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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A few decent deals on used switch games at gamefly...

$39.99 Advance Wars 1&2

$39.99 Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

$24.99 Loop 8

Code: GAMEFLY05 get's 5% off.

I caved on Advance Wars.  That was probably my buy price for Loop 8 as I'm pretty curious about it (but not for full price)... but I passed on it as I know it's just going to collect dust for a while.  AW is mainly going to the collection as I have all of the USA releases.

If my kids weren't hyped for Zelda, wow, I would have been much better off waiting.  But paid through the nose for it at launch.  Not that I'm mad about it as I'm now up to 6 games bought for the year and 2x$20 eshop cards.   Current 2023 spending on all gaming is $311.32 (ZeldaToTK, Bravely Default II, Octopath II, Tactics Ogre Reborn, Harvestella, and now AW 1&2... and this includes those 2 eshop cards in the total)

 
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The Noah and Mio amiibo also already went up for preorder, I wasn't expecting them to go up so soon after announcement!

Target and Best Buy already sold out. As of this post, GameStop still has them.

They're $39.99 for both, you could buy two for free shipping and return one after they arrive (in store may also be able to take orders).

https://www.gamestop.com/consoles-hardware/nintendo-switch/nintendo-switch-amiibo/products/xenoblade-chronicles-3-noah-and-mio-2-pack-amiibo/401204.html?utm_source=rakutenls&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_content=Wario64&utm_campaign=2&utm_id=2949699&utm_kxconfid=tebx5rmj3&cid=afl_10000087&affID=77777&sourceID=0wLgH49VWzI-naJ84Om_GmaLNs47Myhf9A&ranMID=24348&ranEAID=0wLgH49VWzI&ranSiteID=0wLgH49VWzI-naJ84Om_GmaLNs47Myhf9A

 
Vinny said:
Am I the only one that forgot this release exists...? AW was such a popular series for a while, figured this would have been bigger news.
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It was supposed to come out last year but then we had Russia invading Ukraine ... so it got pushed until this past April. I think delays helped cool the hype, but they also took liberties with changing some of the things from the original so it would scale better. I still have my original GBA carts for both games... the first I got the first day it showed up at Walmart... which of course the day after 9/11 (yes that one).

Edit: Also Zelda released a couple weeks later.

 
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nightc1 said:
It was supposed to come out last year but then we had Russia invading Ukraine ... so it got pushed until this past April. I think delays helped cool the hype, but they also took liberties with changing some of the things from the original so it would scale better. I still have my original GBA carts for both games... the first I got the first day it showed up at Walmart... which of course the day after 9/11 (yes that one).

Edit: Also Zelda released a couple weeks later.
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Sounds like there's a curse on the series if it wasn't just 2 coincidence.
 
shadowysea07 said:
Sounds like there's a curse on the series if it wasn't just 2 coincidence.
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Plus it was $60 at release. Like... I can get two classic gba games modernized that I still own and love... or for $10 more, a new epic Zelda game that builds on what is probably my favorite zelda game ever (though Wind Waker is a close second for me).

 
nitrosmob said:
A little bit of news mainly from the Playism thing they had. We got some other posts, but here's the rest of their announcements:
(...)
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I just joined the forums to say thanks for posting these when you hear about them, nitrosmob. Sometimes this topic is the only place I see news for these obscure releases. Much respect!
 
mancerdotblack said:
I just joined the forums to say thanks for posting these when you hear about them, nitrosmob. Sometimes this topic is the only place I see news for these obscure releases. Much respect!
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No problem I like to highlight visual novel localizations and fan translations, as well now and then niche indie games from Playism or others as this is a niche forum as well. I like playing those type of games, and don't always feel they get enough love from the community.

 
Thanks for the GameFly heads up.  Paying $40 for Nintendo first party is my buy-in, so glad to grab Zelda.  I also caved on a copy of Like a Dragon! Ishin.

 
Another visual novel that got a fan translation recently is H2O √ after and another Complete story Edition. I watched the anime ages ago, and I just remember it was drama central. I'll add this one to my queue somewhere down the line. Here is the link to VNDB which links to the patches.

VNDB

For all you Picross nerds Picross S+ is coming out, which has puzzles from Picross e1 with downloadable content from e2-e9. I played like 2 of these, and it seems more of a money grab than anything. They're not bad, but imagine getting one game with all that content without the DLC.

Gematsu

 
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Did anyone's Baten Kaitos HD from any of the European Amazons ship? I have it at Spain but no shipment yet. I had a ship date of 9/15 and now it's 9/26. 

 
nitrosmob said:
Another visual novel that got a fan translation recently is H2O √ after and another Complete story Edition. I watched the anime ages ago, and I just remember it was drama central. I'll add this one to my queue somewhere down the line. Here is the link to VNDB which links to the patches.

VNDB

For all you Picross nerds Picross S+ is coming out, which has puzzles from Picross e1 with downloadable content from e2-e9. I played like 2 of these, and it seems more of a money grab than anything. They're not bad, but imagine getting one game with all that content without the DLC.

Gematsu
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I feel like I've heard of that one. Something zero escape ish trapped with a murderer with a harem?

Oh nvm I was thinking of a different one with water apparently but they both have almost the same art style.
 
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TheKbob said:
Thanks for the GameFly heads up. Paying $40 for Nintendo first party is my buy-in, so glad to grab Zelda. I also caved on a copy of Like a Dragon! Ishin.
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Glad someone was able to make use of it.

The other two games... Advance Wars 1&2 ..and Loop 8, sold out. They must have gone all in on stocking Zelda as it's somehow survived the weekend. I talked to my oldest son about my take with a lot of these first party games and how I plan to just grab most of them when they drop price on Gamefly from now on. Even though he said he'd play Mario Wonder on day 1 if I got it, he said it made a lot of sense to wait a month or two for a deal. I'm glad I didn't sleep this time on Advance Wars... the first time it dropped like this they were snapped up before I could make my mind up.

 
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Got Legend of Nayuta in the mail and in true NISA fashion, it came a day early and I didn't even get a shipping confirmation lol happy to see Reverie was possibly just a fluke and NISA is back to business as usual. Nayuta's box has a lenticular cover! Super excited to play, but I got into Subnautica last week so I need to finish that first. I will get off that ocean planet!

EDIT: literally just got the tracking email lol never change, NISA.

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That lenticular cover looks great! I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger without a steelbook being included, though. It seems like such an odd exclusion when all of the other Trails CEs in recent memory have had them.

 
super1upqueen said:
Got Legend of Nayuta in the mail and in true NISA fashion, it came a day early and I didn't even get a shipping confirmation lol happy to see Reverie was possibly just a fluke and NISA is back to business as usual. Nayuta's box has a lenticular cover! Super excited to play, but I got into Subnautica last week so I need to finish that first. I will get off that ocean planet!

EDIT: literally just got the tracking email lol never change, NISA.
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Oh damn, I forgot I never preordered this... PS4 is down to 5% so might as well order it.

EDIT* Also odd it still says preorder even though it's already out......

 
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super1upqueen said:
Got Legend of Nayuta in the mail
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Just when I feel like I'm good being out with the Trails series... this is pulling at me to reconsider.

Covnam said:
Apparently the Japanese version of Baten Kaitos has full English support according to reddit (just fyi)
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Yes, this seems to be the case. I've read the same. Also the intro video (at least on the first game, as I watched a video) has an english dub even though of course the games themselves don't. I watched bits and pieces of a youtube playthrough of the first hour of the first game in the collection. Overall, I'm not feeling the battle system at all, which is not a big surprise as I'm not big into card collecting and deck building in games unless the game does something really interesting. Like the MegaMan StarForce games... somehow that I was able to get into.

For now, I'm going to just sit on the sidelines on this collection.. even though Monolith Soft alone should have this going into my collection. Maybe I'll change my mind later.

 
Tothoro said:
That lenticular cover looks great! I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger without a steelbook being included, though. It seems like such an odd exclusion when all of the other Trails CEs in recent memory have had them.
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I suppose because Nayuta is just a spin-off (technically, maybe, no spoilers lol) and not including a steelbook would keep it under $100, but yeah it's a little weird. Still, I think it was worth the price and I completely missed in the product description that there was a lenticular cover, so that was a nice surprise.

Vinny said:
Oh damn, I forgot I never preordered this... PS4 is down to 5% so might as well order it.
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nightc1 said:
Just when I feel like I'm good being out with the Trails series... this is pulling at me to reconsider.
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giphy.gif


 
Has anyone ordered physical merchandise from Manga Gamer? If yes, where do they ship from? Having a hard time figuring out if they are located in USA or Japan (I don't want to get a hit for international transaction fees).

 
Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth has release date, time to find out if there's any physical/LE/CE release
c4c1a77e38fee54000d21d8884c4bc20.jpg


Sent from my SM-N970U1 using Tapatalk
 
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Ryu Ga Gotoku English/Asia website suggested there will be physical for Asia at least, English/US website hasn't update yet.
f3798c51fb0ba7653cfb967d2ffabde6.jpg


Sent from my SM-N970U1 using Tapatalk
 
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62t said:
Damn early 2024 is loaded with Like a Dragon 8, Persona 3 Reload, and FFVII Part 2
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Due to grad school, moving, and work, I'm years behind this generations JRPGs. Glad to see the release schedule being full. It feels like the PS1 peak again.
 
62t said:
Damn early 2024 is loaded with Like a Dragon 8, Persona 3 Reload, and FFVII Part 2
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Bit behind on these (except P3...I beat that quite a while back). Can't forget about Granblue Fantasy: Relink and Unicorn Overlord as well. I'm extremely wary of FFVII, but I'm sure I'll get or play them all (P3 goes to Gamepass...no way I'm spending that much on that).

 
nitrosmob said:
I'm extremely wary of FFVII, but I'm sure I'll get or play them all (P3 goes to Gamepass...no way I'm spending that much on that).
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Curious, why is that?

I think I need to check my hype for Rebirth honestly, that trailer looks so damn good.. my old concern is how far they stray from the original material.

 
I got bored playing FF7 whatever the first was called. I played FF7 probably 4 or 5 times back in the day though. I guess I just wasn't amazed, but I only played like 3 hours, so I'll get the first done sometime before the new one comes out. This is probably more of a me problem and just never being excited for this FF7 Remake project in the first place. 

 
Vinny said:
Curious, why is that?

I think I need to check my hype for Rebirth honestly, that trailer looks so damn good.. my old concern is how far they stray from the original material.
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That's how I feel, since I was really turned off by the end of the first Remake. I think it would have been better if they just didn't have those stupid Whispers and didn't make Aerith a Mystery Box character who just spouted nonsense that won't make sense until probably the end of Part 3. If they wanted to change the narrative, just change it. I didn't mind most of the changes and additions in Remake (though a lot of it felt like unnecessary padding) until the very end, where the whole thing just fell apart. So, when I watch the trailer for Rebirth and lose my mind over how cool it looks, I have to remind myself that there's probably going to be something that disappoints me.

I am unreasonably hyped for whatever they do with Zack, since he's one of my favorite Final Fantasy characters. Everybody thinks
his presence in the game indicates some sort of time paradox or split timeline, but I think perhaps they're saying he did survive the barrage of Shinra troops and the Cloud he's carrying with him is the real Cloud, meaning that the one you play as in Remake is some sort of clone. Perhaps after Zack and Cloud escaped the mansion, Hojo used some DNA he had from Cloud to create a clone, which either escaped him too, or perhaps was intentionally released into the world. Maybe he combined it with Zack's DNA, hence why Cloud has Zack's memories. So this would take the plotline in the original game of Sephiroth trying to convince Cloud he never existed and actually make it true, because this Cloud never existed. The real one is in Midgar with Zack. I guess there'd still need to be some kind of TIME KOMPRESSION since Crisis Core ends with Zack dying in front of Midgar and now he just arrives after the beginning of FFVII, but idk Whispers or something.
Honestly, I'd pop if this is what they're doing lol I'm sure others have presented this theory, but I've been avoiding discussions on the game so I can form my own opinions.

 
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It's a timeline divergence of what if Aerith/Zack live and Sephiroth joins your party. Rather than call it a remake, they should have called it a reimagining of a cash cow.

 
nitrosmob said:
I got bored playing FF7 whatever the first was called. I played FF7 probably 4 or 5 times back in the day though. I guess I just wasn't amazed, but I only played like 3 hours, so I'll get the first done sometime before the new one comes out. This is probably more of a me problem and just never being excited for this FF7 Remake project in the first place.
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Oh I see... yeah, I was the opposite, Remake blew me away from the start, though some of the changes they had definitely has me concerned but Rebirth seems like it'll hit all the right spots. Also helped that SE doesn't seem as incompetent as they did for years... FFXVI was honestly a solid game.

 
Like a Dragon Gaiden Day 1 one Game Pass, as well as Like a Dragon Ishin and Ace Attorney Trilogy.

Octopath Traveler II coming to Xbox in 2024 but not on Game Pass so not sure why the bother

 
I'm so behind on that series, but I'll eventually get to them haha. I think I'll concentrate on finishing Miles Morales (about halfway done) and then ff7 remake 1 to get ready for that series coming next year. After that who knows.

 
blueweltall said:
Does the Nis store charge right away?
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I don't know. That's a good question. Isn't it funny how we have to ask that about every site now, again, these days??

Even for sites which previously never charged until shipment. My how business operations have changed.

ANSWER: multiple people on Twtich are saying that funds are withdrawn immediately now on pre-orders.

oh, and I finally found the FAQ. It's under --> "help" link --> FAQ header --> "when is payment taken for pre-orders?" Answer: immediately; "all orders are billed upon placement". https://store.nisamerica.com/pages/faq

 
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Unless I'm remembering wrong... NIS changed their store to Shopify... which I think those stores only offer the option to do full payment on preorders (same for Limited Run Games and others that host on shopify).

 
Lots of news and trailers from TGS:

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Pre-Order Trailer

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wavXUqxDgn8[/media]

SWERY65 and SUDA51 Hotel Barcelona

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfckbT9mcCU[/media]

Rusty Rabbit from Netease and Nitroplus

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdaP7ARiDMQ[/media]

Izuna revival (not confirmed to be localized)

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scKOsntbTnk[/media]

Saga Emerald Beyond

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTO_yHsW1J4[/media]

Megaton Musashi

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j8cI4R9t1I[/media]

Persona 3 Reload — Conflicting Fates Trailer

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j56tGNuOqfM[/media]

Stella of the End releases on September 25th.

Steam

VNDB (NSFW)

Two adult otome games were announced from Succulent and 072 Project. These will be getting English translations (not machine translated) at some point.

Hime no Rakuen VNDB (NSFW)

Tsuki no Onna, Kawa no Tenshi, Kami Meku Toki VNDB (NSFW)

The first deals with a Princess who has a servant in some type of dog collar and tells the king to let her have one of the knights of a kingdom they're conquering. The second has a lady who dreams of becoming an actor and scriptwriter. One day she meets a guy and they fall for each other, but the guy is a serial killer. 18+ otome are pretty rare, so these might be worth checking out. 

 
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