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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Josef said:
Looks like it hasn't really harmed their business unfortunately as the CEs they offer still seem to sell out without going on discount.
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That's because their overpriced Dakis & Oppai mousepads smell of peaches & desperation.

 
NieR: Automata’s Japanese Box Art for PS4 Is Absolutely Beautiful

Nier.jpg

Nep-Nep Connect: Chaos Chanpuru details Kurisu and Protagonist; Chaos Ram, Rom, and White Heart artwork

Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe launches November 9 in Japan, Asia

PS4 fighting game will have English text option.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 Gets New 1080p Screenshots, Art and Info

Sega Sells 4.65 Million Copies of its Games as Persona 5 Shows “Strong” Sales in First Half of Fiscal Year

Musou Stars screenshots show Plachta, Millenia, more

Four Goddesses Online: Cyber Dimension Neptune details story, characters

 
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So I admit to not paying much attention to the release, but was World of Final Fantasy Vita advertised as limited? It's not available online from Target or Best Buy.

 
abbabaab said:
So I admit to not paying much attention to the release, but was World of Final Fantasy Vita advertised as limited? It's not available online from Target or Best Buy.
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Stores aren't ordering many Vita products anymore so it sells out relatively fast at BB, Target....others. Amazon is usually your best bet, or possibly Gamestop, but they seem to be more limited as of lately. Just Vita stuff in general doesn't seem in as high amounts lately. I used to wait for drops on everything, but honestly it's not happening that often anymore except digitally. I'm calling next year the year the Vita releases dry up a lot, but that's just speculation on my part. I think the 3DS will start drying up a bit too, but we'll see.

 
 
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new1 said:
Ya got me! Learned my lesson on previous Vita Atelier game.... Ar Nosurge still haunts me :'(
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The collector in me wants to purchase the Shallie LE, but I already own the PS3 release of it. I bought both the PS3, and Vita release of Escha and Logy and definitely wish I would have just stuck with just my PS3 version.

What was wrong with Ar Nosurge?I really liked Ar NoSurge Plus, though, it's another one I own both the PS3, and the Vita LE releases...I sense a pattern here.

I think I'm going to hold off on anymore day 1 purchases for awhile. I have Trails of Cold Steel II, and Trails in the Sky FC/SC to keep me busy for awhile.

 
nitrosmob said:
Stores aren't ordering many Vita products anymore so it sells out relatively fast at BB, Target....others. Amazon is usually your best bet, or possibly Gamestop, but they seem to be more limited as of lately. Just Vita stuff in general doesn't seem in as high amounts lately. I used to wait for drops on everything, but honestly it's not happening that often anymore except digitally. I'm calling next year the year the Vita releases dry up a lot, but that's just speculation on my part. I think the 3DS will start drying up a bit too, but we'll see.
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Well, drat. I was hoping to transfer some GS credit over and pick it up with GCU. Guess I'll have to stick with GS.

 
Cloyd said:
I think I'm going to hold off on anymore day 1 purchases for awhile. I have Trails of Cold Steel II, and Trails in the Sky FC/SC to keep me busy for awhile.
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Same, I am planning to first beat my import FC Evo first before I start Cold Steel I & II. Also need need to find a cheap way to import Moe Crystal.

I deliberately avoided this thread for a while when everybody was discussing Cold Steel. I know there are spoiler tags but I tend to click open spoilers without thinking. Unless it is a nested spoiler where the first spoiler opens a warning for the second spoiler.

 
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abbabaab said:
So I admit to not paying much attention to the release, but was World of Final Fantasy Vita advertised as limited? It's not available online from Target or Best Buy.
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Target is having that B2G1 so they're probably getting hit harder than normal for it. No idea on BBY.

 
TooPoor said:
Same, I am planning to first beat my import FC Evo first before I start Cold Steel I & II. Also need need to find a cheap way to import Moe Crystal.

I deliberately avoided this thread for a while when everybody was discussing Cold Steel. I know there are spoiler tags but I tend to click open spoilers without thinking. Unless it is a nested spoiler where the first spoiler opens a warning for the second spoiler.
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Yeah, I made sure to spoiler tag anything that might ruin someone's fun. I definitely have the Legend of Heroes bug. I'm a few hours away from beating my first Cold Steel 2 playthrough, and about 14 1/2 hours into Trails in the Sky. I'm falling in love with the world and the history of the game. I look forward to all of the future releases. I was quite upset we didn't get the Moe Crystal English release. I'll probably import it as well one day.

 
I too am disappointed in no Moe Crystal Asia English version and likely no Genkai Tokki Seven Pirates game or Omega Labyrinth or a bunch of other too risque for NA release games. Just makes me sad cause even though these games may not be amazing, they are still likely fun to play.

 
Bronson ! said:
Senran Kagura Estival Versus - Endless Summer vita Edition is $29 on Amazon. Gonna get it cuz someone here suggested it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0194VWTRM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478107456&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Senran+Kagura+vita&dpPl=1&dpID=61dW6i1QsYL&ref=plSrch
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Thanks! Got the PS4 one from GS since I got some credit there. I looked to see if it got cheaper anywhere else and found it sold out everywhere, including Best Buy. So probably best to get it now before it ends up like Shinovi Versus and becomes super rare.

 
Apologies if this has been discussed, but what is new/improved in the "plus" version of Shallie? I have the PS3 version, and I'm having a very hard time justifying the $55 price tag on the plus version. If they would release a barebones non LE, non NISA exclusive for $40 I would probably bite (w/prime of course).

 
nitrosmob said:
I too am disappointed in no Moe Crystal Asia English version and likely no Genkai Tokki Seven Pirates game or Omega Labyrinth or a bunch of other too risque for NA release games. Just makes me sad cause even though these games may not be amazing, they are still likely fun to play.
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I really enjoyed Moe Chronicle and had hoped for the sequel. I still hold out hopes that someone will pick it up and run with it, but not high hopes. I know at some point they mentioned Seven Pirates getting the Chinese/English release much like Moe Chrystal, but we saw how that turned out. Who knows anymore. We did get both releases of Criminal Girls, albeit they're tame compared to the Compile Hearts line-up. I guess there's only one thing for us to do...learn Japanese for the sole purpose of playing their games.

 
Wake up. Check Steam. [customspoiler='See Xanadu NEXT not purchasable yet.']
S374Fd4.gif
[/customspoiler]

Seems like it has at least a few decent Falcom music tracks (XSeed's trailer theme):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WZxZnpk-mU&list=PLzFTGYa_evXiya6nflwJApHSmbZRcL0hi&index=18

[customspoiler='And what the hell is this track.']
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6AoJfKBfoI[/customspoiler]

It'd be really nice if we could get Zwei II Plus in English at some point as well. I know there's a fan translation in the works, but its been six years and still no real information on that. I don't even care if we get its prequel, Zwei!!, in English. I just want the second game as it's like an enhanced Gurumin.

Oh and Cloyd, I tried Nayuta a little bit to see how the fan translation is. It's pretty stiff/literal, so I wouldn't go in expecting it to be decent. Whoever translated/edited it isn't particularly fluent in English even if it is their first language. Some lines seem fine while others feel like I'm reading something emailed to me by tech support from India. I really hope Zero no Kiseki's fan translation will be better and make use of XSeed's translations of the other games.

If anybody is bored, here's some reading material for the birth of JRPGs.

 
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Bronson ! said:
Senran Kagura Estival Versus - Endless Summer vita Edition is $29 on Amazon. Gonna get it cuz someone here suggested it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0194VWTRM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478107456&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Senran+Kagura+vita&dpPl=1&dpID=61dW6i1QsYL&ref=plSrch
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Did anybody play this and the previous game? Shinovi Versus was painful on Vita. The game itself played fine, but there were so many loading screens. I think around 4 loading screens for each fight, and they were often 15-20 seconds long. Felt like loading the fights took longer than winning them. Is Estival Versus any better about that?

 
kevers7290 said:
Apologies if this has been discussed, but what is new/improved in the "plus" version of Shallie? I have the PS3 version, and I'm having a very hard time justifying the $55 price tag on the plus version. If they would release a barebones non LE, non NISA exclusive for $40 I would probably bite (w/prime of course).
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They bring back Ayesha and Logy and there's supposed to be an extended ending. I'm trying to keep from getting spoiled on that part (which is actually quite easy to do with Atelier)

 
Thermopyle said:
Did anybody play this and the previous game? Shinovi Versus was painful on Vita. The game itself played fine, but there were so many loading screens. I think around 4 loading screens for each fight, and they were often 15-20 seconds long. Felt like loading the fights took longer than winning them. Is Estival Versus any better about that?
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I might be misremembering, but I think the load times were quicker in Estival Versus.

 
kevers7290 said:
Apologies if this has been discussed, but what is new/improved in the "plus" version of Shallie? I have the PS3 version, and I'm having a very hard time justifying the $55 price tag on the plus version. If they would release a barebones non LE, non NISA exclusive for $40 I would probably bite (w/prime of course).
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All the DLC, new playable characters, new episodes and a new story, and swimsuits!

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/11/29/atelier-shallie-plus-shows-whats-new-with-the-latest-screenshots/

 
BlackRockWaifu said:
Thanks! Got the PS4 one from GS since I got some credit there. I looked to see if it got cheaper anywhere else and found it sold out everywhere, including Best Buy. So probably best to get it now before it ends up like Shinovi Versus and becomes super rare.
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I haven't gotten around to playing Shinovi Versus yet, but I feel like I should buy this so that they can sit on the shelf next to each other.

Something about owning a pair of Senran Kagura games just seems right.

 
Draekon said:
Wake up. Check Steam. [customspoiler="See Xanadu NEXT not purchasable yet."]
S374Fd4.gif
[/customspoiler]

Seems like it has at least a few decent Falcom music tracks (XSeed's trailer theme):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WZxZnpk-mU&list=PLzFTGYa_evXiya6nflwJApHSmbZRcL0hi&index=18

[customspoiler="And what the hell is this track."]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6AoJfKBfoI[/customspoiler]

It'd be really nice if we could get Zwei II Plus in English at some point as well. I know there's a fan translation in the works, but its been six years and still no real information on that. I don't even care if we get its prequel, Zwei!!, in English. I just want the second game as it's like an enhanced Gurumin.



Oh and Cloyd, I tried Nayuta a little bit to see how the fan translation is. It's pretty stiff/literal, so I wouldn't go in expecting it to be decent. Whoever translated/edited it isn't particularly fluent in English even if it is their first language. Some lines seem fine while others feel like I'm reading something emailed to me by tech support from India. I really hope Zero no Kiseki's fan translation will be better and make use of XSeed's translations of the other games.


If anybody is bored, here's some reading material for the birth of JRPGs.
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Thanks for the heads up. It being a fan translation, I wasn't going to go into it with too high of expectations, lol. From the looks of the posts from the guys translating Zero, they seem to be fluent in English, and their tech demos look pretty solid. Let's hope their comprehension of Japanese is on par. I can't find anywhere that tells you who the project leaders are to compare. I'll have to try and lines the games up properly to play them in order. I couldn't be more excited for Trails in the sky 3rd to be released.

 
Thermopyle said:
http://www.siliconera.com/2015/11/29/atelier-shallie-plus-shows-whats-new-with-the-latest-screenshots/
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> The truth behind the “Dusk” mystery is one of the main new focuses in Atelier Shallie Plus’ story.

This line really bugs me because I feel it should have been in the base game for something as significant as this.


EDIT: Removed some useless lines. For some stupid reason my brain was thinking Shallie was the first game in the Mysterious series rather than Sophie.
 
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Meh, my Valkyrie Drive Liberator's Edition showed up in the mail. Rice Digital doesn't understand how to make collectors editions, the "Liberator's Edition" is a sealed box of random extras, with a normal retail copy of the game tossed on top of it. Maybe I'm OCD, but if the extras and the game aren't packaged together, it isn't any sort of edition. It's just bonus stuff, no better than preorder freebies, which have no relevance to the completeness of the game.

I'm done with Rice Digital now. They're way overpriced, and reliably deliver crap.

 
ragnar14 said:
Meh, my Valkyrie Drive Liberator's Edition showed up in the mail. Rice Digital doesn't understand how to make collectors editions, the "Liberator's Edition" is a sealed box of random extras, with a normal retail copy of the game tossed on top of it. Maybe I'm OCD, but if the extras and the game aren't packaged together, it isn't any sort of edition. It's just bonus stuff, no better than preorder freebies, which have no relevance to the completeness of the game.

I'm done with Rice Digital now. They're way overpriced, and reliably deliver crap.
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I snagged their Steins;Gate El Psy Kongroo Edition and never bought anything else from them. That one was pretty nice and all came together. Ever since they jacked up the shipping prices, I'm even less inclined to buy anything from them. I honestly haven't seen anything that I either couldn't wait on, or find similar somewhere else.

 
ragnar14 said:
Meh, my Valkyrie Drive Liberator's Edition showed up in the mail. Rice Digital doesn't understand how to make collectors editions, the "Liberator's Edition" is a sealed box of random extras, with a normal retail copy of the game tossed on top of it. Maybe I'm OCD, but if the extras and the game aren't packaged together, it isn't any sort of edition. It's just bonus stuff, no better than preorder freebies, which have no relevance to the completeness of the game.

I'm done with Rice Digital now. They're way overpriced, and reliably deliver crap.
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On top of that, they charged $30 shipping and used a thin bubble envelope and a crappy courier service. They just don't get it.

 
ragnar14 said:
Meh, my Valkyrie Drive Liberator's Edition showed up in the mail. Rice Digital doesn't understand how to make collectors editions, the "Liberator's Edition" is a sealed box of random extras, with a normal retail copy of the game tossed on top of it. Maybe I'm OCD, but if the extras and the game aren't packaged together, it isn't any sort of edition. It's just bonus stuff, no better than preorder freebies, which have no relevance to the completeness of the game.

I'm done with Rice Digital now. They're way overpriced, and reliably deliver crap.
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Sorry to hear that. I definitely agree that it's not a collector's edition unless it has its own packaging.

 
Some initial impressions of Xanadu NEXT.

Game runs well for me with zero issues, but a few people seem to be experiencing some issues that effect performance. Translation seems pretty good and everything flows well. To be expected from XSeed honestly. I've only encountered one non-significant bug that has already been patched.

Gameplay wise, it moves like an ARPG without any dodge/escape abilities (So far anyways). You have an inventory and can obtain loot from killing enemies which fills up the inventory. It's a very slow fill unlike a Diablo clone though. You go room-to-room fighting enemies, but they aren't as plentiful as you see in Diablo games or even Ys. Combat is slower and your positioning when attacking an enemy does make a difference.

You permanently gain skills from leveling up you proficiency with weapons. Magic is learned from spellbooks you find or buy as well. Both skills and magic follow Vancian rules. That means that they have a limited amount of uses that can be recharged upon sleeping at the local inn. You can also equip a combined total of four magic/skills at any one time, which includes passive skills that only take effect when you have them equipped.

Leveling is also very Diablo-esque in where when you level up, you gain 6 attribute points to distribute. You go to the church after leveling to distribute any gained stat points. Every piece of equipment in the game has attribute requirements, so you can't really just go randomly pumping skills. However if you did and found yourself unable to progress because of bad decisions, the church does allow you to de-level. I haven't used this yet, so I'm not entirely sure if you can just re-distribute points or if you actually have to level up again to re-gain the attribute points.

You also get "Guardians" you can equip and level up on your character. Only one can be active at a time, but they all have some kind of passive that benefits the character (More HP, More Skill/Magic Uses, etc).

The one downside to the game is that inventory and shop management is not really intuitive on a controller. It's much easier to use a mouse and a Steam Controller may perform better than alternatives. I also had to change what buttons did what in the launcher because it's somewhat non-standard in the defaults. KB&M controls are perfectly fine, but may need some re-binding as well.

Oh and it's not a typical hack'n'slash/ARPG kind of game. You can only perform normal attacks on enemies when they have a circle around them. Same with destructible objects. I didn't realize this at first and was only using skills for the first couple of areas that had enemies. Attribute points and elements also make quite a difference in combat as well.

Finally, I hope you like keys. Every unopened dungeon door needs a key. That filthy shopkeeper is going to be a rich bastard by the time I beat the game. Unless I'm able to self-sustain once I get the ability to craft them. They're pretty cheap, but it does slow the dungeon delving process a bit. I'm still enjoying it regardless.

 
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Cloyd said:
I snagged their Steins;Gate El Psy Kongroo Edition and never bought anything else from them. That one was pretty nice and all came together. Ever since they jacked up the shipping prices, I'm even less inclined to buy anything from them. I honestly haven't seen anything that I either couldn't wait on, or find similar somewhere else.
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Same here, even though my Steins Gate arrived undamaged, it wasn't for lack of trying, as the box was beat to hell, but since the game box and extra's where both tightly packed(individually), they didn't get damaged.

I did have an order get lost, as I ordered 2, and they taped both boxes with one single piece of thin tape which of course broke, and they didn't label both boxes, so once they detached, that was all she wrote. They made good on it, and I even ended up with an extra order free in the end, but after that I was put way off.

That pantie game set was the next I thought about but the price was to high, and then they started charging the $30, which believe it or not, I didn't mind paying, but only for perfect packaging. Once I found out they were doing the same things, I swore them off.

Since VGP in Canada offers most of the games, with the bonus art book, I've been going to them. As the prices or cheap, and the packaging seems way better(plus they ship from within the US.

 
I also got my Liberator's Edition of Valkyrie Drive. I'm disappointed, as well. Leaving the game outside of the packaging is lazy as fuck. The content is pretty good, though. Artbook could stand to be bigger.

I can't be too unhappy, though. It's basically doubled in value.

 
chrislaustin said:
Same here, even though my Steins Gate arrived undamaged, it wasn't for lack of trying, as the box was beat to hell, but since the game box and extra's where both tightly packed(individually), they didn't get damaged.

I did have an order get lost, as I ordered 2, and they taped both boxes with one single piece of thin tape which of course broke, and they didn't label both boxes, so once they detached, that was all she wrote. They made good on it, and I even ended up with an extra order free in the end, but after that I was put way off.

That pantie game set was the next I thought about but the price was to high, and then they started charging the $30, which believe it or not, I didn't mind paying, but only for perfect packaging. Once I found out they were doing the same things, I swore them off.

Since VGP in Canada offers most of the games, with the bonus art book, I've been going to them. As the prices or cheap, and the packaging seems way better(plus they ship from within the US.
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That's a pretty shoddy way to ship something, especially overseas. I've used VGP as well and snagged Gal*Gun if that's the game you're talking about. Not a bad game, just not the normal style I play, but I like weird games, so what the hell.I purchased their release of Root Letter earlier today. After surveying all the releases coming out early this month, it was the only one I wanted. The story seems nice and dark. VGP has been good to me and Root Letter has free shipping as well.

 
Cloyd said:
That's a pretty shoddy way to ship something, especially overseas. I've used VGP as well and snagged Gal*Gun if that's the game you're talking about. Not a bad game, just not the normal style I play, but I like weird games, so what the hell.I purchased their release of Root Letter earlier today. After surveying all the releases coming out early this month, it was the only one I wanted. The story seems nice and dark. VGP has been good to me and Root Letter has free shipping as well.
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I was tempted to buy Root Letter from VGP, but game.co.uk has the superior limited edition without a ridiculous price (but still higher than VGP). I think I'll just wait until the standard edition is discounted though.
 
Cloyd said:
That's a pretty shoddy way to ship something, especially overseas. I've used VGP as well and snagged Gal*Gun if that's the game you're talking about. Not a bad game, just not the normal style I play, but I like weird games, so what the hell.I purchased their release of Root Letter earlier today. After surveying all the releases coming out early this month, it was the only one I wanted. The story seems nice and dark. VGP has been good to me and Root Letter has free shipping as well.
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Honestly, EU must have some form of different shipping standards, as 97% of the things I get from there come in the worst made boxes ever(thin as shit).

When Futurlab offered their Velocity posters awhile back, I ended up getting 3-4 of them, as the tube they sent it in was almost paper thin, so each one got damaged to varying degrees. We both finally decided to throw in the towel, as it was obvious they weren't going to use a better tube, and I was tired of it all, so I got a refund.

The stuff they use would be garbage here for mailing within the states, but for overseas, it's a joke. I order from Bitmap books all the time, and all of my orders except for maybe one have arrived damaged. They always make good on the orders, but once I made it a point to talk about their shipping issues, as I was hoping for an improvement, and I was told they us the same fullfilment as Amazon over there, and that it should be "good", because if Amazon uses them, they must be great.

I laughed out loud, as I told them here in in the states, Amazon is the fuck ing WORST. In the end, it's a numbers game and they where happy to replace damages, as it would cost them way more to ship by better means. I was like, OK. I'm happy to get replacements on their dime, no problem.

I personally sale a decent qty of items a month, and I can't afford to have items get damaged on a regular basis, but I guess it's good others can.

 
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