Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

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:
I'm not getting my hopes up for Skies of Arcadia... They did this back in 2012 and then nothing. I do think there's a better chance of it happening now with the other classic series getting attention but I'll believe it when I see it properly announced.
 
Sega releasing a straight port of Skies from Gamecube digitally is a low risk, high brownie points move. Can totally see that happening.
 
It would be slightly disappointing for them to not even try touching up the music, but I’d take it.

I'd like the battle system looked at a little. Skies would be a great one possibly to go with a hybrid update on the battles so you could do some of the low level stuff in action based battles and save the turn based for the more involved battles. Or at least some auto battle options or something to give some serious QOL updates to the game.

Baiten Kaitos, Chrono Cross, Lunar... none of that is Sega. Seems like they mainly focus on the Atlas side with a heavy focus on SMT and Persona games. That said, they are doing other Dreamcast series like bringing back Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio... so, it seems possible.
 
Not sure if this is new old stock or a new print, but XSeed has PS3 copies of Trails of Cold Steel 1 for $29.99 in stock on their store.


I looked at ebay for price comparisons and that beats most listings some of which are disc only and all of which are used rather than this new (Or new old stock). I realize most likely don't want PS3 versions but PS4 for the PS4/PS5 ability... but figured someone might be interested. I'm sticking with my vita copies of TOCS 1 & 2.
 
I know I could have gotten some gacha balls instead, but this is my January haul. $100 total. Went to the store today and picked up a copy of MvC on both systems, because why not? Seminal game, and idk which system I'll want to play it on. probably both. Had them pm it to Amazon. I want stores to continue getting more of these games in the future.

Capcom-haul-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
Not sure if this is new old stock or a new print, but XSeed has PS3 copies of Trails of Cold Steel 1 for $29.99 in stock on their store.


I looked at ebay for price comparisons and that beats most listings some of which are disc only and all of which are used rather than this new (Or new old stock). I realize most likely don't want PS3 versions but PS4 for the PS4/PS5 ability... but figured someone might be interested. I'm sticking with my vita copies of TOCS 1 & 2.
That plus the ps3/vita versions are slightly inferior due to the enhancements made for the pc and later ps4 versions.
I have my ps3 copies I got pre-ordered back through crunchyroll. I only wish I had spent the 10$ more to get the special editions or whatever with the coins?
 
My January haul...

$46.97 The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom (Gamefly, used)
$14.00 Wii Fit U game with Fit Meter (Ebay, new)

$60.97 total.

Also pre-ordered from Best Buy:

$60.49 Legend of Heroes Trails Through Daybreak II (Switch) - 2/14/25 Release (Used $5 cert)
$65.99 Xenbolade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition - 3/20/25 Release

Though those won't be charged until right before they ship. I did get the email upgrade on XCX for the metal mini poster thing and stand.

As for my random Wii Fit U game purchase, I have ALARMO and it's really helped my overall sleep pattern and I got to thinking of maybe picking up a nintendo pedometer to encourage moving around. There have been many Nintendo pedometers through the years. I could have just checked out repairing (probably just needs a new battery) one of the bundled Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Siver versions my kids have but I wasn't sure that's what I wanted to carry around. I noticed the Wii Fit U version is damned cheap but you need the game to set it up (possibly the board too, which I can borrow from my brother next time I see him). Nicely someone has a boat load of these still new and has been selling them on ebay. Yes, I could just use my phone, but I don't find it as reliable for counting steps and using the gps to help improve actual walking is better but it eats battery power. This seems like a more elegant solution. Clip it on, forget it and maybe synch it once a week.
 
I know I could have gotten some gacha balls instead, but this is my January haul. $100 total. Went to the store today and picked up a copy of MvC on both systems, because why not? Seminal game, and idk which system I'll want to play it on. probably both. Had them pm it to Amazon. I want stores to continue getting more of these games in the future.

Capcom-haul-1.jpg
I bought both versions of MvC also, they’re not going to be available forever and yeah they’re absolute classics.
 

 
Last edited:

Wait, Steam-Hearts, as in the shmup that’s literally only notable for being one of the handful of games with an explicitly pornographic licensed console port? (Don’t get excited, only the PC Engine version had the H content, you pervs (and even that was cut down compared to the PC98 original.) The porn was cut entirely in the Saturn port).

Also too bad the Saturn never got Advanced VG 2, that’s a significantly better game.
 
Last edited:
VGP has preorders up for those Fuga games. The triple pack bundle thing sold out. The math on it I think makes it a slightly better deal than PA.
 
You do get P-A points and can get 5% off the order too with many creator codes (usually use whatever Wario64 has at the time), so not sure how prices stack up then.
 
That's a good point. It might work out cheaper the other way with other factors in place. The big difference then would be the wait time once shipped and VGP shipping from within the USA.
 
Gave the demo for the first Fuga Melodies of Steel game a try last night. While interesting, it was also kind of depressing. Yes,
I went past rewinding time to give the first boss a retry
, but I got bored during that fight and ultimately quit. It has some interesting stuff going on and reminds me a bit of Miitopia except not funny/goofy/light-hearted. It even had a similar system to build affinity between characters during intermissions and fully cross pollinate the group. I'm not saying the game itself is in any way bad or that it doesn't have some uniqueness of it's own, i just wasn't feeling it. Too depressing. At least now I can stop looking at the physicals and wondering if I need to preorder them. I'm good passing on this.
 
Last edited:
Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero has free DLCs that expire 2/13



 
And when the Canada tariffs get unpaused, VGP ships from the US... so they may be fine as well. This is part of why I was so interested in following the path of my last VGP and PA orders. PA use so many third parties for ground shipping without origin information being shown... I thought there might be a chance they'd have a work around to tariffs. Still for companies like Limited Run Games that produce a lot of their CE components in China to sell in the US, that likely will be affected since those orders are well documented as even I could find them when I looked.
 
Just food for thought, on my tracking they didn't come international to the USPS. They went to a shipping company in Vegas which moved the package across the country before putting it in the USPS's hands. At no time did the USPS get any international information on the tracking just who had it when. So PA should be fine for their cheap shipping. (Edit typos)
 
I think the real question here is about import tax. Trump eliminated de minimus exemption for packages from China/HK. So we're probably on the hook for a 10% import tax now.
 
Where was it from? If it was just amazon or something, it's hard to avoid it through places like that. Or was it some other smaller shop or ebay or something?

Some stuff shipped from Hololive Japan that was already scheduled to be delivered today.

It's also actually more like 25% -- 10% duty, more than 10% DHL fee, and another fee.

REGULATORY CHARGES (L1) 1.31
IMPORT EXPORT DUTIES (L2) 15.35
DUTY TAX PROCESSING (L3) 17.00

Edit 3: The original order was $179, not $153, so I don't actually know what percentages and I don't feel like calculating it
 
Last edited:
Some stuff shipped from Hololive Japan that was already scheduled to be delivered today.

It's also actually more like 25% -- 10% duty, more than 10% DHL fee, and another fee.

REGULATORY CHARGES (L1) 1.31
IMPORT EXPORT DUTIES (L2) 15.35
DUTY TAX PROCESSING (L3) 17.00

Edit 3: The original order was $179, not $153, so I don't actually know what percentages and I don't feel like calculating it
Wow, that's horrible. This sounds like our customs is going rogue. I believe Japan still has de minimis exemption, so for packages under $800 there should be no import tax. Did your package come from Japan or China?
 
That holodive situation might be because they ship with DHL. Where as PA ships with several no name carriers to get things into the country before handing them off to the USPS.
 
I recently received a package from japan on monday, $400 worth of books shipped with fedex. I wasn't charged anything extra other than $15 for shipment. Wonder if it has anything to do with the shipper or the items, on custom website anything under $800 is free.
The $800 minimum was suspended. But if your books were printed in Japan, then it's not affected yet.
 
Yea Japan is still tax free for now. I believe customs is charging for goods that shipped from China, and goods that is made in China so that Temu can't just ship things to another country then to US to avoid the tariff.
 
My Japanese package coming today has like a ~15% import tax added this morning. Joy.
The free rider is the another problem with tariffs.
You're going to see companies use it as an excuse to raise prices on items -- even where the tariff isn't applicable. And they're accused of price gouging, they'll say something like, "Oh, it's inflation," or "Oh, we're trying to offset cost increases in the supply chain." Sadly, these such anti-consumer moves are pretty much bullet-proof since no state/federal prosecutor is really going to try to litigate these sorts of issues.
 
The full list of S-E Amazon sale. Same exact prices and games at Target and Gamestop. There is also a very YMMV case that Target has FFXVI/Rebirth/Visions of Mana for clearance prices in store.

Been seeing people post all the clearance games they've picked up and feel pretty jealous, of the two Targets near me, one doesn't carry any games (dense urban area store so it only carries more of the essentials) and the other one sucks/never stocks anything except Maddens/sports games.
 
Can someone verify if they order this. Is this a knock off or fake copy? My experience with woot is they sell grey market or foreign editions of games.
Someone else may be able to confirm, but my understanding is that only seems to apply to the (first-party?) Switch games Woot sells and PS4/PS5/Xbox versions are from the US. Also, those Switch games aren't fake but UAE/Saudi Arabian versions.
 
Someone else may be able to confirm, but my understanding is that only seems to apply to the (first-party?) Switch games Woot sells and PS4/PS5/Xbox versions are from the US. Also, those Switch games aren't fake but UAE/Saudi Arabian versions.

This has been my experience, have received UAE copies of NS games but they always include some kind disclaimer (even if it's somewhat hard to see unless you read the entire description). Never had the issue with PS4 or PS5 games though.
 
Someone else may be able to confirm, but my understanding is that only seems to apply to the (first-party?) Switch games Woot sells and PS4/PS5/Xbox versions are from the US. Also, those Switch games aren't fake but UAE/Saudi Arabian versions.

To be fair, even the UAE Switch copies have the ESRB carts inside.

I've never heard anyone refer to woot as a gray market or selling knockoffs. It's an Amazon site that sells and ships from Amazon's inventory. At least for games.

A non US copy is a fake copy. A collector here in the states isn’t going to want foreign/import editions. Generally you can’t use or purchase dlc with imports as well.

woot and Amazon are known for selling fake products. If you search online even in the recent past, it’s getting worse.
 
A non US copy is a fake copy.

So-called "collectors" out here trying to get games as investment chits versus something to be played; the latter don't really care (hi, I'm one).

They just don't have the right printing or logo on the paper in the box. They're neither fakes or nor bootlegs. If they have the language you desire on the cart, I don't see the problem outside of issue one above: games aren't investments.
 
Imports aren't fake. I am a collector in the states, and I want import games. Probably half my collection are imports. All you have to do is make different region accounts and you can buy the dlc, I think Korea is the only exception.
 
bread's done
Back
Top