News AX2015 Hype/News Thread - Flowers, Root Double, G-Senjou, Himawari, Alicesoft, and more announcements!

[kyrt]

sekai project are not reliable. They told would be 18+ version of Grisaia through Denpa. Well, release was time ago, translation and stuff was done years ago, so all what is needed is just get uncensored versions from authors, correct? But no, Denpasoft told on their page "no timelines, would be some day". What is this? People paid for that on Kickstarter, paid on Steam and still these money-squeezers want a separate release which would be done "some day"? That's ridiculous. They could just put a patch like did Jast (if i am not mistaken) or be less loud-mouth and more open in terms of explaining things.

So I personally see no reason to give any money to sekai, especially when they plan to sell butchered version of same game I already have a physical japan release and a very good fan translation. So if I was a publisher - i would sell all-age version on Steam and have a possibility to download 18+ version patch on my website for free (or small price) if user on steam bought it and he is 18 years). So i really do not want sekai to sell g senjou in this case.

The reason for the lack of the 18+ version of Grisaia on Denpa has actually been mentioned in a recent backer update for the kickstarter page;

 

"There's been some technical issues in the various versions of The Fruit of Grisaia (Steam, Denpa, and Physicals), but we're working to resolve them. When we're confident those are resolved we'll have an update about them." - monthly update 2 (june 28th 2015)

 

Do me a favor and note DENPA as well as the physicals. The technical issues were spotted via steam the overlay doesn't work and then they've noted quite a few bugs and other areas that they wish to make sure are completely fixed before release. Their steam page also mentions and has a link that the unrated version will be available on denpasoft in the near future. So no Sekai Project has not lied and or are unreliable and I believe a large part of this comes down to making the games properly playable on all versions of windows and having proper installations etc... Just to give you an idea the technical issues post was posted on June 28th so yes they have kept the backers informed about it. 

 

I may not be overly fond of kickstarter but I'm not ready to have sekai project excised from the community til they are given a proper chance...clannad is coming in november and grisaia 18+ will probably come even before that.

[Chuee]

May explain why Frontwing may be playing the "I think we should see other people" card on SP

 

They aren't. I'm pretty sure Frontwing said they were looking into localizing their other games after the Grisaia KS and I have a feeling they're going to have their newest game brought over sometime in the future. 

 

Not surprising, 4chan is a fairly irrational place with the participants circle-jerking to their own faux edginess.

 

 

That IS surprising, because 4-chan is a fairly irrational place with the participants circle-jerking to their faux edginess.

 

Most other hubs for discussing VNs can be fairly irrational as well, just on the other side of the spectrum. 

[sanahtlig]

I was actually at the JAST and Mangagamer panels (can't comment on Sekai Project's because I got shut out), and me and my entourage were in unanimous agreement: JAST gave the best Anime Expo presentation.  Peter Payne did an excellent job presenting past, soon-to-be released, and future licenses.  He was enthusiastic, his use of visuals and movies was effective, and he effectively "sold" each game to the audience.  Mangagamer read from scripts or fumbled incoherently to provide improvised summaries.  They chose to burn valuable screen time on a low-profile title like The Menagerie, while not even bothering to show a video for a big recent announcement like Kuroinu.  They really didn't do a good job marketing their brand at all, especially previously announced titles, and showing stock OPs was about the only effective thing they did during their presentation.

 

However, I have to hand it to Mangagamer for securing a licensing deal with Alicesoft.  This is a huge coup for gameplay eroge fans.  If Alicesoft's titles sell well, Eushully's titles could finally be within reach.  I worry however that Mangagamer won't market Beat Blade Haruka effectively.  As a gameplay title, it has to be marketed to gameplay fans, not visual novel fans.  Ideally, this title needs to get on Steam--but there's a lot of ero and making it suitable for a Steam release may be extremely challenging.  Without a Steam release, I'm not sure how this title could rise above Mangagamer's usual 18+ only fare sales-wise--and that would be a real shame.  In the end, Mangagamer may have to rely on Seinarukana drawing enough attention that Beat Blade Haruka can benefit by association.

 

I've actually played through about half of Beat Blade Haruka, so maybe I'll write a preview to help promote the game at some point.

[kyrt]

I went to a previous con this year where Peter did their presentation and I have to agree he's rather enthusiastic and properly used visuals to try and sell the games to the audience...unfortunately in the one I was in he didn't really reveal anything so can't really say too much about that but you can say one thing Peter seems to enjoy the con season. Unfortunately while JAST may be decent at marketing in a convention they still need a lot of help in terms of marketing in general...the website has not been updated in forever, the forums are unusable, they have websites that only exist to those who can accidentally stumble across them, and they don't really do any proper marketing. Siliconera is a games site that does frequent mention of visual novels from both sekai project and mangagamer but we never see anything from JAST and I feel as if that's JAST not taking proper initiative. I would really like to see Fuwanovel in particular try and do routine interviews with these big companies to help spread awareness.

[Conjueror]

As a gameplay title, it has to be marketed to gameplay fans, not visual novel fans.

It's been years since I've played that game, but I remember it being mostly a through and through nukige with game-play segments (and not particularly good game-play at that) only there to pace out the sex scenes. I think it should be marketed to nukige fans if anything, I never heard of anyone praising BBH for its game-play (but its ero is amazing). And you'd probably be left with a 5 hours long game if you tried to make a steam release out of that. xD

 

It's no more a game-play VN than strip poker is, but it's the second most popular Alice Soft title in Japan nonetheless, which was probably their main incentive for picking it in the end. In my opinion, yhey should probably hold on marketing VNs for gamers until they actually get a proper game-play title (like Rance or Evenicle).

[sanahtlig]

I went to a previous con this year where Peter did their presentation and I have to agree he's rather enthusiastic and properly used visuals to try and sell the games to the audience...unfortunately in the one I was in he didn't really reveal anything so can't really say too much about that but you can say one thing Peter seems to enjoy the con season. Unfortunately while JAST may be decent at marketing in a convention they still need a lot of help in terms of marketing in general...the website has not been updated in forever, the forums are unusable, they have websites that only exist to those who can accidentally stumble across them, and they don't really do any proper marketing. Siliconera is a games site that does frequent mention of visual novels from both sekai project and mangagamer but we never see anything from JAST and I feel as if that's JAST not taking proper initiative. I would really like to see Fuwanovel in particular try and do routine interviews with these big companies to help spread awareness.

I actually beta-tested the new forums JAST is working on. They work a lot like these forums, and should address most of the complaints that have been raised. JAST actually has a pretty effective marketing operation set up through its partnership with J-List, but I agree that more can and should be done to promote titles like Seinarukana.

It's been years since I've played that game, but I remember it being mostly a through and through nukige with game-play segments (and not particularly good game-play at that) only there to pace out the sex scenes. I think it should be marketed to nukige fans if anything, I never heard of anyone praising BBH for its game-play (but its ero is amazing). And you'd probably be left with a 5 hours long game if you tried to make a steam release out of that. xD

It's no more a game-play VN than strip poker is, but it's the second most popular Alice Soft title in Japan nonetheless, which was probably their main incentive for picking it in the end. In my opinion, yhey should probably hold on marketing VNs for gamers until they actually get a proper game-play title (like Rance or Evenicle).

The sim gameplay is pretty fun. The game is quite ero-focused, but I'm concerned that with Mangagamer's usual marketing the game won't get any attention. There IS story outside the sex scenes, though it's not incredibly deep. If it's marketed as a nukige, it's not going to do any better than Mangagamer's other high-profile nukige like Imouto Paradise and Eroge. I'm not sure Alicesoft would be satisfied with that level of sales.

[Conjueror]

Btw, the reason I checked BBH all those years ago was because it was (and still is) #1 at egs おかずに使える rankings. For better or worse it might as well be the best nukige ever made (for its sheer nukigeness), so I'd rather people were excited on that front.

I'm more worried that if gamers get disappointed by the "barely alright" game-play in BBH, they'll later dismiss titles like Rance which actually are good FOR their game-play. I'm sure MG is confident at meeting AliceSoft's expectations with their nukige sales alone, or they'd have probably negotiated for another game.

 

Either way, steam version is out of the question: you'd have to rewrite pretty much the whole script, and Alice Soft doesn't do AA releases in general. I'd rather expect to see euphoria's AA version than BBH's. That being said, MG might do good to at least advertise the game has some game-play, but certainly not make it sound like its the game's selling point.

[Decay]

Yeah, Beat Blades Haruka falls into the "Gameplay nukige" category of things. MangaGamer has one other product in that category, Boob Wars, and that was one of their best selling games ever. And it's also a pile of shit. BBH actually seems pretty good for what it is, so hopefully MG markets it right and gets Alicesoft wanting more of the western market. 

 

On a side note, I'm a little bummed that Himawari is generating the least buzz among MG's announcements. Their tweet about the Umineko release has 480 retweets, the one for Himawari has 89 . It's probably the VN from all of AX that I'm looking forward to the most. It seems really, really good, and was also the only game on my VNDB wishlist of untranslated games that got licensed.

[Scorp]

The reason for the lack of the 18+ version of Grisaia on Denpa has actually been mentioned in a recent backer update for the kickstarter page;

 

"There's been some technical issues in the various versions of The Fruit of Grisaia (Steam, Denpa, and Physicals), but we're working to resolve them. When we're confident those are resolved we'll have an update about them." - monthly update 2 (june 28th 2015)

 

Do me a favor and note DENPA as well as the physicals. The technical issues were spotted via steam the overlay doesn't work and then they've noted quite a few bugs and other areas that they wish to make sure are completely fixed before release. Their steam page also mentions and has a link that the unrated version will be available on denpasoft in the near future. So no Sekai Project has not lied and or are unreliable and I believe a large part of this comes down to making the games properly playable on all versions of windows and having proper installations etc... Just to give you an idea the technical issues post was posted on June 28th so yes they have kept the backers informed about it. 

 

I may not be overly fond of kickstarter but I'm not ready to have sekai project excised from the community til they are given a proper chance...clannad is coming in november and grisaia 18+ will probably come even before that.

I go on Denpasoft site (where else, correct? Denpasoft is releasing) and here is what I see: https://denpasoft.com/blog/#/the-fruit-of-grisaia-unrated-version

No details, nothing. What marketing is that? You sell it on Steam, why inform on some third-party website about technical difficulties??? It is nowhere near what Mangagamer have, updated forums, and you have an idea of people who work on games (for Grisaia I believe work same Toddler who work for Sekai Project), but with Sekai you never get any info before something got released/fixed/etc.

I will ask Toddler for this tech issue, will see how things are really going on...

[Conjueror]

Yeah, Beat Blades Haruka falls into the "Gameplay nukige" category of things. MangaGamer has one other product in that category, Boob Wars, and that was one of their best selling games ever. And it's also a pile of shit. BBH actually seems pretty good for what it is, so hopefully MG markets it right and gets Alicesoft wanting more of the western market. 

 

On a side note, I'm a little bummed that Himawari is generating the least buzz among MG's announcements. Their tweet about the Umineko release has 480 retweets, the one for Himawari has 89 . It's probably the VN from all of AX that I'm looking forward to the most. It seems really, really good, and was also the only game on my VNDB wishlist of untranslated games that got licensed.

Himawari was somewhat of a sleeper hit in Japan as well. It's really hard to market a sci-fi / serious romance novel that looks like nothing but a moe lolige from first glance (though it might look a little less that with the new art now). A recurrent theme with hard sci-fi visual novels for some reason.

I hope it'll get a bit more buzz when it's actually released and people try playing it for themselves (that's what happened in Japan after 2007's comiket; the vn blogs were on fire). I'd particularly recommend it for people who liked Ever17 and Narcissu.

[Maxel]

On a side note, I'm a little bummed that Himawari is generating the least buzz among MG's announcements. Their tweet about the Umineko release has 480 retweets, the one for Himawari has 89 . It's probably the VN from all of AX that I'm looking forward to the most. It seems really, really good, and was also the only game on my VNDB wishlist of untranslated games that got licensed.

 

Don't worry, I'm with you...

 

 

Also, upcoming PS3 port version vs MG version of Umineko.

Match-up: 

- Voices (MG got no voices) Umineko Project 1-1(unofficial patch with voices will be made) Mangagamer

- 1080p (MG got no 1080p... just stretched like Higurashi) Umineko Project 2-1 Mangagamer

- Lip-sync (MG got no lipsync) Umineko Project 3-1 Mangagamer

- PS3 1080p BGs/Sprites (MG got pachinko sprites + original BGs) Umineko Project 4-1(even with patch it won't be the same quality I guess) Mangagamer

- Better translation (MG version also will have upgraded translation from Witch Hunt) Umineko Project 5-2 Mangagamer

- Effects: Moving rain, SFX and more (MG got nothing...) Umineko Project 6-2 Mangagamer

 

 

I know there's something like license fees and also wish to cooperate from companies, but MG should do better work in bringing us Umineko. If staff allow me I'll make/post 2~~ mins preview video of the current version, since beta for EP1 is near.

[Decay]

The Alicesoft announcement has produced one additional casualty no one knew about because it wasn't announced. Denwatl's secret project was AliveZ. After a year of work, they're ceasing activity on it when it was at 94%. They say they're offering the translation to MG for free but who knows if they'll be interested in that particular game.

[Scorp]

I know there's something like license fees and also wish to cooperate from companies, but MG should do better work in bringing us Umineko. If staff allow me I'll make/post 2~~ mins preview video of the current version, since beta for EP1 is near.

[sanahtlig]

Btw, the reason I checked BBH all those years ago was because it was (and still is) #1 at egs おかずに使える rankings. For better or worse it might as well be the best nukige ever made (for its sheer nukigeness), so I'd rather people were excited on that front.

I'm more worried that if gamers get disappointed by the "barely alright" game-play in BBH, they'll later dismiss titles like Rance which actually are good FOR their game-play. I'm sure MG is confident at meeting AliceSoft's expectations with their nukige sales alone, or they'd have probably negotiated for another game.

[Chronopolis]

 

There will be a remake for the entire Narcissu trilogy, including part 3 in english for the first time,

But, but, wasn't narcissu 1 and 2 realeased free in English on steam already? They going to sell that? -_- But beyond my vague dislike of business practice...

 

Holy crap that's a ton of games. Is there a list/count of Licensed games by year?

[Decay]

But, but, wasn't narcissu 1 and 2 realeased free in English on steam already? They going to sell that? -_-

I don't really see anything wrong with it. It contains a lot of new content and is a full remake. *shrug*

[sanahtlig]

Yeah, Beat Blades Haruka falls into the "Gameplay nukige" category of things. MangaGamer has one other product in that category, Boob Wars, and that was one of their best selling games ever. And it's also a pile of shit. BBH actually seems pretty good for what it is, so hopefully MG markets it right and gets Alicesoft wanting more of the western market. 

Boob Wars likely did well simply because it was reviewed by Destructoid.  I'm not sure if it would've attracted any special attention otherwise--although Bukkake Ranch and the Raidy series have also done quite well, suggesting that there actually is a market for "gameplay nukige".

[Chronopolis]

I don't really see anything wrong with it. It contains a lot of new content and is a full remake. *shrug*

Oh is that so? That changes things.

 

Gahkthun, Himawari and Root Double. Yip yip hooray!

[Funyarinpa]

I hope Umineko does not get stuck to 4:3 aspect ratio like Higurashi for fuck's sake. Hopefully they will not fuck up the sprites either.

I am stoked as fuxk for Root Double, I will back a KS if needed.

[kooolm]

The thing I am excited the most about is Chrono Clock getting localised. Time travel is something that makes any story interesting for me.

[Maxel]

There's a quick preview how current alpha version of Umineko looks:

Episode 1 is fully playable at the moment. Feel free to get hyped

[fun2novel]

It's even got lip syncing. Impressive.

[Funyarinpa]

There's a quick preview how current alpha version of Umineko looks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7r1ssAoO84

Episode 1 is fully playable at the moment. Feel free to get hyped

 

That isn't the MG version, right? Looks amazing, definitely will give it a go when it comes out (still will buy MG version).

[Conjueror]

Don't worry, I'm with you...

 

 

Also, upcoming PS3 port version vs MG version of Umineko.

Match-up: 

- Voices (MG got no voices) Umineko Project 1-1(unofficial patch with voices will be made) Mangagamer

- 1080p (MG got no 1080p... just stretched like Higurashi) Umineko Project 2-1 Mangagamer

- Lip-sync (MG got no lipsync) Umineko Project 3-1 Mangagamer

- PS3 1080p BGs/Sprites (MG got pachinko sprites + original BGs) Umineko Project 4-1(even with patch it won't be the same quality I guess) Mangagamer

- Better translation (MG version also will have upgraded translation from Witch Hunt) Umineko Project 5-2 Mangagamer

- Effects: Moving rain, SFX and more (MG got nothing...) Umineko Project 6-2 Mangagamer

 

 

I know there's something like license fees and also wish to cooperate from companies, but MG should do better work in bringing us Umineko. If staff allow me I'll make/post 2~~ mins preview video of the current version, since beta for EP1 is near.

 

They should make their patch work on MG's version and translation. I doubt whatever they're planning to do to the script is going to be anywhere near close to MG's touch (I could already spot excessive ellipse overuse in the demo video you provided).

...And wouldn't it make this illegal, as in C&D territory, if they were planning to release this as competition for MG's release? I'm pretty sure MG would turn a blind eye if this worked on their version, and boosted their sales though (as long as both of them don't get C&Ds and flack from Alchemist or smth). xD

[Maxel]

They should make their patch work on MG's version and translation. I doubt whatever they're planning to do to the script is going to be anywhere near close to MG's touch (I could already spot excessive ellipse overuse in the demo video you provided).

I don't really know if it's possible to make it work on MG release, because they'll be using completely different engines. If MG would make the game on onscripter I bet it would be possible.

 

 

...And wouldn't it make this illegal, as in C&D territory, if they were planning to release this as competition for MG's release? I'm pretty sure MG would turn a blind eye if this worked on their version, and boosted their sales though (as long as both of them don't get C&Ds and flack from Alchemist or smth). xD

 

They said that original Umineko1-4 and PS3 version would be needed to play(that's what I heard not 100% sure) MG probably also know about them, they're working on it since 2013~~ or even earlier. Such a good guys... And they're doing it all for free, just to bring us ultimate Umineko experience.