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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jedimario said:
Squarehard is cool. No need to spread hate, just appreciate that a fellow gamer wants to share their passion with others.
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If he's not playing those games, a little heat is warranted. There's no way all of those games are bought on a discount and they're lighting money on fire not waiting for any sort of clearance or discount, especially the one which comes with system death. (This is CHEAP Ass Gamer after all).

If they are playing them, that's one thing since they're getting value out of the games, but as I've learned from personal past experience, that volume say otherwise. Numbers as a passion is foolish. My wife and I have 270 Switch games but we have 4 people in the house playing them and only single digit games are still sealed at this point.

 
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Nothing like a bunch of losers talking about who's cool and not cool. 

Guys, we're on some video game forums talking about whatever.   

Relax. 

None of us are cool. 

Our moms lied to us. 

 
this makes me think of a joke on storage wars

my lockers bigger than your locker

well my trucks bigger than your truck

well my girlfriends bigger than your girlfriend. 

 
Collecting anything you won't ever use is inherently stupid, as long as you know that and accept it then it's fine. I used to be on that train, glad I got off of it but it's okay if you want to stay on forever too.
 
beenaround said:
Collecting anything you won't ever use is inherently stupid, as long as you know that and accept it then it's fine. I used to be on that train, glad I got off of it but it's okay if you want to stay on forever too.
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That’s what hobby collecting is, though. Some people collect stamps. Some people collect coins. Some people collect anime figurines. Some people collect video games. In a hobby collector’s hands, it’s all useless junk. Who cares?
 
I could go on a tangent of conspicuous consumption, but really there isn't a problem in collecting.

The whole "I gotta share it to the world" is a bit more of a problem these days, IMO. Couple that with FOMO based sellers, and problematic purchasing is a thing.

I just find it hard to believe someone with a 1000 Switch games is genuinely interested in them. Most collectors I know, including me, will always state a curated collection is better than a "try to catch em all" collection.

Or one built up over time. Buying 100 new Switch games in a month isn't exactly healthy spending habits, either, but who knows, maybe they're a Saudi prince and it's couch cushion level money?
 
Hey for all we know those Switch games are now in the form of a "tightly" stacked throne. The thing is people buy crap even if they don't need it. Do I really need more visual novels when I'm not beating as many nowadays NOPE, but I've liked to support them since I know they're nice to bring me what I want. I had the problem with buying too much junk with board games and import figures years ago, and now have gotten rid of about half of both collections. Curation is the key for sure. It also comes digitally BTW even though we don't have collection directly in front of us. I have gotten so many bundles and gotten bundles with many repeat keys for a few good games that I have hundred of keys alone, of which a good portion went to my sister, of which mainly redeemed the really good stuff like Undertale. A good portion of my Steam library now is classified hidden and either is terrible games, bundle fodder, old games that barely work, and whatever else from very old bundles, along with plenty of new stuff!

On another note I'll post about some visual novel releases and announcements soon.

 
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Given squarehard has all those nice shelving units to display games... I don't see an issue.  It's really when either the finances are out of control (can't pay off credit card when the bill comes) or your living space is taken over by boxes (because you can't display what you own) that I think it becomes a real problem.

I myself no longer value a big collection of anything... but this is largely due to seeing so many unhealthy collections of stuff in my own family and realizing much of the fun was in the hunt ... not as much in enjoying what I was buying.  So I mainly just collect money in the bank.  I have specific goals I'm working on daily to downsize away from excess stuff in my home (even though I have storage space, most of it is empty) and towards paying my house off very early so I'll have just basic utilities, food, and then a small budget for fun while I continue to stack money just so my safety net is huge for when I retire in just over 10 years.

 
People can share, and people that disagree can certainly criticize if they want - it's a discussion. Just leave unrelated, personal attacks out of that criticism.

(FWIW I don't think the message was intended as harshly as it potentially came across, either, but that's for the recipient to decide. Most of us are just a noisy peanut gallery)

 
nightc1 said:
Given squarehard has all those nice shelving units to display games... I don't see an issue. It's really when either the finances are out of control (can't pay off credit card when the bill comes) or your living space is taken over by boxes (because you can't display what you own) that I think it becomes a real problem.

I myself no longer value a big collection of anything... but this is largely due to seeing so many unhealthy collections of stuff in my own family and realizing much of the fun was in the hunt ... not as much in enjoying what I was buying. So I mainly just collect money in the bank. I have specific goals I'm working on daily to downsize away from excess stuff in my home (even though I have storage space, most of it is empty) and towards paying my house off very early so I'll have just basic utilities, food, and then a small budget for fun while I continue to stack money just so my safety net is huge for when I retire in just over 10 years.
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Soon I'll have the storage space I want for a larger game collection, but I'll think long and hard before expanding too much. I'm going to invest in other hobbies first as a way to learn new things.
 
What gaming news sites do you guys use to keep up with more niche Japanese console stuff? I’ve been using Siliconera, but these days they’re spamming more and more articles about gacha and mini-guides for mainstream flavor-of-the-month games, so I’m ready to jump to a different site.
 
Souffrir said:
What gaming news sites do you guys use to keep up with more niche Japanese console stuff? I’ve been using Siliconera, but these days they’re spamming more and more articles about gacha and mini-guides for mainstream flavor-of-the-month games, so I’m ready to jump to a different site.
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Gematsu

 
I just rely on you all posting Twitter and YouTube links here and the other threads. Agreed on soliconara. They used to be my go to. Though they've not hit kotaku level bottom at least.
 
TheKbob said:
I could go on a tangent of conspicuous consumption, but really there isn't a problem in collecting.

The whole "I gotta share it to the world" is a bit more of a problem these days, IMO. Couple that with FOMO based sellers, and problematic purchasing is a thing.

I just find it hard to believe someone with a 1000 Switch games is genuinely interested in them. Most collectors I know, including me, will always state a curated collection is better than a "try to catch em all" collection.

Or one built up over time. Buying 100 new Switch games in a month isn't exactly healthy spending habits, either, but who knows, maybe they're a Saudi prince and it's couch cushion level money?
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I have 1000+ switch games. I really do want to get to them all one day. Lots of quality titles or at least they look quality. I stopped going for a full set to much trashy filler games
 
Daniel_Shadow170 said:
I have 1000+ switch games. I really do want to get to them all one day. Lots of quality titles or at least they look quality. I stopped going for a full set to much trashy filler games
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I firmly believe there's not 1000+ games worth playing on any system but PC* just because the crap to quality ratio on any console isn't that high.

If the Switch is your only platform ever and you're never buying digital (meaning spending $35+ on games that hit $1.99 on the eShop, cheaper on other platforms/bundled), that's $30,000+ in games in a little over six years if you bought in day one.

Don't know anyone's financials and don't really care, but that's worth more than my entire collection I've been grabbing over decades.

To be clear, my Steam account is almost old enough to vote, been buying bundles for over a decade, and still only have 1,400 titles.

Crazy, to me, and I spend a lot of time, energy, and money on video games.

*Only PC, not because games are better, but because the volume of games due to lower barrier to entry and permanent backwards compatibility that makes there just be more quality gamers in total. Not by because there's more hits per release.
 
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TheKbob said:
I firmly believe there's not 1000+ games worth playing on any system but PC* just because the crap to quality ratio on any console isn't that high.

If the Switch is your only platform ever and you're never buying digital (meaning spending $35+ on games that hit $1.99 on the eShop, cheaper on other platforms/bundled), that's $30,000+ in games in a little over six years if you bought in day one.

Don't know anyone's financials and don't really care, but that's worth more than my entire collection I've been grabbing over decades.

To be clear, my Steam account is almost old enough to vote, been buying bundles for over a decade, and still only have 1,400 titles.

Crazy, to me, and I spend a lot of time, energy, and money on video games.

*Only PC, not because games are better, but because the volume of games due to lower barrier to entry and permanent backwards compatibility that makes there just be more quality gamers in total. Not by because there's more hits per release.
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Nothing digital and tens of thousands of GameStop credit. You're math isn't wrong. I believe I have 10-12k cash in the switch collection. I do ALOT of shopping at GameStop.

I collect anything Nintendo that's N64, GameCube,DS and 3ds along with switch.
 
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TheKbob said:
I firmly believe there's not 1000+ games worth playing on any system but PC* just because the crap to quality ratio on any console isn't that high.
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I buy a ton of games simply for some obscure aspect, not necessary because I want to play it, but even then I cannot imagine owning 1,000 games on any console. I think I have around 400 each on the PS1, PS2 and GBA and that's including basically all the notable games plus a lot of crap.

PC is different since it's a ever-going platform but for most systems, even if a system's active life was 10 years (which I feel like is a stretch, 7 years seems more likely; I'm not going years wherein the only games released are like BS games like the Wii say during its last 3-4 years), that's like 100 games a year to hit 1,000 games.

 
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Daniel_Shadow170 said:
Nothing digital and tens of thousands of GameStop credit. You're math isn't wrong. I believe I have 10-12k cash in the switch collection. I do ALOT of shopping at GameStop.

I collect anything Nintendo that's N64, GameCube,DS and 3ds along with switch.
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Sadly the only thing more expensive than Switch collecting is DS/3DS, assuming we're not going into the realm of obscure NES/SNES realm.
 
TheKbob said:
Sadly the only thing more expensive than Switch collecting is DS/3DS, assuming we're not going into the realm of obscure NES/SNES realm.
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Yeah I'm very slowly doing DS. 3ds I'm pretty happy with what I have but DS I have a large list I just knock off all the dragon quest games. NES/SNES I don't touch.

But yeah I'm always looking for weird games this thread helps sometimes.
 
This is old news, but you never see anyone talking about this game.  I am guessing most fighting game fans don't even know this game exists on the PS4/Switch.  The physical Japanese visual novel Umineko When They Cry Saku: Nekobako to Musou no Koukyoukyoku PS4/Switch includes a code for the 2D fighting game Umineko: Golden Fantasia Cross.  It is supposed to be a first press bonus, so I'm not sure if it's included with every copy.  I think it's included with the digital version of the visual novel also, it's mentioned on the Japanese Nintendo store but not on the Playstation store.  The fighting game is not listed on either store to buy separately.  So, it looks like the only way to get it is to buy the visual novel, which is quite expensive, and not in English.  I have had this since release, it's a great fighting game, it's also supposed to have rollback.

 
Some visual novel news.

First of all Nekonyan have released Clover Day's Plus. This one is about a childhood promise and his parents abandoning him into an orphanage. I have no idea honestly, but it has cute art. There is an 18+ patch for the Steam release, and it's in an 18+ form on sites like JAST USA. On the same 18+ patch page there is also a lossless voice patch. There is currently 20% off until August 25th.

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

18+ Patch (NSFW)

Walkure Romanze ~Shoujo Kishi Monogatari~ was translated by an anonymous translator. This one has a guy in an academy where horse jousting is the main sport. He gets hurt and he learns of a friend of his who is roped into the sport, while not knowing how to ride. He offers to help her and also deals with other top prospects in the sport. 

Patch

VNDB (NSFW)

More Shiravune games are headed to other non Johren sites. Some of these are on Steam already, but they are newly put on JAST USA and Mangagamer. I count down until we get Dungeon Travelers 2 and 2-2 on a non Johren site.

Chihiro Himukai Always Walks Away

Icha Icha Steady
Marshmallow All the Way Home
PRIMAL HEARTS
PRIMAL HEARTS 2
Salthe

Study § Steady
Suzukuri Dungeon: Karin in the Mountain

For those who just want every game even with questionable everything there is KAGITORI -BIRD IN THE CAGE HIDING THE KEY-. It is something about a guy and 4 girls in mansion who solve a mystery in the town. First of all this is an all ages version of an 18+ game. They were also complaining about different things and deleted just about every discussion under the Steam forums. I don't encourage pirating, but this is a 2 person Japanese translation studio thing, so it's very likely not translated very well and also is censored.

Steam

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Last but not least we have three announcements. Shiravune is releasing Kuroinu 2 Redux on Steam and Johren. Note that the Steam version will be massively censored, but will have a patch from the Johren website. The original Redux game came to JAST USA and Mangagamer, so this second one may come too. This is an extremely graphic game, so weak stomachs need not apply.

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

Shiravune is also releasing Destiny Star Girlfriend from mirai. This one is coming in the last quarter of 2023. This one is about a guy who has a crush on girl in his class and she's a magical girl. This is a single heroine game, but those are usually pretty cheap and can be fun.

Steam

Frontwing is releasing Ginka. This one is about a guy and a girl and she gets spirited away and later on he's on a ferry five years later and visits the island. Being disappointed at not finding anything he finds a girl that looks like Ginka, but all she remembers is his name and that she liked him. It supposedly releases this year, so I'll update whenever that happens. I like the developer, so hopefully this is a good one.

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

Sekai Project/Denpasoft also released the Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish upon a Shooting Star- HD update. This is an HD upgrade free for original buyers of the game and also updates the translation. There may be issues with this, as a desync patch may be needed and the font size is small.

Steam

 
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Playasia now says the Japanese and Asian versions of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name will both be Multi-Language. 

"Available exclusively as a physical version in Asia and featuring English language options"

"The English voice will be implemented via a patch after the game's release."

Wasn't the Japanese version $5 cheaper before they announced it was multi-language?

 
PSA: Iffy/Ideafactory Store about to migrate their store as well, for your reward/loyalty points, use it or lose it. Sep 5 is when they fully transition to new backend.


"As we will be switching the backend to our store, your current store account will no longer be accessible after the upgrade."

There's no telling if your account will run into the same issue as NISA, so start praying if you have active preorders with Iffy/Ideafactory


Sent from my SM-N970U1 using Tapatalk
 
I am not supporting the P3 release at launch. The prices and products aren't great for both standard and CE. Also I suspect it will get another, more complete release later.
 
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Given their track record of p3 releases that definitely seems likely to happen that it will get another more complete release later. 

 
Hi, everyone :wave: went through a lot of personal drama over the past year plus that sent me into a bit of a dark place, but wanted to come back to my favorite forum. How's everyone been doing? I'm here to rant about how greedy Atlus is and how full of shit they are over this $70 P3 remake. I can accept not getting FeMC (incorporating all of her social links would probably be a lot more work, but I'm really heartbroken we won't be getting the fantastic Junpei, Akihiko, and Shinjiro links), but leaving out The Answer just to sell it to us later (we all know that's what's going to happen) and charging $70 like this is Final Fantasy XVI is a joke. I am absolutely in no rush to play this (and don't get me started on the completely unnecessary voice recasts and the new character portraits that look like fanart).

Having said that, it's still $60 at Gamestop (they haven't yet caught the pricing error, I guess), and being an absolute hypocrite, I put an order in to secure that price. May cancel later when the shame sets in (or when I remind myself that a complete edition with The Answer and possibly FeMC will be out in a year or two). I'm such a Persona fangirl, it hurts sometimes. Oh, but that $200 special edition is trash. Not even a steelbook, holy crap.

Naming ideas for the pending complete edition of Persona 3 Reload: Persona 3 Reload Sapphire, Persona 3 Reload Full Moon, Persona 3 Reload Dark Hour Edition, Persona 3 Reload Burn My Dread Edition, Persona 3 Reload fuck the Fans Edition.

 
The voice recasting for aegis, junpei and fuuka makes sense as the first 2 prettymuch have dead careers and fuukas va I read doesn't do voice acting anymore. 

But there was definitely no justification to recast all the other characters other than cheapening out.  But losing Yukari Takebas va Michelle Ruff iirc is disappointing as she definitely fit the character the most. Mitsurus va as well.  And ignoring the person Junpeis va was honestly a perfect performance. 

Losing the Male s links is also dumb given that over half the party is male and original mc's links especially moon were pretty terrible.  Magician is just cringe, star is depressing and kinda nonsensical that he'd even be able to come around given that he was only introduced during a sporting event. The only ones I would have wanted carried over from mc's side were the 2 sports links. 

 
shadowysea07 said:
The voice recasting for aegis, junpei and fuuka makes sense as the first 2 prettymuch have dead careers and fuukas va I read doesn't do voice acting anymore.

But there was definitely no justification to recast all the other characters other than cheapening out. But losing Yukari Takebas va Michelle Ruff iirc is disappointing as she definitely fit the character the most. Mitsurus va as well. And ignoring the person Junpeis va was honestly a perfect performance.

Losing the Male s links is also dumb given that over half the party is male and original mc's links especially moon were pretty terrible. Magician is just cringe, star is depressing and kinda nonsensical that he'd even be able to come around given that he was only introduced during a sporting event. The only ones I would have wanted carried over from mc's side were the 2 sports links.
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What's funny is, Fuuka and Aigis are easier pills to swallow, considering the fans have already gone through a recast for the former and the latter just requires doing a robot voice. So, them having new voice actors is pretty inconsequential (though really, Wendee Lee is still working, so Fuuka didn't need a new actor). I agree Junpei's original voice was perfect, but they somehow found an actor who sounds nearly-exactly like Vic. He's hands-down the best new actor in this remake.

The other characters, the ones that didn't need new actors, are pretty freaking bad. Ken sounds like a grown woman, Yukari is flat, Mitsuru is trying way too hard to sound like Tara Platt (one of my favorite voice actors), and Akihiko, oh god, Akihiko. Liam O'Brien was perfect in the role, so the recast needed to nail it, and it's just not good. It's so painful and it was so unnecessary.

And yeah, the original P3's social links were so hit or miss. The whole reason to play Portable over FES was because FeMC had such better social links, like it's not even close.

 
All this P3 Reload talk is making me glad right now I've just kind of bounced on the Persona/SMT franchise.  I still have a load of those games on DS / 3DS / Vita(including stuff on PSN) ... but I've just never made the time to play them even though I love the idea and enjoyed Revelations:persona back in the later days of the PS1 when games were cheap second hand.

Hopefully for those that like English dubs (which is my preference) these new people do a decent enough job to not hinder your enjoyment of the game.  But $70 is just taking advantage of early adopters.  Even $60 is as well.  I'd imagine within a couple months it'll be $40 somewhere (probably gamefly) with a $30 deal shortly there after like every other Persona/SMT game.

 
super1upqueen said:
Hi, everyone :wave: went through a lot of personal drama over the past year plus that sent me into a bit of a dark place, but wanted to come back to my favorite forum. How's everyone been doing? I'm here to rant about how greedy Atlus is and how full of shit they are over this $70 P3 remake. I can accept not getting FeMC (incorporating all of her social links would probably be a lot more work, but I'm really heartbroken we won't be getting the fantastic Junpei, Akihiko, and Shinjiro links), but leaving out The Answer just to sell it to us later (we all know that's what's going to happen) and charging $70 like this is Final Fantasy XVI is a joke. I am absolutely in no rush to play this (and don't get me started on the completely unnecessary voice recasts and the new character portraits that look like fanart).

Having said that, it's still $60 at Gamestop (they haven't yet caught the pricing error, I guess), and being an absolute hypocrite, I put an order in to secure that price. May cancel later when the shame sets in (or when I remind myself that a complete edition with The Answer and possibly FeMC will be out in a year or two). I'm such a Persona fangirl, it hurts sometimes. Oh, but that $200 special edition is trash. Not even a steelbook, holy crap.

Naming ideas for the pending complete edition of Persona 3 Reload: Persona 3 Reload Sapphire, Persona 3 Reload Full Moon, Persona 3 Reload Dark Hour Edition, Persona 3 Reload Burn My Dread Edition, Persona 3 Reload fuck the Fans Edition.
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Welcome back. Enjoy some games. I'll grab you a ramune.

 
It absolutely baffles me why anyone would play a mainline perosna game on launch. 

Atlus' MO is to rerelease the same game with new content a few years later, thus completing the game.

It's missing FES. It will get rereleased  in 2 years with FES at full price. This is what ATLUS does every time.

Do not any buy any persona game on launch. Wait for the complete version. I'm amazed people still don't know this.

Paying full price for incomplete games is definitely not the CAG-approved way.

 
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Persona 3 is my favorite, so I am definitely content to play it and then play a better version later. It's included in Game Pass, which I have for about one more year from those old "Convert 3 years of $50/year Gold to Game Pass Ultimate" deals. I'll probably just stick with that rather than buying it this time, though.

 
I'm not sure the rule applies to remasters or side games. Persona 4 Golden got ported to other systems but from what I've read it's essentially the same game as the Vita version aside from some extra artwork or soundtracks.
 
keyblader1985 said:
I'm not sure the rule applies to remasters or side games. Persona 4 Golden got ported to other systems but from what I've read it's essentially the same game as the Vita version aside from some extra artwork or soundtracks.
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Persona 4 golden is the complete version, like p3fes and p5r. The original was on PS2.
 
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