The 300-Day Pursuit of Slow Damage
Entry posted by Denpa Archivist in Blog
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On November 14, 2022, JAST BLUE’s Slow Damage was digitally released to the excitement of many. Anticipation for Nitro+CHiRAL’s latest title was especially high among fans because of the English release’s speedy publication (627 days, to be exact) following the 2021 Japanese release.
From JAST BLUE: "In the year 20XX, Japan has fallen into steep decline. Our story is set in Shinkoumi, a special economic zone where crimes are rampant... and where our protagonist Towa paints the deepest desires of the human heart.
Scenario writer Fuchii Kabura and character designer Yamada Uiro bring you this brand new adults-only boys' love game, stuffed to the gills with all the dark depictions and dramatic depths developer Nitro+CHiRAL is known for."
Reception was fairly positive, aside from localization gripes. A limited-edition physical release was up for preorder before the initial digital release. For $35.99 USD, a digital copy of Slow Damage and a booklet of extras would come with a physical game disc, soundtrack and an A6 notebook. With promises of an early 2023 physical release from JAST BLUE, plenty of fans were eager to preorder.
JAST BLUE estimating an early 2023 release date. November 23, 2022.
Denpaarchivist's proof of purchase. November 4, 2022.
The new year came and went with no news aside from a few promo Tweets for JAST BLUE’s catalogue.
JAST BLUE citing licensing rights as the explanation for production delays. March 6, 2023.
Progress report. April 17, 2023.
Updates were scarce, but reasonable, a few months into 2023.
It was around this time that J-List’s website underwent maintenance, causing some orders to disappear from customer order histories.
JAST BLUE acknowledges the order history issue. June 4, 2023.
This was a problem outside of JAST BLUE’s control. Understandable, no big deal.
Progress report. August 4, 2023.
Eight months into 2023, JAST BLUE confirmed that physical copies of Slow Damage did in fact exist and were going to be shipping out soon. Many voiced concerns about their orders still being missing from their order histories (myself included) three months after J-List’s maintenance. JAST BLUE reasonably encouraged customers to reach out to J-List about their orders.
Side note: I’ve never seen such a vague login page before. Wouldn't it be easier to change “Name” to “Email”?
Denpaarchivist's exchange with J-List.
It was frustrating to hear that nobody knew the status of the orders. Customers were left in the dark unless they contacted J-List directly. An email or J-List account notification explaining the situation would have been nice.
Exactly two weeks after this exchange, a package was delivered to my address. The 320-day Slow Damage goose chase finally came to close… right?
At long last, here it is! The unboxing we’ve all been waiting for. It arrived wrapped in paper in a slim cardboard box. Thankfully nothing was damaged but some bubble wrap would have been nice…
Each physical copy comes with a unique download code for the Slow Damage Original Booklet. Beneath the code is the URL where customers can redeem their code. But when you visit the URL…
It never ends.
I poked around in a few Discord servers to confirm that I wasn’t the only one with a bunk code.
JAST BLUE acknowledges the printing mistake via Twitter.
A Twitter post directed me to the right URL where I was able to redeem my code without a problem. I personally am not a fan of stalking a company Twitter account for updates on an order I placed nearly a full year ago. An email, hell, even a series of emails explaining production delays, order disappearances, shipping updates and the misprinted download code would have made the wait tolerable. My only solace during this time were the disgruntled Tweets from other worried customers under each JAST BLUE post about Slow Damage (which I won't be showing here out of courtesy).
I’m relieved that this fiasco is over, but unfortunately my patience with JAST BLUE and my excitement to play Slow Damage have withered. I’ve monetarily supported their previous Nitro+CHiRAL releases but unfortunately, I don’t see myself returning to JAST BLUE any time soon.
Edited by Denpa Archivist
typo
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