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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I like P5 Palaces on paper but they bring the whole experience down with the constant interruptions to explain what is going on. When I come to a locked door in a dungeon I don't want a 5 minute cutscene where the characters talk through the exact process of what I need to do and where I need to go to unlock it, and then when you find the key/password/whatever another few minutes of them talking about how I need to go back to that place I was at 10 minutes ago.

I actually hope they stick with handcrafted dungeons going forward (with something like mementos on the side for random exploration) but please just let me progress through them at my own pace and figure out how to overcome puzzles/obstacles on my own.

 
Played more Balan Wonderworld (Switch) last night.  Unlocked worlds 4, 5 & 6 and the third tim trampoline (as they call it) in the hub world.  Overall, still a fun experience  Took a break and fired up the demo for Neo TWEWY (Switch).    I stopped shortly after the second round with the first boss after your party expands.   I will finish the demo, I think.  Overall, I like the look of the game and the fighting was decent.  I do love that a failed fight lets you just jump right back in and try again without any penalty.  Hopefully the full game is that forgiving and the world opens up a bit more.  I'm not against a linear romp, but like it better when I get set a bit more free to explore and do things.  I played TWEWY on DS so I'm not a stranger to the series and kind of expect the level of freedom will end up something similar which I'm ok with.   I wasn't planning on even getting Neo TWEWY... but I think I'm going to at least keep this on my radar.

 
It seems Square Enix had Nintendo pull all the digital codes people had gotten that gave early access to TWEWY NEO from their glitch. 

 
Finished up Ys IX today.  Overall really good, maybe 8.5 or 9 / 10.  Did pretty much everything in 59hr on Hard.  Heard some opinions around launch that IX is inferior to VIII, and now that I've played both I'm not sure I agree.  They both have points that they do better than the other, and right now I view them to be close to the same level.  For me, waiting for the pc version was absolutely the right call as it was enjoyably smooth and another solid port from durante's team.

As someone who's usually more focused with the kiseki titles from Falcom, I find it interesting to consider Ys IX the the development product that came after Cold Steel III & IV.  One of the composers in particular (signa) is responsible for some tracks that I absolutely hate in III & IV (to the point of pressing mute).  But I really liked many of his Ys IX tracks (Examples A, B, C).  Either his approach has improved with time, or he is far better in the Ys framework.  Perhaps one negative thing would be IX's re-use of a couple of plot elements (which are spoilers) that have already been extensively done in the Trails games of the last decade. These felt a little cheap in a plot that is otherwise given more attention than I expected from a Ys title.

In regard to the demo - I really don't think it does the game justice.  There's a lot more variety in environments and gameplay than what is shown in the first two basic dungeons of the game.  Probably only good for gauging system performance.  Overall recommended, especially on pc.  On to Cris Tales for me (since it's launching on Game Pass).

 
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bappt said:
It seems Square Enix had Nintendo pull all the digital codes people had gotten that gave early access to TWEWY NEO from their glitch.
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Just another reminder who really owns the games you purchase these days. I’m sure they could have put a lock on physical copies too, so I’m not strictly bashing on digital here, just the whole console experience now.
 
Finished up the demo for NEO TWEWY (switch) last night.   Overall it was pretty fun.  I grind around a bit afterwards (thankfully I manually saved before the last fight as the quick save happens after the last battle so it's useless) to level up and max a few more pins.  It's nice you can hit one of the menus (+ or -, I forget) and override your level to get a higher drop rate.  I just dropped myself down to level 1 then roamed between map areas so it would reset the noise and then run around and get 5 noise to chase me so I could stack up the battles and up the odds of better drop rates.  At level 1 (of 13) with a better understanding of the battle system, I easily took out 5 back to back battles with a drop rate above 60%.  If they would have let me stack all of the battles in the area for an even higher drop rate, I would have done that.

Really a smart demo... just enough to give a full taste of the battle mechanics (and repetition) while giving enough story that I'm kind of invested in the characters and how this ties to the first game.   The only negative moment I had was near the end when it taught about stacking battles it wanted me to do two battles like that but i had already cleared the entire area out of noise.   I ended up saving the game and then going back to the title screen and then continuing to reset the noise.   I could imagine some people might have quit at that point as I don't think you could even leave the area to reset the noise... only save/quit and then come back in.   Not the end of the world, the game pushes you to advance the story .. I went off the beaten path to clear the area of noise first as there doesn't appear to be a real clock holding you to any schedule (thankfully).   I finished the end boss of the demo accidentally leaving myself as a level 1.  So it's also a bit easy on Normal ... which is usually not what I find in games.  Not really a complaint as that means I could turn up the difficulty and actually enjoy that side of a game for once and the better drops enemies have at the higher difficulties.

Damn it though... I was out... pretty sure this wasn't going to be for me at all... now... I want the game and to replay my copy of the original.

 
wbc1228 said:
yea, i got that email

does nis hate money? just reprint all the titles that are selling at scalper prices on ebay

that survey link is just a generic link, right (feels like i can post it, not 100% positive)
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I dont think its that easy to just reprint them, especially in the current climate. Costs might have gone up. I think also the demand has to be there. They can't print more titles just to cool down prices. I'm still missing Utawarerumono Prelude of the Falen from my collection unfortunately.

 
Zenax[zd] said:
I like P5 Palaces on paper but they bring the whole experience down with the constant interruptions to explain what is going on. When I come to a locked door in a dungeon I don't want a 5 minute cutscene where the characters talk through the exact process of what I need to do and where I need to go to unlock it, and then when you find the key/password/whatever another few minutes of them talking about how I need to go back to that place I was at 10 minutes ago.

I actually hope they stick with handcrafted dungeons going forward (with something like mementos on the side for random exploration) but please just let me progress through them at my own pace and figure out how to overcome puzzles/obstacles on my own.
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How about at the end of the game where you have to say bye to all your friends? I legit fell asleep doing it.

 
keyblader1985 said:
Oh shit; Balan's got something similar to a Chao Garden? Now I'm even more interested. Glad it's a little better than the demo had people believe.
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When I showed my 21 year old son what it was and how it worked he was sold on playing it even though he watched some youtuber totally rip the game apart.

If you have the chance to get the game cheap and know what it is... I think it's worth it. I can imagine it'll be $15 before too long. It's a 3d platformer that is mostly about exploration and the occasional enemy encounter... not a mario or sonic game.. .closer to the original NiGHTS if you think about how often you encountered enemies. So somewhat casual... with areas gated off by suit abilities (which you can change your suits to any you've collected from other levels at the checkpoint pads). The chao garden hub world (more like a small floating island) is perfect for messing with while watching tv since you feed the creatures and then watch them play on the giant jungle gym thing you build. The more they play, the more they unlock and it tells you what will unlock next. Hopefully I haven't oversold it... it's not the best game ever... or even remotely Yuji Naka's best work... but I'm glad I opted to play it myself than just go on the demo experience and community feedback (most of which is from people that haven't played the game). Keep in mind I'm also the guy that replayed the Christmas NiGHTS demo over and over and over and listened to the music tracks for it outside of the game I enjoyed it so much. So I like quirky feel good stuff.

 
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5/17 of p5 and I think I'm getting to the second dungeon soonish.  Got the sun s link unlocked.  There was a camera lady that reminding me of yukiko from p4 but with short hair.  Having presumably wendee lee voicing both probably increased it.  Sucks that they are wasting so much time in game not letting me do anything for like the past 2 weeks.  They could have at least let me use the train or nighttime sections but nope.  It'd be cool if someone came out with mods to max out stats as that would cut some of the time wasted for s links out of the way. Though I think the days of cheat codes like gamegenie existing died during the ps3 gen.  Huh apparently a million yen is only a little over 9k in dollars? Weird.  That's probably how much it might have cost going to the emergency room depending on circumstances. 

 
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Jiles001 said:
I dont think its that easy to just reprint them, especially in the current climate. Costs might have gone up. I think also the demand has to be there. They can't print more titles just to cool down prices. I'm still missing Utawarerumono Prelude of the Falen from my collection unfortunately.
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If you don't care if its the European version you can get a copy from https://store.nisaeurope.com for about $36, not counting shipping. They have a bunch of games that have gotten expensive if try to get them from ebay or Amazon. I've picked up some pricey games way cheaper from them.

 
I like how some people on here are free thinkers and gave their true opinion about Balan without just blindly jumping on the hate bandwagon as 99.99% of people will always do. I personally felt it was underrated.
 
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super1upqueen said:
Same voice actress. I like to imagine Ohya is what Yukiko grows up to be if she never met Yu (they even look alike).
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Or if she had continued the trajectory of her s link and left instead of it getting derailed and her reverting back to being stuck working at the inn.

made some s link progress. strength is already at 3 and chariot at 6. Stuck currently though since I can't make the next mon till lv25 and that's gonna be a while.

 
caggamers said:
I like how some people on here are free thinkers and gave their true opinion about Balan without just blindly jumping on the hate bandwagon as 99.99% of people will always do. I personally felt it was underrated.
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Disaster Report 4 was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had and it's one of the most panned games of this generation. I sometimes wonder what people are looking for in games. DR4 plays terribly but it's a really fun unique experience that can't really be replicated in a different medium. To me that IS good game design.

I haven't played Balan yet personally but I have started to see Youtubers begin the trend of "well the game isn't THAT bad..." videos.

We're about 5 years away from it being a cult classic. 10 from it being a hidden gem.

 
The game plays terribly part is likely the problem. That and the limited print from what I understand. I've heard it runs poorly on the ps4 and even worse on the switch from this thread come to think of it. 

 
Disaster Report 4 reminded me of that Japan Sinks series on Netflix where it starts out pretty serious and then goes ham with the JP quirkiness about halfway through. I had a good time with it and would definitely get the next one. It has a Shenmue level of "bad" to it that was kind of charming at times. 

It also has some of the best combat in gaming

 
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Anyone know roughly how NISA tends to discount digital games on PSN over time? Disaster Report 4 is half off, which seems to be an all-time low, though I wouldn’t play it right away so I’m fine waiting if it’s likely to go lower.
 
shadowysea07 said:
The game plays terribly part is likely the problem. That and the limited print from what I understand. I've heard it runs poorly on the ps4 and even worse on the switch from this thread come to think of it.
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I finished the demo of DR4 on Switch and the game played perfectly fine to me. I enjoyed it enough to pre-order it for switch... though I do still need to play the full game (just saving it for when I'm ready). It's not a high action experience where performance and framerate is some huge factor. Game play is borderline a basic point and click where you roaming around a few locations, talk to people, collect stuff, and making decisions in conversation trees. If the framerate drops some here and there.. I didn't notice. I think a lot of people that played the demo didn't figure out that you hold one of the R buttons down to run... and it felt slow/sluggish using the default walking speed without knowing how to run.

 
Went home during my lunch break and watched an episode of Flight of the Conchords and then finished leveling my pins and characters in NEO TWEWY.    While going between areas I ended up finding one of the rare blue noise a couple times.  I didn't think to stack it but its supposed to have a great drop rate and if you are at 1/15 level and get a 5x stack then the drop rate goes well over 100.   All I have left to do now is just finish the final battle again... though I may just leave it here and see if it's possible to change the difficulty with the full version.  I'll wait till tuesday and see if the local Walmart stores stock it.  They have a listing on the website, though it's not for sale yet.  So no telling if it's web only or will also be in store.

 
Balan really just took way too long to get going. The costumes available at the start of the game just weren't fun, but when you got to like the 7th level you started getting ones that were useful. 

 
Just wanted to chime in with more love for DR4. Absolutely loved it. Didn't run the best, even on PS4 Pro but damn does that game have originality and soul. I enjoyed the hell out of it and totally wanted more when I finished it. Gave me the biggest Yakuza side story feelings. Hope they eventually make another sequel. Really recommend it.

In regards to Balan I haven't played it yet. With all the hate on it though I'm hoping the price will drop enough for me to pick it up soon. I doubt it's really as bad as all the initial reactions and I'd like to judge for myself
 
Just preordered Neo TWEWY (Switch) over at GameStop.com of all places.   Magnet set is cool (though that wasn't a factor)... they have the game $49.94 right now on sale with free rush shipping.  So came out to just under $55 for me... same as if Walmart had it... but now I don't have to gamble that walmart stocks this game... and being pre-order GS shouldn't f with my copy unlike older stock new games which can come in any condition.

Repeating...

Neo The World Ends With You (Switch) $49.94 w/free rush shipping
https://www.gamestop.com/video-games/nintendo-switch/games/products/neo-the-world-ends-with-you---nintendo-switch/11137921.html

If gamestop is looking to get my preorder business... that's how you do it.  No club requirement... free shipping... and they throw in a bonus.

I was close to just getting it from BB (they have 2 months of funimation+ as a bonus)... but GS won which is shocking.

 
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how does it run on the switch
havent had the time to play anything lately, believe theres a demo

im sure it will run way better on ps4/ps5 but ocd wants me to get it on switch
 
toska said:
how does it run on the switch
havent had the time to play anything lately, believe theres a demo

im sure it will run way better on ps4/ps5 but ocd wants me to get it on switch
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The demo played fine on the switch. No frame drops or other stuff that I noticed... though the game is somewhat basic in the graphics/level department ... so not really surprised by that. I mainly game on the Switch so I wouldn't even entertain another version.

PS4 version is also on sale:

https://www.gamestop.com/video-games/playstation-4/games/products/neo-the-world-ends-with-you/11137920.html

 
I thought Neo TWEWY was going to be an easy pass, but I played the demo when it dropped and fell in love with it.  I had still intended to wait a bit, but at 49.94 I ended up grabbing it.  

 
I have an in-store pre-order for NEO TWEWY, so I called my local Gamestop and the girl told me that, if it's still $49.94 on launch day, they'll honor the price. If not, I'll have to pay the full $60. I love my local store and the people who work there, but they're real strict about following policy, so in case the price goes back up at launch, I ordered it online. I'll cancel my in-store one and just place the $5 deposit onto something else if it's too close to launch to get it back on my credit card.

 
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Glad the NEO TWEWY deal helped some others.  It's so rare I find out about something like this before it hits the net... was cool to share it.

I'm pretty hyped for this release.  I put way more time into the demo than was needed maxing at least one of every pin available and hitting the level 15 limit.  Found more blue noise last night and managed to get a partial stack (reduction) going.   Once this comes in next week, I'll likely be putting all other gaming on hold.

I also played the demos for Captain Tsubasa and Valthirian Arc on Switch last night to decide if these games are worth my time.   Captain Tsubasa ... I didn't make it through the tutorial before I opted out because of the complexity of moves.  My brain just said "no" and I deleted it.  Valthirian Arc gave me vague hints of Actraiser on SNES... as this was a mashup of a top down school management sim mixed with some very basic dungeon crawling where you (the principal) control your students.   I played a few missions and then deleted it.  It's not the worst thing I've ever played but I have sooooo much better.

 
nightc1 said:
Glad the NEO TWEWY deal helped some others. It's so rare I find out about something like this before it hits the net... was cool to share it.

I'm pretty hyped for this release. I put way more time into the demo than was needed maxing at least one of every pin available and hitting the level 15 limit. Found more blue noise last night and managed to get a partial stack (reduction) going. Once this comes in next week, I'll likely be putting all other gaming on hold.

I also played the demos for Captain Tsubasa and Valthirian Arc on Switch last night to decide if these games are worth my time. Captain Tsubasa ... I didn't make it through the tutorial before I opted out because of the complexity of moves. My brain just said "no" and I deleted it. Valthirian Arc gave me vague hints of Actraiser on SNES... as this was a mashup of a top down school management sim mixed with some very basic dungeon crawling where you (the principal) control your students. I played a few missions and then deleted it. It's not the worst thing I've ever played but I have sooooo much better.
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I got the platinum for Valthirian Arc on the Ps4 and the game became boring really quick. You can get quickly OP against enemies or the other way around.
 
Did not realize there even was a preorder bonus for TWEWY at gamestop, that's neat. I have a preorder in store as well so I would like to get 10 bucks back... but yeah not even sure it's worth the hassle of trying.

 
Now, is the pre-order bonus separate or is it packaged with the game? Because I remember back in the day when GS would promise you bonuses when pre-ordering the game and then when it came time to pick the game up they would say they never got the bonuses in or didn't get enough for all pre-orders and then would get pissy when you cancelled the pre-order on them because of their false advertising. If it's actually packaged with the game then that's cool. If not I lost my trust in pre-order bonuses years ago.
 
Souffrir said:
Anyone know roughly how NISA tends to discount digital games on PSN over time? Disaster Report 4 is half off, which seems to be an all-time low, though I wouldn’t play it right away so I’m fine waiting if it’s likely to go lower.
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I’ll be shamelessly bumping my own question now, don’t mind me.

Or do, actually, please and thank you.
 
Vigilante said:
Maybe the last two weeks? I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see a $10 price somewhere before the end of the year.
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It's already $12 on Humble store (Steam version with choice discount). It'll be $10 before the end of the year on consoles

Souffrir said:
I’ll be shamelessly bumping my own question now, don’t mind me.

Or do, actually, please and thank you.
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Do you have a PS5? I've heard PS4 has performance issues but it runs great on PS5. I think the PC version runs better than PS4 but not sure if it's on par with the PS5 version

 
spoderman said:
Do you have a PS5? I've heard PS4 has performance issues but it runs great on PS5. I think the PC version runs better than PS4 but not sure if it's on par with the PS5 version
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I do not. I actually didn’t know there was a PC version, though, I might hold out for that since I only have a PS4 slim.
 
Souffrir said:
I do not. I actually didn’t know there was a PC version, though, I might hold out for that since I only have a PS4 slim.
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Yeah I would pass unless you plan to get a PS5 in the near future or if you're getting a physical copy to collect. PS4 pro performance is straight up garbage in comparison. I can't find any performance comparison videos with the PC version but there are a few that compare PS4/PS4 pro and PS5 like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Fs8LcgaJw

 
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I have a Dragon Star Varnir Steam code and a Dragon Star Varnir Deluxe Pack Steam code that I will never use.  Reply if you use them.

Dragon Star Varnir Steam code: QB8JE-KQ29Q-8WCJT 

Dragon Star Varnir Deluxe Pack Steam code: Y3TR3-L0PA6-M7BR7


 
scorponok said:
I have a Dragon Star Varnir Steam code and a Dragon Star Varnir Deluxe Pack Steam code that I will never use. Reply if you use them.

Dragon Star Varnir Steam code: QB8JE-KQ29Q-8WCJT

Dragon Star Varnir Deluxe Pack Steam code: Y3TR3-L0PA6-M7BR7
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Got it, thank you. Sent you something in return :)

 
guy3467 said:
If you don't care if its the European version you can get a copy from https://store.nisaeurope.com for about $36, not counting shipping. They have a bunch of games that have gotten expensive if try to get them from ebay or Amazon. I've picked up some pricey games way cheaper from them.
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Your amazing. Thank you. Although prelude to the fallen was sold out I did pick up some other limited eds that I didn't have.

 
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