PhleBuster

They're a bit more story and less romance focused, but you might like the Spirit of Eternity Sword series (Eien no Aselia and Seinarukana).

I don't think so, it's one of those CGs they specifically made and patched in to replace some of the original CGs which were forced to be 90% beams of light in the PS4 version.

Actually that's from the PS4 version. This is the default Steam version of the art:

I think I might've already said it somewhere earlier in the thread, but to clarify the CGs have the same degree of minimal censoring as the Switch version does, not the light-show of the PS4 version.

I think we have a pretty good understanding of the market, and this is certainly something we already brought up in the first meeting. They had already made all the plans tho and it was clear that there's no 18+ version coming in the immediate future. We'll discuss it again in the future for sure. And if they're interested in bringing out the sequel too, we'll be able to start with a clean slate and hopefully have more of a say in the release strategy. Not our call, sadly. I'm probably allowed to say that it's something we wanted to do, but I'm not able to go into more detail on it.

Don't let facts get in the way of a good story. We haven't licensed anything - as I pointed out just a few posts earlier in this thread. Not the voices, not the game. It's being released by Harukaze via their label of TOKYOTOON, and would've been exactly the same way without us, just with less QA and lacking user support. That statement's all sorts of amusing on other grounds as well, but oh well.

Good question. It seems unlikely at the moment, I believe that if they were able to offer an 18+ version, they would just do it. What storefront they offer one on isn't relevant to the voice issue. And I don't believe they have any other reservations about making one, considering they're the ones that made the 18+ version in the first place. In some cases voice licensing issues can just make something impossible (see TM just releasing a new F/SN edition that still doesn't have voices), or it might be -significantly- expensive (what I know about the scale of voice licensing costs in general, it might be something that'd say, double the entire cost of the release). At the other end of the scales, if they had wanted to roll with the 18+ version they probably wouldn't be able to use the new console content (which might've made things like a Steam release impossible). This is just speculation on my part though, based on my general understanding of how these things work. I'm sure we'll discuss the topic repeatedly in the future as well and maybe we'll eventually be wiser about it.

We're a co-publisher, not "the" publisher; since you already know we only became involved at the very end, it should be pretty obvious we're not making any executive decisions regarding the release. Our main role is in handling English user support, promos, storefront negotiations and what have you. We are running our own QA for the game as part of the service, but can only report issues and actually implementing changes happens between the developer and the localization company they used for the translation. I want to be very clear about that, since our own standards would be considerably higher when it comes to the end quality (we already need to compromise on the level of things which we report due to not having direct freedom to implement them). IMO the translation itself is decent though, above par for a commercial localization and certainly good enough to enjoy the game. I haven't done a personal comparison but another person on the staff did and they counted 17 new CGs in this version that aren't in the latest Japanese PC release. Also thanks!

I'm not privy to the exact details, but voice licensing is always very complicated in Japan. In this case there's the 18+ PC version, then several console ports (where the seiyuus go by their real names and not the 18+ aliases), and even an anime to muddle the waters. The seiyuus are also very famous so they may have stricter clauses in their contracts than usual. EDIT: Oh, and it's released by the developers themselves, not a localization company, so that's not a factor.

There won't be an official 18+ patch, the voice licensing for it seems very difficult.

There's a demo out now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1010600/The_Princess_the_Stray_Cat_and_Matters_of_the_Heart/ It covers a pretty hefty portion of the common route of the game. Also official release date of June 17.

Welcome! This is definitely one of the nicest visual novel communities you can find :3

Awards is one thing, really anyone can hand those out, but if you're thinking of a big public event then it gets trickier.

The game uses custom font definitions and the specific font is set in several different places. The current font is 'asul', so search for that in script and replace all those definitions if you wish to change it.

We've just hit the 2nd stretch goal that permanently adds an all-new event CG by artist Miko to the game! Next one will add a Kickstarter-exclusive soundtrack to all game tiers. Seven days left in the Seven Days campaign now - also added a social stretch goal where people can boost the campaign for free by just following our social media. Thanks for the support!

We are funded with 17 days remaining! Now for the fun part, stretch goals :3. First one's only $1500 away and will add a digital version of the artbook to all game pledges.

To be more accurate, all the heroines are already dead from the beginning - you have a limited time with them before their spirits will depart, to try to give them happiness.

We're now live! Launch is always as nerve-wracking, but I'll try to be around go answer if you have any questions about the campaign.

I don't want to say too much about the story, but it's a topical question. Those are their physical ages at death. Their mental ages are older because they have been inside Chiyako for years.

After a long discussion and a lot of playing around with the numbers, we made some changes to the tiers. The $60 tier is now unlimited (apart from early bird), while we decided to limit the tiers containing the Special Edition to a total of 100 copies because it's very expensive to produce and we seriously don't want to end up with an inconvenient number like 105 pledges. Also added a new early bird tier for Memorial tier as well. Thanks for the question that made us re-evaluate those limits!

Hmm, I'm not sure about specifics when it comes to what's been distributed to the Japanese backers via camp-fire, but afaik the delivery was fully via Steam so I'd expect they might've gotten Steam DLC codes instead of a patch? Still, if they promised that those CGs are exclusive to the camp-fire backers we probably can't use them - but I'll confirm with LIFE0, thanks for pointing it out.

Ah right, guess you can't see those numbers before it's live. The $60 Collector's Edition + early bird is currently limited to 500 copies and Special Edition + early bird to 200 copies, since those are the print numbers we're working with. Although it's possible to change the limitations if demand for them is higher, so maybe we should just remove that from the non-Early Bird tiers. I'll have to discuss that. Thank you!

Excellent question! It includes the CGs that were stretch goals on Camp-fire, since those were basically "more funding=more CGs", but it doesn't include the exclusive scenarios which were basically custom written for the top backers (since they were exclusive to that campaign) and what CGs those may have contained. So as the result, it includes all the contents of the Japanese retail edition by default. It doesn't currently include Vita-exclusive CGs for a similar reason (those were commissioned as a selling point for the Vita version). On the other hand, if we meet the stretch goals for our campaign, it will include all-new CGs that weren't in either of those (up to 3 of them). I'm sure that wasn't confusing at all and answered all of your questions!

Seven Days With You: The Most Precious Memory in Our Lives (aka Seven Days) by LIFE0 is getting a collector's edition ahead of its release this winter! We're running a Kickstarter campaign for it that launches this Friday (September 14, 10:00 PST), looking for feedback to polish it as best we can until then. Seven Days features art by Miko and voices by top industry seiyuus (full cast: Uesaka Sumire, Kiritani Choucho, Fujita Masayo, Aranami Kazusa, Shimizu Ai, Shimizu Ayaka, Toda Megumi, Oohashi Ayuru, Maruyama Miki and Urata Wataru), and comes in full HD (1920x1080). The Kickstarter has 2 collector's editions on offer, one including a dakimakura and one without, and stretch goals include localizing an audio drama and adding new CGs to the game. It's been translated by Conjueror and is currently being edited by Tyabann. You can check out the game's opening video with theme song by Rita here: Hope to hear your feedback!

While they're an easy target to point a finger at, I figure that's giving them too much credit and attention they don't deserve. My guess: they had absolutely nothing to do with what went down (even articles mention they've been going at it for years already), but they'll be all too happy to claim the credit as proof of how effective they are.