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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shadowysea07 said:
If I liked ff theater rhythm and curtain call would I enjoy cadence of hyrule?
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The two you mentioned are more Music Rhythm games. Cadence of Hyrule and by extension Crypt of the Necrodancer are more like Dungeon Crawler Rhythm Games. Though Cadence of Hyrule will have a static overworld I believe, however the dungeon layouts are randomized. Movement is closer to grid/tile-based roguelikes that require you to move to the beat of the music. So you need to be able to promptly think on the fly as you're forced to keep moving. Though you can stop without repercussions, monsters won't stop for you and you can only move or attack if you time it with the beat.

Not sure where Boss is getting the first-person shooter genre from though.

 
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Draekon said:
The two you mentioned are more Music Rhythm games. Cadence of Hyrule and by extension Crypt of the Necrodancer are more like Dungeon Crawler Rhythm Games. Though Cadence of Hyrule will have a static overworld I believe, however the dungeon layouts are randomized. Movement is closer to grid/tile-based roguelikes that require you to move to the beat of the music. So you need to be able to promptly think on the fly as you're forced to keep moving. Though you can stop without repercussions, monsters won't stop for you and you can only move or attack if you time it with the beat.

Not sure where Boss is getting the first-person shooter genre from though.
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That the games mentioned do not compare to Cadence.

 
Play-Asia $5 off of $60 CODE :

L8-NY8-68Y

MYPSVITA & GEMATSU should still work for $3 off any amount order.
 
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Draekon said:
The two you mentioned are more Music Rhythm games. Cadence of Hyrule and by extension Crypt of the Necrodancer are more like Dungeon Crawler Rhythm Games. Though Cadence of Hyrule will have a static overworld I believe, however the dungeon layouts are randomized. Movement is closer to grid/tile-based roguelikes that require you to move to the beat of the music. So you need to be able to promptly think on the fly as you're forced to keep moving. Though you can stop without repercussions, monsters won't stop for you and you can only move or attack if you time it with the beat.

Not sure where Boss is getting the first-person shooter genre from though.
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ah so it is dungeon crawl with rhythm stuff. Probably pass then as It sounds a little hectic.

 
shadowysea07 said:
ah so it is dungeon crawl with rhythm stuff. Probably pass then as It sounds a little hectic.
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I just tried out the first level. Lost my throwing dagger / only weapon behind a roadblock. Was forced to try to use my bomb to dispatch the skeleton chasing me. Turns out my bomb blast inadvertently demolished a wall. Behind said wall was an angry harp monster which promptly chased me into a corner and destroyed me in keeping with the pulsing beat.

So yes, hectic sounds right.

 
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Contra looks horrendous, but even that franchise had a major downturn before the PS2 revivals.

Legacy of War :booty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZWfZp6Q2UE

C: The Contra Adventure :D/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_-4cNSQZMk

The new Contra looks to similar to those PS1 piles of pig vomit and cow diarrhea.

Honestly, it hasn't been a powerhouse franchise since Contra III. Probably, Konami should've just made the game a budget title with 2D sprites or whatever Cuphead does with a similar play style to C-III.


Zbornak said:
RPGSite has some details and a short video of Grandia HD. There's still no release date other than "very soon".
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To me, Grandia HD looks like shit. There is a 50% English patch available for the Sega Saturn version, and I am not a Sega Saturn fan in the slightest, but that version looks better to me than this HD remake.
 
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opportunity777 said:
To me, Grandia HD looks like shit. There is a 50% English patch available for the Sega Saturn version, and I am not a Sega Saturn fan in the slightest, but that version looks better to me than this HD remake.
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I love Grandia, but I'm not even sure what they're charging for here. It looks like a bad mod.

 
opportunity777 said:
To me, Grandia HD looks like shit. There is a 50% English patch available for the Sega Saturn version, and I am not a Sega Saturn fan in the slightest, but that version looks better to me than this HD remake.
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I had no idea this was a thing until I read a comment in Eurogamer earlier today, with said comment saying how bad it looks and I was like "wait, there's a Grandia re-release? Who gives a fuck if it looks bad?! I'm so glad some JRPGs from the golden SNES/PS1 era are getting a second life!" but then I saw pictures of it and I'm just... baffled. Really hope they clean this up. Grandia was one of my favorite RPGs. I re-played it 3 years ago and it was still such a charming game- Justin's smart-assery, the music (Mullen's theme is my jam), the sweet battle system.

 
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Please note the mana physical collection is a limited run program so make sure you get your orders in[attachment=32355:IMG_20190612_123837.jpg]
 
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Shadowmoses12 said:
Please note the mana physical collection is a limited run program so make sure you get your orders in IMG_20190612_123837.jpg
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Is Collection of Mana exclusive to Switch? You'd think this would be offered on PS4 eventually ...

EDIT: See that Trials of Mana is multi-platform. Will get that for PS4. Hopefully there are physical copies of this one.

 
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Never forget how "limited" the Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far collection ended up being (OOS for a while, then a sudden restock despite SE saying they wouldn't print more).

 
romeogbs19 said:
Is Collection of Mana exclusive to Switch? You'd think this would be offered on PS4 eventually ...

EDIT: See that Trials of Mana is multi-platform. Will get that for PS4. Hopefully there are physical copies of this one.
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I know its a ways off, but does anyone know what the MSRP of Trials of Mana is supposed to be?

 
Vigilante said:
Never forget how "limited" the Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far collection ended up being (OOS for a while, then a sudden restock despite SE saying they wouldn't print more).
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So limited I saw about 10 at my Best Buy a few days ago! I would have bought it but already had the collections separate.

 
romeogbs19 said:
Is Collection of Mana exclusive to Switch? You'd think this would be offered on PS4 eventually ...

EDIT: See that Trials of Mana is multi-platform. Will get that for PS4. Hopefully there are physical copies of this one.
Click to expand...
It looks like its... I normally don't care if something is on the Switch but regarding ports, the Switch has a spotty record. I also wonder if they avoided releasing it on the PS4 so that it doesn't cannibalize sales of the horrible remake.

 
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It is going to be $39.99 since the digital on the S-E store is $39.99. I don't see physical copies listed anywhere yet though. Never got the idea it was getting one right away but once the listing goes on Amazon or Best Buy i'll get it.

 
I don’t understand, is the other Trials a different game?

From BB listing:

Features
Collection of Mana brings the first three titles: Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana to the Nintendo Switch

All three games now include a convenient quick save feature

Experience Trials of Mana (originally released as Seiken Densetsu 3 in Japan), localized for the first time in the West
 
The one in the collection is the SNES original. There is a remake coming out for PC/Switch/PS4 I believe that has that game in 3D and such using the Dragon Quest 11 engine I believe.

 
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yes, the mana collection is just the nes/snes roms ported. The trials of mana single game is a HD remake of the original with new graphics, wide-screen ect...
 
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vic_x51 said:
honestly the collection should have been all the hd remakes.
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I've only played Secret of Mana HD for the first few hours and I don't know if I agree with that. There were some things I liked about the Remake but somethings that just seemed lazy/bad. Graphics are updated but the animations are weird (some NPCs have one expression that doesn't change and looks so odd during cut-scenes). The battle system feels much clumsier than the original (even though it isn't) because the controls are updated but the mechanics are not. The AI sucks still sucks but they added some nice hotkey options for special attacks. The original SNES soundtrack is there and there are added story elements (don't think I saw any in my short time with it).

Not sure the original is superior but the HD release honestly isn't really better universally.

 
denpanosekai said:
Or at least include the Vita one
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That'd make no sense. Then they'd still be missing half a dozen games.

Legend of Mana, Sword of Mana, Dawn of Mana, Children of Mana, Heroes of Mana, Rise of Mana... before you get to the Vita Adventures of Mana.

Edit: They might bundle the three remakes afterwards, but they'd still have to port Adventures of Mana.

 
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Thanks for the clarification. One more question, the limited physical release is the Collection not the independent Trials release?
 
I'm really liking Cadence of Hyrule. The music remix choices they've made are pretty popular, safe choices with popular tracks from Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past. They've all sounded pretty good thus far. I think I'm looking at beating the game at around 10 hours I'd wager based on my progress thus far. It's not particularly hard

I came across a Nintendo Treehouse video from the other day that does a better job showcasing the gameplay than the videos I posted before. They explain some of the mechanics, but be warned that if you watch too long they'll enter a dungeon (which aren't particularly long) and fight its boss.

[customspoiler='Nintendo Treehouse - Cadence of Hyrule Gameplay Demo']
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNHwgEsJCKs[/customspoiler]

And while I'm at it since you all have been mentioning a lot of Trials of Mana, here's a Nintendo Treehouse video on the gameplay for it from the other day as well for those interested. Looks better than the Secret of Mana remake at the very least.

[customspoiler='Nintendo Treehouse - Trials of Mana Gameplay Demo']
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7KXJOYWCYw[/customspoiler]

I'm still cautious though. Too many remakes/ports of theirs have been of sub-par quality to make me not question it regardless of how the game itself looks.

 
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Draekon said:
And while I'm at it since you all have been mentioning a lot of Trials of Mana, here's a Nintendo Treehouse video on the gameplay for it from the other day as well for those interested. Looks better than the Secret of Mana remake at the very least.

[customspoiler='Nintendo Treehouse - Trials of Mana Gameplay Demo']
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7KXJOYWCYw[/customspoiler]

I'm still cautious though. Too many remakes/ports of theirs have been of sub-par quality to make me not question it regardless of how the game itself looks.
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Thanks for the video. It looks good. I'll have to wait for reviews first though considering how the Secret of Mana remake turned out.

 
From what the dev said on stream they seem to be acknowledging that they kinda half assed the SOM Port, he made a joke about the mouths actually moving
 
Sign me up for the Trials of Mana remake :) One of my favorite SNES games that I've played many times over netplay with friends and I still really enjoy it. I thought the Secret of Mana remake was very mediocre (as did most everyone else of course) but I'll be optimistic for Trials.

Thank you again to gospelman for the advice / info on Trails of Cold Steel. I picked up the first game on PC and will be playing through soon :)

 
For those of you who play Final Fantasy XIV (MMO), they are currently running a promotion through Amazon (image) for the Black Fat Chocobo mount. Spend $19.99 or more on a video game and receive a code for the mount. Unfortunately pre-orders don't count, so you can't get it by pre-ordering Shadowbringers. The 60-day time cards do qualify. Make sure the product page mentions the promotion, and it should also show up during checkout that you are eligible for the DLC.

Do note that the mount is character bound and NOT account bound at the moment with no word on if it'll be changed.

 
Katsumi said:
For those of you who play Final Fantasy XIV (MMO), they are currently running a promotion through Amazon (image) for the Black Fat Chocobo mount. Spend $19.99 or more on a video game and receive a code for the mount.
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I play ffxiv in seasons. Considering resubbing for a couple months toward the end of the year to play the new expansion.

I ended up buying this left joycon replacement with d-pad, which is exactly 19.99 and qualifies for the promotion.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AJRN4CE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This mount is actually pretty glorious ingame. On land the fat chocobo runs due to having a bundle of gysahl greens dangled in front of it. When switching to flying, the greens become a piece of cake for extra motivation.

 
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Katsumi said:
I picked up the first game on PC and will be playing through soon :)
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Just a fair warning, due to the way CSI ends you'll want to immediately play CSII. There's a good chance both will be in the steam summer sale coming up fairly soon along with their dlc.

I personally have started playing Trails from Zero with the existing fan translation. There's supposed to be a superior translation nearing completion (geofront) but with CSIII only three months away I decided I shouldn't hold out any longer.

 
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gospelman said:
Just a fair warning, due to the way CSI ends you'll want to immediately play CSII. There's a good chance both will be in the steam summer sale coming up fairly soon along with their dlc.
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Good point! I'm not planning to start until the end of the month, and it'll probably take me a good month to get through the game, so I'll keep an eye out for DLC / CSII on sale :)

 
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