The Denpa Men Are Going Free-To-Play In Japan

Wow didn't expect a news article. 3 in the morning here.
Anyways
This scares me. RPG and free-to-play are to terms that should NEVER go together.
Maybe I'll pick up 3 later, I've been meaning to for a long time.

I have the first two and they are really good. I think free to play is fine at this stage because they have three fully packed games already for those people who want to throw down there hard earned cash and the free to play is ideal for casual or sitting on the fence players. If it brings more players to the game fantastic . I just hope that they add a load of stuff to the F2P game that isn't in the main 3 games that would annoy me.

Really guys? Another one? Free to play aside, this is worse than COD for repetition of a franchise that has essentially the same gameplay in each iteration!

@Damo ik this is the wrong place to add this but theres some new info on Final Fantasiy Explorers for the 3DS http://www.siliconera.com/2014/07/01/final-fantasy-explorers-job-system-little-different-main-series/

@PvtOttobot There are only 3 Denpa games. COD has 10. Calm down.

I can't decide if this is good or bad. Like the person above said, RPG and F2P don't go down too well.

Well most games that aren't at least a little successful will no longer come over to the west. The fact they keep trying means they feel that it can be. I own the first 2 but still haven't been able to play the second one. Blame AC:NL for that one. I'll also pick up the 3rd at some point because I know I'll like it and the dev deserves my money for an excellent product.

Not sure I like the way this free to play sounds though. If in the end it all costs the same I guess no big deal but if you can spend as much as 30$ I think I'll pass. This sounds like the wrong direction to me tbh.

I don't mind free-to-play, what I DO mind is when you're forced to buy something to actually do good in the game. I hope that isn't the case here.

Um, why don't they slow down the rate at which they're being released if they want them to sell better?

All the Picross games being released in such a short space of time makes sense to me, because it's kinda been like one retail game split across four smaller digital versions. But what am I supposed to do with all these Denpa Men?!

Bad sales of the previous 3 games in the west is almost certainly not the reason for the 4th being F2P. Considering how much time NL discusses smart phone and tablet games being the bane of the 3DS existence... its called, if you cant beat them, join them.

I dont know how well other really quirky odd DL only games sell in the west, but these cant be much worse than most. Maybe if they could go back in time and redo the entire series exactly the same only with well established Pikmin characters rather than the Denpa Men this would have sold much better.

Amynody know how well Kumis Odd Oddyssey sold? Thats the only thing I can think of as quirky as these, though it does have a long herotage.

What do they expect releasing a very similar game 3 times over in a very short space of time?

They should have taken longer with a proper sequel that had better gameplay. Instead it just feels like they wanted a quick cash-grab...

Still haven't had time to pick up the first one. And probably won't now, unless I like this one. I guess this is one final attempt to try and drive sales.
Free to Play, I feel, will be good here. Maybe you can actually buy specific teammates if you don't have a plethora of WiFi hotspots near you; that'd be wonderful. I'd buy some when I'm playing at night and don't want to go outside.

@PvtOttobot Totally agree with you. Less than 2.5 years and there are 4 Denpa Men games, RPG games. Even if each game had significant improvement, it's still too many and fast, not to say that the improvement is trivial.
That's how to destroy a good game brand. I liked this game initially, but now I'm tired of it.

So, what exactly is a "spare website"? Is it a website you keep on the side, like a mistress or something?

Totally agree with the thing about releasing too many games in a short span of time hurting the series' sales in the west. my reaction to seeing the third game in the eshop was literally "what, already? another one??"

1,, i see no problem in releasing games this fast.
2... Free to play could mean many things.

look at no more puzzles or heroes for the vita Where you are given so many plays free and then you have to wait 8 hours for another play or pay to unlock unlimited. or age of .... for the tablets and vita where you get so much game and then if you want to unlock more it will cost you.

. where there are like 6 or 7 islands (worlds) they willl give you the first world (island for free) and then when you want to move onto the next ones you can either pay 99 cents per island or Or wait like a day or two for the next island to unllock 9.99 to unlock it all at once.

i got all 3 of the games.

Played game one up to the final boss and gave up
Played game two and beat the final boss post game was boring
played game three maybe 10 hours found it boring and just a clone of 1 and 2.

i highly doubt i will buy part 4 unless its dirt cheap again its coming in JUNE in JAPAN meaning if it even has a chance of coming here it would not be until MARCH 2015 almost a year after part 3

I really enjoyed the first game, and wanted to pick up the later two, but I'm still hoping they'll eventually see that what Europe (or at least anyone like me) needs is all three bundled on a cartridge...

Why is almost everybody hating on it? I'm sure if it wasn't Denpa Men everyone would be hyped. Why doesn't it matter if a game releases quickly? If fans like it then they can release how every many they want as fast as they want. I personally beat Denpa Men 3 already and am looking for a new RPG. This is great news I will spend how ever much I have (and have to) to support Genius Sonority.

Yessh nother one already dis soon? Don't mind, but the reaction to sales and how to implement it........ Try and make some sales discounts in the west.

Ummmmmmmmm didn't see this coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still I love this little series, I'll be picking up 3 here soon loved 1 and sadly never played 2 (little to expensive)

"Pay $0.99 to capture 3 Denpa Men in your environment!"
Can't wait.

Oops your party died!

Wait 3 hours for each Denpa Man to return, or pay $2.99 to revive them right now.

Has anyone even read the article?
"will feature items which can only be obtained by spending real-world cash."

@DakotaM47 It's not that there's 3, it's just that there's about 1 a year. Maybe less than a year.

Doesn't Denpa 3 have an option to spend real mullah?

@SuperMikey
Denpa 1 - Late Sept/October 2012
Denpa 2 - Mid May 2013
Denpa 3 - Mid May 2014
You are right, but Denpa has more quality than COD IMO. That's not COD hate btw. I actually like COD.
And yes, there is micro transactions in Denpa3.

I can't reply to Dakota directly for some reason... ANYWAYS!! Were the micro transactions for purchasing items or... what? I feel like all the Denpas are the same... (I've only played the demos for 1 & 2, didn't even bother with 3 so I can't really say for sure)... Doesn't cod do the same thing every year but mix it up a little? I guess it could maybe apply here (unless if the demos weren't accurate representations of what is actually in the game).

Bleh. Never really liked the series, and I'm not surprised it isn't selling well in the west.

I bought the 1st one when it came out and LOVED it but never felt I was missing out by not getting #2 and #3.

I still play the game but am happy with the 1st one.

Then again, maybe the blame should be on the lack of ability to "resell" digital content.... idk, just a thought.

@MetaRyan The real reason it didn't sell well in the west is people here only expect RPGs to have anime looking characters and can't take a childish looking artstyle.

There is no reason why this game shouldn't sell a bunch. The battle system to me is as good as bravely default and its darn close in quality to Dragon Quest just lacking a good story. But 2 and 3 are solid Open world RPG's for an excellent price. To me they are retail quality games at a budget price. I think when those guys dressed up as DenpaMen some people were turned off to the game cause they were creepy. Seriously I would hate to see this go to free to play, especially if they treat it like Rusty's baseball and you get about 5 minutes of play before you have to buy to proceed.

@ashlyquin I gotta say your missing out on at least 2. They opened the world up so much. Its open world where part 1 leads you to the end. I would recommend picking up at least part 2 for yourself if you like open world rpg's

Item's that can only be purchased with real money? Not sure I like the sound of this so far... Maybe it isn't as bad as I think.

A new Denpa men...AGAIN?! Meh!