Grisaia: Phantom Trigger Kickstarter Campaign Launches on the 6th March 2017 at 6:00PM PST

[Soulless Watcher]

Just now, Nier said:

I see, it used to be 3 volumes when Phantom Trigger was originally announced a few months back though.

Was it? I just remember reading on the website in October that three volumes were set in stone with more planned. 

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

@Nier - lol thx for feeling the need to correct me over a few minutes. I got the time difference wrong in my head. Point being that there might be more details released with the KS starting.

4 volumes already in the queue, eh? Well they're certainly hoping for more of a price parity with what VNs cost in Japan I guess. That said maybe there is something to be said about them concentrating on one heroine per volume? It might be coincidence but there are 4 heroines, correct? Sounds a little be more promising but still sitting on the fence.

[Nier]

30,422 USD in funding after only 5 hours and all of the spots of the Early Bird tiers gone.

~~~

The funding is at 38,975 USD now, they added a few more spots for the Early Birds, only a few spots are left if anyone is interested.

~~~

50% funded already: https://www.kickstarter.com/activity?ref=user_menu

Take that hipsters!

Edited March 7, 2017 by Nier

[Soulless Watcher]

4 hours ago, Nier said:

50% funded already: https://www.kickstarter.com/activity?ref=user_menu

Take that hipsters!

Oh I had no illusions that this wouldn't get funded pathetically quickly, there are endless examples of games being successful simply because they have name recognition. 

Edited March 7, 2017 by Soulless Watcher

[littleshogun]

Well, congratulation on the funding then, and I definitely think it'll be very successful Kickstarter judging from how many the funds gathered and lesser goal (80,000) than said Root Double (135,000) or Dies Irae (160,000). Granted Frontwing do the KS was only for hard copy, but still. Let's see what Frontwing will be offer in Phantom Trigger later then.

Edited April 2, 2017 by littleshogun

[Suzu Fanatic]

I sound like a broken record, but I'll say it again anyway. Not a dollar more, until my investment in the first three has seen a complete return.

[Nier]

100% Funded:

 

Hipsternovel – Make Visual Novels Popular in the West So We Can Whine About How Popular They Are!

Edited March 10, 2017 by Nier

[Mr Poltroon]

In the meanwhile, you can enjoy the new character profiles (I presume they are from the second volume primarily -- due to the second volume synopsis -- and connected to Rena), and CGs, all for volume one (one of which is pretty good at showing off how all-ages this will be), found on the official website.

[Zenophilious]

7 hours ago, Nier said:

Hipsternovel – Make Visual Novels Popular in the West So We Can Whine About How Popular They Are!

Please put more effort into your trolling, it's getting a bit sad.  I'm not even mildly irritated, and you haven't even rustled a single one of my jimmies.

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

Well, I've finished the grand route of Labyrinth and finished a few of the afterstories and can say I'm getting a little less enthusiastic about the third game (and in turn Phantom Trigger).

Spoiler

I mean I do want to see how things are wrapped up but I am a little disappointed that all the heroines are seemingly getting forced down a single common route. Kinda makes you think what was the point of the routes in the first game? Granted in hindsight it might have gotten messy to maintain that across a trilogy. Perhaps part of my dissatisfaction stems from the vague nature the grand route connects to the previous game from a continuity standpoint. They just handwave that at some point Yuu-kun learns the secrets of the girls without really addressing how he deals with it. /shrug. At any rate I bring this up because I'm starting to feel like all the games produced past the first game have been a cash grab. They didn't really plan for any of it. Not that uncommon no doubt considering they can't predict what will be popular. But it's certainly enforced the idea that Grisaia is a brand being developed rather than a series with an overall vision/plan, imo. But what do I know. I have a relative low number of VN's under my belt compared to others here. This is in fact the only series I have experience with (vs standalones). Is a bit of discontinuity between games the norm?

That all said most of the afterstories have been pretty good though I was kinda disappointed with Makina's route (aside from the badass intro). Even putting aside the fact that she's sorta sidelined to mere comedy in her own story the ending didn't really wrap things up as neat as the others I've read.

I only have myself to blame for being spoiled on the grand route as I remember most of it from the anime. Thankfully I think I must have stopped watching at some point because I don't know how things conclude with "him".

Anyways, I guess I should see if there any new details on this KS.

[Mr Poltroon]

18 minutes ago, EdwardWongHPTIV said:

Well, I've finished the grand route of Labyrinth and finished a few of the afterstories and can say I'm getting a little less enthusiastic about the third game (and in turn Phantom Trigger).

  Hide contents

I mean I do want to see how things are wrapped up but I am a little disappointed that all the heroines are seemingly getting forced down a single common route. Kinda makes you think what was the point of the routes in the first game? Granted in hindsight it might have gotten messy to maintain that across a trilogy. Perhaps part of my dissatisfaction stems from the vague nature the grand route connects to the previous game from a continuity standpoint. They just handwave that at some point Yuu-kun learns the secrets of the girls without really addressing how he deals with it. /shrug. At any rate I bring this up because I'm starting to feel like all the games produced past the first game have been a cash grab. They didn't really plan for any of it. Not that uncommon no doubt considering they can't predict what will be popular. But it's certainly enforced the idea that Grisaia is a brand being developed rather than a series with an overall vision/plan, imo. But what do I know. I have a relative low number of VN's under my belt compared to others here. This is in fact the only series I have experience with (vs standalones). Is a bit of discontinuity between games the norm?

That all said most of the afterstories have been pretty good though I was kinda disappointed with Makina's route (aside from the badass intro). Even putting aside the fact that she's sorta sidelined to mere comedy in her own story the ending didn't really wrap things up as neat as the others I've read.

I only have myself to blame for being spoiled on the grand route as I remember most of it from the anime. Thankfully I think I must have stopped watching at some point because I don't know how things conclude with "him".

Anyways, I guess I should see if there any new details on this KS.

Spoiler

 

I have zero doubt in my mind the initial trilogy was planned from start to finish.
There is no way in bloody hell that Fruit could foreshadow and reference events that occur in Labyrinth if the whole thing were not planned in advance.
I mean, it'd be inhuman to be able to construct Labyrinth taking into account all the vague hints dropped in Fruit. Vague hints that, if Labyrinth had not already been planned, would be really hard to come up with.

Why was Fruit of Grisaia presented as a title with routes? Because it is effectively the best way of conveying it, and industry standard. I highly doubt Fruit would be as popular as it was if instead of romancing all the heroines individually you instead had a harem situation or no romance at all. It would also be hard to write all those deeply personal issues for each heroine in one single continuous route... so they didn't. Make the first game the introductory one, introducing everyone and their issues individually; make the second game the backstory one, where we learn about Yuuji and his past; make the third game the actual big action story thingie.

 

 

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

Spoiler

 

@Mr PoltroonForeshadow what happened in labyrinth? Don't you mean they simply hinted at the backstory? There's no reason why they couldn't have revealed Yuuji's past without torpedoing the other routes. Yet they did so. Presumably to make continuing the series to the final game easier (I think someone here said that they went from many writers to one).

Oh, I agree about the first game. I wasn't questioning the use of routes. Labyrinth really is just a bridge to the third "big action story thingie" as you put it. And correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to shed the continuity of those beloved heroine routes in favor of a common route? I mean that's what I've gathered at least.

 

 

[novurdim]

23 hours ago, Nier said:

100% Funded

Now that sure took long for a game as popular as Grisaia with a goal at mere 80k.

Edited March 11, 2017 by novurdim

[Mr Poltroon]

1 minute ago, EdwardWongHPTIV said:

  Hide contents

 

@Mr PoltroonForeshadow what happened in labyrinth? Don't you mean they simply hinted at the backstory? There's no reason why they couldn't have revealed Yuuji's past without torpedoing the other routes. Yet they did so. Presumably to make continuing the series to the final game easier (I think someone here said that they went from many writers to one).

Oh, I agree about the first game. I wasn't questioning the use of routes. Labyrinth really is just a bridge to the third "big action story thingie" as you put it. And correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to shed the continuity of those beloved heroine routes in favor of a common route? I mean that's what I've gathered at least.

 

 

Spoiler

"they simply hinted at the backstory", to the extent they did, means the backstory was planned from the start. Or at least that's what I believe.

Why did they torpedo the routes? Because it's a different game. Either Fruit had to contain a true route, or Labyrinth would need to account for all routes. You wouldn't be able to continue Sachi's route in Labyrinth; well, you would, but if you did that you'd alienate all the other girls. They needed to continue from a point where all routes are accounted for, and that's what they did.
By the beginning of Labyrinth, Yuuji has found out about all of the girl's secrets and has helped them surpass them without recurring to playing the lover card. If they made the first game a linear experience where you romance no one, that would have made the first game worse. Unfortunately, since the first game has routes and no true one, the second one had to suffer from it: it created a new continuity in which everything in Fruit sort of happened without any romance.
Fruit doesn't have a true one because they'd essentially be repeating themselves. The backstory we find in the girls' routes is the only backstory they have to share, the true route would essentially be the same thing as the individual routes, but shoddily connected together and without romance. No point in even making that.

Finally, every girl having surpassed their issues is pretty much a necessity for the final game, which is why the option of "just one girl route" for all three games is out of the window. At least, I'm under that impression.

So I believe they did the best they could to have both an intriguing romance for the first game and a big epic story for all three of the games.

 

[Nier]

18 minutes ago, novurdim said:

Not that sure took long for a game as popular as Grisaia with a goal at mere 80k.

It's the difference in getting the word out.

It's obvious that even people who weren't even into VN back in 2014 or 2015 heard that there was a Grisaia, Clannad or Muv-Luv Campaign going on on Kickstarter because otaku-related news sites reported on it, while here with Grisaia Phantom Trigger the only reason I knew it was launching is because I visited Frontwing twitter by chance a few days before the launch of the campaign which had a message on it that gave the date and time during which the campaign will launch.

Not everybody is a true VN fan who checks daily Kickstarter's Video Games category in case a new VN project has launched, so obviously this is gonna bring in less people if not alot of people know about it and if potential backers only find out about the campaign a few days/weeks after the campaign has launched.

Here is comment taken from Grisaia: Phantom Trigger:

Quote

donovan20055

Superbacker

4 days ago

... What the heck man I got no info on this (e-mail) before the KS campaign started, I even knew this was coming but didn't know the exact date really ticks me off.

Guy is a "superbacker" and backed 61 projects, most of which are VN or VN-related and he only found out of the campaign launch only after it launched.

Edited March 11, 2017 by Nier

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

1 hour ago, Mr Poltroon said:

  Hide contents

"they simply hinted at the backstory", to the extent they did, means the backstory was planned from the start. Or at least that's what I believe.

Why did they torpedo the routes? Because it's a different game. Either Fruit had to contain a true route, or Labyrinth would need to account for all routes. You wouldn't be able to continue Sachi's route in Labyrinth; well, you would, but if you did that you'd alienate all the other girls. They needed to continue from a point where all routes are accounted for, and that's what they did.
By the beginning of Labyrinth, Yuuji has found out about all of the girl's secrets and has helped them surpass them without recurring to playing the lover card. If they made the first game a linear experience where you romance no one, that would have made the first game worse. Unfortunately, since the first game has routes and no true one, the second one had to suffer from it: it created a new continuity in which everything in Fruit sort of happened without any romance.
Fruit doesn't have a true one because they'd essentially be repeating themselves. The backstory we find in the girls' routes is the only backstory they have to share, the true route would essentially be the same thing as the individual routes, but shoddily connected together and without romance. No point in even making that.

Finally, every girl having surpassed their issues is pretty much a necessity for the final game, which is why the option of "just one girl route" for all three games is out of the window. At least, I'm under that impression.

So I believe they did the best they could to have both an intriguing romance for the first game and a big epic story for all three of the games.

 

You may be right in that they had at least a rough outline for the series. If they did they certainly failed in execution, imo.

I'm not suggesting they should have rehashed the first game to create a true route, but they could have at least did some flashbacks to establish just how Yuuji supposedly helped (or not) each heroine without romancing them. I mean you kinda just reiterated the point I was making about continuity (the lack thereof).

I can only hope they address this to some degree in the third game but I'm not holding my breath considering they didn't in labyrinth and it's already a relatively short game (at least compared to fruit).

 

Edited March 11, 2017 by EdwardWongHPTIV

[littleshogun]

1 hour ago, EdwardWongHPTIV said:

You may be right in that they had at least a rough outline for the series. If they did they certainly failed in execution, imo.

I'm not suggesting they should have rehashed the first game to create a true route, but they could have at least did some flashbacks to established just how Yuuji supposedly helped (or not) each heroine without romancing them. I mean you kinda just reiterated the point I was making about continuity (the lack thereof).

I can only hope they address this to some degree in the third game but I'm not holding my breath considering they didn't in labyrinth and it's already a relatively short game (at least compared to fruit).

 

To tell the truth, I kind of disagree with this kind of the story telling. I mean is Yuuji really managed to solved all of 5 heroines problem on the short time, with one of them was had quite extreme solution (Sachi)? Although perhaps it was apparently because Grisaia was only planned for Kajitsu, but Frontwing change their mind and add both of Meikyuu and Rakuen perhaps. As for the continuity, actually they could made it akin of Galaxy Angel if they really planned it out as trilogy (Each Galaxy Angel sequels were had exclusive scene for each heroines that you chose at the beginning, even though most of the route was same if we talk about the conflict), but well it's too late for that.

As for Rakuen, I doubt that Frontwing address what you want, especially with the ending. Also with the most interesting retcon in regard of Michiru. In the end, I just think it's just the fandisc (I mean the duology, although arguably Galaxy Angel sequels could be treated as fandisc too). Just my opinion here.

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

@littleshogun Yeah, I'm dubious about him helping all 5 within the time frame given for the grand route (iirc it's a year after the end of fruit? At least that is the case for the afterstories.)

Spoiler

And, yeah, Sachi's solution was way over the top. It was nonetheless entertaining, but I highly doubt treatment of PTSD requires wonton destruction. Though I suppose it was really just tearing down her coping mechanism. The PTSD was cleared up with the contrivance of a letter from her parents that answered all her questions. Though I'd wager she'd still have nightmares about the accident. But it's fridge logic that I can accept for the sake of a happy ending.

I'm actually replaying the corresponding routes in fruit for each afterstory in Labyrinth just as a refresher. I vaguely remember Michiru's route but not really the ending. So I'm not positive I know what you mean as far as a retcon in regards to her. I wanna say her personalities combine but yeah.. anyways the continuation of the series certainly leaves some questions unanswered.

 

Edited March 11, 2017 by EdwardWongHPTIV

[SpeedBeatz]

On 3/11/2017 at 8:45 PM, Nier said:

It's obvious that even people who weren't even into VN back in 2014 or 2015 heard that there was a Grisaia, Clannad or Muv-Luv Campaign going on on Kickstarter because otaku-related news sites reported on it, while here with Grisaia Phantom Trigger the only reason I knew it was launching is because I visited Frontwing twitter by chance a few days before the launch of the campaign which had a message on it that gave the date and time during which the campaign will launch.

For what it's worth, we sent out press releases about the campaign to a large number of site, as we always do, and only 2-3 smaller sites picked up the story at all.

It seems a Kickstarter campaign for a visual novel series just isn't "news" anymore in 2017.

[Nier]

6 hours ago, SpeedBeatz said:

For what it's worth, we sent out press releases about the campaign to a large number of site, as we always do, and only 2-3 smaller sites picked up the story at all.

It seems a Kickstarter campaign for a visual novel series just isn't "news" anymore in 2017.

Oh that sucks, what made the first Grisaia campaign so successful was basically the word of mouth spreading on the internet after the video games/anime/manga news sites reported on it, I still visit the same news sites that I visted back in 2014-2015 and I didn't even hear a word from them about Grisaia: Phantom Trigger's campaign launching, while I do remember quite clearly that they heavily reported on Clannad, Grisaia Trilogy, Muv-Luv Trilogy and such.

I am guessing a VN Kickstarter campaign isn't such as novelty anymore, aye?

[Deniz]

What happens to the money if a project couldn't reach its goal on kickstarter?

[Nier]

21 minutes ago, Deniz said:

What happens to the money if a project couldn't reach its goal on kickstarter?

Nothing, the money only gets taken at the end of a Kickstarter and it only gets taken if a project reached it's funding goal.

[EdwardWongHPTIV]

I wonder if a change of crowd funding site would change anything? Dunno if Fig would be a fit for VN's though. Well maybe if it was an original project and not just translation. Can't see them being able to offer any sort of investment in something that's being licensed or translated in house. Not to mention Fig's terms might not be friendly to anything approaching an eroge. Might be as likely as gog picking up even all ages VN's. Which is to say very unlikely.

Gotta admit that I probably wouldn't have ever gotten into VN's if it wasn't for Grisaia. The anime really did work pretty damn well as publicity. Though I suppose it was just the final push for me. I had been considering it for a while.

[Nier]

New Stretch Goal Revealed:

[Nier]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frontwing/a-grand-entrance-for-new-vn-series-grisaia-phantom/posts/1846833

If this stretch goal is reached, the Complete Box won't be Japan exclusive anymore.