Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

shivan128

shivan128

CAGiversary!
Feedback
163 (100%)
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!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 4 Downvote
gospelman said:
sorta-new Fanatical bundle, Bento Bundle 4

Tokyo Xanadu eX+
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
Synergia
The eXceed Collection: Aural Brutality Edition
Learn Japanese to Survive! Trilogy

$5.57 after promo code BESTDAD
Click to expand...
Nice picked this up since I didn't have of these titles

 
 
Last edited by a moderator:
nitrosmob said:
It will do. Super Robot Wars 30 Asia English as well, so may as well make an order that will be sent who knows when haha.
Click to expand...
I just got done ordering a copy of Super Robot Wars T. Been meaning to get into the series for a while and decided now is a good time for a new SRPG since Disgaea 6 seems like it's gong to be pretty meh going by the demo.

 
Lately I've been going through much of my switch library, demos for switch, and other system libraries to determine what want of upcoming game releases (and keep for my collection to play).  For instance I played some of the Ace Attorney games on DS to see if I should continue the franchise and just didn't have fun.  So I'm passing on Ace Attorney Chronicles which has been starting to sell out of preorders and not going to follow that series.  The last Layton game though, Katrielle... I played a bunch of the switch version (a solid 10 hours.. playing the daily puzzle mode and 100%'ing the first two cases) and have loved that and will continue buying whatever Level-5 makes for that franchise (I think I have every english released Layton game so far).  In the last week between full games and demos I've tried around 25 games.

Last night I played (all on Switch):

Disgaea 6 (Demo) - It was pretty humorous all the level 999 guys and how the devs made fun of themselves as the main guy was so over powered... but I ended up stopping once it got past the intro and to the town/hub.   The series just isn't for me.  I'm not a big fan of the overall world/theme and will likely never have the time to really play one of these games to it's fullest.

World's End Club (Demo) - I gave it time as some here liked it... but like Danganronpa (some of the same devs), it just wasn't for me.  I'm just not into that kind of story.  Just too depressing a plot and theme.  More power to those that love the genre.

Ys IX (Demo) - It did nothing for me.  Battle system, for hack and slash, was ok as was being able to run up walls was cool... but they should have thrown in a little story element or something because the bare bones demo just reinforced my view that the Ys series just isn't for me.  Which I'm fine with.   Too much to play anyway and I don't need more.  Better to have 1 less series to follow.

Trails of Cold Steel III (Full Game) - I enjoyed that.  Got to the first dungeon after getting setup and saved and quit there... so around an hour or so.   I love the world and characters and have the first two games on Vita.   I put quite a few hours in the first game but was too busy to really press on so it got put up.   I went ahead and ordered a switch copy of Cold Steel IV today from BB.  Figured I wanted it and didn't want to track prices hoping for a drop.    I have a feeling come Thursday evening there's a chance at the Falcom event they'll announce the Cold Steel I & II switch ports are going to be localized (which I'd happily rebuy and just sell off my vita versions).   Anyway, that's why this got priority... would hate to decide I'm playing this and then have to pay over retail for the fourth game if it sells out.

Also played the full version of Mario & Rabids... and that was really much better than I expected.  The way the game world works is really clever.   I will get the sequel next year but not until it does the ubisoft drop to $20 since it should get over produced.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Amazon Prime day getting me a bigger Switch Memory card. 256 gig was not enough for me so I got a 512 gig one. My Switch card was constantly full or near full so eh it will be alright. Hopefully the transfer is clean, but yeah I've needed a bigger one for a while. For imports I checked Play-Asia and honestly nothing too exciting unless you may want Asian English versions of the S-E games like Legend of Mana. I'm going to likely order up Maiden Switch and Super Robot Wars 30 likely PS4 (have the rest on the platform). There are plenty of good imports available now like the Atelier two trilogies for Switch (not first though sadly), lots of Super Robot Wars, bunch of JPN releases with English subs like Ace Attourney trilogy, and so many more like Gundam Breaker 3 complete edition. Play-asia was expensive before and it's more expensive now than years past. Choose wisely if you do especially for Asian English releases since they're a bit harder to get elsewhere.

 
artego said:
There's barely any games out for it at the moment you think there's some niche JP-only game that managed to come out?
Click to expand...
I don't think so. But it's almost fully backwards compatible with ever previous xbox game. I know there have been quite a few japanese exclusive xbox games over the years so it could probably help you in the department.

 
nagpo said:
I don't think so. But it's almost fully backwards compatible with ever previous xbox game. I know there have been quite a few japanese exclusive xbox games over the years so it could probably help you in the department.
Click to expand...
The series X|S is backwards compatible with Xbox One games (save for Kinect games,) select 360 games, and 38 Original Xbox titles they brought forward to Xbox One before discontinuing their backwards compatibility program in 2019. The only more recent development is that they worked out a way to make games render at 60fps using some tech magic, but haven't added to the list in 2 years now. Those games that are backwards compatible don't actually run off the disk but instead download a digital copy from the Microsoft Store that checks for the disk. It's nice for things like Sonic Generations or Persona 4 Arena which never came off the PS3/360 but not something you'll be able to get an Xbox import of Idolmaster or Gal Gun to play in 4k.

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backward-compatibility

 
Last edited by a moderator:
bappt said:
The series X|S is backwards compatible with Xbox One games (save for Kinect games,) select 360 games, and 38 Original Xbox titles they brought forward to Xbox One before discontinuing their backwards compatibility program in 2019. The only more recent development is that they worked out a way to make games render at 60fps using some tech magic, but haven't added to the list in 2 years now. Those games that are backwards compatible don't actually run off the disk but instead download a digital copy from the Microsoft Store that checks for the disk. It's nice for things like Sonic Generations or Persona 4 Arena which never came off the PS3/360 but not something you'll be able to get an Xbox import of Idolmaster or Gal Gun to play in 4k.

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backward-compatibility
Click to expand...
thanks for the info. i didn't know

 
Alternate Jake Hunter: DAEDALUS The Awakening of Golden Jazz is $4.80 on the eshop.  I played the demo for this recently and found it pretty cool.  Not $40 cool and not probably worth me trying to find an import and research which one (if any) has English... but for under $5... yeah, I'll be grabbing it.

Last night I didn't have as much time to game... mainly just played the demo for Bravely Default 2.  I wasn't going to give it a shot and just write off the series as I don't need more games... but hate to just do that when a demo is available and costs me only a little time to check it out.  Overall it was pretty good.  The battle system with being brave (sacrifice future turns for some back to back turns) or default (pass on doing anything to have more turns later) is pretty cool.  I'm not going to pony up big bucks for it, but if it drops to $20 I might grab a copy.  I have the first two games (first one, I got for my son... second I got because it was cheap)... so no harm in considering this later.  If I miss out, oh well.. no big loss.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
nightc1 said:
Last night I didn't have as much time to game... mainly just played the demo for Bravely Default 2. I wasn't going to give it a shot and just write off the series as I don't need more games... but hate to just do that when a demo is available and costs me only a little time to check it out. Overall it was pretty good. The battle system with being brave (sacrifice future turns for some back to back turns) or default (pass on doing anything to have more turns later) is pretty cool. I'm not going to pony up big bucks for it, but if it drops to $20 I might grab a copy. I have the first two games (first one, I got for my son... second I got because it was cheap)... so no harm in considering this later. If I miss out, oh well.. no big loss.
Click to expand...
I finished the game not long after it came out. It's not as tedious as Bravely Default 1, but there's downsides. The Brave/Default is downgraded from what they used in Octopath, and the game can be steamrolled late game. I don't really remember the last 30% of the game.

 
Vinny said:
PA doesn't charge until they ship right? I'd rather have the PS4 version but figured this is worth a placeholder PO in case I miss that.
Click to expand...
I might be mistaken, but I think if you use Paypal, you're charged immediately. I've never used a credit card on Play-Asia, so I can't speak to that method.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Vinny said:
PA doesn't charge until they ship right? I'd rather have the PS4 version but figured this is worth a placeholder PO in case I miss that.
Click to expand...
I checked my last order with PA... DQ 1/2/3 Switch... which I pre-ordered in early September 2019 and shipped in late October 2019. I paid by Credit Card and correct... at that time I was charged a $1 fee which fell off at the time of the order and then the full amount when the order shipped on October 20th. Took some digging to figure this out... glad I don't delete my text history. I get alerts with every charge. But I could have looked this up at home as I log all CC transactions into my financial software... though the dates might have been off from when the actual charge was attempted. Charge attempts I know about within a couple seconds of them happening.

 
Vinny said:
Well, placed an order with my credit card and no pending charge or anything so that's something.
Click to expand...
If you don't get alerts like I do you may never see a charge show up since it's one of those temp charges that pop off.

The only hiccup may be whatever hoops you have to jump through to cancel if it ends up getting a domestic print.

 
nightc1 said:
If you don't get alerts like I do you may never see a charge show up since it's one of those temp charges that pop off.

The only hiccup may be whatever hoops you have to jump through to cancel if it ends up getting a domestic print.
Click to expand...
I hope does but would be shocked if there is a local release...

 
Vinny said:
PA doesn't charge until they ship right? I'd rather have the PS4 version but figured this is worth a placeholder PO in case I miss that.
Click to expand...
Will wait for a PS4 version before I compromise/settle for a Switch copy. That said, want more details on what, if any, differences there are in the unlockables, and what is (or isn't) on the disc/cartridge.
 
As someone who loves these games, that headline sounds almost too good or too oversimplified to be true (everything at once?).  Don't trust the epic store..  in regards to anything really.  Regardless, still excited and looking forward to watching the event tomorrow morning.  Sadly I can't wreck my sleep schedule during the work week by watching a stream in the middle of the night.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
gospelman said:
As someone who loves these games, that headline sounds almost too good or too oversimplified to be true (everything at once?). Don't trust the epic store.. in regards to anything really. Regardless, still excited and looking forward to watching the event tomorrow morning. Sadly I can't wreck my sleep schedule during the work week by watching a stream in the middle of the night.
Click to expand...
https://twitter.com/Hansuke21/status/1408009528822616070

 
Falcom event I think is at 8pm CST for me.  I will try to watch it.  I should be home by then (going kayaking after work).   I'm new to paying close attention to the franchise.  Zero and Azure are the two Crossbell games.  They have switch ports as do the first two cold steel games.  Hopefully if they are getting localized for pc that means the switch versions will get localized.  First of those crossbell games is slated for fall 2022, so nothing anytime soon.    The other games are listed as 2023.

The event, I think (please correct if wrong) will be hosted on the New Game Plus Expo youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Ti_rfYIhnyj3yrWqlIMrw

I subbed to it when the event was announced.   So far they haven't posted a "Live Stream" event or anything... so it may just be a video will just get turned on at the right time.

Last night I only ended up giving Warriors of Orochi 4 Ultimate and One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 a try on the switch.  I LOVED Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity to the the point of finishing most everything in the game and what I've played of Dragon Quest Heroes 1&2 on switch I loved... so figured I'd pick these two up when the physical copies got cheap.  Both games had one glaring flaw... no english dub.  Sure DQ Heroes 1&2 on switch has no english at all, but I love DQ so it's all good.  The dub issue is simply there are a lot of coversations going on while in the middle of fighting hundreds of dudes non stop.  Makes it hard to keep up with the story.  Orochi was a bit ... dull.  I am not familiar with the characters, couldn't keep up with the story, and the game play alone just felt generic with so little to root what you are doing and why.   I'll give it another couple missions before deciding but It's leaning towards the "not for me", sell pile.  Which this would be the wise decision as it's going down a huge rabbit hole if I decide to follow the musou genre instead of just where it touches franchises I love.   PW4 though was pretty fun.   Nice over the top moves, vibrant environments, colorful characters... it made for a better time.  I read One Piece for about a year or so as it was published to Shonen Jump magazine back over a decade ago... so I know the license, though I'm not enough of fan to chase games for it.  I'll give this one a little more time but I'm leaning towards keeping it for now.

 
nightc1 said:
Falcom event I think is at 8pm CST for me.
Click to expand...
If you’re Central Time, it’s at midnight. If CST means somewhere else entirely, please disregard my ignorance lol Just making sure you have the right time for viewing
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Batto47 said:
If you’re Central Time, it’s at midnight. If CST means somewhere else entirely, please disregard my ignorance lol Just making sure you have the right time for viewing
Click to expand...
Oh dang you are right. I read 10pm PT and for some reason subtracted two hours instead of adding... in that case I'll probably just wait until the morning and find out then what happened. It's not like anything will be happening soon.

 
Yeah it's midnight for me in CST.  I asked in a discord for kiseki fans and was told this link will probably have the video archive in the morning.

Anyway aside from already expecting Hajimari next year, I've been waiting/hoping for these announcements for a long time.  I'm going to wait to hear the announcement direct from Falcom before truly processing it and reacting to it.  Exciting times though.

 
We'll see about the Trails games. I know I got Zero/Azure translated on my PC. Just haven't been in the mood to play them yet. BTW since people are talking about Trails may as well as talk about some new VN releases. Also Steam summer sale started with many games.

Slobbish Dragon Princess LOVE + PLUS was released by Sekai Project/Denpasoft. This is a short fan disk. 18+ from Denpasoft and a free patch is available as well.

Steam

Denpasoft 18+ patch (NSFW)

Denpasoft (NSFW)

JAST USA is having their summer sale till June 28th.

JAST USA Summer Sale (NSFW)

They also announced Onigokko! from ALcot releasing June 29th. This game is about a story about a past story about Oni gathering treasures and a person and their friends defeated them. A descendant of the Oni is now trying to steal the treasures in the present day. Of course there is descendants of the person and their friends and they are in high school. When someone is posing as the male descendent it is time to investigate. This is from the My Girlfriend is the President makers, and those were entertaining as heck, so I expect this to be good.

VNDB (NSFW)

Mangagamer released Jeanne at the Clock Tower. Currently 10% off in the Summer sale. It's 18+ on Steam.

Steam (NSFW)

Their next game Distant Memoraĵo releases July 15th.

Robolife-Days with Aino released and it's a robo sim or something on Steam. I liked the way it looks but can't vouch for it.
 
Steam (NSFW)
VNDB (NSFW)
Lastly Suzukuri Dungeon: Karin in the Mountain was released on Johren. This is a spinoff from the Shin Koihime Musou series. It's like a tower defense dungeon building thing. It has a 20% discount till July 2nd.

Johren (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I’ve almost finished Zero on my Vita. I would need Ao to come to the Switch for me to consider this localization, otherwise I’ll stick with the Vita version when the Geofront patch is finished.
 
With how I play games I will likely not get to the games right away anyway and by the time I want to play them It will be 2023 and I will be ready! I have the TitS games to go through before this. Yeah I've barely played any of them.

 
Likes like everything (including Reverie) has been confirmed for PS4/Switch/PC :)

Now if the Trails in the Sky games could see a discount more than the same 50%, 35% and 25% that they've been getting for years....

 
Well I just finished watching the 90min archive. I'm going to pretend that the cringelord emcee didn't exist and say it was all really worthwhile. I'm surprised they threw in a Nayuta announcement since that's an offshoot game and not connected to the main kiseki plotline. But hey I'll take it - and the fact they consider it important enough to bring over might mean that it has relevance to the main plotline in future developments. The only thing I am slightly disappointed by is the 2023 release for Hajamari. The title for the western release, Trails into Reverie, isn't a direct translation but will probably make more sense after playing the game. Players don't really find out why our most recent arc is titled CS until the end of the third game, for instance.

Covnam said:
Now if the Trails in the Sky games could see a discount more than the same 50%, 35% and 25% that they've been getting for years....
Click to expand...
Honestly I would just buy the Sky games at the current steam sale prices. The games are very much worth supporting. Since they're all published by xseed I wouldn't expect any great departures from the established pricing trends or any influence from the current announcements, which are all under NISA.

nitrosmob said:
With how I play games I will likely not get to the games right away anyway and by the time I want to play them It will be 2023 and I will be ready! I have the TitS games to go through before this. Yeah I've barely played any of them.
Click to expand...
Do your own pace for sure. If anyone is having trouble getting through Sky FC, SC, or 3rd, I really don't recommend skipping them. In that event I'd say just play through the game on Easy and abuse turbo mode. Down the road you can revisit them if you'd like - all of these games cater to ng+ replays.

srocky26 said:
I’ve almost finished Zero on my Vita. I would need Ao to come to the Switch for me to consider this localization, otherwise I’ll stick with the Vita version when the Geofront patch is finished.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Azure (Ao no Kiseki) is in my opinion still the high point in the series. It's probably my favorite game, period.. so I will probably buy all physical versions. However the geofront translation, something I was involved in minor ways, will still be important. It's completely accessible and playable between now and the distant 2023 official release.

At the end of the day I see two versions of Zero & Azure worth owning / preserving. One is the official translation, obviously. The versions that we are getting in the official releases are very likely based on the recent "Kai" releases in jpn. The kai versions mainly added some Cold Steel characters who had a history in Crossbell. Note that the Kai releases do not have the extra content from the Evo releases, which have a handful of extra quests ingame and a significant amount of additional voiced lines. As a result, a geofront patch (with added voices) on pc or, even better, a vita version of Ao Evo with geofront patch (requires a modded system) will also be worth having.

Edit: Wrote this before I saw geofront announcements. Sadly this has come with the patches no longer being officially available. I guess one cool thing will be the chest messages I wrote might be in the actual, printed version of the game.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Somehow last night I was up at 11:45pm so I decided to find the stream and watch it live. The youtube channel I had was right but they didn't even announce the live stream until it was about to be live so I ended up tracking down the twitch stream and watched it there.

Overall the event was pretty cool. It was kind of interesting too that between the youtube feed and the twitch feed they only manged to get just over 4000 concurrent viewers. Not too surprising as it was geared for the North America and Europe markets specifically but then they go and put it on at times that are completely inconvenient to both markets. Also kind of interesting that the event, other than the message from the president of the company, actually appeared to be a live event and not prerecorded. That band was great. Audio mixing on it was solid as the sax really fit in well with the dualing guitars and the audio levels seemed really well engineered.

The announcements were spoiled, but it was cool to get confirmation that these were coming to Switch. Funny though every announcement was followed with saying they'd be on all systems... but then it listed Switch, Playstation, and PC. Poor Xbox.

Only odd moment was that strangely long intermission with the looping song. But this gave time to read the chat and see what people were saying.

I was slightly disappointed that the CS1&2 Switch ports had no anouncements for localizaion, but considering they made a big deal about NIS being their partner on all games... it makes some sense. Not sure how the licensing is tied up with Xeed but it would be cool if Xeed saw the interest in the franchise and would do something to fill that gap before the other games start coming out next fall. Sort of like Sega realizing that Shenmue 1 & 2 coming out could capitalize on Shenmue 3.

gospelman said:
However the geofront translation, something I was involved in minor ways, will still be important. It's completely accessible and playable between now and the distant 2023 official release.
Click to expand...
I don't know if this is true, but during the live feed on Twitch people were saying in the chat that the devs have paid the geofront team for their translations and will be using them for a base of their own translations. Which, honestly, I think that's a smart decision as it gives them somewhere to start and makes meeting these launch dates easier.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
gospelman said:
Well I just finished watching the 90min archive. I'm going to pretend that the cringelord emcee didn't exist and say it was all really worthwhile. I'm surprised they threw in a Nayuta announcement since that's an offshoot game and not a part of the main kiseki universe. But hey I'll take it. Only thing I am slightly disappointed by is the 2023 release for Hajamari. The title for the western release, Trails into Reverie, isn't a direct translation but will probably make more sense after playing the game. Players don't really find out why our most recent arc is titled CS until the end of the third game, for instance.

Honestly I would just buy the Sky games at the current steam sale prices. The games are very much worth supporting. Since they're all published by xseed I wouldn't expect any great departures from the established pricing trends or any influence from the current announcements, which are all under NISA.
Do your own pace for sure. If anyone is having trouble getting through Sky FC, SC, or 3rd, I really don't recommend skipping them. In that event I'd say just play through the game on Easy and abuse turbo mode. Down the road you can revisit them if you'd like - all of these games cater to ng+ replays.

Yeah, Azure (Ao no Kiseki) is in my opinion still the high point in the series. It's probably my favorite game, period.. so I will probably buy all physical versions. However the geofront translation, something I was involved in minor ways, will still be important. It's completely accessible and playable between now and the distant 2023 official release.

At the end of the day I see two versions of Zero & Azure worth owning / preserving. One is the official translation, obviously. The versions that we are getting in the official releases are very likely based on the recent "Kai" releases in jpn. The kai versions mainly added some Cold Steel characters who had a history in Crossbell. Note that the Kai releases do not have the extra content from the Evo releases, which have a handful of extra quests ingame and a significant amount of additional voiced lines. As a result, a geofront patch (with added voices) on pc or, even better, a vita version of Ao Evo with geofront patch (requires a modded system) will also be worth having.
Click to expand...
Sounds like Geofront have pulled their translations because they’re working with NISA to use the Geofront translations for the official releases. Looks like I might not get my Vita patch and will need to wait the 2 years for an official release of Azure.

https://geofront.esterior.net/2021/06/25/from-fantasy-to-reality-our-partnership-with-nis-america/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
srocky26 said:
Looks like I might not get my Vita patch and will need to wait the 2 years for an official release of Azure.
Click to expand...
Yeah, so much information to process all at once. I watched the archive first thing in the morning before reading anything current online. During the video the idea was starting to click in the back of my mind once I saw the titles and logos of the official announcement. ("from Zero" "to Azure" are distinctively geofront.) Sadly I think you might be correct - a vita Evo patch for Azure, a work that was currenty in progress, might be a casualty here. If anyone needs help getting the files for pc between now and 2023 just pm me, hah.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top