Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

shivan128

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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Supplice said:
I'm wouldn't mind playing again and I play nice in 3v3.. O:)
Sometimes. :twisted:
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Count me in it to wet it
 
If you guys want to play Peach Beach Splash, or set up a gaming session sometime, join the PSN community for the niche thread. It's probably the easiest way to get everyone together, especially since it's a PS4 exclusive.

You can look up "CAG Japanese" and it'll be the 1st result that pops up called "CAG Japanese Niche Games Community." You won't miss it, there's a super cute girl as the wallpaper (if that isn't incentive alone to look it up.) If you can't find it, PM me or leave a message here. Thanks!

P.S. There's a PSN Communities app too if you don't want to use it on the PS4.

 
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62t said:
how was amazon's packing?
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Far from great. That may have been my own fault though. My order contained a few other items so they shipped my stuff in a massive box. So everything was moving and rattling around. Peach Beach Splash wasn't damaged but easily could have been

 
 
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Any opinions on whether physical copies of Yakuza 0 are likely to go lower than $30? On the one hand, I'm not going to be able to play it for several months at least, but on the other, I'm nervous it'll go out of print.
 
Souffrir said:
Any opinions on whether physical copies of Yakuza 0 are likely to go lower than $30? On the one hand, I'm not going to be able to play it for several months at least, but on the other, I'm nervous it'll go out of print.
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The old Yakuza games were out of print for a while so I would not wait

 
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Souffrir said:
Any opinions on whether physical copies of Yakuza 0 are likely to go lower than $30? On the one hand, I'm not going to be able to play it for several months at least, but on the other, I'm nervous it'll go out of print.
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This is probably one of the few times it will go on sale for a price that low

 
Souffrir said:
Any opinions on whether physical copies of Yakuza 0 are likely to go lower than $30? On the one hand, I'm not going to be able to play it for several months at least, but on the other, I'm nervous it'll go out of print.
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Like everyone else said. The other Yakuza games never got too low in price and by the time they did at places like GS they were basically sold everywhere. Admittedly Yakuza 0 sold better than previous games, but still. This is the lowest the game has been yet and just based on history it's probably not worth risking the wait for marginal amounts you might save. It's an incredible game too - very worth the price. I originally bought it digitally, but picked it up again during this sale just so I could have a physical copy.

 
I wouldn't sleep on Yakuza 0 or Kiwami. I slept on Yakuza 2 in the past and once it was discounted at Gamestop, I couldn't find it anywhere. Can't wait for Yakuza 6/2 Remake. I never played either so excited.

 
Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls just went up on Fanatical as a flash deal putting it at $11.99 + their 10% off coupon. Cost me $10.79 total which I believe to be the lowest this game has been since release. 

 
nitrosmob said:
I wouldn't sleep on Yakuza 0 or Kiwami. I slept on Yakuza 2 in the past and once it was discounted at Gamestop, I couldn't find it anywhere. Can't wait for Yakuza 6/2 Remake. I never played either so excited.
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After finishing Kiwami I ordered a copy of Yakuza 2 :pS2: off ebay so I could continue playing through the saga. The gameplay is super outdated and pretty terrible when compared to the modern games, but god damn the story is excellent. Can't wait for Kiwami 2. Gonnabe sooo good

 
luxoflux said:
Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls just went up on Fanatical as a flash deal putting it at $11.99 + their 10% off coupon. Cost me $10.79 total which I believe to be the lowest this game has been since release.
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That reminds me that Tales of Berseria is $17.32 after coupon. Not too bad but I've waited so long and don't intend to play it right away so I'll pass for now.

Btw, I went to gamestop to try to get the PS4 with $50 gift card but they were sold out of course. Really just need to get it in time for the Girls und Panzer game. Also I noticed in the trailer they used Panzerfahren as the translation for senshado, someone's been watching commie subs.

 
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Amazon has the 2TB Firecuda SSHD for $65.99 - I've been eyeing one for a while and it's a pretty good price for it. Most comparable deal I've seen is if you combine one of those ebay coupon codes for $15 or so off with it ordered from Newegg's ebay storefront which will get you it for $75-80

It's a good upgrade for PS4's internal drive and Digital Foundry has done some coverage on what kind of load time decreases you could see. Personally I'm at about 2TB worth of stuff already, so I'll just keep using a 4TB external until larger capacity ones are available one day.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FireCuda-Gaming-2-5-Inch-ST2000LX001/dp/B01M1NHCZT/ref=br_prlt_slcty_pdt-1?_encoding=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-3&pf_rd_r=FB4ZH9866G9PHEKYFDD2&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1ab5b677-bb56-4715-910b-efccfbbc713d&pf_rd_i=17038546011&tag=tbpre-20&ascsubtag=33a04a8c-336b-4b5b-b445-a50876e69d4b

 
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Pheria said:
https://www.amazon.com/Xenoblade-Chronicles-2-Nintendo-Switch/dp/B075MZT53Z/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511575123&sr=8-1&keywords=xenoblade%2Bchronicles%2B2%2Bspecial%2Bedition&th=1

Walmart has the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Special Edition for $82 and Amazon is matching - if anyone wasn't able to get a GCU order and still wants a discount (the 20% off on collector's editions with prime happened before this listing went up, right?)
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fucking awesome thanks. Saves me from paying MSRP at Gamestop and I had some GC's im sitting on due to Amazon's fail ass sales anyway

 
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Since we're at the end of November, I'm curious what thread related lesser known games that other people in this thread have played and really enjoyed in the last year. I'm talking about the games that don't get big recognition such as Persona, Tales of, Final Fantasy, Nier, etc. Since it's technically not the end of the year and I doubt many have played much of November's games, I'll say the release window is from last November to current. If you could also give a small blurb for the game too and mention one thing you didn't like or thought the game could do better as well. It's not a requirement though.

Since I'm the one proposing this, I guess I should list a few:

Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception & Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth

Also known as Underwater Ray Romano that 4chan has caused some spellcheckers to auto-correct to thanks to word banks picking it up. A visual novel with some SRPG elements to it that are an indirect sequel to the early to mid 2000's game, Utawarerumono. While not necessary to play the previous, I still do recommend at least watch the 2006 anime for it prior to playing. The game itself has a very strong story, characters and emotion to it without horribly skimping on the SRPG side of things. Unfortunately the pacing can be rather slow due to slice-of-life events that take place, but they do help further establish setting and characters well. This is particularly the most noticeable in the first half of Mask of Deception. If you let the dialogue auto-progress, you're looking at a long game (40-50 hours each), but if you read and skip the voice, then it's significantly quicker. Almost the entire game is voiced though, which is insane. It's also one of my favorite games of the year, easily.

Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection

A fairly strong 20~ hour Action RPG from Falcom that is a PC-only western release. The combat is fairly good, fun and varied between the two main characters. It has decent puzzles as well. Character dialogue from the translation was very sassy, but fit very well with the voice acting helping even more. The only real problem I have with the game is that the dungeons are basically corridors rather than proper maps that are designed around the area they're at. That's not to say they don't fit, but I think it's definitely a weaker point of the game.

Xanadu NEXT

Another Action RPG from Falcom which is also a PC-only western release. The game itself runs you about 15~ hours. If you played Brandish on the PSP/Vita, then it has some strong similarities to that game, but a more modernized version of it (being less grid-based). Despite the older style of gameplay, the combat is very strong and the story, while not particularly deep, is still interesting. What I think the game does poorly is proper power progression through the dungeons. If you hit a new area and you haven't bought a new weapon, leveled up the right stat or even leveled enough, you can hit a wall. This may force you to do a little bit of grinding in order to be able to progress. It's actually not that bad and the gameplay I feel more than makes up for it.

A Hat in Time

A 3D Platformer that was kickstarted and by no means a Japanese game (Currently PC only with no word on a console release). It's still niche and feel that it does somewhat fit the thread enough to be listed. The game itself was extremely fun for pretty much most of my playthrough that lasted about 10 hours, gathering all time pieces. The camera works well despite being a little poor in a couple places and gameplay elements don't overstay their welcome. Everybody also has a lot of character to them, which is great. Unfortunately the game lacks polish and anybody who has played Mario will notice this. Thankfully it doesn't really hinder the game all that much and it's definitely a game you should check out.

I'm leaving Trails out of it since I'm certain I shill that series enough. Which is also *cough* conveniently on sale over at Steam until Monday.

 
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Green Card200 said:
Has everyone ever ordered figures from Gecco Direct? I wanted this Knight of Astora Figure but it sold out before release. Any chance they make more and do these figures ever go on sale? $300 is a lot of money.
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I order a lot from them and their products are usually made to order when purchasing directly. Any sales or extras will have to be gotten from other retailers.

 
Green Card200 said:
Has everyone ever ordered figures from Gecco Direct? I wanted this Knight of Astora Figure but it sold out before release. Any chance they make more and do these figures ever go on sale? $300 is a lot of money.
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I purchased the Quiet figure, not from them but from a 3rd party seller a while after it sold out. It's my most expensive figure to date, but it's absolutely beautiful. I quickly glance at my collection of figures on top of my desk from time to time, and that one always stands out and captures my eyes for a split second, it almost looks too real. So I highly recommend their craft if you find it elsewhere.

I recommend checking Ebay and Amazon, or just using Google and seeing what pops up. When buying from Ebay though, be careful of bootlegs. I'm also seriously considering the Doll from Bloodborne.

 
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Green Card200 said:
Has everyone ever ordered figures from Gecco Direct? I wanted this Knight of Astora Figure but it sold out before release. Any chance they make more and do these figures ever go on sale? $300 is a lot of money.
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Your best bet would be to take advantage of the Otaku Mode Sale and try to find filler to get the 20% back in points.

I think the ANIMENYC17 code still works for 10% off too.

 
Cloyd said:
That's great to hear. I plan on going back and platinuming the first release on Vita. Looks like I'll buying this for the PS4.
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From what I've heard, framerate drops make the platinum on Vita very, very difficult. The list is cross-platform and I believe the game is cross-save, though, so if the going gets too rough you can always switch over to finish it off.

 
Tothoro said:
From what I've heard, framerate drops make the platinum on Vita very, very difficult. The list is cross-platform and I believe the game is cross-save, though, so if the going gets too rough you can always switch over to finish it off.
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Thanks for the advice. I wouldn't mind owning the physical PS4 release as well anyways.

 
Draekon said:
Since we're at the end of November, I'm curious what thread related lesser known games that other people in this thread have played and really enjoyed in the last year. I'm talking about the games that don't get big recognition such as Persona, Tales of, Final Fantasy, Nier, etc. Since it's technically not the end of the year and I doubt many have played much of November's games, I'll say the release window is from last November to current. If you could also give a small blurb for the game too and mention one thing you didn't like or thought the game could do better as well. It's not a requirement though.
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Not surprising but Atelier Firis is my GOTY. Firis got mixed reception among Atelier fans. Older fans didn't like how much it changed, and newer fans didn't like the return of the time limit. It was in a tough spot. But I loved the game.

The world felt vast and well designed. I can wander through the hills and forests for hours. It wasn't linear and I could skip entire towns and events and come back to them later. The game has so much content, I have 80 hours in it and still didn't get all the endings. It's probably been the most fulfilling Atelier game I've played to date.

The characters are mostly enjoyable. Some moreso than others but Firis is always a hoot to play with. She's cute and funny. Speaking of which, the character dlc are reasonably priced and offer quite a bit of extra content including additional events and character endings.

The combat makes a comeback from the horrid combat in Sophie. It doesn't do anything too special but it works. The combat for Lydie and Suelle looks like they're taking it to the next level. Atelier Firis is now one of my favorite Atelier games, and I hope the next game builds on that to deliver an even bigger experience.

 
Draekon said:
Since we're at the end of November, I'm curious what thread related lesser known games that other people in this thread have played and really enjoyed in the last year. I'm talking about the games that don't get big recognition such as Persona, Tales of, Final Fantasy, Nier, etc. Since it's technically not the end of the year and I doubt many have played much of November's games, I'll say the release window is from last November to current. If you could also give a small blurb for the game too and mention one thing you didn't like or thought the game could do better as well. It's not a requirement though.
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2017 Releases I Completed: The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild, Final Fantasy XV (+DLC 1 & 2), The Fractured But Whole, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash, Collar X Malice, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk, Fire Emblem Warriors

A lot of these were surprisingly disappointing (my personal opinion obviously), but here are my top three:

3. Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash: Aside from the obvious "plot", it's a surprisingly solid third-person shooter. I tend to dislike what I refer to as "squad-based shooters" (Overwatch and the like), but PBS was a light-hearted romp that wasn't online-only and offered a pretty complete experience offline. Customizing gear and trying out different loadouts was fun and the mechanics felt surprisingly solid for what I expected to be a generic spin-off title.

2. Zero Escape: The Nonary Games: Zero Escape is a solid VN franchise that doesn't get the love it deserves. TNG was my first exposure to the franchise, and the polish on 999's remake was excellent. Virtue's Last Reward was a little clunky in comparison, but I enjoyed watching the series unfold. I typically don't play games in a series back-to-back (I get burned out too easily), but I marathoned The Nonary Games and Zero Time Dilemma shortly after. It's a great value (which I'm always a fan of) and one of the best stories I've experienced in video games period.

1. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice: I feel like it wasn't advertised very well, because I was expecting more of a third-person action/adventure game and in reality the game is more of a walking simulator with puzzles and occasional combat sections. Ninja Theory did an incredible job with this title. Each of the different components feel great; combat is super-fluid, the puzzles are interesting and work well, the story is thoroughly engaging, and it all fits together perfectly. I don't want to go into too many details for spoiler reasons, but they take a very serious subject and address it in a thrilling and immersing manner. If you do play this, heed the warning to play with headphones; it makes a world of difference.

And just for fun, my biggest disappointments:

3. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk: Berserk is one of my favorite franchises of all time. I thoroughly enjoy muosos as well. This game manages to bastardize both. The first major arc of Berserk (The Golden Age) is handled fairly well, but each subsequent arc skims the story quicker and quicker, and some smaller arcs are omitted completely. It's also just a bad muoso. You're alone most of the time, there's very little variety in the gameplay, surprisingly few characters (and even fewer who are relatively viable), and the extra mode is a horrible grindfest.

2. Final Fantasy XV: I almost feel like it's cheating to put this on the list, but everyone knows the issues by now. Great worldbuilding, interesting characters, and it all flounders out halfway through the game. The first DLC (Gladiolus) was pretty great - felt a bit like a FF/Dark Souls crossover and had some pretty challenging aspects to it. The second DLC (Prompto) was just decent, but with a God-awful snowmobile minigame mode. Seriously, the physics are laughable. I don't know how the minigame made it through quality assurance.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: I love Zelda. Majora's Mask is my all-time favorite game. The series has been near and dear to me since I started playing games. BotW did not feel like a Zelda game. It felt like successful pieces of major games from the past five years were pieced together into an incredibly polished, but ultimately generic and non-unique experience. It really feels like each Zelda component was added as an afterthought; the game could be reskinned and sold as a completely new IP. Dungeons are gone, getting new equipment is gone, story is (mostly) gone, and instead we're left with a vastly empty, almost too open world.

 
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IS IT OVER? I suppose it's safe to call it that after this week. Technically there's still Tokyo Xanadu eX+ next week, but I doubt that it's on most peoples radar. I don't think there's anything particularly interesting western wise this week either. Though I think I'm going to stop posting things published by SakuraGame because of shit like this and their terrible machine translations that does nobody any favors.

Other stuff that released without warning last week (Assume PC unless otherwise noted):
- Reformers (RPG | Chinese Only)

Weekly Releases (November 26th - December 2nd)

Nintendo 3DS (Super Nintendo Entertainment System Edition)
- Platform(s): 3DS
- Genre: Hardware

STAR OCEAN™ - THE LAST HOPE -™ 4K & Full HD Remaster
- Platform(s): PS4, PC
- Genre: RPG / Action
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: PC version looks to be using Denuvo DRM.

Resident Evil: Revelations Collection
- Platform(s): Switch
- Genre: Survival Horror
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Includes Revelations 1 & 2 as well as all previous addons. Second game seems to be a digital-only download code which takes up 26GB.

ACA NeoGeo: World Heroes
- Platform(s): Switch
- Genre: Fighting
- Demo: N/A
- Online: Local only.
- Comments: Digital only.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Platform(s): Switch
- Genre: RPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A

Elminage ORIGINAL - Priestess of Darkness and The Ring of the Gods
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: First-Person Dungeon RPG
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: I assume this is a port of the PSP version. Hopefully it has the 3DS localization.

VoiceActress
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel / RPG?
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Expect a machine translation.

Game Tengoku CruisinMix
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: SHMUP
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Degica published. Japanese language only.

A Day For A Kitten
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: RPG?
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese dev.

春风 Spring Breeze
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese dev.

Starlight of Aeons
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese dev?

Cassandra's Fabulous Foray
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel / Simulation
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Not Japanese.

Crimson Imprint plus -Nonexistent Christmas-
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese language only.

Puzzle Sisters Foer
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Puzzle / Q&A
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Chinese language only.

わがままアリスと百日戦争
- Platform(s): PC
- Genre: Visual Novel / Adventure
- Demo: N/A
- Online: N/A
- Comments: Japanese language only.

Past Releases
November 19th - November 25th
November 12th - November 18th
November 5th - November 11th
October 29th - November 4th
October 22nd - October 28th

 
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I humbly agree that what Sakuragamer does is pretty bad. I have bought a few of their titles, but honestly I'm stopping unless it's amazing. Machine translations are garbage and a decent amount of the games are looking OK at best, usually just getting popular for their adult content, or them giving away free games. Just bad practices, especially since I usually love VN games.

 
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