I was trying to pick out a game to import and ultimately had a hard time deciding between Project Diva, Demon's Gaze and Monster Monpiece. Had to drop Diva with the impending HD PS3 release and having to otherwise buy $35 in DLC to match the PS3's content coupled with the fact that it still costs full-price 5 months after release...Demon's Gaze seemed like the likely better title of the two but I feared it was probably heavier in storyline and given that it's an RPG the language barrier would be strong, as well as it seeming far likelier for localization.
I'm a huge fan of CCG/TCG games (Yu-Gi-Oh in particular) and have been so disappointed with the resurgence of the genre in Mobile form being Energy-ridden Facebook time wasters, so finding out Monpiece was a traditional CCG game was what caught my interest. While I find the 'rub-captures' really off-putting, it also meant that this game has half a chance in hell of getting localized, another criteria I was searching for. First flag was production quality: Cards are summoned as chibi models..generic models that don't match the cards used at all. Second flag: Compile Heart, hypersexualized young girls aside, I couldn't get myself to enjoy the RPG gameplay behind Hyperdimension Neptunia and was afraid the gameplay would be the weak link again in Monpiece.
The third flag was that the game released..yesterday, and had a preorder bonus for a crossover character DLC code for Neptune. This was where I begrudgingly dropped it as well and spent a while trying to justify wasting money on Project Diva, but a while later after searching found a store selling two (1 left) preorder copies of the game and just went for it. Apart from Famitsu scores (33/40, 8/9/8/8) I've yet to find an actual review of the game, let alone any meaty gameplay videos or impressions, so it's about as blind of a purchase as it gets..
tl;dr: Spent $75 on Monster Monpiece despite not liking developer's games or knowing Japanese or if the game is any good, hoping I didn't waste $75.
