Japanese Niche Games Deals & Discussion Thread 4.0

[shivan128]

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!

 

[keyblader1985]

...I know that.

 

[Dead_Batteries]

...I know that.

Did you also know that the MC from 3, 4, and 5 are not the same?

 

[Pikagreg]

I think the new P3R cast sound great. 

 

[shadowysea07]

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 Revelationsersona 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.

oh it'll be 20 in no time since they tend to over print them these days and its not a new game so there's that. I've already played vanilla and p3p so I don't have a lot of interest in this version. If it had all the p3p content and fes content , and qol stuff like skill select during fusion I'd be more interested at least.

 

[shadowysea07]

I think the new P3R cast sound great.

Of the ones I have heard Ken's pretty awful. They should have just gotten a male voice actor to voice him. I don't think I heard most of the other characters though. Mitsuru, junpei are both servicable at least and sound slightly close to their original va's.

 

[62t]

Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest - The Adventure of Dai is going to be digital only in America, at least you can import Asia version.  Xbox is digital only

 

[nightc1]

Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest - The Adventure of Dai is going to be digital only in America, at least you can import Asia version. Xbox is digital only

I'll have to import a copy... though not really in any rush, DQ is one of my very few "buy everything" franchises.

 

[freshzen]

Anyone seen what the AmiAmi pack for DoDonPachi DaiOuJou is?  Can't tell from the pictures on the listings, but they're charging an extra 4-5k yen which is an awful lot.

 

[freshzen]

Anyone seen what the AmiAmi pack for DoDonPachi DaiOuJou is? Can't tell from the pictures on the listings, but they're charging an extra 4-5k yen which is an awful lot.

It was in the description, strategy guide and an acrylic plate.

 

[scorponok]

It was in the description, strategy guide and an acrylic plate.

The strategy guide is a first press bonus, that is probably available everywhere. The amiami pack is Masking tape (whatever that could be, a roll of dodonpachi tape?) and an acrylic character plate.

 

[super1upqueen]

I completely forgot about DQ Dai, even though I thought it looked fun when it was first shown off. Considering it's digital only, I'll wait for a sale. I've got waaaaaaaaaaaay too many games to play. I've purged a lot of my gaming collection over the past year (either games I don't love or like anymore, or games worth a fortune I can get cheap digitally, like Vagrant Story, the PSP Persona remakes, and my OG big box Darkstalkers PS1 copy). There are a few games I keep for their personal connection to me (the .hack//IMOQ and Xenosaga trilogy, despite my PS2 being broken and sold for parts, the Gamecube Wind Waker since that's my favorite game of all time, despite owning the Wii U remaster, etc), and they're quite valuable, so that's a rainy day fund. But you know, it's like when I watch American Pickers and the guy they're picking from says something like, "Well, I love my collection, but I'll sell some stuff to make money to buy new stuff." It's always nice to part with things you don't love anymore to buy new loves.

Anyway, new gameplay footage dropped for Granblue Fantasy Relink. Anyone else more excited for that than Persona 3 Reload? It sucks for Granblue that it's coming out the day before P3. I'm super-worried it's going to be a flop because of that. Well, I'll pre-order a copy, so at least it'll have one guaranteed sale

 

[nightc1]

I completely forgot about DQ Dai, even though I thought it looked fun when it was first shown off. Considering it's digital only, I'll wait for a sale. I've got waaaaaaaaaaaay too many games to play. I've purged a lot of my gaming collection over the past year (either games I don't love or like anymore, or games worth a fortune I can get cheap digitally, like Vagrant Story, the PSP Persona remakes, and my OG big box Darkstalkers PS1 copy). There are a few games I keep for their personal connection to me (the .hack//IMOQ and Xenosaga trilogy, despite my PS2 being broken and sold for parts, the Gamecube Wind Waker since that's my favorite game of all time, despite owning the Wii U remaster, etc), ....

Wind Waker is easily one of my favorite games too. Not my favorite of all time, but certainly very high up on my list (if I had a list). I'm pretty much envious of where you are in your collection. That's pretty much what I'm aiming for... except I need to buy the Xenosaga trilogy.

Kudos for doing all the hard work to get there. Whatever you went through helped you push through... I haven't talked about what I went through but right before hand I was testing games and seeing what I legit wanted to play and what could be sold and then tragedy... and I have played maybe a handful of games in the past nearly two years. I'm finally making progress towards my goals again and look forward to the day I can share the full results of my game collection downsizing.

I take it you did a lot of ebaying?

 

[super1upqueen]

Wind Waker is easily one of my favorite games too. Not my favorite of all time, but certainly very high up on my list (if I had a list). I'm pretty much envious of where you are in your collection. That's pretty much what I'm aiming for... except I need to buy the Xenosaga trilogy.

Kudos for doing all the hard work to get there. Whatever you went through helped you push through... I haven't talked about what I went through but right before hand I was testing games and seeing what I legit wanted to play and what could be sold and then tragedy... and I have played maybe a handful of games in the past nearly two years. I'm finally making progress towards my goals again and look forward to the day I can share the full results of my game collection downsizing.

I take it you did a lot of ebaying?

Wind Waker is particularly special to me because it got me through a really rough time in my childhood (parents' divorce, nuff said lol). I was so lucky to have gotten the .hack and Xenosaga games at EB Games back when they were $15-35 used each. Again, my PS2 is long gone, but I just have to keep them. Same with Xenogears on PS1 and FFXII on PS2, the latter because that was my first steelbook.

Yeah, I hustled on ebay. I needed the money (still do, don't we all lol) and I had a lot of shit going on, so doing that distracted me from it. Was very lucky to not have any returns and only a few people messing with me on there. It enabled me to raise the money to buy a PS5 (I swore I'd get one before FFXVI came out and I managed to do it), and to justify buying a few classic games I always wanted (basically traded my Dreamcast copies of Phantasy Star Online for the Gamecube version, picked up Phantasy Star 0 for the DS, and grabbed a second copy of Pokemon Platinum since my original copy I got over a decade ago has been acting like a living pokedex and I use it basically for just moving things around). Phantasy Star Online is a childhood favorite of mine (I don't care what anyone says, it still holds up today).

Oh, and I got Baten Kaitos Origins finally, to go with the first game I've had for years...then they announced the remaster! But hey, the remaster lacks English voice acting, so it was still worth it. Besides, I adore Monolithsoft, hence why I keep the Xeno games I can't actually play lol

I also had trouble actually getting to games during all my craziness and still kind of do. I get choice paralysis when it's time to play something lol the curse of a huge backlog! But still, you and I are going to be ok! I know you'll hit your goal because you're so determined to do so. We just have to remind ourselves sometimes: games are meant to be fun!

 

[shadowysea07]

I started atelier meruru the apprentice of arland ps3 because a tornado knocked out the power last night. Which messed up my ps4 for most of the day. It is working now thankfully. Meruru is my 3rd atelier title after ayesha and rorona plus.

 

[Tothoro]

There's so much good stuff coming out that it's legitimately hard to keep up. Granblue, Dai, Persona, and about a hundred other games look good, but I have no idea how anyone could realistically play it all. Me being a completionist doesn't really help my case specifically, either.

 

[Twilightsparkle]

I started atelier meruru the apprentice of arland ps3 because a tornado knocked out the power last night. Which messed up my ps4 for most of the day. It is working now thankfully. Meruru is my 3rd atelier title after ayesha and rorona plus.

Yikes. Get that PS4 on a UPS (uninterrupted power supply).

 

[shadowysea07]

There's so much good stuff coming out that it's legitimately hard to keep up. Granblue, Dai, Persona, and about a hundred other games look good, but I have no idea how anyone could realistically play it all. Me being a completionist doesn't really help my case specifically, either.

Yeah I am similar though I'm trying not to be a completionist item hoarder. It does not help that this genre is on the longer side. Especially persona and trails.

 

[nightc1]

My situation is a bit unique as I'm not playing as many games the last ~2 years... but before my break, I went through the series I was collecting for and already had opted to stop buying games in a lot of series until I played through a lot of the backlog that I want to keep (at least for now).  The Trails series is one of them that got the axe as I have Cold Steel 1&2 on vita and 3&4 on Switch but I've only put a few hours in on 1 & 3 each.  Even if I'm enjoying it... I don't need to keep piling games on the collection when I haven't made use of the ones I already have.  Same for the Yakuza series as I have a complete or near complete collection of NA releases on PS3 & PS4.  I don't need more of them anytime soon.

Cutting back ... I now mostly just keep up collecting Xenoblade, Dragon Quest, & Zelda new releases.  I will likely add Xenosaga 1/2/3 to my collection but not until I'm done with my current goals and I'm sure I'll actually spend the time playing them.

 

[Souffrir]

You should play Xenosaga I, it’s pretty excellent. Top 10 PS2 games for me easily, possibly even cracking top 5. Unfortunately Xenosaga II suffered heavily from Namco’s interference, and I haven’t been able to slog through that, myself. I understand III is supposed to be great, though I kinda want to play through Xenosaga I&II on DS, first, since that’s basically the director’s cut of the story for those two games and is much closer to the director’s original vision. Unfortunately the text is very science/philosophy-jargon heavy, making it a tough read for someone with only fairly basic Japanese mastery, and there’s no fan-translation yet.

 

[scorponok]

Playasia has preorders up for Macross: Shooting Insight PS5/PS4/Switch.  I think there are only 2 trailers out for it, and they only show a few seconds of gameplay.  I guess that could be a bad thing.  The Do You Remember Love? DLC content will be included in the physical version.  I don't really know what it looks like, but it's a shmup, and it's Macross, so I must buy it!

 

[Souffrir]

Who’s the developer?

 

[super1upqueen]

You should play Xenosaga I, it’s pretty excellent.

"My external appearance is down 5%. Shion, I need to be cleaned!"

With all this talk of purging unnecessary video game collections...got my Rhapsody Marl Kingdom Chronicles collector's edition a day early! And I still haven't gotten to the first game Similarly, I've bought every collector's edition for Trails (Zero, Azure, CS 1-4, and Reverie) but I've still only managed to finish the Sky trilogy. But I mean, they're all easily worth twice-three times retail now, so I'm treating it like an investment lol

Anyway, very happy to see NISA didn't completely shit the bed with the Rhapsody release like they did with Reverie. My Reverie package arrived I think almost 2 weeks after the game's launch. God, I hate their new store.

 

[keyblader1985]

, I completely forgot about the Rhapsody games (or at least the release date). I never bothered to preorder it; guess I'll have to hope a store got it in stock tomorrow. At least that's one more thing to use my GS reward points on before they expire.

 

[scorponok]

Who’s the developer?

Kaminari Games. They are a subsidiary of Moss. They developed the Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid game, Raiden V: Director's Cut and Caladrius Blaze. Those are good games, so I'm wondering why they aren't showing off the gameplay.

 

[shadowysea07]

You should play Xenosaga I, it’s pretty excellent. Top 10 PS2 games for me easily, possibly even cracking top 5. Unfortunately Xenosaga II suffered heavily from Namco’s interference, and I haven’t been able to slog through that, myself. I understand III is supposed to be great, though I kinda want to play through Xenosaga I&II on DS, first, since that’s basically the director’s cut of the story for those two games and is much closer to the director’s original vision. Unfortunately the text is very science/philosophy-jargon heavy, making it a tough read for someone with only fairly basic Japanese mastery, and there’s no fan-translation yet.

Without speed up mod for character movement and a speed up mode for combat I found the game agonizingly slow. Especially when you control ziggy stardust. Other than that it was overall solid minus not having a quick save option during the hour long cutscene sections. The only thing I really didn't care for was Shion. She's awful.

 

[blueweltall]

https://twitter.com/Suikoden/status/1696691636351426851?t=bGzxVeEYocGlBoONoA84Lg&s=19
There's so much good games to play that I don't mind.

 

[gospelman]

https://twitter.com/Suikoden/status/1696691636351426851?t=bGzxVeEYocGlBoONoA84Lg&s=19
There's so much good games to play that I don't mind.

I feared cancellation. Delay is fine in my book. These are high in my list of games I haven't played but really should, considering the games I enjoy. The only one I played was V.

 

[blueweltall]

My are the Persona and Xenoblade games. I owned the majority of the games and releases, but have never actually played any of them.

 

[Vinny]

I'm... honestly surprised they're delaying the game because they couldn't finish it by 2023. Konami seems to only care about milking their franchises, so I figured they would have pulled a Namco (Symphonia) or Rockstar (GTA Trilogy) and released (or had whoever was working on it release) a half-assed port. 

 

[Souffrir]

Konami cares a lot about what they release. I can’t think of a single company that’s put as much effort as they have into ensuring everything they put out is bad. Sure, you get the odd decent remaster or mobile title slipping through, but I’m sure the executive producer just wasn’t satisfied with how good the Suikoden remasters were looking, and told the devs to take their time to make it crappier.

 

[nightc1]

I never got around to playing much of the PS1 Suikoden games when I had them back in the day... and I think I might have bought them on PSN as well as I pretty much picked up most digital PS1 rpg & strategy games as they went on sale.  Of course I could also just play these (for the retro experience) on the PS1 Classic console as I bought a pair of them when they were $20 at bestbuy (as that made them qualify for free shipping which almost paid for the second one... and the controllers alone seemed worth it).

I'm still interested in the Switch versions for the modern upgrades (faster battles, wide screen, upgraded pixel art)... but am kind of glad the decision is pushed as I have other ways to play and need to push through my current projects around the house and start playing games more seriously.  Plus I grabbed the first Star Ocean during the last sale on Switch... and there's the sequel of that to be thinking about if I want a physical copy.

 

[Vinny]

Konami cares a lot about what they release. I can’t think of a single company that’s put as much effort as they have into ensuring everything they put out is bad. Sure, you get the odd decent remaster or mobile title slipping through, but I’m sure the executive producer just wasn’t satisfied with how good the Suikoden remasters were looking, and told the devs to take their time to make it crappier.

LOL Can't tell if your post is mocking me or agreeing with me, but I just meant since they no longer makes new games, it seems like they've recently been focused on releases of the classics in some shape or form.

I also keep forgetting that the Star Ocean games are getting released on modern consoles... can't tell if there are just more and more games coming, or if I'm just getting old.

 

[62t]

Right now Konami got nothing for first half of 2024, so it make sense to delay Suikoden.  I am not even sure if Silent Hill 2 and MGS3 can make it in 2024 at all.

 

[shadowysea07]

LOL Can't tell if your post is mocking me or agreeing with me, but I just meant since they no longer makes new games, it seems like they've recently been focused on releases of the classics in some shape or form.

I also keep forgetting that the Star Ocean games are getting released on modern consoles... can't tell if there are just more and more games coming, or if I'm just getting old.

Star ocean wise it among a few other rpgs series got jpn only ports frequently in the last few systems. They only just brought over the ports and did a little work to them. As iirc so2 was ported to the vita and the trails games were also ported to the vita and other Sony consoles but all those remained unlocalized. It's a shame since there's no physical release of t.i.t.s. 3rd to begin with and 1 and 2 were only released way back on the psp.

I'm actually shocked bamco never did a vita port of Phantasia given that they port it every few years. Hell they ported it to the psp twice and still didn't localize it. And the last port they did was either the psp topndx or free apple version that they removed a few save points for to sell back as dlc. Given that the series anniversary is coming up you'd think they'd do a re-release or finally remake it.

 

[scorponok]

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes $17.99 at woot.

 

[62t]

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/09/esrb-rates-the-legend-of-heroes-trails-of-cold-steel-iii-and-iv-for-ps5

Trails of Cold Steel III and IV coming to PS5

 

[shadowysea07]

Might as well just announce them for switch2 and ps6 while they are at it. We all know it's gonna happen.

 

[gospelman]

Yawn. Just announce Kuro 1 already.

Doesn't really matter to me, but i guess it might be nice for people who missed the original LE's. I'd probably only consider repurchasing on PS5 if they did the same nice collection of CS1-Reverie "complete box" that released in Japan.

 

[TheKbob]

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/09/esrb-rates-the-legend-of-heroes-trails-of-cold-steel-iii-and-iv-for-ps5

Trails of Cold Steel III and IV coming to PS5

Anyone else staring at their PS5 and just seeing pretty much PS4 reprints? It would be cool if they were "complete" editions with all the DLC, but we cannot have that now can we?

 

[super1upqueen]

Anyone else staring at their PS5 and just seeing pretty much PS4 reprints? It would be cool if they were "complete" editions with all the DLC, but we cannot have that now can we?

Oh yeah, the PS5 library is embarrassing. Only recently have they stopped putting PS5 games on PS4, and the early stock issues really stalled development of games for it, so it almost feels like the PS5 launched only like a year ago. The only game I've played on mine that's a true exclusive was FFXVI, and while I had fun with it, I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a PS5 for it (even though that's what I did last year, clown face). I don't regret buying a PS5 since I've only ever had a PS4 Slim, so it's nice to now have a PS4 Pro, and I can play PS5 games of course, but I'm hoping Spider-Man 2 is a banger, because this giant, white paperweight isn't getting as much use in my household as I'd hoped it would.

I won't be getting the CS III and IV PS5 versions since I already have the collector's editions for the Switch versions. I actually picked up the PS5 version of Ys VIII just because I had been kicking myself for not getting the collector's edition for the PS4, so when NISA announced they were reprinting it for the PS5 version, I jumped on it. Sold my PS4 standard copy and put the profit toward the PS5 one.

Now, what they should really do is put the Sky Trilogy on PS5 and Switch! I want special editions!

 

[Tothoro]

Anyone else staring at their PS5 and just seeing pretty much PS4 reprints? It would be cool if they were "complete" editions with all the DLC, but we cannot have that now can we?

The overwhelming majority of the time the PS4 discs also grant the PS5 game digitally, so it just seems like there's very rarely ever a need to buy a PS5 disc. A few upgrades cost money (i.e. God of War Ragnarok) so I guess if you can get a good deal there?

Agreed on the Sky games, though. I have the Vita Evolution copies but my Japanese isn't nearly to that level yet (Falcom really loves difficult kanji).

 

[super1upqueen]

The overwhelming majority of the time the PS4 discs also grant the PS5 game digitally, so it just seems like there's very rarely ever a need to buy a PS5 disc. A few upgrades cost money (i.e. God of War Ragnarok) so I guess if you can get a good deal there?

That's really what I've used my PS5 for: upgrading and replaying PS4 games. I upgraded Ghost of Tsushima and FFVIIR so I could play the new DLCs, and Ghost was breathtaking on PS5. The feeling of your horse's gallop in the controller! The pressure of pulling back a bowstring! The beating of Jin's heart in the final cutscene! Incredible experience. FFVIIR was good too, really just for eliminating the long load times. I also upgraded Miles Morales to finally play it before Spider-Man 2 comes out, and damn those graphics were amazing. I'm extremely happy to have a PS5 because the upgrades to PS4 games are amazing. Now, how about we just expand its exclusive library a bit...

 

[TheKbob]

I predominantly try to get the PS4 version if there's a free PS5 upgrade. If I want to sell it off, having the game work on two systems means a larger market.

It's probably why we see PS5 games go on sale cheaper than PS4 versions

 

[gmsick]

Anyone else staring at their PS5 and just seeing pretty much PS4 reprints? It would be cool if they were "complete" editions with all the DLC, but we cannot have that now can we?

I have Ys 8 PS5. I think it has all the DLC. Good game btw. I would have never played the game if not for the PS5 port. Being able to have physical copies of games I missed out on last gen is good. Especially the uncommon/rare ones.

 

[Nothing-]

Oh yeah, the PS5 library is embarrassing. Only recently have they stopped putting PS5 games on PS4, and the early stock issues really stalled development of games for it, so it almost feels like the PS5 launched only like a year ago. The only game I've played on mine that's a true exclusive was FFXVI, and while I had fun with it, I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a PS5 for it (even though that's what I did last year, clown face). I don't regret buying a PS5 since I've only ever had a PS4 Slim, so it's nice to now have a PS4 Pro, and I can play PS5 games of course, but I'm hoping Spider-Man 2 is a banger, because this giant, white paperweight isn't getting as much use in my household as I'd hoped it would.

I won't be getting the CS III and IV PS5 versions since I already have the collector's editions for the Switch versions. I actually picked up the PS5 version of Ys VIII just because I had been kicking myself for not getting the collector's edition for the PS4, so when NISA announced they were reprinting it for the PS5 version, I jumped on it. Sold my PS4 standard copy and put the profit toward the PS5 one.

Now, what they should really do is put the Sky Trilogy on PS5 and Switch! I want special editions!

I don't think it's so much that the Playstation has suffered from lack of quality games, it's just that that's the state of AAA game development these days.

I've loved my PS5 for Demon's Souls, Elden Ring, Borderlands/Tiny Tina, and Destiny 2. It does games great in HDR with 4K 60 fps. That's exactly what I want. BL3 looked -amazing-; that was around launch.

Who else does better exclusives??? There have been ZERO games of note on PC lately. So much so that they demo'd the 2022 RTX 4000 GPUs with Cyberpunk again, of all things. LOL. There isn't anything else. Same with Xbox until Starfield, unless you're real big on Halo and Forza, which I don't know anyone whom fits that bill.

That's just where we are in big budget game development these days. Bethesda mentions Elder Scrolls 6 and we're supposed to become excited? Pat them on the back for releasing one game in their flagship franchise fifteen years later? Production has gotten exceedingly difficult with lengthy development cycles. Half of companies aren't even trying (Madden and CoD), or else they can't cut down from all the development bloat.

Now Baldur's Gate III has set a new standard of excellence for CRPGs, and if a production studio doesn't go the Indie route then they are just screwing themselves.

Things have gotten so complicated and convoluted that Activision-Blizzard can't even make great games anymore. There is so much noise, and poor project oversight. Including answering to shareholders, and everything needing to be a service game. Which is the biggest problem in the industry.

 

[nitrosmob]

PS5 HAS been getting IMHO a bit too many ports from PS4 to PS5 that aren't necessary IMHO, and are also not free upgrades. We have Ys 8 and 9, Caligula Effect 1 and 2 (WHY!!!!), and the Cold Steel ports. I'm sure it's not the end of these ports either. These seem more like cash grabs, although I did pick up YS8 for PS5 for the DLC.  Even the niche game releases still to come this year are kind of the weaker side IMHO. We got stuff like Disgaea 7 (kind of who cares for me), Crymachina (likely worse than Crystar, but I'll see), Star Ocean 2 (just a re-release although I love this game), Super Mario RPG (just a re-release although I love this game), Inescapable (a lesser Danganronpa like from the demo I played, although could be OK), Monyu (strictly for dungeon crawler lovers like myself), Persona 5 Tactics (this doesn't look that good IMHO, but I'll likely get it discounted somewhere down the line), and I'm sure I'm missing some others. I am looking forward to Spider-man 2 for a bigger AAA game, although I still haven't finished Miles Morales (started too soon after beating original Spider-Man so got bored), and really don't care much about Mario whatever and COD who cares. I will try Starfield and Sea of Stars from Gamepass soon enough, and hopefully next year is good for some bigger games. I haven't felt as compelled to play as much this year, although FFXVI is in my backlog.

 

[Vinny]

Anyone else staring at their PS5 and just seeing pretty much PS4 reprints? It would be cool if they were "complete" editions with all the DLC, but we cannot have that now can we?

I'm gaming a lot less these days but I've been using my PS5 for actual PS5 games (FF16) or actual PS5 releases (GOW Ragnarok, Horizon FW) quite a bit. I can't say I mind PS4 games on the PS5- since they run so much better than they did on my PS4 Pro.

It seems like a lot of the ports and reprints are from niche companies. I'm not keeping track but most major studios don't seem to be doing ports?

 

[Nothing-]

You're either making something like IFFI or NISA, or else 'big budget thing' needs to be a service game. 

I don't know why we can't get more games like Dragon Quest 11 or Persona 5.  I thought they were perfect.  That's the ideal mid-range game development scenario and almost nobody is doing them.  P5 was seven years ago; where is the new one?  I don't know what the problem is with all this dev cycle bloat.

Then you go onto Steam and see there are 6,260 reviews for DQ11.  THE PLAYERS are the biggest part of the problem.  They aren't buying this stuff.  It's like a massive success to sell 1 or 2 million copies.  The profit ceiling is low and therefore parent companies aren't funding them. 

Nintendo has done the best job of funding our types of games.   Look at the JRPG library on Switch since 2017.  It is actually quite phenomenal.

Not everything can be measured on a balance sheet, on a per title basis.   You've got to get core gamers into your system.  Nintendo recognized this.  After decades of not.  Look how well they are doing right now. 

 

[Squarehard]

https://twitter.com/Squarehard/status/1697731126641705445

 

[super1upqueen]

Nintendo has done the best job of funding our types of games. Look at the JRPG library on Switch since 2017. It is actually quite phenomenal.

Not everything can be measured on a balance sheet, per title. You've got to get your core gamers into your system. Nintendo recognized this. After decades of not. Look how well they are doing right now.

It's funny you mention Nintendo here because I was going to answer your question "Who else does better exclusives?" with Nintendo. The state of game development today is absolutely broken, but at least Nintendo and their subsidiaries consistently take the time to produce quality products. In just 2017, the Switch's launch year, we had Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, Arms, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Super Mario Odyssey (the best game on the system, IMHO). Yes, those first few launch months were a little bare, but Nintendo quickly gave people a reason to pay attention to their new hybrid console, and six years later, the Switch has one of the strongest console libraries since the PS2 era.

I've wondered why people aren't coming out of the woodwork to attack Nintendo the way they've attacked Larian Studios (the whole YOU CAN'T EXPECT EVERYONE TO MAKE GAMES OF THIS QUALITY nonsense), and I think it's because the gaming community still views Nintendo as just that kiddie company. God forbid you take the time to produce a game that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and isn't littered with cringe current year jokes and rapid f-bombs. And worse, they're a Japanese company, and many gamers (present company excluded, of course) just refuse to take Japanese games seriously because ANIMU. You are spot on when you point to games like Persona 5 and Dragon Quest XI as what game developers should be aiming for, but as long as the average gamer demands Hollywood film budgets for their games and expect them to be released yearly, while also refusing to fight back against shit like microtransactions and all the garbage companies like EA and Blizzard pull on a daily basis, we are going to continue to get vomited-out Madden, COD, Assassin's Creed, and all the other wastes of money that make billions because people refuse to broaden their horizons and play the kind of games we champion on here.