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 4 Downvote
I’ve never thought highly of any of Toriyama’s work, either his art or writing, and I feel like he set some bad precedents within shounen manga and anime, but I will freely admit that the man’s output is legendary in an industry that has a habit of killing the spirit of its most popular creators. I’ll always respect his work ethic and determination, and when it really comes down to it, isn’t that what shounen is all about?
 
I thought it was all about violence and friendship and violent friendships. And guys not knocking on doors before entering with the naked female characters behind it.
 
For anyone that still wants a Rebirth Deluxe, SE store has them in stock. Shipping is crazy expensive ($25) but I got one that's basically perfect unlike the damaged one from BBY (going back now) or the copy my brother found at his WM (passed on).
 
keyblader1985 said:
This was a big time gut punch, just like losing Takahashi. RIP to the most influential mangaka of our time.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's like I said to someone one time when discussion manga/anime. Dragon Ball didn't have to be your favorite, you didn't have to think it was good or even remotely like it but one think you had to admit was that gobal impact it had/has. You could take pictures & show them to random people anywhere in the world & they go, "Oh that's Spider-Man", "Oh that's Batman" & "Oh that's Goku". That's the type of recognition it has across the world.

And not just with Dragon Ball, the man contributed so much work towards cultural media over the years from manga/anime, novels, video games (w/Chrono Trigger & Tobal No.1 being personal favs), it's actually mind boggling to me on how much he's done.

Akira Toriyama put a lot of joy out in the world & it's going to be little bleaker without him in it.
 
I saw the news of Toriyama's death on my phone last night while I was wrapping up Pikmin 4 and all I could do was repeatedly say, "Oh my god!" So sad and sudden. That man created so many people's childhoods. Dragon Ball Z was one of the shows that got me into anime. I had a lot of guy friends in junior high and that show was one of the only things we talked about. Then I made a lot of girl friends in high school and we were all into DBZ, too. My parents used to make fun of it by saying every time the characters were powering up, it sounded like they were taking a dump lol my father called it "Dragon Ballzee." I was addicted to that show...and then Toonami got the original Dragon Ball. Oh my god, what a show. I knew every word of the English opening theme by heart. I'd speed through my homework so I could watch DB/DBZ, Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, G Gundam, and all the other great Toonami anime. I got the DBZ official magazine in the mail. I staged epic battles between my DBZ action figures, having them hit each other so hard, they scratched up each other and anything else unfortunate enough to cross their paths.

I got into Dragon Warrior/Quest and noticed immediately "the Dragon Ball Z guy" did the character designs. That was one of the reasons I was so interested in the series. Yes, many of his character designs look the same, but I think that's what adds to their charm. Toriyama's art is pure comfort food, the kind of reliable designs that enhance the characters with personality and levity. They are iconic, immediately popping into one's head when someone says "Dragon Quest" or "Chrono Trigger." And hey, as a preteen girl who didn't get to play as her gender in very many video games, being presented with a "Videl option" as I jokingly called it in DQ3 was incredible.

RIP Toriyama-sensei. Your works had a profound effect on my and many, many many other people's lives.
DQIII_Hero_Class.png
72r912ss2o591.png
 
DBZ was one of those important things of my friends and such growing up as obviously it was showing on Toonami and really got me into anime in the first place. I get bored of it now, but back then I watched the beginning stuff so many times. I also watched a lot in Spanish as that was usually ahead of Toonami. While none of his works were my favorite I quite liked the art style of the characters usually when they were used for something. They were generally easy to identify and cool looking. It's always something when of the greats of something passes away, but for those few years I was crazy about DBZ and barely getting into anime it was really good.
 
TheKbob said:
Y'all chomping at the bit for a sale on this version when you know there's going to be an update one in a year or two.
Click to expand...

shadowysea07 said:
They'll buy that one too.
Click to expand...

I still don't understand this post nor its response. The entire ongoing conversation has been surrounding how almost nobody is buying P3R even though we want to play it.

and how Atlus publishing has recently taken a sharp turn for the worse.
 
I posted this to the eshop thread, but I figure some of you here may be interested too. This is pretty much my go to plan for first party nintendo games that I don't care to get day 1 but wouldn't mind getting if they got cheaper.

... here's the post...

Just heads up Gamefly finally did their first major price drop on used (but complete) copies of Super Mario RPG to $34.99. After 10% tax ($3.50) and shipping ($2.98) it came to $41.47 for me. So I pulled the trigger. I know there's a chance this might drop lower later, but usually $30 is the best deal before tax & shipping with the major stores.

Video Games: Rent/Buy PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, 4kUHD, Blu-ray & MORE! Plus Consoles, Collectibles & Arcades Games | GameFly

GameFly, the #1 video game rental service. Rent and buy PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, 4k UHD, Blu-ray and more. Plus Consoles, Controllers, Accessories, Collectibles and Arcades.
www.gamefly.com www.gamefly.com
 
gospelman said:
Saw that, but GF frequently offers free shipping. I'm pretty much never willing to pay it during the times its not offered.
Click to expand...

What I've noticed for most of the Nintendo first party stuff on gamefly, it doesn't survive in stock long enough to make a free shipping sale. Advance Wars (I'd imagine is less popular) hit $40 twice and sold out each time within a couple days (faster the second time around) and neither time was during a free shipping deal. Right now Advance Wars doesn't even show a used option. So it can be a bit of a gamble to wait for a sale, especially since next time they could price it $40 instead of $35.

I'll still be trying to keep an eye on this specific game just to see how long it takes to sell out and if it has any other price drops. Advance Wars though, outside of coupon deals or buy 2 get 1 or other similar type deals... ended up having no major retail sales. Just one drop at best buy for something like $53. Currently Super Mario RPG hasn't dropped below $49 at retail (not counting buy 2 get 1, coupon sales, etc).
 
Vinny said:
I swear, this has been on sale so many times... like how many did they make? I checked and got it from GS back in April 2022 for $20.
Click to expand...
I think you are thinking about Hellbound and Debriefed 10th anniversary edition, not Undead & Undressed which this is the first time it's hit $20 for the day 1 switch edition.
 
Vinny said:
A lot of them still get launch editions as SBs or with a soundtrack still.. I know the 3DS had a few and I think both P5 and P5R had SB launch editions? Aegis 13 had artcards or something. But yeah, those all ended up being on sale for way less...
Click to expand...
nah I meant actually cool bonuses like the raiho plushie just for preordering raidou kuzunoha 2 (a $40 ps2 game) or all the stuff included in like persona q deluxe for $80. now they want you to pay $200 to preorder collectors editions for a bunch of garbage dlc codes and maybe a 10 page "artbook." they don't give you neat stuff for free/cheap anymore.

409493_front.jpgpurpq_final_032.png
 
I wish just one of the Persona whichever editions had come with a full tarot deck in a uniform style—not just the major arcana. How am I supposed to play games with just the trumps, Atlus?
 
A cool extra plushie will almost always get me to order said version over others if the price difference isn't crazy. It's the reason I ordered Touch Detective Switch from the website. Persona/SMT games really should come with plushies more often like they did back then. Those 3DS Atlus launch editions generally had extra garbo IMHO. It was generally music samplers, tiny artbooks and like maybe a sticker sheet or key chain if you were lucky. I mean I think I own them all, but I wanted the games haha.
 
62t said:
I am going to assume this is a mistake as there is no way they will make a physical PS4 version but not for Switch.
Click to expand...
I dunno, the UK can have weird releases sometimes. I'd definitely be interested in a physical PS4 version of MHS Collection from somewhere.
 
Last edited:
Pheria said:
A lot of ATLUS launch editions on 3DS were also $10 more than most other 3DS games, at least later in the gen. I recall 'FATLUS' being thrown around here.
Click to expand...
Because of fatlus tax. Especially on Stella glow which they didn't do any work on and had translation errors but they had the gall to charge "atlus tax" on
 
Vigilante said:
According to the official site, Monster Hunter Stories Collection (both remastered games) will get a Switch physical release on 6/14:

www.monsterhunter.com

MONSTER HUNTER STORIES｜CAPCOM

Get the latest information about MONSTER HUNTER STORIES.
www.monsterhunter.com www.monsterhunter.com
Click to expand...
Screwing over people that bought 2 physically because the only way to get 1 physically is to buy 2 again.
Of course the games will require a big download - 2’s is like 15 Gb with the current cart.
Hopefully 1 isn’t just a code in the box, but you never know.
 
Twilightsparkle said:
Screwing over people that bought 2 physically because the only way to get 1 physically is to buy 2 again.
Of course the games will require a big download - 2’s is like 15 Gb with the current cart.
Hopefully 1 isn’t just a code in the box, but you never know.
Click to expand...

So Monster Hunter Stories 1 is on cart, 2 is a code.
 
Rebirth is finished after 74 hours of play time. Great game & much longer than I anticipated. It took me longer to beat than Xenoblade 2 (65 hrs). So much extra stuff I didn't even touch either. I wanted to beat the main story as fast as possible to avoid spoilers. Now have to decide if I want to knock Star Ocean 4 or Ys 9 off the backlog next.

Also R.I.P Akira Toriyama. My buddy text me the news Thursday. It sucks, but his works are timeless and I will continue to enjoy them for the rest of my life. Looking foward to Daima & Sparking Zero.
 
An easy pass on the MH Stories combo. It's strange how many times I've resisted stuff like that. I didn't bother with the Bayonetta 1 & 2 combo either for the same reason. I buy physical for the physical games and not needing to manage storage space very often.
 
Speaking of Fatlus, listings for the Persona 3 Reload Expansion Pass have gone live on Steam and PSN and they want 35 fuck you dollars for it. I was hoping for $20 and expecting $30, but they managed to defy expectations and rip us off even more. Worst of all, aside from The Answer, all it includes is a bunch of music from the previous games that we've all already heard 147,856 times and those typical Velvet Room costumes they do for every game. And of course, you can't buy just The Answer. BUT THE MUSIC TRACKS ADD SO MUCH VALUE!!!!!!1

This is just like Splatoon 3 charging $25 for its expansion pass and justifying that $5 price increase over Octo Expansion by giving you just another area to walk around between matches. You don't give a shit about Inkopolis and just want Side Order? Tough luck, asshole. So sick of developers cobbling together useless crap to inflate the price of their expansion/season passes.

So yeah, Fatlus gonna fat. Paid $200 for the Aigis edition? You don't even get Episode Aigis with it, you pay pig.
 
Game pass was the best way to play that game. I get people want to own their games and shit but.. everyone saw this coming. Game pass was and still is still the only way to play Persona 3 Reload without getting ripped off. Otherwise wait for the complete edition in another year or so to buy it.
 
With no justification for the pricing implied, just to mention for those that have it: If you have Game Pass Ultimate, and want to play P3R on Xbox (Or the Windows Store Windows version for some reason). You can buy the expansion pass for free as a Game Pass Ultimate perk (And only available to Ultimate as a perk - regular game pass doesn't get it). I don't think it's just temporary access like a game pass game, as it went through a full 'buy/get' transaction for it.

Buy Persona 3 Reload: Expansion Pass | Xbox

Dive deeper into the world of Persona 3 Reload with this expansion pass featuring new costumes, BGM, and extended story content “Episode Aigis -The Answer-”.
www.xbox.com

I have Ultimate from doing the 'get discount gold for 3 years and convert that to Game Pass Ultimate' trick, but don't intend to renew it when it runs out in November. I may play P3R on Xbox though when I do since Episode Aigis was 'free'.
 
gmsick said:
Rebirth is finished after 74 hours of play time. Great game & much longer than I anticipated. It took me longer to beat than Xenoblade 2 (65 hrs). So much extra stuff I didn't even touch either. I wanted to beat the main story as fast as possible to avoid spoilers. Now have to decide if I want to knock Star Ocean 4 or Ys 9 off the backlog next.

Also R.I.P Akira Toriyama. My buddy text me the news Thursday. It sucks, but his works are timeless and I will continue to enjoy them for the rest of my life. Looking foward to Daima & Sparking Zero.
Click to expand...
having played star ocean 4 its playable the gameplay opens up a little after you get better characters like Reimi bacchus and meracle but the story is really really REALLY bad. and mages are prettymuch unusable and worse than the other entries before (12 and to a lesser extent 3) and after (5). Bacchus basically functions as a mage without spell casting times. Since his attack skill blackhole sphere is near full screen.

Edge is pretty bad to play with due to more restricted skills and his one later one is basically his only good move. Its a huge version of demon fang sorta similar to aurora blade or whatever from tales of graces. Its off since he's the main character but of them he's easily the worst physical attacker.

Reimi is who you want to use as soon as possible as she plays much more flexible and has really nice combos. Meracle an to a lesser extent edge can be really good once you figure out how to juggle targets and meracles far better suited to that and fast pugilist gameplay. Arumats middle of the road and I mainly liked his one long ranged skill that targets under an enemy wherever they are on the map.

As A warning there are bugs/glitches though. the secret dungeon is prone to crashes at complete random making that unplayable. And there's a crash around the purgatorium inner door that's cracked open. The cutscene starts then the game derps out. Sometimes finishes sometimes crashes before it even starts. I don't believe they ever fixed the secret dungeon issue but the purgatorium one seems to be random as I got a second copy of the game and using the same save got past it. Interestingly the first copy still worked perfectly fine for every portion after the crash area.
 
Last edited:
shadowysea07 said:
having played star ocean 4 its playable the gameplay opens up a little after you get better characters like Reimi bacchus and meracle but the story is really really REALLY bad. and mages are prettymuch unusable and worse than the other entries before (12 and to a lesser extent 3) and after (5). Bacchus basically functions as a mage without spell casting times. Since his attack skill blackhole sphere is near full screen.

Edge is pretty bad to play with due to more restricted skills and his one later one is basically his only good move. Its a huge version of demon fang sorta similar to aurora blade or whatever from tales of graces. Its off since he's the main character but of them he's easily the worst physical attacker.

Reimi is who you want to use as soon as possible as she plays much more flexible and has really nice combos. Meracle an to a lesser extent edge can be really good once you figure out how to juggle targets and meracles far better suited to that and fast pugilist gameplay. Arumats middle of the road and I mainly liked his one long ranged skill that targets under an enemy wherever they are on the map.

As A warning there are bugs/glitches though. the secret dungeon is prone to crashes at complete random making that unplayable. And there's a crash around the purgatorium inner door that's cracked open. The cutscene starts then the game derps out. Sometimes finishes sometimes crashes before it even starts. I don't believe they ever fixed the secret dungeon issue but the purgatorium one seems to be random as I got a second copy of the game and using the same save got past it. Interestingly the first copy still worked perfectly fine for every portion after the crash area.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the heads up. I have a physical PS3 copy of SO4, but bought the 4k remaster when it was $6 on PSN recently. So I'll play it on my PS5. Hopefully those technical issues were fixed.
 
Shiravune announced a new visual novel coming out Amanatsu ~Perfect Edition~ from Azarashi Soft. This is written by the same write of Making*Lovers. In this one the main character leaves the city to come to the country (seen this a bunch of times) because of city competition. He goes to go school here and is dealing with a new challenge of living here and meets 3 girls who change his life and also confess. This game also has the e-mote system which shows the characters breathing and moving and such instead of static images. It looks pretty high quality and seems like a highly regarded moege. It's coming to Steam with the usual 18+ patch, which I'll link to around whenever it is coming out.

VNDB (NSFW)
Steam

Harmonia Full HD edition is also coming to Steam. I believe this is based on the current console release.

Steam

Of the Red, the Light, and the Ayakashi Tsuzuri came out on Steam and also Switch. This is a complete version of an older PSP game with a new prequel and ending as well. This one is about some guy who was raised at a shrine. One day there is a festival and he is out in the world for the first time and meets 2 other guys. I don't know much about this, but it's popular enough and also is fully priced, which will lead me to waiting for a better sale.

Steam
Switch
VNDB (NSFW)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top