NIS America Hosts 'Hidden Gems' Switch eShop Sale, Save Up To 60% (North America)

DAMN!
I thought there was actually a Culdcept game for Switch and I was gonna lose my mind!!!
Then of course that has to be the ONE game for DS.... damnit.

Wish they would bring a version to Switch!

Yomawari is great. I mean really great. Cute, but quite effective at being horror, at a level that can rival the great names. And it's two games.

Gonna get Culdcept. Wanted to try that forever, but never got around to it. Seems like as good an opportunity as I am going to get, given with whats going on.

I'm also curious about Caligula Effect. The combat always looked intriguing but the reviews are so mixed to say the least of it. Anyone tried the Switch version yet?

@Ralek85 Caligula effect is not bas but not good ever. The combat system is cool for the first few minutes, but understand that you have many encounters and the system make all of them sooo long. In the end, I was just running away most of the time.

The story is not bad, but not stellar, and if it doesn't pick your curiosity then you are doomed.
The relationship are interesting to develop if your interested in the backstory of the characters, and some are good
The graphics are not bad, but don't buy this game for it
The dungeons are boring and tedious because of the combat system which make every battle too long: this system should have been a gimmick for boss battles

I did finish the game, but I forced myself for the last hours, and I did make it only because I was interested at the story, which disappointed me a little at the end. I will not recommend it at full price, but at half, it can pass the time I guess. Just don't be like me, and don't expect it to be a persona clone

Never heard of any of em and I follow switch more closely than my footy team (pre virus obvs)

Not many good games in this list compared to the rest of their (excellent) lineup. Sounds like a bargain bin selection to me.

Culdcept Revolt is an excellent game and one of my all-time favorites on the 3DS.

Do not get the Caligula Effect. It feels like you’re doing the same thing over and over again.

Can't recommend Culdcept enough! It's so great, so much content

Echoing the sentiment of others here, Culdcept Revolt is an underrated classic. It's basically Magic the Gathering meets monopoly. It's not too hard to understand and it's incredibly fun!

It definitely feels like, "Hidden Gems" here means putting a spotlight on some their lower selling games to try to shift some copies. The only thing that interests me here is Yomawari: The Long Night Collection. It's been sitting on my wish list for a while and at half off I figured I'd go for it, though since it's a survival horror title I might well end up sitting on it until October since I always enjoy having a few nice spooky games to play during spooky season.

@NightMiroir Thanks for the input. I think I'll hold off then and pick it up eventually at a better deal. FFVIIR will keep me plenty busy, I guess, still playing Nioh 2 and actually kinda itching to (re)play Persona 5 Royal come tomorrow

Nope nothing interesting for me

@Ralek85 Haha, if you have persona 5 royal and ff7 remake, don't even think about caligula effect ! I will personally double dip for persona 5 royal, and wait for ff7 (I'm hoping for a super duper fantastic edition with all the parts in some years ❤️)

@NightMiroir I would too but I've already played and finished P5 with like 120h on the clock, so even given the changes and extra content, it's much fresher in my mind than FFVII and obviously FFVII Remake is a vastly more drastic overhaul than Royal ^^

And yeah, Nioh 2 is absolutely fantastic as well with copious amount of content, not to mention everyone's best friend: the backlog ^^

You're right though, I'll wait for a really good bargain with Caligula. Definitely want to try that combat system myself some day, but that's really no rush. Culdcept I'm going to get though. That intrigued me since the 360 days

Yomawari is the hidden gem from all of these. So many jump scares. Scary story but great! Also, you get two games!

@Ralek85 Haha same, so much time spent on persona!

I heard there was a lot of new content for ff7, like quests and characters, I'm waiting the reviews to see what's new and how long is this first part (it's only in Midgard I think?). The demo was good and really beautiful too! Barret has no chill, was always screaming at me and I loved every second of it

Ooh is Nioh 2 worth it? I played the first one and I liked it enough (but if we talk about samourai game, I prefer Sekiro, the only "souls" game where I can parry to save my life). Is it harder than the first one? I remember that I did have some trouble with some "mob oni" 👹

In caligula, I liked the combat system at the beginning (you can more or less see the impact of your attacks and prepare the attacks of your others characters in consequence) but when there is a enemy at every corner, every battle against every weak enemy is too long (especially when you know you can destroy them in one hit). But it's not the baddest game outside, just meh

Culdcept is really good, I liked it a lot, it's like the weird child between a board game and a card game (it was my first game of this genre and I had a good time with it)

@NightMiroir I'm not big on Final Fantasy personally. I was always more into SMT or other niche games like Lost Odyssey, Shadow Hearts, Resonance of Fate and such - generally the more tonally "somber" games, with obvious expections like Persona 3-5 (1+2 were pretty somber though actually ^^) or TMS#FE.

Anyways, I did play some of the earlier FF on NDS as well as VII and XII and as you say, the demo for FF VII Remake was rather glorious. I think the game will be substantial even if it only covers the Midgard section of FFVII. Square said the they significantly expanded upon the original content and that it will be comparable in length to other mainlaine standaline FF games. I do expect and hope to get like 30h out of it, esp. since I'm the kinda of player who meticiously checks ever nook and cranny.

My only concern is that the demo was super easy. But FFVII if I recall startet out rather easy as well, so here is hoping to things picking up later on.

As for Nioh 2 I'll say that it is proper brilliant. There are small design flaws here and there, but overall it's everything you could ask for in a game like this and in my view it is Team Ninja at their absolute best. The most important aspect is that virtually all of the game can be played in co-op (there are some 1-on-1 missions as well as the Dojo missions that afaik you have to play solo, but most other submissions as well as all mainmissions work) and that's really a great deal of fun. The co-op is also straightforward. One player host a match for friends, those can simply join the lobby, a mission is selected and then things get underway. Progress is shared between coop and single-player, which is crucial to me, since I hated how in Bloodborne progress counted only for the "hosting" player and the whole system was super obtuse to initially setup. Be warned though, that currently the PSN is broken during the day, so at least for me an my buds, we can only play after like 11 p.m. at night.

It's basically Sekiro meets Diablo. For many players, that will be a dream come true. I think it's a fair bit easier than Nioh 1 to be honest, but that may be in some part due to me "learning the ropes" in Nioh 1 as well as co-op of course, having played Nioh 1 only solo. Still, even in Solo missions I tend to take bosses within 1-3 attempts, when in Nioh 1 I often took a dozen tries.

I also think the game is ALOT easier than Sekiro in my book. I've beaten all the bosses in Sekiro except the final one since sadly my vacation ran out then, I haven't gotten back to the game since, but I do remember that some fights took me like a whole day to nail down, like the fight against Owl for instance. I think I am 2/3 through Nioh 2 now (the 1st run at least), and none of the bosses took me more than hour, with several of them going down 1st try - definitely in co-op.

Be aware though (although you probably know this already having tried Nioh 1), that Sekiro and Nioh 2 are vastly different games, despite some similiarites. Parrying for instance works entirely different, with completely different timing windows, additional effects skewing these windows even further and in general ... I don't parry in Nioh 2 at all. I dodge or block as the pay-off in Nioh 2 is not worth the risk. It's way more important to get your burst counters in, which more about positioning than timing though (at least with Brutes and Ferals).

In general, I absolutely addored Sekiro, but I also love Nioh 2. Both share a commong setting and some mechanical similarities being both "soulsborne" games, but Nioh 2 in many ways is much closer to Demon Souls than Sekiro actually. Still, some aspects still flat out do not work in Nioh 2. The level design ins subpar compared to Soulsborne. The way the world is split into small areas accessible as missions kinda of kills the sense of place. Both of which makes the environmental storytelling barely existent and really hurts the atmosphere. Nioh 2 is also super grindy compared to your typical Soulsborne. You have not just levels to worry about, but weapon familiarity as well as Skill proficiency for Ninja/Samurai/Shiftling and Magic skills individualls as well as for each weapontype seperately.

THe way way Nioh 2 is structured is more like a game like Diablo. It's "real" meat is the endgame content/ New Game+ where all the real good gear awaits and the game opens up giving you tools for proper builds and min-maxing. That is not everyone's cup of tea and I say as a single-player game, you play only once start to finish to experience the world and the story, Nioh 2 is inferior to Sekiro in many ways.

As an extended experience, where you try dozen of different builds, optimize your gear and play a fair bit of co-op, it is clearly superior to Sekiro, which had no multiplayer and only a very limited NG+, that was - in my view - aimed at hardcore fans, offering little new options over your 1st run expect to experience a tougher challenge (the game was plenty tough already though imho) as well as to experience the other endings.

The story in Nioh 2 is pretty hard to follow if you do not have extensive background knowledge of Japanese history in the Sengoku period. Times, places and famous individuals are heavily referenced and prominently featured in the game, but if you only go by the cutscenes between missions you will have a hard time really "getting it" nor will you be invested in what is happening. Nioh 2's storytelling is entirely unlike Soulsborne, but given the games particular structure I feel the game is poorly severed by this traditional linear cut-scene heavy storytelling.

It's something that did not really work for me in Nioh 1 and it sitll doesn't work here. Given the games qualities, as I elabored above, plus the excellent combat mechanics (allowing like Demon Souls did for ranged combat builds, with magic or Ninja skills for instance as well as very cool melee combat), that is something I can easily forgive though. I don't think people spend 200h with Diablo 3 for the story either ...

Long story short, if you look challenging, fast paced action games, set in the setting of Sekiro, you'll like it. If you liked Nioh 1, you will like it. If you like Team Ninja games, you will like it. If you like loot-and-min-max'ing heavy games like Diablo, you will like it.

I'd say it stands overall toe-to-toe with Sekiro. Both games focus on different aspects on the Soulsborne genre. But both largely succeed in their particular endeavours. Final note: Like I said, if parrying ain't your thing in general, do not worry, blocking, dodging is the name of the game in Nioh 2 and the only areas where parry comes in is burst countering, but that is far, far, far, far, far more forgiveable than Sekiro. If you could handle Sekiro you will be more than fine in Nioh 2, trust me. Compared to that, it's a cakewalk. If you ever want to play Nioh 2 (or just talk trash ^^) feel free to hit me up on PSN (Ralek_US) btw.

As for Caligula, I read as much in other reviews as well, particularly about how long the encounters take and how many there are. I feel like combat is really cool, but from what I've seen and read, it does not evolve all that much and it lacks the "snappiness" and style of, say, Persona 5, which made each fight feel like the coolest thing, and it was very brisk at it as well.

I bought Culdcept already. Not sure when I'll get to it, but it sure looks very much down my alley. I do love deep cardbattling systems and it seems to have that in spades, plus some cool twist to it. Looking forward to immersing myself into it eventually.

@Ralek85 Oooh huge fan of SMT myself ! I'm waiting for news about SMT V like crazy ! Resonance of fate was good for what I remembered (which is not a lot haha). TMS#FE is really nice, and a change of pace compared to the dark theme of SMT (I know some where waiting for it to be more like a FE game and were disappointed in it, but it was not my case as I was really waiting a "cute" SMT). Yeah, persona 1 and 2 were on the darker side (I remember mostly persona 2, and persona 1 left a salty taste with this snow queen quest haha).

True, the demo for FF was easy, I'm hoping for other difficulty than "normal" but like you said, maybe the difficulty will pick up later in the game ! I'm mostly attached to FF 7 by nostalgia, like some other, but the FF series is one I like. But like you, I'm more attached to series like SMT, persona, Dark Souls, Zelda (of course !). If you like Atlus game, did you try the Etrian Odyssey series on the DS and 3DS? If you are into dungeon crawler, you have to try it ! It can be pretty hard and demanding, you draw your own map (my favorite thing <3), compose your own party with a lot of different class... It is not really story-driven (the plot is always something like "see this big legendary tree ? Please, go at the top") but there is enough NPC and quests to keep the interest fresh. And I know it is not really the same, but if pixel art doesn't bother you, try Blasphemous (a pixelated goodness heavily inspired by Dark souls): it's in 2D, has a bit of plateforming (less than game like Hollow Knight but a bit), has cool combat and bosses, a rich lore, a lot of secrets... and is on the dark and heavy side !

Thank you for the explanation on Nioh 2, it was really helpful ! I'm grateful that parrying is not a big thing haha I really liked it in Sekiro because it was a huge part of the gameplay, and easy enough for me, but in game like Dark souls or' Bloodborne, I could parry one time out of ten and more often than not the result was an ugly death... I'm more of a dodge-to-live player in the classic soulsborne !

I found Sekiro easier than Dark souls or Blooborne or Nioh, I don't really know why (maybe because it is fast paced, a lot of my friends find Sekiro a lot more harder than the souls, and if they were champion at parrying in dark soul, they were garbage in Sekiro, again probably because of the more "quick" gameplay of Sekiro)

Yeah, in Nioh 1 there was a lot of reference to historical characters, I guessed it will be the same in Nioh 2 and you just confirmed it ! Unfortunately, I don't have an access to psn (maybe some day!) but I will gladly hit you up ! I will also invite you on switch if you want ? Sasuna's the name on my Nintendo account, expect an invitation from me

@NightMiroir I added you PSN and you're welcome to add me on NO as well. How come you have no access to PSN in this day and age? ^^

I'm absolutely with you on SMT V, anxiously awaiting ANY news on the game. I don't think it's canacelled or anything, but going this long with just confirmation that things are progressing is kinda disappointing. I love Peronsa, but the last couple of years, I got the strong impression that Atlus really only cares about Persona anymore, with SMT taking a backseat and then some. THey even removed the "SMT" from Persona altogether, so some people don't even realize that there is such a thing as SMT and that Persona is part of it, furthermore "just" a spin-off if you will.

I really, really hope that this year around E3 or TGS at the latest, we will get SOME news about the game, even if it is just another vague teaser.

As for FFVII I have to say I am excited about the combat. I used to love "classic" turn-based games, but in recent years, I came to crave games that made me forget, that I was playing a turn-based game for the most part. TMS#FE had a really nice flowing presentation, that made the game look very dynamic, alive and action'y, while actually being as turn-based as they come. Dragon Quest though, for all it's glorious beauty, was incredibly slow paced in combat and it also really presented itself that way. I could not stomach it.

This ties in directly with Etrian Odyssey. I have bought several entries for the 3DS and I recently bought a New 3DS as well (cost me a pretty penny, too, importing from the US, got me the Metroid Ediiton^^). THe issue I have, despite finding much to like about the series at it's core, is that the combat looks incredibly static. It's one of the things I really liked about Persona 3 right off the beat over games like SMT V for instance. The way your own actions are animated and you are not just represented with static demon images (although the art on display is always absolutely fantasic), but you see characters moving, casting spells etc. The whole experience just feels so much more engaging that way.

It's also what made games like Resonance of Fate stand out to me. Once you set up your action, the game looked like the sickest John-Woo-action-flick ever. It was bonkers and stand to this day, in my view, as one of the best turn-based systems I ever played as well as the flat-out best presented - period. And yes, I know the game had plenty of flaws outside of combat, sure, but that does not take away from this achievement at all.

I actually bought Blasphemous on Switch the other day, after trying the demo. Haven't played any further so far (sadly the demo state didn't care over), but I am definitely going to. Hollow Knight was insanely good, like one of my favourite games this gen. Super tight gameplay, very strong Soulborne inspired environmental storytelling and atmosphere, just all around virtually perfect. Very much looking forward to Silksong.

Nioh 2's parrying is much closer to traditional Souls from what I can tell, and yes, it's rather optional and in my view not advised since it can be very unreliable and the benefits are not nearly as significant as Sekiro. I think the thing about Sekiro was the game was built around parry in many ways and in that regard, the game was actually more about rythm, yes, like a rythm game, than mere timing. I guess, that made it easier for some that what one would initially expect.

I, too, fund Sekiro ALOT harder than any Souls game that came before, mostly because there was just this one style of play with no customization and no real stat boosting to make things marginally easier for yourself. So, in Demon Souls and in Nioh 2 I am pretty much a caster. In Dark Souls I most played a tanky built with shields.

In Sekiro none of these styles are an option. It's a severe downgrade in that regard, although I get how it came to be and I still love Sekiro too death. Yet, it was and still is a hard game on me, with some bosses pushing me as hard as I have ever been pushed as gamer. I still need to get back to that final boss even. But having not play in like a year, that is a tall order right now.

I didn't have that much trouble with "normal" enemies as far as the faster pacing goes. I played plenty of faster action games before, even Bloodborne was a helluva lot faster than DemonS or DarkS, but like I said, Sekiro is very narrow in what it asks of you, with no room for deviation and rhythm games are not typical my thing at all, making it even more of an adjustment. Some boss fight frustration aside, which comes with the territory, I loved every second of it and the world.

In fact, I was re-reading "Blade of the Immortal", one if not my favourite manga of all time next to Berserk and Dorohedoro, while I was playing Sekiro - it was pure chance actually - and it struck me how much obvious inspiration SEkiro has taken from Blade of the Immortal. Hidetaka Miyazaki is well known to be a bit of "book worm", if you will, you takes inspiration from literature and architecture left and right - which was super obvious already with Dark Souls, which really just copy&pasted (imitation is after all the sincerest form of flattery) whole enemy designs right of the pages of Miura's seminal work on Berserk. Miyazaki was always very open about this, and again, why not steal from the best? It only makes sense. The way in which Bloodborne took more than cue from H.P. Lovecraft is also obvious right away. But I love Miura's work, just I think some, not all, but some of Lovecrafts writing is genius. Yes, there is plenty of sexism and anti-semitism in there, plus a overwhelming sense of general xenophobia, but works like "The Music of Erich Zann" are proper brilliant works still. Generally, the whole cosmic horror genre obviously owes alot to him regardless of his many flaws.

In short, I'd love Bloodborne 2 to happen eventually and build on everything From Software learned since BLoodborne 1, from games like Sekiro and so on, but I'm also okay with Elden Ring for now

@Ralek85 Hey, if you want I just created a topic named "Discuss your favorite games" where I will respond to you, because I begin to feel bad to leave huge response in the comment section haha

Please, meet me here so we can continue our exchange !