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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Kimi ga Nozomu Eien Enhanced Edition is being released by aNCHOR Inc., who do all the MuvLuv releases. I saw this anime ages ago and it's a lot of drama and sad things. I expect the same from the visual novel, and it's a highly regarded one. It releases on October 17th, 2024.

Steam
VNDB (NSFW)

Nekonyansoft had a lot of announcements from their Otakon panel:

First they are releasing Koikari: Love for Hire - After Hours, which is a combination of the 2 fan disks for Koikari, essentially covering all the same character routes as the main game. I for one quite liked the humor, art, characters, and just general flow of the original. All the characters were okay enough developed, so I hope we get some more development with them.

VNDB (NSFW)

They are also releasing Renai:Royale: Love’s a Battle- “Victory Parade”, which is also a combination of 2 fan disks covering the same character routes as the original. I haven't played this one enough (I think I completed one route), but by the time this comes out I'll be done with it. The art I remember being excellent in this, but the story and characters who knows.

VNDB (NSFW)

Another game is being released similar to one from before is Making*Lovers: First Blush from SMEE, which is the next in the Making*Lovers setting, but with some new characters. The first one is a fan favorite and has excellent art and was a lot of fun. I think I have 2 more routes to finish, but it was solid, wholesome, funny and just a good time. This one has the mc saying something about dating someone who isn't your soulmate is a waste of time, so he avoids relationships. He ends up meeting some girls and his viewpoint likely changes quickly when he notices how warped it is. In a contrast to Making*Lovers this takes place in high school, while the other had adults. Kind of a step back imho, but I'm sure it will be a good one.

VNDB (NSFW)

Another game from ASA Project being release from them is Futamata Ren'Ai: Two Times the Trouble, which looks another romantic comedy. This one has the mc take care of a girl after a mixer (she was drunk), and she believes she had a one night stand, so she asks the mc to take responsibility, and he ends up dating her. Later one the same day I believe he meets his long time crush and she pretty much says I know you like me so let's go out, and the mc accepts. Now he has 2 girlfriends and starts leading a double life. This is a comedy, so I'm guessing lots of misunderstandings happen, and eventually he'll be found out. Cute graphics as always at least. They will also be working with Kagura Games (Sweet) on this title.

VNDB (NSFW)

They also announced a license pickup of a former Sol Press license (garbage company) of Happiness! Sakura Celebration! from Windmill Oasis. In this one a festival occurs every ten years and is generally very popular, especially for love confessions. The mc is a magician and other girls he know may have this idea for romance in mind. Glad to see another previous license come back from the Sol Press garbage, and this one looks cute.

VNDB (NSFW)

Another announcement is Hacking the Moon to Find My Goddess from CUBE. In this one the mc is a skilled hacker and one day hacks into some central AI thing and requests a bunch of stuff to find a good love fit like big boobs and gets 0 results. He expects nothing, and a few days later someone comes to his door that matches these requests and is actually an android. This company is pretty well known and I hope to like this as it sounds unique.

VNDB (NSFW)

One announcement I forgot is Hatsuyuki Sakura: White Graduation from SAGA PLANETS. The mc is a diliquent and only comes to class to fulfill the graduation requirement. One day he meets a girl in a dress in the winter looking for her rabbit. A few days later this girl Sakura transfers into his class. This game is likely about making the best before graduation comes. It looks cute and has nice art.

VNDB (NSFW)

One last announcement is Hold Me Tight All Night Onii-chan! from Tinkle Position. This is from the same developer as Onikiss, except this one is about a guy with severe asthma, and his parents or something develop an idea where hugging someone for 10 seconds strengthens immunity. He has slept with a sister every day of his life, and now does this hugging before bed, which leads to eroge stuff eventually. The original game was pretty fun for a nukige and had good art. I'm sure this will be a silly good time as well.

VNDB (NSFW)

Frontwing released OPPAI Succubus Academy Sucky and Busty, Demonic and Lusty! on Steam and is in the same series as all the other OPPAI games. This has succubi and these games have excellent art and lots and lots of eroge scenes. The story is usually just there and I usually finish these games in about 2 and a half hours. Eye candy for sure and nukige to the massload.

Steam (NSFW)
 
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That's a bummer. I had the Japanese and Asian version of Fate/stay Night Remastered sitting in my cart at playasia and both have been pulled. I guess I won't be getting it now. Speaking of visual novels, what happened to the Muv-Luv Double Pack? Is it already out of print? It sold out right after release.
 
yeah what are they thinking?

Fate-BD-series.jpg


make Fate physical!
 
On a side note, it makes me sad how it feels like we're never going to get another high quality Fate anime series (or adaptation) again. I'll admit, I haven't seen these Lord El-Melloi Case Files yet, but Fate/Apocrypha was kinda the last straw when it comes to Fate quality dropoff. I don't know why the stuff they make now is so worthless and forgettable. All the ingredients are there; it shouldn't be so hard.

Fate GO (the game) was terrible. So don't have much interest in these merchandising and money-focused spinoffs. Though I would like to give the anime a try. But it's not looking very good.

I never played the VNs, so looking forward to those! I have faith that someone will do a physical edition.
 
Fate grand order anime you get the beginning which was pretty bleak then nothing since it cuts off during the first section in Europe? Before that thread even finished. It got another one later in goldies city which is OK but due to all the Flashbacks to previous areas you don't know about that hurts it. But it was enjoyable to see goldie non corrupted and evil and his friendship with ekinu sp?

Yeah apocrypha was a dumpster fire.

Wavers anime is eh. It's kinda nice but at the same time a lot of the characters came from the other series and 2 from apocrypha alone. It's more case closed murder mystery more than fate typical affair so you'd really want to be into that genre shift on top of knowledge of the other characters.

Extra last encore was relatively good minus them using the mc instead of femc and skipping shit every episode so you're completely lost pacing wise. Like for example rin was trying to catch up with him and red saber. But didn't at the end of the episode. Next episode she's with them without any explanation. Shit the one floor they completely skip and just give a Flashback for.
 
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Riki 8bit Game Collection announced for Switch. JP only announcement so far. I bet there will be a western release, and suspect Limited Run might be the ones to do it since they did all of the NES cart versions of these games over here as well, but nothing announced yet.

www.gematsu.com

City Connection announces RIKI 8Bit GAME Collection for Switch

City-Connection, in collaboration with Japanese artist and game creator RIKI, has announced RIKI 8Bit GAME Collection for Switch. It will launch on November 28 in Japan for 5,940 yen at retail and …
www.gematsu.com www.gematsu.com

Trailer:

They're pretty simplistic gameplay wise. Kira Kira Star Night especially so, you just hop around and collect stuff on screen before a timer runs out, but the visuals and sounds are nice for NES.

The shmup, Astro Ninja Man DX, is a little bit more interesting gameplay wise

I quite like the 8-bit music power albums. They have some minigame opportunities in the middle of the songs, but they're mostly listening and visual experiences.


It's a little less novel not running on an actual NES, but also a lot cheaper.
Play-Asia has some listings for Limited ($78.99) and Standard Editions ($37.99), no photos of the LE yet though:
www.play-asia.com

RIKI 8Bit GAME Collection [Limited Edition] for Nintendo Switch

RIKI 8Bit GAME Collection [Limited Edition] for Nintendo SwitchRIKI 8Bit GAME Collection includes Kira Kira Star Night!, Astro Ninja Man DX, 8BIT MUSIC POWER, 8BIT MUSIC POWER FINAL, and 8BIT MUSIC POWER ENCORE.
www.play-asia.com www.play-asia.com

EDIT: The standard edition is also part of the 3 for $100 sale
 
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Visons of Mana PS5 review after beating the demo after about 2 hours including all the side quests I believe. I'm still getting it, but I don't think it's anywhere near RPG of the year.

First of all the demo is a bit strange as it takes place likely a few hours in the game I'm guessing. You are travelling to a new land, have some classes already ready, and are being thrown into it. Your characters consist of a beefier slightly slower reaction/action brawler type (can also be a defender), a mage girl, and a fast attacking guy. You are basically travelling to get to the mana tree and these people are tributes of certain types (fast guy is light I believe and magic girl is wind). You also have some other girl who I guess is a tribute as well, but they don't really say who she is, but she pretty much sends Flammie (flying dragon thing) to do bits and pieces of battle. I don't feel the story of this or the characters are super strong, so the classes, exploring and battles are where it will make or break the game.

To start with there is a lot not explained super well like the classes (you need a mana spirit) and can level up using elemental points gained from various areas. This is how you get more spells/passives/attacks in a class. This is somewhat similar if I remember correctly to Trials of Mana, and has a similar but more clunky battle system. In battle you use heavy/light attacks (with how long you push them leading to different attacks), spells and other abilities. For the most part you're using these attacks as melee classes, but even the mages attack a bit. You can bring up your spells by pausing as well as items to use them, but in battle you can set them up to be used. You can target enemies by clicking the thumbstick, like most games. Now the battles themselves have different enemies and your characters. You control one of them fully and the others go do their own thing. Everything in battle just feels a bit clunky. I mainly used the brawler type character, but also tried the other two at times. it's sometimes hard to hit some enemies that fly or are very fast. I was flying around the battlefield getting hit by attacks and it's similar for attacks against enemies as well. I don't think the battles are bad, but just feel slower and the weight of attacks is bad at times too. I believe Trials of Mana was pretty quick in attacks/combos in battle and all. This just chugs a bit. I'll also mention that your AI character eat MP like its candy. You will likely need to buy a lot of mana nuts.

The exploration is very average. You do have an open world and little stars are the main quest, while little flags are side quests. Blue rings on the map can be anything but generally are save points, challenge spots, treasure chests, and other interactions with the area. There are enemies roaming around and you don't have to battle all of them. The side quests are generally MMORPG feeling with generally you having to defeat a number of enemies, find an item, and defeating a specific set of enemies. You can get items, currency and some other stuff along with EXP. It's never exciting but generally the side quests other than defeating elite enemies aren't too hard. I still think it's okay to explore, but you may not find anything too exciting.

The voices in English are generally OK other than the magic girl. She has a weird southern voice that doesn't fit and is a bit annoying. In Japanese it's all fine enough, but I don't think any character stands out. The main character has kind of a boring voice, and the fast attacker is generally okay as well. I think the magic girl has the best voice being a lil annoying, but fits the character well. The other girl is very generic and I barely remember anything about her. Other characters sound fine for the most part. The sound is pretty good although a lot of battle sounds mix together. The music is kind of just there, but I did like the music from the harbor town. The story I mentioned before is about a journey of tributes of different mana tribes and a defender (the main guy). It's not super exciting and even though some drama happens it all feels very low stakes at this point in the story.

I need to mention the graphics because it feels very obvious that this is a lower rung game in the Square-Enix scope. Lots of environment details are very low quality, like a hay stack featuring very low res textures. The environments themselves are fine, but aren't exemplary. The character models are okay enough, but if you look at them you see lots of low quality parts of the model such as the weapons they're holding, and some of the outfits. The lip syncing is pretty horrible in both Japanese and English. Particle effects and such for spells are very simple. The models also don't animate super well mainly noticed during cut scenes. Nothing looks horrible per say, but you can see the budget staring at you in many parts. Stuff like mountain edges just look really low quality. I play many game with questionable graphics, so this isn't a main issue. A main issue is how much the PS5 chugs at times trying to render these things. I had slowdown a battle or two, and sometimes animations would go and then jump (like missing frames) like when walking or moving. Also the PS5 was running very hot (checked on it cause I heard the fans roaring launch PS5 here), and this quality of graphics shouldn't be doing that. This needs optimization as this was performance mode, and I can only imagine it running in graphical mode. All this made some platforming (yuck) a bit confusing, and you need to collect stuff in the environment to unlock things like special items gained from gathering honey (little orange balls on the map).

Overall I feel this game is made for me in a way, as Trials of Mana was one of my top RPGs the year it came out. I don't feel this is as good as that, maybe a better story overall, but the gameplay feels worse. Also there is other open world complications that Trials of Mana didn't have to deal with. I'll still likely get and play it on release, but this feels like no GOTY. It just feels like an adequate game to pass some RPG hours with clunky battle action, average story and characters, lower quality graphics, and some likely okay enough classing to get some customization on. I forgot to mention you can equip 2 other item abilities which can grant abilities (like a fireball spell) or something like more critical percent chance. I don't know if you get more slots the more you get advanced in classes, but I feel you want about 4 of those slots, and I don't know if you'll get them. I'm choosing this game to quench my thirst instead of Reynatis (another likely filler RPG) before the big ones come out this year such as DQ 3 HD, Romancing Saga 2 Remake and Metaphor: ReFantazio. A just good enough 7/10 to me so far, but for others who like cleaner action games, it's more in the just a bit better than good category.
 
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I was out of the Visions of Mana demo about 10 minutes in, and that was after switching to Japanese voice. The game is gorgeous, but the movement is slow, combat rather boring, writing rather typical for jrpgs in a bad way, and I wanted it to stop. For those that said dropping the player in the middle was not a good choice, I agree. Lots of systems with only text explanations. I'm bummed.
 
I wonder if the Fate situation is because they are also releasing Fate/Hollow Ataraxia & Fate/EXTRA Record later? Maybe they will do a physical compilation?

mynintendonews.com

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Remastered announced for Nintendo Switch

Type Moon has confirmed development of a Fate/Hollow Ataraxia remaster for Switch. The sequel to Fate/Stay Night, like its predecessor, was until now unreleased in the West and is getting a remaster…
mynintendonews.com mynintendonews.com

mynintendonews.com

Fate/EXTRA Record to release on Nintendo Switch in 2025

Developer Type Moon Studio BB and publisher Bandai Namco have teamed up for Fate/EXTRA Record, a remake of Fate/EXTRA that will be coming to Switch, PlayStation, and PC in 2025. As part of FGO Fest…
mynintendonews.com mynintendonews.com
 
HaloGX said:
I was out of the Visions of Mana demo about 10 minutes in, and that was after switching to Japanese voice. The game is gorgeous, but the movement is slow, combat rather boring, writing rather typical for jrpgs in a bad way, and I wanted it to stop. For those that said dropping the player in the middle was not a good choice, I agree. Lots of systems with only text explanations. I'm bummed.
Click to expand...

Yea, the weird southern drawl was a major turnoff. It just doesn't fit. I also do not like the character models and stiff animation, they feel like posable talking dolls versus characters.

Since I played Vision of Mana demo so close to GranBlue Fantasy: Relink demo, you can see how odd and off putting Vision of Mana is regarding its demo, presentation, and combat. GBFR feels like a better overall product. Maybe an unfair comparison as the latter is a well funded single player spin off of a highly succesful mobile game and the former is a nostalgia-based, lower cost title from a much older series. But I definitely would spend my money on GBFR before VoM. Or rather, I would play somethine else besides VoM. Maybe finally start Trails of Mana, which I really enjoyed that demo.
 
TheKbob said:
Maybe finally start Trails of Mana, which I really enjoyed that demo.
Click to expand...

I liked the demo of Trails of Mana as well. That's ultimately what pushed me to get it when it dropped to $20 at BB despite already grabbing Collection of Mana for $20 the previous year on Amazon.
 
To the woot buyers here, how often do you actually get a true ESRB copy? The last 3 games I bought from them were Middle East/Southeast Asia copies
I didn't see a woot thread anywhere and know SMTV was posted recently
 
I never got non-US ESRB games from Woot but I have from Amazon recently. Got a PAL copy of Starlink and a few months ago, got a copy of Super Mario RPG that looked like it was a NA release but the back looked weird, and looking further it noted it was a world edition. Honestly, most world editions are obvious but this one was almost exactly like an NA copy.
 
BrandonBlank said:
All 3 were Nintendo published games yes
Click to expand...
I'm guessing that's why. Like Vinny said, Amazon proper does this sometimes too. They just mix them together in the warehouse is seems. Though as far as I can tell, the only difference between the ESRB versions and world versions are their respective logos.
 
Seems like most items I've considered on Woot were listed as "Fullfilled by Amazon". Which says to me it's subject to the same regional mixing shenanigans as shopping on Amazon itself. Which is why I rarely ever buy games on Amazon. I hate the hassle of returning stuff.

While I will dip into other regions for good deals on some games... for the most part I stick with true ESRB usa releases because they fetch more if I opt to sell a game off later. Not that I'm in it for the resell value, but it has always been a motivation of buying physical games that they have some monetary value that I could recoup later if I wanted. So I'm going to buy complete copies which I keep as pristine as possible and avoid other regions unless that's not an option (or the domestic version has gotten so pricey that it's worth just going with a foreign version).
 
I just like consistency in my collection. I'd make exceptions for games that never came out in america, but this isnt one of them
Also, the newer MiddleEast/SouthEast Asia Switch games dont even have an ESRB on the front now, so it's much more obvious.
 
blueweltall said:
FF Pixel Remaster Preorder
na.store.square-enix-games.com

FINAL FANTASY I-VI COLLECTION ANNIVERSARY EDITION

The games that inspired a generation come to life once more, in the ultimate 2D pixel remaster!
na.store.square-enix-games.com na.store.square-enix-games.com
Click to expand...

blueweltall said:
Sounds like it will be at local retailers too.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1821565167357792293
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Squenix battered by their quarterly, now realizing limited your supply, and cause artificial scarcity backfiring badly. Btw hopefully those people buying FF Pixel Remaster past couple months on ebay dont see this news.
some even paid like $2K USD for this. Yup, you read that right
 
IF the switch version of the FF Pixel Remaster anniversary collection shows up on BB, I'll preorder it there. Glad to see another chance at the domestic version if with that blurb on the cover art.
 
Any particular reason why the ps4 version costs more in the aftermarket? Is something wrong with the Switch version? Usually switch copies go for more unless there is a performance issue, would rather play a stable version with no bugs.
 
MagicCarpet said:
Any particular reason why the ps4 version costs more in the aftermarket? Is something wrong with the Switch version? Usually switch copies go for more unless there is a performance issue, would rather play a stable version with no bugs.
Click to expand...
The ps4 na release was a very limited se store exclusive (+unreasonable shipping). The demand for the nsw version has been mitigated by large ongoing prints of the asian english version.

I don't like the decision by se not to release this na version across retailers in the first place. I'm just going to live with the asia version I already own.
 
Vigilante said:
I'm glad to see it'll be at other retailers. I'm hoping it shows up at Target and qualifies for a B2G1 so we can use the cancellation technique.
Click to expand...
lock in your order now, Target been dodgy with video game preorder, no telling if they will sell it. despite MvC Collection listed Target as one of the retailers on ESRB website, they still yet to list it.
 
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