Formlose Gestalt

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon Hobibox and Tokyotoon have uploaded an english demo for the upcoming VN to Steam. Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1202540/Marco__The_Galaxy_Dragon/ The VN is set to release 28 February 2020. And this is worldwide release date. Tokyotoon seems to be a spinoff of Harukaze known for there Noratoto games. The character designer seems to be the same as in Noratoto and this time it is an All Age release so there is no censorship. From what I have seen from the demo the budget is pretty high, with tons of CGs and even anime cutscenes (even though they are SD). I am not the best to judge the translation quality, but since there is an option to turn on Japanese subtitles (or have both at the same time), people that know Japanese can take a look at it. But the story is pretty crazy with a girl that gets kidnaped by aliens, to become intergalatic treasure hunter and return to earth. It's pretty over the top. Opening: Just wanted to to share this here. I think it could be an interesting title, even though it is not really my type of humor.

Baldr Sky has now released! https://twitter.com/sekaiproject/status/1208115458890702848 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/741140/Baldr_Sky/ Have fun!

I haven't played Aokana but looking at VNDB she is among my favorites design wise from the entire cast. She looks more appealing to me than the entire main cast, but obviously that is only the character design, I know nothing of their characters. And it looks like she is popular for a while since she was the only character on the promotion artwork for the cancelled (and now revived?) Aokana sequel. Link: https://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/13584-sprite-announces-aokana-zwei-sequel-confirmed/?tab=comments#comment-385441 The reason why I brought that up, is because back then when Aokana 2 was announced I thought yeah, I like her design.

Sekai Project wrote a blog post about the changes they had to make in Baldr Sky. https://sekaiproject.com/blogs/news/baldr-sky-changes https://twitter.com/sekaiproject/status/1207520578908741632 The blog post is very thorough in what was changed so you should give it a read. But here is the TL:DR: About 4% of lines had to be removed, including explicit sex scenes and lines referencing explicit details. It's sad that GIGA insisted that they could not release a uncut version but here we are. This still doesn't rule out an unofficial uncensor patch. So that chance still remains.

What resolution does Venus Blood -Frontier- have? I mean it came out only 3 years after Baldr Sky. So calling one old-ge seems kind of silly. It looks like VBF is $10 cheaper? But Baldr Sky is two games and quite a bit longer. But in the end those comparison don't make much sense.

At first glance I was a bit taken back by the price tag, but honestly that isn't fair. I personally like that they put both games out together, since I would otherwise wait for the second game to come before even starting Dive 1, but with both games bundled together there is really not much room to make them cheaper. $25 per game doesn't seem unfair to me, but I don't know how many people will think about that after the first shock. And as you said it's not like people don't spend $50 on other forms of entertainment. Other games, movies, microtransactions, gacha and so on. But together with uncertainty regarding cut content I am worried that Baldr Sky will get ignored by a lot of people, and I guess the VN community has changed in the last years. My impression is that Baldr Sky was much more hyped a few years ago. I guess one point is that announcing a VN and than having it not release for years kills the excitement. It becomes kind of old news by then. And there is more competition than before. On the same day Bokuten and Venus Blood -Frontier- release. That is also splintering the already small audience further. That is really good news! Let's hope that works out, and I am not going to speculate who is behind that.

AI: The Somnium Files is 59,99 $/€ on Steam so there is that. I mean $50 definitely looks a bit pricey compared to the usual prices but to be fair it is two VNs in one package. In Japan Dive 1 and 2 where separate games, so $25 for a really long VN (100h+ for both together) doesn't seem unfair. The cut content is another topic altogether, but I think there is still chance that we get a 18+ patch maybe in a unofficial capacity, so I wouldn't rule it out completely yet. Oh just read that tweet: https://twitter.com/dobacco/status/1207093502267363329 Apparently GIGA wanted to sell the game for $75... EDIT: Since the embedded tweets sometimes don't show up for me, I am going to start posting a direct link underneath.

It is happening! Baldr Sky will finally release! https://twitter.com/sekaiproject/status/1206997341095387136 Baldr Sky will release this Friday December 20th for $49,99. Here is the link to the steam page again: https://store.steampowered.com/app/741140/Baldr_Sky/ And Steiner is doing a giveaway. https://twitter.com/DistantValhalla/status/1206999319703904256

He was already asked on Twitter and didn't reply. I don't think he can answer that.

Hmm maybe I did even see that thread/blog post back than? But I didn't remember that. It's hard to tell what exactly happened back than. But I remember someone once said that not all Japanese develops are happy with using a former fantranslation as basis for the official translation, so maybe that played a role. But that is just a guess. Regarding the 18+ patch maybe there is more hope for that than I thought, but I guess we just have to wait and see.

I haven't heard about that. What did happen?

The long wait is coming to an end! The Steam page for Baldr Sky is finally up and it's set to release on December 20th!. After the announcement at AX2016 and 3 years of wait we are finally getting Baldr Sky. https://twitter.com/sekaiproject/status/1206997341095387136 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/741140/Baldr_Sky/ Unofficial Uncensor Patch: https://pastebin.com/PvNB7ZNY And this release is going to combine both Baldr Sky Dive1 “Lost Memory” and Baldr Sky Dive2 “Recordare”. Earlier this year it has been said that Sekai Project is aiming for a release in 2019 so finger crossed that it still happens this month. (It did!) Opening for Baldr Sky Dive1 “Lost Memory” For those that haven't heard of Baldr Sky other the years, it is highly acclaimed work that mixes VN storytelling with an action gameplay system. Here is an example of the gameplay: And Sekai Project descirbes the game on their Steam page as follows: The translation was done (in part?) by Steiner (https://twitter.com/DistantValhalla) While Doddler (https://twitter.com/The_Doddler) worked on the technical side and even implemented achievements Now to address the elephant in the room. Baldr Sky was an 18+ release in Japan an never had an All Age release, but so far Sekai Project hasn't said anything about an 18+ release or a patch so for now I think it is unlikely that we get those. If this changes I am going to update this post. EDIT: There wont be an official 18+ release or an official uncensor patch for Baldr Sky. The details and the scope of the changes can be read here: https://sekaiproject.com/blogs/news/baldr-sky-changes There is still a chance that we can get an unofficial uncensor patch, and indeed there has been an announcement for this which can be read here . But we have to wait and see if it actually happens. Unofficial Patch is already out: https://pastebin.com/PvNB7ZNY Having said that I am pretty hyped about Baldr Sky since it is on of those VNs that have always been talked about and been highly praised by those that read the Japanese version. The cyberpunk setting seems like something I would really enjoy and it's pretty rare in the VN space, so I am going to buy whether it gets an 18+ release or not.

It took a bit longer than expected, but Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi. (YOU and ME and HER) is set to release in February next year! You can pre-order the physical release on J-List: https://www.jlist.com/NP005 Announced at AX2018 with the goal to release before AX2019, the last we heard was that it should release this year. Now it's set to release in February 2020 but at least we have something more concrete. For those who say, yeah but it was the same with Majikoi and that still hasn't released, on Discord it was said: "Regarding delays. We understand the frustration it causes you guys, but, can only say that, every game is a different project" So hopefully Totono will release in February 2020. Until then here is blog post on J-list talking about Totono and DDLC titled: "YOU and ME and HER Outshines Doki Doki Literature Club" https://blog.jlist.com/featured/you-and-me-and-her-outshines-doki-doki-literature-club/

I definitely prefer BxG and while I could see me play any other combination if the story is interesting enough and the romance takes a backseat, with how large my backlog is, that is more of a theoretical consideration.

From what I read they decided to stop making VNs and moved on to other things, so they never needed to declare bankruptcy or anything like that and of course never run out of money. It's anyone's guess how profitable Aokana was, but the curios things is if I remember correctly they sold their IP when they left the VN scene and said back then " that it is not possible to "revive" the company", maybe that was a misunderstanding or the situation has changed since then. Here is a link to a news article from back then: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-02-11/aokana-game-maker-sprite-halts-operations-at-end-of-march/.143245 I wonder if it is conceited to think that the success(?) of the western release has anything to do with this development?

Fixed!

I have many questions. - "Is this an out of season aprils fool joke?" - Did someone just need a bit of fresh paint? - Is this a way to profess his love to her ? (I approve!) - Is Jast about to release Tokyo Necro? (Please!)

Lamunation has released and the author is excited! Here are the links to the shops! Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1025140/LAMUNATION_international/ JastUSA: https://jastusa.com/lamunation-international Mangagamer: https://www.mangagamer.com/r18/detail.php?goods_type=1&product_code=1154 Denpasoft: https://denpasoft.com/collections/newest-releases/products/lamunation Also Steam front page! And the price is pretty great! Have fun!

Thanks for the review. I am glad that I passed on Maggot Baits, this title isn't for me, even though the story sounds interesting.

Something went wrong with your post so here is the tweet again: And the steam link for good measure: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1025140/LAMUNATION_international/ EDIT: Sometimes the tweet isn't been shown and I am unsure what's causing this problem. So here is the content of the tweet as an quote:

Yeah the early access release format is pretty weird. But I appreciate that Hobibox/DMM want to improve after the Your Diary release which was criticized pretty heavily. So I like that don't give up after that experience and tried again. The staff from Shira VN also leaves pretty positive impression on discord where they interact openly with fans/players. Here is the link to their Discord: discord.gg/qBmrqDy I would really like them to succeed because DMM and Hobibox to have an really interesting portfoilo. It's just that I never been that interested in Ace Attorney even in eroge form, but maybe I will just buy the VN anyway to support them. Thanks @novurdim for creating this topic!

Seiya-Saiga is a known Site for guides: http://seiya-saiga.com/game/clockup/maggotbaits.html But I can't tell you how good/acruate the guide is.

I must say Mangagamer did a good job selling Maggot Baits with their little series of videos: I think there is a interesting core to Maggot Baits, but I am still probably going to stay away since I have seen the CGs. Here is a blog post showing waht you can expect of Maggot Baits: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2019/10/04/maggot-baits-content-advisory/

I was already pretty pessimistic about the VN industry and it was quite obvious that there where a lot of problems. (Sekai Project having to let go staff, Sol Press comments about piracy, the comments about there not being enough translators and so on.) But it is quite shocking to see these problems being pushed in the spotlight. Maybe the VN translation business is really not viable in it's current form. Really sad. And no one can dismiss what he says, there are a lot of people from the VN scene that confirm these problems.

It sounds really interesting, would have loved to see this VN receive a translation. Too bad that light went under, because that only makes it more difficult to acquire the rights for some other company for a translation. But maybe not all is lost since the third game is still in development. ( I just hope that leads to more interest in a translation for the predecessors.)