Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

shivan128

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:
Upvote 5 Downvote
Nothing371 said:
Does Zero Escape: The Nonary Games have an MSRP of $40 or $50? I just noticed its only $40 at Best Buy, but $50 on Amazon.
Click to expand...
I think it's supposed to be $40 for the Vita version and $50 for the PS4 version. That BB PS4 version for $40 is probably a pricing error, GS, Amazon, and New Egg all have it for $50. But it doesn't look like it is orderable right now anyway at BB.
 
JohnnySako said:
90ae7fc02a65c02440b93a32075694d6.jpg
My son came home with this project he did in school. His teacher has good taste.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
He got that 10x4 block right above the left eye wrong! 😜
 

pjmomo said:
it's not really devaluing, it's just the market gets flooded with used copies. publishers don't get any sales from used games, so their only option is to compete with used prices by dropping their price to a reasonable amount that warrants the purchase of a new copy instead of used.

deals usually happen within the first 3 months and official msrp price cut happens after...

now that's not all, shops are also competing to move stocks. more competition for them means better deals for the us.
Click to expand...
publishers don't technically get sales from new games either but that is splitting hairs. Sales mainly affect how much a store is willing to negotiate the price for the shipment, the quantity they order and shelving and such space. on average the publishers are not getting 2/3 of what the games sell for new so however you buy your games the money isn't going to the people you want it to.

 
shadowysea07 said:
publishers don't technically get sales from new games either but that is splitting hairs. Sales mainly affect how much a store is willing to negotiate the price for the shipment, the quantity they order and shelving and such space. on average the publishers are not getting 2/3 of what the games sell for new so however you buy your games the money isn't going to the people you want it to.
Click to expand...
you're right. i'm looking at the numbers both publishers and distributers get about $1 out of every game sold.

 
Here's my Review of Tales of Berseria:
 
I wanted to play enough of the game to give an informative review of it so here's
my take about 30hours in!
 
Story: You know Tales games by now, Save the world from every danger known imaginable. 
"Not Today!" Says Velvet Crowe the progag of this game, she doesn't want to save anything.
Velvet wants revenge & She'll go by any means necessary to accomplish it.
Pretty early on the main goal of the game is explained & then you go about trying to achieve it,
while gaining allies who'm also have their own goals to achieve. The game does a great job
going back & forth between advancing the main story and advancing their story forward 
with many side events intertwined. 
 
Characters: Everyone in the group serves a purpose and not one of them in my opinion is hateable.
OK, maybe Velvet might be the most one dimensional at the start but eventually you see her grow.
More importantly every character complements eachother, there's plenty of drama to go around.
But there's also tons of comedy. Plus a few very cool cameos! Which I won't spoil :)
 
Combat: Let's be honest, In Zestiria it was pretty awful but not here. The game will encourage you
to try out new combos as you gain new abilities. There is ALOT to learn if you want to master it.
Keeping combos going is easy but also very rewarding when you discover a new set of them. 
Every character feels uniquely different in what they do. But I will say that playing in Normal,
it doesn't feel very difficult. That is UNTIL you meet status effect monsters which I will touch on
in the next segment.
 
Gear: This is 1 of my 2 biggest complain with this game. You get a ton of gear, most of which you'll
want to disenchant for enchanting other gear. For example: you'll get like 30 copies of the same boots 
going thru a dungeon with the only difference being a few stat changes here and there. But in the end 
they don't feel any different.. +10Strength doesn't mean anything. 
However +40% Resist to Paralyzing DOES! Status Effect Monsters will kick your ass! 
Specially Para/Poison ones. I basically just keep gear with Anti Status Effects as It's
the only one I've seen actually give me an advantage. The rest is basically pointless (in my opinion).
Also managing gear could have been more streamlined but this is minor in the end, just a nuisance more than anything.
 
Graphics: The game looks gorgeous and it's very colorful at least on my PRO, I can't speak for a XB1/PS4. Which is a bit of a downer when you reach some of these drab looking areas and dungeons that lack color. This leads me to my 2nd biggest complain. You will be backtracking.. Alot!
Not only will you sometimes be forced to backtrack from the end of a dungeon to the entrance because
for some weird reason it doesn't have a portal to teleport you (most do have teleporters)...
But sometimes you will get to dungeons that look pretty much the same to one you've been at previously (same textures) just different monsters and that can get annoying... Think Neptunia *Shrug*
One thing I usually overlook is Music and in this game you can actually HEAR IT NOTICEABLY
making a scene more dramatic or adding levity. Which is a nice touch, I usually don't pay attention
to those kind of things but I've caught it here a few times which was cool. 
 
Final Thoughts: The game can be grindy if you want it to be but it's never forced on you.
You can avoid most battles on your way to a boss which is nice. My biggest take away is how likeable
the characters are and how good the story has been so far. Everything else just feels like icing on the cake!
A scantily clad, very vengeful cake :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
For those interested in the Trails series, Hatsuu of XSeed fielded some questions on NeoGAF that were previously meant to be part of an XSeed blog entry. It's mostly questions on the localization of the series. They can be found here:

Reply #1

Reply # 2

Reply #3

Spoilers should be tagged, but as always be careful with spoiler text.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
So there will be no LE for Atelier Firis? That kinda sucks. Guess this will be the first time in a while that I don't buy an Atelier game at full price then.
 
Koei-Tecmo probably has a reason for not doing a Firis LE. 

There's so many more business factors than a small amount of copies with a guaranteed sell through. Just looking at Japanese first week sales, they only sold 64% of what Sophie sold in the same week. Taking away the PS3 sales of Sophie since Firis did not have a PS3 version makes it 76% but those sales should have translated to the PS4 or Vita versions having a slight bump as people moved on to the newer consoles. 

If the same thing happens in the west, I could see where they would want their loyal fans to go to a physical store or online retailer to shore up sales numbers there and keep shelf space available.

 
bappt said:
Koei-Tecmo probably has a reason for not doing a Firis LE.

There's so many more business factors than a small amount of copies with a guaranteed sell through. Just looking at Japanese first week sales, they only sold 64% of what Sophie sold in the same week. Taking away the PS3 sales of Sophie since Firis did not have a PS3 version makes it 76% but those sales should have translated to the PS4 or Vita versions having a slight bump as people moved on to the newer consoles.

If the same thing happens in the west, I could see where they would want their loyal fans to go to a physical store or online retailer to shore up sales numbers there and keep shelf space available.
Click to expand...
Something like Atelier doesn't really get stocked at many places outside of like Gamestop. At least around here anyway. The only reason a lot of people get them at release is because they don't want to miss out on the LE's. I'll still get Firis at some point, however no LE means I'm not really in a rush and will get it when I'll actually play it.

I'm sure they do have a reason for no LE. I wonder if maybe the LE sales numbers just aren't large enough for there not being one to really affect sales enough for them to care.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
aaronrodgers said:
Too many other great games coming in the next couple months.
Click to expand...
Between new games & the Switch, I just don't see me buying it at launch either.

I'm already trying to figure out how to squeeze in For Honor (The MP looks really interesting) before March 3rd :whistle2:

 
Olengie said:


This came in on Friday.

Having a lot of fun with Gundam Breaker 3
Click to expand...
I'd like to hear your thoughts on Genesis. I like that it focuses on Universal Century. But gameplay looks like a watered down SRW. Is there voice acting during dialogue?

whoknows said:
Something like Atelier doesn't really get stocked at many places outside of like Gamestop. At least around here anyway. The only reason a lot of people get them at release is because they don't want to miss out on the LE's. I'll still get Firis at some point, however no LE means I'm not really in a rush and will get it when I'll actually play it.

I'm sure they do have a reason for no LE. I wonder if maybe the LE sales numbers just aren't large enough for there not being one to really affect sales enough for them to care.
Click to expand...
Nisa managed to sell through their Shallie LE preorders. Though it did take almost until release for it to reach 0%.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Draekon said:
For those interested in the Trails series, Hatsuu of XSeed fielded some questions on NeoGAF that were previously meant to be part of an XSeed blog entry. It's mostly questions on the localization of the series. They can be found here:

Reply #1

Reply # 2

Reply #3

Spoilers should be tagged, but as always be careful with spoiler text.
Click to expand...
this was very informative thank you. Though I didn't get a scottish accent from becky at all myself. maybe if I read all of her dialogue I would. Only times I typically remember her talking were during the test section of the game at how stupid she was.

 
motaku96 said:
I'd like to hear your thoughts on Genesis. I like that it focuses on Universal Century. But gameplay looks like a watered down SRW. Is there voice acting during dialogue?

Nisa managed to sell through their Shallie LE preorders. Though it did take almost until release for it to reach 0%.
Click to expand...
to be fair doesn't shallie have running issues? Or am I confusing it with sophie again? Since I tend to do that alot.

aaronrodgers said:
Too many other great games coming in the next couple months. No L.E. for Firis means I'm waiting until it's 30 or less.
Click to expand...
And with atelier titles that will be pretty quick these days now that they do less limited prints and reprints for them.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
wow didn't know gravity rush remastered had a low print run. I'd think they'd have tons for sale since the sequel was going to release, kinda like how's theres tons of uncharted remastereds laying around.
 
I'm under the impression it will get a reprint since it was Amazon Exclusive.

Vinn said:
Sheesh. I still need to pick it up but it was all the way in the back of my list. Wonder if we will get any reprints?
Click to expand...
Don't worry though. You can still get the EU version for cheap

 
ooooh it was an amazon exclusive? i didn't think this would be considering it's a sony game. usually niche vita games and indie ps4 games get that treatment.
 
Kaiser499 said:
Damn, since when did Gravity Rush Remastered get so expensive? It's going for over $100 now.
Click to expand...
Olengie said:
When it went out of stock at Amazon last week.
Click to expand...
Vinn said:
Sheesh. I still need to pick it up but it was all the way in the back of my list. Wonder if we will get any reprints?
Click to expand...
vic_x51 said:
wow didn't know gravity rush remastered had a low print run. I'd think they'd have tons for sale since the sequel was going to release, kinda like how's theres tons of uncharted remastereds laying around.
Click to expand...
Gravity Rush Remastered lasted actually a really long time for something that Sony decided to make a physical release of at the last second due to fans demanding a physical release. The game came out in February and it only just went out of print earlier this month so that's about a year the physical release was available (even longer if you include pre-ordering which began in November). I can't recall if Sony said it would be a limited release but it felt like it would be honestly seeing as it was a last minute change and made Amazon exclusive.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
vic_x51 said:
ooooh it was an amazon exclusive? i didn't think this would be considering it's a sony game. usually niche vita games and indie ps4 games get that treatment.
Click to expand...
Yes. They said it during the press release and is the reason why you don't see at retail stores.

EdJericho said:
Gravity Rush Remastered lasted actually a really long time for something that Sony decided to make a physical release of at the last second due to fans demanding a physical release. The game came out in February and it only just went out of print earlier this month so that's about a year the physical release was available (even longer if you include pre-ordering which began in November). I can't recall if Sony said it would be a limited release but it felt like it would be honestly seeing as it was a last minute change and made Amazon exclusive.
Click to expand...
They didn't say it was a limited release, just Amazon Exclusive

 
Olengie said:
I'm under the impression it will get a reprint since it was Amazon Exclusive.

Don't worry though. You can still get the EU version for cheap
Click to expand...
True, though I will still have to wait on grabbing one since from now to April the releases incoming is pretty insane. Also I just bought a new receiver and the PS4 Pro so I'm pretty tapped out for anything not planned.

 
vic_x51 said:
ooooh it was an amazon exclusive? i didn't think this would be considering it's a sony game. usually niche vita games and indie ps4 games get that treatment.
Click to expand...
I think we were about to get screwed and get digital only until Amazon stepped in and picked up the physical release. I think someone high up in Amazon is a Kat fan.

 
Nothing371 said:
Lot of good games on that March list, thankfully it's mostly games that I can wait until they're $20. I want at least eight of those games too and wouldn't be playing any of them anytime soon. Nioh is the next full priced game I'm going to jump on at its release date, then some Switch stuff, and Persona 5 after that.

I'd like to take a moment to thank Ubisoft, EA, and all the other publishers for devaluing their own franchises to the level where we know we can buy these games for $20-25 just a couple months after they release. Seeing as I'm buying 40-80 boxed retail games a year, I need to be more patient.

I am a little worried about Horzion: Zero Dawn and NieR Automata being good enough that they ruin this plan though.
Click to expand...
Those will be 20 too hell I seen some games i wouldnt think would hit 20 or lower like the witcher 3 goty and last of us remastered. Only exception are nintendo first party games unless they are selects
 
Last edited by a moderator:
SonicGamer said:
Those will be 20 too hell I seen some games i wouldnt think would hit 20 or lower like the witcher 3 goty and last of us remastered. Only exception are nintendo first party games unless they are selects
Click to expand...
I agree with that, 95% of games unless their 1st party nintendo or special editions, will drop to atleast $20 eventually.

However their are some games i can't help but support day one even though i know they'll receive a price drop.

Horizon and Nioh are two games i will be picking up day one this month just to support New IP. (Plus i have faith they will deliver a good experience).

Honestly if you have any remote interest in a new ip being released, buy it day-week one to support the release of more fresh ip in the market.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
So, uh, yeah. I completely forgot to post this yesterday as I've been rather wrapped up in playing Berseria. Pretty rare for me to have that issue when playing a game and it probably didn't help that I didn't even realize it was Sunday.

Other stuff that released without warning last week that are all on PC/Steam:
- Love Ribbon (Visual Novel)
- Seinarukana -The Spirit of Eternity Sword 2- (Visual Novel / RPG)
- Genghis Khan / 蒼き狼と白き牝鹿・ジンギスカン (Strategy / No English)
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms Ⅱ / 三國志Ⅱ (Strategy / No English)
- NOBUNAGA’S AMBITION: Zenkokuban / 信長の野望･全国版 (Strategy / No English)

Weekly Releases (January 29th - February 4th)

Legna Tactica
- Platform(s): 3DS
- Genre: SRPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Digital only. KEMCO mobile port.

Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World
- Platform(s): 3DS
- Genre: Platformer
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Also on Wii U, but has new content ("Poochy" stages) over the original.

Double Dragon IV
- Platform(s): PS4, PC
- Genre: 2D Brawler
- Demo: N/A
- Online: Local only.
- Comments: Hopefully it lives up to its predacessors.

Digimon World: Next Order
- Platform(s): PS4
- Genre: RPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: Upload/Download Teams & Leaderboards
- Comments: No western release for the Vita version.

Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers
- Platform(s): PS4, Vita
- Genre: SRPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Digital only. Not using the typical musou formula.

Koi Musubi
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese language only.

Crimson Trigger
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Action / 3D Platformer
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A

Disgaea 2 PC
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: SRPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Previously released on the PS2 & PSP. Apparently also will be on Mac & Linux.

Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: RPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Well, this certainly looks different.

Samurai Sword VR
- Platform(s): PC VR
- Genre: Action
- Demo: N/A
- Online: Leaderboards only.

The Sorceress
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Action RPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Pretty sure it's not Japanese.

ZANGEKI WARP
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: SHMUP
- Demo: On official JP website.
- Online: N/A

Pale Moon Crisis
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: 2D Horror / Action
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Doubt it's Japanese.

Rosenkreuzstilette
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Action Platformer
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: AGM Playism published.

Xenon Valkyrie
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Roguelike / RPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Doubt it's Japanese.


Past Releases
January 22nd - January 28th
January 15th - January 21st
January 8th - January 14th
January 1st - January 7th
December 25th - December 31st

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think I wont be buying any games really in February or March. I'm only really interested in Horizon, though my backlog is big enough I can wait. I will pick up just about all the niche releases when they reach $20 or less...or around $20...like Digimon, Akiba's Beat....etc.. I think I may just pick up Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, just cause I love those games, but everything else till P5 is pretty much a wait till around $20 price. I've collected way too many games recently, and I really need to give them the attention they deserve.

 
Supplice said:
Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash Details Its Game Modes And Locker Room Fun Time
Click to expand...
It's neat they're doing something similar to Splatoon and giving extra maps and stuff after the game for free tho by the time the West gets the game that will just be available already. Just as long as they don't do some bullshit like that terrible 2 maps only rotation every 4 hours. Made sense when the game only had 5 maps but when there's 16 maps in the end that 4 hour rotation begins to look annoying and terrible. I fully expect BlackRockWaifu to create our MLG crew and give us a witty name like Call of Boobies: Modern Waifus.

 
Seeing new Horizon gameplay videos....eh it looks boring. I will easily wait till about $15. Also couldn't stand the cinematic scenes too much. That one went from wanting to play to eh I'll pass with a bunch of people putting out their first impressions from the game.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
http://shoryuken.com/2017/01/29/square-enix-announces-new-fighting-game-million-arthur-arcana-blood-for-arcades/

Square Enix new arcade fighter announced, might come to consoles.


Supplice said:
Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash Details Its Game Modes And Locker Room Fun Time
Click to expand...
This game looks really fun, I guess I was wrong about it being more Senran Kagura brawler, than a shooter. Also looks a bit strange though, a third person shooter with a lock on mechanic. Seems to be similar to Star Wars Battlefront, with a radar system that tells you the direction your enemy is in, as well as three "starcard"/perks mechanic. The boss fights and CPU battles look really fun too.

Me and EdJericho will be recruiting for Cloud 69, or umm... Optits gaming... or Team Luminotitty.

 
BlackRockWaifu said:
http://shoryuken.com/2017/01/29/square-enix-announces-new-fighting-game-million-arthur-arcana-blood-for-arcades/

Square Enix new arcade fighter announced, might come to consoles.


This game looks really fun, I guess I was wrong about it being more Senran Kagura brawler, than a shooter. Also looks a bit strange though, a third person shooter with a lock on mechanic. Seems to be similar to Star Wars Battlefront, with a radar system that tells you the direction your enemy is in, as well as three "starcard"/perks mechanic. The boss fights and CPU battles look really fun too.

Me and EdJericho will be recruiting for Cloud 69, or umm... Optits gaming... or Team Luminotitty.
Click to expand...
Still waiting for Dissidia Arcade to come to consoles.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top