Kendo Crush! Kickstarter

[BookwormOtaku]

Came across this kickstarter for a kendo themed VN:

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2081517796/kendo-crush-visual-novel-game?ref=more

[solidbatman]

I was going to back this until I saw the setting and language usage. Another English developed VN with a setting of a Japanese high school and random usage of honorifics. Right... 

[monkeysrumble]

For a fanmade VN that's going to be free I'm honestly impressed. I'm not sure how quickly I'll get annoyed with the voice-acting so I hope there is an option to turn it off.

 

 

I was going to back this until I saw the setting and language usage. Another English developed VN with a setting of a Japanese high school and random usage of honorifics. Right... 

I can see why it takes place in a Japanese high school because it seems to be mostly about Kendo which isn't really a big thing in schools here in the west. The voice acting with the honorifics bothers me though. Just hear someone speaking English and using -chan kind of makes me cringe a little bit too.

[solidbatman]

Atlus pulls it off with top tier voice actors in the Persona series. 

[monkeysrumble]

You have a good point there. I can't argue against that.

[ServeTheServant]

I played the demo for this a while ago, and while it's obviously not going to be a top-tier must play VN, it definitely did seem interesting and surprisingly high quality.  The kendo section in the demo was pretty well done, it's sort of a minigame in that it gives you normal VN choices between different moves but inserts a timer to make it feel like real action.

The english voice acting is a bit jarring, but mostly because I'm not used to hearing people saying stuff that I can actually understand lol.  Reading and listening at the same time is not my strong suit, so japanese voices are luckily just like background sound to me.

 

I was afraid of that

Haha yeah that part was a bit cringeworthy.  Thankfully, the other characters have similar reactions to the MC saying that.

[Nosebleed]

Did.. did he just seriously say "Hashtag yolo swag" 

I'm sorry this voice acting really painful to listen to. I wouldn't be able to take this vn seriously.

Just hearing one of the girls pronounce "Onii-chan" breaks my heart (and ears). They even said "Chef-san" (because chef is too overrated). Was this really necessary?

 

In full blunt honesty this feels like a VN created by a bunch of weeaboos. I'm not saying it's going to be super bad but you can clearly tell they're trying too hard to be japanese. Tsundere and other character tropes, honorific usage, japanese highschool setting. Yeah..

And sure Kendo is not that popular in western cultures but it doesn't mean it requires a japanese highschool setting. Why not a dojo or something? There's a kendo school where I live and I'm in Europe. I just think they're going too over top and trying to put elements that don't really mix together in this. The art is acceptable but everything else just doesn't fit right for me.

I can't take this seriously.

[Nosebleed]

One of the parts that really stuck out to me was when the girl said "Don't misunderstand me". That's not something a native speaker would ever say.. they would say "That's not what I meant". I think they need to just pick whether they want to use regular english or recast the entire voice acting to japanese and just be written in english...

Indeed. If it was properly written in english then I wouldn't mind the voice acting so much. But all the japanification makes it so annoying and it's just dreadful and unfitting. 

[Famichip]

In full blunt honesty this feels like a VN created by a bunch of weeaboos. I'm not saying it's going to be super bad but you can clearly tell they're trying too hard to be japanese. Tsundere and other character tropes, honorific usage, japanese highschool setting. Yeah..

Lol this is exactly what I first thought after viewing the trailer. Though as a Kendoka myself this VN does somehow captured my attention and interest a bit.

[Darklord Rooke]

One of the parts that really stuck out to me was when the girl said "Don't misunderstand me". That's not something a native speaker would ever say.. they would say "That's not what I meant". I think they need to just pick whether they want to use regular english or recast the entire voice acting to japanese and just be written in english...

 

I understand your point but I think your example was a poor one. "Don't misunderstand me" is something I've heard from native english speakers, and it isn't poor english. Of course, I never heard it when I was in school but.....

[Darkshine]

Wow all I can say is just wow this looks very promising for a fan-made game and everything about it seems really interesting and well put together, well the voice acting could use some work but you know i'd like to keep positive about this because people are working so hard on this project so i'll try to be nice.

 

I really wish I could do kendo also, I think it would be cool. 

[HackaFreak]

I'm enjoying this a lot.

Way more than I expected to.

Totes chose the "OMG! Sugoku kawaii desu!" choice and was satisfied.

Lots of various things that bother me, though.  Like sometimes people staring off into nothingness.  Or their snappy sprite changes.  Or their floaty movement.  Or the uncle voice actor being too close to his microphone.  Or the choices not quite matching what is actually said/done.

And freaking.  Always wanted high resolution VN.  Then I realized it's really hard to read like that.  So I lowered it and then the text got too small.  Blargh.

And I generally irrationally hate english dubs, but I wasn't really bothered by this at all.  Maybe it's because it's not a dub.  Probably that.  I'd actually go so far as to say I like the voices.

But, yeah.  I hope this gets funded.


Unless there's no imouto route.  Then it's shit.

[zoom909]

Nikki Spade:

"Onii-chan... Y-you don't w-want to eat what we c-cooked together...?"

 

merely comes across as a girl with a stutter.  U-unless you t-think that's on p-purpose?

[Nosebleed]

Nikki Spade:

"Onii-chan... Y-you don't w-want to eat what we c-cooked together...?"

 

merely comes across as a girl with a stutter.  U-unless you t-think that's on p-purpose?

She probably has something stuck in her throat.

Must be it.

 

Seriously though If I ever intend to play this VN i'm turning the voice acting off, it's probably the only way i can bear it.

I really wouldn't have minded english voice acting if the VN was actually written with proper english instead of a poor attempt at making everything sound japanese with common vocabulary like "kawaii" and "onii-chan" with honorific usage and stuff. What bugs me the most is that the voice actors are clearly from somewhere in america (continent) and when they pronounce stuff like this it doesn't sit right in my ears at all. I know i'm just nitpicking here and it's not their fault they can't pronounce it like the japanese do, but that's exactly why they shouldn't have tried it in the first place. They should have sticked with a full on english script so it could sound normal. They're clearly just trying to please the masses here with a ton of tropes to make it otaku friendly. This is the kind of mentality I hate the most.

It's a real shame because the premise doesn't sound awful and from what I saw there was even some simplistic combat mechanic involving Kendo. That can be pretty cool just like the baseball minigame in LB. It's just a shame the writing seems like a total joke and feels like a huge downgrade to this VN.

[PixelFade]

Wow! There is quite a bit of feedback already. 

 

Hello all, I am Dishu from PixelFade Studios. Just dropping by to thank you for your time and consideration regarding Kendo Crush! I do see that there are a few concerns that have been raised. I'll try my best to shed some light:

 

 

Voicing:  

 

The voice over is not mandatory and can be turned off if that is your personal preference.  

 

Why are you using Japanese dialect in a western made visual novel?:  

 

While the overall game is minimal on Japanese dialect (you won't be hearing any "Senpai noticed me!") we are using a few common ones. The sister, for instance, does call the MC western conventional terms for brother but uses onii-chan selectively for teasing or being endearing. We know it's hard to please everyone but hopefully we can find a happy medium without upsetting either side too much.

 

The trailer makes the VN seem generic and weeaboo:

 

If you get some time, please feel free to give the demo a playthrough. It may surprise you! 

 

 

I played the demo for this a while ago, and while it's obviously not going to be a top-tier must play VN, it definitely did seem interesting and surprisingly high quality. 

 

 

 

I'm enjoying this a lot.

Way more than I expected to.

 

 

Thank you for the positive feedback! We are glad that it was surprisingly more enjoyable. 

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel to let me know. Thanks again for your time!

 

Best Regards,

PixelFade Studios - Dishu

[Spark]

As a practitioner of Kendo, I must say that this was embarrassing to sit through and listen to. I can't give any especially critical feedback yet, as I still need to organize my thoughts about it. Regardless, Kendo is a relatively "obscure" art outside of Japan, so a distinctive project like this definitely catches my attention. I'm especially intrigued with the decisions that are presented to the player during the keiko (maybe shiai?) in the video. It may even encourage some people to try Kendo! While it felt pretty cheesy, it's pretty good for a fangame, and I'm cheering you guys on. Like others have said, I hope you guys make some adjustments on the writing.

[TomoyoSakagami]

I wish you well with your project and hope for the best.

 

However I won't be touching this with a 10 inch pole. Sorry, it's just terrible. Everyone's already said what I was going to anyway, about the use of some words like Onii-chan and kawaii etc etc. It REALLY just doesn't work. Should have stuck to a full english VN. As you say the voice acting can be turned off but even still, if you have to turn it off it's already a bad start.

 

That's just my opinion though.

[Diamon]

Just played through the demo.

Good points :

- The music and the ambiance sounds fits very well (However I can't stand the track they used for their trailer, which is kinda generic, but well, it's a matter of taste I guess.)

- A very interesting choice system, who gives you more options than "choose your heroine". You often have the choice between three types of answer : Nice guy / Neutral or silent / Cocky and funny. When you get the right (or maybe should I say wrong?) choices, you often end up with some additional lines that can become very funny! You often end up saving quite a lot to see all the possible replies and interactions that vary depending on your answers.

- As a result, a good replayability (coupled with quite a lengthy demo, you will need around 2 hours to complete the demo, a bit more if you want to see all the additional lines)

- Credits as well for the time-limited battle choices, whether it is concerning kendo or fights. Really dynamic, and actually requires you some effort to read and process the information fast enough.

- Great art, not outstanding but still very good for an OELVN. Animated sprites are always welcomed (at least, they didn't use some SUPER BOUNCING B00BS).

- Writing is decent / good. I didn't notice any problem with grammar at my level of english, and I could enjoy the reading. The quality of the writing was within my expectations for an OELVN, so there's nothing for me to say.

- A good sense of details some shadowed sprites for crowds and filler characters is still nice to have, as well as having them voiced.

Debatable :

- Voice acting, more particularly using japanese honorifics and sometimes words for the voice acting. I wasn't bothered too much by it (even though it sometimes didn't feel right, it was between passable and good most of the time).

- Choices are sometimes a bit silly, and over the top, it might rub some people the wrong way if they don't really like this type of humor. I did find most of them pretty hilarious though.

- For I who knew nearly nothing of Kendo, I was a bit conflicted. The explanations given to you are kinda vague, and it doesn't seem like any info you can grab on kendo during the discussions with the characters or during training is of any use during real-time fights (maybe the rest of the VN will prove me wrong though). Also the japanese vocabulary relative to kendo remained really obscure for me, even after explanation.

- It would have been really interesting if the choices you made really did influence your personality on the long term, and how you interact with the other characters (The two choices with the uncle is a good example, depending on the choice the MC will whether talk casually or formally to the uncle all along the demo, and they could have use this kind of things more). But I understand that even if it sounds good in theory, it is really hard to put in in practice.

Bad points :

- The setting is overly cliched, it follows a precise trope which is already wildly used by any other anime / VN (Highschool setting with a pair of sibling transferring into a new city, MC has a hard time at school until he joins the Kendo club who is about to disband, and he will obviously become the savior of this club.) If you can't stand high school setting, well this VN is obviously not for you.

- The characters suffer from the same problem as the setting, they are very stereotypical and each one of them follow an already known trope. There's probably room for character development, but given how much they are restrained by the setting, I don't expect much, even less anything that could be mind blowing. However, it doesn't mean the characters are necessarily bad or poorly written, despite the obvious tropes followed, I enjoyed and laugh at some of the characters lines / reactions. However, this is probably not the kind of VN where a heroine will hold a dear place in your heart for the rest of your life. Honorable mention to the sister who is quite adorable and is nowhere as annoying as most imoutos (*erm* CHINAMI *erm*). Also, I must admit that I felt some guilty pleasure for bullying the tsundere heroine, even if all her reactions were really predictable!

- The MC is kinda bland, if not generic. It's pretty much the drawback of having choices that influence your own personality : the MC doesn't have a personality of his own, he has nothing that really stands out from the ordinary MC except for the choices, but again the choices don't really influence his personality. Also there might be some problem with consistency, you can as a douche and like a scumbag with a heroine, and one choice later be the nicest guy on earth, without the heroine being surprised by the inconsistency or anything (well if the player sticks down to only one attitude most of the time, this issue doesn't appear).

- Also, the MC doesn't even has a name on his own either (which is kinda problematic when there's voice acting, because getting called "You!" all the time doesn't feel right)

tl;dr :

A VN that seems promising because it does distinguish itself from other OELVN with good art and some interesting concepts, and overall good quality. However, it does fall into the trap of wanting to be very "japanese-like", whether it is for the archi-overused plot or the characters archetypes, which will probably prevent the game from being a memorable one. Still, as long as you can stand high-school settings, the voice acting (or disable it if required), and if you are not annoyed by the use of cliche characters, the VN is quite enjoyable and surely worth a try, especially since they plan to release the game for free.

EDIT : I do belive the trailer does kinda of a disservice to Kendo Crush, the use of "Oniiiiiiiichaaaan" that we can hear in the video happens only on a few occasions. Same goes for honorifics, only even if used, I didnt have an overdose of "-chan", "-sensei", "-kun", nor any "sempai" (yet). Also even if some CHOICES have some seemingly weaboo options, it's clearly more to give a good laugh. Even though the writers relies heavily on japanese tropes, doesn't mean they are weaboos, at least not to me. (compared to, hmm, Sakura Spirit *coughs*)