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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Personally, it's not so much that I think Disgaea is incredible as it is that I really love SRPGs and it's not a genre that sees a whole lot of releases. Though with Fire Emblem's rise in popularity over the past few years we are getting more than we once did.

 
I dunno if we are getting more than we used to. I'd actually say tail end of the ps3 gen and early in ps4 gen had more 1 shot releases.

The only one I can think of that was recent was langrisser 1 and 2 port from last year iirc. Others are d6 and fe 5 houses.
 
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nitrosmob said:
Am I weird that I barley care about anything Disgaea anymore? The stories are always OK (mainly played 1,2 and 5), but the repetitive grinding, somewhat same-ish feeling games (yes I know the gameplay evolves over the games) and just lots of systems leads to maybe an OK but not great game. I bought 5 mainly to see if I can find my magic for the game again, but just became bored and it felt similar again to the previous I played. I also did play 4 but dropped off quickly. Disgaea 6 lost me even before the technical problems surfaced. I am ok with tactical games too loving FF Tactics and the Advanced ones and some others liking enough like Stella Glow. Some reason I just can't get into Disgaea anymore after the 2nd.
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That's because the series didn't get any better after #3 and #4. They believe that damage inflation and endless grinding is interesting for some reason.

The smaller-scoped games worked better. It felt like you were accomplishing something, achieving progression. Now everything is aimless.

 
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shadowysea07 said:
I dunno if we are getting more than we used to. I'd actually say tail end of the ps3 gen and early in ps4 gen had more 1 shot releases.

The only one I can think of that was recent was langrisser 1 and 2 port from last year iirc. Others are d6 and fe 5 houses.
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The indie & niche space is starting to get more, not necessarily big-budget stuff (and obviously quality varies as well). Fell Seal, God Wars, Empire of Angels, Wintermoor Tactics Club, Banner of the Maid, Utawawrerumouno, Chroma Squad, Dark Crystal, etc. I've heard the PC space has some as well (again, of varying quality), but I can't speak to that personally.

Maybe I'm just dating myself but I remember playing Path of Radiance when it was new-ish and having a really hard time finding similar games outside of other FEs and Final Fantasy Tactics.

 
nitrosmob said:
Am I weird that I barley care about anything Disgaea anymore? The stories are always OK (mainly played 1,2 and 5), but the repetitive grinding, somewhat same-ish feeling games (yes I know the gameplay evolves over the games) and just lots of systems leads to maybe an OK but not great game. I bought 5 mainly to see if I can find my magic for the game again, but just became bored and it felt similar again to the previous I played. I also did play 4 but dropped off quickly. Disgaea 6 lost me even before the technical problems surfaced. I am ok with tactical games too loving FF Tactics and the Advanced ones and some others liking enough like Stella Glow. Some reason I just can't get into Disgaea anymore after the 2nd.
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Disgaea is an incredibly niche series that came out at just the right time to catch on with a far less niche audience—it caught the massive wave of popularity that Japanese media was enjoying so heavily in the West during the mid-00s. It’s very good at being what it is—which is an extremely fiddly, customizeable, endlessly grindy SRPG—, but I think the large majority, even among SRPG fans, aren’t necessarily that invested in that particular niche. If you aren’t, once you’ve played a certain amount, it does start to feel overwhelming and/or tiring.
 
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Yea, I never bothered with Disgaea after 1. Before I got back into dungeon crawlers with Etrian Odyssey, my favorite genre was probably TRPGs. But they're all so long with so much needless animation, where each game easily takes 100+ hours. I even bought the 360 because of the Atlus exclusive TRPGs on it, like Zoids. But Disgaea is this 1000+ hour beast, and I just noped out.

It's actually why I played Underwater Ray Romano recently. It was supposed to be a TRPG, but it's battles were much less than I expected.

 
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Vigilante said:
Nice, I'll add it to the "next free shipping promo" list. Thanks.
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I'm always an idiot about that. I wait for a free shipping sale, get impatient and then order it while paying shipping and then a week later their free shipping sale comes after I waste money on shipping. I'm going to be patient and wait this time.
 
Tothoro said:
The indie & niche space is starting to get more, not necessarily big-budget stuff (and obviously quality varies as well). Fell Seal, God Wars, Empire of Angels, Wintermoor Tactics Club, Banner of the Maid, Utawawrerumouno, Chroma Squad, Dark Crystal, etc. I've heard the PC space has some as well (again, of varying quality), but I can't speak to that personally.

Maybe I'm just dating myself but I remember playing Path of Radiance when it was new-ish and having a really hard time finding similar games outside of other FEs and Final Fantasy Tactics.
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Ahh I did forget about underwater ray romano prelude to the fallen. Fell seal is another one.

But yeah during that one brief period we got natural doctrine, lost dimensions, stuff on the 3ds like project xzone series and Stella Glow, a handful of other one shot titles.
 
I put a hundred + hours into Disgaea 3 and upon starting up both 4 and 5 I just couldn't be bothered. Something in the back of my head said "Do you really want to do this all over again???" resulting in me turning it off and getting rid of it. 

 
Photophonic said:
I put a hundred + hours into Disgaea 3 and upon starting up both 4 and 5 I just couldn't be bothered. Something in the back of my head said "Do you really want to do this all over again???" resulting in me turning it off and getting rid of it.
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I feel that way about most tactical RPGs but Disgaea is to the extreme
 
I decided to import underwater ray romano prelude to the fallen since the topic reminded me that I missed out on buying that one. Luckily I got a copy for 29.99 off Amazon. 12.43 shipping sucks but they did give me a free month of prime so I will take that.

I've only seen a few episodes of the first anime so I wasn't able to appreciate the stuff in mask of truth and mask of decepticons from it. Hopefully it holds up well and I like that batch of characters. As I don't really have much of an opinion on them from the other 2 games. Minus the one clumsy tomboy maid sister knight lady. She was nice.
 
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shadowysea07 said:
Minus the one clumsy tomboy maid sister knight lady. She was nice.
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Touka is the best. Anyway just don't go in with high expectations for combat. But the vn parts are good. At a few points it'd say its even better storywise than deception or truth, though not as polished overall.
 
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shadowysea07 said:
I'm not sure I would have high expectations since I already played the other 2. But I will keep that in mind.
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I guess I should have said that better. To be more clear, combat is far below the other two games. It really shows its age, and is probably the roughest "tactical" experience I've played. They should have completely replaced it with the system from Truth. Instead, I think all they did was add some combo attack stuff. Regardless I'm thankful we got the release.

If anyone would like a couple of extra bundle [customspoiler='steam keys']
Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle
#59NN-GCLBF-#K2QP
Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War
5PHE5-C7XVD-ZK#P5[/customspoiler]

Help yourself - just please post if you redeem one.
#=First letter of the best character from Prelude to the Fallen.

 
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Finished re zero prophecy of the throne. It was good as an anime but there was pretty much no actual gameplay or interactivity to it besides the 7 maps where they may as well made them scripted given that you need to do steps to complete them. The stealth map sucked just like you would expect it should.

The game definitely fleshed out a few characters more and showed the nicer side of Anastasia and Priscilla.
 
I know complaining about DLC in fighting games these days is like spitting into the wind, and I don't think Bamco's even the worst offender, but I am getting really tired of their pattern of putting out so many DLC characters, splitting them into several season passes, and then NEVER making a complete edition. This is every single fighter they've put out since, what, Tekken 7? Maybe even before that?

 
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That is exactly why I rarely buy an Arksys fighting game. Either they will pump out an absurd number of expensive characters add-ons or they release a version then drop it after two years and release the same game again with some improvements and new fresh set of DLC characters to rebuy. 

 
They just need to stop making anime into fighting games. They're all boring as shit, and the wireframes and animations only require slightly more effort than EA puts into their annual sports games. I agree that a lot of shounen anime is uninspired, but to make games that are even LESS inspired is truly unnecessary.

The only anime turned into a fighting game that I'd ever care about is an Azumanga Daioh brawler with a story mode where Sakaki becomes queen of the cats.

 
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Things having multiple seasons is the issue nowadays, imo. Had Tekken 7 ended at S1, it would have been fine. DBZ has similar issues. The cast just gets so bloated and the new characters are always unbalanced so they can sell them.

 
So I figure this might be the best place to ask, but is anyone interested in the steelbook edition of MHW Iceborne PS4?

I ordered 2 from gamestop bc I was sure I would be getting gutted copies and figured I'd just keep the better of the two and return the other. BUT got my order today and lucked out, they were both sealed.

Please pm me if you would like for cost plus shipping.
 
I was quite surprised when I got home and underwater ray romano prelude was waiting for me. They also triple packaged it putting the game inside a bubble mailer, then that bubble mailer inside of bubble wrap inside another bubble mailer. Gotta say that seller will definitely get more of my business on the off chance I need to import another game.
 
Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon is getting a PS4/Switch game.

1632365477820.jpg


Text around the characters says “Fly, shoot, strike” and “Super!! Refreshing Shooting.” Combined with Tooru, Kanna, and Elma’s poses, sounds like a shmup or shooter.
 
elessar123 said:
The old ones had balance issues that wasn't fixable either though. MvC2 was pretty bad, balance-wise.
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But this is a part of the games lasting charm as well. You know they'd never release anything like that nowadays. "Balance" is only important to certain kinds of players anyways.

I feel the same way about Melee. It's far more fun to me to watch/play than any smash game that came after it because of how ridiculous it is. So much in the game would have been patched out/changed by now if Nintendo could have but it's a classic because they can't.

 
My go to team in Mv2 was always Sentinel, Tron Bon, and Guile. If I was feeling spicy I'd swap one of those out for Server Bot because why not. I loved how the game was just so off the walls unbalanced and often created some interesting match-ups in our group. One of our friends was surprisingly cabable with Shuma-Gorath. Yeah, now days everything has to be perfectly balanced often to the detriment of the game. 

 
Iron Man, Cable, and War Machine. Iron Man and Cable both had obscenely large laser beam attacks for their ultimates, and War Machine had an attack where he fired missiles into the air, and they then rained down on the enemy from above. It was one of the combo ultimates that would cover the entire screen, making it impossible to fully dodge.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was ridiculous, and unbalanced. That's why I loved it so much. It was way more fun than most modern fare.

 
A lot of jrpg digital sales active right now.  To the point of being a little overwhelming.  I might just not buy anything in the end.  I feel like pc versions of P5R and Sakura Wars might be happening any time now.

I would probably re-purchase the following for my steam deck if I wasn't saving up steam credit.. for the steam deck.

Team Zero Escape Bundle $27.87
Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma, AI: The Somnium Files
 

 
Lots of stuff on sale sure but I don't see anything that I could bite on personally. Doesn't help that since frisky retired there's no one really replacing him in the deal threads. Losing him and dealseeker2u was a really big hit to this place.
 
Harem Kingdom is out on Johren with a 10% launch discount. It looks like a nukige harem game with probably some solid comedy coming from SMEE, maker of games like Making*Lovers. Easy purchase on release. The art looks great and I'm sure it's a fun romp.

Johren (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

 
MvC2 was great and fun to watch high level play. All the best money matches always seemed to be MvC2.

The unbalanced-ness was part of the fun for the game. Learning how to do infinites and getting rewarded if you can pull off that kind of execution. Similar to Capcom vs. SNK 2 with roll canceling. Rolling cancelled into whatever move you were doing gave you invincibility so you could do Blankas ball through fireballs and things like that.

Nowadays games will just release a patch to fix that and it’s dumb.
 
Not happy that NISA chose not to restock Utawarerumono Prelude to the fallen but that’s what the people wanted. Also wish they had made Disgaea 6 for the Ps4 or at least send it to the Ps5.
 
Angeru said:
Not happy that NISA chose not to restock Utawarerumono Prelude to the fallen but that’s what the people wanted. Also wish they had made Disgaea 6 for the Ps4 or at least send it to the Ps5.
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I remember their survey but didn't see they announced the results of what they will/won't reprint. I'm guessing Langrisser didn't get enough love either, that's the one I missed and was hoping for.

 
elessar123 said:
Where did they post results? I can't find anything.
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Vigilante said:
They were in the last newsletter email, with Ys 8 (PS4 & Switch) and Disgaea 4+ (Switch) displayed.
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Had to go back and find it, didn't even notice it.

[attachment=36135:Capture.PNG]

Happy to see Ys 8 get reprinted... not happy that it happened after I paid quite a bit for a used copy on eBay, but happy that the game gets another chance. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even decided to get the platinum for it (granted, it's not a hard platty).

Also, not sure if it was reprinted- but I noticed a sudden influx of Dangan Trilogy PS4 on eBay lately. Prices still suck but anyone know if it was reprinted?

 
Angeru said:
Not happy that NISA chose not to restock Utawarerumono Prelude to the fallen but that’s what the people wanted. Also wish they had made Disgaea 6 for the Ps4 or at least send it to the Ps5.
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To be fair, my email said “As a token of our thanks, we’re letting you see a sneak preview of SOME of the restocked games.” When I initially read it, I assumed others might be getting the restock treatment, but will be revealed when it goes live. So there may still be hope, but I could be wrong about my interpretation though.
 
With next gen consoles still suffering from supply shortages, folks should expect many publishers to reach back into their PS4 catalogs for reprints to make some money.
 
Heads up from the Playstation thread, if you have Target Circle you may have a 40% off offer waiting for you but YMMV. Bonus is the redcard 5% stacks with it. If you do have it, the coupon appears to work on a number of preorders and I was able to get Blue Reflection 2 for roughly $36. It also appears to work on ALL edligilbe items in your cart so I made it a point to stock up on things I was after. Picked up Mario Golf, Splatoon 2, Blue Reflection 2, Saints Row Reboot, and Horizon 2 for a whopping $188. Double bounus is Target does not charge for P/O's until picked up or shipped. 

 
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