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.
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I will note that gameplay wise is graces strongest aspect and where it really put its focus. while the other 2 have good combat engines but those are the least focus for their games.
It's only bad if whoknows doesn't like it This is what we all think now!
I don't think anyone here is outright saying stuff is trash, however. Just that some or many aspects of them are badly executed and detract from the overall experience. Case in point the attempted sexual assault scene/s for sword art online. Which is present in attack on titan as well.
Jojo series would another one where the animal abuse just brings the series down. that and the increasing gore in season 3 on which isn't canon half the time as they magically recover every episode. by season 4 I've prettmuch lost interest in it.
Wtf. I just got a email from Bestbuy saying my Corpse Party order has been delayed a whole month. I've had it pre-ordered since May. Also the website says it's instock and available for 2 days shipping. Dunno maybe it's just a glitch. Didn't they have a similar glitch a month or two ago where the system was sending the same notices but everything was still shipping on time? Don't know if I should wait to see if it sorts itself out or just cancel it and re-order.
I think that's enough Keijo for me......too ridiculous.......also I find most of the characters as annoying stereotypes mainly the peppy main character. If anyone else has impressions of the full World of Final Fantasy game please share them. I may not get it right away, but may someday.
I'm really hype for this game, but it seems as though they are dropping obscure, minute details every day. "Oh, the Regalia can fly! Chocobo racing! You can fish!" What's next? "You can set the brightness in the options menu! There is autosave!"
Other games have a ton of stuff too, GTA V, Witcher 3, Fallout 4. But they didn't (or at least I wasn't aware) do so much hinting and teasing.
I'm really hype for this game, but it seems as though they are dropping obscure, minute details every day. "Oh, the Regalia can fly! Chocobo racing! You can fish!" What's next? "You can set the brightness in the options menu! There is autosave!"
Other games have a ton of stuff too, GTA V, Witcher 3, Fallout 4. But they didn't (or at least I wasn't aware) do so much hinting and teasing.
atelier wise there are titles where you save the world just to note. Not all of them but don't act like its above that trope. Not like atelier doesn't have its own nest of problems to deal with.
The Atelier series has never really been about saving the world, but a focus alchemy instead and mana to a lesser extent. They did some serious experimentation during the PS2 era with the Iris games (only world saving stories) and Mana Khemia (Not about world saving) but those have always been aberrations of what every other games story has been about (and that's over 20 games on main platforms when you include the spinoffs/side stories compared to 3). A lot of people in the west think otherwise because we never got games before the Iris and none of the side stories outside of Annie. At the time the series was facing a pretty bad sales decline in Japan. It briefly spiked for the Iris games, but that effect did not last long and ultimately ended up firmly going back to their roots. Here's a short rundown of their plots:
Note, I did kinda include spoilers on the Atelier Iris & Mana Khemia synopsis. The rest are basically given to you nearly as the beginning so I'm not really considering them spoilers.
Atelier Marie (PS1) - Risking expulsion. As a last ditch effort, she is given an Atelier temporarily to produce something outstanding. Atelier Elie (PS1) - Saved by Marie. Enrolled in same school. Try and pass school within schools time frame. Atelier Lillie (PS2) - Arrived in Salburg in a place that is unfamiliar with Alchemy. Wants to open a workshop, but needs to prove Alchemy is useful to the king. Takes place before the other two. She's the founder of the school they went to.
Atelier Judith (PS2) - Inherits alchemy shop and is asked to make a special item by a traveling adventurer. Accidentally causes herself to fall forward in time while making said item and tries to find a way back to her own time. Atelier Violet (PS2) - Parents are leaving hometown, Violet doesn't want to leave. She wants to open a shop and parents will return in three years to check progress and make a final decision.
Atelier Iris (PS2) - Typical save the world story. Atelier Iris 2 (PS2) - Not really save the world until the very end where its partially a bait and switch story element. Atelier Iris 3 (PS2) - Have mysterious book and search for fragments. Ultimately prevent ruin by not letting others get the fragments.
Mana Khemia (PS2) - Story is more or less meant for you to get through school. Main character is artificial and people want him, but you aren't really out there saving the world as you are saving yourself (or letting yourself disappear). Mana Khemia 2 (PS2) - Mana and alchemy is in decline. Story is a mess and nothing really happens even though you go out and beat the shit out of things. They literally went out and beat shit because a character from the first Mana Khemia said so. For absolutely no reason. At all.
Atelier Rorona (PS3) - Left in charge of workshop after her master/teacher abandons her. She left debt behind and Rorona is forced to work off the debt or be shut down. Atelier Totori (PS3) - Searching for her mother who disappeared a few years earlier. Atelier Meruru (PS3) - Princess who wants to become an alchemist. Given ultimatum by father to help develop the kingdom to 30k people in the next three years or give up on Alchemy.
Atelier Ayesha (PS3) - Younger sister is missing and Ayesha tries to find her. Atelier Escha & Logy (PS3) - Want to reach the "unexplored ruin in the sky". Atelier Shallie (PS3) - Save village, then focuses on friendship.
Atelier Sophie (PS4) - Restore memories to a mysterious book.
There are a bunch of side story games that follow the same common theme, such as teaching someone alchemy and other things. I haven't played any except for Annie though. Atelier Annie, the only one we managed to have localized in English is about building a resort island. Ultimately just because a couple games have 'save the world' in them does not make the series a 'save the world' kind of game like Final Fantasy or the Tales series.
For the record, I own every single main series game outside of Lillie and Violet. I thought I had them, but I didn't see them in my Japanese PS2 collection when I double checked.
and yeah harem elements in games definitely aren't helping them in any way. Its better when they make them a side element not part of the story scenes like persona does.
Actually because Persona 3 & 4 is very avatar with the main characters and it really hurts the 1 on 1 character progression scenes. Sure they're still enjoyable but I find that they're pretty hollow. Plus nothing ever happens unless you will it to happen by initiating an event. It doesn't matter if it's the first month or the final month of the game You'll can get the same exact scene and it really makes you feel like you aren't part of a world.
Besides making the MC have an actual personality, a better way to do it is to force events only at certain times that you can choose to go along or not go along with. If you miss that particular time, you won't get that specific event. Depending how it's done, you can either go the route of making scenes missable no matter what you do due to forced choices or make it to where you can get them all if you have the 'perfect schedule'. Even with first mentioned missable event scenes, it would be better than not feeling like you're a part of a world that actually moves in my opinion. I'm sure plenty disagree with that as they'd feel they need to play the game multiple times to see all scenes or reload a lot to see them which would be tedious.
Thus I feel that the way Persona (3 & 4 at least) does their whole harem events is particularly bad and should not be praised for it. Rest of the game is fine and I like it, but this needs to be fixed. I won't play Persona 5 until next year so I can't specifically comment on that.
tl;dr The main character (P3/P4) is hollow because he's essentially an avatar and all non-story events are hollow because of that. Combine that with a world that feels dead because it only moves when you will it and you've got a bad setup for those side events. This is because they heavily rely on dates/time tables.
On the note of graces what makes it any worse than atelier or trails? Not saying its a good game writing wise as man it was cheesy and poorly written but all 3 of them have a number of things in common and their own problems. I don't I would say the writing or characters were good in any of them. Ignoring that they are all completely different in style. ateliers sliver of slice of life with item synth and skill compounding being at the forefront, trails cs is all about forced character drama of dried puddles with fie (the only one with a semblance of depth) snarking in the background at how stupid it all is. and tales of friendship is all about protecting your friends and richard wanting to bang assbell.
Saccharine means that they stories are very "sugary" or upbeat/happy/sweet/insertothersynonymhere. That's all. I did not say anything about whether the actual stories are good, which is a matter of opinion.
Ad nauseam on the other hand just means it was to sickening/vomit inducing levels.
I don't really want to get into a long Cold Steel story discussion and it would take a huge amount of time with all I have to say on that topic (And there's really not enough people to contribute for a proper discussion here). I could probably write for a few hours on the subject and literally nobody would read it due to its length. I don't believe you've played Cold Steel II anyways, which completes the package.
I watched One Punch Man and thought it was brilliant two episodes in. Then it just never changes. It's always the same exaggerated setup with the same kind of punchline. The animation is great, the characters are funny in their own right, but just stopped caring about it completely.
And yes, those giant explosions put me to sleep because they don't mean anything. There's no build up, there's no risk, there's no drama. All the flashy special effects in the world don't matter if you know exactly what's going to happen and it's the same thing that happened every single time. After the very first joke (main character giving his backstory to pollution villain), I knew what kind of humor the show was going for. And once I knew that, basically every joke was entirely predictable. With no tension and no humor, the entire show was just shiny objects and flashing lights with no real substance. And that's freaking boring.
On topic, got a notification from Best Buy yesterday morning that my Yomawari was no longer available at that location, and then a few hours later, another one saying that it would be ready for pickup. The heck? At least it's saying it's ready now, even though I won't be able to make it out there until Saturday morning, probably.
Rurouni Kenshin is pretty good up through the end of the Shishio arc. After that it goes downhill. It's an older series, so it won't have some of the more modern polish, but I think it's worth watching despite that.
I'm only watching 3 anime this season. Keijo, Occultic;Nine, and Drifters. Keijo since it's fanservice, Occultic;Nine since it's by the people who did Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head, and Drifters since it's badass. Drifters really surprised me the most, the art style is sort of in that 90s style and the action sequences are so good. I definitely recommend that one.
Rurouni Kenshin is pretty good up through the end of the Shishio arc. After that it goes downhill. It's an older series, so it won't have some of the more modern polish, but I think it's worth watching despite that.
Trigun is IMO a vastly superior option and is also on Netflix.
They're both series about a protagonist who has made a vow to not kill, but in Kenshin the story goes waaaay out of its way to help him keep it. Every real bad guy dies to another bad guy or suicide. Trigun, OTOH, does a much better job of exploring what is more important to the MC--keeping his promise or protecting the people around him?
An anime to avoid on Netflix is Ajin. It's horrible.
Working on a time machine to go back in time and stop myself from watching it. If I do though this post will disappear and someone this post could have stopped from watching it might end up watching it.
An anime to avoid on Netflix is Ajin. It's horrible.
Working on a time machine to go back in time and stop myself from watching it. If I do though this post will disappear and someone this post could have stopped from watching it might end up watching it.
Trigun is IMO a vastly superior option and is also on Netflix.
They're both series about a protagonist who has made a vow to not kill, but in Kenshin the story goes waaaay out of its way to help him keep it. Every real bad guy dies to another bad guy or suicide. Trigun, OTOH, does a much better job of exploring what is more important to the MC--keeping his promise or protecting the people around him?
An anime to avoid on Netflix is Ajin. It's horrible.
Working on a time machine to go back in time and stop myself from watching it. If I do though this post will disappear and someone this post could have stopped from watching it might end up watching it.
On topic, got a notification from Best Buy yesterday morning that my Yomawari was no longer available at that location, and then a few hours later, another one saying that it would be ready for pickup. The heck? At least it's saying it's ready now, even though I won't be able to make it out there until Saturday morning, probably.
Trigun is IMO a vastly superior option and is also on Netflix.
They're both series about a protagonist who has made a vow to not kill, but in Kenshin the story goes waaaay out of its way to help him keep it. Every real bad guy dies to another bad guy or suicide. Trigun, OTOH, does a much better job of exploring what is more important to the MC--keeping his promise or protecting the people around him?
Good call! Trigun is a great show, I just didn't realize it's on Netflix. Not sure I'd go as far as calling it "vastly superior," but I absolutely agree it's well worth watching.
Edit: didn't see later posts, but watch it anyway, even if it's not on Netflix!
Nothing Japanese, however Deadly Tower of Monsters was published by Atlus and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was published by Sony. Was always interested in trying Deadly Tower for its cheesy movie nostalgia, but haven't seen a good enough sale on PC for it since its release.
I actually tried watching that yesterday and I really don't dig the cgi + anime look. Same thing with berserker on Netflix, it just looked to jittery with the frame rate that it bothered me.
Actually because Persona 3 & 4 is very avatar with the main characters and it really hurts the 1 on 1 character progression scenes. Sure they're still enjoyable but I find that they're pretty hollow. Plus nothing ever happens unless you will it to happen by initiating an event. It doesn't matter if it's the first month or the final month of the game You'll can get the same exact scene and it really makes you feel like you aren't part of a world.
I disagree with this since every main cast member in persona 3 has their own character arcs written into the main story that happen irregardless of MC input. Their social links with the MC represents another facet of their character development that still represents something of less import than the resolutions that they found on their own. While the other side characters you do not see their progression outside of their interaction with the MC, their other relations really do not really matter to you, but you do see that some of them had formed their own bonds as well in the different events that happen during the game. Not saying this was an amazingly hashed out world, just saying that for the main characters at least they didnt need the MC around to become better characters. P4 on the otherhand, yeah those guys just cant get by without the MC, which is part of the reason why I prefer P3 over P4.
I actually tried watching that yesterday and I really don't dig the cgi + anime look. Same thing with berserker on Netflix, it just looked to jittery with the frame rate that it bothered me.
I'm not saying I liked the animation or anything. But if you can get past the CGI then it's definitely at least worth a watch in my opinion.
I can understand how people can be hyperbolic about the show being bad because of the art, however. I just don't think it's a fair criticism to say the show is shit because of it (although I am assuming, I'm not sure why people on this board seem to dislike it)
Battle gameplay against Kushan warriors at the 00:53:00 mark, a boss battle against Mozgus at 01:00:15, Casca’s bathing robe costume in action at 01:10:42, and Guts’ gold armor at 01:14:20.
I disagree with this since every main cast member in persona 3 has their own character arcs written into the main story that happen irregardless of MC input. Their social links with the MC represents another facet of their character development that still represents something of less import than the resolutions that they found on their own. While the other side characters you do not see their progression outside of their interaction with the MC, their other relations really do not really matter to you, but you do see that some of them had formed their own bonds as well in the different events that happen during the game. Not saying this was an amazingly hashed out world, just saying that for the main characters at least they didnt need the MC around to become better characters. P4 on the otherhand, yeah those guys just cant get by without the MC, which is part of the reason why I prefer P3 over P4.
I was only referring to the social links, which I couldn't think of their name when posting. If I remember correctly, they're what creates the whole romance or romance-like stuff, which is strictly what I was referring to. My post before that one which he had partially quoted was talking about game relationships and how I prefer games to write the main characters love interest into the story (or write them as a playboy) rather than letting it be a choose-your-favorite scenario (or harem scenario) and having what feels like half-hearted romance that can at times really hurt the story. My example used is where Cold Steel partially writes the romance in the dialogue but then allows some of their side scenarios every chapter play out as if they're the main characters love interest. [customspoiler='Cold Steel's MC is a serial headpatter though (Falcom 4-Koma)']
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Its been a while since I've played Persona 3 & 4, so I could be remembering wrong on what sets up the whole romance/romance-like stuff in Persona. I have no issues with the main story, which as far as I'm concerned is anything you're required to do to progress.
Hey guys a bunch of niche Japanese anime video games are on sale for the PC right now. Silicornera, a niche website about niche japanese anime video games, has the list.
I am currently considering picking up Tales of Symphonia, a niche Japanese anime video game, but I'm not sure since I did play it a bunch on the Nintendo Gamecube, a very niche Japanese anime console. Ninja Storm 4, a Japanese video game based on a niche anime, is also tempting.
What niche Japanese anime video games are you guys currently playing right now or hotly anticipating?
in atelier ayesha you save the world again correct me if I am wrong. yes the main plot element was screwing around for 3 years until keithgriff finally stops being a gigantic asshole and helps you go rescue your sister and saving the world from the final boss is a biproduct of rescuing her.
"a better way to do it is to force events only at certain times that you can choose to go along or not go along with."
p3 and 4 have those too in case you have forgotten.
"tl;dr The main character (P3/P4) is hollow because he's essentially an avatar and all non-story events are hollow because of that."
Well the dialogue choices are there to give some kind of personality but yes I agree. I would like to point out however that some of the non story events effect social links and social links can effect the story. if you don't max moon in p3p the character dies as one such example. And social links in 4 have a few different routes based on whether you choose them as your friend or love interest.
"Their social links with the MC represents another facet of their character development that still represents something of less import than the resolutions that they found on their own."
This also reminded me that the male s links are really important for character development from femc route in p3p. femc route added a hell of alot of info for shinjirou and some info for junpei's home life being really bad before they both kinda spiral into crap about fuuka being a incompetent moron (yes why her crap needed to invade another social link is beyond me) and junpeis is about photos being taken of the femc.
Rurouni Kenshin is pretty good up through the end of the Shishio arc. After that it goes downhill. It's an older series, so it won't have some of the more modern polish, but I think it's worth watching despite that.
I agree with this for the most part. Alot of the episodes during the story arcs are good. Many in between though you can skip since its mostly slice of life with kenshin forcing his views on other people because killing is wrong unless he does it. Personally, I don't care for him much as a character though and the plot enables him far too often. His reasoning for people not to kill is fueled by bs.
I agree on avoiding ajin. unlikable cast plus the majority of them are violent sociopaths. Even if some were byproducts of the plot itself the main character and a number of others were born sociopaths. Its also one of those animes where its just a ridiculous amount of gore just for the sake of it. Biggest issue by far though is that the ajins would be easily dispatched if they called in the military but the main characters say they aren't allowed to do so even though these guys are isis level terrorist.
It was on netflix but hasn't been on it for about a year or so. I guess it got relicensed if its back again. Alot of anime pop up and then vanish on netflix on a regular basis outside the ones licensed by them like 7 deadly sins, ajin and knights of sidonia as some examples.
thumbs up for 7 sins. Its really good minus the excessive child molestation by the pedo main character and his buddy ban. Though they get around it somewhat since a number of characters are like 1000 years to make it less of a creep factor. Dub was pretty good as well. Shame the anime is slow going though I did hear it got renewed along with attack on titan d grayman and aslan. Howzers super likable and I'm glad he gets so much screen time in the anime since they don't feature him as much in the manga.
Once you finish the anime the manga is worth a read though its super far ahead of where the anime stopped at.
Overrated show. People just rate it highly cause of the ending, despite its predictability.
People should try to watch Kemono no Soujya Erin. Somewhat lengthy (50 eps) but tells a great story of tragedy with good character growth. Erin is def one of my favorite heroines.
Don't think any of those are on netflix. Might have better luck trying crunchy roll or hulu or just looking on the internet. Netflix is pretty useless anime wise anymore. Most of what they have is stuff people have already seen. They just got case closed back but its not dubbed sadly and they have the episodes listed in the wrong order since they have the first season which is somewhere around episode 700-800 -_-
Hey guys a bunch of niche Japanese anime video games are on sale for the PC right now. Silicornera, a niche website about niche japanese anime video games, has the list.
I am currently considering picking up Tales of Symphonia, a niche Japanese anime video game, but I'm not sure since I did play it a bunch on the Nintendo Gamecube, a very niche Japanese anime console. Ninja Storm 4, a Japanese video game based on a niche anime, is also tempting.
What niche Japanese anime video games are you guys currently playing right now or hotly anticipating?
As for what niche Japanese anime video games I am anticipating, probably Neptunia 4 Goddesses Online, the Senran Kagura Shooter, and Nier: Automata. Especially the Senran FPS since there aren't many niche Japanese anime video games like that.
I hope you pick the niche Japanese anime video games that were right for you and you enjoy them. I also hope one of those niche Japanese anime video games on the list can run on my potato computer. Or computater.
Really enjoying Senran Kagura Bon Appetite. One of the only rhythm games that I like (but there's no way I'm paying $14.99 for the additional Gessen x Hebijo DLC).
I am really excited for the new Nier, especially now since it's coming to the personal computer. As for other niche Japanese anime video games, the third Trails in the Sky game is also coming next year. The only other title that I can think of is Berseria, but I'm already very behind on my tales games and they seem to going downhill for a bit now.
Life is really hard as I don't own the Japanese anime video game platform of choice, the PlayStation Vita, or its contemporaries, the Playstation 4. Luckily though, these types of titles have been seeing an influx on the personal computer market. I'm hoping 2017 is the year of the japanese anime video game for everyone.
For Japanese anime games, I'm looking forward to Berserk, Persona, and a bunch of VNs that are coming to ps4/psv. Does Gravity Rush 2 count? It's cel shaded! Can't wait for that too. I'm also super excited for Nioh and Yakuza 0, but those aren't really anime games hehe. Plus I can't wait to dig into WoFF and DQB.
This is what we all think now!
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Dirt 3
Letter Quest Remastered (Cross-Buy with 
