Limited Run Games (producing physical copies of digital games)

[kupomogli]

Siralim is one of the games that will be released next week, April 27th. Looked it up and the game actually looks really interesting.

Now while you get scrolls with your main character to cast a limited amount of spells, you can really do little else but attack, but every monster in the game has an element as well as a unique effect. So where it looks interesting at is you basically want to build your party around the monsters effects, equipping each monster with artifacts which will make the most use of the effect that monster has, and then attacking monsters based on the rock, paper, scissors of elements, but also based on what monster effect is more dangerous. Party build and the enemies you're fighting is really where all the depth comes from. Will pick this up for the PS4 and Vita, I'll probably never open the Vita version, but it seems a better fit for portable than console because the graphics.

*edit*

I thought a little bit more about it and Siralim is basically a procedurally generation dungeon with nothing unique about the environments. Randomized treasure boxes, etc. If all you can do is attack and you're with a very specific party for a good amount of time, it's obvious that the game can become very very very repetitious since the game has little else going for it than party customization and synchronization. It's honestly a good concept, but is it a good enough concept to double dip with all of its limitations(ie, everything else.) Well, you'll find out later when I post on the forum about how LRG goes back to bottom of the barrel trash or not, depends on how long it takes me to play it because as of right now I'm playing through Ys8 and The Evil Within 2, and after finishing those two it'll be Yakuza 6 and Darkest Dungeon that have priority over everything else.

[Aussie2B]

Preorders for the Switch versions of Flinthook and Mercenary Kings were opened today, and the second batch of the Tribute Treasure Box is going on sale soon.

It kinda sucks that they announced the PS4 and Vita LRG releases of Mercenary Kings ages ago and we're still waiting, meanwhile the Switch version was only announced fairly recently and is already up for sale.

[megasdkirby]

Reason why I didn't go get this batch
I want the Vita version at the very least. Plus $90 now is tough for me.

Haven't gotten none of the Switch games.

[kupomogli]

Isn't it obvious. LRG is trying to ride the Switch hype while it's still there. Right now there's very little to few games on the Switch to compete against, so there's no doubt a lot of people who want literally anything retail they can get their hands on. That's why they're offering all these Switch games up for preorder instead of a set amount.

*edit*

The LRG releases plus two other shitty Kemco RPGs are releasing on the PS4 as a collection. It's currently only been announced in Japan but this garbage will more than likely make its way west since the games are already localized. Including this in the LRG thread since it technically has something to do with LRG as it includes two of their published games.

https://gematsu.com/2018/04/kemco-rp...ly-26-in-japan

[megasdkirby]

Siralim and Volume up for grabs. Got Siralim for Vita only.

Decided not to get repeats. So if they have the game in PS4 and Vita, Vita will always win. Besides, I can play them it on a PSTV.

[kupomogli]

Siralim and Volume up for grabs. Got Siralim for Vita only.

Decided not to get repeats. So if they have the game in PS4 and Vita, Vita will always win. Besides, I can play them it on a PSTV.

I don't feel so bad after getting Siralim on both PS4 and Vita because it's a low print run on both. It'll either hold its value or appreciate. Siralim is definitely a better Vita purchase just due to the retro graphics, but since I think the PS4 may eventually end up with the highest quality physical library I'm getting every purchase I have interest in on the PS4. I'll probably keep getting Vita titles as well, will make me feel better on my Vita purchase rather than feeling like the system itself, the second Vita I bought, and both Vita TVs rather than feeling like I wasted a bunch of money on unsupported hardware, even though in reality, it's pretty much unsupported hardware outside of ports.

[megasdkirby]

I don't feel so bad after getting Siralim on both PS4 and Vita because it's a low print run on both. It'll either hold its value or appreciate. Siralim is definitely a better Vita purchase just due to the retro graphics, but since I think the PS4 may eventually end up with the highest quality physical library I'm getting every purchase I have interest in on the PS4. I'll probably keep getting Vita titles as well, will make me feel better on my Vita purchase rather than feeling like the system itself, the second Vita I bought, and both Vita TVs rather than feeling like I wasted a bunch of money on unsupported hardware, even though in reality, it's pretty much unsupported hardware outside of ports.

I've finally decided to only get games I want. Now, if its a Vita game, I may just get whatever it is. But for the rest, only what I want.

Lately, LRG has been very abusive with it's releases.Tomorrow is a crappy fish/shooting game, Aaero, and a "mystery" game that is surely Pixel Junk Monsters 2. Ive decided to NOT get any of them because, quite frankly, none interst me. I feel odd, but at the same time, relieved that I've finally broken the cycle, which was abusive. And my wallet is very happy as well.

Then next week we have a Ruiner variant (don't care), some goat game craps, and who knows what they dececide to throw in at the last minute.

IMO, LRG is getting very very greedy. Sad, as I really liked them.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, I haven't been buying a lot from LRG lately and there's not much on the near horizon I plan to buy either, but I'm happy to have the break. I'm glad they at least delayed the surprise game in order to do a proper announcement. I've been thinking for a long time that LRG really needs to grow a backbone and put their foot down when their clients make idiotic requests. Just because that's what they want doesn't mean LRG should always oblige. It'd be one thing if it were preorders open for weeks, but the CEs for this surprise game have a finite quantity. Nobody wants to take time out of their busy schedules to be on LRG's site at a specific time for a game they're not even sure if they'll want.

Granted, this one game is just the zenith of this bad trend of decreasing time between a game's announcement and its sale date. Even though it's no longer zero time between the two, this mystery game is still getting announced only a few days before the sale date, and there have been other games in a similar boat. LRG's customers have been begging them endlessly to announce games/sales dates further in advance, and they keep going in the opposite direction of that, giving milquetoast responses along the lines of "that's what our clients want". I don't see any solution coming unless LRG makes their clients play by their rules and not the other way around. Their clients know how to make games, not necessarily how to sell them, and they need to understand that. There's only so far you can sacrifice consumer-friendliness for developer-friendliness.

[kupomogli]

And if there was more of an announcement date for their games, they might actually get better sales. Announcing two weeks ahead of time rather than just a week gives it that much more time to get some exposure before the release of the game. You've got to wonder how many interested people there would be with a even just a week longer.

That being said, why stop at two weeks? Why not a month or two. Make some hype for your releases, or atleast anything that would do marginally well. I mean hype Siralim or the Kemco games or towards the RPG market. Maybe it's because me and my friends were all pretty big RPG fans or maybe I just get that vibe, but it feels that RPG fans in general seem to have an attachment to collecting games and if you see how desperate some of the RPG fans now days are, throwing praise at obvious garbage like Shining Resonance for example, targeting that group of people would definitely net you a larger quantity of titles sold.

For everything else you might not be able to target a specific audience, announcing early without a print size might allow them to sort of judge the print size and see how many more they may be able to produce and sell.

[Aussie2B]

Well, they just announced the sales date for Cosmic Star Heroine and another Kemco RPG, Antiquia Lost, with two weeks notice. I'm glad to see Cosmic Star Heroine finally coming out.

[megasdkirby]

I seriously hope Cosmic Star Heroine is ONE per customer. The game has aassive following, and lots of people want it. I hope Doug isn't stupid...

[Aussie2B]

What I don't get is why Cosmic Star Heroine has a set print run size. I know LRG said something recently about at least one Vita game coming soon having open preorders like Ys Origin did. If Cosmic Star Heroine doesn't warrant that, than which of their upcoming releases does?

[megasdkirby]

Unless they are referring to a CE numbered edition. Perhaps the standard version is preorder.

[kupomogli]

Cosmic Star Heroine is the only LRG that some people I know actually care about. Atleast two people I know that haven't bought any LRG want to buy this game.

I agree with everyone I've seen, they really need to do open preorders on this game, but I don't know if it's going to happen. Apparently they were disappointed with the Ys Origin preorders because they planned on a certain amount before they decided to make it open and then they sold 1000 less copies on one platform and around 500 more copies on the other platform(which obviously would have sold if they didn't do preorders.) So LRG seems to not even want to take the chance with preorders anymore even if a game has the potential of selling better than their expectations. Because instead of worrying about the people who really want their games, they worry about whether the games will sell out in 30 seconds and that they'll be able to sell more copies because "scalpers."

I'm planning on getting two copies for PS4 and two copies for the Vita. The hype is real. Well, it's not real enough for me to get a collector's edition as I don't care about those anymore, but real as it'll ever be. LRG, plz don't f this up.

[megasdkirby]

I hope they do NOT make it more than one per customer per platform. Because if they make 2000 copies, there will only be 1000 people that will have a copy (worst case scenario).

This is why I seriously hope Doug and Josh aren't stupid as fuck here. They know of the demand; anything higher than ONE per customer is ludicrous and will cause a bloodbath.

[kupomogli]

They haven't did one per customer since way back when. I'm talking around the time Abe's Odysee or somewhere around then. People say why don't they do one per customer literally ever single game, never happens. It honestly never happens and I don't expect it to here either.

The thing is, we know this is their biggest release, they know it's their biggest release. They've already said they have a 10,000 game and it might be this one, or this one might be even bigger. Ys Origins sold 8000 and 9000 for PS4 and Vita so maybe 11,000 and 10,000 here would meet demand?

[Aussie2B]

1 per customer has happened a lot of times, but it's usually applied to second batches after first batches sold out really fast at 2 per customer.

[Colorado Rockies]

It has a reversible cover, which all but guarantees it will not be 1 per customer. They know damn well people will buy 2 of each for Vita and PS4 because of this. You can also bet that there will be an overpriced CE, Soundtrack, and other crap like t-shirts etc. Might as well milk their customer's for all their worth.

[Bojay1997]

They haven't did one per customer since way back when. I'm talking around the time Abe's Odysee or somewhere around then. People say why don't they do one per customer literally ever single game, never happens. It honestly never happens and I don't expect it to here either.

The thing is, we know this is their biggest release, they know it's their biggest release. They've already said they have a 10,000 game and it might be this one, or this one might be even bigger. Ys Origins sold 8000 and 9000 for PS4 and Vita so maybe 11,000 and 10,000 here would meet demand?

They just did one per customer on the Merc Kings/Flinthook Tribute Box CE. They are also doing one per customer on the Ruiner variant.

[megasdkirby]

It was Pixel Junk Monsters 2. A shame...