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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spoderman said:
I've heard the opposite. The gameplay is super grindy and repetitive in the original games, but much better/more refined in G. U.
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The gameplay was very primitive in the original quadrilogy, but at best I’d call GU’s gameplay streamlined compared to that—it’s still very basic, even by the standards of mid-00s ARPGs. That being the case, the .hack// games really only have their writing to fall back on, and while the originals had a well-written, occasionally thought-provoking plot featuring well developed characters, GU’s plot is a tropey, angsty, poorly written mess, and its characters are walking cliches. They really dropped the ball between the two waves of .hack// media.
 
Souffrir said:
The gameplay was very primitive in the original quadrilogy, but at best I’d call GU’s gameplay streamlined compared to that—it’s still very basic, even by the standards of mid-00s ARPGs. That being the case, the .hack// games really only have their writing to fall back on, and while the originals had a well-written, occasionally thought-provoking plot featuring well developed characters, GU’s plot is a tropey, angsty, poorly written mess, and its characters are walking cliches. They really dropped the ball between the two waves of .hack// media.
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GU is the very definition of bad, edgelord fanfiction (SKEITH IS COOL, SO WHAT IF YOU WERE SKEITH?!). IMOQ presented a realistic vision of the future, a compelling mystery, likable characters, and an impressive immersion that really made you feel like you were playing a real MMO. Meanwhile, I never once felt like I was talking to real people in GU, nor did I ever take its embarrassing story seriously. Not once was I unable to follow the story in IMOQ, while GU was a confusing mess that didn't make a lick of sense.

I don't even think the combat was very good. Sure, IMOQ's gameplay is indeed a bit primitive, but it's still an intuitive gameplay loop that rewards players for keeping their gear up to date through trading with other "players" and learning how to utilize the other party members. GU is a touch modernized, but by streamlining the menu management from the original games, it removed a lot of what made the series unique among similar games (particularly Phantasy Star Online, the game it took heavy inspiration from and managed to differentiate itself from). Moreover, IMOQ had I believe eight different fields and four different dungeons, while GU had you questing in the same one or two dungeons and fields for the majority of the trilogy. It wasn't until around two thirds/three quarters in that they introduced another one or two more of each, but you were stuck in just those ones until the credits rolled.

IMOQ and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth are examples of a future I could legitimately see happening. GU was too busy asking, "What if the Phases were anime waifus and husbandos?" to bother building on SIGN, IMOQ, and Liminality's world outside The World.
 
I have yet to finish either .Hack series & I bought them all on release. Not for the lack of enjoyment I got from them, I just kept putting off playing the last volume in each series & never went back to them lol.
 
Vinny said:
I'm genuinely curious why GU got a remake whereas the original series did not.
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GU had an audience. I don’t know how big it was, or what sales were like, but there were (and I think still are) vocal defenders of it. I think the majority of them probably ran into the games when they were angsty nonconformist teenagers, because those games have massive angsty, nonconformist teenager vibes—or to put it another way, they feel like they’re made for chuunibyous.

I think a big reason why GU was picked over IMOQ, though, is the visuals. IMOQ didn’t look very good, even compared to other early PS2 games—I think part of that is down to the (for the time) large environments, and a part of me even wonders if it started development for PS1 before being brought over the PS2. It would be a lot more work to do a remaster for IMOQ that gave it a decent visual shine—it’s entirely doable, mind you, something along the lines of what they did for OOT on 3DS would work wonders—but Bamco doesn’t really seem interested in investing that much money in the large majority of their back catalogue. GU was much more polished visually, and already had a sort of cel-shaded look to it, so it took a lot less time and money to polish that up.

It’s a particular shame because IMOQ actually had some great visual design work, but it’s pretty clear the devs just weren’t at all familiar with the PS2 hardware.
 
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Xenoblade Chronicles playthrough update:

I'm now in the early part of Chapter 12, just over 60 hours of play time, and Shulk is level 57. Loving the game for story, exploration, battles, visuals, and of course the audio too! I'm not really feeling the gem crafting or gem material management. It's so easy to end up with 500 element pieces and have to either start producing gems or go sell them to make room for more. Producing gems gives you a nice boost of exp so it seems worth some effort even if the results aren't something that useful. I think what I may do is pick through everything class I & II ... make sure there's nothing special mixed in (EXP boosts are nice) and the just sell most of them off and then craft most of the III's. Just to get me as close to zero as possible. Same for picking through the gems I have made and selling the excess of anything common class I & II. This especially as there's still level IV & V elements to get into. Some IV's gems I've made with III material stacking just right and just randomly picking a good combo of people to make the gem. I know there's some rules for it that aren't too complex to learn but I feel like, I just don't care about most of it I'd clean house with weapons and other inventory items, but there are so many side quests that involve getting a stack of items that I've just been letting it build up and if I hit max on one of them (so far it hasn't happened), I'll cross that bridge then. I did like how the side quests in Chapter 11 were mainly just from exploring. So I naturally stumbled on I think everything there and pushed every button but one (next to the ether pistons on a walkway) ... and exposed the vast majority of the maps. Of course I maxed out all the collectopedia for each new area. Oh, and before I got deep into Chapter 11 I went ahead and upgraded Colony 6 to level 2 and then I'm over half way to level 3. Maybe when I'm deeper into Chapter 12 I'll take a break and see if I can go ahead and finish level 3 and as much level 4 as possible. Right now that's mainly what I have left to do beyond progressing the story unless some side missions have unlocked somewhere. Which, it did take me too much time to realize some of the side missions you can't take unless a certain person leads the party. But thankfully it was only a couple of them so far.
 
Souffrir said:
GU had an audience. I don’t know how big it was, or what sales were like, but there were (and I think still are) vocal defenders of it. I think the majority of them probably ran into the games when they were angsty nonconformist teenagers, because those games have massive angsty, nonconformist teenager vibes—or to put it another way, they feel like they’re made for chuunibyous.

I think a big reason why GU was picked over IMOQ, though, is the visuals. IMOQ didn’t look very good, even compared to other early PS2 games—I think part of that is down to the (for the time) large environments, and a part of me even wonders if it started development for PS1 before being brought over the PS2. It would be a lot more work to do a remaster for IMOQ that gave it a decent visual shine—it’s entirely doable, mind you, something along the lines of what they did for OOT on 3DS would work wonders—but Bamco doesn’t really seem interested in investing that much money in the large majority of their back catalogue. GU was much more polished visually, and already had a sort of cel-shaded look to it, so it took a lot less time and money to polish that up.

It’s a particular shame because IMOQ actually had some great visual design work, but it’s pretty clear the devs just weren’t at all familiar with the PS2 hardware.
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imoq also had secret dungeons based on areas from the tv series as well as the unique ones exclusive to itself for each field area that you'd see in the background or sky. I wish I had known about some of them at the time as I especially would have liked to go through the one that's basically a mc escher dungeon from the anime. that looked cool.
 
Heavy visual novel releases this week.

First of all from Nekonyan is Irotoridori no Sekai. This is likely the highest profile game released this week and has been in very high demand for quite a while. It is 11% off and on many storefronts including Mangagamer and JAST USA. As usual the 18+ patch is available for the Steam release.

Steam
18+ Patch (NSFW)
JAST USA (NSFW)

Shiravune also have quite a big release IMHO with Nukitashi 2. I do highly recommend you play the first and there is a lot of adult content in the first one, so I'm assuming the second is similar. Nukitashi 1 was my visual novel of the year last year. There is an 18+ patch for the Steam version. The patch will be needed. It's also on many storefronts including Mangagamer and JAST USA. There is a 20% off discount currently. There is also a Nukitashi bundle on Steam, which is recommended if you need the first game as well, and you should play the first game.

Steam
Steam Nukitashi Bundle
18+ Patch (NSFW)
JAST USA (NSFW)

Chatte Noire, a Nekoworks sister company, released Nie no Hakoniwa. This is supposedly very violent and is about cursed characters. Probably not for the faint of heart. There is paid DLC for the Steam release. It is 20% off on Denpasoft. The 18+ DLC is 15% off.

Steam
18+ Paid DLC (NSFW)
Denpasoft (NSFW)

Aksys games released Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II. This is a sequel to Death Mark. It is available on Steam, PS5 and Switch. It is also available Physically as well (may be a bit short in supply, so get it if you're a fan).

Shiravune also released Dungeon Travelers: To Heart 2 in Another World. This is a 17+ pretty ecchi anime dungeon crawler. I love this series and I wish the other entries where on Steam instead of Johren. It is marked adults only on Steam, but I believe has no nudity. It currently has a 20% off launch discount.

Steam

Shiravune announced Taimanin Yukikaze from Black Lillith. These are pretty popular a little bit more extreme games. The art has always impressed me with these games.

VNDB (NSFW)

Shiravune also announced that they will now be selling their games on GOG as well. For now it's just a few games, but I'm guessing they'll eventually get the new releases similar to JAST USA and Mangagamer.

JAST USA announced a release date for Sisters: Last Day of Summer from Jellyfish on June 6th, 2024. I'm not sure this one was announced already. It is fully animated similar to School Days. It already is up for pre-order with a 10% discount on the JAST USA store.

JAST USA (NSFW)
VNDB (NSFW)

Mangagamer also have a Valentine's Day sale (NSFW) going on until February 21st.
 
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Finished Granblue Fantasy Relink's story last night (just doing the epilogue now), meaning I've unlocked the postgame grind. Really looking forward to just playing until I get sick of it. I'm on PS5 with no PS+, so I won't be doing multiplayer, but it seems that's really only a problem if you want the last Crewmate Card for unlocking characters. Apparently, you need these Gold Dahlia Badges to trade for the final card, and while those seem to drop plenty in multiplayer, they're as frustratingly scarce as a rare Blade in Xenoblade 2 (and there's no savescumming with cloud saves for this lol). But, I've been known to endure some pretty tedious grinds before, so I'll manage.

This game has been an absolute blast and I highly recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in ARPGs. While I'm glad the story didn't drag out (I was done at less than 30 hours, but that was also with doing all the optional quests as they became available), I'm legit sad it's over because it was so over the top, exciting, and cinematic. It was like watching a really high budget anime film. The gameplay is incredible, especially with how all the characters play differently. Sure, there's a lot of swordy bois and gurls, but they all have their own gimmicks that keep the combat fresh, and the small handful of ranged characters really shine. I'm so overjoyed this game is doing well because it deserves all the sales and praise it's getting. I can't wait for the new content and I hope they develop some new story missions in the future. Solid 9/10 experience.
 
Just reached Chapter 17 on Xenoblade Chronicles last night. I think I might be able to reach my goal of completing the game and the Future Connected content before the release of FFVII Rebirth.
 
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super1upqueen said:
Finished Granblue Fantasy Relink's story last night (just doing the epilogue now), meaning I've unlocked the postgame grind. Really looking forward to just playing until I get sick of it. I'm on PS5 with no PS+, so I won't be doing multiplayer, but it seems that's really only a problem if you want the last Crewmate Card for unlocking characters. Apparently, you need these Gold Dahlia Badges to trade for the final card, and while those seem to drop plenty in multiplayer, they're as frustratingly scarce as a rare Blade in Xenoblade 2 (and there's no savescumming with cloud saves for this lol). But, I've been known to endure some pretty tedious grinds before, so I'll manage.

This game has been an absolute blast and I highly recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in ARPGs. While I'm glad the story didn't drag out (I was done at less than 30 hours, but that was also with doing all the optional quests as they became available), I'm legit sad it's over because it was so over the top, exciting, and cinematic. It was like watching a really high budget anime film. The gameplay is incredible, especially with how all the characters play differently. Sure, there's a lot of swordy bois and gurls, but they all have their own gimmicks that keep the combat fresh, and the small handful of ranged characters really shine. I'm so overjoyed this game is doing well because it deserves all the sales and praise it's getting. I can't wait for the new content and I hope they develop some new story missions in the future. Solid 9/10 experience.
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You can grind for those Gold Dahlia Badges during this Free PSN weekend Event.
PlayStation is offering Online Multiplayer Weekend for PS4 & PS5 Owners without a PlayStation+ Subscription for Free. Offer is valid through 23:59 pm Local Time on February 18, 2024.

Must be nice to have the time to play games let alone finish a game. I have a hugh backlog :/
20240205_161728~2.jpg
 
beenaround said:
Should be starting it up this week myself, had to order a copy online since it's nowhere to be found in store. Hopefully I enjoy it as much as you have!
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This may be the one time pre-ordering an XSEED deluxe/special edition hasn't bitten me in the ass, since the game is doing so well, I doubt the deluxe edition will see a huge price cut any time soon.
mocheese said:
You can grind for those Gold Dahlia Badges during this Free PSN weekend Event.
PlayStation is offering Online Multiplayer Weekend for PS4 & PS5 Owners without a PlayStation+ Subscription for Free. Offer is valid through 23:59 pm Local Time on February 18, 2024.
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Yeah, I knew I had heard about the free weekend but couldn't find anything about it online so I thought I made that up lol will definitely take advantage of that!
 
mocheese said:
You can grind for those Gold Dahlia Badges during this Free PSN weekend Event.
PlayStation is offering Online Multiplayer Weekend for PS4 & PS5 Owners without a PlayStation+ Subscription for Free. Offer is valid through 23:59 pm Local Time on February 18, 2024.

Must be nice to have the time to play games let alone finish a game. I have a hugh backlog :/
View attachment 344
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Your first hit is for free.

thanks a bunch, Sony.
 
Souffrir said:
Anyone know if the Trinity Trigger Day One edition is worth it for $30? Looks like it comes with a two disc soundtrack and an artbook.
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I'd rather have the digital deluxe edition personally, it includes all of the dlc (well, the dlc that isn't booster shit).

The dlc costs too much on its own otherwise, like $26
 
These prices are inching closer to being what I want to pay for most of these ($25). Crymachina I enjoyed the demo enough, but it didn't feel amazing to me. Eternights I own or I would already be buying it. What's the opinion on D7? I don't play these games as much as when I was younger (played D1 and D2 to death).
 
Pickups from the month so far, kinda a slow month.
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Question for anyone who’s played a significant amount of Crymachina. Played about an hour’s worth of the demo, felt kinda like what if the devs of Code Vein wanted to make Nier Automata by way of .hack// and populated it with lesbians. Is that more or less the continuing experience going forward?
 
blueweltall said:
Just reached Chapter 17 on Xenoblade Chronicles last night. I think I might be able to reach my goal of completing the game and the Future Connected content before the release of FFVII Rebirth.
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You are doing way better than me. I haven't even played since my last update where I'm in Chapter 12. But I have no specific time frame or plans afterwards. I am thinking something smaller though just as a break between bigger games. I still have XC:X and XC3.
 
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1759466872628498923

Sigh, Atlus. Maybe this will be more like a IV Apocalypse scenario, in that it's a sequel and not just a re-release. I got the collector's edition at launch and haven't even played it yet.

This news breaks right after I, uh...bought Persona 3 Reload. It's $60 at Target and over the weekend, I got a $10 off $50 Circle coupon. I didn't want to pay more than $50 for it, so here we are. I'm so ashamed of myself but I really want to play it. I was confident when buying it that The Answer really will just be separate DLC and they won't release a complete edition, but then this stupid V Vengeance thing happens. Atlus gonna Atlus.
 
Around the time of launch people found references to other platforms in the SMTV code so I kinda assumed this was in the works. Atlus loves milking timed exclusivity and enhanced editions like this.
 
Persona 3 is one of my favorite games, but I’m fully in wait and see mode on P3R. Just too many questions about what they may have cut, and what they may be bringing back later.
 
I would assume SMT V is re-release is an excuse to put it on other platforms besides Switch.

beenaround said:
D7 is the best in the series since D4 in my opinion.
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I know, I want to play it badly. Perhaps I'll just order the PS5 deluxe from Woot, and then instead try to get the Switch CE from NISA later.

super1upqueen said:
I, uh...bought Persona 3 Reload. It's $60 at Target and over the weekend,
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WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA whoa there little fella! you caved.
 
super1upqueen said:
This news breaks right after I, uh...bought Persona 3 Reload. It's $60 at Target and over the weekend, I got a $10 off $50 Circle coupon. I didn't want to pay more than $50 for it, so here we are. I'm so ashamed of myself but I really want to play it. I was confident when buying it that The Answer really will just be separate DLC and they won't release a complete edition, but then this stupid V Vengeance thing happens. Atlus gonna Atlus.
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Thanks for buying it. Now it'll probably drop to $30 in the next couple of weeks for the rest of us. :ROFLMAO:
 
I should be mad at the SMT V Vengeance... as I just got SMT V during my holiday shopping spree. But I paid $20 for a new copy from Gamefly (yes, I mean new), so I'm not too bothered. I'll probably double down later when the new version is out and it drops to $30 or below.

super1upqueen said:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1759466872628498923

Sigh, Atlus. Maybe this will be more like a IV Apocalypse scenario, in that it's a sequel and not just a re-release. I got the collector's edition at launch and haven't even played it yet.
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"The description says that this is a complete edition of Shin Megami Tensei V with improvements and additional content." (Source)

So, sounds like maybe somewhat like DQ XI-S? Though probably not that elaborate.
 
Eh, I held off on SMTV when I learned that the switch version has performance issues and after it was rumored to come to game pass on day 1 of becoming multiplatform.
 
Honestly, if you haven't played SMT V yet then wait for a huge discount. You're not missing out on anything direly important. I got bored early and stopped playing it on Switch. It is definitely not a five-star or 85 metacritic like reviews would suggest.

Lower your expectations to a game scoring in the 70's and then you might be happily surprised. It's 80-90% running around in the open world and grinding, doing sidequests.
 
Nothing- said:
WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA whoa there little fella! you caved.
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gmsick said:
Thanks for buying it. Now it'll probably drop to $30 in the next couple of weeks for the rest of us. :ROFLMAO:
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Hey, I haven't opened it yet! I could always return it and then it won't hit $30 until Black Friday! AT THE EARLIEST!
Vinny said:
*sigh* what an era of gaming... games are either games as service, war too early remake/remasters, or "super-duper-we-swear-we're-not-holding-back-any-content-complete" editions.
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I know, it's really gross. Being an early adopter for most things is never a good idea, but gamers in particular really get fucked over buying products when they come out.
 
Nothing- said:
Honestly, if you haven't played SMT V yet then wait for a huge discount. You're not missing out on anything direly important. I got bored early and stopped playing it on Switch. It is definitely not a five-star or 85 metacritic like reviews would suggest.

Lower your expectations to a game scoring in the 70's and then you might be happily surprised. It's 80-90% running around in the open world and grinding, doing sidequests.
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And it still has massive performance issues and hits as low as 10 fps at times.
 
super1upqueen said:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1759466872628498923

Sigh, Atlus. Maybe this will be more like a IV Apocalypse scenario, in that it's a sequel and not just a re-release. I got the collector's edition at launch and haven't even played it yet.

This news breaks right after I, uh...bought Persona 3 Reload. It's $60 at Target and over the weekend, I got a $10 off $50 Circle coupon. I didn't want to pay more than $50 for it, so here we are. I'm so ashamed of myself but I really want to play it. I was confident when buying it that The Answer really will just be separate DLC and they won't release a complete edition, but then this stupid V Vengeance thing happens. Atlus gonna Atlus.
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You didn’t even wait a month from release.

I’m still holding. My older daughter says P3 is one of her favorites, but we still have a lot of backlog here so no rush. Heck, she just finished Ikenfell which she started 2 years ago, got stuck on a puzzle, put aside and then finally decided to go back to it a couple days ago.
 
Entertainment value is relative, and I don't think paying a higher price is failing as a cag. Especially when many of the niche titles we discuss here legitimately need support and preorder/day1 purchases. Support what you enjoy.

But in this case unload that P3R disc when you're done because that P3R: Cash Destruction rerelease is coming and will displace all collectible value of vanilla P3R.

On the same note I should have sold my smtv cartridge from the $60 CE I bought a while back. Played a couple hours and was too distracted by the grating performance. My #1 want out of a new nsw console is to make games like this, the Xenoblade titles, rune factory 5, etc. less painful to play. Not sure if I'm going to get it.
 
I have zero issues with the performance of the Xenoblade games on Switch. There were some small issues at launch for XC2, but they patched that up nicely. But I do hope we get some performance boosts for regular Switch games on Switch 2.

Nothing- said:
It's 80-90% running around in the open world and grinding, doing sidequests.
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That's pretty much my jam. Set me lose in an open world with random sidequests to find and let me grind at my own pace and I tend to be pretty happy.

gospelman said:
Entertainment value is relative, and I don't think paying a higher price is failing as a cag. Especially when many of the niche titles we discuss here legitimately need support and preorder/day1 purchases. Support what you enjoy.
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My current tactic to being a CAG is to just be more picky about what I buy at whatever price instead of buying as much as I can for as little per game as possible. That saves me way more than any discount games get as I'm not adding too much extra fluff to my collection and getting mainly games I think will give me the most entertainment. Plus since I buy some games at launch or near launch, I'm not stressing later about tracking down a game in one of my absolute favorite series. So it's a lot less stressful even when I bite early and then there's another better sale a month or two later.
 
Vinny said:
*sigh* what an era of gaming... games are either games as service, war too early remake/remasters, or "super-duper-we-swear-we're-not-holding-back-any-content-complete" editions.
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I treat all of my collector hobbies the same way now. Video games, MTG cards, movies, figures & toys. The most important aspect is always "buying low". That way you minimize your buyer's remorse. You llimit your annual expenses. There is very little downside risk when you pay fractional msrp pricing on the majority of the collector stuff that you buy. It's also the proper response to the feeling you describe which seems to happen to most purchases these days.

That happened to me once again yesterday, actually. The blu-ray collector's edition box of Neon Genesis Evangelion was on "last chance" sale at the Crunchyroll store for $69.99 this morning. (now it's sold out). That's a box set which all of us whom needed to own it ponied up $175. That one's not as bad, bc it would have sucked missing out on it. But for all other standard issue stuff I'd rather take the 1 out of 5 or 10 chance that the item sells out and becomes OOP, while buying most everything for 50%+ off. That's the only way to collect for the long haul. This discussion also comes up on any of my collector forums or subreddits almost daily too, often in the contextual response of "What is $10 or $20 extra to you? If that's a lot of money to you then you probably shouldn't be buying xxxx." Which is an enormous fallacy bc it's never about the one singular purchase of an item. It's that I buy hundreds of these types of things every single year. That adds up to a few thousand dollars, annually.

Identify the important stuff. Pay full price to get the stuff you can't live without, i.e. steelbooks, the occasional collector's edition, or like the FF7 Rebirth Deluxe Edition right now for example. There are exceptions. But wait until everything else hits 40-60%+ off sale. That's most everything you aren't worried about missing out on, and standard editions that should stay in stock for eternity.

Like this Persona 3 remaster. I look at that I know I will cave at buy it as soon as it hits $29.99. I want to play it badly. But I know for a fact it's going to be that cheap by the summer. it's inevitable. and then there's no regrets after buying a copy at that price, because physical games have real value.
But crap, I could have gotten it at < $19.99...
 
I've echoed approval of that approach before (but have failed to fully embrace it myself).

If you buy things when you want to play them and ignore the rest, you'll usually come out ahead in spite of a few burns here and there. All of us have been burned by our types of games becoming more valuable later and want to avoid it, but it doesn't happen *as* often anymore.

If you wait until you want to play something,
All the times a game you bought to backlog/store until you're ready to play:
Drops in price or has a nice/nicer sale
Gets a newer, better edition/port
Gets a reprint

Will usually outweigh the:
I missed my window and it costs more now for some reason

Being burned by a game being 'expensive now' is more memorable, and may have a noticeable dollar amount tied to it, but if you consider all the games you buy to backlog, and then just bought a newer, better version/port/saw a better sale later. All those small $10-$20-$30's will probably outweigh an occasional "I had to pay twice MSRP secondhand".

It'll be different for everyone depending how many "ooh, sale" games you buy, but for me I'm definitely losing any time I continue building a stash lol

If you like buying games and enjoy building the collection and have a monthly budget or something for that, that's one thing. Or if you enjoy speculating and want to actively buy low sell high that's another, but if you just want to spend the least over time to buy a game when you want to play it I think nightc1's method will triumph.
 
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IMO, there's no wrong way to collect as long as you aren't running up debt and have the space for it... enjoy life. I consider myself a curated collector, I want a smaller (compared to the cag standard) collection that is in line with what I love the most in gaming. At 50, I'm aiming to play about 10 to 15 games a year (so far I'm up to 2 for 2024, lol). So buying more than 15 per year is pushing it (unless there are a lot of 10 hour or less games in there). I don't mind throwing something in the backlog, but it needs to be in a series or just look like something I know I can't miss. And I want to sell stuff off that I know I'm done with. I don't want to leave behind (hopefully many decades from now) so much stuff that it all just gets sold or donated.

But the dollars and cents of it is, I now spend a hundreds a year on games instead of thousands. About $430 in 2022 and $550 in 2023 (including hardware purchases and eshop/digital purchases) That's where I feel most like a CAG. Looking at last year, most of what I bought hasn't been much cheaper than I spent. I saved some stuff like Bravely Default 2 and Harvestella for when they hit $30. I think maybe I could have spent about $50 less for the year had I waited on a few things... but the satisifaction of knowing I got what I really wanted the most and don't have to track anything down is worth $50 easily.
 
nightc1 said:
I have zero issues with the performance of the Xenoblade games on Switch. There were some small issues at launch for XC2, but they patched that up nicely. But I do hope we get some performance boosts for regular Switch games on Switch 2.
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I played Xenoblade 2 a couple years after to come out and there were for sure still performance issues. The framerate chugged hard in the open world and the resolution would drop so low at points that it turned in to a mess of pixels. Digital Foundry did a very good performance analysis. I still liked the game a lot though. Even though the original Xenoblade & X (Cross) were better games imo.
 
beenaround said:
And it still has massive performance issues and hits as low as 10 fps at times
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Geez... I heard it was bad, but that's horrible. If SMT Vengeance is released on PS5 ill pick it up. It's like the No More Heroes 3 situation. I completely skipped that game because of how bad it performed on Switch. I happily bought it when It released on platforms that could run it well.
 
gmsick said:
Geez... I heard it was bad, but that's horrible. If SMT Vengeance is released on PS5 ill pick it up. It's like the No More Heroes 3 situation. I completely skipped that game because of how bad it performed on Switch. I happily bought it when It released on platforms that could run it well.
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I played through 120+ hours of XC2 and then another 40+ for Torna. I should verify these numbers, I think it's likely more hours as I loved these game worlds. The performance dips are there but it's never to the point where I felt like it hindered gameplay. Even digital foundary testing only managed to get it to dip to 24fps. Some of this might be due to how the game is played. It's best off of the physical cart, second to that is internal memory, third is microsd (especially if it's not exceptionally fast). Then there's handheld vs docked. I played the game 100% docked. Handheld shows more issues. I also have RBG Range for my switch when docked turned from Automatic to Full Range. This makes a slight graphical improvement to most switch games (IMO). But I'm also not sensitive to slight drops in fps as I've stuck with 1080p and under gaming and max of 60fps.
 
Games wise I definitely purchase more titles when on sale than full price. Especially those sub 10$ games or the buy x get why sales on preorders.

But I don't buy as much these days since I've amassed a backlog.
 
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nightc1 said:
I played through 120+ hours of XC2 and then another 40+ for Torna. I should verify these numbers, I think it's likely more hours as I loved these game worlds. The performance dips are there but it's never to the point where I felt like it hindered gameplay. Even digital foundary testing only managed to get it to dip to 24fps. Some of this might be due to how the game is played. It's best off of the physical cart, second to that is internal memory, third is microsd (especially if it's not exceptionally fast). Then there's handheld vs docked. I played the game 100% docked. Handheld shows more issues. I also have RBG Range for my switch when docked turned from Automatic to Full Range. This makes a slight graphical improvement to most switch games (IMO). But I'm also not sensitive to slight drops in fps as I've stuck with 1080p and under gaming and max of 60fps.
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Yeah due to a memory issue the framerate would stay in the low 20's even when you were back in towns, but if you don't notice dips I understand why it was no problem for you. Xenoblade 2 was my most played Switch game of 2019. Never played Torna. Just wasn't interested enough in those characters. Good game, the performance was just disappointing. I played docked too. Portable was just a mess. I hear they tighted up the issues with Xenoblade 3. I'll know for sure when I finally get around to playing it. It's always jarring to me going back and playing something 720p on Switch. I'm fine with 30 fps too as long as it's steady and properly paced. I played FF16 in graphics mode and loved it.
 
Yeah I don't care if you can only hit 30 fps if it's consistent. It's stuff like smtv that gets into slideshow territory at times, dqm that has ridiculous drops, the last pokemon(didn't play it myself but seen the horrible performance).

Just annoying when it's so obvious.
 
Xenoblade 2 is unplayable on handheld. It's so fuzzy and pixelated, it looks like it's a DS port of itself.

I'm doing my best to only pre-order games I know I'll play right away or very soon after launch, or if they have a special edition I'm afraid will sell out. I've also gotten much better about impulse-buying games on sale, but of course I can't help myself from time to time and grab a game, just to never touch it or get burned when I don't enjoy it. My backlog is a nightmare and I'm really not into adding to it anymore. And yes, I did kind of impulse buy P3R, but I really do want to play it very soon. Not all of my decisions are intelligent ones lol

I have gotten a lot better, though. I've purged a large chunk of my game collection and become, as nightc1 put it, a curated collector, really only keeping games I not only enjoyed, but could see myself playing again in the future. I mean, that's another reason to not buy too many games: if you have a million games, how could you ever play them all, let alone more than once? I'll probably never play most of my collection multiple times, but the option is always there for if I'm in a gaming rut and I just want to try a new team in Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver or if I want to conquer Wind Waker or Xenoblade 1/2 or Persona 2/3/4/5 for the hundredth time. No shade toward those who have massive game collections, of course, but I can't really afford that (especially in this economy), so I'm happy just collecting what I know I'll like and play.

At the end of the day, saving money is always great, but sometimes life is too short to chase a deal. If you can afford it and you really want a game, just go for it! Don't be ashamed to be an early adopter. And I'm not just saying that to make myself feel better *stares at sealed copy of P3R, knowing full well it'll go on sale the second I open it*
 
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