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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Super Neptunia RPG releasing Spring 2019 on Switch & PS4 in the West.

DkvW6xUUUAAN1ta.jpg


 
My Play-Asia order with Bullet Girls Phantasia (PS4) is incoming via PostNL. Do you know if PostNL will provide status updates up to delivery? or do they only provide status until it reaches the US like Singapore Post? Thanks!!!
 
VN releases news:

First of all this is a bit late.

Mangagamer released Sweet Switch ~When Our Eyes Meet, My Body Melts~ from Ammolite . It's a short nukige about a guy with mean looking eyes that make a student council president girl uncomfortable, as well as another student. I'll give my review shortly as i'm already done with it.

Mangagamer (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

Their next title is the yuri title Sisterly Bliss ~Don't Let Mom Find Out~ from eye★phon. It's about two sister twins who are very close to each other, and the mom notices and later on chastises them for being codependent on each other. One of the sisters harbors forbidden feelings and isn't sure how to show them to her sister. It releases September 6th, 2018 and is avaliable for pre-order with 10% off the price. I will maybe get this, but September is a gaming hell month with too many releases already.

Mangagamer (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

Newton and the Apple Tree by Laplacian was released by Sol Press, and is about time travel and gender bended historical figures I believe. It's a bit more expensive than I want at $39.99, but I'll likely support it. Also their is a 17+ and 18+ patches. This was kickstarted and I hope it's a good one. I'm bogged down finishing games, so it will be a while till I play it.

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

17/18+ Patches (NSFW)

Island is being released by Frontwing on Steam August 24th, 2018. It's about 3 girls from 3 families and how they're on this island and there is some disease and the island is pretty much abandoned. A guy with amnesia, of course, washes up on the island and has a story with them. Supposedly he might be from the future. There is an anime currently airing of this, but I've read mixed reviews of that, plus the VN is always better. Easy purchase.

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

Your Diary+ from Cube was released on Steam by HOBIBOX. It involves a few stories after a guy finds a diary and some girls at school or something. One huge note is that supposedly the translation is very Engrishy. It's best to wait for a retranslation or something.

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

Last but not least Mangagamer made Otakon 2018 announcements. Links below are from VNDB:

Mangagamer Blog (NSFW)

The Expression Amrilato (NSFW)

Farther than the Blue Sky (NSFW)

Beat Angel Escalayer R (NSFW)

Fxxx Me Royally! - Horny Magical Princess (NSFW)

Impressions:

The Expression Amrilato is a yuri tale from SukeraSparo. It involves a girl who is spirited away to an unknown place where they only speak Esperanto. She meets another girl and struggles, but slowly she gets used to the place, and the boundaries between the ladies is lessened. It looks really cute and fun.

Farther from the Blue Sky from ChuableSoft looks like a moe type VN. It has a main character and his rocket club, made up of some ladies and their dreams of going up into the sky. It looks nice, and will be an easy buy when it's released.

Beat Angel Escalayer R is an older Alicesoft title where a guy sees an invasion happening and sees his friend transform in an alley and defeat some enemies. She will to depend on him in the future to get her powers with many, many 18+ acts i'm sure. Alicesoft games are just fun and i'm still working on Evenicle. I'm sure it will be worth playing when released.

Fxxx Me Royally!! ~ Horny Magical Princess ~ from Kalmia8 is from the same creators who made Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome. It's about a princess that comes from a land that's pretty open about 18+ acts and finds two different virgin college guys that she sees as potential mates. It's supposed to have a lot of comedy and looks pretty fun. Another i'll buy on release.

Excellent announcements for sure! 

 
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Never bought anything directly from MangaGamer before, but I need Tsui Yuri; is there any kind of backwards DRM practices I should know about?
 
My Play-Asia order with Bullet Girls Phantasia (PS4) is incoming via PostNL. Do you know if PostNL will provide status updates up to delivery? or do they only provide status until it reaches the US like Singapore Post? Thanks!!!
You will see full updates from every step of the way once it hits US customs. Prior to that you can track the package on the Post NL site.

 
Never bought anything directly from MangaGamer before, but I need Tsui Yuri; is there any kind of backwards DRM practices I should know about?
Nope Mangagamer is DRM free, runs from any drive, usually just unzip and play with a few installers now and then, and allows I believe 5 downloads of it, but if something happened you can talk to support.

They are excellent and I support MG the most of what's left of the English VN publishers for PC. You need to use a card though, which is annoying, but kids shouldn't be buying these games anyway.

 
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Not sure if anyone here knows, but the physical version of Voez came out today for Switch, been trying to find out if it has anything the digital version doesn't, but haven't been able to get any answers. I believe it's exactly the same, but physical is $39.99, digital $25. Don't really care about having a physical version if that's the only advantage, but I know some do.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
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Not sure if anyone here knows, but the physical version of Voez came out today for Switch, been trying to find out if it has anything the digital version doesn't, but haven't been able to get any answers. I believe it's exactly the same, but physical is $39.99, digital $25. Don't really care about having a physical version if that's the only advantage, but I know some do.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
I'm still shocked that this got a US release. I was so sure that it wouldn't that I imported the multi-language Asian version. Then this gets announced for months after that one. It's all very strange. It's a nice package, though! The dude at Best Buy thought I was making the game up, though, until I showed him on their site haha.

 
I'm still shocked that this got a US release. I was so sure that it wouldn't that I imported the multi-language Asian version. Then this gets announced for months after that one. It's all very strange. It's a nice package, though! The dude at Best Buy thought I was making the game up, though, until I showed him on their site haha.
When it came out I really enjoyed the demo, never bought it and forgot for a while. Heard about the physical JP version, thought maybe it'd come out eventually here. Forgot for awhile again then saw it today on Twitter. Deemo is also getting a physical release in October for Japan, but no US details yet.

Update: looks like I got my answer, just the updates that are in the digital version

https://twitter.com/PMStudiosUSA/status/1030503921742172161?s=19

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
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Not really thread related, but she's Japanese, NXT is niche, she dresses like a pirate waifu, she calls herself the Pirate Princess, and she's gonna be in a video game...

Kairi won the NXT Women's Title!!!!! Wooooooo!

giphy.gif


The WWE NXT Japanese Niche Pirate Princess Waifu!

 
My Bullet Girls Phantasia got delivered today, except they sent me the Vita version. I double checked and I did order the PS4 version. Joy.
Joy is right, as I pity you and the hoops your gonna have to jump through to get this straightened out. Based on past stories, I'll wager they'll probably want you to send their screw up back first, and then they'll send you the correct order. Oh, but wait, now they have sold out the Vita version, as this return process took months, and your now SOL!

They honestly fuck up all the time, and I've never once heard of them making it right, with no hassles. Most places would be, sorry about that, just keep that copy, and we'll send you the correct version ASAP! Not Play-Asia, they'll screw up, you'll lose out on a title, and they don't give a damn. No discount, express shipping upgrades, nothing.

Years ago I had a dual game order, and since it was combined, I had to wait for both items to arrive before shipping. That was no problem, but by the time the second game arrive, they had sold out of the first, and in no way did they hold stock. And the combined order had a free shipping upgrade if an order was over a certain amount. Well, since the one games was no longer available, my one game no longer qualified for the free shipping, and they charged me for it. So after screwing on my game(which was now rare and about $100 on Ebay), they couldn't even let me keep the free shipping. That's when I said screw these dudes big time, as the second I have an issue, I tell them straight up, fix this shit today, are I'm opening a claim on Paypal tomorrow, and I have yet to have an issue since.

 
I feel like I'm shifting through more zero effort shit on Steam lately when making this list. More Metroidvania's this week. I recommend Slime Rancher if you want to relax while playing something as it's fairly laid back and cute. I'm also hoping that Little Dragons Cafe turns out decent. Touhou Luna Nights looks quite interesting too since the developer is fairly competent at the Metroidvania genre. Finally Lily's Night Off looked kinda interesting with its odd premise, which could prove to be enjoyable for an indie Visual Novel.

Other stuff that released without warning last week or I overlooked it (Assume PC unless otherwise noted):
- NEKOKORO (Visual Novel)
- Prank Masters (Visual Novel / Otome)
- The Cursed Love (Visual Novel / Simulation)

Weekly Releases (August 19th - August 25th)

Dead Cells (Physical Release)
- Platform(s): PS4, Switch
- Genre: Roguelike / Metroidvania
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Physical release. Digitally it released a couple weeks ago.

Guacamelee! 2
- Platform(s): PS4, PC
- Genre: Metroidvania
- Demo: N/A
- Online: Yes.
- Comments: Digital only.

Shenmue I & II
- Platform(s): PS4, XB1, PC
- Genre: Action-Adventure / Bralwer / RPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A

Slime Rancher
- Platform(s): PS4
- Genre: Adventure / Simulation / Sandbox
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Digital only. Previously released on XB1 & PC.

Little Dragons Cafe
- Platform(s): PS4, Switch
- Genre: Simulation / Adventure / Rhythm
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: I hope this is good.

Pizza Titan Ultra
- Platform(s): PS4
- Genre: 3D Action Platformer / Parody
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A

Gunhouse
- Platform(s): PS4
- Genre: Tower Defense
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Previously released on Vita & Switch.

Gunhouse (LRG Release)
- Platform(s): PS4, Vita
- Genre: Tower Defense
- Comments: Physical Limited Run Games release.

Senran Kagura Bon Appétit! (LRG Release)
- Platform(s): Vita
- Genre: Rhythm / 'Fan Service'
- Comments: Physical Limited Run Games release.

Salt and Sanctuary
- Platform(s): PS4, Vita
- Genre: Metroidvania
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Previously released on PC. Releasing on Switch at a later date. Getting an LRG physical release next month.

PlayStation 4 (500 Million Limited Edition)
- Platform(s): PS4
- Genre: Hardware
- Comments: Limited edition console release, available at various retailers.

Hollow Knight: Godmaster (DLC)
- Platform(s): Switch, PC

- Genre: Metroidvania
- Comments: Last of the three free content packs for Hollow Knight.

Shio
- Platform(s): Switch
- Genre: Precision Platformer
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Previously released on PS4 & PC.

ISLAND
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A

Lily's Night Off
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A

Touhou Luna Nights
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Metroidvania
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Another indie Touhou game. Made by the devs who made Pharaoh Rebirth+ and Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue. Published by AGM PLAYISM.

Past Releases
August 12th - August 18th
August 5th - August 11th
July 29th - August 4th
July 22nd - July 28th
July 15th - July 21st

 
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Amazon updated my Little Dragon's Cafe to get release date shipping even though it's still unavailable for Switch. I am hoping it's half decent because it's certainty cute enough.

I am on the fence about getting Shenmue this week. I mean I am not questioning that I will love the game because I will, but between Little Dragon's Cafe and Dragon Quest XI coming out soon, yeah... Although I do want to support Sega for bringing this to us. Decisions...

 
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Amazon updated my Little Dragon's Cafe to get release date shipping even though it's still unavailable for Switch. I am hoping it's half decent because it's certainty cute enough.

I am on the fence about getting Shenmue this week. I mean I am not questioning that I will love the game because I will, but between Little Dragon's Cafe and Dragon Quest XI coming out soon, yeah... Although I do want to support Sega for bringing this to us. Decisions...
Shenmue collection is just 24 bucks with GCU if you have it. Sadly Amazon took away the 20% on this title (I could have swore it had it earlier). I plan on buying it day one for the backlog. It pays for my Skies of Arcadia remaster dream.

 
Not sure if anyone here knows, but the physical version of Voez came out today for Switch, been trying to find out if it has anything the digital version doesn't, but haven't been able to get any answers. I believe it's exactly the same, but physical is $39.99, digital $25. Don't really care about having a physical version if that's the only advantage, but I know some do.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Voez will feature all updates added to the digital version currently available via the Nintendo eShop, including Joy-Con controls in addition to standard touch screen controls, and a total of 174 songs. -Gematsu

Edit: Oops, I see you got your answer already. Anyway, I ended up snagging it after seeing that it appears to be limited in stock.

 
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Shenmue collection is just 24 bucks with GCU if you have it. Sadly Amazon took away the 20% on this title (I could have swore it had it earlier). I plan on buying it day one for the backlog. It pays for my Skies of Arcadia remaster dream.
Shenmue did have the 20% off on Amazon. The discount was available when I preordered on 7/3. I also made sure to get my preorder in for Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal, just in case they drop the discount.
 
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Shenmue collection is just 24 bucks with GCU if you have it. Sadly Amazon took away the 20% on this title (I could have swore it had it earlier). I plan on buying it day one for the backlog. It pays for my Skies of Arcadia remaster dream.
Almost all Sega games seem to have lost the prime discount. Valkyria Chronicles 4 and the new Sonic Racing don't have it either. Kiwami 2 is still 20% last I checked. All of NISA's games don't have discounts either, rerelease or not. Guess the Prime discount is just optional at this point.

edit: Was wrong about all of NISA. God Wars and Labyrinth of Refrain still have discount.

 
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Yeah a lot of pre-order discounts are gone for niche titles. I recommend getting in orders for the niche games that still have them, if you want to order from Amazon of course.

 
A Hat in Time coming to the Nintendo Switch; Release date unknown

Split Screen Co-op DLC releasing September 13th on PC for free.

Seal the Deal DLC Expansion will be free to everybody the first day of its launch on September 13th on PC.

No word on the DLC coming to consoles. I assume they will eventually, but no mention of it was made yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_I1GrvzxQQ

Interesting to see a Grandia HD Remaster coming to PC. I'll pick it up at some point.

 
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Grandia was a pretty decent game, with just an OK story. Good fighting system made up for it though. I'll get it eventually like I do other HD remasters, which is usually discounted a good amount.

 
It had a very vanilla story and a good (at the time) gameplay. I don't know if it really holds up nowadays. Still buying it for nostalgia reasons, but still.

 
After years of selling old games digitally as PS Classics and Virtual Console, I'm pretty sure if publishers are still doing it digitally, it's because they've gotten a pretty decent bead on their audience.
Publishers sell on digital because of the higher profit margins and the lack of additional costs associated with physical publishing and distribution. You sound like what one of them would say. A person doesn't even have to leave their chair to click 'buy' on digital and yet 50% of sales are still physical games. I do appreciate the snarky retort though.

 
After years of selling old games digitally as PS Classics and Virtual Console, I'm pretty sure if publishers are still doing it digitally, it's because they've gotten a pretty decent bead on their audience.
Definitely. I know far more people nowadays who buy digital over physical. Plus, when publishers make 3x their profit on digital it's easy for them to overlook the sales "loss" (and higher manufacturing costs) of those who just want physical editions.

I always prefer physical, but if I want a game and it's only digital, then there's only two choices. Buy it in that format, or lose out.

 
my internet download speed isn't that great, which is why I haven't gone all Digital. The Digital Future is coming for sure, but at least not for a while

A Hat in Time coming to the Nintendo Switch; Release date unknown

Split Screen Co-op DLC releasing September 13th on PC for free.

Seal the Deal DLC Expansion will be free to everybody the first day of its launch on September 13th on PC.

No word on the DLC coming to consoles. I assume they will eventually, but no mention of it was made yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_I1GrvzxQQ

Interesting to see a Grandia HD Remaster coming to PC. I'll pick it up at some point.
Was really hoping for a PS4 physical announcement as well.

 
I'm going to buy Grandia whether it's digital, physical, telepathically transmitted to my brain, etc...

I'd rather have it digital only than not at all.

 
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Publishers sell on digital because of the higher profit margins and the lack of additional costs associated with physical publishing and distribution. You sound like what one of them would say. A person doesn't even have to leave their chair to click 'buy' on digital and yet 50% of sales are still physical games. I do appreciate the snarky retort though.
If you're gonna snark, don't be surprised if somebody snarks back, that's all I'm saying.
 
The Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection is up on Best Buy for those with GCU still.  

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/persona-dancing-endless-night-collection-playstation-4/6290699.p?skuId=6290699

I was worried it would go up right after my GCU ended.

The two individual games went up too.

P3 - https://www.bestbuy.com/site/persona-3-dancing-in-moonlight-playstation-4/6290705.p?skuId=6290705

P5 - https://www.bestbuy.com/site/persona-5-dancing-in-starlight-playstation-4/6290697.p?skuId=6290697

 
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Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown - PS4/XB1/PC - Launches Jan 18th 2019, Feb 1st for Steam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2qUPHAlas

JUMP Force - PS4/XB1/PC - gamescom trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC7ibzetcsE

Warriors Orochi 4 Trailer Highlights Its New Characters, Godly Moves, And Story Parts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5ROJhntnMc

Resident Evil 2 Gets Its Latest Look And Details Of Claire Redfield At Gamescom 2018

SOULCALIBUR VI - Libra of Soul (2nd Story Mode)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYpELOp3xww

One Piece: World Seeker Story Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHnYTb77SXw

Daemon X Machina - Gamescom 2018 Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i80Gh_uup4o

15 Minutes of Devil May Cry 5 Direct Gameplay - Gamescom 2018 - Launches March 8, 2019 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmZdyeCRgus

Shenmue III - The Prophecy Trailer - Launches August 27th, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV1CVmpI534

 
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