Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

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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Last night, put in a few more hours on Tokyo Xanadu eX+. Finished all the side stuff I could do in Ch 5 and found a few unlisted side quests. Went ahead and finally checked out the skateboarding minigame... not too bad. 100% completed the initial 3 tracks available. Also went by the arcade and found a game to play involving cards which seems pretty enjoyable. I feel like I could waste an hour on that alone. Pretty cool how that brings in a bunch of the NPC's as who you play against. So far, just over 20 hours and I'm in chapter 5. Given how I like to just talk to everyone and see where their conversations go it's probably going to take me all month. Not a complaint.
 
It was mentioned over in the thread for $5 stuff at Shopville that it's a canada site and that it might have shipping delays like VGP (due to the postal strike in Canada. Just posting this here if anyone was concerned... the copy of Trails to Azure I ordered started in Bay Shore, NY. So, VGP orders should be fine as they don't originate in Canada for US customers. I know that's how it was years ago, but wasn't sure if that was still true or not.
 
Weird seeing Nintendo flip-flop so much this generation. Prior to the Switch they were super conservative, this gen they let loose, now they're reining it back in. With Sony a lot of the restrictions started happening after Omega Labyrinth Z got attention, I wonder if there was a specific game that caused this with Nintendo.
 
I don't blame anyone for adhering to SUPER WEIRD American cultural and bandwagoning viewpoint on sexuality, and regarding minors. People get crazy insane and passionately violent over that type of stuff, especially the offenders.

It might be our county's craziest virtue signal. Often by the non-virtuous.
Whole lotta repressed sexuality out there. Oppressed too; many people take extreme offense if someone so much as hits on them, or even talks to them.
 
Weird seeing Nintendo flip-flop so much this generation. Prior to the Switch they were super conservative, this gen they let loose, now they're reining it back in. With Sony a lot of the restrictions started happening after Omega Labyrinth Z got attention, I wonder if there was a specific game that caused this with Nintendo.

Maybe they were too busy counting all the Switch, MK8, Animal Crossing, etc. money to notice... but now that sales have waned, they're started looking.
 
At least Neptunia Riders vs. Doggo is still coming out next month.


Neptunia-Riders-VS-Dogoos-Boxart.png
 
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The Neptunia games seem to have become tamer over time, anyways, so it's odd Nintendo would choose now to block it. Interestingly, Sony seems to now (finally) be going the other direction.

People may point fingers at Sony but Stellar Blade IMHO single-handedly alters that view. That is a AAA fan service game where looks and gameplay all work beautifully. Face it, most M-rated fan service games are A or AA (at best) and production values or gameplay never quite get there.
 
That Neptunia VS Titan Dogoo game is not supposed to be that great. It's only 3 hours long. I will pick it up when it's on discount, it's going to be $39.99! In Japan it's under $20. I saw it also sold poorly in Japan.
 
Most don't get funding and support from Sony to help polish their game. Stellar Blade was still censored by a day 1 patch covering some cleavage and changing graffiti. I don't think one game is enough to sway the popular opinion.
Sure, it's just one game -- but I disagree with you on its significance. Sony DID fund the game, which IMHO speaks volumes. And let's not forget Sony has let Shift Up release all sorts of outfits in that game that would make even Itagaki and DOA devs blush.
 
People may point fingers at Sony but Stellar Blade IMHO single-handedly alters that view. That is a AAA fan service game where looks and gameplay all work beautifully. Face it, most M-rated fan service games are A or AA (at best) and production values or gameplay never quite get there.
And Stellar Blade is an ass game, at that.
 
To be fair it was a decision made by the former Sony Intereactive Entertainment President Shuhei Yoshida to reach out to Shift Up and offer support. While Jim Ryan was busy throwing money at Concord and other live service games.

As for DLC, there was an interview with Capcom covering publishing DLC on the playstation. Basically they are allowed more freedom (swimsuit costumes) on DLC content once the base game was approved.
If Sony wanted to stop or "clean up" Stellar Blade, it certainly could and would have. It also could have limited the game release to Japan (which is how Nintendo handled Fatal Frame). There are plenty of ways for Sony censors to have gotten their mitts on it -- and it's not as if news about the feminine looks of that game were buried or little known. The game was well covered from the moment it was unveiled as Project Eve.
 
The Neptunia games seem to have become tamer over time, anyways, so it's odd Nintendo would choose now to block it. Interestingly, Sony seems to now (finally) be going the other direction.

People may point fingers at Sony but Stellar Blade IMHO single-handedly alters that view. That is a AAA fan service game where looks and gameplay all work beautifully. Face it, most M-rated fan service games are A or AA (at best) and production values or gameplay never quite get there.
I agree, and feel that Stellar Blade has gone pretty widely unrecognized for its achievement. 10 years ago a game like that would have instantly become a smashing big deal on here.
 
The Final Fantasy set will be a huge, wide release. Cards in general shouldn't be that hard to get. There will probably be a variety of packs to choose from, some more expensive than others.
 
The Final Fantasy set will be a huge, wide release. Cards in general shouldn't be that hard to get. There will probably be a variety of packs to choose from, some more expensive than others.

Good to know, but also guess some cards are going to be super rare/uncommon too...
 
Fantasian demo is out. I set it to download to my switch a few mintues ago. I need to play it before I get caught purely in the hype of it.

That reminds me, I really to play that Ys X Nordics demo too... I think that game might be for me and I need to confirm it before there's a sale somewhere (probably gamefly in the next month).

My VGP order came in over the weekend. Single switch game and they sent it in a very well constructed customized box. I'm pretty surprised not to get a generic bubble envelope. Other smaller online shops could learn a thing or two from VGP. I'll have to bump them up in my list of places to shop when I can't get something domestically.

Also, I've been looking at other games I might have missed along the way... digging through various import game stores at everything in stock that maybe I never heard of or didn't look into or just passed on because I was trying to be very restrictive in my purchases (or just forgot about). After much research and thought, I ended up landing on the game I wanted the most was Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore. I was going to get a foreign copy for around (possibly just under) $50 total... Ended up waiting for a used ESRB copy to pop up on ebay. I ended up essentially paying retail new release price for a used copy, but I am ok with that. Better to pay retail than way over retail. I had one much lower priced auction copy that I was bidding on before this but it went up to near new game price so I let it go as I had looked at completed listings and knew if I just waited and watched, I'd snag one around retail.

I think I'm pretty much ready for whatever happens next year including a release list of games I will track. Some I'll get at launch, others I'll wait for Gamefly to do their first major price drop on used. I may, after the first of the year, go ahead and lock in preorders for the top games I want. Just so if prices jump on preorders, maybe they'll manage to hold for a locked in preorder. XCX & Trails Through Daybreak II are probably my top two wants right now.
 
I'm still waiting for my VGP order of 3 games from Dec 2 to even ship.
I also ordered on the 2nd... the USPS shipping label was created on the 8th and first tracking after that is Rochester NY distribution center on the 10th when it arrived. Delivered Saturday the 14th. Were all three games not in stock? One of them must be holding things up (my guess) unless they are oversized collectors editions or something that requires more packing care. My single game was wrapped in some brown paper and put in a box with a single band of tape around it (more than enough to do the job as the box is well built). So a super easy to ship situation.

Or are in you not in the USA? Canada's post office has been in a shipping strike for a month but today they go back to work.
 
USPS in the USA is crapping the bed.

I've had an item at my city's distro center for days now and I could probably walk there faster by now.

I ordered from another site (anime) in November and it's still not here.

If you haven't got it where it needs to go and haven't shipped yet, you'd better either use a commercial provider or forget it being a Christmas gift.
 
I ordered some samsung bluetooth earbuds from BB for my oldest son (25) this morning and their shipping option for free shipping was next day. Usually they are pretty close with their estimates. I don't have a BB in my county. Nearest one is an hour away. BB though has one of the most diverse shipping systems I've seen. They take advantage of a lot of different services for shipping as well as all the major carriers. I think my last order showed up from Fedex... but the one before that was a private carrier to the local post office. Given how good they are at shipping and how there's no third party shenanigans with what they sell, they are my primary place to buy stuff online. Even if something is a couple bucks less on amazon, I'll go BB every time.
 
Yes vgp is usually the cheapest option for imports and reliable for shipping and such. Add in currency conversion rates and typically it's even cheaper than you'd think it'd be. Though sometimes items do get help up. Possibly due to shipping from Canada instead of in country via their New York warehouse? I'm currently waiting on a order myself. I made on the 4th according to my email. Haven't gotten a shipping notification yet come to think of it. But I assume that people probably slammed them with orders for the items since they were 14.99 cad each in the sale.

Best buy usually is pretty reliable. Especially if you do in store pickup. But I've had 2 instances where they were not. First was them sending me the wrong order. I ordered nier automata gotye and they sent me 3 copies of the outerwilds. I should have just sold them instead of returning. Since they didn't even give me a credit for the mistake. They were also unable to fulfill my order so I ended up just getting it refunded.

The second one was soul hackers 2 which arrived smashed inside it's plastic wrap inside a box.
 
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I also ordered on the 2nd... the USPS shipping label was created on the 8th and first tracking after that is Rochester NY distribution center on the 10th when it arrived. Delivered Saturday the 14th. Were all three games not in stock? One of them must be holding things up (my guess) unless they are oversized collectors editions or something that requires more packing care. My single game was wrapped in some brown paper and put in a box with a single band of tape around it (more than enough to do the job as the box is well built). So a super easy to ship situation.

Or are in you not in the USA? Canada's post office has been in a shipping strike for a month but today they go back to work.
Everything was in stock, 3 older games from their black Friday sales. 2 standard editions and Prinny Presents Volume 3 is in a small box. There were less than 10 in stock for 2 of the games I ordered, they did eventually sell out when I checked on the 3rd. I'm in the USA, PA. I am just guessing they have tons of orders to ship out and they are behind.
 
USPS in the USA is crapping the bed.

I've had an item at my city's distro center for days now and I could probably walk there faster by now.

I ordered from another site (anime) in November and it's still not here.

If you haven't got it where it needs to go and haven't shipped yet, you'd better either use a commercial provider or forget it being a Christmas gift.
I have a couple of things doing the same thing - made it to my city and now it's been sitting there for about 10 days.

It's this. They've said so. I believe them. Especially since people had multiple orders during their sales. I mean, they had a lot of great discounts.
Agreed. VGP has been pretty reliable for me.
There is also a postal strike in Canada at the moment, which may be adding to delays.
 
I did have one package going through the USPS that was supposed to deliver to my address yesterday... nope. Add to that, the mail has been running very late lately. It used to run before I got home for lunch around 1. Now it might be after dinner.

My BB order already is processed and I got the tracking from FedEx. Seems they are going to handle it. For me personally (and this might be a testament more to the store they tend to ship me stuff from if it's in stock there), it's dang reliable and fast.

Not very japanese niche, but Heads up anyone that wanted Mario & Luigi Brothership. Gamefly dropped the price to $39.99 yesterday though it was not in stock. It's in stock now. Not the best deal, but this is how I've been getting a lot of newer releases. Just wait for that first major price drop. Yes it'll probably go $35 later on, but for $5 worth of peace of mind not having to track the game anymore... I can deal.

 
USPS in the USA is crapping the bed.

I've had an item at my city's distro center for days now and I could probably walk there faster by now.

I ordered from another site (anime) in November and it's still not here.

If you haven't got it where it needs to go and haven't shipped yet, you'd better either use a commercial provider or forget it being a Christmas gift.
I mean it’s probably stuck because it fell off a conveyor belt. All it takes is one poorly packaged item jamming something and things fall. And they definitely don’t check the floor or whatever often.
 
I mean, I've had Amazon orders delivered by Amazon delayed for days, and those items were in the warehouse just outside of town. There's a lot being shipped/delivered in general, and it's a lot to keep up on this time of year.
 
I had 2 orders from gamestop take 5 days to go from Kansas City, Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri. that is why I laugh when i see all those "ship by this date to get it by christmas" because i know if it has to go through KC it's already too late.
 
I had 2 orders from gamestop take 5 days to go from Kansas City, Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri. that is why I laugh when i see all those "ship by this date to get it by christmas" because i know if it has to go through KC it's already too late.
I live in the Kansas City area and the Kansas City, Kansas distribution center is a well-known as a shipping vortex. It got audited this year and failed the audit spectacularly. I have a package that's been hanging out there for two weeks, I wouldn't expect anything that touches that facility to arrive by Christmas.
 
Just a heads up, while I'm sure most here are aware of current scams going around with regard to shipping I just got hit with a text scam (it was actually an imessage) saying the zipcode on a package is invalid and to click some link or reply to a text etc. They claimed to be the USPS and used a philipines number. Just word of warning since a lot of us have packages floating around out there and some are out of country, it's fake. Figure this is a good word of warning for everyone right now.

Took some time with the switch last night to advance deeper into Chapter 5 of Tokyo Xanadu. I really love that game. Not going to ramble on about it today but it's helping remind me to stick with games that tick a lot of boxes and dropping other stuff. Gave that an hour then went and grabbed Fez while it's on sale on the eshop (loved playing that on vita) and then gave Fantasian Neo Dimension a test try with the demo as well as Ys X: Nordics and it's demo.

Fantasian Neo Dimension - 100% Not for me at all.
Camera made my brain hurt with how it whips around and worse when transitioning from one screen to another sometimes it'll flip the entire perspective around so you were moving down, but now you need to move up to continue. The graphics feel like they are disconnected between the models they built and scanned and the actual characters/action. They also weren't very nice looking. I can appreciate an experimentation with media when making a game, but I couldn't help but think how the background are probably all going to be fairly static because of the limitations of models. I also recall noticing this watching a few reviews. The first two battles were ok, but then the random battles were garbage. One hit kills with a couple characters that it took longer to load the battle than actually complete it... and longer to go through the end of the battle as well. It felt like my time was being wasted even though the music was good. I know later the game opens up and you can bank these smaller encounters and have one bit massive house cleaning of them, but I didn't stick around to see if that was in the demo. Then there's the male protagonist who is all dolled up to look like a very girly girl. Totally cool if that's your thing, but like porn... we all have our own preferences/kinks. It's odd I didn't catch anyone saying anything about that in the video reviews I watched. Still, I gave the demo a try and appreciate they put a demo out so people can get a feel for what this is before throwing cash at it.

Ys X: Nordics - On the fence but leaning towards it getting it once it drops a little in price.
Just going with the negatives first... I don't feel like they did that great of a job pulling in a new player by referencing past stuff so much in those initial interactions and requiring dialog decisions. Felt like I was thrown in the deepend on plot and had no idea how to respond. The opening seems pretty heavily pushing having past knowledge which rewards past players while throwing off new ones. Some of the voice work felt a bit off, but not bad enough that I see it as a red flag or anything. That's about the worst I have to say. The game world itself seems pretty well crafted. Graphics are nice as is the audio. Some decent story telling right up front to get me interested even without the history of the series. The initial city area is quite nice and it really feels like you are out on an adventure and needing to work to make progress in the journey. I already know some of how the game opens up thanks to watching reviews, I just need to play the demo a bit more to make the final call here. But it's looking good. I didn't feel like I was wasting my time at all.
 
Then there's the male protagonist who is all dolled up to look like a very girly girl. Totally cool if that's your thing, but like porn... we all have our own preferences/kinks. It's odd I didn't catch anyone saying anything about that in the video reviews I watched.
This is a bizarre take, regardless of your own personal kinks and preferences. Especially in the Japanese niche thread, I know little about the game, and had to look up the main character. He is androgynous looking I guess, and has a hair band type thing, but otherwise looks very similar to nier character design, which I’ve never heard issues about, other than a few complaints about 2Bs wedgie I guess. And I’m saying this as someone who has so far skipped Tokyo Xanadu cause it looked so generically anime from my initial impressions. Unless the images of fantasian don’t do the main character’s drag show vibe you are complaining about justice, I don’t see much difference in what seems to be the Tokyo Xanadu protagonist?
 
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