Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

shivan128

shivan128

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Welcome to the Japanese niche games deals and discussion thread!  Feel free to talk about local and import Japanese games here.  Our goal is to maintain a thread dedicated to active deals on niche games including RPGs, Visual Novels (VN), Shoot'em ups (Shmups), Musou, etc.  Also maintained are pre-orders for standard, limited and collector's edition games with key release dates provided.

I've wikified the thread to make it more friendly and open to others that can actively update with important information. You can find the wiki post directly below this one.

NOTE:  Please, leave the censorship discussion away from this thread.  It's common for japanese games to have questionable content outside of the country.  We want to keep discussions to the game itself and not about cultural/societal tolerance.

A message from Thorbahn:

Our CAG Japanese Niche Games Thread also has a community on PS4, where you can interact and game with other members of the thread.

Our moderators are: Draekon, Las_Hole, and Waffleswanton

You can basically friend any of our members, or any moderator, and you will be able to request to join the community under "Communities friends are in" tab, and a mod will approve your request.

You can also leave your PSN ID in the thread, saying you want to join, and we can invite you directly as well.

As always, have fun and enjoy your stay!

 
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Vinny said:
Pretty nuts they still have launch editions... I remember when Atlus games were "pre-order or miss out".
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Hasn't been like that for ages now especially with Sega buying them. It does mean we get actual decent prices if you wait for games. They just aren't as niche anymore availability wise.

 
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scorponok said:
My copy of Trouble Witches Final! Episode 01: Daughters of Amalgam PS4 finally shipped from playasia today, currently out of stock. I noticed they are taking orders for the switch version today, it's been out of stock since release. They raised the price to $49.99 though, it was $37.99 to preorder.
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I pre-ordered a PS4 copy and got it last week. Came with a big book, I was surprised at the size of the box at first. Unsure if it's supposed to be a pre-order bonus or if they'll continue to be stocked going forward.

 
What makes this Trouble Witches a good game? I am making a game order on Play-Asia, but am not reaching free shipping yet. I may add this, but am curious about the title.

 
Vinny said:
Oh yeah... I keep forgetting Sega owns Atlus.
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There are still launch editions but they often produce them for so long that you typically don't see them go out of print as quickly and or they don't make a non launch edition version. Like the persona q games, p5 and smt4a all had launch versions iirc that came with odds and ends.

 
nitrosmob said:
What makes this Trouble Witches a good game? I am making a game order on Play-Asia, but am not reaching free shipping yet. I may add this, but am curious about the title.
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I'm not sure if it's good or not. I just like Japanese shmups. I'm not good at them but I buy them all!

 
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I have... way too many physical games, too afraid to say how many for fear of being judged. :whistle2:

But I'm also in my mid-30s and have been collecting since I was 13 so if I spread all those out over time, it's just slightly horrible. 

 
Vinny said:
I have... way too many physical games, too afraid to say how many for fear of being judged. :whistle2:

But I'm also in my mid-30s and have been collecting since I was 13 so if I spread all those out over time, it's just slightly horrible.
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I didn't start collecting till around 2008 myself. I still kick myself for getting a copy of suikoden 2 new at a gamestore for 4$ that was closing, then opening and playing it then trading it in for around 24$ considering that at the time it was worth around 100+.

I made a lot of purchases during the heyday of eBay before all the ps2 and earlier games really shot up in price. Ff8, ff9, dq8, xenogears, wild arms 2, near mint arc the lad collection was probably the biggest get.

I got the list of stuff to try from people on tv.com and GameSpot/faqs at the time so I was able to pick up a number of people's top 10s.
 
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I probably have most of my collection in PS2/3 and 3DS. During the PS2 days I would use Goozex of all things to trade away some things. I don't regret anything too much (I did send away Silent Hill though....), but I got some good stuff as well. I would also go crazy for clearance things mainly at Circuit City and Kmart. So many good games I got for $5 or less. I do believe I have every 3DS RPG I would want though except for maybe Mario Paper whatever. I have a few boxes though and not sure of how many  I have anymore. I also liked collecting for Vita a bunch and have plenty of physicals there.

 
I sold my PS1 and Saturn games, to include Panzer Dragoon Saga, for textbooks in college.

I have since bought the PS1 titles back, but Saturn... Nope.

I started collecting again after college, slowly, primarily Xbox 360 and PS3, but now I have everything from PS1 forward except the latest Xbox stuffs and a PS2.

There's sadly no great way to get PS2 on an HDTV... I guess I could pony up for a BC PS3, but I'm worried about YLOD. If I could get someone to replace the faulty capacitors.

Luckily PS2 has had nearly all the bangers ported forwards, leaving the me obscure, but great, stuff. And it can be emulated pretty well these days.

For me, it helps to keep a "no duplicates" rule for any game across multiple platforms. My current target for JRPGs is the PSP. Still somewhat affordable in comparison to DS/3DS, but I thankfully have everything I want except Solotarobo...
 
I have over 100 Switch games and a handful for the 3DS.  But I’d say the majority have been played by someone.  I buy for myself and my 2 teens and we each have own genre that we prefer.  So there will be games I never touch but one of my kids has finished.  It’s more the outlier that a game is played by all 3 of us.  

 
TheKbob said:
I sold my PS1 and Saturn games, to include Panzer Dragoon Saga, for textbooks in college.

I have since bought the PS1 titles back, but Saturn... Nope.

I started collecting again after college, slowly, primarily Xbox 360 and PS3, but now I have everything from PS1 forward except the latest Xbox stuffs and a PS2.

There's sadly no great way to get PS2 on an HDTV... I guess I could pony up for a BC PS3, but I'm worried about YLOD. If I could get someone to replace the faulty capacitors.

Luckily PS2 has had nearly all the bangers ported forwards, leaving the me obscure, but great, stuff. And it can be emulated pretty well these days.

For me, it helps to keep a "no duplicates" rule for any game across multiple platforms. My current target for JRPGs is the PSP. Still somewhat affordable in comparison to DS/3DS, but I thankfully have everything I want except Solotarobo...
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Ouch... selling games for textbooks. I'm luck I never had to resort to that... though student loans prob were a financially worse option.

I remember for the longest time thinking I'd never get any of my white whales but I eventually got all 5 of them. Only thing is I cannot remember when or how I got Panzer Dragoon Saga. All I know is it was during 2016-2017 (based on collection pics) but I cannot remember for the life in me and I've gone through all of my emails and can find no record of it.

 
Long as we're on the subject, I just found out over the weekend that Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times for DS is pretty rare. I was at a convention and a seller had it for $150. I have the game but had no idea it was valuable.
 
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Back on the collecting thing for a moment... I have been working the last few weeks as I feel like it, to organize my entire house which includes getting games and systems sorted out to finally sell the excess off.  I'm not getting out of gaming but have been wanting for the last few years to downsize to around 200 (or so) games... and sell off some of the systems and accessories I know I'm done with.  But it's a huge undertaking even with only around 600 games to sell.  I might look for an independent game store in Birmingham or Atlanta (or in TN) with a good rep for buying as that would make the process go a hell of a lot quicker and less stressful.  Or maybe I'll advertise some bulk sales locally and see if anyone bites (even if it's a reseller).

 
nightc1 said:
Back on the collecting thing for a moment... I have been working the last few weeks as I feel like it, to organize my entire house which includes getting games and systems sorted out to finally sell the excess off. I'm not getting out of gaming but have been wanting for the last few years to downsize to around 200 (or so) games... and sell off some of the systems and accessories I know I'm done with. But it's a huge undertaking even with only around 600 games to sell. I might look for an independent game store in Birmingham or Atlanta (or in TN) with a good rep for buying as that would make the process go a hell of a lot quicker and less stressful. Or maybe I'll advertise some bulk sales locally and see if anyone bites (even if it's a reseller).
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I'm in a similar situation. I have a lot of excess at this point and I'd like to scale back, but selling online has become a nightmare over the past several years. There aren't local game stores near me (Kansas City) and I'm not desperate enough to resort to GameStop. Would be interested to hear what you end up doing.

 
Tothoro said:
I'm in a similar situation. I have a lot of excess at this point and I'd like to scale back, but selling online has become a nightmare over the past several years. There aren't local game stores near me (Kansas City) and I'm not desperate enough to resort to GameStop. Would be interested to hear what you end up doing.
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Been out to Lawrence? That's the closest "local" store unless you want to go to STL.

I sold off almost all my games during peak covid money and don't regret it one bit. You could charge whatever you wanted and charge for shipping and people gobbled up everything I listed in minutes.
 
beenaround said:
Been out to Lawrence? That's the closest "local" store unless you want to go to STL.

I sold off almost all my games during peak covid money and don't regret it one bit. You could charge whatever you wanted and charge for shipping and people gobbled up everything I listed in minutes.
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Love Lawrence. Burger Stand at the Cabash is dope and I go a few times a year for concerts at The Granada or The Bottleneck. What's the local store out there?

 
nightc1 said:
Back on the collecting thing for a moment... I have been working the last few weeks as I feel like it, to organize my entire house which includes getting games and systems sorted out to finally sell the excess off. I'm not getting out of gaming but have been wanting for the last few years to downsize to around 200 (or so) games... and sell off some of the systems and accessories I know I'm done with. But it's a huge undertaking even with only around 600 games to sell. I might look for an independent game store in Birmingham or Atlanta (or in TN) with a good rep for buying as that would make the process go a hell of a lot quicker and less stressful. Or maybe I'll advertise some bulk sales locally and see if anyone bites (even if it's a reseller).
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I also am trying to sell a bunch of stuff. It sucks that shipping gotten even more expensive now that low value games aren't really worth it. And then looking at some of the stuff I sold 8-9 years ago more than double in value ...

 
keyblader1985 said:
Long as we're on the subject, I just found out over the weekend that Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times for DS is pretty rare. I was at a convention and a seller had it for $150. I have the game but had no idea it was valuable.
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It was a lot more during the pandemic, IIRC. I sold my Solatorobo cause it was just too much money for something I only have because is the spiritual successor of Tails Concerto or whatever.
 
beenaround said:
Been out to Lawrence? That's the closest "local" store unless you want to go to STL.

I sold off almost all my games during peak covid money and don't regret it one bit. You could charge whatever you wanted and charge for shipping and people gobbled up everything I listed in minutes.
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Indeed. I priced stuff $5 under previous sold to move stuff fast just in case. I almost regret not selling some of the bigger ticket ones like p3p and fire emblem path of radiance though as 300 for the former and 800 for the latter was tempting.

 
shadowysea07 said:
Indeed. I priced stuff $5 under previous sold to move stuff fast just in case. I almost regret not selling some of the bigger ticket ones like p3p and fire emblem path of radiance though as 300 for the former and 800 for the latter was tempting.
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Also pro-tip, since the IRS new tax rules, I have been selling bundles of games in favor of selling individually. That way I can dilute the value of Shantae and the Pirates Curse or The Messenger with five or ten other $20-30 games. Shipping also worked out to be cheaper for flat rate boxes. I have sold three bundles of $500 plus in the last six months this way.

Also, it divorces me from so many games I've played, finished, no longer enjoy, or will never play - all at once
 
I went to KC for the super bowl parade and did some game shopping while I was there. Check out A1 trading to sell your stuff. I stopped there after the parade and chatted with the owner for quite a while, very nice guy. Prices were reasonable from what I saw, as well.
 
Fanatical, while not generally known for their comics bundles, has put out a bundle of manga by Koike Kazuo. The Build Your Own Lone Wolf and Cub Bundle has the complete runs of Lone Wolf and Cub, Lady Snowblood, Crying Freeman, Samurai Executioner, and Path of the Assassin, as well as the standalone Color of Rage. These are mostly packed in 20 multi-volume collections, with each collection counting as a single entry in the build your own tiering. Unfortunately it looks like they're pdf only, so if you prefer your comic collections in other formats, it could be a pain in the ass to rip and reformat them.
 

1 for $1.99
6 for $9.99
12 for $14.99
20 for $19.99

 
Souffrir said:
it could be a pain in the ass to rip and reformat them.
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I've not done this myself, but there offline tools you can get such as CbxConverter... which you can batch convert pdf to cbz. Not sure if there's a pdf to cbr if that's the format you prefer, but it would be pretty easy to write a .bat file to batch extract and then recompress cbr to cbz with winrar at a command line. There's also ways of doing this in winrar itself with the convert archive option, but you'd need to use a program like rename to change the extension from cbz to zip first... and then use it again at the end to change the rar files to cbr. But it wouldn't be but a handful of steps or so to do everything unless they pack 20 comics in a single pdf. Then ... yes that would be a project. Not impossible, but a lot of creating folders to separate everything after converting to cbz and extracting... then compressing one by one.

 
Sorry to go this far offtopic, but you guys order more physical products than any other thread on any other forum I visit, so just figured I'd ask: has anyone here ever gotten an invite to be an Amazon Vine reviewer before? Is there a catch I'm not seeing in the fine print?

Like I don't really write Amazon reviews all that often, so I'm pretty surprised I got the email, to be honest.

 
Souffrir said:
Is there a catch I'm not seeing in the fine print?
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Seems to be a legit thing without any real downside other than feeling obliged to write a detailed review. As long as you don't let it spiral into getting too much crap to then have to do something with... seems like a win win.

 
https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/1688905476216696832

The new mainline Atelier game (actually given the Project A25 name) is for mobile phones along with a steam client. Probably never coming west.

 
So it doesn't exist, got it.

Wonder if they see that miHiYo is making bank with high quality cross platform F2P games and want into that action.

Cutesy alchemy is a perfect franchise to fit that mold, similar to Honkai Star Rail.
 
TheKbob said:
So it doesn't exist, got it.

Wonder if they see that miHiYo is making bank with high quality cross platform F2P games and want into that action.

Cutesy alchemy is a perfect franchise to fit that mold, similar to Honkai Star Rail.
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Additionally they have the backlog of characters from all the games besides ryza and other direct sequels to work for that type of game. And they can take it further if they want to make equipment quality from the games a thing on top of the individual characters. They have to have around 250-350 characters they can use from the series I'd guesstimate. Oh I forgot about returning characters that have different appearances like logy sp? Rorolina Frixell (adult, lil girl) all the various incarnations of Pamela (when are they gonna make atelier Pamela dammit) linca sp? And the fat boy who became a muscle guy in ryza. Oh Willbell I think was in one of the other games too though that might have been as dlc...
 
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Honestly I was disappointed when I first saw A25 before I even knew it was a mobile gatcha type game. Why? Among the plethora of modern Atelier games, it looks like a step back graphically and artistically. It looked static and had poor animation. But that makes sense because it's on limiting hardware.

Honestly my ideal next step for the series (given I haven't beat Atelier 3 yet), is something maybe higher budget with a more serious and involved story like a Tales or Final Fantasy game. I know Atelier is known for its more Slice of Life type atmosphere but many of the games kind of blend together because of this. I think I would also like maybe a male main character because we haven't had on in a long time.

But if we just had something with a more indepth story and had a higher budget I would be happier. I don't know why they chose to do the mobile stuff. I guess it's just to get some $$$. I'm okay with it I guess, I have plenty of Atelier games in the backlog of my switch.

 
Tothoro said:
I pre-ordered a PS4 copy and got it last week. Came with a big book, I was surprised at the size of the box at first. Unsure if it's supposed to be a pre-order bonus or if they'll continue to be stocked going forward.
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No book with my Trouble Witches PS4. I guess you had to preorder early, I preordered late. Bummer

 
Does anyone know if the Japanese (physical) release of "The House in Fata Morgana" has English language options? I was trying to avoid shelling out for the LRG version but it's looking like I might not have a choice.

 
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