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

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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!

 

[Tothoro]

I wonder how much of the negatives were self inflicted by using a guide for and (I presume) chasing the platinum? Like, were you just hammering thing after thing to try and get it all done in the time allowed? That would exhaust me and burn me out completely on a game. It's why I've just come to accept I can't do everything and I shouldn't even try unless I finish a game and then really feel compelled to experience more because it was just that good. Xenoblade 2 was a good example for me because I didn't go chasing every blade but saved a lot of that for after finishing it and really wanting more. Getting all those little side stories while maxing out the affinity chart for each special blade was much fun. Eventually I got tired of it as I had nearly every blade, but it was nice to stay in that world a little longer and see more even though I wasn't given a virtual trophy for i t.

Yeah that was my thought as well. Going for a guide-aided platinum right away for your first Persona experience is probably what led some of that disdain for the calendar.

Other points of criticism hit more fairly. I wouldn't call any of the main cast especially strong characters. Akechi is probably the best written and the.. new girl with Royal.. is at least a different beat than usual. (I'm a model/idol/actress = zzzz)

Honestly, the guide took a lot of stress out since I knew what to do. If I would've just been bumbling around making my own choices and missing stuff I would've had a worse time and been frustrated not knowing X choice resulted in Y. Definitely a matter of personal preference though.

Agree on Akechi. I didn't dislike Yoshizawa, she just felt tacked on and unnecessary. Even the Royal arc would've been fine without her IMO.

(snip)

I think that's apt. I played through 1-2 palaces a month to avoid burnout, with each arc kinda being a "season." Even though I like VNs, I felt like there was too much slice-of-life stuff though; the ratio of "meat" to "fluff" wasn't my taste.

Monster merging was pretty fun IMO. It was really restrictive in the beginning but you can pass down skills, transmute them into items, and build some pretty cool dudes. Merging them is how you enhance them, essentially. The low-level demons stop learning skills pretty early so you have to merge to keep building toward higher-end spells. By the end of the game I was mostly running mono-elemental demons (with their respective Amp/Boost) and funneling skills like High Energy or Concentrate to essentially hypercarry and exploit weaknesses. The experimentation and trade-offs from limited skill slots was something I enjoyed.

Definitely understand the high school focus in Japanese media, my point is moreso that it's a setting that I've burned out on. Like if you only played games set in 1950s New York City, despite it being an interesting setting, you'd eventually get tired of it. "Medieval world that's secretly a post-apocalyptic dystopia" is also getting up there in the list of overdone settings for me.

 

[Covnam]

Honestly, the guide took a lot of stress out since I knew what to do. If I would've just been bumbling around making my own choices and missing stuff I would've had a worse time and been frustrated not knowing X choice resulted in Y. Definitely a matter of personal preference though.

I use a spoiler free social link guide myself when playing persona just to make sure I get everyone to max, but leave everything else to my choices. I find that to be a good balance with only needing to play it once without having to be to slavish to a guide. If I had all the time in the world I'd definitely prefer to play without one, but I don't have the time to play 100+ hour RPGs multiple times and I'd be very annoyed if I had a few social links that weren't maxed.
Metaphor was nice in this regard as it was far less restrictive and you could max everyone without much trouble and needing to follow a guide.

"Medieval world that's secretly a post-apocalyptic dystopia" is also getting up there in the list of overdone settings for me.

Yeah, I was actually annoyed to see that trope pop up in

Spoiler

Metaphor. I didn't think it was necessary to have the ancient civilization be our modern world.

 

[nitrosmob]

I got to a point in the original P5 where I was like why am I doing this anymore. I stopped playing for about a month and I think was 2 dungeons off the end (I thought the story was kind of weak at that point), but I stumbled to the finish line of that game. I think the combat system and persona system itself are good. I wasn't crazy about the social links as much in P5 as well for some reason. I think the combat was the most clean out of modern Persona Games (3-5), but everything else other than the graphics wasn't hitting as much for me. P3 I think I liked the overall story the most with some good social links as well (every game had some good ones) and P4 I liked the story and characters a lot and the dungeons as well. I'm one of the few who haven't played the enhanced versions of any of these games (P3P, P3R, P4G, P5R), so whenever I revisit them I hope I enjoy them. P3R is likely next in line for me for these games. For me for favorites its 3-5 in that order. I think P3 may have hit harder since I was starting college at the time and the story resonated with me a bit.

 

[shadowysea07]

Yeah that was my thought as well. Going for a guide-aided platinum right away for your first Persona experience is probably what led some of that disdain for the calendar.

Other points of criticism hit more fairly. I wouldn't call any of the main cast especially strong characters. Akechi is probably the best written and the.. new girl with Royal.. is at least a different beat than usual. (I'm a model/idol/actress = zzzz)

A lot of your complaints are common.

The writing has gotten worse with each game sadly. Though p3 vanilla had some of the worse s links. Femc route in p3p drastically improved that by having party members as links swapping out a number of them including moon. Originally moon is a character that honest to god even I'd have bullied. He's so very deserving of it.

Mon wise yep boost amp and whatever the top spell is (usually mon exclusive) die for me for dark, nifelheim for ice, ragnarok fire and do on.

Though due to the new added elements it's a little more annoying to get types set up. I also just set up a physical mon with high crit and such as that's semi reliable for more damage.

 

[gospelman]

If anyone has the tolerance to hunt for gutted copies of physical games at gs in-store, there are a number of $15 clearance titles.

I'm only going to post this here.. since I want them in the hands of actual jrpg enthusiasts. But a number of these $15 games just became available with shipping for the first time during this sale. Cold Steel II&IV for example was already getting somewhat scarce and hadn't dropped below $50. Play and enjoy them! III is my favorite Cold Steel game and roughly half of IV is good as well.

I made another order with some obscure stuff that I already failed to find in my area. Potionomics: Masterwork Edition, Under Night In-birth II, etc

 

[ritchardf]

huge thank you, I haven't found anything locally from this sale, got the trails games, legend of legacy hd, potionomics and a couple others that had been in stock the whole time but i couldn't get enough for free shipping. a few games are available for pickup now but not shipping that were previously not available.

 

[TheKbob]

Couldn't find a Potionomics, damn, but got Veilguard Deluxe.

Might check more later this week, no hurry, but thanks for the look out.

 

[Nothing-]

Makoto was my favorite character

stahp! you're making me blush.

not to mention Cherami Leigh has one of the hottest voices in the VA industry.

Persona series is more about the vibe and the ambiance than anything. That and the monster fusion. Sometimes I wonder if we'd be better off ignoring all of the guides completely, and forgetting achievements, diffusing the time constraint and collect-em-all tension. because that is what the game should be. But yes, it's impossible to ignore the guide when you're trying to see everything.

 

[Vinny]

I'm only going to post this here.. since I want them in the hands of actual jrpg enthusiasts. But a number of these $15 games just became available with shipping for the first time during this sale. Cold Steel II&IV for example was already getting somewhat scarce and hadn't dropped below $50. Play and enjoy them! III is my favorite Cold Steel game and roughly half of IV is good as well.

I made another order with some obscure stuff that I already failed to find in my area. Potionomics: Masterwork Edition, Under Night In-birth II, etc

Dang, wish I saw this before... would have loved CSIII&IV.

Also, when did GS star carrying BDs?

 

[scorponok]

I placed an order for 5 games at gamestop and I got a shipping notification a half hour later that all 5 shipped together. Now the worry of what they will actually ship me. I picked up:
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III / The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV PS5
The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered PS5
Class of Heroes 1 and 2: Complete Edition PS5
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes] PS5
Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition PS5

 

[Vinny]

I placed an order for 5 games at gamestop and I got a shipping notification a half hour later that all 5 shipped together. Now the worry of what they will actually ship me. I picked up:
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III / The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV PS5
The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered PS5
Class of Heroes 1 and 2: Complete Edition PS5
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes] PS5
Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition PS5

Damn, I didn't see Outlaws Gold...

A lot of these prices are crazy good, but some seem... not great. SMRPG for $30 and FF16 for $30 are both great prices IMO, but also seem kind of high... SMRPG has been on sale for less, I think I got it from GS for $25 like a year ago and FF16 is like 2 years old almost?

 

[ritchardf]

Damn, I didn't see Outlaws Gold...

A lot of these prices are crazy good, but some seem... not great. SMRPG for $30 and FF16 for $30 are both great prices IMO, but also seem kind of high... SMRPG has been on sale for less, I think I got it from GS for $25 like a year ago and FF16 is like 2 years old almost?

yeah, a few of these games have been cheaper, like persona 5 tactica has been $10 several times.

 

[nightc1]

I appreciate everyone's feedback on how they approached P5R. It's given me a lot of food for thought. I also read more on NG+ for P5R and it sounds like if you finished the main game in about 80 hours without a guide that it sets you up for NG+ to only be about 30 to 40 hours to finish everything. I feel like that's the approach I'll take as I realize now that I screwed up playing Xenoblade Chronicles Defnitive. I didn't go full on guide mode, but I did use a no spoilers guide to make sure wasn't missing side quests and things. I also looked up where to find certain things for specific quest. That bogged the experience down and eventually is part of what made me stop playing even though I was VERY deep into it. The FOMO in these games is real and for myself, I have to be careful not to fall into that trap because I can get burned out.

I already kind of was doing this with buying games, realizing I can't play every game and I shouldn't even try to. That I should limit my purchases and try to just enjoy what I like the most in gaming which will hopefully leave me more open to random new games that pop up. I just need to apply the real world to how I role play in these games.

Unrelated to all of this...

Phantom Breaker: Omnia is on sale on eshop for $3.99. I had only ever considered the beatemup Battle Grounds game (I might have an old version of that on Vita) but this really hit me with how very Anime it is. I figure for $4 + tax, it might make a good game for my kids (youngest is 20yo) and I to play when we get together since it's not smash or street fighter or something where we might have an experience advantage. I gave it a few matches last night... the voice work is pretty great as are the graphics. The fighting itself seems fine. If nothing else, I'll get my money worth out of it when we are all together (possibly this weekend).

I've also been watching a lot more Anime. I finished Wasteful Days of Highschool Girls, and then watched 3D Kanojo Real Girl, Tamako Market (though I still need to watch the movie), Sorairo Utility, and am currently about 8 episodes in on Nana. I think all of them have been solid for different reasons and satisfying.

 

[TheKbob]

I use wiki's more than guides for these bigger RPGs. If something isn't intuitive after reviewing tutorials and tinkering, I'll just search that specific thing to better understand it.

Crafting gems in XCDE, if you're wanting to maximize your output, has a counter intuitive method to first isolate the stats you want and then shoot it to the moon. But doing that makes you bonkers strong...

Which is actually needed if you want to tackle the secret bosses. You could brute force the RNG to get the best gems, but just looking up the best method was way more satisfying, IMO. Plus the noises crafting makes are awful. I saved up a big pile, muted the game, and listened to a podcast while crafting.

Similar, I'm playing Pathfinder Kingmaker, and you've gotta be a special kind of reckless to play a Pathfinder CRPG without any outside sources. Pathfinder is already one of the most complex TTRPGs out there and games has many obtuse systems that can get you Game Over long before it actually happens. Getting general mechanics guides and tips has helped me greatly; still playing blind, but getting to play versus just learning the "hard way."

I couldn't figure out the Kinetiscist class for the life of me, but some redditors guide was like "they're magical rangers that can overcharge their shots versus firing magical arrows."

Oh. Why didn't you say that? Someone's the lore gets in the way or assumes familiarity.

I think game designers aren't educators, therefore they create tutorials based upon their experiences and preferred learning modes, without considering for how users approach at their own pace and preferred style. If you look at it that way, seeking an outside reference that better aligns with your mode of thinking enriches the experience, not spoils it.

Games with those tutorials that show button prompts, a little video/gif of the thing being taught, and a text description with optional in game tutorial (training wheels moments) offer several modes at once. Those are my favorites as it's all optional, can be referenced at any time, and gives me the visual understanding of "this is what it looks like when I did it right."

 

[drtomoe123]

Playing P3 when it came out (without a guide) was such a breath of fresh air. There was nothing really like it out there, especially in terms of aesthetic and overall quality, and the games have just gotten more fully realized since IMO.

In other news, I definitely took advantage of the GS sale for Rhapsody and the PS5 Cold Steel 3/4 pack. I had literally been watching for price drops for MONTHS and was expecting maybe $30 or $40 sale-wise respectively—so talk about my pleasant surprise when I saw this sale go up!!!