Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

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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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If you're curious from the leak these are the 4 new titles and will likely be announced in a few days:

GrimGrimoire OnceMore

Monster Menu aka Shikabane-gurai no Bouken Meshi

Process of Elimination aka Tantei Bokumetsu (VNDB NSFW)

void tRrLM2()

Also mentioning two VN releases with release discounts ending soon.

NekoNyanSoft released Making Lovers After Stories. It is on sale at multiple places, but I'll link the Steam and 18+ patch. This is very short I believe, but Making Lovers was a fun VN and this fan disk gives a little epilogue for each of the characters from that game.

Steam

Steam 18+ Patch (NSFW)

NekoNyanSoft also announced they would be localizing Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm - EXTRA2 (VNDB NSFW). The original is a great game, and I've heard this fan disk is excellent.

Shiravune have released TAMAKAGURA: Tales of Turmoil. This has an 18+ patch for Steam as well. This game is a gameplay VN starring an exorcist and 2 shrine maidens as they face off against evil youkai invading their village. I believe there is breeding with said youkai, but I think there is a path too with just breeding with the shrine maidens. It's like less than 10 hours long.

Steam

Steam 18+ Patch (NSFW)

 
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For some reason, I remember hearing about void tRrLM2() coming out, so I'm not even sure that's a new leak.

Monster Menu piques my interest. TRPG dungeon crawler sounds interesting. Not sure it'll actually be any good though, looking at some screenshots.

 
Pikagreg said:
Looks like Amazon UK has Tactic's Ogre + Steelbook for ~$62 shipped to the US.
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Ugh, super torn here... I wanted it but feel like it's just gonna arrive damaged. The last Amazon UK order I had was shipped in a paper bag (amazingly, little damage outside of a dinged corner). Amazon DE shipped my FF7 Remake Intergrade Steelbook in a chipboard envelope (basically bent in half). Amazon JP just shipped my FFT Ramza figure in a poly mailer (crushed). Amazon's international shipment is dogshit and their CS is basically useless outside of offering 10% refund.

 
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Vinny said:
Ugh, super torn here... I wanted it but feel like it's just gonna arrive damaged. The last Amazon UK order I had was shipped in a paper bag (amazingly, little damage outside of a dinged corner). Amazon DE shipped my FF7 Remake Intergrade Steelbook in a chipboard envelope (basically bent in half). Amazon JP just shipped my FFT Ramza figure in a poly mailer (crushed). Amazon's international shipment is dogshit and their CS is basically useless outside of offering 10% refund.
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You're really making me rethink the preorder now...I remember having a similar problem with a Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary LE they had, where one arrived with a significant tear to the box and it was a huge pain to get it shipped back. This probably isn't worth the risk.

 
Shockingly I had no issue with my import orders of cold steel 4 or underwater ray romano prelude that I preordered last year from the uk and I want to say germany or denmark. I guess I lucked out there. Of course then they got reprinted so I ordered the former missed on the latter. 

 
gospelman said:
:ps4: Blue Reflection Second Light $19.99 at BBY
Is it fine to skip the first game? Hoping Sophie 2 drops to a similar level soon.
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First game is better on console, second is better on PC. Second Light is locked to 30 fps on PS4/PS5, but unlocked on PC. I can't answer if you need to play the first game though. They haven't seemed to care about improving performance through PS5 which is why I got it for PC instead
 
shadowysea07 said:
Shockingly I had no issue with my import orders of cold steel 4 or underwater ray romano prelude that I preordered last year from the uk and I want to say germany or denmark. I guess I lucked out there. Of course then they got reprinted so I ordered the former missed on the latter.
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I went years without issues from either my imports or domestic retailers, but over the past like 2-3 years, things went very downhill.

 
Vinny said:
Ugh, super torn here... I wanted it but feel like it's just gonna arrive damaged. The last Amazon UK order I had was shipped in a paper bag (amazingly, little damage outside of a dinged corner). Amazon DE shipped my FF7 Remake Intergrade Steelbook in a chipboard envelope (basically bent in half). Amazon JP just shipped my FFT Ramza figure in a poly mailer (crushed). Amazon's international shipment is dogshit and their CS is basically useless outside of offering 10% refund.
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I always hope for the cardboard ravioli. Can most easily digest that one.

 
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XSeed announced FuRyu's Trinity Trigger.

Looks like a somewhat modern Mana game.

Has people from Secret of Mana, Xenoblade, and Octopath Traveller.

One of the most exciting elements is the staff behind this game, developed by Three Rings (Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town) with the visuals of the world by Nobuteru Yuki (Chrono Cross and Trials of Mana), character design by Raita Kazama (Xenoblade series and Stranger of Sword City), scenario by Yura Kubota (Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default 2), music by Hiroki Kikuta (Mana series and Shining Hearts), trigger design by a team of Pokemon veterans, and animation by Domerica, which worked on the recent The World Ends With You anime.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjF7y1w9LQ0

Guess there's a demo on the Japanese eshop.

------

As an aside, I'm actually most excited for Diofield Chronicles. The demo didn't wow me at all, but I get the itch to play it almost every day.

 
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gospelman said:
:ps4: Blue Reflection Second Light $19.99 at BBY
Is it fine to skip the first game? Hoping Sophie 2 drops to a similar level soon.
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The game features a new protagonist and everything is seen from her viewpoint. The heroines from the anime, first game, and supposedly still upcoming mobile game all join up and have their own story arcs, but anything you need to know is explained.

E: I say supposedly because the anime flopped so hard that the Japanese Bluray release was cancelled

 
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Did anyone order NIS Classics Vol 3 from Target and have their order ship? I got the classic Target "sorry, your order is slightly delayed but is really just going to get canceled" email and am wondering if I should look elsewhere or wait. 

 
Vinny said:
Did anyone order NIS Classics Vol 3 from Target and have their order ship? I got the classic Target "sorry, your order is slightly delayed but is really just going to get canceled" email and am wondering if I should look elsewhere or wait.
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I received mine on Friday. If it helps I placed my order on April 24.

 
Speaking of PQube I did get their most recent localized game Super Bullet Break. This is about as flawed of a deck builder as you can get. Bullets are the randomness and you start with a generally kind of poopy basic deck. In battles each bullet has a number which is how much the timer will tick, and if it reaches an opponent they will do that they will do for the turn. There is a lot of strategy, but also a lot of randomness in battle. I don't think the battle layouts (choices) change each map, which makes everything feel even more repetitive. The gameplay is battles is alright, but I do feel the attack and everything of some creatures is way too high. Every stage feels similar, though the first few have themes with different starting bullets. Overall I would recommend it only on sale. It's story and characters are also very cliché and not important. I also don't know how long one level went (the one after the credits), but it felt like forever. There is good here, but it's not quite there either. 6.5/10

 
Vinny said:
Did anyone order NIS Classics Vol 3 from Target and have their order ship? I got the classic Target "sorry, your order is slightly delayed but is really just going to get canceled" email and am wondering if I should look elsewhere or wait.
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I got mine a week or two ago.

 
Twilightsparkle said:
I received mine on Friday. If it helps I placed my order on April 24.
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Also placed my order on April 24 (guessing we both took advantage of the same sale). I guess there's some hope then I might get it... of course there's also the issue of Target now shipping everything in bubble mailers so there's also that risk.

 
Vinny said:
Also placed my order on April 24 (guessing we both took advantage of the same sale). I guess there's some hope then I might get it... of course there's also the issue of Target now shipping everything in bubble mailers so there's also that risk.
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Yeah, my copy of Two Point Campus had the outer box crushed, NIS 3 shipped along with 2 other games (Dusk Diver 2 and the Cowabunga collection) so they came in a box.

 
Vinny said:
Also placed my order on April 24 (guessing we both took advantage of the same sale). I guess there's some hope then I might get it... of course there's also the issue of Target now shipping everything in bubble mailers so there's also that risk.
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My Prinny 3 (from Best Buy) came in a bubble mailer and smushed, but Dusk Diver 2 from Target in a box. I've had the opposite several times too.

 
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BoxPizzaBox said:
My Prinny 3 (from Best Buy) came in a bubble mailer and smushed, but Dusk Diver 2 from Target in a box. I've had to opposite several times too.
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Pretty much anything that's close-ish to the side of a 2 DVD cases or less have been coming in bubble mailers for me, regardless of Target, Amazon or Gamestop (haven't purchased anything from BestBuy or WM in months). Seems like the norm. Also seems like UPS/FedEx are rougher with packages- my Fallen Legion PS5 arrived damaged and that's a solid case game.

 
Some folks on reddit said Penny Punching Princess is a quick way to carpal tunnel and joystick drift; I would watch a review or two on it.  Princess Guide just looks bland.

 
Vinny said:
Did anyone order NIS Classics Vol 3 from Target and have their order ship? I got the classic Target "sorry, your order is slightly delayed but is really just going to get canceled" email and am wondering if I should look elsewhere or wait.
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I didn't order that one from Target (got the CE from NISA), but I am currently waiting on 5 preorders from Target that came out last week to ship: Cowabunga Collection CE PS5, Made in Abyss CE (Switch), Made in Abyss (PS4), Bugsnax (Switch), and Super Bullet Break (Switch), with most of them being listed as in stock on the Target website.

I very much appreciate these preorder deals at Target, but when they don't send the product, and there's no rhyme or reason to it, it gets immensely frustrating.

 
Josef said:
I didn't order that one from Target (got the CE from NISA), but I am currently waiting on 5 preorders from Target that came out last week to ship: Cowabunga Collection CE PS5, Made in Abyss CE (Switch), Made in Abyss (PS4), Bugsnax (Switch), and Super Bullet Break (Switch), with most of them being listed as in stock on the Target website.

I very much appreciate these preorder deals at Target, but when they don't send the product, and there's no rhyme or reason to it, it gets immensely frustrating.
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From your post, I checked and see I also have Made in Abyss sitting with them but that one says "preparing to ship" for me. NIS Classics 3 just says backordered.

Otherwise though, agreed on your point... I've had issues with preorders at other places but it's on another level at Target. So it's kind of a high risk, high reward situation with these Target deals.

 
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Do you two not have a Target relatively close to you? I was wondering if maybe they ship from stores, and if there's only one nearby or none then maybe it messes things up more easily. I know they try to fulfill from nearby stores if possible for most things ordered online.

I haven't had any cancellations yet, but there are like 3-4 Targets near me. I've had them ship from out of state too though, so it may be a useless theory.

 
BoxPizzaBox said:
Do you two not have a Target relatively close to you? I was wondering if maybe they ship from stores, and if there's only one nearby or none then maybe it messes things up more easily. I know they try to fulfill from nearby stores if possible for most things ordered online.

I haven't had any cancellations yet, but there are like 3-4 Targets near me. I've had them ship from out of state too though, so it may be a useless theory.
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I have 4 Targets within 15 minutes of me (one, literally 5 minute walk). Gotta love the Chicagoland area.

I checked my last 7 Target shipments (basically all of my orders from August 1 to now), 5 came form TN, 1 from NJ and 1 from a location that's semi-close to me (150 miles).

 
I'll stick with whatever version I got for 15$ off on amazon.  I think I ordered the ps4 versions but I am not 100% certain. Either way all they mentioned was graphical differences from what I saw which isn't a huge deal.  If it was say cs1 ps3 vs cs1 pc/ps4 differences wise then that would be more of an issue. 

I'm still plugging away at digimon devil survivor survive. Just got through chapter 5/part 5.  I really hate how stupid the female characters are portrayed in this. It's weird since some of the time each of them show glimmers of competence but then devolve back into being super naive/ignorant. Honestly at this point I'm almost rooting for the antagonist to kill more of them just because Arachne for all her faults is more likable than these girls are.  Though she still pales in comparison to the tv series version but I will admit that her one design in this was pretty neat looking.

I also found out that the game basically requires another playthrough to get the true ending which is disappointing.

due to how restricted recruitment is in this thanks to the dumb smt system on top of mons requiring item to evolve i'd rank it very much inferior to cyber sluts.  Which outside of being tedious to evolve some mons was far better about it. And also didn't have the stupid lines like pata evolving into gato that makes 0 sense. Angel man being able to evolve into angelwoman iirc is also pretty weird. Like did digimon invent gender surgery evolution now? 

The translation also super derped up in the last section and referred to every character as a he in the sewer dungeon. oops. 

 
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shadowysea07 said:
I'll stick with whatever version I got for 15$ off on amazon. I think I ordered the ps4 versions but I am not 100% certain. Either way all they mentioned was graphical differences from what I saw which isn't a huge deal. If it was say cs1 ps3 vs cs1 pc/ps4 differences wise then that would be more of an issue.
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PS4 version won’t get the QoL features that are being added to the Durante PC/Switch ports.

 
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BoxPizzaBox said:
Do you two not have a Target relatively close to you? I was wondering if maybe they ship from stores, and if there's only one nearby or none then maybe it messes things up more easily. I know they try to fulfill from nearby stores if possible for most things ordered online.

I haven't had any cancellations yet, but there are like 3-4 Targets near me. I've had them ship from out of state too though, so it may be a useless theory.
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I’m pretty sure most (all?) video game preorders come from warehouses. Now when I order other things like clothes/bath items, they have come from stores.

My Made in Abyss (regular edition) hasn’t shipped yet either. But should be soon allegedly.

I do think for the niche video games that they are ordering less. Maybe just enough (or maybe even under) to cover preorders because I do see more of them go to instant removed from site after release. There were a couple that I was going to order during the next sale, but they got removed.

 
bee01 said:
PS4 version won’t get the QoL features that are being added to the Durante PC/Switch ports.
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Yeah, I was following most of the updates and was expecting this. I preordered the :switch: LE and will probably also own the pc version down the road, especially if there ends up being a way to add the Evo (vita) voiced lines.

The responsibility for this mess lies with NISA for the scope of the job they funded toward PH3 and choosing not to communicate the difference to NA fans. The source of this NA release is the Japan-only, ps4-only Zero no Kiseki Kai, and NISA chose to do as little as possible with the ps4 version. The switch ports of recent Trails games have basically been the pc version running at toaster settings. So it makes sense the :switch: version also benefits from the reworked assets by PH3.

That said, I'm currently in a state where I've never been more upset toward a publisher, ever.
I've endured and still supported them despite missteps in the past like the butchering of Ys VIII, the poor job they did with CS IV, and the broken technical state in which many of their games are released. Last week NISA forced a fan translation of Kuro no Kiseki (2021) to be taken offline and be inaccessible to fans. I understand if this action was only taken toward Zero and Azure, which tthe publisher is releasing in the near future. But NISA hasn't even announced this title yet (Kuro). At the absolute soonest it will be a Fall 2024 NA release. Personally, I had already purchased the Japanese-only version on steam and was just finishing up a busy season at work, getting ready to play the fan translation. Of course I also buy the LE's of the official releases when they finally come to NA. On the day this news broke, I was hours outside my refund window from steam ($50 gone). Ultimately this boils down to NISA trying to force fans to wait 3+ years. Ends up as massive amounts of ill-will sown by NISA over this.

 
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bee01 said:
Choosing which version of Trails from Zero to buy is an overcomplicated mess

https://www.rpgsite.net/feature/13212-choosing-which-version-of-trails-from-zero-to-buy-is-an-overcomplicated-mess
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Interesting article. Ultimately seems like anyone that's been collecting all the releases should just stick with whichever platform they prefer. For me that's Switch so this one time I might be getting the superior version. It's not like the other version is going to be bad.

 
elessar123 said:
Watch the Switch version get game breaking bugs, and then you guys will be glad having the PS4 versions again.
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I thought all NIS games were broken in some way or another? Not trying to be funny, but I swear I feel like I always hear out about some un-fixable glitch or issue with NIS games fairly often.

With that said, the NS version here does seem like the better option due to the QoL improvements but playing through Xenoblade 3 now, I keep thinking about how much better it would be to have a version of the game on a more powerful console and with SSD speeds. I'm prob just gonna go with the PS4 version of Zero at the end of it all.

 
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I am hoping the New Switch will have at least SSD. It's really hard to play older games now after you experienced what SSD does for load times.

 
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Vinny said:
I thought all NIS games were broken in some way or another? Not trying to be funny, but I swear I feel like I always hear out about some un-fixable glitch or issue with NIS games fairly often.

With that said, the NS version here does seem like the better option due to the QoL improvements but playing through Xenoblade 3 now, I keep thinking about how much better it would be to have a version of the game on a more powerful console and with SSD speeds. I'm prob just gonna go with the PS4 version of Zero at the end of it all.
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blueweltall said:
It's really hard to play older games now after you experienced what SSD does for load times.
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My primary way around this is to only use nsw for lighter stuff and PC for demanding games. Most of the middle ground now goes to Steam Deck. Nintendo exclusives are generally pretty well optimized. This mainly leaves the xenoblade games as extremely painful to play. It would be great if those get improvements for future switch consoles.
Vinny said:
I thought all NIS games were broken in some way or another?
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Many are. But there's a pretty big difference between the inhouse technical problems in NISA products and those coming from PH3, a separate entity that is now often hired by NISA for larger jobs. Durante's team does good work, and it's one of the better decisions NISA has made. One reason behind the current NISA blunder is that Durante (who is a legit fan kiseki/ys games) probably went above and beyond in the detailed care given to the newest pc version (and by extension, switch version) of Zero.
 
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Thankfully all I still somewhat care about with NISA are the Trails games.  I'm back on the fence about even grabbing them as I haven't really bothered to play any games since getting the one ending on Live A Live and then failing to get a second one.  I've just not been in the mood to game even though I really want to start XC3.  I may just drop the Trails series.

 
That's pretty terrible regarding Trails PS4, which is of course the LE version I've got since that's where I usually get these kinds of games. Not going to double dip, so I guess I'll just play it on PC if it ends up being a significant enough difference.

Is it the same for Azure?

Speaking of NISA, they just announced 4 games today and LEs for each. I couldn't not get GrimGrimoire, but I definitely didn't feel great ordering it considering how they've handled Trails :/

 
Covnam said:
Is it the same for Azure?
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No one knows since no one has hands-on experience with Trails to Azure yet. But unless NISA alters course from the current blunder, Azure is 99% going to be a similar situation - the :ps4: Ao no Kiseki Kai version with the new english script but without enhancements from the new build.

 
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