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!

 

[shadowysea07]

Atelier ryza ever darkness and the secret hideout is finally done with. My first title for the new year. Now to figure out what I want to play next.

 

[Pheria]

The Noah and Mio amiibo pack is available for preorder at Target at the moment if anyone was looking for them:

Nintendo Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Series amiibo Figures - Noah + Mio 2pk

Read reviews and buy Nintendo Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Series amiibo Figures - Noah + Mio 2pk at Target. Choose from contactless Same Day Delivery, Drive Up and more.

www.target.com

I had two on order from GameStop for free shipping with the intention of returning one, but thankfully GameStop's 'cancel order' button actually worked for me, for once, so I changed mine over to Target.

 

[Deuteros]

I remember this being discussed here a while ago but I can't find those posts for the life of me...

Is Persona 4 Golden on the PlayStation Vita still the best version of the game?

I know things are much more open to debate with Persona 3 FES vs. Portable vs. P3P's port to modern consoles vs. the soon to be released remake.

I recently got a Vita and feel I have too few games to justify owning one. The only digital Vita games that go on sale are PS4 games with cross-buy versions and I'm not paying 2024's asking prices for many of its physical games.

Sure, the recent ports of P4G will run at a higher resolution and, perhaps, have a better framerate but that's not much of a concern to me. Added or removed content, 'quality of life' features, bug fixes and such, those would shape my decision of what version to buy.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Souffrir]

I remember this being discussed here a while ago but I can't find those posts for the life of me...

Is Persona 4 Golden on the PlayStation Vita still the best version of the game?

I know things are much more open to debate with Persona 3 FES vs. Portable vs. P3P's port to modern consoles vs. the soon to be released remake.

I recently got a Vita and feel I have too few games to justify owning one. The only digital Vita games that go on sale are PS4 games with cross-buy versions and I'm not paying 2024's asking prices for many of its physical games.

Sure, the recent ports of P4G will run at a higher resolution and, perhaps, have a better framerate but that's not much of a concern to me. Added or removed content, 'quality of life' features, bug fixes and such, those would shape my decision of what version to buy.

Thanks in advance!

I haven’t paid a lot of attention to the console/PC ports of Golden, but I don’t remember hearing about them removing anything. If it matters to you, the PC version released with Denuvo DRM, don’t think they’ve removed that yet.

IMO Persona 3 really isn’t debatable, FES is the best version. Not for The Answer, but for the gameplay improvements that are unique to that version and the stuff they removed in later versions. Better companion AI, better abilities, fully explorable town with animated character models, the original anime cutscenes. I love FeMC from P3P and that version is absolutely worth playing, but FES is the best currently available version. Some people point out that P3P lets you directly command party members as a reason for it being better, but FES gives a wide variety of indirect commands (many of which were removed in P3P) and has better party AI, so that party members virtually never waste turns if you pay the slightest attention. Plus combat is pretty braindead in P3, anyway—just attack weaknesses to knock things down, you hardly need precision strategies.

 

[shadowysea07]

The ai does waste turns because they are never as efficient as a human player. Even if you instructed them to hit weaknesses they'll use a single target spell x number of times instead of the multi target version because the ai stands for artificial idiocy in the persona series. There's a reason why nobody wants to use the ai.

The only thing to be said is that fes ai isn't brain dead or purposefully malicious like vanilla was.

 

[super1upqueen]

Atelier ryza ever darkness and the secret hideout is finally done with. My first title for the new year. Now to figure out what I want to play next.

Nice! What did you think of it? I really loved the characters and their stories (especially Ryza and Empel's relationship and everything with Bos, who became my favorite character in the sequels) and the gameplay was super-addictive. I think the second game is even better, but the third stumbles a bit and was a disappointing finale to the trilogy. The Ryza trilogy made me finally pick up some of the older Atelier games (that I unfortunately still haven't played, because TOO MANY GAMES).

I remember this being discussed here a while ago but I can't find those posts for the life of me...

Is Persona 4 Golden on the PlayStation Vita still the best version of the game?

I know things are much more open to debate with Persona 3 FES vs. Portable vs. P3P's port to modern consoles vs. the soon to be released remake.

I recently got a Vita and feel I have too few games to justify owning one. The only digital Vita games that go on sale are PS4 games with cross-buy versions and I'm not paying 2024's asking prices for many of its physical games.

Sure, the recent ports of P4G will run at a higher resolution and, perhaps, have a better framerate but that's not much of a concern to me. Added or removed content, 'quality of life' features, bug fixes and such, those would shape my decision of what version to buy.

Thanks in advance!

I have Golden on both Vita and Switch and the Switch version does indeed have a better framerate, but in terms of content, they're exactly the same (with the exception of a new quick save option and being able to select the difficulty at the beginning). You can't go wrong with Golden, it's one of the best games ever made.

As for P3, I always say Portable is the best, but I'm super-biased because I adore FeMC and don't like not having direct control over my party. The remake certainly looks nice, but there's too much wrong with it for me to justify a day-one purchase.

Ugh, all this talk of Persona lately...I'm so close to throwing 100+ hours of my life away on yet another playthrough of one of them lol

 

[Souffrir]

The ai does waste turns because they are never as efficient as a human player. Even if you instructed them to hit weaknesses they'll use a single target spell x number of times instead of the multi target version because the ai stands for artificial idiocy in the persona series. There's a reason why nobody wants to use the ai.

The only thing to be said is that fes ai isn't brain dead or purposefully malicious like vanilla was.

In a typical night of grinding spent in Tartarus, my party members probably get an average of around five turns. Not each. Total. MC with a well built team of personas will get a full enemy party knockdown on the first turn so often the only practical reason for the rest of the party most of the time is all-out attacks.

And I’ve found that in FES, if you have them set to knockdown, they’ll pretty consistently do what I would have them do—knock every enemy with a weakness they can target down, then attack or use a physical skill on any targets that are still up in the hopes of scoring a crit.

The advantage of direct control is virtually nonexistent in my experience.

 

[Deuteros]

It's good to know P4G on the Vita isn't inferior to the newer ports. I wanted to play it there for several, mostly subjective, reasons.

And now to see if I can get the search function on the Vita's PlayStation Store to work... Sony backtracked on its decision to close it outright but it certainly feels as though it is being maintained begrudgingly.

 

[keyblader1985]

That's the best you can hope for from Sony, with anything in regards to the Vita.

 

[Deuteros]

The Vita is the new Dreamcast, isn't it? Except for the unfortunate fact that there's no viable way to release new games for it...

I'll give the PlayStation Store on my PS3 a try this weekend, I've read you can search for and purchase Vita games that way.

 

[nightc1]

Not to change the subject, but last night I finally seriously started Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition on the Switch. I had previously started XC3D (3DS) to test a complete used copy when I added it to the collection and then opted to wait for the Switch version when it was announced only to get sidelined by other games and then life. So far, it's pretty wonderful as expected but also a bit overwhelming with all the ncp quests and just getting a handle on how things work.

It's good to know P4G on the Vita isn't inferior to the newer ports. I wanted to play it there for several, mostly subjective, reasons.

And now to see if I can get the search function on the Vita's PlayStation Store to work... Sony backtracked on its decision to close it outright but it certainly feels as though it is being maintained begrudgingly.

I recently dug through my PS Store purchases with the PS3 and while it was a scroll of doom to get through everything... at least they fixed it on PS3 so if you opt to download something you aren't forced back to the top of the list. Hopefully the Vita interface for the download list isn't too terrible.

The Vita is the new Dreamcast, isn't it? Except for the unfortunate fact that there's no viable way to release new games for it...

I'll give the PlayStation Store on my PS3 a try this weekend, I've read you can search for and purchase Vita games that way.

IMO the Vita was the new DC ... similar sized library of QUALITY retail releases before LRG watered down and pretty much doubled the library size. Still, it's a hell of a system especially when you consider the PSTV and using PSN to transfer saves between the console and handheld... and focus mostly on retail releases. That's not to say there aren't good games among those that got released in the limited print world... there are good games, but there's a lot of fluff.

There area few games you can get using the PS Store on PS3, but the majority of stuff has been pulled from purchase. If you already own something, it's hard to avoid the scrolling of doom if you have a huge purchase history on the system.

 

[TheKbob]

The VITA is great, but a gross majority of its best stuff was, or now is, multiplatform and found a home on PC, Switch, etc.

There are still a handful of exclusives that would either require rework of touch controls or still just lack a port. Murumasa Demon Blade stands out as the biggest one, to me. I could see people making the case for both Soul Sacrifice Delta needing a port and Disgaea 3 Absence of Detention as Disgaea 3 complete on the Switch/PS4/PS5/PC.

 

[keyblader1985]

Muramasa was originally a Wii game. But it could definitely stand to be ported to other platforms. Also the Vita and Vita TV were the debut of remote play, something that's not big enough for Sony to see fit tk release an entire handheld system just for that function.

One of my personal favorite Vita games, Gravity Rush, is kind of indicative of the Vita in general. It's a quality title and has a small cult following, enough to get a PS4 port and a sequel, but Sony no longer cares about it and it's now dead in the water for all intents and purposes.

 

[Nothing-]

My biggest regret is not buying 100 PS TVs when they were on clearance for twenty bucks about ~8yrs ago and then sit on them. I knew it, too. But I only bought two of them.

 

[nightc1]

My biggest regret is not buying 100 PS TVs when they were on clearance for twenty bucks about ~8yrs ago and then sit on them. I knew it, too. But I only bought two of them.

I only bought one extra PSTV at that time (bundle with sly cooper & lego movie) from walmart. I want to think it was $30 or less.

They had a bunch of them and I could have had a nice stack of them but I wasn't into reselling and just wanted a backup.

My first vita was a PSTV. Loved that to bits and I grabbed my Vita 2000 Borderlands 2 bundle from a walmart when most stores had already liquidated them off.

 

[keyblader1985]

After I got my first system, I then got one of the TV system on clearance for twenty dollars (system only), and later found another one at a pawn shop for fifteen, that was lacking the power cord.

 

[super1upqueen]

Not to change the subject, but last night I finally seriously started Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition on the Switch. I had previously started XC3D (3DS) to test a complete used copy when I added it to the collection and then opted to wait for the Switch version when it was announced only to get sidelined by other games and then life. So far, it's pretty wonderful as expected but also a bit overwhelming with all the ncp quests and just getting a handle on how things work.

Enjoy! IMHO, the first Xenoblade is still the best. Yeah, the newer games have more going on with their battle systems, but the first one has the best story and its battle system, once it clicks with you, just works perfectly. Xenoblade X basically just expanded on that battle system and it was also fun as hell. If you like Xenoblade, I can't recommend the other games in the series highly enough. Yes, I wasn't a huge fan of Xenoblade 3's story, but it was still very fun. X and 2 are top-notch, near-perfection.

The VITA is great, but a gross majority of its best stuff was, or now is, multiplatform and found a home on PC, Switch, etc.

There are still a handful of exclusives that would either require rework of touch controls or still just lack a port. Murumasa Demon Blade stands out as the biggest one, to me. I could see people making the case for both Soul Sacrifice Delta needing a port and Disgaea 3 Absence of Detention as Disgaea 3 complete on the Switch/PS4/PS5/PC.

Muramasa was originally a Wii game. But it could definitely stand to be ported to other platforms. Also the Vita and Vita TV were the debut of remote play, something that's not big enough for Sony to see fit tk release an entire handheld system just for that function.

One of my personal favorite Vita games, Gravity Rush, is kind of indicative of the Vita in general. It's a quality title and has a small cult following, enough to get a PS4 port and a sequel, but Sony no longer cares about it and it's now dead in the water for all intents and purposes.

Oreshika Tainted Bloodlines is my favorite Vita game that's still stuck on it. There are other trapped games that may eventually get ported, but Oreshika is probably not one of them, and that's heartbreaking because it's so good and unique. All Senran Kagura games that are exclusive to it will probably be stuck there for good, too. Sony freaking hates that series.

Trapped games I think will most likely get ports/remakes: Disgaea 3 Complete, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, all Vanillaware games.

Trapped games that may get ports/remakes: Soul Sacrifice Delta, Tales of Hearts R, Adventures of Mana (I think that's still on mobile, but that's it), Killzone Mercenary, Resistance: Burning Skies, Touch My Katamari (I'm inclined to believe this one is possible, since they've been remastering the older games and a complete version with all the DLC levels could pop up on modern consoles).

Trapped games that are trapped for good: Oreshika Tainted Bloodlines, Freedom Wars, Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus, Senran Kagura: Bon Appetit!, Toukiden, Dungeon Travelers 2 (yes that's coming to PC, but through a sketchy source and not a reliable one like Steam or GOG), Army Corps of Hell.

Let me know if I missed any

EDIT: Thanks to TheKbob for reminding me of Disgaea 4's Switch port and adding some games to the list!

 

[nightc1]

Enjoy! IMHO, the first Xenoblade is still the best. Yeah, the newer games have more going on with their battle systems, but the first one has the best story and its battle system, once it clicks with you, just works perfectly. Xenoblade X basically just expanded on that battle system and it was also fun as hell. If you like Xenoblade, I can't recommend the other games in the series highly enough. Yes, I wasn't a huge fan of Xenoblade 3's story, but it was still very fun. X and 2 are top-notch, near-perfection.

I own them all, just only played and finished XC2 & XC2 Torna . Once I was deep into XC2 I was tracking down the other games (skipping the wii version of the first game for the 3DS version). I forget how much time I put in with XC2, maybe 120 hours? I didn't want to leave that world but had done most everything possible including maxing each blade affinity chart.


So far XC1 seems good but I need to work on my map reading skills because the first person I did a quest for (delivering buiscuits to her grandson) I forgot completely where she was and the map didn't make it super obvious (that I could tell) where to find her (though I knew the area).

 

[TheKbob]

Disgaea 4 Complete exists on modern platforms, it's only Disgaea 2 and Disgaea 3 which are not on modern machines. (Unless your count the PSP VN, Disgaea Infinite...)

I have a physical copy of Oreshika and Soul Sacrifice Delta. Get those SEA copies while you can. IA/VT is likely forever marooned on the Vita, as well. Touch My Katamari, Army Corps of Hell are likely stuck there, too.

 

[shadowysea07]

Nice! What did you think of it? I really loved the characters and their stories (especially Ryza and Empel's relationship and everything with Bos, who became my favorite character in the sequels) and the gameplay was super-addictive. I think the second game is even better, but the third stumbles a bit and was a disappointing finale to the trilogy. The Ryza trilogy made me finally pick up some of the older Atelier games (that I unfortunately still haven't played, because TOO MANY GAMES).

I have Golden on both Vita and Switch and the Switch version does indeed have a better framerate, but in terms of content, they're exactly the same (with the exception of a new quick save option and being able to select the difficulty at the beginning). You can't go wrong with Golden, it's one of the best games ever made.

As for P3, I always say Portable is the best, but I'm super-biased because I adore FeMC and don't like not having direct control over my party. The remake certainly looks nice, but there's too much wrong with it for me to justify a day-one purchase.

Ugh, all this talk of Persona lately...I'm so close to throwing 100+ hours of my life away on yet another playthrough of one of them lol

It was so so. The story had a few bad takes especially lents background. Everyone in that town is a garbage human being for allowing child abuse just because they are too chicken lazy etc to do anything about it.

It especially kills me that apparently big red is weaker than Agatha supposedly. So the guardian squad could in theory have done something about it.


Gameplay wise it was OK version of the ff atb system basically. Minus the ap system. I'd rather they have kept the old system for finishers follow ups and such. I never even got to do anyone's finisher besides empels. Everything died too fast even on the higher difficulty setting.

Alchemy was mixed. I feel like they should have removed the bag system given that it only adds a tiny layer of tedium and since they already removed the timelimit. Not having humonculous assistant and shop registration is a major negative. The copy Alchemy pot is a great idea until you blow through all your gems to make the final key items.

The world's bottles thing I didn't get a handle on. I found 3 of them so the 4th and 5th must have been either locked to rng on the gold coin shop like 3rd bottle or after you finish the game.

puni is cute and totally wasted potential as it could have been used in battle and you should have been able to pet and Name it. The feeding system reminds me of grunty feeding from the original .Hack quad imoq.

 

[super1upqueen]

Disgaea 4 Complete exists on modern platforms, it's only Disgaea 2 and Disgaea 3 which are not on modern machines. (Unless your count the PSP VN, Disgaea Infinite...)

I have a physical copy of Oreshika and Soul Sacrifice Delta. Get those SEA copies while you can. IA/VT is likely forever marooned on the Vita, as well. Touch My Katamari, Army Corps of Hell are likely stuck there, too.

Thanks for letting me know! I'm the biggest fan of Katamari and I can't believe I forgot about Touch. But you know what, it makes sense I did because that game SUCKED. The controls were terrible and they locked half the ing game behind a paywall. Since they've been remastering the series lately, that one could really use an update to fix all its issues.

It was so so. The story had a few bad takes especially lents background. Everyone in that town is a garbage human being for allowing child abuse just because they are too chicken lazy etc to do anything about it.

Yeah, the way Ryza and Co. were treated by everyone was pretty bad. I could understand her parents being frustrated that she didn't help on the farm enough, but her mother was a major bitch. I was waiting for some kind of running gag that her father was like into really mean women or something. I really liked Lent, but I agree his backstory wasn't handled as well as it could have been. I think you'll like the second game's story better because the NPCs are much nicer and the growth the characters go through between games is interesting and believable.

Fair warning: the third game really stumbles in the story department, providing, I feel, very weak conclusions to the stories set up in 2. Also, the translation is horrific, like they used Google Translate, and the characters just straight-up don't speak like human beings, so that's super-distracting and ruins the narrative even further.

 

[shadowysea07]

Oh I could already see the Google translate stuff in the first game as well as named npcs with generic design models. A number of them clip through themselves among other things. Especially the female characters when they put their hands up to their faces or chests. The one npc that is connected to the goat sidequest and frescher and the pudding recipe had her near full arm go through her chest. She was obviously not supposed to be designed so larger and you can definitely tell by her weird posture.

 

[super1upqueen]

I own them all, just only played and finished XC2 & XC2 Torna . Once I was deep into XC2 I was tracking down the other games (skipping the wii version of the first game for the 3DS version). I forget how much time I put in with XC2, maybe 120 hours? I didn't want to leave that world but had done most everything possible including maxing each blade affinity chart.


So far XC1 seems good but I need to work on my map reading skills because the first person I did a quest for (delivering buiscuits to her grandson) I forgot completely where she was and the map didn't make it super obvious (that I could tell) where to find her (though I knew the area).

I just realized I already knew you played the other Xenoblade games because I know who you are. You changed your profile pic though, so I didn't recognize you lol sorry about that! I'm better with profile pics than names.

 

[super1upqueen]

SAND LAND coming to the west April 26th: https://www.gematsu.com/2024/01/sand-land-launches-april-25-in-japan-april-26-worldwide

$130 Bandai Namco store-exclusive collector's edition with an S.H. Figurarts Beelzebub figurine: https://store.bandainamcoent.com/search.php?search_query="SAND+LAND"

Also whatever this announcement is, which tickled me because of all the SAND LAND news today:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1745525254292636108

WHAT'S PAND LAND DOING IN THE IMPACT ZONE?!

 

[keyblader1985]

Can't say I was expecting a Sand Land game at all. I remember seeing it in my old Shonen Jump issues back in the day.

 

[gospelman]

The Ryza trilogy made me finally pick up some of the older Atelier games (that I unfortunately still haven't played, because TOO MANY GAMES).

That's also what I'm doing. Despite owning everything from Rorona forward, I had only played Ryza 1 & 2. I'm currently at the end of Sophie 1 because I figured I should play it before Sophie 2 and Ryza 3. The game really struggles on making clear what is needed to be done to progress. Basically just underscores the many improvements that came on the thighs of Ryza 1. The presence of an english dub was a surprise to me. But they did cast several VAs I like despite the odd production decision to pronounce "atelier" incorrectly. On the positive, Sophie 1 was a perfect fit on steam deck and fiddling with alchemy on a portable device is much superior.

 

[blueweltall]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1745678090301280699

 

[nightc1]

I just realized I already knew you played the other Xenoblade games because I know who you are. You changed your profile pic though, so I didn't recognize you lol sorry about that! I'm better with profile pics than names.

The new "online now" green icon that'll appear over your icon when you are online kind of made my old one look like I had a pacifier, lol. Plus it didn't frame right with the new way icons are done. Figured I'd change my icon to what I used on IGN for a few decades (since the days of Imagine Gaming Network and the launch of the GBA) and here for my first decade. I might change the background on this or dig up the specific gif I was using that has the background cut out and see how that looks.

Side note, played more XC1 last night. I can't dedicate all day to the game, but a couple hours was spent and I'm slowly easing into it... grinding away at the side quests, and leveling up just because that's how I try to approach most rpgs. I don't mind a little grunt work if it helps make the game a little easier. So far I'm loving it, as expected. XC2 is easily among the top gaming experiences of my life (along with Shenmue and Zelda Wind Waker).

Can't say I was expecting a Sand Land game at all. I remember seeing it in my old Shonen Jump issues back in the day.

My oldest son told me about this game sometime middle of last year because he wanted to read my copy of it. I don't have a lot of manga, but I was pretty serious into Toriyama stuff (Sand Land, DB, DBZ, and Doctor Slump) when the manga were getting their first english releases.

This reminds me, I was looking through tv shows & streaming movies coming out over the year and I came across Netflix dropping a "Doctor Slump" movie later this year... it has nothing to do with the manga/anime but rather is some romance movie, lol.

 

[Vigilante]

That's also what I'm doing. Despite owning everything from Rorona forward, I had only played Ryza 1 & 2. I'm currently at the end of Sophie 1 because I figured I should play it before Sophie 2 and Ryza 3. The game really struggles on making clear what is needed to be done to progress. Basically just underscores the many improvements that came on the thighs of Ryza 1. The presence of an english dub was a surprise to me. But they did cast several VAs I like despite the odd production decision to pronounce "atelier" incorrectly. On the positive, Sophie 1 was a perfect fit on steam deck and fiddling with alchemy on a portable device is much superior.

Heh.

...I need to actually start one of the dozen Ateliers in my backlog one of these days.

 

[Nothing-]

Trying to start the Atelier series is like trying to get into beginning One Piece (anime) for me. Where to start. Where would I even begin. lol

Easiest to just forget about it. Best to just stick to the hundreds of other things in my backlog and focus on new games, heh. Such as finishing XC1 which I started like four years ago. I have this thing where I only play (or watch) things in order, from the beginning.

 

[gmsick]

I tried Atelier Rorona (I think that was the name) back in the PS3 days and just couldn't get into it. Never tried the series again.

 

[62t]

I finished Ryza 1 and wasn't too impress. Don't think I will play another Atelier game.

 

[keyblader1985]

I tried Atelier Rorona (I think that was the name) back in the PS3 days and just couldn't get into it. Never tried the series again.

Same, but on Vita.

 

[super1upqueen]

The new "online now" green icon that'll appear over your icon when you are online kind of made my old one look like I had a pacifier, lol. Plus it didn't frame right with the new way icons are done. Figured I'd change my icon to what I used on IGN for a few decades (since the days of Imagine Gaming Network and the launch of the GBA) and here for my first decade. I might change the background on this or dig up the specific gif I was using that has the background cut out and see how that looks.

Side note, played more XC1 last night. I can't dedicate all day to the game, but a couple hours was spent and I'm slowly easing into it... grinding away at the side quests, and leveling up just because that's how I try to approach most rpgs. I don't mind a little grunt work if it helps make the game a little easier. So far I'm loving it, as expected. XC2 is easily among the top gaming experiences of my life (along with Shenmue and Zelda Wind Waker).

I got lucky my Senran girls made the transition pretty painlessly. I thought about changing my pic when I returned here, but someone needs to remember the Senran Kagura series, so it's gonna be me.

Wind Waker, Xenoblade 1, Persona 4, Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal/Heartgold/Soulsilver, and Final Fantasy X I think are my top 5 games of all time, in that order. Xenoblade 2 I think gets in the top 10. Incredible games.

Trying to start the Atelier series is like trying to get into beginning One Piece (anime) for me. Where to start. Where would I even begin. lol

Easiest to just forget about it. Best to just stick to the hundreds of other things in my backlog and focus on new games, heh. Such as finishing XC1 which I started like four years ago. I have this thing where I only play (or watch) things in order, from the beginning.

Not as hard as getting into Trails, since you can at least start Atelier from the first game in any of its various trilogies. Hell, you could start in the middle of a trilogy and still be okay (though I often start at the beginning of series, too). With Trails, you're pretty much required to start at the first Sky game and never skip a single entry if you want the whole story. I played the Sky trilogy but still haven't gotten to the Crossbell games, and with every passing month, I feel I'm losing my chance to keep going due to not remembering a lot of what happened in Sky (beyond the major story beats) and my own personal barrier of being overwhelmed by the prospect of having to commit to such a long series.

I hope you love Xenoblade 1, it's seriously so good.

I tried Atelier Rorona (I think that was the name) back in the PS3 days and just couldn't get into it. Never tried the series again.

My first game was Rorona, too, played on the Vita. I was immediately turned off by how strict the time limit was, and I usually don't let time limits get to me that bad (I play Persona, after all). But, the one in Rorona seemed so stressful, so I dropped it pretty early. Ryza 1-3 made me want to try the older games again, but only the ones without a time limit (or a less restrictive one). I ended up getting the Dusk and Secret trilogies, since the former eased up on the time limit a bit and the latter nearly did away with it entirely. I know that kind of makes me sound like a filthy casual, but something about how Atelier does the time limits just sucks all the fun out of it for me.

 

[Sporkis]

My biggest regret is not buying 100 PS TVs when they were on clearance for twenty bucks about ~8yrs ago and then sit on them. I knew it, too. But I only bought two of them.

I only bought one extra PSTV at that time (bundle with sly cooper & lego movie) from walmart. I want to think it was $30 or less.

They had a bunch of them and I could have had a nice stack of them but I wasn't into reselling and just wanted a backup.

My first vita was a PSTV. Loved that to bits and I grabbed my Vita 2000 Borderlands 2 bundle from a walmart when most stores had already liquidated them off.

Yeah I have like 3 or 4 of the PSTV's from that time, not sure as to how many as I only have the one I whitelisted out while the others are in a bin in the closet still sealed. The one I whitelisted was a regular one while the others were that Sly Cooper & Lego bundle. All I know is I'm good on PS3 controllers lol.

My first Vita though was the white Assassin's Creed Bundle one,


While the game wasn't my cup of tea the system looked gorgeous, still does actually. Though I think it may need a battery replacement at this point.

 

[Pheria]

I have and adore the Miku Vita

I did also get one of those PSTV bundles with the LEGO movie game, Dualshock3, and 8GB memory card for around $30 that nightc1 pointed out.

I miss all the days in general of getting "last gen/on the way out" systems for around $20-35
My Gamecube, Gameboy Micro (shiny red one even - but no Famicom faceplate), Pokemon White edition DSi were all $25-35 each used from Gamestop when no one seemed to want them. You'd have to get lucky and find one in decent condition, but if you did it was awesome.
Hardware doesn't seem to really drop to that level anymore. It used to happen pretty quickly too once the next gen product was out.

Miku Vita best Vita.

 

[keyblader1985]

I do like how easily accessible replacement parts are nowadays though. I just recently bought replacement shells and parts for both my GBA and GBC for about twenty dollars total. If you want a nice custom design it will cost a little more, but basic colors are really cheap.

 

[nitrosmob]

I was a cheapo and got a Vita from Boomcows or whatever it was called that was owned by Best Buy. I got one that was near mint and got it on a coupon as well. It had a near flawless screen, with some slight scratches on the top triggers. It worked great for all the stuff I played with it.

I didn't play much for JRPGs last year. Had almost no interest in playing them. I do feel I'm growing out of RPGs in general with how much so many drag on now with not as amazing stories, characters and sometimes gameplay. I'll start hitting on my collection especially my newer PS5 RPGs which are still untouched. I did start FF7 whatever, so I should try to work on that one to be prepared for the new one coming.

 

[Pheria]

I do like how easily accessible replacement parts are nowadays though. I just recently bought replacement shells and parts for both my GBA and GBC for about twenty dollars total. If you want a nice custom design it will cost a little more, but basic colors are really cheap.

For sure, even less successful stuff like the Neo Geo Pocket Color has a lot of that now. I've been wanting one again after selling my frontlit modded one years ago, and there are way better backlit mods now, lens replacements, shells, button replacements, and flash card options.

 

[kingwormer]

I finished Ryza 1 and wasn't too impress. Don't think I will play another Atelier game.

I loved all of the Ryza arc, all the DLC also

 

[super1upqueen]

I didn't play much for JRPGs last year. Had almost no interest in playing them. I do feel I'm growing out of RPGs in general with how much so many drag on now with not as amazing stories, characters and sometimes gameplay. I'll start hitting on my collection especially my newer PS5 RPGs which are still untouched. I did start FF7 whatever, so I should try to work on that one to be prepared for the new one coming.

I'm in the same boat with JRPGs. I'm getting really burned out with the 100+ hour bloated ones and a growing reluctance to commit myself to what feels like a project has been keeping me from playing very many lately. I'm just so sick of so many scenes of just talking, talking, talking with no actual story progression, so I've been gravitating more toward open world games, exploration-based games, "cozy" games, and shorter adventure/role-playing games without the time wasting. Last year, I really jived with TotK, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, Spider-Man 2, Subnautica, the Pikmin series, Forspoken, Cult of the Lamb, SaGa Frontier, and currently Dave the Diver, and now I'm looking forward to finally trying out No Man's Sky. As much as I liked FFXVI (for a while, anyway), and as amazing as the story was (again, for a while), I just wanted everyone to shut up and let me play. I recently completed Soul Hackers 2 and while that was a long game, it had plenty of actual gameplay on top of a reasonable number of cutscenes telling a pretty cool story with interesting characters. Perfect 8/10 game for me. I've been really thinking about finally getting to Octopath Traveler II, since I loved the first game, but then I remember Pikmin 4 is still waiting for my playthrough and I'd just rather play something like that.

 

[kingwormer]

I just wanted everyone to shut up and let me play.

I fell that. I am about halfway through FF16..... I was loving it.... but there really REALLY isn't much game play. I love the persona games also, but Tactics has more click and listen story than gameplay.

 

[nightc1]

I'm leaning more towards RPG's these days ... but I'm demanding like a lot of quality and for them to tick boxes. I need exploration, I don't like linear rpgs or overly generic. I don't mind throwing 100+ hours into a game as long as the experience is great. XC2 for me was that (as well as XC2:Torna). So far the whole series meets that quality for me. IF it's not just exceptional, then I'll take a shorter rpg if it does something unique or fun. Like the quirky Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers. I got a new copy for $21.78 from gamefly a couple years ago. It's not super long and was quirky in all the right ways. I think I might have put 25 hours into it. Similar to Live A LIve... it is kind of basic in the world design but I loved the whole experience and how condensed it was. Perfect for playing a chapter over the course of a game session or two.

I did also get one of those PSTV bundles with the LEGO movie game, Dualshock3, and 8GB memory card for around $30 that nightc1 pointed out.

I miss all the days in general of getting "last gen/on the way out" systems for around $20-35

I looked last night an my original PSTV was the Lego Movie bundle but the one I bought as a backup is the Lego Movie & Sly Cooper bundle.

As for systems dropping cheap, it still happens but not as sweet a deal. Like the $50 2DS refurbished I grabbed from Nintendo.com ... the $99 New 2DS XL from Walmart (which I gave to my youngest son)... or the $20 Sony Playstation One Classic... which I bought 2 of them since that got free shipping and if nothing else the controllers are usb and pretty nice. They don't happen as often but the systems are also getting more expensive. Probably the next system to get cheap is going to be the Switch lite... but probably only $75 or something.

 

[TheKbob]

I haven't played a JRPG in awhile, either. But I am 100+ hours deep in my first BG3 run, so that's where my time has gone.

I believe I own most of the Legend of Heroes, Atelier, Ys, Xenoblade games that are on modern hardware... perhaps I should play one of those next.

I'm one of those folks who got a PSVita TV for like nothing and it's modified... and sitting in a box somewhere.

One I move the old futon to the basement on my 1080p set, I will probably start working my way through console games again since the Mrs. can enjoy the 4k set for her viewing pleasure (only my PS5 is on that one).

 

[Pheria]

I'm leaning more towards RPG's these days ... but I'm demanding like a lot of quality and for them to tick boxes. I need exploration, I don't like linear rpgs or overly generic. I don't mind throwing 100+ hours into a game as long as the experience is great. XC2 for me was that (as well as XC2:Torna). So far the whole series meets that quality for me. IF it's not just exceptional, then I'll take a shorter rpg if it does something unique or fun. Like the quirky Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers. I got a new copy for $21.78 from gamefly a couple years ago. It's not super long and was quirky in all the right ways. I think I might have put 25 hours into it. Similar to Live A LIve... it is kind of basic in the world design but I loved the whole experience and how condensed it was. Perfect for playing a chapter over the course of a game session or two.



I looked last night an my original PSTV was the Lego Movie bundle but the one I bought as a backup is the Lego Movie & Sly Cooper bundle.

As for systems dropping cheap, it still happens but not as sweet a deal. Like the $50 2DS refurbished I grabbed from Nintendo.com ... the $99 New 2DS XL from Walmart (which I gave to my youngest son)... or the $20 Sony Playstation One Classic... which I bought 2 of them since that got free shipping and if nothing else the controllers are usb and pretty nice. They don't happen as often but the systems are also getting more expensive. Probably the next system to get cheap is going to be the Switch lite... but probably only $75 or something.

Oh nice, I'll consider refurbished consoles from them in the future perhaps.

I still quite like JRPG's/RPG's but I haven't been exclusively playing them.

I've found that I'm really resistant to getting into a game for the first maybe 4-5 hours and find it kind of a drag (not just RPG's, in general). But by the time I Get around 7-10 hours I'm pretty familiar with how it operates/the world and find it more enjoyable to play longer.

So my strategy has sort of been, 1.5 hours at a time when starting something new, after that switch to something else for 60-90 minutes that I'm already familiar with (Rhythm games or WoW, usually). Then after a while of that (This is usually like a week or two because of limited free time on weekdays, and not 'sampling' every day but I do also typically have two going at a time- so usually I'm 'into' one already) I'm usually into it enough to play it more frequently and for longer.
If I hate a game I'll drop it before then, but I frequently am in a "Do I really want to play this game, I haven't really learned how it all works yet, do I really want to start this long game instead of another long game?". So it's usually only effective at powering through a "I want to like this game, but I'm not yet" feeling. It feels more familiar and like a thing I just pick up to enjoy that some unknown mountain to evaluate and put a lot of time into.

Recently had this with Sea of Stars, I considered dropping it frequently early on but I ended up playing all the way through and liking it after that staggered, rocky start I had with it.
If you can grind in the game sometimes that works too. Once I hit that '90 minute wall', I can just stop progressing and run off to grind for a bit to relax. But in games with level scaling (like Sea of Stars) grinding is kind of pointless so I just play something else instead. Side rant about how much I hate level scaling in games.

Probably not for everyone, but I need systems and rules (they can be broken, it's not that serious, if I really don't feel like it or I'm not having fun I'll bail, but it's just a push/direction to get started), otherwise the analysis paralysis takes over instead and that's the fail state. lol

 

[nightc1]

I don't care for level scaling either. I'm purposefully wanting to grind to make the game easier, not more challenging!

 

[Nothing-]

I'm in the same boat with JRPGs. I'm getting really burned out with the 100+ hour bloated ones and a growing reluctance to commit myself to what feels like a project has been keeping me from playing very many lately. I'm just so sick of so many scenes of just talking, talking, talking with no actual story progression, so I've been gravitating more toward open world games, exploration-based games, "cozy" games, and shorter adventure/role-playing games without the time wasting.

Yeah, traditional jrpgs have become a bit antiquated. I still like them a lot, but they don't hold my attention like they used to. Esp when it feels like the game does not respect your time. There is good, lengthy content and then there's nonstop grinding on every world.

Young kids definitely don't play m/any jrpgs.

 

[shadowysea07]

Atelier rorona vanilla I don't have any experience with. But I played plus and didn't find it restrictive at all compared to ayesha vanilla. Ayesha which I got the early bad ending in because of how strict the time limit was and how you burn a month just going to the floating dungeon area alone.

I appreciate the time limit being removed from ryza somewhat. But it never really bothered me besides when trying to get certain endings and such that aren't things in ryza.

Of the series I've played ayesha vanilla, rorona plus, meruru vanilla and ryza 1. So there's 16 titles I haven't played give or take from just the localized ones.

Of them I'd actually say rorona was my favorite since it was the most serious and structured. While the others are less so. Ayesha is the worst protagonist of the batch definitely thus far. There's idiot savant and then there's whatever ayesha is. She's just so air headed that I am amazed she remembered how to dress herself.

Trails I skipped sky entirely. And started with cold steel. Then after 1 and 2 I later played zero after it was finally localized. Next up will be Azure. But I'm sort of dreading it since people I know did not care for that one. I have cs 3 4 and reverie in the backlog.

Ys I've played celceta and lacrimosa. Origin, napishtim, and monstrum are all in the ol backlog.

Atelier backlog is khemia 1, one of the Iris titles, escha & logy, shallie, Sophie 2, ryza 2 &3.

 

[Nothing-]

Look see that's all we need is a little bit of Vita conversation to get the goons all riled up and randy 'round here.

 

[Pheria]

Vita means life.