Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

shivan128

shivan128

CAGiversary!
Feedback
163 (100%)
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!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 5 Downvote
nightc1 said:
I assume you mean FF Collection. That first run sold out and built up some FOMO for this recent version. I almost bit on it but managed to resit because I don't really "need" these games when I can just play the ps1/psp digital versions on vita/pstv ... or emulate. I think it'll go lower than $55 if no where else than Gamefly. I would have waited on Gamefly if not for this deal. At just under $10/game... it's not too terribly bad.
Click to expand...

No, I'm aware of all that... Just seems like a lot of games just disappear these days and given how they handled the original release, I was worried about holding out for a price drop.

Was pissed how they basic made basically no PS4 copies the first time and cancelled the Asian English physical release. Beyond stupid it took this long for them to issue another run.

SE has had a few games that have been hard to find recently but I think more got a reprint, like Crisis Core remastered and I think SO Second Story R too.
 
As long as you never paid above MSRP, you're fine in my book.

Modern stuff is only going to get weirder on print runs and reprints.

I wonder if future systems will have official print on-demand style releases assuming sales still trend towards digital.
 
Eventually consoles will be computers. Every console generation we get closer and closer to that. Nintendo seem to be the only ones that really want to keep physical going. They get a lot of sales from those and rarely drop a lot in price, so it makes sense.

I think the more interesting thing overall is how often are some niche games going to drop more than say $20-$30 dollars? Even some that I was tempted on (Konosuba game at BB that sold out pretty dang quickly for $40) don't seem to have the stock they once did. Sega/Atlus/S-E have loads of copies of things, so they will continue to drop in prices and be able to be gotten till maybe around $20ish dollars. NISA games get usually one or 2 price drops and bottom out maybe around $30. AKSYS stuff is really stagnant on sales prices considering they have so many otome games and generally only drop around $10 dollars maybe $20. PQube stuff does usually drop pretty low and bottoms out until the stuff sells out usually. Spike Chunsoft stuff usually drops slowly and bottoms out around the $30-40 dollar range. Pretty much the digital games do go down in price and bottom out at a certain price, but the physical stuff it's always hard to tell. We also have random stuff on Woot (usually a good way to buy these niche games when they're on there) where the prices are a little better for drops at least.

Nonetheless the key in all this is to purchase what you want for niche games, and just know that one day your game will likely will not be a cheap purchase as it went OOP unless it's something like Persona, which can barely be called niche nowadays if I'm honest.
 
nitrosmob said:
Eventually consoles will be computers. Every console generation we get closer and closer to that. Nintendo seem to be the only ones that really want to keep physical going. They get a lot of sales from those and rarely drop a lot in price, so it makes sense.

I think the more interesting thing overall is how often are some niche games going to drop more than say $20-$30 dollars? Even some that I was tempted on (Konosuba game at BB that sold out pretty dang quickly for $40) don't seem to have the stock they once did. Sega/Atlus/S-E have loads of copies of things, so they will continue to drop in prices and be able to be gotten till maybe around $20ish dollars. NISA games get usually one or 2 price drops and bottom out maybe around $30. AKSYS stuff is really stagnant on sales prices considering they have so many otome games and generally only drop around $10 dollars maybe $20. PQube stuff does usually drop pretty low and bottoms out until the stuff sells out usually. Spike Chunsoft stuff usually drops slowly and bottoms out around the $30-40 dollar range. Pretty much the digital games do go down in price and bottom out at a certain price, but the physical stuff it's always hard to tell. We also have random stuff on Woot (usually a good way to buy these niche games when they're on there) where the prices are a little better for drops at least.

Nonetheless the key in all this is to purchase what you want for niche games, and just know that one day your game will likely will not be a cheap purchase as it went OOP unless it's something like Persona, which can barely be called niche nowadays if I'm honest.
Click to expand...
Persona definitely isn't niche anymore past p3 vanilla. Though the older original stuff besides 4 vanilla and fes to an extent are harder to come by. Not sure about p4gvita.
 
TheKbob said:
As long as you never paid above MSRP, you're fine in my book.

Modern stuff is only going to get weirder on print runs and reprints.

I wonder if future systems will have official print on-demand style releases assuming sales still trend towards digital.
Click to expand...

I paid over MSRP for tons of games. Every single one of them got reprinted. And anything I buy MSRP, gets heavily discounted.

You're all welcome. :whistle2:x
 
Vinny said:
Was pissed how they basic made basically no PS4 copies the first time and cancelled the Asian English physical release. Beyond stupid it took this long for them to issue another run.
Click to expand...
ps4 version of the pixel remasters is down to $45 on woot now. The release schedule from SE was really frustrating. I might have made a mistake buying two Asia English nsw copies near release. But I'm staring down this overproduced ps4 NA print to below $20 at this point.
 
I'll never understand folks who buy games entirely on the premise that it'll be rare.

Millennials don't give two sh#ts about physical games so the notion that any of this sh#t we're buying will be worth anything more than what we're paying is silly (IMHO). It'd be one thing if you had folks growing up who care about any of the mass produced plastic carts/discs, but they won't and don't -- and certainly nowhere near the numbers of current 30/40 year-olds to justify any sort of large demand.

Buy to play, folks. Enjoy the games!
 
There are probably as many millennial collectors as there are geriatrics. In general, people just care less about physical media ownership than they used to, doesn’t really matter what generation you belong to—Netflix and all the other big companies did their work well.
 
gospelman said:
ps4 version of the pixel remasters is down to $45 on woot now. The release schedule from SE was really frustrating. I might have made a mistake buying two Asia English nsw copies near release. But I'm staring down this overproduced ps4 NA print to below $20 at this point.
Click to expand...

Yep, saw that last night- honestly pretty surprised at how quickly these are dropping but $45 is an insane value for the enhanced versions FFVI and IV alone.
 
Vinny said:
Yep, saw that last night- honestly pretty surprised at how quickly these are dropping but $45 is an insane value for the enhanced versions FFVI and IV alone.
Click to expand...
This is how reprints should be handled in my opinion. With a variation or difference to the cover. To the people that truly just want a copy, they get one, and those that bought early still have their “first edition”. Knock it all you want, but the industry still has an interest in maintaining the perceived value of rarity as well, if it can. Win / Win this way.
 
Vinny said:
Yep, saw that last night- honestly pretty surprised at how quickly these are dropping but $45 is an insane value for the enhanced versions FFVI and IV alone.
Click to expand...
Because the retro craze is pretty much played out, i.e. most of the older folks who want these games already have them. The draw in this title (and many retro re-releases) is in the limited print run, not the content (unfortunately).
 
So I haven't seen many posts about it, and I just figure this is the best thread for it. But I finished Slitterhead earlier today and I absolutely loved it. It's definitely not a game for everyone, but i feel like I can't find any discussion around this game anywhere.

Truthfully it's hard to recommend as it's not the best looking game, not the best playing game and can be repetitive but I found it completely original, unique, interesting from a gameplay and story perspective and really loved every minute of it.

It felt almost Suda51ish but obviously with much more going on on the horror front. The body horror is great and the cutscenes all look fantastic. The world was beautiful for as small as it may be. For such a clear AA game with a super tight budget I thought this was fantastic. And honestly for as repetitive as it can be the gameplay was fun enough for me to have no problem completely clearing it. From all the different rarities and different play styles, I was thoroughly engaged through and through.

It's funny too cus Akira Yamaoka did the soundtrack and audio for the game and you can do clearly tell. The menu selection sounds sound ripped right from his works on Silent Hill. In fact I believe most of the original Team Silent was involved in this, and it really feels like they still work great together. Not the same quality or budget they used to have but the team definitely still works great together.

Hope the game makes enough that they can make more games, either sequels or just something new but still unique and interesting.
 
Vinny said:
Yep, saw that last night- honestly pretty surprised at how quickly these are dropping but $45 is an insane value for the enhanced versions FFVI and IV alone.
Click to expand...
Yeah it bums me out. Shows that Square was right all along, and proves their digital-only distribution is a better model for them.

They made the physical copies of FF Pixel Remaster that everyone claimed they wanted, and then the market didn't show up to buy them. This is Square going, "SEE." Also another exhibit of evidence that people only want something "because it's expensive" on the aftermarket too.
 
From $1200 to $45, there are not many rare physicals anymore because of VGP/PNP anyways 🤷‍♂️

If something shoots up in price it’s best to sell it and to not sit on it, unless it’s a LRG title.
 
Nothing- said:
Yeah it bums me out. Shows that Square was right all along, and proves their digital-only distribution is a better model for them.

They made the physical copies of FF Pixel Remaster that everyone claimed they wanted, and then the market didn't show up to buy them. This is Square going, "SEE." Also another exhibit of evidence that people only want something "because it's expensive" on the aftermarket too.
Click to expand...
I think most preferred this in Switch, which wasn't on Woot. I think most also purchased the Asian version before there was an ESRB version, which saw an initial reprint and is still getting printed. A lot of people also thought the price was too high, which it probably was. Also, we don't know how many they printed. Maybe they printed a shit ton and over estimated. Also also, a lot of people don't buy digital and physical, so people probably bought it digitally and then went "oh well, too late" by the time physical was available.

If SE had handle the initial printing better with a $50 or $60 price, it'd be easier to see how well or not well it sold instead of this weird trickle release which most games don't get. The fact that it's getting a discount around Black Friday doesn't say much one way or the other either.
 
HaloGX said:
I think most preferred this in Switch, which wasn't on Woot. I think most also purchased the Asian version before there was an ESRB version, which saw an initial reprint and is still getting printed. A lot of people also thought the price was too high, which it probably was. Also, we don't know how many they printed. Maybe they printed a shit ton and over estimated. Also also, a lot of people don't buy digital and physical, so people probably bought it digitally and then went "oh well, too late" by the time physical was available.

If SE had handle the initial printing better with a $50 or $60 price, it'd be easier to see how well or not well it sold instead of this weird trickle release which most games don't get. The fact that it's getting a discount around Black Friday doesn't say much one way or the other either.
Click to expand...

This makes a lot of sense honestly... I was super happy to see this get a formal release in the US and of course, I bought myself copies on both NS and PS4 even though I already had the Asian NS release. But I'd imagine a lot of people who had imported it decided to pass or already got them digitally.
 
Vinny said:
This makes a lot of sense honestly... I was super happy to see this get a formal release in the US and of course, I bought myself copies on both NS and PS4 even though I already had the Asian NS release. But I'd imagine a lot of people who had imported it decided to pass or already got them digitally.
Click to expand...
Indeed. I got the Asian version for Switch, so I didn't bother with the NA release. The PS4 and Switch versions both sold really well. Still nice to see an NA version though. And it seems like it's encouraged SE to release other games in NA physically that would've otherwise only got an Asian English release.
 
HaloGX said:
I think most preferred this in Switch, which wasn't on Woot. I think most also purchased the Asian version before there was an ESRB version, which saw an initial reprint and is still getting printed. A lot of people also thought the price was too high, which it probably was. Also, we don't know how many they printed. Maybe they printed a shit ton and over estimated. Also also, a lot of people don't buy digital and physical, so people probably bought it digitally and then went "oh well, too late" by the time physical was available.

If SE had handle the initial printing better with a $50 or $60 price, it'd be easier to see how well or not well it sold instead of this weird trickle release which most games don't get. The fact that it's getting a discount around Black Friday doesn't say much one way or the other either.
Click to expand...

I remember the discussions going on here during prerelease window went it went up on the SE webstore.

I'm also very happy with my own Asian Switch release I got from Play-Asia for $68 because I understand the value of this product. not one bit of buyers' remorse. It's just sad what is happening with the race to the bottom and physical publishing in 2024. (This) "Games are expensive" shows how much people understand about basic economics.

Can also tell you one other thing I'm certain about. This gravy train of '20-'24 SquareEnix physical publishing is coming to a close. They've absolutely knocked it out of the park this gen, beyond my wildest expectations. Several awesome and polished retro jrpgs. But most did not meet sales expectations. AA projects that were not going to be huge money makers. and then the market did not show up to buy these wonderful games on PS5. It's not going to stay like this any longer. Square is fed up with Sony and their lack of support.

The market says it wants more $20 and F2P games with carved content and predatory DLC practices. It's a sad state of affairs. For vg publishing and collectors both. When everything is pointing towards the live service model to take advantage of consumers.
 
SMT V Vengeance is $24.99 at Best Buy. This is the launch steel book versions for Switch, PS5, XB Series. Though I don't know if there was any other version? Whatever the case this was my buy price.

Here's the link to switch but there's a button to change platforms:

Also grabbed Cruisi'n Blast (not a sale, just $19.99 from it's last price reduction) and an extra Switch Pro Controller $49.99 since they are $20 off. My Pro Controller from launch is still perfectly fine, but I like to get a backup near the end of a consoles lifecycle. If they get a lot cheaper (like $25) later on at walmart or something during final clearance... I'll grab another because it's a well rounded controller and I'm pretty heavily invested in the Switch.
 
nightc1 said:
SMT V Vengeance is $24.99 at Best Buy. This is the launch steel book versions for Switch, PS5, XB Series. Though I don't know if there was any other version? Whatever the case this was my buy price.
Click to expand...
Gamestop has also matched the 24.99 price for those who have their monthly $5 (or are double dipping). As always try to do pickup to ensure a new copy.


There is a standard edition floating around. That’s what Amazon had for the PS5 (they had the Steelbook for the switch, but I think with this release those who could bought the PS5 version).

I had held off buying at Amazon since I had GCs elsewhere.
 
Nothing- said:
Can also tell you one other thing I'm certain about. This gravy train of '20-'24 SquareEnix physical publishing is coming to a close. They've absolutely knocked it out of the park this gen, beyond my wildest expectations. Several awesome and polished retro jrpgs. But most did not meet sales expectations. AA projects that were not going to be huge money makers. and then the market did not show up to buy these wonderful games on PS5. It's not going to stay like this any longer. Square is fed up with Sony and their lack of support.
Click to expand...

This is prob the worst thing... after nearly 2 decades of mixed releases, it finally felt like SE figured things out but the sales haven't been there. But at the same time, the "disappointing sales" stories were from SE themselves so maybe they simply expected too much.
 
I'm not too worried about any of these companies sales. I will preorder games for a few series that I very seriously follow and if/when they get cheaper I don't feel bad about it because I will support series I love the most. BUT, that list is around 5 games (Xenoblade being top of the list). There are also series that are likely done but if a new game surfaced (TWEWY is a good example) I would support it at launch (which I did get Neo:TWEWY at launch). Everything else can wait on a sale. Even some Nintendo stuff I wait until at least gamefly drops it in price for used copies. My main concern is just already owning stuff and not having to chase down games.

Right now, I'm pretty well caught up on most of the games I wanted to buy or was curious about getting if they got cheap enough. So cheaper deals I'm not really a concern about as my wallet is staying closed. My next planned purchase is Xenoblade Chronicles X in March. The main thing I'm waiting on which I haven't bought is The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. Once it hits around $35 on Gamefly I'll grab it. Normally Zelda is a series I buy at launch, but off shoots like this or ports... I'm less likely to do that.
 
I don’t really feel like Squenix producing adequate remasters and remakes is necessarily praiseworthy. Maybe I’m the weirdo, but the fact that they’ve released a few hastily, poorly polished remasters and some remakes that are either noticeably worse than the original, or that fail to stand out against any of their many, many previous remakes of the same games doesn’t really impress me. The only stuff they’ve done recently in the retro game sphere that might be kind of interesting are the HD2D remakes, of which there are only a tiny handful.
 
Nothing- said:
Yeah it bums me out. Shows that Square was right all along, and proves their digital-only distribution is a better model for them.

They made the physical copies of FF Pixel Remaster that everyone claimed they wanted, and then the market didn't show up to buy them. This is Square going, "SEE." Also another exhibit of evidence that people only want something "because it's expensive" on the aftermarket too.
Click to expand...
To be fair how long did it take for them to reprint? A lot can happen in a span of time too. Some of the people who wanted it likely didn't wait and bought 2nd hand and or imported.
 
nightc1 said:
SMT V Vengeance is $24.99 at Best Buy. This is the launch steel book versions for Switch, PS5, XB Series. Though I don't know if there was any other version? Whatever the case this was my buy price.

Here's the link to switch but there's a button to change platforms:

Also grabbed Cruisi'n Blast (not a sale, just $19.99 from it's last price reduction) and an extra Switch Pro Controller $49.99 since they are $20 off. My Pro Controller from launch is still perfectly fine, but I like to get a backup near the end of a consoles lifecycle. If they get a lot cheaper (like $25) later on at walmart or something during final clearance... I'll grab another because it's a well rounded controller and I'm pretty heavily invested in the Switch.
Click to expand...
I may just use my best buy bucks on that. Thank you for posting.
 
SMTV Vengeance is also $19 preowned at GS now. Hopefully that holds until B2G1 is live in a few days. A few stores around me have preowned steelbook copies. Similar price on Armored Core VI and Persona 3 Reload.
 
Last edited:
LucarioLG said:
I know I want Metaphor myself, trying to decide on the other two. Or I could just find a 3rd thing with high trade value, idk
Click to expand...
Visions of Mana is around that price range at $39.99, I’m likely trying for that one. Not sure what to get for the third, maybe I’ll luck out and find a used DQ3 HD-2D in-store.
 
Vinny said:
This is prob the worst thing... after nearly 2 decades of mixed releases, it finally felt like SE figured things out but the sales haven't been there.
Click to expand...

ten-billion-percent-dr-stone.gif


sooo much this.

shadowysea07 said:
To be fair how long did it take for them to reprint? A lot can happen in a span of time too. Some of the people who wanted it likely didn't wait and bought 2nd hand and or imported.
Click to expand...

Very true. SE shouldn't have waited to so long to reprint the game for NA. Or rather, should have had a larger initial batch.

But SE has also been doing everything in their power to retrain customer/collector mindsets that this limited stuff is limited in nature and it WILL sell out. That is an absolutely necessary business model to get (unnecessary, luxury) premium items to sell these days.
 
true I do agree that it was intentionally a small stock and all. But they could have made it fractionally larger without it cutting into it being limited. just say another 500- 1k copies per platform.

anywho thanks to the poster from the other day I ordered smt5v for 6.99 after $20 best buy bucks. I was going to divide the 20 up between smt5v and p3r but that was sold out on everything but ps5.

shoutout to nightc1 for sharing.
 
Anyone have an opinion on the 3 dlc characters of Eiyuden Chronicles: HH being worthwhile? I'm eyeing the physical ps5 standard version but really don't like how the only option is a $25 season pass.
 
Souffrir said:
How’s Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes compare to other musous?
Click to expand...
I've only ever played the Nintendo branded ones, but I liked it. The character growth system is based on what they used in Three Houses so you get a lot of flexibility. And the multiplayer is a step up over FE Warriors as the cannon fodder spawns instead of the maps being barren, but no weapon triangle was disappointing since I enjoyed that and wished it was carried over.
I only played Blue Lions, but felt the story was better in some aspects over the original; not as much character growth since Dimitri is normal, but the pacing was better since your army doesn't need to run back to the monastery after every map. And atypical of musous, there's not really any content past the three stories, but I didn't miss it.
 
Yeah that III & IV CE falls $5 under the free shipping threshold and there are no filler items. Annoying. But a good reason for me to just be happy with the original CE's instead of this all-paper version.
 
Holy crap. I ordered Kirby and the Forgotten Land ($34.49) and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes ($21.99) from Woot over the past week before Woot’s 20% off in-app offer. Shot them an email yesterday asking if I could get the price adjusted, not really expecting anything, but the madlads actually did it. It wasn’t a perfect 20%, since I just got a partial refund for 20% of the base price without factoring in tax, but I’m not complaining.
 
gospelman said:
20% off everything in the woot app is live. must use app. might require prime

I finally bought that Unicorn Overlord CE ($56). As well as Echoes of Wisdom ($34) and the P5R pc physical release ($16).
Click to expand...
Great price for unicorn overlord CE, one of the funnest times I’ve had putting together jrpg teams and fiddling with equipment and skills. I like how the individual battles play out, but moving units around the map could be better and more strategic. Still, great and unique game, and a good CE. Looks like it sold out now, so nice job to any that knew to grab it at that price.
 
Souffrir said:
Holy crap. I ordered Kirby and the Forgotten Land ($34.49) and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes ($21.99) from Woot over the past week before Woot’s 20% off in-app offer. Shot them an email yesterday asking if I could get the price adjusted, not really expecting anything, but the madlads actually did it. It wasn’t a perfect 20%, since I just got a partial refund for 20% of the base price without factoring in tax, but I’m not complaining.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear they helped you with that. If I recall they also helped you with your Unicorn Overlord CE. I'm a bit on edge over the condition of my incoming CE knowing they are now sold out.
Xenogears said:
Great price for unicorn overlord CE, one of the funnest times I’ve had putting together jrpg teams and fiddling with equipment and skills. I like how the individual battles play out, but moving units around the map could be better and more strategic. Still, great and unique game, and a good CE.
Click to expand...
Good to hear. I also own it on nsw and will probably continue to play it there. If I understand correctly the CE dlc is just cosmetic, different colored banners? I've only played maybe half of the demo up to this point. As always I love the vanillaware art and overall presentation. I'll admit i was turned off by how completely passive battles felt, but maybe that changes past the first couple of areas.
 
Last edited:
They did send me a new one and asked for the old one back, though honestly neither was in great shape. Keeping my fingers crossed for you, though at the very least you’re getting a significantly better deal than I did.
 
Pretty stoked about getting another version copy of FF Pixel Remaster for only $36, this time on Playstation. I think some folks are going to regret skipping this deal. That excess clearance inventory moved quick.

Now I can enjoy having this set on Playstation later too. I usually skip ordering dual copies like this. But then often regret it later when they go OOS and I realize it is one of those seminal games I want to permanently have for a console's library. There aren't many of those each gen. like I want to get another Switch copy of the previous Capcom Fighting Collection for instance.

you can have a pretty girthy collection ten years down the line with just 10 or 20 prominent titles from one platform. I think of it all the time when I look at my SNES and N64 collections. and how I bought some of the wrong titles and missed out on important ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top