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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Play it. It holds a unique place of nostalgia for me as it was my first rpg ever. I was fascinated by the optional hidden boss so i picked up FFVI (then called FFIII). Pretty much set the trajectory for my next 20 years of gaming.

I doubt it gets a remaster though since it wont be an easy moneygrab like the other SE remasters. Too much nintendo licensing involved.
 
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Mattiful-Joe said:
Except Legend of Dragoon is a Sony game, not a SE property. I just can't see why Sony would bother - with FF, it doesn't need another fantasy themed, high production rpg.
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TIL I always thought it was SE for whatever reason.

One reason I see is it would be a true console exclusive that also hits on nostalgia, since the target audience is the group with the most disposable income. Just because FF is the big name in JRPG, doesn't mean another can't also exist in the same space; competition is good for a reason.
 
Imo legend of dragoon for the most part still holds up. I played it for the first time a year or two ago and enjoyed it minus the one item npc who is a total biiiitch. And they cycle through your power rangers some I liked more than others.
 
itzd4n said:
TIL I always thought it was SE for whatever reason.
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Ignoring the fact that Squenix didn’t exist back then, but yeah, there seem to be a lot of people under that mistaken impression. Maybe people see the word dragoon and just immediately think of Final Fantasy.
 
Souffrir said:
Ignoring the fact that Squenix didn’t exist back then, but yeah, there seem to be a lot of people under that mistaken impression. Maybe people see the word dragoon and just immediately think of Final Fantasy.
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No doubt Sony wanted a FF of its own back then. The game definitely borrows the look and feel of a FF game.

That said, I really doubt how popular it would be today. Honestly, I think Sony would more likely take a run at acquiring SE before trying to make a AAA Rpg on its own. The economies of scale with trying to reestablish that super old franchise today is pretty much the same as going with a new one. Too risky for a genre that's pretty niche outside FF, IMHO.
 
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If we're talking a wishlist for SE remasters, I'd love to see Threads of Fate on modern systems.

Story was fun and the action rpg gameplay was a bit ahead of its time, feeling a bit like a precursor to the combat from Kingdom Hearts.
 
Mattiful-Joe said:
No doubt Sony wanted a FF of its own back then. The game definitely borrows the look and feel of a FF game.

That said, I really doubt how popular it would be today. Honestly, I think Sony would more likely take a run at acquiring SE before trying to make a AAA Rpg on its own. The economies of scale with trying to reestablish that super old franchise today is pretty much the same as going with a new one. Too risky for a genre that's pretty niche outside FF, IMHO.
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I feel like remastering games with backdrops is just getting riskier. As amazing as backdrops were back in the day, they're the one part that you can't easily just increase the resolution on or clean up a bit for re-release on modern consoles and they always get called out in remasters. So publishers have to either spend the resources to improve backdrops or put up with the backlash.

With all that said though, there are people doing some amazing artwork that get posted on social media. I can't imagine a major publisher would have that much difficult in getting backdrops re-done.

beenaround said:
Forget SE reviving stuff, can we get Natsume and Neverland to make a new Lufia game or a remaster pack of 1 and 2?
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I would be all for that- those are two SNES classics that I never played.

I'd also love for SE to bring over more games that never made it over to the US... like Terranigma and Bahamut Lagoon. Terranigma was an amazing game, I played it after playing nearly all of the SNES, PS1 and PS2 classics and even then, I felt like it was ahead of its time in so many ways. Bahamut Lagoon is a really cool concept though I never got very far it in.

 
One S-E remaster I could go for is Saga Frontier 2 from the PSX. It actually has a decent story and is relatively easy to play compared to the other Saga games. I'm sure that ones in the pipeline since many of them are being remastered. If Legend of Dragoon would come back I'd prefer a remake instead.

The one company that needs some remasters is Namco. All they seem to re-release is Pac-Man games and their spinoffs. Early Tales games like Phantasia/Eternia/Destiny were all fun IMHO. Plus where the heck are the Xenosaga games! That seems like the biggest no brainer to re-release. Will sell a lot IMHO. 

 
nitrosmob said:
One S-E remaster I could go for is Saga Frontier 2 from the PSX. It actually has a decent story and is relatively easy to play compared to the other Saga games. I'm sure that ones in the pipeline since many of them are being remastered. If Legend of Dragoon would come back I'd prefer a remake instead.

The one company that needs some remasters is Namco. All they seem to re-release is Pac-Man games and their spinoffs. Early Tales games like Phantasia/Eternia/Destiny were all fun IMHO. Plus where the heck are the Xenosaga games! That seems like the biggest no brainer to re-release. Will sell a lot IMHO.
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people keep asking them for saga trilogy and baten kaitos off the top of my head. You'd think they'd get on that. Especially considering the cost of some of those second hand online have been high for years.

Anywho tales of wise they did remake destiny and port eternia once and phantasia lol amount of times. Just that NONE OF THOSE EVER GET LOCALIZED D:. With the exception techicality on eternia which did get released by ubisoft of all companies in eu back when bamco rarely let other companies handle localizations for them if they didn't feel like doing it/lacked a branch in that continent. Oh an that short lived ipad and such port for phantasia that was free. Forgot about that one. It crashed and burned since they made it free but took some of the save points out of the game and wanted to sell them back to you.

 
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nitrosmob said:
One S-E remaster I could go for is Saga Frontier 2 from the PSX. It actually has a decent story and is relatively easy to play compared to the other Saga games. I'm sure that ones in the pipeline since many of them are being remastered. If Legend of Dragoon would come back I'd prefer a remake instead.

The one company that needs some remasters is Namco. All they seem to re-release is Pac-Man games and their spinoffs. Early Tales games like Phantasia/Eternia/Destiny were all fun IMHO. Plus where the heck are the Xenosaga games! That seems like the biggest no brainer to re-release. Will sell a lot IMHO.
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I think the only company that cares less about their legacy titles than Bamco is WB, who owns like 75% of western arcade game IPs and never does anything with any of them beyond releasing a new Mortal Kombat now and then.

No, Konami doesn’t count, Konami cares a lot about its legacy titles, they’re where they get all their pachinko ideas from.
 
"No, Konami doesn’t count, Konami cares a lot about its legacy titles, they’re where they get all their pachinko ideas from."

xD

 
nitrosmob said:
One S-E remaster I could go for is Saga Frontier 2 from the PSX. It actually has a decent story and is relatively easy to play compared to the other Saga games. I'm sure that ones in the pipeline since many of them are being remastered. If Legend of Dragoon would come back I'd prefer a remake instead.

The one company that needs some remasters is Namco. All they seem to re-release is Pac-Man games and their spinoffs. Early Tales games like Phantasia/Eternia/Destiny were all fun IMHO. Plus where the heck are the Xenosaga games! That seems like the biggest no brainer to re-release. Will sell a lot IMHO.
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Agreed on Saga Frontier 2. I loved that one even more than 1 back in the day. I recently sold my physical copy of 2, so I hope they port it eventually (and I think they will, since it seems like SE is really trying to put every Saga game on modern consoles).

As for the Xenosaga trilogy, a remaster or even just a port of those will probably not be happening any time soon. Apparently, Bandai Namco recently shot down a remaster project due to it not garnering enough interest, and thus proving to the company that it wouldn't be profitable. The producer of Tekken 7 was tweeting about it a couple of years ago. I think he was pushing really hard for the remaster, but the support he garnered from fans just wasn't enough for Bamco to give it the go ahead. It's a really a shame, since KOS-MOS was in Xenoblade 2, so I think fans of that game, along with Xenosaga fans, would instantly buy a remaster collection. If Namco would just give up the rights to Monolith Soft, I'm confident Monolith Soft could convince Nintendo to allow them to at least port the games to Switch. Then again, Nintendo declared a Xenoblade X port wouldn't be profitable, so maybe it would be a crapshoot. Still, there'd be a chance.

Oh, and my pick for a JRPG remaster/rerelease: the original Dot Hack games! I'm talking IMOQ of course. Those are honestly some of my favorite games.

 
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YMMV, but I got a "$15 off $90+ In Store or Online" Target Circle Offer that shows up under Tech and Entertainment. It excludes Switch games according to the text, unfortunately (I was going to try to use it on the Pokemon Scarlet/Violet Dual Pack), but looks like it's working if I drop two PS5 pre-orders in as a test. Not sure what happens if you do some order 2, cancel one trickery.

update:

It will split the discount proportionally if you cancel.

The only thing eligible I was interested in, that I didn't already have a discount on, was Ys VIII for PS5 at $39.99

Call of Duty Vanguard on PS5 was basically perfectly priced to pair with it at $50.99 to push it over $90, then I canceled Call of Duty which gave me $6.59 off of Ys, separate from the red card discount

 
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The original .hack quad would certainly be interesting to get a remake. All it really needs is touching up to the action gameplay to give it some of gus elements like the action commands on weapons and faster attack skills. For the love of God Don't touch the magic system though as gus sucked. The harder thing will be to balance the bosses since they really felt like mmo battles with their bloated hp.
 
Tales of Arise (ps4, ps5, xb1/sX) is $19.99 pm'd across most major retailers today.  I'm considering picking one up with gs credit.  Then again, I might be better off waiting for it to join Game Pass and play it on pc.

 
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gospelman said:
Tales of Arise (ps4, ps5, xb1/sX) is $19.99 pm'd across most major retailers today.  I'm considering picking one up with gs credit.  Then again, I might be better off waiting for it to join Game Pass and play it on pc.
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i would go with buying a copy from a fine store like gs since you have credit. plus many japanese niche games become collectibles later on so you don't want to just go digital with this one.
 
gpn said:
Where did they say this?
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I found this article about it: https://www.gameinformer.com/2018/10/18/monolith-soft-says-a-xenoblade-chronicles-x-switch-port-would-be-too-expensive

I've heard that, because Xenoblade X needed to be built around the Wii U's limitations (thus making it a very expensive, complicated development), it would just be too much work and money needed to get it onto Switch. The story goes online that Nintendo doesn't want to take a financial risk like that, so when Monolith Soft approached them about an X port, it was shot down. But, a remaster of the original Xenoblade was approved, since that would cost less to make (and would sell very well given its connections to 2). Now, I'm not sure if Nintendo rejecting the project is 100% true, but since Takahashi has stated his interest in remaking X and money being a barrier, I'm pretty confident Nintendo has shot it all down by now.

 
idea factory bundle on fanatical for 17.99 

Super Neptunia rpg

Dragon star varnir

death end request 1

Not a bad deal but I'll wait for them to go that cheap on ps4 or other systems since I don't know how well those would run.

 
https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1534188466074005506

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition pre-order is tomorrow for NA. No mention of a specific time, so this is where I ask you guys if you know what time Nintendo usually puts stuff up if they have any precedent for similar stuff like the Nintendo 64 controllers? :p

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition pre-order is tomorrow for NA. No mention of a specific time, so this is where I ask you guys if you know what time Nintendo usually puts stuff up if they have any precedent for similar stuff like the Nintendo 64 controllers? :p
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When they dropped the Super Mario pin sets, I believe it was around 2-3pm EST, but it could really be at any time. It's frustrating they didn't give a timeframe. Maybe to dissuade scalpers? I'm not confident the site is going to be able to handle this release.

 
Ah well, I'll be fine with a standard edition if it's all I can get. We don't even know the price of the special edition yet!

https://videogamesplus.ca/products/xenoblade-chronicles-2-torna-the-golden-country-switch?goal=0_50263cf20b-b58b57225c-49206655&mc_cid=b58b57225c&mc_eid=54b44290f0

Torna is available for backorder again on Videogamesplus for those that wanted it. About $48USD plus shipping unless you buy a couple other things (you could add the Tales of the Abyss, or Persona Q / Q2 reprints to hit the $80CAD free shipping limit).

 
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BoxPizzaBox said:
Ah well, I'll be fine with a standard edition if it's all I can get. We don't even know the price of the special edition yet!

https://videogamesplus.ca/products/xenoblade-chronicles-2-torna-the-golden-country-switch?goal=0_50263cf20b-b58b57225c-49206655&mc_cid=b58b57225c&mc_eid=54b44290f0

Torna is available for backorder again on Videogamesplus for those that wanted it. About $48USD plus shipping unless you buy a couple other things (you could add the Tales of the Abyss, or Persona Q / Q2 reprints to hit the $80CAD free shipping limit).
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THANK YOU!

Seriously, I missed the boat when it clearanced (figuring it wouldn't explode in price), missed both waves on PGP and VGP last month but finally got one. 2 years of patience paid off lol.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
Ah well, I'll be fine with a standard edition if it's all I can get. We don't even know the price of the special edition yet!

https://videogamesplus.ca/products/xenoblade-chronicles-2-torna-the-golden-country-switch?goal=0_50263cf20b-b58b57225c-49206655&mc_cid=b58b57225c&mc_eid=54b44290f0

Torna is available for backorder again on Videogamesplus for those that wanted it. About $48USD plus shipping unless you buy a couple other things (you could add the Tales of the Abyss, or Persona Q / Q2 reprints to hit the $80CAD free shipping limit).
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Nice, thanks for the heads up!! Missed it last time.

I've been dropping some serious $ at VGP lately...
 
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There is an 'extremely limited' Soul Hackers 2 western collector's edition announced too:

https://noisypixel.net/soul-hackers-2-western-collectors-edition-revealed-extremely-limited-quantity/

The recommendation from ATLUS is to sign up to their newsletter for information on how to order.

I can't do most LE's anymore so I doubt I'll get it.. I just see a bunch of junk. I'll take the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 one if I can get it, but steel cases/artbook are all I'm ever interested in personally.

I like that ATLUS has done a few steelbook launch editions, I hope they do one for Soul Hackers 2 as well!

 
nagpo said:
Any thoughts on this listing?

https://heavyarm-asia.com/product/switch-crayon-shin-chan-ora-to-hakase-no-natsuyasumi-english-chinese-%e8%a0%9f%e7%ad%86%e5%b0%8f%e6%96%b0-%e6%88%91%e8%88%87%e5%8d%9a%e5%a3%ab%e7%9a%84%e6%9a%91%e5%81%87-%e6%b0%b8%e4%b8%8d/

It says english/japanese. it says the game is "out of stock" but as far as i know this game never got an english release. unless this means an english version is going to come out
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Might be a mistake. A version was released in May for Hong Kong, Taiwan and China and the rating on that cover appears to be for that region, but that release does not have English.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
There is an 'extremely limited' Soul Hackers 2 western collector's edition announced too:

https://noisypixel.net/soul-hackers-2-western-collectors-edition-revealed-extremely-limited-quantity/

The recommendation from ATLUS is to sign up to their newsletter for information on how to order.

I can't do most LE's anymore so I doubt I'll get it.. I just see a bunch of junk. I'll take the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 one if I can get it, but steel cases/artbook are all I'm ever interested in personally.

I like that ATLUS has done a few steelbook launch editions, I hope they do one for Soul Hackers 2 as well!
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I'll always do a bit more for plushies or figures like Nendoroids. $199 is a hard ask for that. I'm buying that game though. It and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 are my penciled in RPG gets for this year. The AI game would likely be too, but I haven't played the first.

 
I was just thinking I might as well get get the Collector's Edition of Soul Hackers 2 since I got the 3DS game... but 200 gotdang dollars?? Lol, fuck all that; they can go suck a lemon.
 
nagpo said:
Any thoughts on this listing?

https://heavyarm-asia.com/product/switch-crayon-shin-chan-ora-to-hakase-no-natsuyasumi-english-chinese-%e8%a0%9f%e7%ad%86%e5%b0%8f%e6%96%b0-%e6%88%91%e8%88%87%e5%8d%9a%e5%a3%ab%e7%9a%84%e6%9a%91%e5%81%87-%e6%b0%b8%e4%b8%8d/

It says english/japanese. it says the game is "out of stock" but as far as i know this game never got an english release. unless this means an english version is going to come out
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I did not know this place was an actual store- thought it was just some guy because I remember buying a game from him based on a CAG sending me his email years back. Yes, it sounded sketchy, but it was legit and I got my game.

Wish this place shipped internationally, would love to have another Asia option outside of PA.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
There is an 'extremely limited' Soul Hackers 2 western collector's edition announced too:

https://noisypixel.net/soul-hackers-2-western-collectors-edition-revealed-extremely-limited-quantity/

The recommendation from ATLUS is to sign up to their newsletter for information on how to order.

I can't do most LE's anymore so I doubt I'll get it.. I just see a bunch of junk. I'll take the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 one if I can get it, but steel cases/artbook are all I'm ever interested in personally.

I like that ATLUS has done a few steelbook launch editions, I hope they do one for Soul Hackers 2 as well!
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$200 for that is a fucking insult. I've been waiting to pre-order Soul Hackers 2 to see what the special edition would be, and now that it's been revealed, I'll definitely go for standard. I hope they do a launch steelbook because that's all I want out of that cash grab box.

Xenoblade 3, on the other hand...I will be glued to my computer tomorrow. Must. HAVE.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
There is an 'extremely limited' Soul Hackers 2 western collector's edition announced too:

https://noisypixel.net/soul-hackers-2-western-collectors-edition-revealed-extremely-limited-quantity/

The recommendation from ATLUS is to sign up to their newsletter for information on how to order.

I can't do most LE's anymore so I doubt I'll get it.. I just see a bunch of junk. I'll take the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 one if I can get it, but steel cases/artbook are all I'm ever interested in personally.

I like that ATLUS has done a few steelbook launch editions, I hope they do one for Soul Hackers 2 as well!
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Atlus launch editions back before the steelbooks were commonplace were pretty swag and equivalent to most collectors editions. Nowadays they don't do as much which is a shame.

 
Nothing- said:
Companies don't give a shit anymore. They'd rather gouge 1000 people for a single sale than serve their customers.
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While I get some of that by just spending the 3-5 bucks it took to put those extras in that encouraged more good will with their customers, sold more copies and gave a reason to pick up at launch instead of later when it went on sale. I mean I get that they no longer need the good will and word of mouth now that persona is a bigger series and smt to a lesser extent. Just a shame that they joined with other companies. At least they got rid of fuck ing fatlus tax. As that was some ridiculous bullshit. Especially on stella glow which they did no work for and released with translation errors/wrong descriptions yet had the nerve to charge 10 extra bucks for.

 
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Collectors editions naturally have to under serve demand. It creates the artificial scarcity enough to support the belief they have a higher value.

That's not to say some have genuinely good stuff got fans, but most are plastic garbage and soundtracks.
 
Ces should have lower print runs usually but seemingly most don't these days besides stuff like fire emblem. But Nintendo can barely be bothered to even release them outside Jpn so that's it's own issue. The Xenoblade 1 ce iirc was plentiful but no one wanted it.
 
I've got my standard edition of XC3 preordered at BB with three stacked coupons bringing the total down to $38.14 ... i don't (thankfully) care at all about Collectors/Special Editions unless they contain extra game content on the physical media.  I'll take the win at getting the game for under $40 at launch.   It probably helps too that I rarely display game stuff out in the open... and most of the junk in the pricier versions of games is no where near nice enough for me to display.  I'd rather display action figures and cars bought separately.  Like my crazy taxi toy cars I bought back when KB Toys was around (I have Axel and Slash with their cars and some passenger characters).

 
super1upqueen said:
I'm not confident the site is going to be able to handle this release.
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The site experience is / will be terrible. My recommendation is to ahead of time add a saved address and cc under account > shop menu. Last time I tried to buy something from this site was during a brief restock of 2ds xl consoles. Every single checkout screen was painful and gave errors. So it's better to have the fewest checkout screens as possible.

 
nightc1 said:
I've got my standard edition of XC3 preordered at BB with three stacked coupons bringing the total down to $38.14 ... i don't (thankfully) care at all about Collectors/Special Editions unless they contain extra game content on the physical media. I'll take the win at getting the game for under $40 at launch. It probably helps too that I rarely display game stuff out in the open... and most of the junk in the pricier versions of games is no where near nice enough for me to display. I'd rather display action figures and cars bought separately. Like my crazy taxi toy cars I bought back when KB Toys was around (I have Axel and Slash with their cars and some passenger characters).
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I'm trending this way too, I have more limited space than in the past and I'm considering getting a bunch of plastic bins to keep under a bed or something. I like displaying stuff, but I'm pretty indifferent about if it's a bunch of plastic game spines - it's definitely off-topic but could I ask how you store yours if you aren't displaying them?

I presently only have room for two IKEA BILLY bookcases with an extension on top, I can fit everything I have if I double stack and have plenty of room to add more stuff, but if I'm double stacking I'm not convinced it's much more convenient (for finding the game I want to play) than storing most of them away somewhere else, organized.

 
The main problem for each of us is getting over the "gotta have em all" mentality.  Which is difficult considering most of the Nintendo and Atlus CE's we've scored at reasonable prices in the past. 

It's hard to break.  However, most people here were so over those IFFI and NISA C-Class game CE's years ago.  It became too much (to buy everything); discussion slowed dramatically.  But we can still focus on the few great new sets each year. 

 
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