Yumina the Ethereal: The highest profile official H-RPG release ever

[sanahtlig]

Background
After 3 years in the making, JAST USA is finally ready to release Eternal-Will's popular adult visual novel RPG Yumina the Ethereal. This will be the highest profile ecchi RPG to ever be officially released in English. It's highly rated on both VNDB (8.3/10; #5 ranked in untranslated RPGs) and Erogamescape (80/100), and is particularly praised for its strong gameplay melded with moe romantic comedy and sci-fi themes. The game was developed by members of the same team that worked on the popular titles Aselia the Eternal (released) and Seinarukana (also being worked on by JAST).

Recommended audience
Do you like gameplay with your VNs? Are you a fan of games like Aselia the Eternal, Duel Savior, Kamidori Alchemy Meister, and Sengoku Rance? This may be the game for you!

Why you should buy this
To support more English releases of excellent gameplay VNs. These tend to be ignored by the fan translation community (in part because of the technical challenges), so supporting official releases is important if you want to see more.

Synopsis

"The Student Council Election is your only hope. Fight, win, and change your destiny!"

Midorishita Yumina is a junior at the prestigious Jinbu Academy. Far from being a model student, Yumina skirts the precarious line between barely passing and failing hard. One day, a young man named Akashima Ayumu transfers into her class. Ayumu claims to have been sent by his father, an eccentric and possibly delusional man who ordered Ayumu to find and protect Yumina, whom he believes will one day save the universe.

Ayumu and Yumina are at odds from the moment they first meet. They bicker endlessly, day after day, until finally Yumina goes too far and starts a fight just before a critical test. Her failure dooms her to repeat the year.

But just when it seems all hope is lost, a mysterious girl named Kurokawa Kirara appears and invites Yumina to run for Student Council President.

According to Kirara, whoever wins an Election War and becomes President will have the power to change any school rule he or she likes. Realizing that this is her only hope of becoming a senior, Yumina agrees to join the race, and drags Ayumu along for the ride!

Thus begins an epic tale of love and friendship in which youthful passions run high and debates shake the foundation of the heavens.

Who will emerge victorious!?

Free trial
JAST has released a playable demo which includes the entire first chapter of the game, including story segments and combat.

Release date and availability
Yumina the Ethereal is scheduled for release on August 30th, and is available through JAST, J-List, and RightStuf.

Official site
Gameplay screenshots
Free trial (includes the entire first chapter of the game)
VNDB
User review

Feel free to give me recommendations for promoting this game to mainstream RPG fans.

 

[Mephisto]

I figured you'd post about this eventually.

I'm already getting it. I think it's kind of funny they are having "debates" by fighting with swords though.

[sanahtlig]

In this game world, I'm pretty sure I would specialize in logic damage, with a few spirit-draining skills (e.g., trolling) for use against opponents that were resistant to logic damage. Most of my damage would be counter-based; my strategy would revolve around taunting or otherwise luring opponents into overextending themselves, then delivering sharp, pinpointed ripostes that punish mistakes while minimally exposing myself. My role in a group would be a counter tank: defending vulnerable positions against throngs of poorly armed foes.

[Kaguya]

I remember that stupid amount of time to finish Eien no Aselia. Man, that was so fun! I'm totally up for buying this.

[Steve]

lost my post and im lazy rewriting

oh well, I was saying that the gameplay is whats turning me off so if I would try it, it would be torrented version and as I know myself, even if I liked it, I would probably still finish the torrented version (even though there has been exceptions where I started torrented and then bought it like Dark Souls - because its exceptionally good game).

[sanahtlig]

lost my post and im lazy rewriting :(/>

oh well, I was saying that the gameplay is whats turning me off so if I would try it, it would be torrented version and as I know myself, even if I liked it, I would probably still finish the torrented version (even though there has been exceptions where I started torrented and then bought it like Dark Souls - because its exceptionally good game).

Would you reconsider if there was a playable demo available that would allow you to see before-hand whether the gameplay "got in the way of the story" as much as you fear?

[shcboomer]

I'll probably look into picking it up, not sure about time investment into the game though.

[REtransInternational]

"The Sniffing of Packets is your only hope. Fight, win, and change your destiny!"

Midorishita Yumina is a CCENT at the prestigious Juniper Academy. Far from being a model sysadmin, Yumina skirts the precarious line between barely passing and failing hard. One day, a young man named Akashima Avaya transfers into her datacenter. Avaya claims to have been sent by his father, an eccentric and possibly delusional man who ordered Avaya to find and protect Yumina, whom he believes will one day save the Internet.

Avaya and Yumina are at odds from the moment they first meet. They bicker endlessly, day after day, until finally Yumina goes too far and starts a fight just before a critical test. Her failure dooms her to repeat the year.

But just when it seems all hope is lost, a mysterious girl named Kurokawa Kirara appears and invites Yumina to sniff for packets....

According to Kirara, whoever wins an Ethernet War and becomes pfSense will have the power to change any packet he or she likes. Realizing that this is her only hope of becoming a CCNA, Yumina agrees to join the race, and drags Avaya along for the ride!

Thus begins an epic tale of links and firewalls in which packets run high and debates shake the foundation of the Internet.

...in Yumina the Wireshark.

That is always what the name reminds me of.

[RusAnon]

...in Yumina the Wireshark.

Lol, nice pun there.

[SlashZero]

IIRC one of the main draws as noted by many on EGS is the characters and their interaction. I've played the original game myself and I think its main draw is not really gameplay (it's still fun) or ero content (N.C.), but the interaction between the characters and comedic aspects of the game, on top of a pretty solid story.

[Rackshen]

In this game world, I'm pretty sure I would specialize in logic damage, with a few spirit-draining skills (e.g., trolling) for use against opponents that were resistant to logic damage. Most of my damage would be counter-based; my strategy would revolve around taunting or otherwise luring opponents into overextending themselves, then delivering sharp, pinpointed ripostes that punish mistakes while minimally exposing myself. My role in a group would be a counter tank: defending vulnerable positions against throngs of poorly armed foes.

Yes sir, you made my day!

[Steve]

Would you reconsider if there was a playable demo available that would allow you to see before-hand whether the gameplay "got in the way of the story" as much as you fear?

Well if it was like some of the demos used to be in earlier gaming days (really long, almost half of the game), maybe. Like full common route demo or something like that. And with the current technology, it would be also easy to sell it ingame with just simple click without going through some complicated processes of redownloading the full game again. Maybe if it was full game you download and then you just pay for the routes separately (even separately like I mentioned in the VN monetization option, few $ for one route, not full price, because I would probably only play one route in this game).

The way they have demos of VNs in japan is not good enough for me, you then have to redownload the full version to finish it which is pain etc, where as with the torrented "demo", you can just finish it.

So yeah, if they make it seemingly smooth experience for the demo and transition to full version then yes, I would probably try that and then just click the 5$ for one route or something and more routes if It was insterested in more.

[Sparkker]

Wow..> What will happen if Grisaia patch is released along with this one>>

[Steve]

Wow..> What will happen if Grisaia patch is released along with this one>>

Its simple... Kill the batman.

Yeah ill play Grisaia imouto route xD

[VN-Angel]

Yumina the Ethereal: The highest profile official H-RPG release ever

WoW ~ seriously ? I just finished this game recently and I don't find it amazing or something.

It was very very funny( the funniest VN I have played). The characters are somewhat unique(too unique for my taste :(/>/> ) and battle system is interesting too. But that's about it.

-Story is predictable.

Ah! forget it, that genre shift is totally fking unpredictable. But aside from that "well, that escalated VERY VERY QUICKLY" shift, the entire story is another kamidori's copy.

-Battle system needs polishing.

It was really interesting, challenging and filled with possibilities at first.

But after some time, the game throws you with skill points after skill points(I found myself upgrading the random skills without reading descriptions because the given skill points are enough to fill the entire skill tree...in just lvl-20) , some un-rare seriously overpower items and in the end, the battle is just a matter of how to properly use the audience points.

1 death for kirara and Yumina is all I took to finish the game.

- H-scenes suck, seriously suck.

It is the first time I saw H-scenes worse than those from KEY. Just 4,5 un-erotic moan and then "I'm cummmming" . WTF!!! Seriously, I couldn't find it arousing even by a bit.

-Art

Each character sprite has only 1 position. That is a huge letdown for me. Yes, there is a small CG near the text showing various expressions but still, seeing the smiling face(sprite) when the character is angry is weird.

There aren't enough GOOD CGS for each character too. Yes, good CGs, some CGs aren't memorizing or worth at all.

^Yumina standing. And that is a late game, near the climax CG.

My impression to this eroge is baka-test in visual novel form. That's all.

The comedy is top-notch (best loading screen ever ), story is solid, not bad but not epic too. 7/10

[sanahtlig]

WoW ~ seriously ? I just finished this game recently and I don't find it amazing or something.

Keep in mind, the best H-RPG official English release to date is Brave Soul. You probably haven't even heard of it. But thanks for the review!

Also, I wrote the OP for a mainstream gaming audience. I'd rewrite it if I really really wanted to appeal to the VN crowd. But this isn't exactly the best *VN* ever.

[Kendjin]

Keep in mind, the best H-RPG official English release to date is Brave Soul. You probably haven't even heard of it. But thanks for the review!

You write such good pieces, only to drop in some condensing crap at times, it really devalues your content.

[Sparkker]

Keep in mind, the best H-RPG official English release to date is Brave Soul. You probably haven't even heard of it. But thanks for the review!

Heard the Game... (My Friend urges me to play the game from time to time before)

[sanahtlig]

You write such good pieces, only to drop in some condensing crap at times, it really devalues your content.

I'm not being condescending. Brave Soul was a decent game (but not particularly noteworthy) released 10 years ago that I wouldn't expect anyone nowadays to have heard of (especially someone that busies themselves with untranslated releases). As an analogy, would you go to a mainstream RPG site and expect demanding RPG fans of say...Dragon Age 2...to have even heard of titles like Legend of Dragoon? It's an enjoyable but largely mediocre relic of an age past.

Keep in mind, I'm responding to someone who just dismissed Yumina as good, but not deserving of the attention I'm giving it (i.e., potentially someone with very high standards). My point was that even though Yumina is a great game, it's not all that hard to be the "best" when the competition is mediocre. This is the first really great H-RPG to be OFFICIALLY released. And that's how I'm promoting it.

[Darklord Rooke]

Brave Soul was a decent game (but not particularly noteworthy) released 10 years ago that I wouldn't expect anyone nowadays to have heard of

'Brave Soul' is a game regularly recommended to people looking for good h-rpgs. Just because there have been so few translated, and the best known ones (Kamidori, Tears etc) are usually SRPGs. And some people just don't like SRPGs ... like my sister ... and ALL of my gaming friends

You're doing a great job with the marketing btw. As for marketing to RPG fans, you'll have to try and find a forum where a lot of JRPG fans hang out. I doubt you'll have much luck with western RPG fans. You could also try the usual anime fan route...

[sanahtlig]

I was planning to post on the NIS America forums. I was kind of hoping I could get ahold of more marketing materials first. I threw out a probe to a fan translator to translate the demo, but he had too much on his plate and didn't want to interfere with JAST's release. Looks like I might be able to get my hands on a fansubbed OP though. JAST is being pretty useless. Their forum is dead, the moderator is gone, and I doubt they even intend to send reviewers a copy before release. It's a royal mess. It's like they want the game to remain in obscurity.

[Forythos]

I've played a few H-RPGs in ages long past, including Brave Soul, which I enjoyed at the time.(Was also a fan of Mogudan prior to playing the game, though I don't really like the direction his artwork has taken.)

It's not really my favorite type of VN, but I'm also a longtime RPG fan, and I like the idea of seeing it as a H-RPG more than a VN. Given the positive reactions I've been seeing so far I'm pretty sure I'll give the game a try eventualy, and buy it if I like it, but for now it's not a priority on my list and I've already got a bit too much left to play in my backlog.

[sanahtlig]

The blog post is up: http://visualnovelaer.fuwanovel.net/2013/07/yumina-the-ethereal-the-first-high-profile-official-h-rpg-release-in-english-but-will-jast-drop-the-ball-and-forget-to-market-it/

I also aired my concern that JAST won't even market the game.

[shcboomer]

The blog post is up: http://visualnovelaer.fuwanovel.net/2013/07/yumina-the-ethereal-the-first-high-profile-official-h-rpg-release-in-english-but-will-jast-drop-the-ball-and-forget-to-market-it/

I also aired my concern that JAST won't even market the game.

Reading through it now, seems like an interesting read.

[Tay]

As always, great content. Looking forward to watching this, especially since the game has gone golden.