kyrt Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 JAST USA does not exactly have the best marketing strategies in place but that is possibly do to not wanting overexposure. It's hard to really know what a company is thinking when they are creating material to try and help sell a product but JAST is probably one of the few places that actually bothers to create material and just doesn't say anything about it. The following is a compilation of as many JAST USA officially made websites that I was able to find both to share with you as well as discuss a bit more in depth. Honestly some of these you might actually be surprised exist in the first place; I will be updating this first post whenever a new website is created and if I happened to miss any please let me know so I can update this page accordingly. A number of these websites have trailers created by Primus Animations which are specifically made for the english market often adapted from the original japanese trailer. I for one ended up purchasing Hanachirasu when I did specifically because of their trailer. So props to them for making some cool trailers. With my rambling ceasing let's begin looking at the websites (and subsequently the trailers on the websites) and then when they are all listed let's talk about them. Shiny Days: http://shinydays.us/ Super Sonico: Communication with Sonico: http://sonicomi.com/index.html Flowers-Printemps: http://flowersgame.com/ Raidy III: http://raidy.us/ Starless: http://starless.us/ Hanachirasu: http://hanachirasu.com/ Littlewitch Romanesque: http://littlewitch.us/index.html Yumina the Ethereal: http://yumina-the-ethereal.com/ Steins;Gate: http://steins-gate.us/ Aselia the Eternal: http://aselia.us/ School Days: http://schooldays.us My Girlfriend is the President: http://mygirlfriendisthepresident.com/ Demonbane: http://demonbane.us/index.html Moero Downhill Night Trilogy: http://moeronight.com/ Yukkuri Panic: Escalation: http://yukkuripanic.com Princess Waltz: http://princesswaltz.com/ Cosplay Fetish Academy: http://cosplayfetishacademy.com Seinarukana: The Spirit of Eternity Sword 2 Nympho Sensei Ryoko My hopes for the future: It would be nice if they actually bothered marketing these a bit better admittedly half of these are able to be found on their website although a few of them you have to scrounge around to find. It's a decent step. I think the most recent trailers are definitely a step in the right direction as far as trailers go. I think that JAST really needs better marketing of it's actual gameplay visual novels. The websites have basic information and are generally decent overall. I did notice a few of the websites seem to have nothing until you scroll down a bit which I think is rather bad design at least put something there (littlewitch romanesque is one of the examples I'm talking about). So which of these websites JAST has created is well the best designed and what additional features would you like to see on their websites in the future? Personally for me I think having links to reviews or possibly allowing user reviews (similar to mangagamer) would be a good step to take with these websites. A little bit more user interaction as well as keeping the websites up to date with any new details (School Days, My girlfriend is the President, Raidy III, and Aselia the Eternal should all have links to their sequels, prequels, and fan-discs). One specific detail that more of their websites need to have in the future is a goodies page with the ability to download wallpapers and other cool little things like a lot of the Japanese websites have. School Days is one such website that they actually did have the wallpapers for. The main website on the other hand is currently lacking a proper forum (the way it currently works is absolutely horrendous), the website itself is rather not fully up to date...it would be nice to get progress updates a minimum of once a month considering we sometimes go a lot longer than that without any type of news. The JAST Devlog (tumblr) page is a step in the right direction but some aspects of that should be carried over to the main website in my opinion. The website also needs to let people know when there are sales...there is a sale currently going on and I could not find any information about it on their main website outside of the fact that the prices have been reduced. It doesn't say when it ends, what percentage off, any potential deals, etc... The website could use a bit of work...but JAST is not the only english visual novel company that has some major issues with its website but that will be for another post. Just my opinion, and as new websites get created I'll add them to this list do let me know if I happened to miss any for JAST. Infernoplex, Suzu Fanatic, Darklord Rooke and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XReaper Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 http://sonicomi.com/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyrt Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 oh i forgot flowers as well I'll update those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XReaper Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 didnt find that one, no matter how long i searched for, only its jp site edit: guess it fitts the threats theme...who the very heck searches 4 flowersgame...?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyrt Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 Now most of the websites early in their release time table were actual just the name bunched together with .com at the end but the more recent ones often use .us, hyphens, shorter names, or weird additions. I swear there is probably a shiny days website in existence already that we'll figure out eventually. The other thing I've noticed about JAST USA's websites is that they typically do not exist until either the game actually goes golden master or releases and that's assuming we can even find them. I feel as if the website should probably be out before the game but hey JAST marketing for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InvertMouse Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Thanks for sharing these! VN websites are always fun to look at, and yeah, I must say I had no idea about these before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzu Fanatic Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 So which of these websites JAST has created is well the best designed and what additional features would you like to see on their websites in the future? I liked Demonbane's page the most - not so much for the layout, but the imagery; I'm a big softie when it comes to scenes of heartfelt closeness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyrt Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 I just realized I posed questions and didn't answer any of them myself. Personally I think JAST's best created website overall is probably Yumina the Ethereal. An image of the four main characters and where to buy it are the first things you see when going to the website. The story section is basic which I think is great since we don't get too many spoilers this way. The character profiles also pretty well done. They give a brief one paragraph description of each character (10 of them) and also give a quick one sentence quote said by each of the characters that basically explains their personality without getting too into detail. There is a game system section that explains the actual gameplay mechanics in a decent manner. I actually think the gameplay could have given a few more details about the actual gameplay but at least it's mentioned. The gallery has both all age and 18+ CGs which some of the games only have one or the other but the 18+ are also blurred until clicked which is nice for those who do not want to look at the h-scenes while trying to find out about the game. The CGs themselves show off both the characters and the battle system which is good. The game also has the ability to download a trial/demo version of the game, has a website for all patches (which it really shouldn't have had in the first place), a place to download the users manual, and a place for CG commentary. Unfortunately the CG commentary does not seem to work properly so I have no idea what that is but having a trial for big games like this is almost a must...especially for gameplay visual novels. If the site had also had some wallpapers or other bonus extras that actually worked this would definitely be the type of site to strive for. I also rather like that there was a section for computer specs/requirements on the front page after scrolling as well as a place called News to give updates on progress of the game both before and after. I think with a few corrections this is probably the best website they've released. Just my opinion. Trailer wise I rather liked the Hanachirasu one although the My Girlfriend is the President trailer even though it was the Japanese version worked quite well as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosakyun Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 This is actually a nice idea. I didn't even know these existed. XReaper 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanahtlig Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 JAST Create: JAST USA's Japanese-facing site for licensors. I discovered this via Yasuhiro Nieda's business card (he's the guy that hunts down new licenses for JAST). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyrt Posted September 29, 2015 Author Share Posted September 29, 2015 I've updated the main post to include the official Shiny Days website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mkilbride Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 Hopefully, one day, Spirit of Eternity Sword 2 will make that list... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyrt Posted July 1, 2017 Author Share Posted July 1, 2017 I have updated the list with Seinarukana and Nympho Sensei Ryoko. In addition to that this seems like Jast's website received yet another overhaul which can be seen here. Please remember nearly all these links are NSFW. This would have been updated sooner...if you know they would have released more games. I could not find a jast usa website yet for eiyu senki nor trample on schatten (it was 96% translated a year ago...surely it will be done by now unless it was restarted from scratch). Almost a year ago they mentioned that other games will get websites as they get closer to release. Anyway it's fascinating to see how their mindset on marketing visual novels themselves have evolved just by looking at their older and newer websites. Yes it's been nearly two years since the last post... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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