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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Stella Glow is a turn based strategy game... more akin to Advance Wars and Fire Emblem... Alliance Alive is a turn based RPG more akin to classic Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

OF the two you mentioned... Stella Glow was exceptional for it's genre. Both have demos on the 3ds eshop if you need to refresh your memory. Or you could just google some pics/videos.
Stella glow was definitely not exceptional given it copied nearly all its elements from other series and executed them poorly. It's probably among the worst I have played in the genre after muddling through. Biggest negatives were that you cannot get the true ending on a first playthrough, character movement is way too low for the size of maps the game has, you are limited to 5 units when you have significantly more than that, enemies out number you by a ridiculous number on most maps, turn order so you have to sit through enemies turns frequently because of there being more of them and usually getting more turns than your units, and finally the escort mission map and the dual map where you have to use all units suck and the final boss map is a fricken nightmare. The former is horrible because the defeat condition is any unit dies and that includes the uncontrollable ones and you have two bosses on this map one who can move nearly across the entire battlefield on their turn and has high attack range and one shots most units. It took numerous tries to clear that map.

The game clearly expects the player to grind when I didn't do much of that. the s link stuff was interesting and its a shame that you have to once again wait for ng+ to actually do most of them.

Not a huge deal since most rpgs have balance issues but stella glows are pretty drastic is scale. Most of the units are trash. But then you have ones on the opposite scale that are broken. Popo your earliest unit can fly, has early large aoe wind spells and healing spells, high movement and high speed so she gets turns more frequently than the rest of your crappy army even with a boost from her wind spell buff. Nonoka your ninja is also crazy great since she has high speed movement and attack and more often then not counter kills stuff and gets an extra turn iirc. Rusty joins early and functions like nonoka. Sakuya is mainly useful in her one mode and can do high damage. But she can only move like 2 spaces at a time and her attack skill eats up most of her mp. water mage is ironically a strong physical attacker and her hip bump seems to bypass enemy defense for damage calculation. but other than that I didn't find her very useful. Veronica is your typical broken end game mage character but due to mp limitations and high spell costs she gets out maybe 2 spells before needing an item.

It had potential and wasted it which is the part that makes me angry. As there are good bones to make a strong game in there. Just needed a number of tweaks.

 
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Stella glow was definitely not exceptional given it copied nearly all its elements from other series and executed them poorly. It's probably among the worst I have played in the genre after muddling through. Biggest negatives were that you cannot get the true ending on a first playthrough, character movement is way too low for the size of maps the game has, you are limited to 5 units when you have significantly more than that, enemies out number you by a ridiculous number on most maps, turn order so you have to sit through enemies turns frequently because of there being more of them and usually getting more turns than your units, and finally the escort mission map and the dual map where you have to use all units suck and the final boss map is a fricken nightmare. The former is horrible because the defeat condition is any unit dies and that includes the uncontrollable ones and you have two bosses on this map one who can move nearly across the entire battlefield on their turn and has high attack range and one shots most units. It took numerous tries to clear that map.

The game clearly expects the player to grind when I didn't do much of that. the s link stuff was interesting and its a shame that you have to once again wait for ng+ to actually do most of them.

Not a huge deal since most rpgs have balance issues but stella glows are pretty drastic is scale. Most of the units are trash. But then you have ones on the opposite scale that are broken. Popo your earliest unit can fly, has early large aoe wind spells and healing spells, high movement and high speed so she gets turns more frequently than the rest of your crappy army even with a boost from her wind spell buff. Nonoka your ninja is also crazy great since she has high speed movement and attack and more often then not counter kills stuff and gets an extra turn iirc. Rusty joins early and functions like nonoka. Sakuya is mainly useful in her one mode and can do high damage. But she can only move like 2 spaces at a time and her attack skill eats up most of her mp. water mage is ironically a strong physical attacker and her hip bump seems to bypass enemy defense for damage calculation. but other than that I didn't find her very useful. Veronica is your typical broken end game mage character but due to mp limitations and high spell costs she gets out maybe 2 spells before needing an item.
Is Alliance Alive better?

 
I liked Stella Glow other than the forced having to play it twice to get the full links for everyone (artificial lengthening due to having limited energy for social actions your first playthrough). I think I may have not done that last battle lol. I was very close to the end. I thought the graphics were pretty good and the gameplay decent enough. I don't think it was a top of line SRPG, but likely about a 6.5/10 or so. I also enjoyed Alliance Alive, though the story is not crazy good. The gameplay has fun Saga type battles and has pretty decent graphics. I don't think it's amazing either, but I still haven't beat it. Fun though.

Also on another unrelated note I finished Summer Pockets. This game has gorgeous art and beautiful music. This is a Key VN after all, and they are known for that. They're also known for longer games with some quirkiness. This has that for sure. I wont spoil anything, but I managed to get through it completely in 11 hours. I sped through one of the routes, as I felt it was highly filler and I wasn't really caring for the character in the route. Another route was decent, and the other 2 character routes both were on the very good range. There is a lot to this story and frankly by the end I could tell you the main story very easily. There is an expanded version coming out with 4 more routes and some extra fun stuff, but frankly I was already feeling pretty burned out. This is likely one of the melancholic games I've played in a while. I find it hard to rate because the story overall was pretty decent, but the journey was bumpy at times. Still It's a very decent game and well worth playing even though I'm not sure the expanded version will get localized. It has enough story to go through and I'm not sure I could handle 4 more routes. Still I'm glad I played this one. 7.5/10

 
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As far as strategy games go, I typically don't care much for the everyone must live Fire Emblem style games and prefer the more chess like Advance Wars where sacrificing pawns might be required to win.  So for me to like Stella Glow so much was a pretty big deal.  For those that fall more on the Fire Emblem side of the genre or have a very broad love for it, I can totally see why Stella Glow may seem more average.  I thought the graphics were beautiful, the story and game world was interesting, and the strategy techniques you had to figure out or suffer retrying events over and over was great.   I wouldn't choose it before a new Advance Wars... but it's one of the few games of it's ilk that totally won me over.  YMMV.

 
SRPGs are my favorite genre of games and Stella Glow was a damn fine one. Glad to see it's remembered fondly.

Mikage (the "new" Imageepoch) was set to reveal their new SRPG at Anime Expo before the pandemic, but I'm very anxious to see what they've been up to. Imageepoch made some great games in their day.

 
SRPGs are my favorite genre of games and Stella Glow was a damn fine one. Glad to see it's remembered fondly.

Mikage (the "new" Imageepoch) was set to reveal their new SRPG at Anime Expo before the pandemic, but I'm very anxious to see what they've been up to. Imageepoch made some great games in their day.
I'm super curious how their new SRPG turns out and what role the major game company they are working with has in the game. It's not due out till the second half of 2021... plus they are also doing a new RPG that's due out the following year. Just glad they didn't disappear after having to declare bankruptcy. Stella Glow is what made me more interested in their work.

 
Not specifically game related, but this is really one of the only communities I still visit here, so I'm going to impress upon you all for this share. ;D

Just did a quick thing to see what all my current nendos would look like stacked up together, since they're sort of split apart due to shelving capabilities, and stacked behind each other for spacing.

It's interesting to see the different shapes, sizes, and designs of all the boxes, as they continue to change through each generation of nendos, but I guess that's part of the fun, though, not terribly fun for stacking. :p

Anyways, here they are,

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MwNXRTE.jpg


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As a non-collector of figures, the above pictures evoke the following emotion:
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I own 1/200th of that collection.  Tracer nendo.  Sadly I ordered a mercy nendo at BBY on clearance and the one they picked for me instore was actually Tracer.   Still bought it.  Actually now that I think about it I technically also own a couple more in sealed blazblue LE's I got for cheap.  

On an unrelated note, I noticed Crystar, Zanki Zero, and Dragon Star Varnir at decent prices in the new psn sale.  I remember some of those titles being discussed here in regard to censorship - but that issue aside, has anyone played one and recommend it?

 
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Nice collection there and could rival most booths at the conventions we go to. I only have a few nendroids but have been actively collecting the Miku GT Project figmas for the last few years. Sadly 2014 and 2015 are going to cost me a small fortune to acquire. 

 
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Not specifically game related, but this is really one of the only communities I still visit here, so I'm going to impress upon you all for this share. ;D

Just did a quick thing to see what all my current nendos would look like stacked up together, since they're sort of split apart due to shelving capabilities, and stacked behind each other for spacing.

It's interesting to see the different shapes, sizes, and designs of all the boxes, as they continue to change through each generation of nendos, but I guess that's part of the fun, though, not terribly fun for stacking. :p

Anyways, here they are,

...
I just wanted to say 1) damn that's a nice collection and 2) I love when you do these pile pics and things. Always entertains me. You rule
 
As a non-collector of figures, the above pictures evoke the following emotion:
attachicon.gif
gah.gif


I own 1/200th of that collection. Tracer nendo. Sadly I ordered a mercy nendo at BBY on clearance and the one they picked for me instore was actually Tracer. Still bought it. Actually now that I think about it I technically also own a couple more in sealed blazblue LE's I got for cheap.

On an unrelated note, I noticed Crystar, Zanki Zero, and Dragon Star Varnir at decent prices in the new psn sale. I remember some of those titles being discussed here in regard to censorship - but that issue aside, has anyone played one and recommend it?
Thanks.

Nice collection there and could rival most booths at the conventions we go to. I only have a few nendroids but have been actively collecting the Miku GT Project figmas for the last few years. Sadly 2014 and 2015 are going to cost me a small fortune to acquire.
Some of those Miku GT figures are pretty pricey for sure.

I just wanted to say 1) damn that's a nice collection and 2) I love when you do these pile pics and things. Always entertains me. You rule
Appreciate it.

 
I liked Stella Glow other than the forced having to play it twice to get the full links for everyone (artificial lengthening due to having limited energy for social actions your first playthrough). I think I may have not done that last battle lol. I was very close to the end. I thought the graphics were pretty good and the gameplay decent enough. I don't think it was a top of line SRPG, but likely about a 6.5/10 or so. I also enjoyed Alliance Alive, though the story is not crazy good. The gameplay has fun Saga type battles and has pretty decent graphics. I don't think it's amazing either, but I still haven't beat it. Fun though.
The limited energy isn't that big of an issue on its own. They also lock the characters links preventing them from advancing which is the bigger issue. Pick one or the other. You can't do both unless you set up points to roll over. Since that screws you over big time as even if you want to focus on a few characters you are not given the choice to.

Also character availability both for when they join and when they are actually there to do social links stuff with already limit you as another unneeded issue. Oh and having to do the dungeons to unlock locks on the girls was another added frustration.

Oh and the shit translation for some items and abilities and atlus tax on the game piss me off to no end. Atlus had no business putting their atlus tax on the game when they had no involvement in it.

As far as strategy games go, I typically don't care much for the everyone must live Fire Emblem style games and prefer the more chess like Advance Wars where sacrificing pawns might be required to win. So for me to like Stella Glow so much was a pretty big deal. For those that fall more on the Fire Emblem side of the genre or have a very broad love for it, I can totally see why Stella Glow may seem more average. I thought the graphics were beautiful, the story and game world was interesting, and the strategy techniques you had to figure out or suffer retrying events over and over was great. I wouldn't choose it before a new Advance Wars... but it's one of the few games of it's ilk that totally won me over. YMMV.
You don't have to let everyone live in fire emblem if you don't want to. And in later entries they give you the option to turn off permadeath. So really if those things bother you it sounds like a self imposed issue to me.

 
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Deal wise I hope many of you are jumping on Ys 8 for those that don't already own it among other titles.  As they have the buy 1 29.99 new title get one game 50% off sale on gamestop.  I ended up pulling the trigger getting Ys 8 switch for 27$ with xenoblade.  I figured that's the lowest it will ever get.

 
Not specifically game related, but this is really one of the only communities I still visit here, so I'm going to impress upon you all for this share. ;D

Just did a quick thing to see what all my current nendos would look like stacked up together, since they're sort of split apart due to shelving capabilities, and stacked behind each other for spacing.

It's interesting to see the different shapes, sizes, and designs of all the boxes, as they continue to change through each generation of nendos, but I guess that's part of the fun, though, not terribly fun for stacking. :p

Anyways, here they are,
First, thanks for sharing. It was interesting to see the nendo evolutions.

Second, how do you organize the anime behind them? I tried to see if I could discern a pattern but could not. Is there a logic that you use for such an immense collection?
 
Deal wise I hope many of you are jumping on Ys 8 for those that don't already own it among other titles. As they have the buy 1 29.99 new title get one game 50% off sale on gamestop. I ended up pulling the trigger getting Ys 8 switch for 27$ with xenoblade. I figured that's the lowest it will ever get.
Yeah some good deals if you can put up with gamestop. I found a new :switch: Dusk Diver Day1 at $29.99 nearby. Added Astral Chain for $25. They had the Xenoblade Def Works Set still in stock online as of yesterday as well.

A good pickup in Ys VIII, hope yours comes complete. Despite NISA's early localization work, the game is solid and Falcom is my favorite dev. I just can't play arpg's at console (esp. handheld) framerates when pc versions exist. Still waiting for Ys VIII pc to hit $20.

 
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You don't have to let everyone live in fire emblem if you don't want to. And in later entries they give you the option to turn off permadeath. So really if those things bother you it sounds like a self imposed issue to me.
My intro to Fire Emblem was the first English GBA game. I gave it a shot as a massive Advance Wars fan and it being from the same dev. Back then it seemed too punishing if you let anyone die and you wanted top marks for the battle as well as do well in future battles. Glad permadeath is not an issue anymore and you can get top marks in the battles even letting people die. It doesn't change the fact though that I don't typically care for SRPG's (due to all the relationship management, weapon management, ..etc) and lean more towards the raw chess like tactics/strategy games. It was unusual for me to like Stella Glow so much just based on it's genre and it having a touch of relationship management (no where near as involving as other games)... but it had a nice charm about it, a musical component (even though that could make the game too easy), and I fully enjoyed the battle system (terrain, facing direction, etc). Sorry you didn't enjoy it at all, though managed to fully beat it.

Still, thanks for the info about the permadeath not being a thing in the modern FE games. My son is a huge fan of the series. I'm surprised he didn't use this in one of his pitches for me to give the series another try. I know what I like and don't like after many decades gaming. I've watched him play some Three Houses and it bored me to tears. It's just not my side of the strategy coin very often.

 
First, thanks for sharing. It was interesting to see the nendo evolutions.

Second, how do you organize the anime behind them? I tried to see if I could discern a pattern but could not. Is there a logic that you use for such an immense collection?
I used to have a system, but after I started to have to separate them out due to space concerns, it's no longer in a system.

When I used to organize them though, they were alphabetical, and by publisher.

 
My intro to Fire Emblem was the first English GBA game. I gave it a shot as a massive Advance Wars fan and it being from the same dev. Back then it seemed too punishing if you let anyone die and you wanted top marks for the battle as well as do well in future battles. Glad permadeath is not an issue anymore and you can get top marks in the battles even letting people die. It doesn't change the fact though that I don't typically care for SRPG's (due to all the relationship management, weapon management, ..etc) and lean more towards the raw chess like tactics/strategy games. It was unusual for me to like Stella Glow so much just based on it's genre and it having a touch of relationship management (no where near as involving as other games)... but it had a nice charm about it, a musical component (even though that could make the game too easy), and I fully enjoyed the battle system (terrain, facing direction, etc). Sorry you didn't enjoy it at all, though managed to fully beat it.

Still, thanks for the info about the permadeath not being a thing in the modern FE games. My son is a huge fan of the series. I'm surprised he didn't use this in one of his pitches for me to give the series another try. I know what I like and don't like after many decades gaming. I've watched him play some Three Houses and it bored me to tears. It's just not my side of the strategy coin very often.
To be fair I didn't think 3 houses was very good either. Between the split paths besides church and eagles requiring full replaythroughs but not giving any content to justify going through the first half numerous times, locking the 5th house behind dlc and the school stuff at the church just being so tedious I feel all of that was poor design decisions and fluff to pad the play time. Most of the supports aren't that good either. The games also changed a bit since release so now Jeritza is a playable character instead of an npc along with patches making renown higher at default and giving you more save slots. The games load times were however never fixed which is nuts as the game doesn't remotely do enough to justify the long ass load times it has.

There was at least one recent fire emblem that didn't have supports. Echoes iirc. and I can't recall if it had equipment durability or if that was fates. But echoes might be better suited to your tastes judging by what you said. It's an alright game but I couldn't stand the female path lead Celery as she's such an entitled bitch unlike Almond who's a self made man and isn't spoiled and forces people to do what he wants.

Oh and gargoyle and zombie infinite spawns at certain points in the game can be really annoying but they usually stop once you either kill their spawning area story boss or advance the plot. But that can be bothersome if you are trying to do the other characters side. There's also a guide dang it section I feel I should warn about where you have to take both characters to the water ways but have cel go there again after alm is there to trigger a plot trigger specifically which was a poor design choice.

 
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I enjoyed Three Houses but lost all motivation to do a second+ run through when I realized I had to do the whole first half all over again. Fortunately I have a save when the Black Eagle route splits and may just go back to that and finish the church route. They really should have had you pick a house to align with at the halfway point and take it from there. 

 
I enjoyed Three Houses but lost all motivation to do a second+ run through when I realized I had to do the whole first half all over again. Fortunately I have a save when the Black Eagle route splits and may just go back to that and finish the church route. They really should have had you pick a house to align with at the halfway point and take it from there.
yes and I don't get why they didn't when they already have a semi set up for it on the church and eagles split. I kept a save for the church route myself in case I ever feel like doing that as well. I did the deer and eagles routes since they were recommended. My only drive for doing the blue route would be making everyone joke classes. As dimitri is apparently able to be made a dancer and the scene for it is hilarious.

 
I enjoyed it. I did, by chance, pick the true route my first playthrough. So much of the info was missing. I couldn't stomach a third playthrough though. The second one was much faster and easier, that I steamrolled everything.

 
When was the last time that happened like 10 years ago? I don't think they're in a place where they have the money to reprint games.
Less than 10 years ago as xenoblade is barely 10 years old (its original release date was june 10th 2010) and it didn't get released in na until april of 2012. People finally started noticing them reprinting it a while later in august of 2013 according to an article on google. Interestingly enough I pointed it out long ahead of time that they likely were doing it due to the sudden surge in copies they had and said copies being different than the original launch copies. They also did it with the metroid prime trilogy around that time as well. Whether it would happen for Ys 8 or not is up to question but it is a slightly similar case where that games limited print and the copies used wise go for a pretty penny.

Oh apparently even stuff like radiant dawn was reprinted around 5 years ago which is surprising as I never heard about that one, pikmin or animal crossing city folk getting reprints. I have a copy of radiant dawn and checked and mine is an original surprisingly.

 
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elessar123, on 22 Jun 2020 - 3:37 PM, said:

Not really a deal deal, but PS4 Alliance Alive HD dropped $4 at Best Buy to $27.99. It's lower than the eBay prices now, and probably close to out of print. Amazon doesn't have any copies left.

This is probably close to the lowest we'll see it before it disappears.
This dropped another $7 to $20.99.
There are several other games at 20.99 if you need to pair it with something for free shipping, but don't want to do the pre-order switcharoo.

Code Realize: Wintertide

Death Mark

Jump Force

Spirit Hunter: NG

Super Neptunia RPG

Or any of the D&D remakes (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape) if you need a hundred hour classic.

I'm trying to decide between DM or SNrpg.

 
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A lot of NiS stuff has been disappearing pretty quick lately with the exception of a few titles. Haven't gone wrong buying any of their games yet. The same with Spike Chunsoft titles which I've dropped the ball on quite a few of those.

 
elessar123, on 22 Jun 2020 - 3:37 PM, said:

There are several other games at 20.99 if you need to pair it with something for free shipping, but don't want to do the pre-order switcharoo.

Code Realize: Wintertide

Death Mark

Jump Force

Spirit Hunter: NG

Super Neptunia RPG

Or any of the D&D remakes (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape) if you need a hundred hour classic.

I'm trying to decide between DM or SNrpg.
Nep RPG is censored on PS4, Suffers frame rate issues on Switch. PC version doesn't have either issue, if that helps you decide.

 
Finished Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen tonight.  Thoughts / mini review following.
 

Came into it blind.  :ps4: Mask of Deception & Truth are backlogged.  Decided to grab Prelude right before physical copes sold out.

Gameplay can be rough.  Honestly probably the roughest tactical / grid / strategy battle systems I've played.  Even though maps are much simpler than something seen in something like 3DS Fire Emblem, the battles feel like they drag on even more just because they're boring.  Often you will be have multiple battles in quick succession with no plot progression, which made it impossible for me to play more than an hour at a time.  Was also probably a little too easy on normal difficulty.

Localization isn't stellar.  Some lines are very out of place.  In many instances I could get the feeling that the characters are referring something that's not being conveyed in the english script.  But in at least some cases it's probably intentional, such as joking references to impregnating the (young) girl on the cover art.

Music was good!  Now I did select the option which incorporates songs from Deception & Truth, but for me it was all new.  Not sure how much was taken from the other games.  But I really enjoyed a number of tracks.

But mostly, I really like the VN aspects of the game.  Now I wasn't expecting it to be as much as a.. polygamy sim... as it ended up being.  But the relaxing scenes sandwiched with the plots of politics and war were well paced.  The method of storytelling is careful and well executed, though may frustrate some players who don't like being in the dark for too long.

I guess the final thing I'd mention is a very vague spoiler (be warned).  As the plot unfolded towards the end I was reminded of the feeling I had near Xenoblade Chronicles' ending.  Enjoyed seeing how the framework of the fantasy world gets linked to both a fictional modern setting in addition to a future apocalyptic setting. I'm glad the game was localized and I have no regrets buying a copy at msrp.
..except
No, NISA.  The pamphlet manual-like booklet is not something you can get away with calling an "art book."  Just stop.
 
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I actually don't mind underwater ray romano's combat.  It doesn't do anything super special but it is solid for what it is if a little on the easy side.  I played on the hard difficulty for deception and didn't feel it was much different than the other difficulty. All you get is like 1-3 level difference for enemies and a few extra enemies in some cases. 

The visual novel stuff was ok but some of it was just soo dull.  Slice of life done wrong in most cases.  Cooking scenes were probably my favorite of them.  Occasionally some decent harem comedy scenes would pop up but most of the time they wern't funny and more lewd and or perverted. Especially when the mom and the old man ask you why you haven't banged her twin daughters yet. I understand different times and all but yeah... It didn't help that I had watched the tv series so most of the scenes were retreads making them doubly boring.  Some stuff they changed from the tv show so new scenes wise they were interesting to watch.

 
Can't recall if it was mentioned with the NIS PS4 stuff, but Destiny Connect on the Switch is also down to $20.99 at Best Buy.

 
The low prints coming from NISA lately has me considering picking up tomorrow's physical release of :switch: Cold Steel III (6/30) despite already owning superior versions.  :whistle2:k

 
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