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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Vinny said:
The shit, I haven't played Judgment, Lost Judgment, Like a Dragon or Ishin and there's already ANOTHER Yakuza game?
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Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7) can be played without any of the others (probably Ishin too, not 100% sure though), but it looks like the next game (8) will have more focus on Kiryu from the previous games, so not too sure if you'll be able to enjoy it without playing 0-6 and the forthcoming LaD: Gaiden game (out in Nov.) before hand...

Like a Dragon is amazing though imo, definitely worth playing even as a one off.

 
Covnam said:
Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7) can be played without any of the others (probably Ishin too, not 100% sure though), but it looks like the next game (8) will have more focus on Kiryu from the previous games, so not too sure if you'll be able to enjoy it without playing 0-6 and the forthcoming LaD: Gaiden game (out in Nov.) before hand...

Like a Dragon is amazing though imo, definitely worth playing even as a one off.
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Yeah I already beat 0-6, but haven't gotten to anything since... I think 0 was the last one I beat, and that was back in 2020?

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
https://www.ign.com/articles/persona-3-reload-wont-include-content-from-fes-or-portable-including-the-female-protagonist

Persona 3 Reload won't include FES or Portable content.
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People are going to bitch and moan but I'm totally fine with that.

How many people actually played through the whole game + The Answer? Not many. I played ~100 hours on the campaign, finished it, and then I was good.

I'd rather see the game polished and robust. You still have your old FES, can go back and play that at any time (nobody does), and it doesn't take anything away from this one. I'm just happy that we're getting remastered P3 after all these years, waiting intently. :bouncy:

 
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As long as we can order around the other party members, I'm fine with no FES content. The Answer ultimately wasn't great and boiled down to 10-20+ hours of grinding just to get a few minutes of "plot" every few hours that could be addressed in this remake by tweaking the ending a bit with a new cutscene or dialogue.

 
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I'm also OK with it, but it does surprise me as it felt like it was finally their chance to make a definitive release. It's one of my favorite games of all time so I'm in regardless. And yeah, didn't do The Answer myself either - I just watched the story stuff online after beating the main game.

 
So instead of making the new version have all previously released content so there's one best version of the game, they just skipped all that so there's just the one WORSR version (original release - no FES or P3P content or updates)?

I've actually been holding off on playing P3P in case a definitive edition came along. Guess I can go ahead and pull the trigger now.
 
I'm disappointed to see neither FES or P3P content. I wasn't surprised that they left out P3P since it's probably much more work, but FES/The Answer is a proper epilogue, so they really should have just taken the opportunity to roll it in to the base game and make it less of a grind while they were at it.

Considering their track record, I'll probably wait or even skip this and hold out for a Golden version down the line (unless they make a really appealing CE of course -_-)

Vinny said:
Yeah I already beat 0-6, but haven't gotten to anything since... I think 0 was the last one I beat, and that was back in 2020?
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Ah, well, then you've got less to catch up on then I do lol

 
keyblader1985 said:
So instead of making the new version have all previously released content so there's one best version of the game, they just skipped all that so there's just the one WORSR version (original release - no FES or P3P content or updates)?

I've actually been holding off on playing P3P in case a definitive edition came along. Guess I can go ahead and pull the trigger now.
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Highly recommend playing as femc route for all the party members s links vs Mc route only having a few of the party members.

Biggest plus is Shinjiro being moon arcana. Gives some much needed characterization and development to him. Junpei also get a bit at the start of his link. As they never mentioned his background in the original version or fes.

Additionally the new party member s links replaced really bad ones in the cases of moon and to a lesser extent magician.
 
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I know during Summer Fest season (E3 previously) there are lots of announcements, but I hadn't put some visual novel ones that are pretty big IMHO.

First of all Oni Kiss has released again on many platforms (not Steam of course!) from Nekonyan, as the developers of the game NEVER got paid by Sol Press. Sol Press was one of the biggest blemishes to VN licensors, and I hope we never have such a fraud case like this company again. So now it's released again and the developers are getting paid this time. It has a 10% discount most places and also a discounted price period. It's a nukige with 4 sisters, and is decent enough.

JAST USA (NSFW)

VNDB (NSFW)

Shiravune is the one who announced a lot of things. First of all Nukitashi is finally coming out on June 22, 2023. This is a comedy and pretty big nukige about a perverted island and those who don't do perverted things are punished. Of course our MC is against this, so I'm sure a lot of sexiness and hilarity ensues. I will post the patch, as I'm sure the Steam version will be massively censored.

Steam

Shiravune will release the modern remake of ONE. from Novamicus. The MC feels his life will change from the peaceful one he's been living, so he retreats to a world in his mind. The original is pretty well renowned, so this is a nice announcement. It releases December 21, 2023 on both Steam and Switch.

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

Shiravune will release the HD version of White Album from Leaf. Your mc is currently dating a girl who is becoming a popular idol. You're both drifting away and you must decide to keep up the relationship or get with someone else. A very highly regarded VN, with a very highly regarded sequel as well. Should release in 2023.

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

Shiravune also licensed The Shell 1-3 aka Kara no Shoujo games from Innocent Grey. These games are extremely well regarded, and are very mature and different from usual visual novels. These are new HD versions. Just know they're all very decent mystery visual novels and have a lot going on in them. This will be the first time the third entry will come out as well. This first is out July 27th, 2023 and I will link the 18+ patch for the Steam version when it releases.

Steam

VNDB Shell 1 (NSFW)

VNDB Shell 2 (NSFW)

VNDB Shell 3 (NSFW)

 
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I don’t need The Answer, but there were a fair few improvements in FES over the original. Are we including those or not?

Terrible decision not to include FeMC content, though. MC is canon in my mind (and obviously in Atlus’s), but I kinda like FeMC more, and she has significantly better social links.

 
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Seconded on femc having better s links.  Especially since hers adds in the rest of the party members vs vanilla just having the 3 girls. 

 
I also missed the VGP reprint open preorder window for Trails to Azure. I thought I had more time to placed an order in. Hopefully they will have some available to purchase in July when copies arrives.

 
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I have never played the femc route, only playing 3 and FES back in the day. FES brought decent stuff to the original game (I beat it with these enhancements) and the epilogue was underwhelming. Just sad the new one coming out is not the ultimate version, but I have no experience with any of the PSP stuff mainly cause I thought it was ugly as sin and already played 2 versions of the game. I do own it now on PC, so I should play the femc route and when the remake comes out I'll play it again haha. I could also just wait wait for the remake, which I may do with my ever growing backlog. Sad we can't just have an ultimate version though.

 
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nitrosmob said:
Sad we can't just have an ultimate version though.
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I'm also sad by this - there's really no justification. Saying "we wanted to focus on creating the original P3 experience" is just spin for "we wanted to cash out on a low-effort release." I guess I'll respond by giving low-effort support for the release, waiting for it to inevitably drop below $20 (as the newest release of P5R just did this week).

 
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nitrosmob said:
I have never played the femc route, only playing 3 and FES back in the day. FES brought decent stuff to the original game (I beat it with these enhancements) and the epilogue was underwhelming. Just sad the new one coming out is not the ultimate version, but I have no experience with any of the PSP stuff mainly cause I thought it was ugly as sin and already played 2 versions of the game. I do own it now on PC, so I should play the femc route and when the remake comes out I'll play it again haha. I could also just wait wait for the remake, which I may do with my ever growing backlog. Sad we can't just have an ultimate version though.
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It doesn't have skill selection for fusion but it did have skill cards. Besides that p3p added in Elizabeth's brother as an option for the velvet room. They retroactively added in yukiko and Margaret as well for cameos.

The other changes were manual control on party members and reduced the chances of s links reversing, characters don't get tired or sick as quick and easily, and there's a few more days to do s links.

Though if they allowed you to use the multiple black out dates it wouldn't have been as big an issue. including the section where you're all stuck inside the building because of the hurricane or monsoon for a few days. You can't possibly tell me that multiple days and hours of spending time together nor a bit of friendship points were accumulated.
 
Apollo Justice Trilogy

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4M9VfoAC68[/media]

Mega Man X Dive Offline

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0FLILhCrrY[/media]

Today's showcases were kind of not my thing for sure.

 
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Vinny said:
Just fired this up for a bit (like 20 minutes, up to the part with the sword training in front of the kids) and... I prob need to play this more but it did a much better job of drawing me in than FF12, 13 or 15 did. Hopefully find some time this weekend.
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What, you don't like "it gets good after the first 20 hours!" style of RPG presentation?

 
TheKbob said:
What, you don't like "it gets good after the first 20 hours!" style of RPG presentation?
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I'm honestly not knocking games that take 20 hours to get going... but if you're gonna take 20 hours to get going, you better make it worthwhile for me.

Now what I can't stand are games that are just excessively "long" at times like FF12 felt... or excessively non-sensical like FF15 (yeah I still don't get it even after the movie).

 
Ff12 does drag during the exposition dumps for sure. And there's the lack of plot during the plains-jungle-mines-mountains section which is probably a third of the game. Then no plot from the multiple desert sections, canyon and tunnels till you hit archades either.

I played it for the marks, summons and just exploring basically. The actual combat system was pretty garbage due to how hands off it was and slow. Definitely felt like a offline mmo.

Ff15 suffered from similar problems. Story is near nonexistent for the majority of the game then it becomes on rails for the last segments as well as changing genres to survival horror for the final dungeon. Honestly that game was more fun when I was just wandering around on this bro road trip doing whatever.

Minus some of the sidequests. Frog lady is a total dick and it basically became Pixel hunting so I dropped her quest chain after the second I'd say.

The real shame is that they had 3 temps that should have stuck around. Glads sister and him had great banter and their finisher combo was fricken awesome. Sword dude also has a great relationship with Glad and shows up during his individual dlc chapter. Dragoon lady was just pretty nice in general despite being on the enemies side and really helpful for one of the flying bosses since her and Mc are the only aerial fighters.
 
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Vinny said:
I'm honestly not knocking games that take 20 hours to get going... but if you're gonna take 20 hours to get going, you better make it worthwhile for me.
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If it's not fun in the first 20 hours... I'm likely putting the game down and moving on. Like the fantastic Skies of Arcadia on Dreamcast had a high rate of random encounters and a very linear first part of the game before it opened up. I never got to the good part the random battles just made the experience such a slog. If they end up porting this to switch with some QOL improvements (like an easy mode with low encounter rates)... I would give it another chance because everything else was pretty amazing.

 
shadowysea07 said:
Ff12 does drag during the exposition dumps for sure. And there's the lack of plot during the plains-jungle-mines-mountains section which is probably a third of the game. Then no plot from the multiple desert sections, canyon and tunnels till you hit archades either.

I played it for the marks, summons and just exploring basically. The actual combat system was pretty garbage due to how hands off it was and slow. Definitely felt like a offline mmo.
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Wholeheartedly agree that FF12 was very much an experimentation with making something feel like an offline MMO. (the .Hack games also played around with the concept around the same time)

I was actually a big fan of the Gambit system, though -- FF12 is probably one of the better games out there to try to introduce someone to computer programming.

Then again, I also liked VIII through the lens of "It's a cool card game that has some RPG stuff in between locations where you collect more cards"

 
Hahaha I put 33 hours into the card game. It was about 1/3 of my playtime from what I remember.

20-30 hours into blitzball from ffx as well.
 
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All this positive chatter around the FF16 demo is getting me really excited to try it.  As soon as I find a way to put Zelda down for a moment...

I need to farm 30 Fire Lizafos Tails.

 
I forced myself to put Zelda down and it was very worth it. I am most likely going to stop playing Zelda to jump over to FFXVI because I don't think I can complete Zelda in time before the release of FFXVI.  I don't want to rush myself on Zelda since it is amazing. 

 
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blueweltall said:
I forced myself to put Zelda down and it was very worth it. I am most likely going to stop playing Zelda to jump over to FFXVI because I don't think I can complete Zelda in time before the release of FFXVI. I don't want to rush myself on Zelda since it is amazing.
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beenaround said:
I guess I am one of the few Zelda didn't blow away. Been enjoying D4 and the FF16 demo way more.
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So far, I'm enjoying Tears way more than BotW, which I'm a little surprised by since both games are very similar. I think exploration in Tears feels less daunting than it did in BotW (rain is less common, less endlessly rolling around/falling off of hills/mountains) but the tedium, pacing, and "reward" system of TotK isn't much better than BotW.

Shit, if I don't finish this before FF16, I might also just put TotK down and go for some summons fighting one another.

Souffrir said:
I think I did, too. Of course, I loathed blitzball.
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LOL I actually did really like Blitzball though, it was fun. Also wasn't suggesting FFX was a bad game in any sense.

 
I didn't see this mentioned here but if you sign up for the Atlus newsletter you will get a free Etrian Odyssey sticker sheet.  After you sign up, their fulfillment partner will contact you to provide additional information to receive your sticker sheet.  Today is the last day to sign up.

 
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