Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

shivan128

CAGiversary!
Feedback
163 (100%)
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!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Question regarding Hierophant confidant:

When you are trying to raise your confidant level, why wouldn't you make coffee every time instead of 'spend time with Sojiro'?  I'm at a spot where I can't raise his rank on our next hangout.  But making coffee gives you +2 music notes.  Shouldn't that be the same as hanging out with him?  Spending time gives +2 as well. 

Shouldn't you just make coffee every time instead of spending time with him? (if you're not going to rank up)

There are times that the guide tells you to spend time with him and this doesn't make any sense to me.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Question regarding Hierophant confidant:

When you are trying to raise your confidant level, why wouldn't you make coffee every time instead of 'spend time with Sojiro'? I'm at a spot where I can't raise his rank on our next hangout. But making coffee gives you +2 music notes. Shouldn't that be the same as hanging out with him? Spending time gives +2 as well.

Shouldn't you just make coffee every time instead of spending time with him? (if you're not going to rank up)
He stops showing up after teaching you about the 4 different roasts. I think it was 4 anyway.
This man is like freaking dojima. Incredibly hard to rank up.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I wonder if the switch will be the next go to portable for japanese devs after the vita is obsolete.

Kinda bummed that there's a fate extella complete with all dlc already and it hasn't even been out a year in japan yet. I already bought the costumes I want anyway.

But Ann is sexy out of her Phantom Thief outfit regardless
L-lewd.

 
[media]https://twitter.com/marvelous_games/status/852457583730348032[/media]

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Atlus Reveals Digital Deluxe Package for The Caligula Effect With Free Swimsuit DLC and More

"The publisher revealed that players who purchase the game will receive a theme featuring μ and various characters, 19 avatars, AND a swimsuit costume DLC pack for $39.99."

Layton’s Mystery Journey, formerly Lady Layton, launches for 3DS in Japan and smartphones worldwide on July 20

Omega Quintet Coming to PC From Ghostlight; New Screenshots

Tekken 7 Gets New Gameplay Footage of Jin vs. Xiaoyu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC9rfFM16dM

 
Last edited by a moderator:
That whole "carry an item through crowds of infinitely respawning monsters without being able to defend or attack and if you're hit you have to start over" mechanic they've got going on looks stupid levels of unfun.
Literally the first game I've ever played back in the 80s. You go around collecting 6 eggs or something, and on your last egg, that happens.

 
Monster Hunter Stories...cool...i'll be getting it sometime down the line. That Heirophant social link is my slow moving glacier for sure. I don't find it very useful so i'm prioritizing some others first. (Becky one more level baby...then i'll get some time i'll likely use for the heirophant haha).

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am very excited about the summer of 3DS games.

EverOasis looks kinda cool and super excited about SMT Deep Strange Journey looks so awesome.

 
I am very excited about the summer of 3DS games.

EverOasis looks kinda cool and super excited about SMT Deep Strange Journey looks so awesome.
Atlus remakes are very good. I like the EO ones and the SMT ones. They obsolete the original easily....but yeah they rock.

 
I'm still salty I couldn't get bride on PS4 because I bought it physical and that was digital only preorder dlc.
Same. I feel like they should have included a code on launch copies of the game for that outfit like Japan did for some other DLC for the game.

 
KGI3sfS.gif
 
Last edited by a moderator:
EDIT: Sorry for the wall of text, tl;dr at the bottom.

I bought it a while ago while it was still on its way down, and so far I like it. The gameplay is... kinda bad. It's a very simplistic grid-based strategy RPG—nearly the entire battle takes place in a diagram that's barely better than grid paper, with only attacks animated—, with a few complications. You have limited turns to win, all actions—even turning in place—cost AP, and like very old JRPGs, all actions for all characters are decided at the beginning of the turn, meaning you have to predict where the enemy units are going to be when planning your attack, instead of simply aiming for wherever they were at the end of the previous turn.

Enemies also have some decided advantages. They can attack in response to being attacked, while your characters can't, and can use certain points on the field to teleport to other points.

Your advantage is that you can set up the field with traps and other tools before battle begins. Setting barriers in the way of those warp points, or items to attract the enemies' attention, is key to pinning them down.

It sounds pretty bad, and to be honest it's really simplistic and I can understand how it might seem tedious, but it's not as difficult as it might sound. For one thing, there's very little penalty for defeat or running out of turns. In either case, you can simply start the fight over with no penalties, and you only lose the money you spent on traps if you decide to abandon the fight—otherwise you can just restart with the same trap layout you had initially set. The enemy AI is also extremely simple, and once you figure out its priorities, its pretty easy to predict how it'll act.

The atmosphere, for me, is where it really shines. Despite the fact that the game clearly spent its entire budget on character/enemy portraits (even the backgrounds are just photos run through a filter), they did a pretty decent job establishing immersion—from the company website to the way profits are tallied at the end of a battle, there's a very authentic feeling to it all. Even the menu sound effects are satisfying. While some of the equipment you can use doesn't make a lot of sense—an electric guitar as a weapon to fight ghosts, for instance—there's also some stuff that almost makes too much sense, in the context of a smalltime modern operation—thick manga stuffed in your shirt as body armor, for instance. There was also a lot of thought put into making even little things like item descriptions more engaging: one possible head armor is a white sheet to confuse ghosts (because you "blend in").

Did I mention the art? It's pretty gorgeous. It has a sort of dark, painted look, instead of opting for the ultra clean look that most art with a modern anime aesthetic goes for. The animation is just the photoshopped image manipulation you see in a lot of Japanese games these days, ranging from Vanillaware's entries to Conception II. Like any of that sort of animation, it's not that great, but it's far from the worst example I've seen.

The other side of gameplay is the visual novel aspect, which is where the majority of the story is told. I haven't gotten very far in the story, since I've been spending a lot of time getting a feel for battle, but I've liked what I've seen so far. Like the atmosphere, the writing comes off as pretty authentic, and the characters are generally likeable, all with plenty of personality. There are multiple endings, though as early in the game as I am, I couldn't tell you how repetitive trying to get them all might feel.

Like many visual novels, you're given semi-frequent decisions that affect your relationships with other characters (as well as, presumably, which ending you get), but these come in two varieties. There are the standard list of two or three options that most VNs offer, but the majority of these decisions are presented as a more complex interaction—you're presented with a diagram with five "emotion"-based options, followed by a diagram with five-"sense" based options, and depending on the combination of options you pick, your character will thereafter interact with whatever prompted the decision in a certain fashion—for instance, when meeting someone for the first time, picking the "friendly" emotion followed by the "touch" sense will typically lead to an attempted handshake. As you can probably imagine, this system, while intriguing, is so vague that attempting to predict what the game will actually do based on a given combination of options can be frustrating, though the appropriate responses tend to follow a pattern. The worst part of this system is that no explanation is given (I believe in the Japanese version the diagrams used kanji to represent the emotions and senses, which would have been easier to interpret compared to the simplistic pictures offered in the English versions), so you should definitely look up what each emotion and sense picture is supposed to represent before starting the game.

In short, it's a VN that tries to stand out from other VNs by various means—a greater focus on atmosphere and details, the inclusion of a poorly implemented battle system, and that weird interaction system. I feel like what's good about it outweighs the oddities and irritations, but I can be pretty patient with these things and I can definitely understand how others might get frustrated or bored with them. At its current price I think it's definitely worth a shot, but keep in mind that it's definitely... quirky, and not necessarily in a good way.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's now the fastest selling system in Nintendo History.

I think we now know why the NES Classic was put to sleep.
Who are we kidding, Nintendo isn't happy that the NES Classic was hacked and they fear continued sales will interfere with their virtual console profits. The only other reason for discontinuing it would be greed -- not as much profit per console (partially attributed to licensing costs for third party games...Mega Man 2, Final Fantasy, Ninja Gaiden...). But even then, they still made money.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
My pet theory: they need to repurpose all manufacturing capacity toward the Switch, which is more profitable once you consider licensing royalties for software and accessories.

Meanwhile, for the NES Classic, they have to pay royalties on each unit to the IP owners-- e.g. Square Enix for Final Fantasy.

 
There are all sorts of conspiracy theories surrounding the NES Classic. It's possible that Nintendo feels they've got a good thing going with the Switch, and are planning on focusing all their efforts in that direction. It's also possible that some of the license holders for games on the NES Classic saw the sales success of that diminutive system and came clamoring for a larger slice of pie. Or they could be prepping a version 2 of the thing that they plan to announce for this holiday season. They could easily be making this a seasonal exclusive, with a different version/variant with different games coming out each year.

Honestly, I'd believe any of these theories. They are all probable to one degree or another. What I do know is that my NES Classic looks awfully nice on my shelf. Also, the after-market for this little gizmo is going to remain sky-high for the forseeable future.

 
The NES classic makes no money for them
Someone at Nintendo didn't wake up one morning and decide to make this thing on a whim. Manufacturing costs, licensing fees, package material, peripherals/accessories, were all factored into production costs during development--it's the way a company works. Profit was made on the 1.5 million units sold, even with licensing costs. I don't give Nintendo much credit, but if they can't figure out a way to monetize tech from 30+ years ago, that's pretty pathetic.

 
Someone at Nintendo didn't wake up one morning and decide to make this thing on a whim. Manufacturing costs, licensing fees, package material, peripherals/accessories, were all factored into production costs during development--it's the way a company works. Profit was made on the 1.5 million units sold, even with licensing costs. I don't give Nintendo much credit, but if they can't figure out a way to monetize tech from 30+ years ago, that's pretty pathetic.
A single disc game sells for $60. This thing takes a bunch of factory production resources, $20-30 in materials and packaging, they have to pay Konami, Square, Taito, Bandai Namco, and Capcom for licensing fees, a few dollars in shipping charges, and then the retailer gets a decent cut as well. Of course they profited. But maybe only ~$10/unit at best. It is a complete waste of company resources and factory contracts. Not to mention that it devalues their own virtual console game sales.

People don't seem to get that the NES Classic was nothing more than a cool little "Thank you" and "Hey please don't forget about us" during the holiday season.

 
bread's done
Back
Top