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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I'm sure it varies depending on the particular release and destination, but I decided to go with eStarland for Prinny Presents Volume 2 (I didn't have any other deals available so $56.95 + $2 shipping, no sales tax was slightly but negligibly better than the 5% in points/redcard I could've gotten elsewhere- tax for me is about 6.5%, and I was curious about pre-ordering from them in case I want to in the future. It arrived today, a day early, which was a nice surprise.

Another used game I got from them recently listed as 'complete' came in a replacement case. It still had the art/manual, but it seems like they don't care if the plastic case itself is the original one or not. I got a Wii U game and it came in a white Wii case. I can probably get a replacement buying Nintendoland or StarFox Guard somewhere if I wanted to, but in my opinion I wouldn't quite count it as 'complete' as they do.

In their defense, if I wanted to return it for free I would be able to, it would just take a few days between contacting their support, getting a reply/label, etc.

 
Anyone got any recommendations for the target 30% coupon? Looks like it doesn't work on Switch Sports so guess Nintendo games are out. 

EDIT* Should add the coupons seem YMMV. 

 
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Vinny said:
Anyone got any recommendations for the target 30% coupon? Looks like it doesn't work on Switch Sports so guess Nintendo games are out.
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hyrule warriors age of calamity and a bunch of other nintendo stuff worked for 1st party and switch in general.

No idea if switch sports originally worked or not since lots of stuff gets removed the longer the promo goes on since they aren't supposed to qualify in the first place.

 
I'm debating whether to finally (bother) getting BoTW. I have it on Wii U and frankly wasn't a fan. I wonder on occasion if I'd give it another chance on NS if I'd enjoy it, but then conclude probably not.

At this point, I'm guessing I'll just try again come BoTW 2. If I like it then, may be I'll jump back into number 1.
 
Vinny said:
Anyone got any recommendations for the target 30% coupon? Looks like it doesn't work on Switch Sports so guess Nintendo games are out.

EDIT* Should add the coupons seem YMMV.
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I loaded up on a bunch, this is what I managed to find that was decent.

Made in Abyss (PS4 and Switch CEs), Xenoblade 3, Ys VIII PS5, Dusk Diver 2 (PS5 and Switch), Trails from Zero (PS4 and Switch), Disgaea PS5, Chaos; Head, Kamizawa (PS4 and Switch), Capcom Fighting Collection (PS4 and Switch), Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, 13 Sentinels Switch.

 
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blueweltall said:
Live a Live for the Switch if it works. Target has never add those coupon to my account.
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Yeah, that was one of my first thoughts but... it doesn't work.:whistle2:(

Mattiful-Joe said:
I'm debating whether to finally (bother) getting BoTW. I have it on Wii U and frankly wasn't a fan. I wonder on occasion if I'd give it another chance on NS if I'd enjoy it, but then conclude probably not.

At this point, I'm guessing I'll just try again come BoTW 2. If I like it then, may be I'll jump back into number 1.
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I'm honestly surprised whenever I see anyone say something about BotW that isn't along the lines of "the greatest/one of the greatest games" ever made... because my thoughts are it's a really good game but not the "greatest" anything. It's kind of hard to get excited about exploring a massive world when 70% of it is nothing.

inb4weeaboos said:
I loaded up on a bunch, this is what I managed to find that was decent.

Made in Abyss (PS4 and Switch CEs), Xenoblade 3, Ys VIII PS5, Dusk Diver 2 (PS5 and Switch), Trails from Zero (PS4 and Switch), Disgaea PS5, Chaos; Head, Kamizawa (PS4 and Switch), Capcom Fighting Collection (PS4 and Switch), Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, 13 Sentinels Switch.
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Good call on Xeno 3. Def excited for that game. I got Ys 8 and Zero the last time.

 
Vinny said:
I'm honestly surprised whenever I see anyone say something about BotW that isn't along the lines of "the greatest/one of the greatest games" ever made... because my thoughts are it's a really good game but not the "greatest" anything. It's kind of hard to get excited about exploring a massive world when 70% of it is nothing.
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Yeah, BoTW didn't excite me at all. Last Zelda game I played was Twillight Princess and loved that. I think I'd much rather play WW than BoTW. Like you, the open world, go anywhere gameplay isn't appealing to me at all.
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one here that wasn't impressed with BotW. It's usually a pretty unpopular opinion. It just felt really hollow to me in that it traded all of the classic Zelda charm for a giant, empty open world. If BotW2 is a return to form I may give it a chance, but if it's more of the same it'll be an easy pass for me.

 
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I think a lot of people were enamored with it for the first 40-50 hours before it really sank in there was no substance to the game because all the stuff was so fun to do and explore. The weapon durability alone is enough to make me never want to play it again.
 
I don't know if this is old news, but I think Xenoblade 2 and Torna have been reprinted.  Prices have dropped for Xenoblade 2 and PNP Games say they have the reprint of Torna.

 
MSRP was $39.99, right? - I guess I'll hold out to see if it can be had for that if shipments are coming in soon

EDIT: Realized these prices are CAD, which is better.

 
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I'm a massive Zelda fan and I couldn't get enough of BotW when it first came out. I didn't mind the shift to an open world system because I felt it was a logical step in the series' evolution. The weapon durability really didn't bother me either, and I didn't feel like the open world was too empty since I always managed to find something to amuse or delight me.

Last year, I replayed the game for the first time since it launched and I still enjoyed it, but some of the cracks began to show. After the first like half of the shrines, I started to feel a bit of tedium completing them. Weapon durability still wasn't an issue and I still really loved exploring (I was trying to do things I didn't do in my first playthrough, like fight more of the amazing Molduga battles), but after a while, I was actually getting, dare I say, a little bored. Like my first playthrough, I did everything but find all the Koroks and I did the DLC stuff (didn't fully power the Master Sword but I did all the new sidequests and the new shrines/stories), but once I was finished with all that, I found my playtime was less than the first time I played and I was really done with the whole thing. I'm still looking forward to BotW 2 and I won't be disappointed if it's more of the same, as long as they put more variety to the shrine puzzles (or maybe just make less of them but make them larger, like somewhere in between the shrines and the divine beasts).

When it comes to Zelda, The Wind Waker will always be my number one favorite entry of all time, and it's also my favorite video game of all time. As for games on the Switch, I wholeheartedly believe the best game on the console, hands down, is Super Mario Odyssey. I still think BotW is a very, very good game, but Odyssey is a perfect game that everyone should buy a Switch to play.

 
scorponok said:
I don't know if this is old news, but I think Xenoblade 2 and Torna have been reprinted. Prices have dropped for Xenoblade 2 and PNP Games say they have the reprint of Torna.
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Looks like they took their listing down. There is a note at the bottom that more will be available later this week.

 
I can see why someone would dislike BotW.  But it's also been fairly redundant and cliche to make that declaration.   I've seen lots of people do it, especially on here.  The discussion has come up at least five times in the CAG threads I read. 

For me, I'd say BotW was one of those exercises for your brain in order to retrain it on 'how to love video games' again.  Immersion into the world, turn up the ambient music volume, sit close to the TV, and engross yourself.  A lot of people, especially older gamers, are out of the loop when it comes to non-structured and Nintendo games.  I can understand that because my friend and I also struggle with motivation when continuing to play through AAA open-world games. It's easy to go off course or fall off-the-rails when there are no rails!

 
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scorponok said:
I don't know if this is old news, but I think Xenoblade 2 and Torna have been reprinted. Prices have dropped for Xenoblade 2 and PNP Games say they have the reprint of Torna.
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Would be cool if true so more people can experience the game. I very much enjoyed XC2 and before playing Torna, I was kind of skeptical with the whole prequel/expansion concept but Torna was excellent, much better than XC2.

 
Nothing- said:
I can see why someone would dislike BotW. But it's also been fairly redundant and cliche to make that declaration. I've seen lots of people do it, especially on here. The discussion has come up at least five times in the CAG threads I read.
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Is it? It's at a 97 on Metacritic, IGN dubbed it the best game of all time, and the vast majority of comments I see about on forums are positive. Maybe I'm just on the wrong forums, but it's pretty rare that I see people talking about not liking or actively disliking it.

 
Tothoro said:
Is it? It's at a 97 on Metacritic, IGN dubbed it the best game of all time, and the vast majority of comments I see about on forums are positive. Maybe I'm just on the wrong forums, but it's pretty rare that I see people talking about not liking or actively disliking it.
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I feel like the bigger a release is, the more often you see contrarians popping up in discussions about it. I don’t know how many there are because I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to specific opinions about BOTW, but I can say that whenever it gets brought up on CAG, there do tend to be people saying they don’t find it all that impressive.
 
Tothoro said:
Is it? It's at a 97 on Metacritic, IGN dubbed it the best game of all time, and the vast majority of comments I see about on forums are positive. Maybe I'm just on the wrong forums, but it's pretty rare that I see people talking about not liking or actively disliking it.
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I think the implication is that there's always a small group of people who dislike a well received game and are super vocal about it... which wasn't my intent when I original made my snowballing statement but Nothing- isn't wrong, it happens.

But really I was just sharing thought out of boredom while browsing CAG because I was waiting for my staff to finish something before I can review it.

 
That PNPGames site does have some "okay considering, I guess" prices on the out of print IFI titles that were distributed by LRG.

Most were about $65 CAD = ~$50 USD, so about $10 over release MSRP (+shipping, no tax though I don't think).

Death end Re;Quest 1 Switch, Megadimension Neptunia VII Switch, Dragon Star Varnir Switch are all there.

Megadimension Neptunia VII elsewhere seems pretty pricey as I've only seen it on eBay/Mercari lately, myself. It could be in stock somewhere I just don't know of though (as was the case with PNPGames).

DeRQ1 and Dragon Star Varnir aren't too bad on eBay and such, but still slightly more around $60 at a glance.

If you missed out on those, or maybe some other LRG release they happen to have it could be a chance to pick them up.

Shipping looks to be about $7 for one item or several.

 
Souffrir said:
I feel like the bigger a release is, the more often you see contrarians popping up in discussions about it. I don’t know how many there are because I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to specific opinions about BOTW, but I can say that whenever it gets brought up on CAG, there do tend to be people saying they don’t find it all that impressive.
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That's fair on the CAG point since I've seen lukewarm opinions on it here before, though usually the discussion here is more around prices/deals than game quality. I do enjoy the VN write-ups and other reviews that get posted occasionally, but it is mostly a deals forum.

Vinny said:
I think the implication is that there's always a small group of people who dislike a well received game and are super vocal about it... which wasn't my intent when I original made my snowballing statement but Nothing- isn't wrong, it happens.

But really I was just sharing thought out of boredom while browsing CAG because I was waiting for my staff to finish something before I can review it.
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Same here, just wanted to throw my two cents in while it was topical. I don't go around ranting against BotW and I don't think it's a bad game necessarily, it's just definitely not my type of game (which is fine because taste is subjective). With my previous comment it was legitimately just the first time I'd seen such a concentrated number of opinions on BotW that weren't overwhelmingly positive on aggregate, not intended to be passive-aggressive.

 
Just a lil bit of VN news.

First of all Mangagamer is releasing Higurashi: When They Cry Hou – Rei on June 2nd.

Steam

JAST USA announced Neko Night releasing May 31st. This one is a bit unique as it bills itself as an ASMR nukige experience. It sounds unique, but I will need reviews to get it. It has a 15% off pre-order on JAST USA

JAST USA (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

One surprise release with a massive title is Nagori Rokudo Striving to be her ideal self -The inexperienced love life of a hard-to-get psychology lecturer-. I don't know specifically if it's a pure love game, but it deals with a Virgin and I guess someone meeting up with them. It's a little expensive, but at a discount I'd try it. 10% off till May 13th.

Steam (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

Another random release is The medical examination diary: the exciting days of me and my senpai. Think this is pure love as well and has a 15% off of it for about 36 more hours.

Steam (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

 
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Play-Asia is starting to ship Seven Pirates H (I got the limited edition but I'm assuming both limited and standard are shipping out). The game officially launces tomorrow (5/12), so very nice to see they got it in the mail this close to launch.

 
I pretty much loved everything about BotW.   It's been since Wind Waker on GC that I really had a serious passion for the series and BotW not only made me a massive fan again ... but helped me to better appreciate the other games and side games in the franchise.  I was worried about weapon durability but that ended up not a factor at all... it was more having too many cool weapons but at least they let us display them in the house.  And late in the game you end up with the master sword anyway which is unbreakable... but does a have a cool down.   I loved getting a horse and having that also at the house.  The major dungeons were all pretty great.  The small common dungeons were pretty much an all you can eat, offered some variety, and were mostly optional.  The freedom to explore was heavenly.  The way you could use  physics to take out enemy bases or just wreak havoc was far above pretty much any game before it.   The small island where you end up with nothing and have to survive was fantastic.   Oh and the whole game was just stunning.   This was pretty much the game I dreamed (like, actually asleep and dreaming) Zelda could be when I was a teenager more than a couple decades ago.  It reminded me so much of the ambition of the first game... being just out there in a field... free to go wherever and do things in whatever order you wanted.... except turned up to 11 thanks to modern advances.

If anything I can fault the game for is making me such a huge fan of the franchise again that I ended up loving everything about Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity ... which in turn fooled me into believing that maybe overlooking the Musou games for ages was a mistake and I went down that rabbit hole.  Now I know that I really only care for the Hyrule Warriors games and Dragon Quest Heroes games and I can ignore the genre beyond that (for the most part).

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
VGP has a Torna backorder listing too. The email said backorder available now, and I did see the backorder button at one point, but now it says sold out. Hoping some NA retailers will get some too.

https://videogamesplus.ca/products/xenoblade-chronicles-2-torna-the-golden-country-switch?goal=0_50263cf20b-1cf816fb2f-49206655&mc_cid=1cf816fb2f&mc_eid=54b44290f0
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I remember getting these at Target for like 70% clearance. Never knew they would end up rare.

 
Next time Torna is up, can we get a separate thread? Considering the value of the game (not rare, valuable), it implies enough demand to warrant a thread imo.
 
portnoyd said:
Next time Torna is up, can we get a separate thread? Considering the value of the game (not rare, valuable), it implies enough demand to warrant a thread imo.
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The value is going to tank. Right now you are seeing pent up demand causing it to sell out fast. These retailers will order more printings as long as they sell.

 
If Torna 2 re-release with Y-Fold the value will drop little bit & It will be OOP.  If Torna 2 re-release without plastic wrap sealed the value still high for collectors.  1st PRINTED & Re-Print.

 
thelonepig said:
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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It’s after release and now it’s unavailable. And now the Japanese Switch version is also unorderable at playasia as well. What the heck is happening? May have to get the Asian release after all.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
In Europe, the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition contents won't ship until fall, but the game itself will ship on time.

No word on if NA will or won't be the same yet:

https://store.nintendo.co.uk/en_gb/xenoblade-chronicles-3-collectors-edition.html
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I'd be surprised if it isn't the same for most regions, if not all. I don't mind that if it means there'll be able to produce enough to meet demand. Hopefully it just means they will be easy to order and produce enough to meet as many are ordered.

 
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Covnam said:
I'd be surprised if it isn't the same for most regions, if not all. I don't mind that if it means there'll be able to produce enough to meet demand. Hopefully it just means they will be easy to order and produce enough to meet as many are ordered.
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I agree, it would actually be very cool if it were basically an open pre-order where they fulfill them all rather than a mad dash. Here's to hoping.

 
Vinny said:
Damn, how'd I miss this..?
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Because there was no thread lol. Regardless of future value, there's enough interest in this reprint to warrant a thread. I do agree the value will tank but I would prefer retail over eBay even if it does.

I missed getting this on clearance and have been waiting for it to drop since 2020. (I still need to play X and 2 so no rush there) It's highly overvalued considering the supply which is ample. Patience is finally paying off.

Also an interesting lesson. It's a risk to pay over MSRP for any current generation game. Reprints are a thing.
 
portnoyd said:
Because there was no thread lol. Regardless of future value, there's enough interest in this reprint to warrant a thread. I do agree the value will tank but I would prefer retail over eBay even if it does.

I missed getting this on clearance and have been waiting for it to drop since 2020. (I still need to play X and 2 so no rush there) It's highly overvalued considering the supply which is ample. Patience is finally paying off.

Also an interesting lesson. It's a risk to pay over MSRP for any current generation game. Reprints are a thing.
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Don't think it warrants it's own thread- I just meant how'd I missed this because I was in the thread but didn't see that post.

And reprints have been a thing for decades. At least these seem to be for actual retailers and not just GS.

 
Vinny said:
Don't think it warrants it's own thread- I just meant how'd I missed this because I was in the thread but didn't see that post.

And reprints have been a thing for decades. At least these seem to be for actual retailers and not just GS.
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Agreed. Though Reprints vary from game to game. Look at atelier series. Roronaplus-eschatology all got reprints, ryza 1 and 2 also got reprints but the others not so much. Granted the series did get the compilation ports for arland and dusk iirc though arlands now incomplete with lulu being the 4th entry in that quad.

 
Speaking of Atelier, anyone see any good deals for Sophie 2? I have Sophie 1 and was happy to read that I'd really only need to play that game to understand the story in 2 (I don't have the other 2 Mysterious Trilogy games). I know the game just came out, but I don't want to sleep on picking it up since Gust reprints can be unpredictable. Also, thoughts on Sophie 2? I heard it's got quite a few QOL improvements compared to the rest of the series. For the record, I've only played a little bit of Rorona on Vita (hated the time limit, didn't think it was implemented as well as in the Persona series or even in Gust's other game, Nights of Azure) and I completed both Ryza 1 and 2 and loved them.

 
super1upqueen said:
Speaking of Atelier, anyone see any good deals for Sophie 2?
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The cheapest I've seen sophie 2 was $49.99 briefly and concurrent with a gamestop b2g1 new sale. It will probably get lower. I've heard good things about the game but I also need to play the first. Sophie 1 is on my soon-to-play list for steam deck.

 
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