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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super1upqueen said:
Finished Persona 5 Strikers last night, then decided to try and get the platinum trophy today. Upon reading up on the requirements for it, however, I noped on out of there. That grind for max bonds is not worth the time I could be using to do something, anything else.

Anyway, I give it a solid 8/10. Gameplay was extremely fun, resembling more of a very polished ARPG than a standard musou game, which is a good thing. Enemies could be a bit damage spongey, but getting into a good rhythm of targeting weaknesses and activating perfect dodge counters turned slogs into satisfying victories. Battles against dire and Velvet Room request shadows were very tense, if not a little too long. Favorite character to play as was hands-down Wolf. I watched that crazy SOB just chew through powerful shadows' down gauges through a combination of Fury and Heat Riser.

Story-wise, it was fine, though I preferred Royal's take on the idea of
an all-powerful being granting the masses a utopia it believes is best for them. Maruki was a much more sympathetic character than Konoe (though I enjoyed Konoe as a villain and wished they showed more of him in the lead up to his Jail), and while EMMA is a decent commentary on the dangers of allowing technology to rule your life, her emergence as a god felt a bit rushed and the explanation for how she achieved this was confusing and contrived. Moreover, the not-at-all-shocking reveal of Ichinose as a villain lacked impact, since the game decided to infodump her tragic backstory all at once instead of building to it throughout the game.
Overall, the entire narrative really just felt like a retread of Persona 5, but it was saved by the usual chemistry between the Phantom Thieves and the wonderful Zenkichi. Having an adult's perspective was welcome in a story that centers on high school kids and I adored his personality and English voice acting.

Next up is the very not niche Pokemon Brilliant Diamond. I'm sure I'll immediately out-level everything and get bored. But hey, my Sword save data will get me Jirachi, which is one of my favorite Pokemon, so if I'm going to blow through this game, I may as well do it with a hyper-cute bundle of wishes <3

EDIT: Oh, how could I forget, Strikers' soundtrack is incredible! Such amazing remixes and original songs. Persona continues to have some of the best music in the industry.
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Oh yea, took me about 70% into merciless mode story to get platinum (bonds), around Tokyo dungeon? The ost and remixes are fire!

Edit. Meant to say Kyoto dungeon lol.
 
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Maxing bond skills was a pretty dumb grind. I ended up just farming the Raja Naga side boss on Merciless to get it done.

Also yeah, Zenkichi was actually my favorite part of the game. His persona awakening scene is honestly one of my favorites in the whole series. 

 
Zenax said:
Maxing bond skills was a pretty dumb grind. I ended up just farming the Raja Naga side boss on Merciless to get it done.

Also yeah, Zenkichi was actually my favorite part of the game. His persona awakening scene is honestly one of my favorites in the whole series.
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Yeah, I read about that method and have been kicking around trying it, but I'm just not having any fun playing Merciless. I may go back to it someday and finish it. And yeah, Zenkichi's awakening ruled!
The eyes on his shadow staring up at him as his other self spoke to him was a beautiful touch. And giving him Valjean as a Persona was very clever. When I fought the Reaper and Wolf was shooting his dual pistols, with Valjean's chains shaking when summoned, I was thinking, "Who's the real Reaper here?"
Zenkichi was a treasure of a character.

Souffrir said:
How’s Warriors All-Stars stand up to other Musou titles? My main point of familiarity with the series is Orochi 3.
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Warriors All-Stars was fun for its great cast of characters (William and Ryu Hayabusa were serious highlights, though I hated that one of the three Samurai Warriors characters was Naotora, who isn't fun to play as and is annoying every time she opens her mouth). There isn't the best enemy variety, however, and the story is absolute trash, which kept me from playing it for a long time. It's actually similar to the Orochi series in that regard, so if you're just in it for the manic gameplay, you'll like it well enough. Obviously, the roster is a fraction of the size, but if you have any love for any of the game series the characters are from, it's fun as hell playing as them. I actually found out on the drive home from Disney World one year with my husband that Warriors All-Stars has Arnice from Nights of Azure as a playable character, and I loved that game so much that I made him pull off the highway so I could run into a Best Buy and get All-stars ($16 with my old Gamer's Club membership, RIP). So, if you can get it for cheap, it's worth the novelty.

 
Zenax said:
Maxing bond skills was a pretty dumb grind. I ended up just farming the Raja Naga side boss on Merciless to get it done.

Also yeah, Zenkichi was actually my favorite part of the game. His persona awakening scene is honestly one of my favorites in the whole series.
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I did it against the Bugs dire shadow iirc. I thought Sophie's awakening was really memorable!

 
Tothoro said:
https://store.nisamerica.com/holiday-sale-2021/standard-editions

NISA holiday sale and restocks are up. Lots of good stuff - Utawarerumouno Prelude, Ys 8, etc. Not the greatest sale prices compared to MSRP but considering how some of these have exploded on the secondhand market it's a good chance to fill in some collection gaps for folks that missed these.
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And no limit on Prelude and Langrisser compared to Ys 8. Not sure if that means they have a ton on hand. Great for those who wanted Prelude for the longest time.

 
booni3 said:
I did it against the Bugs dire shadow iirc. I thought Sophie's awakening was really memorable!
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The fact that they gave her Pandora felt like a callback to the first Persona. Like yes, Sophia came out of a box inside EMMA and she's the hope in the face of EMMA's false utopia, but Pandora was also Persona 1's final boss and represented embracing nothingness and destruction. So we have two versions of Pandora in the Persona series: the one that intentionally releases chaos on the world, and the other that resists the chaos through the hope that comes with it. I liked that a lot.

 
Should have sold my Langrisser! j/k.

Saw the email and was surprised to see Prelude in there. But it's $60. Do I really want to pay $60 for it?

Edit: Turns out, I paid $36 for it digitally because the physicals dried up. So it'd be like $96 total.

 
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super1upqueen said:
Yeah, I read about that method and have been kicking around trying it, but I'm just not having any fun playing Merciless. I may go back to it someday and finish it. And yeah, Zenkichi's awakening ruled!
The eyes on his shadow staring up at him as his other self spoke to him was a beautiful touch. And giving him Valjean as a Persona was very clever. When I fought the Reaper and Wolf was shooting his dual pistols, with Valjean's chains shaking when summoned, I was thinking, "Who's the real Reaper here?"
Zenkichi was a treasure of a character.

Warriors All-Stars was fun for its great cast of characters (William and Ryu Hayabusa were serious highlights, though I hated that one of the three Samurai Warriors characters was Naotora, who isn't fun to play as and is annoying every time she opens her mouth). There isn't the best enemy variety, however, and the story is absolute trash, which kept me from playing it for a long time. It's actually similar to the Orochi series in that regard, so if you're just in it for the manic gameplay, you'll like it well enough. Obviously, the roster is a fraction of the size, but if you have any love for any of the game series the characters are from, it's fun as hell playing as them. I actually found out on the drive home from Disney World one year with my husband that Warriors All-Stars has Arnice from Nights of Azure as a playable character, and I loved that game so much that I made him pull off the highway so I could run into a Best Buy and get All-stars ($16 with my old Gamer's Club membership, RIP). So, if you can get it for cheap, it's worth the novelty.
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Things like this are why I like Save Wizard Max for PS4 that works on the PS5 on 4 versions.

 
Indiegala has a Cyber Eroge Bundle (NSFW) currently for about $7.99 currently. Includes interesting looking stuff like IdolDays, Kirakira stars idol project Ai and Sutekina kanojo no tsukurikata (likely very, very messed up).

Groupees has an Anime Bundle 13 (NSFW) currently for $6.99 minimum with a $12.99 tier to get the complete Eroge Bundle 10 as well. This is running for just under 2 days. This looks like mainly poop, but has Kirakira stars idol project Reika and newer MediBang games.

JAST USA Cyber Monday (NSFW) sale ending today. They are giving extra discounts for all the games that were discounted throughout previous sale. Those are Closed Game, Do You Like Horny Bunnies Complete Collection. Kanosen My Girlfriend Is A Naughty Teacher,  Oni-Gokko!, and You and Me and Her. I've completed most of these other than Closed Game, and recommend them all at various levels. Oni-Gokko! was really nice, You and Me and Her overrated but worth playing, Kanosen not bad at all for a nukige, and Horny Bunnies Complete Collection is old but okay enough.

 
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wbc1228 said:
nice to see Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen back in stock

but do i still want it, at msrp?

or did i want it only bc it was rare?

hummmm

:fridge:
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Parts of it are still relatively dated (it is a remake, but the original game is ~20 years old), but it's a legitimately good game. If you like VNs and SRPGs I'd recommend it, just be aware that the SRPG pieces are relatively scant and basic compared to other games in the genre.

 
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Is there a reason there are two copies of R-Type 2 is listed on each system? They look exactly the same..... 

Also, Kudos to NISA for reprinting HTF games regularly lately. Unlike Tecmo Koei... who reprints them AFTER I buy them for exuberant eBay prices.>_
 
Vinny said:
Is there a reason there are two copies of R-Type 2 is listed on each system? They look exactly the same.....

Also, Kudos to NISA for reprinting HTF games regularly lately. Unlike Tecmo Koei... who reprints them AFTER I buy them for exuberant eBay prices.>_<
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Since I bought a few of these nisa reprints you're welcome then I guess. Now go buy blue reflection 1 so that gets a reprint ;P
 
I was happy to see Langrisser today as I have been wanting it on Switch. I picked up Yomawari too since it seemed neat and to hit free shipping. 

 
Randomly popped on Amazon and saw a few things on sale. Don't think it was mentioned here yet.

Phantom Brave/Soul Nomad (buggy) Deluxe is 33% off. Tempted, but since Soul Nomad is buggy, I'll probably skip.

Disaster Report (SW) $27.98. I'm sure it runs like crap, but it's sub $30. The PS4 version is also $37.xx.

Not currently a deal, but I'm surprised this one slipped past me:

Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi

Only reason I knew about it is because it qualified for Gamestop's B2G1 sale a couple weeks ago, which I can't remember if I posted about. There's absolutely zero buzz about it for a dungeon crawler from Experience (Demon Gaze, etc).

 
Does anyone know if the stock meter on the nisa site only shows up when stock is low or something? Surprised to see Ys isn't even showing only 50% left or something like that.

 
nitrosmob said:
JAST USA Cyber Monday (NSFW) sale ending today. They are giving extra discounts for all the games that were discounted throughout previous sale. Those are Closed Game, Do You Like Horny Bunnies Complete Collection. Kanosen My Girlfriend Is A Naughty Teacher, Oni-Gokko!, and You and Me and Her. I've completed most of these other than Closed Game, and recommend them all at various levels. Oni-Gokko! was really nice, You and Me and Her overrated but worth playing, Kanosen not bad at all for a nukige, and Horny Bunnies Complete Collection is old but okay enough.
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Do you have an archive of all your reviews? Was thinking about Robolife, Conquer and Breed the Demon Queen, Eiyu Senki Gold, and Sadistic Blood.

Played Closed Game, was good but some of the CGI was lacking variety compared to their previous games.

 
Nah I don't. I just make blabs on here but have played quite a few VNs of all sorts over the years. I surprisingly haven't played most of what you're thinking about. Eiyuu Senki I did try the old arse PS3 version non gold which was pretty okay, but nothing too amazing. I mainly play the moege, sometimes otome, nukige and whatever looks interesting.

 
elessar123 said:
Randomly popped on Amazon and saw a few things on sale. Don't think it was mentioned here yet.

Phantom Brave/Soul Nomad (buggy) Deluxe is 33% off. Tempted, but since Soul Nomad is buggy, I'll probably skip.

Disaster Report (SW) $27.98. I'm sure it runs like crap, but it's sub $30. The PS4 version is also $37.xx.

Not currently a deal, but I'm surprised this one slipped past me:

Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi

Only reason I knew about it is because it qualified for Gamestop's B2G1 sale a couple weeks ago, which I can't remember if I posted about. There's absolutely zero buzz about it for a dungeon crawler from Experience (Demon Gaze, etc).
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Worth mentioning that according to a post in the gamestop thread i think amazon has 10 off or something when you spend 100.

 
Was going to place an order at Play-Asia but forgot the free shipping sale is already over because of their time zone.  Oh well, I'll just wait for the next one.

 
super1upqueen said:
Yeah, I read about that method and have been kicking around trying it, but I'm just not having any fun playing Merciless. I may go back to it someday and finish it. And yeah, Zenkichi's awakening ruled!
The eyes on his shadow staring up at him as his other self spoke to him was a beautiful touch. And giving him Valjean as a Persona was very clever. When I fought the Reaper and Wolf was shooting his dual pistols, with Valjean's chains shaking when summoned, I was thinking, "Who's the real Reaper here?"
Zenkichi was a treasure of a character.

Warriors All-Stars was fun for its great cast of characters (William and Ryu Hayabusa were serious highlights, though I hated that one of the three Samurai Warriors characters was Naotora, who isn't fun to play as and is annoying every time she opens her mouth). There isn't the best enemy variety, however, and the story is absolute trash, which kept me from playing it for a long time. It's actually similar to the Orochi series in that regard, so if you're just in it for the manic gameplay, you'll like it well enough. Obviously, the roster is a fraction of the size, but if you have any love for any of the game series the characters are from, it's fun as hell playing as them. I actually found out on the drive home from Disney World one year with my husband that Warriors All-Stars has Arnice from Nights of Azure as a playable character, and I loved that game so much that I made him pull off the highway so I could run into a Best Buy and get All-stars ($16 with my old Gamer's Club membership, RIP). So, if you can get it for cheap, it's worth the novelty.
Click to expand...
Marie Rose Opoona costume recommended

2MGSY52RJogE5PxX60Tvvj3Na3om1fKjTGlJnDRr4S91J3daXTeq6rApG8IVqRl2.png

 
Finished pokemon Conquest.  The final boss battles were significantly easier than the ghost one was.  It would have been easier if there was more dark type options and it was easier to level them since that's the only time you'd prettymuch use one besides the psychic boss which is optional since you can do ground instead iirc. 

 
super1upqueen said:
So like, I ended up doing it.

CNmU4XZ.jpg


I don't even know what I'm doing with my life anymore XD

Now on to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond...
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Masochism is a requirement for this genre.

Anywho don't forget to grab the mew, jirachi, plat clothes, starter statues and manaphy egg. mew requires pokemon eevee or pikachu save data to unlock from npcs, jirachi is sword or shield data, the rest is all mystery gifts. the statues require a code.

 
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shadowysea07 said:
Masochism is a requirement for this genre.
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With the genre I think I'm pretty much the 'Mr. Masochist' npc from Yakuza 7, who wishes he could feel something / anything at this point.

To spice things up I've tried something new (for me) over the past few weeks: Playing an imported game in japanese while relying on series knowledge and an external fan translation (Hajimari no Kiseki / Trails into Reverie). Was going pretty well until I got to the timed quiz minigame with randomized questions.
:fridge:

 
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shadowysea07 said:
Masochism is a requirement for this genre.

Anywho don't forget to grab the mew, jirachi, plat clothes, starter statues and manaphy egg. mew requires pokemon eevee or pikachu save data to unlock from npcs, jirachi is sword or shield data, the rest is all mystery gifts. the statues require a code.
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Oh, I didn't know about the statues. Thanks! I'm naming my Pokemon after Persona characters. So far I've got Yusuke the Piplup, Akihiko the Shinx, Yukari the Starly, Mishima the Bidoof, and Shu the Kricketot (that one was sort of random). I'll probably name Jirachi Haru. I should name Mew Izanami lol or Maya.

 
super1upqueen said:
Oh, I didn't know about the statues. Thanks! I'm naming my Pokemon after Persona characters. So far I've got Yusuke the Piplup, Akihiko the Shinx, Yukari the Starly, Mishima the Bidoof, and Shu the Kricketot (that one was sort of random). I'll probably name Jirachi Haru. I should name Mew Izanami lol or Maya.
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I don't know who to feel more sorry for. Bidoof or Mishima.

gospelman said:
With the genre I think I'm pretty much the 'Mr. Masochist' npc from Yakuza 7, who wishes he could feel something / anything at this point.

To spice things up I've tried something new (for me) over the past few weeks: Playing an imported game in japanese while relying on series knowledge and an external fan translation (Hajimari no Kiseki / Trails into Reverie). Was going pretty well until I got to the timed quiz minigame with randomized questions.
:fridge:
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These days I'm taking my friends advice and dropping games if I'm not enjoying them instead of being a completionist who has to get everything. Trophies/achievements broke me of that a little during I want to say star ocean 4's release. I also do randomized polls for what I play next to give a little variety. Given how many rpgs I play a year it's a surprise that I can finish as many as I do.

 
Went through and organized my backlog again after the stuff I bought last month along with updating my finished titles list yesterday.  Now if I could just get the drive to organize the actual physical games on the shelf other than these slots are for finished games and those are for unfinished per platform/s.

After going through my completed games for the year list I'm now at 13 since one was missing from the list. 

 
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shadowysea07 said:
I don't know who to feel more sorry for. Bidoof or Mishima.

These days I'm taking my friends advice and dropping games if I'm not enjoying them instead of being a completionist who has to get everything. Trophies/achievements broke me of that a little during I want to say star ocean 4's release. I also do randomized polls for what I play next to give a little variety. Given how many rpgs I play a year it's a surprise that I can finish as many as I do.
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I have absolutely gotten into quitting this last year, not even just with games but books, tv series, etc. Life's too short to have to invest in order to enjoy something with your scant free time. I was always completionist and or paranoid about missing the "good part" if I quit something to early and you know what? I often felt like it wasn't worth sticking with in the end. It's a difficult adjustment but it has been worth it imo.

 
That's what I do anymore since the is just too much content coming out and games just keep getting longer. If I am not enjoying it, why put the effort in to be rewarded with a mediocre experience and a larger backlog? It became even easier for me to do once I shifted to buying games on sale, typically for 50% or so. I find it's much easier not to feel guilty about dropping a $15 ~ $30 game vs. $50 ~ $60. I'd like to add, Sony can go take a long hike with their $70 price tag. I am not buying squat for that price. 

TV shows and anime get a grace period of three episodes max but there have been plenty I have dropped after one. 

 
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Photophonic said:
That's what I do anymore since the is just too much content coming out and games just keep getting longer. If I am not enjoying it, why put the effort in to be rewarded with a mediocre experience and a larger backlog? It became even easier for me to do once I shifted to buying games on sale, typically for 50% or so. I find it's much easier not to feel guilty about dropping a $15 ~ $30 game vs. $50 ~ $60. I'd like to add, Sony can go take a long hike with their $70 price tag. I am not buying squat for that price.

TV shows and anime get a grace period of three episodes max but there have been plenty I have dropped after one.
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I actually didn't bother doing the cameo battles in xillia 2, zesty or arise simply because they are too much work to unlock. I miss when they just had them in the arenas and all you gotta do is beat all the other tiers to unlock them. Berseria had the right idea just making them behind a sidequest on that note since that was much easier to do though I didn't know it at the time. It's a shame since cameo battles are usually the most fun to do.

tv wise Some shows have the added benefit of me doing other things while watching them like laundry so they get a better chance if they aren't too concentration centric.

 
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TV shows I had in the background is how I watched Big Mouth Season 1 and 2. Then I actually really started watching in season 3 closely and wow that show sucks. It's harder to do this for anime unless you watch dubs. I've given up so much random stuff if I'm not having fun, even a board game I was playing with my sister when we just said this sucks. It did suck and we started playing something else. Nothing wrong with doing these things when their is a glut of everything out there. The key is trying to find the stuff that's more worthwhile, and that can take a while.

 
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