Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

shivan128

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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There are some Koei Tecmo games on sale on Steam, you can get a few a little cheaper from Newegg (some PQube stuff on sale at Newegg too) codes:

Nights of Azure 2 $26.99

https://www.newegg.com/koei-tecmo-nights-of-azure-2/p/N82E16832959025?Item=N82E16832959025&Description=Koei%20Tecmo&cm_re=Koei_Tecmo-_-32-959-025-_-Product

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Infinite Combate $9.59

https://www.newegg.com/pqube-limited-is-it-wrong-to-try-to-pick-up-girls-in-a-dungeon-infinite-combate-pc/p/N82E16832007033?Item=N82E16832007033

Our World Is Ended $4.79

https://www.newegg.com/pqube-limited-our-world-is-ended-pc/p/N82E16832007024?Item=N82E16832007024

All download codes at lowest price in last 30 days on Newegg:

https://www.newegg.com/d/Lowest-Price-In-30-Days/Downloadable-Games/s/ID-438?tid=21392

 
Vinny said:
Bleh... that sucks.
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Well you can just download it now while you are thinking about it.. then it'll be there when/if you get the game. Much of the costume style dlc in other games is just an unlock certificate or something... so it takes up very little space.

 
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Golden week sales are rolling out on steam this afternoon.  Most notable thing I've seen so far is the original AI: The Somnium Files for a new low of $7.99.  That's cheap enough for me to consider buying again for my steam deck, even though I already own the ps4 physical LE and have acess to the pc version through game pass.

 
Didn't Play-Asia have a Golden Week sale last year?  There are a couple things I want to get but am holding off on a free shipping promotion, assuming they have them again.

 
Josef said:
Didn't Play-Asia have a Golden Week sale last year? There are a couple things I want to get but am holding off on a free shipping promotion, assuming they have them again.
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Free shipping deals are probably going to fewer and farther between for import sites like PA given the rising costs.
 
Play-asia, if they have a free shipping event, will be around the summer (July) and their anniversary (November). That's about it, and who knows if they'll be generous this year. 

 
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IFI is having a Golden Week sale.  I picked up Mary Skelter Finale Switch, Neptunia ReVerse PS5, and Neptunia x Senran Kagura Ninja Wars PS4 for $24.99 each.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
I wish I had gotten Mary Skelter Finale from them, that trading card is pretty nice..
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I got my PS4 copy for $20 from Target when they discounted it, but thinking about ordering a copy from IFI for the card. Seems like copies of the game can be sold for at least what it costs on IFI so whatever, I'll be back in the spot spot.

I picked up ReVerse and Virtual Stars both from Gamestop for $30 each... and ended up getting "new" copies couple of weeks ago. I bought a dozen games during that period and got a lot of guts, which GS was happy to replace... except most of the replacements were also guts. Really regret buying those.

 
It is frustrating. My Mary Skelter Finale was also a 'new' gutted Gamestop copy shipped to me, the art seems to have slipped out of the case a little and is worn along the bottom.

I know it's been suggested a few times here to just order two and return the worse one.

The few times I've tried that I've gotten sealed games for both, since they usually gut one copy for the shelf and sell that one last I wonder if it makes sense for that to happen? A store wouldn't typically have two gutted copies, and since a store with 1 copy can't fulfill the order, it gets fulfilled by one with several available or the warehouse. I guess they could ship two gutted copies from two different stores, but it would be more in shipping and I assume they'd try to avoid that unless it was the only option (but who knows!)

 
Sadly with most niche titles, especially a while after launch, 1 display copy per store is often all gs has available. Personally, I just won't buy new games from gs if it being potentially unsealed will bother me. Knowing this, ordering anyway, and complaining about it endlessly (recent gs treads) makes no sense to me.

One alternate option is to set store pickup for a title.  The shown inventory on their site is intentionally off by -1, so If it shows one then they, in theory, have two - one of which is likely sealed.  That practice worked well for me during the recent b2g1, as setting the "free" game of a set to pickup has no effect on shipping charges.

Unrelated: :switch: MH Generations Ultimate is currently was briefly instock for store pickup at bby. Clearance priced at $9.49.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/monster-hunter-generations-ultimate-standard-edition-nintendo-switch/6253928.p?skuId=6253928

 
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Some visual novel sales & news:

First of all Meteor World Actor: Badge & Dagger is coming out on Johren (bleh), but also on Steam on June 10, 2022. The first was a pretty decent game.

There are sales on Mangagamer (Through May 8th) and JAST USA (Through May 5th) for Golden week. Some of these are on Steam as well.

Mangagamer (NSFW)

JAST USA (NSFW)

A Housewife's Healing Touch is coming out from Alicesoft on various platforms (JAST USA and Mangagamer for sure) on May 27th, 2022. There is also a pure love route and NTR route as separate purchases. Linked is the pure love route.

JAST USA (NSFW)

 
I love complaining about GameStop and could go on a lot, but it is true I know the risks when I order. :p

Somewhere around 12 or so years ago I did send them the feedback directly via an email or survey that I hated I couldn't tell if I bought something used online whether it would come with the art/case/manual or not. It was probably a coincidence, but to my surprise some time after that they actually launched a short lived program where you could order games online that were guaranteed to have the case/art/manual. But it was a limited selection, and limited to the most popular games that still had pretty high used prices. On top of that, most people just don't care- they want a disc and that's all they care about. They didn't do it for long.

The awareness and mitigation tips are useful though (like how the inventory tracker works). When I complain about it to people in person they usually don't understand or know that GameStop does this, thinking I must've bought pre-owned if I received an open copy.

They're doing some good things too lately, they seem to be matching prices more (or maybe other retailers are matching them, can't say for sure), doing more sales, their shipping is usually pretty quick, etc.

 
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I feel Gamestop is the one driving niche prices down for releases with wider releases, and we get to reap the benefits of that. Amazon doesn't give a hoot, Best Buy doesn't have as much inventory usually to drive those prices down, and Target is similar. Also Amazon just really does price match everyone and are a monopoly. Even though I have Prime (for now), I really prefer to support all the others. Gamestop is also generally the only one to have niche deals in their BF deals. They have a lot of junk in their stores, have some horrible pre-owned copies of games sometimes, because of decade's old policy for accepting whatever works, and I don't like to go in their stores anymore, but I still don't mind buying from them now and then. For new copies I prefer Best Buy.

 
nitrosmob said:
I feel Gamestop is the one driving niche prices down for releases with wider releases, and we get to reap the benefits of that. Amazon doesn't give a hoot, Best Buy doesn't have as much inventory usually to drive those prices down, and Target is similar. Also Amazon just really does price match everyone and are a monopoly. Even though I have Prime (for now), I really prefer to support all the others. Gamestop is also generally the only one to have niche deals in their BF deals. They have a lot of junk in their stores, have some horrible pre-owned copies of games sometimes, because of decade's old policy for accepting whatever works, and I don't like to go in their stores anymore, but I still don't mind buying from them now and then. For new copies I prefer Best Buy.
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Yeah, most consumers don't understand the big trouble we're in when Amazon is the only retailer left in town.

I feel exactly the way you do about Gamestop. Don't like shopping there, never buy pre-owned, and some stores are really trashy, but they offer good deals occasionally and are often times the only retailer selling certain figures or offering discounts on niche games. I buy a lot of ten-dollar shirts there too. Figpins are sweet when I can get them for $5-$10.

For the sake of consumerism it's really good that we still have Walmart, Target, and Gamestop. We're in deep shit if two of those retailers ever close up shop (selling games).

 
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I somewhat appreciate Gamestop's weird secretive reprints of rare games they do sometimes too. The downside is they totally cash in on it by opening them and coverting them all to 'used' to justify charging more, but the price is also usually decent considering secondhand prices for whatever it is.

So it at least creates some new supply without making prices worse.

 
So this sale is garbage and I'll order when they put up that Fate prequel game on the PS4. Good to know their prices are so high that it usually just takes 2 games to reach that $100 free shipping.

 
Is The Centennial Case A Shijima Story up on Amazon Japan?  My limited search skills can’t find it.    
 

Of course I’m not sure if I want the Japanese version or the SE Asia version which has the title in English, but a pretty big rating box on the front cover.  

 
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nitrosmob said:
So this sale is garbage and I'll order when they put up that Fate prequel game on the PS4. Good to know their prices are so high that it usually just takes 2 games to reach that $100 free shipping.
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It's not PlayAsia's fault that costs are rising across the board. They're a small business. I'm sure overseas shipping plus global inflation, plus all the rising costs tied to the impact of the war and Covid are taking their toll.

I very much like PlayAsia and will continue to support them. Like that they have a free shipping threshold now.
 
Twilightsparkle said:
Is The Centennial Case A Shijima Story up on Amazon Japan? My limited search skills can’t find it.

Of course I’m not sure if I want the Japanese version or the SE Asia version which has the title in English, but a pretty big rating box on the front cover.
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Search for 春ゆきてレトロチカ. Switch, PS4, and PS5 are available for preorder.

Edit to add: Only for shipping within Japan currently. Should open up to overseas after release.

 
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Mattiful-Joe said:
It's not PlayAsia's fault that costs are rising across the board. They're a small business. I'm sure overseas shipping plus global inflation, plus all the rising costs tied to the impact of the war and Covid are taking their toll.

I very much like PlayAsia and will continue to support them. Like that they have a free shipping threshold now.
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Play-Asia has had costs rising for many years now. They're pretty much the only place to get Asian-English releases and East Asia releases so I tolerate them. They had pretty high cost shipping before (bought a large order around when Chrono Cross Switch came out), so I'm glad for the $100 free threshold. The sale looked like poop from what I saw. I didn't see any discounts really, so I was just stating my opinion. I'll use them too, but I know they have the monopoly for the releases I use them for anyway.

 
nitrosmob said:
Play-Asia has had costs rising for many years now. They're pretty much the only place to get Asian-English releases and East Asia releases so I tolerate them. They had pretty high cost shipping before (bought a large order around when Chrono Cross Switch came out), so I'm glad for the $100 free threshold. The sale looked like poop from what I saw. I didn't see any discounts really, so I was just stating my opinion. I'll use them too, but I know they have the monopoly for the releases I use them for anyway.
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Depending on what you're looking for, you might also try:

  • Solaris Japan: I've gotten some decent below-market prices for stuff from Solaris that's "used" (you'd never know it beyond the shrinkwrap being missing). I've only used them for PS3/Vita-era stuff, so I don't know what their selection is like for new releases.
  • AmiAmi: They've seemingly been venturing more and more into games recently and has some exclusive acrylics for the Trails games.
  • Amazon Japan: Amazon's shipping is hit-or-miss to America, but their prices are usually in line with the cheapest other options. For the Phoenix Wright dualpack they were actually the cheapest by $10 or so.
  • VGP: Hit-or-miss on availability, but generally good prices. Ships from US/CA so shipping is cheaper than most other places and their free shipping threshold is lower.
  • BuyGame2: I've not used them personally (the one order I did place with them was cancelled on their end) but other people have had success with them.
I also used to use Heavy-Arm a lot back in the day, but they seem to have gone by the wayside during the pandemic. Their eBay shop is empty and their Twitter feed is pretty silent.

 
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I've used Amazon Japan (mainly for CDs back in the day) and VGP (mainly back when they had exclusive reprints think I got a Yakuza game and Infinite Space). I haven't used Amiami in many years mainly cause they weren't shipping during the early pandemic, but also cause they never really adjusted after quite a few years ago the yen got really weak (also relatively weak today for importers) and they put lesser and lesser discounts on things. This was OK enough because the yen was so weak. Now the discounts just are really thin still and figure prices are through the roof. I'm glad I don't collect them anymore other than my yearly Snow Miku Nendoroid and Figma and the very occasional Figma. Also I remember even cheap shipping costing an arm and a leg back then, that I can only imagine how much they go for now. I will bookmark Solaris Japan for sure when I need the JPN version of a game. Just like how board game prices are quite high for designer games, this is just a luxury and when you want some of these things, they will take quite a bit of money and time nowadays, with production being quite slow. Such is life.

 
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I like Solaris Japan sometimes. They aren't afraid to mark some things up a lot though, so just double check whatever you're interested in somewhere else first if possible.

I've increasingly seen Amazon global listings for things on the US Amazon site, though I'm not sure if Amazon JP is included and they usually aren't the default

I noticed it looking at Waifu Uncovered for Switch. As an example: It isn't the default option, but if you click all new & used, 'Amazon Global Store UK' is the cheapest, is in new condition, and has free shipping.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HTRMKT2/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

jaA6w6B.png


Main listing shows $39.99 as price defaulting to a prime third party seller

xnLUszY.png


Over to the side indicates you could get one for $36.99 from someone else

r0GutAh.png


But you can actually get it for $31.34 free shipping from Amazon UK in the choices shown.

 
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Tothoro said:
Depending on what you're looking for, you might also try:

  • Solaris Japan: I've gotten some decent below-market prices for stuff from Solaris that's "used" (you'd never know it beyond the shrinkwrap being missing). I've only used them for PS3/Vita-era stuff, so I don't know what their selection is like for new releases.
  • AmiAmi: They've seemingly been venturing more and more into games recently and has some exclusive acrylics for the Trails games.
  • Amazon Japan: Amazon's shipping is hit-or-miss to America, but their prices are usually in line with the cheapest other options. For the Phoenix Wright dualpack they were actually the cheapest by $10 or so.
  • VGP: Hit-or-miss on availability, but generally good prices. Ships from US/CA so shipping is cheaper than most other places and their free shipping threshold is lower.
  • BuyGame2: I've not used them personally (the one order I did place with them was cancelled on their end) but other people have had success with them.
I also used to use Heavy-Arm a lot back in the day, but they seem to have gone by the wayside during the pandemic. Their eBay shop is empty and their Twitter feed is pretty silent.
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BuyGame2 is in Hong Kong but charges 4% fee for Visa/Master card and paypal, really not worth it unless you can use Western Union or have a Hong Kong bank account/payment.

 
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I wasn't aware it was that short, but I'm not sure what I was expecting either.

HowLongToBeat says it's about 30 minutes, where completionism will be around 4 hours.

https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=106270

In the box for the physical copy it said something about looking forward to a free content update once Nintendo approves it, but I'm sure it won't add too much to that.

 
Yeah I mean I'm likely not opening mine and will get rid of it after a few years of sure. Looks to not be worth much gameplay wise. I mean we already have kind of interesting maybe not great Mercenaries' Saga, that offer a lot more than this. I wasn't expecting anything, but I'm still disappointed. Oh well.

 
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shadowysea07 said:
30% off games at target ymmv offer is up again in case anyone here missed it.
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Wow... I actually got it. Odd, I rarely got Target game offers in the past but I got the one a few weeks ago and this one.

What's Target up to, trying me to buy things that aren't necessities?:whistle2:k

 
Vinny said:
Wow... I actually got it. Odd, I rarely got Target game offers in the past but I got the one a few weeks ago and this one.

What's Target up to, trying me to buy things that aren't necessities? :whistle2:k
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IKR? I ended up getting hyrule warriors age of calamity since it was in stock and on sale this time.

 
Didn't even get a shipping confirmation and here it is a day early from NISA Store:

WFd4c9i.jpg


4lh3tN0.jpg


Also, for anyone still wondering about their packaging, here you go:

wk6Bc3l.jpg


Mine did have a slight wrinkle going down the side of the box, but it wasn't crushed and nothing arrived broken:

n7peMHi.jpg


Thumbs up to NISA Store, as usual :D

 
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