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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So the re zero game finally got some info about it?  As it was originally set to come out this month but obviously that didn't happen. Looks interesting but it also seems to be either non canon or is gonna follow story segments up to the end of the first season given that betelguise was in the trailer. 

 
shadowysea07 said:
So the re zero game finally got some info about it? As it was originally set to come out this month but obviously that didn't happen. Looks interesting but it also seems to be either non canon or is gonna follow story segments up to the end of the first season given that betelguise was in the trailer.
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They've said what it's about for months? It's written by the author, takes place where the candidates gathered, non-canon, which is around when Petelgeuse was around. No idea if it goes as far as the White Whale or beyond though.
 
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super1upqueen said:
Thanks for your opinion! I got Warriors All-Stars for about $17 a while back and loved the characters, but the enemy variety wasn't great and there was just something about it that kept it from really grabbing me. The story was dumb as hell (not in a good way) and the characters created for the game weren't interesting at all. Definitely worth the money to play with William (Nioh), Ryu Hayabusa, and Arnice (Nights of Azure), but not great.

I think the best musou game was either Hyrule Warriors or Spirit of Sanada. The latter breathed so much life into the genre, had a great story, and was just downright fun. I'm sad the new characters from that game aren't in WO4, but I can live with it. I've seen so may people say WO3 is much better than WO4, but I really don't want to go a generation back and lose some characters (though not having Ayane, Kasumi, Rachel, Sterk, and Sophitia in WO4 is a bit of a blow). For only 20 bucks, I think I might get it.
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If you never played 3, then you won't know what you're missing anyway, and you could always go back if you like 4. There's still plenty of other characters to check out here to take your mind off it.

Unrelated, but glad to know you still lurking around BRW, I see you :bouncy:

 
elessar123 said:
They've said what it's about for months? It's written by the author, takes place where the candidates gathered, non-canon, which is around when Petelgeuse was around. No idea if it goes as far as the White Whale or beyond though.
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There was no gameplay or any info about the game other than a summary with the new 6th candidate. Or if there was I haven't seen any of it.

Betelgeuse was after the white whale. So it would have to be after that for him to be present (unless they are going complete filler) which is why I specifically mentioned it'd be up to the end of season 1. They also had the one character from the white whale expedition in the footage who works for the purple haired loli merchant candidate.

 
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Damn that Tifa figure won't ship until Feb 2021. I preorded back in April lol.

Your JRPG releases for January:

- Atelier Ryza 2

Annnd that's it. Maybe we're seeing some impact from COVID on the industry.

 
Been thinking of trying that one after the new year. I dislike Gacha games though and grinds so may not be a long play haha. I've heard it's fair for a while and then becomes a massive grindfest. I am tempted by Fenyx myself for this type of game, but I will very likely abide to my get Ubisoft Gold editions when they go $30 or less if I want them. With how much that games crashing I'm guessing by April haha.

 
Nothing- said:
Anyone playing Genshin Impact? I keep hearing how good it is from other Gacha game players (Fire Emblem: Heroes).
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I've sunk quite a few hours into it and overall I enjoy it.

The gameplay is very reminiscent of Breath of the Wild (which I didn't like). It's a massive open world with lots of climbing, wind gliding, stamina bar, etc. but it does two things notably better. First, the world actually feels alive and lived in - there are towns, characters, queslines with actual story. Second, the tools you're given for the "sandbox" world are much better - there's an elemental system with lots of interesting reactions which apply both to combat and exploration. There are also several different weapon types, which don't matter as much as elements but do play a factor as well (i.e. greatswords break rocks/minerals fast and are generally best for DPS)

There are gacha mechanics - that's the primary way you get new characters and new weapons. There's only one bad character (Amber) and you can get several characters for free just by playing through the main story. The best characters/weapons are the rarest in the gacha but unless you're really into min/maxing you can clear story/quests/etc. with just about any team. You'll also get plenty of summons by just playing the game, especially at the beginning. It feels a little stingy at higher levels with summons but hopefully by that time you have a team you like.

Also worth noting that there's a tiered upgrade system to the game that requires a bit of grinding and a time-limited "currency" called Resin. You'll need to farm quite a bit to get to the highest levels of the game and that does translate into real-life time based on the amount of Resin you get in a day. But I've never felt like this was gating me or preventing me from enjoying the game based on the pace I've been playing.

I'm not huge into the world of gachas but I've played this, DFFOO, Crestoria, and 7DS. I think this is the most involved of the gachas I've played and it falls to me in the middleground of currency/summon distribution (not as good as DFFOO but not as bad as Crestoria). There's a pity system at both the 4-star and 5-star levels and if you're only doing dailies you can still get a summon every ~2 days.

One other note - I started the game on PS4 and since moved to PS5. There's some noticeable framerate dropping on PS4 and load times are a bit much, but it's sliky smooth on PS5. My wife plays it on mobile (Pixel 3A) and pretty consistently has issues after playing it for a few hours. I can't speak to every phone or PCs, but it's free to download and has adjustable graphics settings if you want to test it out.

TL;DR: Better Breath of the Wild, gacha mechanics aren't annoying unless you're min/maxing.

Dunno if there was anything in particular you're curious about, but happy to field any questions if my small novel didn't answer them.

 
To me that sounds worse than BotW.  BotW you play at your own pace when you want.  If you don't want to play for a few days there's no penalty or feelings of being left behind in you progress.   With BotW, there's not a lot stopping you from sneaking into the castle early in the game and being places you shouldn't be.  Reminds me a lot of the first Legend of Zelda in that you can play things in whatever order you want.

Personally, I would warn everyone away from these free to play traps.  They don't respect your time in the long run and put up just enough walls to make you consider spending and once you start spending it gets easier and easier to justify spending more.  Even if you can resist spending there's the hook of getting you to play daily doing repetitive things for nothing.  Just stick to premium games with no timers, paid currencies, or daily crap you have to do.  These things are engineered to be addictive... and it's hard to quit once you get into them.  I've seen it with my own kids on some of them... and even myself trying to quit Asphalt 9.

Just don't start.  No matter how much you think you can get away with for free.. .they'll suck so much of your time if you get locked into their gatcha system.

 
nightc1 said:
To me that sounds worse than BotW. BotW you play at your own pace when you want. If you don't want to play for a few days there's no penalty or feelings of being left behind in you progress. With BotW, there's not a lot stopping you from sneaking into the castle early in the game and being places you shouldn't be. Reminds me a lot of the first Legend of Zelda in that you can play things in whatever order you want.
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There's no PVP or anything, taking a break or not playing for a while only makes you miss out on dailies which translate into a few extra summons. You have to be a certain level for some story quests but those don't go away. Events do go away but the ones they've done so far are pretty forgettable. Banners (characters/weapons) come and go but I'm sure they'll circulate back around eventually. There were a few weeks where I didn't play and I didn't feel like I was missing out.

nightc1 said:
Personally, I would warn everyone away from these free to play traps. They don't respect your time in the long run and put up just enough walls to make you consider spending and once you start spending it gets easier and easier to justify spending more. Even if you can resist spending there's the hook of getting you to play daily doing repetitive things for nothing. Just stick to premium games with no timers, paid currencies, or daily crap you have to do. These things are engineered to be addictive... and it's hard to quit once you get into them. I've seen it with my own kids on some of them... and even myself trying to quit Asphalt 9.
Just don't start. No matter how much you think you can get away with for free.. .they'll suck so much of your time if you get locked into their gatcha system.
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100%. If you have issues with impulse control, gambling, or generally addictive behaviors avoid F2P/gacha games like the plague.

 
Also going to link My RPG Blog, in which the writer has been playing Genshin Impact. Interesting though some spoilers here and there. Mainly talks about her experiences with the gacha and learning the game over 3 posts I believe so far.

Link

Also randomly JAST USA announced Closed Game coming in 2021. This game deals with people competing in a death game to hopefully get a better life afterwards. It's done by Empress who made Starless and Bible Black. I'll wait for reviews, but I'm guessing the game is brutal and extremely graphic with violence galore and many, many adult situations. Not for the faint of heart I'm sure. JAST USA is extremely slow on releasing their games so I wouldn't expect it in 2021. I'll let everyone know when it has a concrete release date.

VNDB (NSFW)

 
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Games industry New Year 2021 cards and messages

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nitrosmob said:
Also randomly JAST USA announced Closed Game coming in 2021. This game deals with people competing in a death game to hopefully get a better life afterwards. It's done by Empress who made Starless and Bible Black. I'll wait for reviews, but I'm guessing the game is brutal and extremely graphic with violence galore and many, many adult situations. Not for the faint of heart I'm sure. JAST USA is extremely slow on releasing their games so I wouldn't expect it in 2021. I'll let everyone know when it has a concrete release date.

VNDB (NSFW)
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They kind of already announced it before when they had a Sei Shoujo promotion by showing one of the backgrounds CGs of Closed Game at the end of the promo trailer but good to see it being announced officially. Here's hoping it makes it out before the end of the decade. Care for a friendly wager over what game gets released first between Closed Game and Django (by Nitroplus)? ;)

 
tsoul said:
Re:Zero The Prophecy of the Throne is coming out on Jan 29. The Japanese version releases 1 day earlier.
Day 1 and Collectors edition available at Best Buy.
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I feel the pins are the best part of the CE, and those are included in the day 1 version, so that’s probably all I’m getting. I haven’t actually committed to an order yet though, I was still hoping to see some actual gameplay before deciding ps or ns.
 
Love the Fate universe so much.  Really saddened by the downturn in quality of the recent shows though!  Apocrypha was only 'okay'.  But I hear that Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia is decent so will have to check that one out.

I picked up the BD LEs for Heaven's Feel I & 2 last month and holy cow those are incredible. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N_bjiz0Gk4&feature=emb_logo

 
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Starcrest said:
I feel the pins are the best part of the CE, and those are included in the day 1 version, so that’s probably all I’m getting. I haven’t actually committed to an order yet though, I was still hoping to see some actual gameplay before deciding ps or ns.
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Agreed, the steelbook looks really lazy imo. That said, will probably wait until it's on sale to pick up either/or.

Nothing- said:
Love the Fate universe so much. Really saddened by the downturn in quality of the recent shows though! Apocrypha was only 'okay'. But I hear that Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia is decent so will have to check that one out.

I picked up the BD LEs for Heaven's Feel I & 2 last month and holy cow those are incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N_bjiz0Gk4&feature=emb_logo
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Same, last Fate show I watched was Apocrypha and didn't really enjoy too much, UBW was much better, but maybe it was because I was a simp for the theme songs and Rin.

 
Nothing- said:
Love the Fate universe so much. Really saddened by the downturn in quality of the recent shows though! Apocrypha was only 'okay'. But I hear that Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia is decent so will have to check that one out.

I picked up the BD LEs for Heaven's Feel I & 2 last month and holy cow those are incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N_bjiz0Gk4&feature=emb_logo
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babylonia is pretty cool but since you are missing the stuff that happened in the middle I was somewhat lost as they frequently go to flashbacks to reference it. It also suffers a little pacing wise since they fall down the slice of life rabbit hole for a bit then go back to fighting gods and whatnot.

Apocrypha was terrible. Screw Sieg and jeanne. Unbias my ass. I did get a big lol when they were all the church is on our side this time guys! They won't betray us again like they always do. Evil church is gonna evil church. Only time I recall they wern't blatantly evil was in wavers spinoff.

Speaking of I wonder if that will get another season? It was kinda dull for me since while it did have returning characters like shishigo and the one guy with glasses from apocrypha and drill tails from unlimited blade works and magical girl card captor illya? and the animusphere girl from grandorder (like many would even remember her given she's only in the first episode of grand order and never seen again)

Gonna plug last extra encore. That one was alright. Loved red saber. Just sucked that it cut out content and or skipped over scenes that needed to be shown.

 
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Ys IX demo is now avilable on PSN. Time for me to decide if I can tolerate the physical console version or need to wait for pc.

Edit:  Pretty disappointed in the :ps4: demo.  Enough to cancel a physical preorder.  Will look to grab it on steam if that version looks passable at release.

 
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Zaku77 said:
Just remember what happened with the port of VIII lol.
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I would love to have that part of my memory erased.

I'm thinking nisa just hires durante's team from the start as they did with CSIII. Though nisa is back/still on my less-than-favorites list after some of the compromises they pulled on CSIV. Regardless I've been looking forward to Ys IX for a good while.

 
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Atelier 2 CE'S back in stock at NIS America (0-5%), most likely from orders they couldn't charge and were cancelled. Last chance before eBay prices.

 
gospelman said:
Ys IX demo is now avilable on PSN. Time for me to decide if I can tolerate the physical console version or need to wait for pc.

Edit: Pretty disappointed in the :ps4: demo. Enough to cancel a physical preorder. Will look to grab it on steam if that version looks passable at release.
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What console did you play it on? I haven't looked in a while, but I thought Ys IX targeted 60 FPS on PS4? I'm hoping that means that the PS5 can smooth out any issues.

 
Zaku77 said:
What console did you play it on? I haven't looked in a while, but I thought Ys IX targeted 60 FPS on PS4? I'm hoping that means that the PS5 can smooth out any issues.
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ps4 pro. I'm guessing the demo has no pro enhancements and I was looking at the base ps4 product.

Ys VIII and Tokyo Xanadu I have to play on pc. Ys IX will be no different.

 
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Has anyone noticed if Ninja Saviors has ever gone on sale? I don't see any drops on PSPrices, but I'm not sure how great their records are.

 
Doesn't look worth $109.99, but I know vinyls aren't cheap. Still I haven't heard much good about this game and likely wont touch that with a 10 foot pole. That steel case is sweet though.

 
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nitrosmob said:
Doesn't look worth $109.99, but I know vinyls aren't cheap. Still I haven't heard much good about this game and likely wont touch that with a 10 foot pole. That steel case is sweet though.
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Yeah, it got raked over the coals in Japan. If anyone really wants this special edition, it'll probably go on sale at the end of the year like a ton of Iffy's other special editions did in November. Best to wait.

 
nitrosmob said:
Doesn't look worth $109.99, but I know vinyls aren't cheap. Still I haven't heard much good about this game and likely wont touch that with a 10 foot pole. That steel case is sweet though.
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Also worth noting that IFFY still uses G1 steel cases, for whatever ungodly reason.

 
Finally tried out Genshin Impact for a few hours. I don't really see what the hype is about. Played on the PS5. It felt like a strange gacha, with pretty decent graphics, a pretty enough world (a little bland IMHO), milquetoast characters, decent battle system, not amazing adventure level thing gating off story adventures (wasn't bad yet at level 8 I think I was), and I just felt I was wasting time after a while. You collect items everywhere mainly to do level ups for various things like your characters and items and refining them. I could tell it was going to be a massive grindfest and I opted out after a bit. I haven't played Fenyx or BOTW, so I cannot compare, but I wanted to get the free one out of the way first. Frankly the main reason I hate gacha games, other than the low percent pulls, is the massive grinding for leveling on everything combined usually with a weak story. It feels pretty solid for a free game, and I can see someone getting addicted, but I've been down this gacha road before and I wont do it again. 6/10

Likely going to play BOTW next since I haven't experienced that one yet. Also started playing The Ditzy Demons Are In Love With Me fan disc. If you don't get the 18+ content, this will have one route. It's just extra routes that so far seem a little samey. Art is still excellent. Voice acting is good. Comedy is OK for the 3 routes I've played. They are all pretty short so far, and I've done routes for two main and one side characters. I was so spoiled by Princess Evangile's fan disc. That one was just excellent and really expanded the side characters and also the main characters. This one is just OK, and mainly for the fans and those who want some comedy with their eroge and the guy can go forever. A little disappointed, but it's quick and I do like the characters. Just very, very light on story.

 
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You really need to play BotW.   Some hipsters will hate on it.  But it's honestly one of the most well-designed games that I've played during the previous few years.  Talk about an open-world game done right.  You've got to be in one of those moods though, and into the exploration and experimentation. 

 
nitrosmob said:
Likely going to play BOTW next since I haven't experienced that one yet.
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Agree - play botw. I don't love every single gameplay mechanic. It doesn't tick every box of hylian nostalgia or replace OoT as my favorite in the series. But it's one of the best, if not the best, open world games I've played.

 
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nitrosmob said:
Likely going to play BOTW next since I haven't experienced that one yet.
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Going to echo everyone else, BotW is a masterpiece of open world gameplay and exploration. My personal favorite Zelda game will always be Wind Waker, but this is a VERY close second because of how well it just throws you into its world and allows you to experience it however you want. I just beat Immortals: Fenyx Rising yesterday and, though I liked it very much, it was obviously made by people who knew of BotW, but didn't actually play it, specifically because, while the game touts these big, creative puzzles and gives you lots of tools to solve them, more often than not there's only one way to solve the puzzles. If you try to approach them in a different way that seems like it would totally work, the game actually cuts you off (like cutting off your gliding even if you have plenty of stamina or cancelling your guided arrow even if you have the stamina to move it). It's very frustrating. BotW, on the other hand, welcomes any solutions you can think of to its puzzles. Yes, there will be ones that only have one solution, but for the ones that can be approached from different angles, the game allows it and celebrates it. It's such a freeing experience and it makes the game very creative because it encourages you to be creative.

I'm envious of you; I wish I could experience BotW for the first time again!

 
I have to disagree with the BotW hype. While I don't agree with every point in it, this article aligns pretty closely with how I feel. In a nutshell - it's a very polished and mechanically sound open world game, but it still suffers from a lot of the standard open world follies and loses a lot of the Zelda charm in the process.

 
I have to disagree with the BotW dislike though everyone is entitled to like or dislike what they want.  That said there are always a few that just don't like modern Zelda games.   I remember all the hate for Wind Waker... but gosh damn I loved that game.  The freedom to just hop in the boat and explore.  Sure it was limited at first but I loved that mechanic and once you got about a quarter or so of the way into the game you could fast travel if for some reason you hated sailing.  BotW took everything to the next level and back to the original Zelda formula from the first game where you could do thing in whatever order you wanted and have a big world to explore.  The way you could use the environment and use your brain to come up with creative ways to kill the enemies and their strongholds was brilliant.  It's something other games have tried to copy but always come up well short.  Like Immortals Fenyx Rising ... pretty well loved and it appears to offer the same kind of freedom but then even if you have enough stamina to fly somewhere you still will hit invisible walls because they only want you to solve things one way.  Not that it makes it a bad game, but just that none of these copy cats has managed to do enough of what BotW did that made it so special.

BotW rewards the logical mind that can problem solve... and is a massive treat for anyone that loves exploration.  I'd consider this in my top 10 of my life time (40ish years playing videogames).

 
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One of those Ryza 2 PS4 CE cancelations is mine. I do genuinely hope someone enjoys it. Ironically, I was thinking about how reasonably priced IFFY's LE's are when deciding Ryza 2 was a bit overpriced. But that Virtual Stars price seems pretty high too. That's partially personal because I have no interest in vinyl, but also considering the game is $50 not 60.

Thanks for highlighting the Persona 5 steelbook was available too! Perfect timing, as I have a birthday 10% off coupon. :3

 
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