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Suggestion for Fuwanovel


The Big Guy

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Now I know this goes against Aaeru's idea of public domain and copyright and what have you, but I would like to suggest a new page for Fuwanovel. There are probably a lot of VN players that are intimidated by the high import prices of visual novels, but would still like to buy them (or in my case, be unable to torrent them on University internet). Thankfully, however, after a few months of searching, I've found that there are legal ways to buy VNs without breaking the ol' college budget. In fact, most of them are cheaper than a regular videogame ($60)! The problem, a lot of people don't know these alternatives exist, and places like VNDB are no help whatsoever. So, to cater to this probably small demographic, here's a list of some cheap VNs. (This list is by no means comprehensive, please add on to the list if you know any other games. I am only including games with English patches. There are more games at the sites listed if you want games in Japanese.)

Witch Hunt: http://witch-hunt.com/download.html

Umineko No Naku Koro Ni: 2625 yen ($30)

Umineko No Naku Koro Ni Chiru: 3,150 yen (about $40)

(Note: This game in particular is part of the reason I want to make this list, because a lot of people on NIS America and Atlus want them to publish the Umineko VNs when there is an alternative which directly supports the developers. Also, there is an Umineko PS3 patch, to make the PC version have the upgraded graphics!)

gameliner.jp (Thanks to TLWiki Never 7 page)

Never 7: 995 yen (about $10)

Remember 11: 1575 yen ($20)

(I got these for $5 each in a sale, be on the lookout for any future bargains)

Chaos Head: 3150 yen ($40)

Steins Gate: 3150 yen ($40)

netride.com (Thank Ixrec on his Amaterasu blog http://amaterasu.tindabox.net/blog/?cat=16)

Sekien No Inganock: 2800 yen ($35)

Forest: 2,800 yen ($35)

(There are other games as well that have been translated to English, such as Sengoku Rance, but they are above the price range at 6800 yen and above)

rightstuf.com

Demonbane: $30

My Girlfriend is the President $30

Yume Miru Kusuri: $30

And everything else from JAST and Mangagamer

(The reason I put these up here is because one or more of the three games mentioned specifically go on sale at different times. I got My Girlfriend is the President for $20 on sale, and Yume Miru Kusuri for $25 during separate weeks. Keep your eyes open!)

Jlist.com

Kanon: Memorial Edition: $45

Tomoyo After: $58

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. (I think there was a site that sold the Sono Hana games, but I can't remember what it was to save my life. Ah well.)

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$58.00 seems like a lot of money for a VN. That pry covers licensing, shipping, and physical copy fees but still. $30.00 seems like a much more reasonable price. If a VN I want is licensed and translated I will purchase it. I do like to support the official release. But by sharing VNs it opens more people up to experiencing them and getting more VNs licensed.

I would love to see Funimation and Sentai license VNs and have professional English Voice Actors do the voices for the characters.

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Yeah I thought about doing something like that,

actually vndb and the translators' home pages are pretty good at these things

in fact, you don't need to worry too much about it because when people really like something, theyll go out of their way to do research in order to buy it (i.e. go so far as to look at VNDB or the translators' homepages)

I have some other thoughts about this idea, maybe I'll come back and write more once i find time.

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$58.00 seems like a lot of money for a VN. That pry covers licensing, shipping, and physical copy fees but still. $30.00 seems like a much more reasonable price. If a VN I want is licensed and translated I will purchase it. I do like to support the official release. But by sharing VNs it opens more people up to experiencing them and getting more VNs licensed.

I would love to see Funimation and Sentai license VNs and have professional English Voice Actors do the voices for the characters.

Most VN's are significantly more expensive than that, believe me. Go to Jlist and look at the prices for Rewrite, Little Busters, and Majikoi and then tell me that $58 isn't a steal by comparison.

in fact, you don't need to worry too much about it because when people really like something, theyll go out of their way to do research in order to buy it (i.e. go so far as to look at VNDB or the translators' homepages)

I agree with this, because of the time I spent researching this stuff. On the other hand, convenience is nice, and this is supposed to be the go to site for VN players, so I don't see why this would be a bad thing. If anything, it acts as a next step for VN players, a way to support the VN community without breaking the bank and importing. It's worth considering, especially if the list starts to grow a bit.

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Most VN's are significantly more expensive than that, believe me. Go to Jlist and look at the prices for Rewrite, Little Busters, and Majikoi and then tell me that $58 isn't a steal by comparison.

I agree with this, because of the time I spent researching this stuff. On the other hand, convenience is nice, and this is supposed to be the go to site for VN players, so I don't see why this would be a bad thing. If anything, it acts as a next step for VN players, a way to support the VN community without breaking the bank and importing. It's worth considering, especially if the list starts to grow a bit.

I have seen the really high prices but I just feel $58.00 is a bit much. kinda like how I feel $60.00 for a new game is a bit much especially on Steam. That is a digital vs physical sale and that is a different argument altogether. I suppose it depends on the site though. Right-Stuf tends to just charge $30.00 for the VNs they have in stock so I buy many from them.

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I have seen the really high prices but I just feel $58.00 is a bit much. kinda like how I feel $60.00 for a new game is a bit much especially on Steam. That is a digital vs physical sale and that is a different argument altogether. I suppose it depends on the site though. Right-Stuf tends to just charge $30.00 for the VNs they have in stock so I buy many from them.

As though printing a box and the DVD must for some reason cost a lot more.......

Anyway thanx for the suggestion thebigguy, atm I'm not sure if I am ultra-keen on promoting businesses that dont even tell you where your money is going towards. When they are willing to become a little more transparent, I'd be a bit more interested... I think we can just relegate it to a forums thread for now?

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As though printing a box and the DVD must for some reason cost a lot more.......

Anyway thanx for the suggestion thebigguy, atm I'm not sure if I am ultra-keen on promoting businesses that dont even tell you where your money is going towards. When they are willing to become a little more transparent, I'd be a bit more interested... I think we can just relegate it to a forums thread for now?

I know. $60.00 is just a ludicrous price for a game. If VNs can get a good foothold in the west. More so than they have now and the right companies license them and dub them than I believe that they could sell well. At a reasonable price of course. I like supporting the companies that give me a good product and treat their customers right like CD Projekt Red.

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I'm distressed by this suggestion, mainly because all of the games you have mentioned is English-patched, and NONE of them were releases within the last month (or even perhaps the last year)

Please pardon my ignorance, but if I'm correct, Aaeru's "spread VNs" ideal was more for the Visual Novels that do not get much attention due to the lack of patches. (Aka, Japanese Games), which include the earliest releases (such as Ryuuyoku Melodia, released last week) or even games that date far back (Tayutama, which was extremely popular in Japan, along with the anime variation receiving lots of attention).

While I support the purchase of games, I only support it for games that I thought were truly the "best of the best". Otherwise, I stick with VN-sharing.

In order to best comply to Aaeru's "spread VNs", it would be ideal if someone who plays weekly releases (like yours truly) used a convenient program like "annot.me" to translate VNs within 1 month of their release.

This would get a LOT of players towards Visual Novels.

But not only is this difficult to do (due to annot.me's lack of development at the moment), it is very time-consuming, requires large amounts of concentration, and often non-rewarding.

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I think there are as many different types of VN consumers as there are VNs. While there are definitely VN power players (like Joy, it would seem), having alternate consumption methods is--in my view--an important marketing strategy. Personally, I prefer to buy my VNs before patching them. Yet both of us are in the minority: VNDB stats show that the vast majority of players steer clear of annot just as they avoid commercial avenues such as Japanese Companies/Mangagamer/JAST/etc.

While I can't speak for her, I think Aaeru wants to spread VNs to the west, period. Whether it be the classics, the cult classics, or new releases, fuwanovel seems to exist to streamline access to all visual novels. While I'm still reserving judgment on some aspects of VN/art disbursement advocated here and elsewhere, I'm with Aaeru in my first long-term goal: crowdfunding a quality VN with consequent unlimited distribution.

As for me, personally, I'm in the game to build a player base so that Visual Novels become profitable as a worldwide medium and begin to be produced everywhere.

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