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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some stuff on vgpca

THE LEGEND OF NAYUTA BOUNDLESS TRAILS - PS4 $30.28
THE LEGEND OF NAYUTA BOUNDLESS TRAILS - SWITCH $34.06
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! [PREMIUM PHYSICAL EDITION] - PS4 $11.35
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! [PREMIUM PHYSICAL EDITION] - SWITCH $22.70
Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk - PS3 $22.70
Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea - PS3 $22.70
Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland - PS3 $22.70
Atelier Escha and Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky - PS3 $22.70
Valkyrie Elysium - PS4 $15.13
Valkyrie Elysium - PS5 $18.92
Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster [ASIAN ENGLISH IMPORT] - SWITCH $45.41
 
So I pre-ordered this Persona 3 Elizabeth figure at roughly $115 before tax and shipping. My usual cutoff for figures is around $75 (which is why I haven’t bought any really high quality figs in years), and I’m trying to convince myself not to cancel the pre-order. Someone validate my spending.
 
Looks good. I like the detail of the cards matching s.link arcana that are in P3. I only own a few figures limited to my very favorite games to keep that spending & clutter in check. But if Elizabeth fits that bill for you I say enjoy. I would be more interested in a Marie personally.

Conversion rates were actually pretty favorable when I imported my Renne Bright figure earlier this year.
 
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Souffrir said:
Someone validate my spending.
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FIrst, that's a pretty nice looking figure. I'm assuming at this price point it's one of your favorite characters ever for one of your all time favorite games.

What are your plans for the figure? If it's just to put it in a closet, keep it in it's box, or it's going on a shelf with a couple dozen other characters to be hidden and rarely seen... maybe question the purchase. If your finances have to be shifted to afford it, that would be enough to opt to drop it. But if you have a place in mind to put it on display... it's not going to be hidden in a large group and will bring you a lot of joy to look at and talk about it... then, I don't see the issue in riding it out.
 
Vinny said:
You guys think there's any chance that Baten Kaitos comes to the PS4 or 5?
Click to expand...
A lot of niche stuff like this has turned out to be timed Switch exclusive. Panzer Dragoon Remake, No More Heroes 3, a bunch of Shmups. I don't like playing on Switch so I always just wait - the only times I've been disappointed so far are the recent NMH2 port, Octopath 1, and Deadly Premonition 2 (and I'm still holding out hope for those). Whether it's because of resource constraints for porting or some kind of exclusivity agreement isn't clear or public but it is definitely a trend.

Plus, I have so many games in my backlog at this point that I don't really mind waiting. If it never comes it's sad but it is what it is.
 
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Tothoro said:
A lot of niche stuff like this has turned out to be timed Switch exclusive. Panzer Dragoon Remake, No More Heroes 3, a bunch of Shmups. I don't like playing on Switch so I always just wait - the only times I've been disappointed so far are the recent NMH2 port, Octopath 1, and Deadly Premonition 2 (and I'm still holding out hope for those). Whether it's because of resource constraints for porting or some kind of exclusivity agreement isn't clear or public but it is definitely a trend.

Plus, I have so many games in my backlog at this point that I don't really mind waiting. If it never comes it's sad but it is what it is.
Click to expand...

Good point... I think Grandia remake was another one.
 
Tothoro said:
A lot of niche stuff like this has turned out to be timed Switch exclusive. Panzer Dragoon Remake, No More Heroes 3, a bunch of Shmups. I don't like playing on Switch so I always just wait - the only times I've been disappointed so far are the recent NMH2 port, Octopath 1, and Deadly Premonition 2 (and I'm still holding out hope for those). Whether it's because of resource constraints for porting or some kind of exclusivity agreement isn't clear or public but it is definitely a trend.
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You're doing it wrong:
store.steampowered.com

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle on Steam

Continue the fight in the HD remaster of the second entry in everyone's favorite assassin action series! After falling down the ranks of the United Assassins Association, Travis Touchdown whips out his beam katana to reclaim his rightful spot at the top.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
store.steampowered.com

OCTOPATH TRAVELER™ on Steam

Eight travelers. Eight adventures. Eight roles to play. Embark on an epic journey across the vast and wondrous world of Orsterra and discover the captivating stories of each of the eight travelers.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
store.steampowered.com

Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise on Steam

Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is an open-world survival horror video game serving as both a sequel and prequel to the original Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
 
d8onausa said:
You're doing it wrong:
store.steampowered.com

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle on Steam

Continue the fight in the HD remaster of the second entry in everyone's favorite assassin action series! After falling down the ranks of the United Assassins Association, Travis Touchdown whips out his beam katana to reclaim his rightful spot at the top.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
store.steampowered.com

OCTOPATH TRAVELER™ on Steam

Eight travelers. Eight adventures. Eight roles to play. Embark on an epic journey across the vast and wondrous world of Orsterra and discover the captivating stories of each of the eight travelers.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
store.steampowered.com

Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise on Steam

Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is an open-world survival horror video game serving as both a sequel and prequel to the original Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
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Haha, much respect for the PC space but it's not for me. My laptop is a potato, and I can't bring myself to sit back down in front of a computer after doing it all day for my job.
 
Tothoro said:
Haha, much respect for the PC space but it's not for me. My laptop is a potato, and I can't bring myself to sit back down in front of a computer after doing it all day for my job.
Click to expand...

Hear that... my gaming laptop is more capable than the PS5 but even then, I've found myself usually going for PS5 versions of games. That and, I hate digital.
 
I was pretty huge into PC gaming in the 90's and early 00's and have a decently large Steam library as well a couple dozen games on GOG... but I also work at a pc all day as well as manage servers and on occasion provide support for others at work. So even with a decent pc at home, I just can't bring myself to spend more time at a desk (at least right now) and don't want to connect a pc to a tv and use a controller. So Switch gets my main attention though I dip back into other systems as an urge hits.
 
It's a pretty antiquated association that to play a pc game you need to sit at a desk or in front of a monitor. A decent pc can be used as console (even handheld now) that's superior in every way except physical media. After a hard day of work, I enjoy playing an arpg at 120fps on a tv.
 
gospelman said:
It's a pretty antiquated association that to play a pc game you need to sit at a desk or in front of a monitor. A decent pc can be used as console (even handheld now) that's superior in every way except physical media. After a hard day of work, I enjoy playing an arpg at 120fps on a tv.
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Except physical media like you mentioned and consoles don't have the issues pc games have to get them to run properly/requires fussing with settings for optimization normally. Also having to apply patches and such manually.

Additionally no Denuvo sp? Outside of supposedly Nintendo adding it in scuttlebutt a couple months ago.
 
gospelman said:
It's a pretty antiquated association that to play a pc game you need to sit at a desk or in front of a monitor. A decent pc can be used as console (even handheld now) that's superior in every way except physical media. After a hard day of work, I enjoy playing an arpg at 120fps on a tv.
Click to expand...

Very true. My Samsung TV supports the Steam app and I can stream games directly on my TV from my laptop and it works well. Before this, I had SteamLink (fine for lower settings) and even had a long ass HDMI cable (easily the best quality, outside of the unsightly HDMI cable.

But shadowysea07's points are what still prevents me from more PC gaming.
shadowysea07 said:
Except physical media like you mentioned and consoles don't have the issues pc games have to get them to run properly/requires fussing with settings for optimization normally. Also having to apply patches and such manually.

Additionally no Denuvo sp? Outside of supposedly Nintendo adding it in scuttlebutt a couple months ago.
Click to expand...

PC gaming benefit is that it's library is unsurpassed and mod support. I loved having the mod to remove building limits in Fallout 4. Or the mod to add widescreen support to super old games. The offset to that is how sometimes games just don't work. Like the latest version of Tomb Raider (2013) doesn't work with my laptop, I have to downgrade to an older version. Or how Witcher 2 crashed regularly for me on max settings at 1440p, even though I got a fairly decent laptop (6800H, 3070ti).

But ultimately yeah, these days I just want to turn on something and play a game these days. I'm almost 40, I don't have time to tinker with settings, look up forum posts, etc. anymore...
 
There's a lot of cheap digital games on pc. No shame towards those that go that route and pay the big bucks for a really great videocard and overall setup to run things well.

gospelman said:
It's a pretty antiquated association that to play a pc game you need to sit at a desk or in front of a monitor. A decent pc can be used as console (even handheld now) that's superior in every way except physical media. After a hard day of work, I enjoy playing an arpg at 120fps on a tv.
Click to expand...

If I'm playing on PC I tend to lean towards point and click adventure games, first person shooters, puzzle games, and a few specific series like GTA that I prefer to play on PC with a keyboard and mouse... which for me just works better at a good desk setup with a comfortable chair. I also like a lot of Nintendo published games and that games (at least most of what I buy) mostly play off the cartridge so there's little delay between buying a game and playing it and no concern over storage space. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, for instance, I played completely off the cart over this past week. Sure I can't mod it, but I don't really care at all about modding things. I just want to play a game with as little hassle as possible.
 
The prohibitive cost of pc gaming would be the other large hurdle I have no interest in jumping over. If I can run something off my laptop then I'll play it. But like for example I couldn't get the control to function properly in yakuza 0 so that coupled with I just not feeling the combat at the time led to a quick drop.

That isn't to say consoles are immune to that problem though. As I tried playing God eater 1 on something and the switch weaponry button wasn't working properly.
 
"PC gaming" meant something different to me entirely before I had to constantly be hooked up to someone else's digital service.

now I feel like Chell.
 
Souffrir said:
So I pre-ordered this Persona 3 Elizabeth figure at roughly $115 before tax and shipping. My usual cutoff for figures is around $75 (which is why I haven’t bought any really high quality figs in years), and I’m trying to convince myself not to cancel the pre-order. Someone validate my spending.
Click to expand...
Weak Yen/Strong USD makes it a great time to stock up on Waifu's!
I've dropped $2k during Otaku Tom's BF sale.
"Its just money you can always make more"
20231229_180156.jpeg
 
I have no strong opinions about PC gaming one way or the other. Or console gaming. Or mobile gaming. Or gaming on a refrigerator.

Pretty sure somebody or other has probably hacked a smart fridge to play Doom by now.
 
My husband is a PC gamer and prefers to get most games for it, while I primarily stick to console. We compliment each other, since we both have the option to play on either platform if a game one of us wants is locked on something. Upgrading his PC is a serious financial wound, though.

Anyway, happy late holidays everybody and almost happy new year! I spent a lot of time with my family and a lot more time recovering afterward lol

Right before Christmas, I finished Soul Hackers 2 on PS5 and really liked it, much better than the mid reviews it was getting when it came out. I enjoyed the story and characters (especially Ringo and Milady, the former being the best Megaten protagonist in a long time by virtue of not being silent, thank god), the gameplay and battle system were super-fun, if a little basic by Megaten standards, the OST was pretty good, and the dungeons were as boring-looking as people said, but I have a pretty high tolerance for boring dungeon crawls (I loved Tartarus in Persona 3 and actually slightly preferred the simple Persona 4 dungeons over the flashy ones in Persona 5). The Soul Matrix, a dungeon you return to several times throughout the game, is like gaming Nyquil. Every floor looks the same and the music is soooooooooooo boring. Think Mementos if the backgrounds never changed and it wasn't the Royal version where every few floors, the music got more intense. That dungeon sucked, and if you want the True Ending, you need to be going to it alllllllllllll the time.

Demon fusion was also pretty basic and actually kind of confusing, not because anything was really difficult to figure out, but because it was just more restrictive than previous games, so it could be a chore to get a demon to come out how you wanted it to. Overall, it was very much a "baby's first Megaten" kind of game, with a very fair difficulty and simplified systems, and I was totally ok with that. It's nice to have a Megaten game not be supremely cheap every battle lol I'd give it an 8/10, but I have a seriously high tolerance for AA, JRPG, low-budget jank, so it may be closer to a 7/10.

Started Forspoken on Christmas, which I got for $15 at Best Buy, and, um...I'm really enjoying it! I keep asking myself why people hated it so much, but then I remember I'm playing a heavily-patched version. I don't hate Frey at all (she's a New Yorker like me, she's going to curse her brains out at everything, it's like punctuation for us), though Cuff is kind of a dick. The world is huge and quite beautiful, but it does have that Ubisoft feel of "go to this map marker, then this one, then this one..." Combat is very fun, if a little repetitive, and the haptic feedback is great, but after long, intense battles, I do get a bit of the claw hands from mashing the triggers to attack. Music is pretty, kind of reminds me of the kind of background music you would hear in PS1/PS2-era Final Fantasy games. Story and characters are pretty basic, but I'm really enjoying the lore and worldbuilding. So far, I'd give it a 7/10 (though again, high jank tolerance, so maybe it's more like a 6/10). It was clearly WAY too heavily-memed; a lot of the seemingly-terrible dialogue is actually not bad in context. If you were plopped into a fantasy world and were suddenly able to shoot magic and parkour in midair, what would you say? That's it's fucking awesome! So, I guess I'm totally the target audience for this game lol
 
I'm definitely a console and dedicated handheld gamer. Not a PC gamer and not a cell phone gamer. But for those that enjoy those platforms, more power to you. It's just not for me. I prefer the ease of use of a dedicated gaming machine.
 
Was aware of that site, but prices never stood out to me. What are some of the good deals you got with 45% CB + BF Coupon? Guess I missed a good Black Friday sale?
 
Xenogears said:
Was aware of that site, but prices never stood out to me. What are some of the good deals you got with 45% CB + BF Coupon? Guess I missed a good Black Friday sale?
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In general, it's usually better when ordering past the free shipping threshold. But with the weak yen right now, it's often cheaper to pay shipping in JPY from a JP store. Unless it's like an really large figure, like 1/4 scale or something.
 
Yeah, I’ve ordered almost all my figures over the years from Hobby Search, because they tend to have consistently low pricing and offer some really low priced shipping options if you don’t mind waiting and not having tracking (you can get the more typical shipping options as well, though), and ever since they had to start charging sales tax for US delivery, they’ve even discounted most of their shipping options to the US by 20%, which brings their cheapest shipping option (for small size packages) to ¥808. Between that and the weak yen, I’ve been picking up Pop Up Parades for like $35 after tax and shipping on average for the past couple years, though the base price on those has been climbing lately. Most US-based sites I’ve seen offering them have them priced for like $40-$50 pre-tax and shipping. Even when I was in Singapore earlier this year, at physical retail stores that sell them, they were more expensive than getting them shipped home from Hobby Search.

Still miss the days when I could get discounted prices and free shipping from Crunchy with a free trial membership. Picked up the first run of Freddy and Jason Kotobukiya Bishoujo line figs for a combined price of like $100 back then.
 
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On Pop Up Parades, BBTS has most of theirs (sans L/XL) for $30-$40 and their Pile of Loot shipping policy is really friendly. Might be a few dollars more than Hobby Search after tax/shipping, but they're US based so shipping is quicker/tracked if that moves the needle at all.

If I'm not ordering from BBTS most of the time it's from Solaris Japan, they have a pretty good selection of "Used" figures and games that are indistinguishable from new ones. Prices have risen noticeably in the past few years, but I haven't been able to find anywhere else with a comparable selection and price.
 
Xenogears said:
Was aware of that site, but prices never stood out to me. What are some of the good deals you got with 45% CB + BF Coupon? Guess I missed a good Black Friday sale?
Click to expand...
Here's a small list of the figures I've purchased during their BF sale. Looking back at my Spread Sheet a lot of the orders were 65% CB. I went on a shopping Spree since the CB was crazy high. TOM MemberShip is only worth it when they have a good sale. TOM prices are decent After factoring in CB + Free shipping.

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Emilia: Graceful Beauty Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Ram: Birthday 2021 Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Rem: Birthday 2021 Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Rem: Aqua Orb Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure
KonoSuba Megumin: Race Queen Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Emilia: Neon City Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Rem: Neon City Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure
Genshin Impact Lumine 1/7 Scale Figure
Genshin Impact Aether 1/7 Scale Figure
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Rem: Idol Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Ram: Idol Ver. 1/7 Scale Figure
 
I used to buy anime scaled figures and such but rarely do anymore, especially when prices where sky high a year or two ago. All I buy nowadays is snow miku figmas and nendos. I'm likely to scale back this year and the next to mainly own Sailor Moon Figuarts, Miku Nendos/Figmas and my 2 favorites Miku Dollfie and a Sailor Mars Dollfie. I originally paid about $550 or so for the Miku Dollfie + an outfit years ago as the yen was super weak. I don't really collect much anymore though. I rarely get as much into anime series anymore.
 
Seven Pirates H Switch $29.99 playasia
These have been on sale for a while at playasia, but just in case you missed them:
The Rumble Fish 2 PS4 $19.99
The Rumble Fish 2 Collector's Edition PS4 $29.99
The Rumble Fish 2 Switch $18.99
The Rumble Fish 2 Collector's Edition Switch $35.99
The collector's editions include a DLC code for the first game.
Also, The Rumble Fish + came out digitally recently. It's just an enhanced version of the first game. I guess it has some more features than the DLC game that came with the collector's edition. IMO, these are mediocre fighting games, also they are considered bad ports. Not sure if the + game is a better port.
 
I learned today there’s a new Rurouni Kenshin anime. I watched the first episode. The artstyle has been very modernized, not a big fan of that. Also Kenshin is voiced by a dude, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
 
I remember reading that it may finally complete the series this time. But we'll see.

I made a bit of progress in atelier ryza. The ice dragon was the only remotely difficult boss with a very large difficulty spike. But that's pretty typical for the series since most bosses are fodder. fire and ice throne bosses on the other hand I assume are super bosses were much harder. With fire being the sole boss to ko my party. But I wasn't prepared for it. Normally I don't carry healing items with me due to limited slots and never needing them.
 
Weird - there's nowhere for me to enter the code. The usual payment page has the option at the bottom but it's not there. Anyone else experiencing this?

UPDATE: Nevermind. It looks like PA disables it when you have certain items in your cart.
 
Preorders open on January 11 for Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom Switch at playasia. Remastered compilation of Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms and Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds.
 
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