PB1 before the new one comes out.
 
If they put out the Prinny Presents packages on PS5 with non-broken games on the discs, sign me up.

Only reason I didn't buy the Switch versions is each release has a 100% reproduceable game breaking bug. Like, everyone hit the wall on those, it had to be obvious they existed. Took a couple weeks for a patch in each case.

Here's hoping these are better.
 
Actually, one game out of a Prinny Presents did come out on a PS console. The first Rhapsody is in the Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection PS5/Switch, only in Japan. Too bad there is no English, could have had all 3 games together on one disc.
 
Actually, one game out of a Prinny Presents did come out on a PS console. The first Rhapsody is in the Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection PS5/Switch, only in Japan. Too bad there is no English, could have had all 3 games together on one disc.

There’s actually another game that seems to be at least tangentially related to the Rhapsody series, a PSP game called Antiphona no Seikahime: Tenshi no Score Op.A. It’s been a long time since I looked into it, and there’s still not really any information on it in the English parts of the internet, but it’s focused on music, and there are references to characters and events from Rhapsody in at least the opening cutscene.
 
Does anyone else remember that action game Tamsoft was teasing back in 2019, 2020, called Hinomaruko? There wasn’t enough info out to really get hyped over, but it did look intriguing, at least. That’s probably another COVID casualty at this point, huh?
 
The destination, speed up for character movement and gradeshop for the start definitely help. As for a first playthrough the game is not very good. It's pretty crappy until part 2 when you have Hubert and a decent enough cc count to use a combo.

The dlc being included will also be helpful since bamco locks stuff to them. Shame they couldn't just remove/disable the costumes they couldn't bother to get the licenses for and leave the titles in.
 

Tales of Graces Remastered have some improvements.

What's Namco's track record with remakes and remasters...? I just remember the shitty Symphonia releases (the PS3, PC and NS/PS4) and don't think any one of them were all that great at release/only got fixed after flak.
 
So some updates from Level 5. How long has it been since they announced some of these at a Nintendo direct?
oh and they have added more to the their plate because why not?

Holy Horror Mansion looks like Yo Kai watch redo to me. I guess this means they have given up on Yo Kai watch.

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam (releasing 2025) https://youtube.com/watch?v=RKwpKw2v6RE
Decapolice (2026) https://youtube.com/watch?v=26_5AP81zN0
FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time (April 2025) https://youtube.com/watch?v=lRWmQq6lErE
INAZUMA ELEVEN: Victory Road (June 2025) https://youtube.com/watch?v=QpaaZpoQ__g
INAZUMA ELEVEN RE (2026) https://youtube.com/watch?v=xx-wKm8E5b8
Holy Horror Mansion https://youtube.com/watch?v=cDeVTergiQs
 
What's Namco's track record with remakes and remasters...? I just remember the shitty Symphonia releases (the PS3, PC and NS/PS4) and don't think any one of them were all that great at release/only got fixed after flak.
Mixed. Vesperia definitive edition ok minus paper mached dub and secret missions are almost impossible to complete compared to the original beta 360 version. Oh and the framerate stutters a bit but it did that in the original too when multiple huge spells were going off at once. And it's based on the ps3 port so that likely didn't help.

tod r dc was a full remake and to my knowledge perfect. Just never localized

tohr localized but was sub only through basically Google translate crossed with a teenage boy. done by 7th chord outsourced by bamco and it and toir are the closest they got to a regular tales game in years.

Those are the only success stories off hand. And the remakes were outsourced besides destiny r dc.

But anywho since graces f had a relatively decent ps3 port already it has good odds.
 
Holy Horror Mansion looks like Yo Kai watch redo to me. I guess this means they have given up on Yo Kai watch.

It did give me Yo Kai vibes, but also seemed kind of like a fresh take on it with the ways you combine items to create them. With no platforms listed, I'm expecting this is for Switch 2. Hopefully it's good. I tend to like most of what Level-5 makes.

I'm a little bummed Deca Police is now 2026... that and Layton are what I want the most... but otherwise pretty pleased with what they've revealed.
 
What's Namco's track record with remakes and remasters...? I just remember the shitty Symphonia releases (the PS3, PC and NS/PS4) and don't think any one of them were all that great at release/only got fixed after flak.

I don't think it was about them being great that was the issue but rather that they didn't really add much to the ports. There were some positive improvements but people these days have such high expectations and don't value some of the classic graphics and got spoiled by higher framerates.

Vesperia, which I played on Switch, was technically fine. I don't remember anything major that made me think it was a bad port. The art is quite beautiful as was the voice work. My complaints about the game were just the linear nature of the world and how it felt like I was just moving between landmarks to inch the story forward. There was some ability to explore but not enough that I felt like the world was crafted for exploration. The other issue was just the battle system even on the easiest setting still had me getting my ass handed to me by some bosses and even some like mid area mini bosses. I loved so much about that game but ended up stopping around half way through it because the battle system wasn't satisfying and there wasn't enough to make up for that.

Symphonia got blasted for being based on the PS2 version that was ported to PS3 which ran at 30fps instead of the GC version. IMO, it's a nitpick but people expect more. It's a classic game to me, so I grabbed a copy anyway when it got very cheap. I'm going to give the series another go but with expectations in check about the exploration and maybe with more attention paid to getting more out of the battle system. I feel like when I played some of Symhonia on GC (which I did sell) that I liked it's battle system ok but I just didn't have the time for it.
 
Lots of neat stuff in the State of Play. Legacy of Kain (and Blood Omen), Lunar, Fantasian release date, Dynasty Warriors Origins, Palworld. Here's hoping we get physical copies that aren't limited print.
 
HOLY SHIT is all I can say right now. Even though we've seen a number of licenses that think were considered dead, this one really caught me by surprise...

Not sure how I feel about new voice acting for Lunar. Going to miss magic emperor Ghaleon.

I didn't like when the PSP release removed the intro song from the PS1 version, I'm def not super excited for new VA.

Can’t possibly be worse than the Working Designs dub.

I know WD localizations get a lot of criticism but I dunno, given what the standards back then, I feel like their VA was par for the course. I can't think of too many other games with VA outside of Lunar, MGS, RE1/2 and SotN... and of those, only MGS had amazing VA. The rest were... videogame levels of VA for back then.

EDIT* I've been tied up with work all day (wasn't even able to look at phone outside of email notifications) and am only catching up now. Looks like there was a TON of neat looking stuff...
 
no one mentioned the 2B in EVE's costumes (Stellar Blade) thing. 🫢

nier-1.jpg
 
no one mentioned the 2B in EVE's costumes (Stellar Blade) thing. 🫢

nier-1.jpg

I honestly forgot that game existed... (Stellar Blade, I remember Nier quite well). Hopefully it's in the bargain bins soon (again, Stellar Blade; I paid retail price for Nier and was happy for it).
 
Watched the direct and Lunar complete is one of my grail games I want to play again. I last played them when the PS2 was still being supported with games. If the Arc the Lad collection and Growlanser games come sometime I'll be very happy. Other than the Ghosts game coming next year, it's a whole bunch of nothing other that the Fantasian release date for me. Also added The Midnight Walk to my Steam wish list.
 
I'm all-in on that Lunar collection. Lunar Silver Star Story was the game that finally got me to get a PS1. Games were sparse for the N64 and whenever I went to Toys R Us to check if there were any new ones, Lunar always caught my attention, and when they got down to one copy of it, I had to grab it and a PS1 to play it on. That ended up being my gateway into JRPGs and I followed it up with Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears.
 
Lunar.

And the YouTube trailer used the PS1 intro.

And the ending, "...🎵 only when two brilliantly shine as one! 🎵" had the two OG game titles merged into the Remastered Collection title.

I rewatch that intro every now and then on my little 20" CRT with my PS2 hooked up (over component!) and it's one of my favorites of intros. I do the same with Digaea and Onimusha 3, as well.

But, yes...

Lunar. 💯
 
I have these. One of the first things I bought when I went back to Ebay some PS1 jewel case games I wanted for my permanent collection about 10 years ago. They're still great.

Lunar-1-2-complete.jpg


I went through and beat Lunar 1 about six years ago. didn't have any gripes with the game's performance in fact it was a preferred way to play. Yes the voice acting, well actually the echo-y, low-fi audio recording of it, felt super janky and low quality. It felt exactly like a PS1 era game / experience.
I will get the new version anyways, but I doubt I'll play it. It's the type of thing where yeah I'd probably go play one of the originals, not the PSP or other versions. The jank is part of the built-in charm, and actually the half-jank, semi-upgraded stuff in a newer version could `feel kind of weird.

I'm not typically one of those cringey "hrmeh you have to play the original," guys. I'm never like that; dislike that type of person. but I guess I sound like one today. The new HD version will be excellent, I'm sure.
 
Last year (or the year before?) I ended up getting a random group of PS1 & PS2 games and some ps2 hardware that one of my brothers was looking to dump (which he got from someone else). Among the small group of games was a copy of Lunar Silver Star Story Complete. I played quite a bit of the opening of the game when I was just supposed to be testing the dics. I thought it was pretty great including the voice acting... but I'm not married to the voice acting and the trailer for this seems fine since I've never completed the game. I'm going to just keep an eye on this Lunar collection. If it turns out good and doesn't seem like a step down from the original I'll likely get it. But lets face it, it will be a step down on the physical packaging side and bonus soundtrack disc & making of. It's hard to beat the old Working Designs physical games.
 
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