Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

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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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Vinny said:
Anyone play Eiyuden Chronicle? I don't think I've seen it mentioned at all and I honestly forgot I had the game (KS backer) for weeks now. Reviews are kind of a mixed bag too...
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As someone who plays almost nothing besides JRPGs exclusively with a few turned-based strategies scattered in occasionally, I'm really enjoying it! I give it a solid 8.5/10 up to this point, and best estimate is I'm sitting at about 60% of the game completed excluding post-game content. I can't compare to anything in the Suikoden series as I sadly have yet to get around to any of those. (Seriously Konami, what the hell is the holdup exactly on the I/II remaster!?) I also know there have been issues with the Switch version, but I'm playing on PS5 and don't have any firsthand experience with that. A few things stand out, subjective as they may be.

THE GOOD
  • Music: Motoi Sakuraba's music never disappoints! He's had a hand in composing stuff for most (if not all) of the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile titles as well as many games in the Tales of ... series.
  • Characters: I appreciate the effort that went into creating all of the characters' distinct personalities, and I haven't really felt like there are a bunch of characters with the same generic personalities (yet). Some characters definitely stand out more than others though; favorites include Perrielle, Francesca, Falward, and B'baba.
  • Graphics: I love the pixel style that's been come back in style lately; colors are bright and crisp.
  • Combat: The auto-battle implementation is surprisingly robust, and it reminds me a lot of the gambit system in Final Fantasy XII. I also appreciate the use of gimmicks in some battles to try and help get rid of some of the monotony of battle.
  • Card Battle: This mini-game is simple to learn, fun to play, and includes a fair bit of strategy. I like the CCG aspect of it as well.
  • Growth: Exp seems to scale based on character and enemy levels both, so it's easy for lower-level characters to catch up. As a result, even characters than join 10 levels lower than the party are viable after several battles.
THE BAD
  • Mini-Map: There is no option to lock the mini-map orientation so that north remains facing up. I hate having to constantly rotate the map to get my bearings. This is a pretty standard QoL option nowadays, and I can't imagine it would have been difficult at all to include. I would love to know why/how this was overlooked.
  • Faye: The only character so far that I can't STAND! Her personality is annoying, her voice is even more annoying, and she seems to be an extremely weak character.
THE MIXED
  • Items/Equipment: Each character only has a single weapon that can be leveled up at a smithy, which I don't care for. Armor, accessories, and runes can be found in treasure chests and bought in shops though. Towns have only had a couple random treasure chests so far - the majority are found in battle areas. I have yet to find a single hidden item in a pot, in a drawer, on a shelf, on a table, etc.
  • Story: Up to this point, the plot has been ok but nothing amazing that's really got me hooked like some other games have. As the assumed main antagonist, very little has been shown on-screen of Dux Aldric, his ultimate goal (because world domination is NEVER enough), and his motivation. An event as pivotal as the supposed assassination of the Galdean emperor, presumably masterminded by the Dux, happens off-screen. I feel like showing this on-screen, or even the Dux plotting beforehand, would better impress the gravity of the situation. Even information on the Runebarrows, who created them, and their purpose has been virtually non-existent so far - really hoping the story fills in more soon. A well done plot twist or 2 would also be welcomed.
 
keyblader1985 said:
Oh, I thought we were just talking about Rising.

Also turns out I did buy Rising at some point and just completely forgot..
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I have to check bundle games almost one by one most of the time because I have them many times over. The perils of having a too large game library especially digitally. This is similar for PSN games as well. I need to play a bunch of RPGs, but I'm trying to figure out what to play. I think I'm playing Loop8 next since there is a higher chance I'll likely not like that one. Otherwise probably finishing up the FF7 Remake (Pt 1) is in my future.

Also on another note AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~ came out from Shiravune and has a launch discount of 20% off. This is one I believe about a guy going home and meeting up with some ladies from his past. It's very much a moege and has some nice art. It's on Steam, JAST USA (18+) and Mangagamer.

Steam
Steam 18+ Patch (NSFW but a safe looking page)
JAST USA (NSFW)
Mangagamer (NSFW)
 
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nitrosmob said:
I have to check bundle games almost one by one most of the time because I have them many times over. The perils of having a too large game library especially digitally. This is similar for PSN games as well. I need to play a bunch of RPGs, but I'm trying to figure out what to play. I think I'm playing Loop8 next since there is a higher chance I'll likely not like that one. Otherwise probably finishing up the FF7 Remake (Pt 1) is in my future.

Also on another note AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~ came out from Shiravune and has a launch discount of 20% off. This is one I believe about a guy going home and meeting up with some ladies from his past. It's very much a moege and has some nice art. It's on Steam, JAST USA (18+) and Mangagamer.

Steam
Steam 18+ Patch (NSFW but a safe looking page)
JAST USA (NSFW)
Mangagamer (NSFW)
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I have 3 figments because of it being given away free twice and I got it in a bundle. Not counting the switch version which I have.
 
The reviews for Loop8 scare me. On the other hand it is only 12-20 hours on howlongtoneat. A lot of average anime RPGs usually get somewhat decent reviews on Steam
 
We're in a golden period for clearance JP titles again. Just ordered that Robotics;notes Elite set for $20. You can see there that NSW Danganronpa is available again too. My copy of Disgaea 7 deluxe edition from Woot was delivered yesterday and I'm having fun playing that. If it only lasts 20 hours then ehhh so what, got my money's worth.

I highly recommend Dead Cells: Castlevania from Woot $21.99, for anyone who might like roguelites. I've been playing that one a ton in bed. The one I'm really waiting for right now is a price drop on new Shiren for NSW.

Can't believe Like a Dragon: infinite Wealth is down to $29.99 already.

Come onnnnn twenty-dollar Metal Gear Solid collection. You know it's coming!

You can't lose with these $20 disc game pickups. I love these periods.
 
62t said:
The reviews for Loop8 scare me. On the other hand it is only 12-20 hours on howlongtoneat. A lot of average anime RPGs usually get somewhat decent reviews on Steam
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I'm sure the overall feedback is probably accurate. If the standard physical version would hit like $10... maybe $15, I'd step up to see just how bad it is because the actual game looks quite nice and does get positive feedback for the graphics. It also seems hella quirky with it's battle system being based on relationship status. I don't think this is Superman 64 levels of bad... but just the loop mechanic grinds people as they work to build up enough rep to try a boss for the second, third, etc... time and it burns the player out. This might be a case where a guide might alleviate the worst of it after failing a couple times.

On occasion an average rpg will come along that I end up just loving despite the critical feedback. Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travellers was such a game. The best feedback called it an entry level rpg, but I found it scratched the itch of quirky classic rpg. The overall story had me plus the world and enemies were all pretty interesting. But it at least had some good feedback. There aren't many that have had positive things to say about Loop 8.

Nothing- said:
We're in a golden period for clearance JP titles again.
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Getting Fire Emblem Engage & Star Ocean Second (switch) for $20 each at walmart was fantastic. Same for finally finding Miitopia (switch) for a decent enough price ($30). There have been some pretty solid deals lately. I've spent more this year already (including a couple preorders) than all of last year... and it's only May.
 
Yeah tail ends of generations when they start clearancing out stuff is the best if you are quick enough to snag things. And they have it in your area in stock.
 
shadowysea07 said:
Yeah tail ends of generations when they start clearancing out stuff is the best if you are quick enough to snag things. And they have it in your area in stock.
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There are a lot of caveats now to even finding "deals" like these with ymmv, and with online retail. Also, with physical games now in far smaller numbers generally, you seldom even get games to sit long enough to drop to $20 or below.
 
Mattiful-Joe said:
There are a lot of caveats now to even finding "deals" like these with ymmv, and with online retail. Also, with physical games now in far smaller numbers generally, you seldom even get games to sit long enough to drop to $20 or below.
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Yeah, I feel like I miss more deals now than ever. I never see any worthwhile clearance games at WM or Target, not even shovelware, I only find sports games or the games based on tabletop games (poker, etc). Worse yet, I've mentioned this before but I definitely paid above MSRP for lots of games (basically everything from Koei-Tecmo) for a period before VGP started becoming a reliable reprinter.

Hell, since I can't find deals on current gen games, to get into Xbox/360 collecting recently since those were two systems I figured would always be cheap enough to buy for that I could do it later but then I guess the prices skyrocketed because of the XB store closing.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I found a "holy shit deal!".
EDIT* Wait, it was my PS Portal like 3 weeks ago; got it for ~$167 from Target after multiple deals/offers due to the new Circle promos.
 
Until this latest round of Walmart clearance craze, we hadn't really seen many good clearance deals at b&m retail for a good 2-3 years. They didn't have to discount stuff during COVID either. Target has all but eliminated sweeping clearances, and the Thanksgiving-Xmas dump bins have been trash for a few years. Some of my locations have these kinda permanent dump bins where everything is forever full price, it's annoying. Best Buy only occasionally offers stuff at 40 bucks, which everyone else is clearancing for $20-$30; they are always behind. We won't even talk about Gamestop; everything there requires shipping too. It's been pretty much Amazon/Woot or Gamefly these days. with everything else being a YMMV markdown.

The new $35 range makes the real clearance stuff all that much more appealing and obvious.

People are sometimes like, "There aren't any good sales". But this is what I got during the last two months at Walmart. The Switch games were a combined $95. The PS5 discs were $115 total. and they have a bunch of resale value and playability.

Walmart-pickups-1.jpg


Things have been GREAT since post-Christmas. Prior to that, there was a bunch of good discounts at BB and Amazon in Jan. $20 RE4 remake, $30 GoW Ragnarok, $47 Wo Long steelbook. I have tons of shit to play. like a dozen jrpgs I haven't even started.

It's been a lotta fun this year and I've been able to add a ton of value to my library and collection. Only really need to buy about 1 or 2 new releases per year. Shit man, Balatro was like $11, Animal Well is $23, Hades 2 is only $29.99 at full price. We been eatin' good.

What I've really had it with is paying for PS+ service. There are better things to do. what a complete sham.
 
Souffrir said:
I haven’t even seen clearance games at all in any local B&M since the early 10s. Maybe longer.
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Yikes that's terrible. Resellers/employee in your area snatching stuff up or stores that just don't do clearance?

Don't forget about the QVC and Staples coupons though those were ymmv for Staples.

Target wise you basically have to rely on circle promos plus buy x get y for a good sale.

And or discounted gift cards.
 
Loop8 impressions on PS5 (PS4 version) after about 4-5 hours. I'm getting rid of my copy and I don't care if it doesn't sell (will donate). To sum it up it reminds me of those doujin usually hentai simulation type games where you live your life somewhere and get to know the people. Those are usually alright enough to play and finish, but nothing super amazing. This game is worse than many of those.

I'll get my positives out of the way first. The voice acting for the few voice acting parts was decent enough. Also the character portraits in the visual novel part are solid. Everything else is a mess or feels half baked.

For negatives I'll start with the rest of the graphics. Everything feels a bit fuzzy when your characters are animating. It's supposed to look nice but everything feels choppy instead. You have to move around this country world and have fast travel with time. Pretty much you run around very slowly wasting so much freakin' time in this overly big world. Some of it looks a bit nice, but it feels big at times with many empty spaces, and small on what is actually at these places. I got very tired of this gimmicky graphic style and while it looks overall OK, it just feels like things are half animated at times and movement ends up looking choppy.

This big world isn't exciting at all with one main street with most of the activities and a school where a lot of interaction happens. There is also a shrine (eh), your home (very eh), beach (meh), and other places between them like roads. It sucks moving in the worlds and because movement everywhere takes time, you may miss people at locations. Let me add that the point of this game is to get to certain story points and you also interact with others to build relationships, as that equals power in these fights (turn base RPG battles). The interactions are just awful. You either do a bunch of stat based may increase, may decrease interactions with characters. These are all super generic and you either see a positive outcome and increased stats or the characters being pissed and negative stats. As you become closer first of all you get this little creature popping out giving a blessing of stat buffs. These persist between loops. This isn't a massive spoiler as after the tutorial you are forced into it. Every time you loop you have to go through these stupid interactions again although the stats increase quicker to whatever value you had during the run. In other words grind, grind, grind, grind, grind until everyone loves you. You also get events either with social choices (it has a red event thing in the box) or just randomly it seems when you are good enough friends with someone. The box red events are okay slice of life stuff and the others are there to get you to know the people and why you should care. They're not presented very well and at times feel like a weird slide show. They're very, very generic.

Speaking of generic the actual story is pretty generic. You need to defeat the loops and that's where the RPG battles come in. There are portals and you need to address them before a countdown which is seen in your menu screen. Even to address these things is annoying because you have to invite members to come with you and they may sense danger, get angry/bored, whatever else and just leave of which you have to get them again. Once they're in there you explore and try to find a boss. You need to beat enemies along the way to get items to unseal the gates to bosses. If you beat the boss you keep going on and doing this stuff. The bosses come in a random order and the story is just hogwash. This story about spirits and them getting with people reminds me of Monark, of which I beat the demo, and I thought that one did everything a lot better, and still wasn't a great story. The fighting is sucky where you decide what to do for the main character and the AI characters do what they want. You can use demon vision to get ideas for what people will do in battle to decide what your main character does. This demon vision can also be used on the characters in the normal world, and it shows their mood and aspirations.

I did get through a loop and I was tired of this game already. It feels so repetitive and feels like it wont be worth my time because of how weak the characters and story felt already. The one boss was very undeveloped and not that fun honestly. This game really should have been a visual novel and gotten rid of the exploration, RPG combat and stats system (unless it was redone). The story and characters wouldn't hold the game though, but it would be so much easier to play. I usually can play games and I can put another 30 or so hours probably and finish the game, but I already can tell it will be underdeveloped and not very much fun to play. Also there is so much loading even during the conversation parts. I wouldn't recommend this game at all and will be getting rid of my own copy. 5.5/10
 
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So my kid is asking for Spy X Anya Operation Memories and the release date trailer said it’s coming out June 28. Is there no US physical release? I can’t find a place to preorder it,
 
Just to add to Loop8 I decided to give it a bit more time and got through another boss. I also reached an instant end because of a character. At that point I officially said Uggggggggggggggggggggggggggg and promptly used Loop8 as a discus! I didn't do the last part, but I am officially dropping it as the story still sucks and the characters aren't amazing. Also I've gotten more events and they are just as bland as most of the others. What a bunch of wasted potential and ideas.
 
nitrosmob said:
Loop8 impressions on PS5 (PS4 version) after about 4-5 hours.
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Thanks for taking one for the team and posting your feedback here.

I played some garbage games over the weekend (some games I got free during a promotion thing and the Princess Peach demo)... and it felt like a complete waste of my time when I could be playing something I legit want to play. Still, it allowed me to delete some of the backlog. Loop 8, I'm going to just put it out of my mind at any price. Thanks again.
 
When I'm wishing in my mind I was playing Monark (I didn't hate the demo and did get it when it went cheap) I know it's probably not a game for me. I feel even praising the graphics is a bit much as characters are fuzzy and animate strangely.
 
Another DRM Free Indiegala 18+ bundle. This one has a good mix of yuri games and my favorite type of games (the simulation ones...Love on Leave is one). I don't believe Love on Leave is 18+. $5.99 now.

Kiss Academy Bundle

A Maiden Astrologer Divines the Future
Black Academy
Hot"Sento Girls"and love
Love on Leave
Mokoko X (Deluxe)
Secret Kiss is Sweet and Tender
 
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ININ is having an Amazon sale with a number of Japanese games included:

:ps5: PS5 Games

Jitsu Squad $17.99
Puzzle Bobble 3D Vacation Odyssey $17.99
Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef $17.99

:ps4:PS4 Games

Wonder Boy - Asha In Monster World $19.99
Dariusburst: Another Chronicle Ex+ $19.99
Cotton Reboot! $19.99
Cotton Fantasy $19.99
Jitsu Squad $14.99
Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef $14.99
Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great Yokai Battle +Hell – Deluxe Edition $14.99
Star Renegades $14.99
Space Invaders Forever $14.99
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends - The Baron Is Back! $29.99
RayStorm X RayCrisis HD Collection $29.99
G-Darius HD $17.99
Turrican Flashback $19.99


:switch:Nintendo Switch

Dariusburst: Another Chronicle Ex+ $19.99
80 Days & Overboard! $19.99
Jitsu Squad $17.99
Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! $29.99
Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great Yokai Battle +Hell – Deluxe Edition $17.99
RayStorm X RayCrisis HD Collection $29.99
Taito Milestones 2 $29.99
Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps and Beans 2 $24.99
Wonder Boy Collection $19.99
Space Invaders Forever Special Edition $27.99
Root Double -Before Crime After Days- Xtend Edition $21.99
Star Renegades $17.99
Boulder Dash Ultimate Collection $17.99
WitchSpring3 [Re:Fine] The Story of Eirudy $24.99
Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef $17.99
Taito Milestones Collection $24.99
G-Darius HD $24.99
Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef $17.99
Turrican Flashback $24.99
 
started playing atelier escha to logy after dropping banner of the maid (aka banner of the yogis some call it) It's weird after having 4 other entries under my belt (ayesha rorona plus ryza 1 and meruru)
 
Masterkyo24 said:

The Legend of Nayuta (S) $35 at Bestbuy. OOP item​

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Was going to post the same thing... went through my dekudeals shortcut to see what had dropped overnight and this ended up being an instant purchase:

Switch: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/the-le...rails-nintendo-switch/6481220.p?skuId=6481220
PS4: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/the-le...-trails-playstation-4/6481231.p?skuId=6481231

Looks like the switch version is selling out fairly fast as there was no option for store pickup... but thankfully shipping was still there. Not that I'm doing store pickup with the nearest store an hour away... but that's usually a sign of how quickly something is going.

Well, before I even got this posted... I looked back and the switch version shows not available. Glad I locked in my order before looking through the other sales they have going.
 
I got my PS4 copy of Nayuta during the GameStop clearance recently.

Just a reminder, if there's demand for it, VGP will likely reprint it, so don't FOMO if you miss it.
 
TheKbob said:
I got my PS4 copy of Nayuta during the GameStop clearance recently.

Just a reminder, if there's demand for it, VGP will likely reprint it, so don't FOMO if you miss it.
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Same, but I got the Switch release for $25 during that clearance. Still a good price for those that missed it before though.
 
Iirc nayuta is one of those spinoff things so I don't have any interest in it really. I still haven't played the last asset flip Tokyo xanadu+. That one plummeted in price so I ended up getting the psn ps4 version iirc for 4$ or something.
 
The problem with Nayuta is that there's way too many cutscenes for a rather mediocre story. The gameplay is very fun, the music is boppin', and the graphics/art direction are very fair for their time. But, the story is so bland, and it shoves so much of it in your face, mistakenly believing the player will care so much about it that he/she won't mind allowing the game to grind to a halt for it. I got the NISA collector's edition at launch and enjoyed it enough, but I'll probably keep an eye on the secondhand prices in the future, in case I want to make my money back on it. As gospelman said, if you're looking for a Falcom-style ARPG, just play one of the Ys games (Origin, Felghana, or VIII, in particular).
 
I've been meaning to get to Zwei II actually, thanks for the reminder. Maybe that's a good title to play on steam deck in between finishing Rebirth (almost done) and Daybreak release.

I would still say Nayuta good overall, just not on Trails standards. The plot and cutscenes were 'just ok' to me. I was/am mostly interested in piecing together how the undisclosed nature of Nayuta 's world relates to Trails' Zemuria. Fun but challenging to craft theories and eschew spoilers until further games are localized.
 
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What drew me to Nayuta (even though I had opted to stop buying Legend of Heroes games after CS4) is:
  • I tend to prefer action rpg's these days (though I can't seem to get into the Ys series)
  • this is a standalone experience and not part 1 of 4 or something or where I need to know a bunch going in
  • completion time for the story is said to be under 20 hours and around 40 if you try to do everything
  • I'm not put off by this being a psp game brought to modern consoles... I love that era of gaming (now someone give me some Kenka Bancho Badass Rumble and it's sequels in a collection).
For myself, this is really ticks some boxes. I do love big games... but if it's big it better be Xenoblade Chronicles or Dragon Quest in quality to get me for 80 to 200 hours.
 
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