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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I think this is one of the many cases in anime where week to week, I can 100% see how a lot of details could be lost or even not make much sense and the payoff not land as well. Watching it so condensed (all but one episode between breakfast and lunch), I remembered so many details, was able to push past some of the off things, and I think the emotional key moments hit better. I was overjoyed at the end... especially seeing she was a little older. I'm not against week to week tv shows. Sometimes I even have preferred them in the past because it means more variety each week of what I'm watching. But since giving up most regular shows I've grown to have a much greater appreciation for anime where there's a lot of details and emotional investment ... but there's no wait if I want to watch more. I did watch Dragon Ball Daima week to week, but that was more of a special event for me and my oldest son to get together. Still, sometimes we saved up a few episodes and binged them because it was so much more enjoyable not waiting.
 
Erased is a good example of how important it is to have a good ending. Absolutely loved how it started, but those last 3 episodes ruined it for me
 
Ruined? The only thing I wasn't crazy about was that

the culprit was fairly obvious.

I enjoyed everything else or at least thought it was fine. It was a decent way of resolving the time travel issue as well.
 
Ruined? The only thing I wasn't crazy about was that...

I enjoyed everything else or at least thought it was fine. It was a decent way of resolving the time travel issue as well.

Even though I caught on quick who it likely was, I kind of enjoyed knowing that because I couldn't at all forsee what happened with the MC happening. The way everything resolved was pretty well done.

As for anything else questionable, we are in the japanese niche thread and play games with teens where we can dress them in skimpy outfits and even do some questionable things in some of the games. Even the game I have been enjoying, Tokyo Xanadu eX+, there's the option to put the female highschool characters into some questionable clothes. I haven't opted to do that, but I think there's swimsuits and stuff? Erased felt more innocent... since it wasn't me making any of the decisions. Also, it might make a difference that I watched the dub. Pretty much if there is a dub option, I'm going dub most of the time. So something might have been cleaned up in the translation that was maybe worse in the sub?

Whatever the case, I thought Erased was pretty exceptional story telling.
 
I’d imagine if someone hasn’t done one yet, someone will do a comparison of the trailer to the OG. My guess, given the age we live in… they cleaned it up with AI.
 
Yea, I'm keen on it, but John Truit's Ghaleon is the only Ghaleon for me. And the videos are totally AI, as they're way too clean.

They don't have that 90s anime "grime" or vibe of the original hand drawn cutscenes. And whether or not Nall or Ramus will want to take a screwdriver to your ears with their endearing VA.
 
I was big into Gundam Wing when it aired on Toonami back in the day. That lead me down the rabbit hole the original Mobile Suit Gunam (aka Gundam 79... along with the movie versions) and the handful or so of series that followed. I didn't keep up after Wing, though I think one day I might want to go back and invest time into the series.

.....

While on that... here's another anime update for what I've been watching:

Your Lie in April - While this one pulled at the emotional strings quite a lot, I felt it was pretty well complete journey by the end. The whole time I was confused about what the Lie was, though it was well wrapped up with a nice bow. IMO, well worth watching.

After the Rain - I read despite the plot of this being very problematic, that it was actually quite wholesome and worth it. Being one of the shorter anime (like, 12 episodes, I think) I figured I'd give it a chance. Thankfully the feedback was correct. So, despite feeling a bit creepy at the concept, I was pretty happy with it and the result and the depth the characters showed. The way it ended was pretty well done.

Honey and Clover - Overall, I fully enjoyed this. I was a bit worried by the end, but it ended how college ends. I felt pretty satisfied with the direction of every character. The only questionable bit was the character of Hagu, which I ended up writing off as she had some mental developmental issues due to some undiagnosed medical condition (along with being sheltered in the country) ... in addition to having dwarfism. Thankfully the show never really took anything too far with her and didn't diagnose her but rather just accepted that's how she was. Seemed like the main interest towards her was her creative pursuits and loving what she created and her gentle fragile soul.

Toradora! - I started it this morning. I've been holding off on this because I loved Golden Time so much and this is the other main series to watch by the same people. After watching the first episode this lead me to make sure I have everything and there's not some missing ova or movie or something, so I went to the wikipedia page for it. That lead me to see the words Dengeki Bunko, which seemed familiar... and on digging made me remember I bought the vita release for Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax (as I was pretty deep into collecting Vita at the time as everything was pretty damned good on the system). It's always kind of cool to discover something you own that maybe you didn't think much about now has a lot more meaning. It's got a character from Toradora as well as a support character from it as well as from Golden Time. I'm not going to get pulled into all of the Degeki Bunko light novel based anime... but damn that well is deep. Golden Time's first light novel was the 2000th they published. 😲
 
If you want to watch some of the more serious Gundam shows, easily the best IMO are 08th MS Team and War in the Pocket. Both short and to the point, both more focused on grunts and civilians than generals, big heroes, or the grand scope of the war.

If you wanna watch some great campy shounen with a bit of Gundam flavor and some excellent mid-90s-era Japanese-fighting-game-style casual racism, absolutely check out G Gundam.

And if you wanna read more rapid-fire Gundam references in a Japanese office slice of life romcom than you can shake a stick at, check out GanOta no Onna. I’m not sure if that ever got officially translated in English, but the scanlation is available pretty much anywhere, and I liked it so much I bought the physical books in Japanese.
 
Always felt Toradora was overrated, but I also strongly dislike the character type Taiga is. I remember it ending OK enough, but it was more just an OK anime to me.

BTW just like most things the source materials are generally better than the anime and such. This is especially true for visual novel adaptations (so many mediocre to bad ones). Light novel adaptations generally fare a bit better, but I generally like the light novels more. An example is Sword Art Online of which I've read a few of the light novels and I didn't think they were great, but I liked it more than the anime season that came out of it. Only finished the first 2 anime seasons in the light novel form.
 
Thinking on it, I'm pretty sure I watched Gundam 08th MS Team. Also definitely did 0080 War in the Pocket. I remember my brother getting them on VHS.

Always felt Toradora was overrated, but I also strongly dislike the character type Taiga is. I remember it ending OK enough, but it was more just an OK anime to me.

BTW just like most things the source materials are generally better than the anime and such.

I can see it. She's definitely a bit over the top and definitely wouldn't fly at all if that's how the male character behaved. I'm one episode in, I still have 24 more, an OVA, and then 4 short specials.

I think at some point I could get into light novels and even Visual Novels. Right now I'm finding Anime the more accessible option. I don't think any VA's I have looked into have english dubs, and the anime I'm watching... most of it is dubbed with really solid dubs. But I know as much anime there is, only so much is going to appeal to me. Also some anime I've enjoyed has more content in light novels or through VN's. So I can see eventually exploring those options.
 
"Always felt Toradora was overrated, but I also strongly dislike the character type Taiga is. I remember it ending OK enough, but it was more just an OK anime to me."

I agree on taiga. Especially violence played as slapstick which was common in other jc staff stuff at the time and stuff in general.

It's a alright slice of life series. Though Shana basically does the same thing but with the usual anime fight stuff swords magic giant robots.


As far as gundam goes g gundam is definitely the perfect amount of cheese. I highly recommend it.

Mega anti recs to seed and orphans. Jfc at the second one it's ending is awful. I should know better to drop stuff when I get that vibe.
 
I will watch Erased eventually again though because of yourself. I don't remember jack anymore about that series haha. I've taken a long enough break from anime to watch some more again. Some really bad isekai anime airing last season really drew the good vibes energy from me very early on in the season (like 2 weeks into it haha), and I haven't watched a single episode since then. I just need to find a pretty good series again because there is so much poop out there or just plain average stuff. If I never see another isekai again I'll probably be better for it.
 
There's so much isekai out there. It's not something I have much interest in unless it ticks a lot of my other boxes. One of my kids keeps mentioning Re:Zero, but he only watched the first season and the plot really doesn't do anything for me. I did watch Outbreak Company which kind of pokes fun at the entire genre as well as the entire concept of exporting culture from one country to others as a way of economic and cuturual influence (and in some regards war). One could say we have all been kind of pulled in by videogames, anime, and so on in a similar way and I couldn't really argue too much about it. There's some pretty great story telling hitting some real emotions and provoking some deep thoughts that is kind of lacking in a lot of what is made here. That said, I think when things get too derivative or games end up too bland, no one is really against calling it out.

... side note...

Just making note here, Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is one of the games that is on the list of "won't start" on the Switch 2 and is being investigated. Last night, I played some Switch (Mario Golf Super Rush, which I played socially and had a blast) and noticed Tokyo Xanadu had a pending update trying to install. This is the first time the game has had an update since launch, I believe... though my switch was "off" so I don't know if it's a new update or it came out in January. Still, hopefully this is a sign that the game will be working by time the Switch 2 launches. 🤞
 
Re zero is a very acquired taste since it bounces between slice of life, puzzle and magic stuff. Also a lot of gore since people constantly get violently murdered. The dub often goes a little over the top with the emotional stuff.

If nothing else the season with Echidna is really likable. Her and suburu have crazy good chemistry too despite having only just met and their dialogue seems realistic vs usual anime nonsense. So if you don't intend to watch any more of it that seasons scenes with them is at least worth a shot.

Most of the female characters are horrible though. Besides the knight princess and echidna the rest of them are pick a trope.
 
Isekai is all I wanted from anime for the first 30 years of my life, when they never gave it to me. How hard was that, to make some Dungeons & Dragons fantasy-adventure anime? Why did Sword Art Online have to kickstart that trend?? It didn't even get punched into overdrive until many years after that. No idea why it took them that long to figure out those were the types of shows that so many guys wanted. Final Fantasy in anime format. I would have gone bonkers for Demon Slayer, and Ufotable animation studio projects, as a kid. Now it's just isekai overload with all kinds of trash. The selection of titles at the bookstore is even worse.

Fantasy-adventure is my favorite. The good ones are still the best. and that is comprised of lots of good Isekai. I watch a good amount of anime and you don't even have to waste your time with the subpar stuff; you can just pretend it doesn't even exist.
 
Yeah anime is some of the easiest stuff in my life to just drop out of nowhere since so much comes out every season. I don't watch as much anime anymore, but I do hope to one day get that dopamine hit more often. It just doesn't happen very often anymore and it's mainly just stuff to keep on in the background.
 
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I don't think sword art online fits that. Generally you are in another world and can't leave. Sword art is just mmos that takes place in the same world. And after the early section they're no longer even trapped there since they rushed the story along to the end for whatever reason. Also it sorta started it's own trend of mmo based anime. Though I don't recall if any stuck since mmos are boring to watch and there's only so far you can carry something like that.

Maple idwtghsimomd is probably the only one that kept. And that's just because it's a comedy that's enjoyable for the whole family. I enjoy her over the top antics of breaking the poor mmo she's playing. I especially lost it when she just spat out poison safely from atop her flying turtle all over the battlefield.

Sword Art is more like .hack series. Right down to being trapped in a mmo. But darker due to all the suicide and murder.

There's log horizon as well which got 3 seasons. But from what I understand the creator keeps committing tax evasion or something so their legal troubles are likely killing that series.
 
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I don't really watch enough anime nowadays to have any subscriptions or keep up by season, but I do like having the free anime streaming channels on in the background while I'm doing other stuff. I'll occasionally see something that catches my interest.
 
While yes sub genre names are made up and dumb it's easier to figure out with them as a point of reference.

I wouldn't consider sword art online easily compared to like shield hero, re zero, konosuba or reincarnated slime.
 
As for isekai being modern, when I was getting back into anime about a year and a half ago the first thing I rewatched was Magic Knight Rayearth. I enjoyed the trip down memory lane... though as far as depth of shows, it felt kind of shallow. But there was also Inuyasha, The Vision of Escaflowne, and a few others I remember that did a similar thing of someone getting pulled into another world. Probably The Twelve Kingdoms fits in here before all the modern stuff. Still, I never really thought about isekai as something I actually wanted (not that it had a name then). Videogames gave me a direct path to actually be in other worlds and control a character and live another life. Anime for me, until recently, was more for just pure entertainment. To see someone battle and win and get that artificial high of the bad guys defeated or the hilarity of something funny happening.

Toradora ... I feel like, it's a side story to Yakuza. Hear me out.... imagine one of the Hostest Club workers, this is an interpretation of what their life is like as a single mom after hooking up with one of the yakuza visitors who is now dead. Well, it's the kid's life. The kid ends up kind of raising themselves to be super responsible and take care of the mom who is always out late working the club. So far, I am enjoying it. I feel like I'm getting close to understanding why Taiga is the way she is now that I'm past the part with her father. I'm not going to suggest this is the deepest anime ever (thought to be fair I'm only half way done), but I do see some depth here and some things that are being hit on. From the single parent life stuff and parental abandonment, the confusion of identity, judging people both positive and negatively for how they look, the ways people put up a front for others contrary to their real self, the things we put up with when we are lonely, and quite a lot more. It's not hitting me like Golden Time. Hell, I don't think anything was timed more perfectly for my life than watching that when I did. But I'm glad I am giving it a watch.

I will say this about modern anime. I love how quickly a 12 episode series can be watched... or even a 20'something series. If something doesn't land I can drop it and not feel bad. So that makes me more open to giving something a try. IF something is good but not great and I want to finish it, I'm not committing a significant amount of time to finishing it. When something does hit on many levels, it's short enough that I feel more open to rewatching it. Hell, I might rewatch it immediately. Which is really different for me as most older anime I need at least a decade between rewatching it and anything with a ton of episodes, I might only rewatch it once or maybe twice in my lifetime. Which is also how I feel about regular tv shows. Most, give me a decade or two or three before I'm ready for a rewatch for both the nostalia as well as because I finally forgot enough that it's enjoyable again.
 
Re:zero is good other than the author being upset that his favorite isn't the fan's favorite, so he sidelined the fan favorite.

I haven't watched this current season, but more because I haven't felt like it, not that I'm not planning to.

There's a lot of intricate plot details that you tend to forget after years between seasons. Given the whole premise, only certain events are relevant.
 
"Re:zero is good other than the author being upset that his favorite isn't the fan's favorite, so he sidelined the fan favorite."

Let me guess blue maid is the fan favorite? Unless it's something completely out of left field like thief princess or knight princess? Not sure who the authors would be off hand though. I'll take a stab at it being Emilia. Just because that'd be the most probable. As it sure wouldn't be red maid as they don't have any chemistry at all between them shockingly despite the heavy harem stuff going on with the other characters.

Or don't tell me that the fan favorite is another male character? As I would not be surprised if Felix or Garfield were more popular. I'm trying to remember if the dub made any references to Mondays and lasagna....


And vision of Barbara streisand there's a odd series I haven't thought of in a few years. That ones a jumble given you've got mech battles, magical girl with a family secret, her harem, swords and magic, lots of side conflicts. Surprised they didn't throw in some space stuff too. I joke but those snozzes were ridiculous.
 
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Let me guess blue maid is the fan favorite?

The author put Rem
in a coma
because he has a thing for silver haired girls, with Emilia being at the top,
and loli Pandora
second. Rem was literally
not awake
by the end of S1, and skipped S2. Despite that, she still has, by far, the most merch.
 
I love the anime ramblings. I too watched Your Lie in April. Even seeing the obvious outcome a mile off, it still hits hard.

I'm stoked for Frieren Season 2. I'm reading the manga and the anime is very faithful. The art is just so good.

I dunno why, I don't like US comics but love manga artist's work more.

And isekai is a real genre now, since it has a variety of subgenres, such as being systems based, MMO based, non-system based, parallel worlds/dual life and then the other half of fantasy, sci-fi, etc. I'm a big isekai trash fan and will watch most, if not all, because they're good brain candy versus some of the deeper series or other more engaging content.

It's similar how LITRPG is now quickly becoming it's own genre in reading since it's a specific offshoot of fantasy/sci-fi. And there's prog fantasy vs. LitRPG, as well...

This is all a big long tangent to tell you all to read Dungeon Crawler Carl.
 
I'm just glad everyone has been pretty cool with my anime ramblings and has had their own. I've appreciated all the suggestions of what I might want to look at that fits with my weird midlife crisis. 😎

Frieren, I'm likely skipping for now. I understand Season 1 is pretty satisfactory on it's own, but I've focused mostly on anime that for the most part is complete (and most of it based in real world locations, for now). It really is quiet a wonderful feeling to watch something to completion and then not be anticipating any more. When there is another season looming it's like being a fish on a hook waiting to be reeled in... and I already looked at how far in the manga that Season 2 is supposed cover. Not that it won't probably be satisfying, but I just don't want to be on the hook waiting for it to be finished or to find out if the Manga continues or not. Too often I've been burned out on shows and anime (and movies) for the long wait between seasons. Attack on Titan really did me in on anything modern back when my kids were all in for us watching it together. We never did make it to season 2 as a family (I mean a show we watch together, I completely opted out). Wednesday, I'm not bothering with season 2. I'm close to dropping Foundation. The wait between seasons is rediculous. Even understanding the "why" a lot of it happened. I did watch Wicked, but the wait on that at least isn't terrible like it was with Dune. And unlike Dune, it'll be complete with the second movie.
 
This is all a big long tangent to tell you all to read Dungeon Crawler Carl.

My sister bought me the ebook of book one for my bday. I'll have to put it to the top of the reading list. She also got me the first in the Bobiverse series. She reads a lot so I'm hoping both are hits for myself. Reading always helps immerse me in worlds especially when things aren't always as great in the real world.
 
My sister bought me the ebook of book one for my bday. I'll have to put it to the top of the reading list. She also got me the first in the Bobiverse series. She reads a lot so I'm hoping both are hits for myself. Reading always helps immerse me in worlds especially when things aren't always as great in the real world.
The audiobook series for DCC is probably one of the best single person narrated books I've experienced. The VA is an absolute master talent; his ability to perform female voices makes you think he's got a partner (which in a separate series about an isekai'd ant monster, he does, and his partner is also amazing).

The first book is the slowest, but in comparison to other series, I was sold on the slowest book. I've got all 6 of 7 in physical book form and 7 of 7 in audiobook.

It's good. And not even "good for LITRPG" good, but something I would recommend anyone who likes fantasy/sci-fi mix style stuff with modern day context thrown in. The characters are all excellent and the world building, as it spins out in later books, becomes something from "perhaps a bit rote, but entertaining" to "this is another story within a story..."
 
Fantasian Neo Dimension PS5/Switch $31.90 at VGP

Playasia has free shipping at $79.99

Did anyone order AI Limit Asia PS5 from playasia? Did yours ship yet? I preordered it and my estimated shipping date has changed 3 times, today was another day it was supposed to ship, and it hasn't. I have seen a lot of people say the physical Japanese version has English even though playasia doesn't mention it. I think I'm going to take my chances and have them ship me the Japanese version instead.
 
I ended up finishing Toradora! yesterday. Overall, Toradora was ok, but I think it targetted people who maybe needed some help understanding infatuations and crushes or were nostalgic for that time in life. Combining lessons on infatuation with a cliche "let's team up and help each other get with the people we love" rounded out the package. There were some good moments, but it didn't really land with me as more than entertainment. Still, glad I watched it once. I already moved on to something new, which seems more my thing. I'll finish it tonight or tomorrow and will mention it here.

...

Kind of hyped for the switch 2. Hopefully now that the tarriff thing is mostly on pause that the prices won't change and we can get on with preorders. I'm leaning heavily towards getting one at launch (directly from Nintendo) and then I won't have to think about stock supplies or what happens when the 90 day window is over and whatever tariffs come next. I also kind of see this as being a guineapig for the community. I'll likely be mostly playing swtich 1 games and can compare performance and what not on those without specific enhancements. Digital itself should all load a lot faster off that new storage.
 
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