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SRPG eroge Venus Blood Frontier to get an English Kickstarter


sanahtlig

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7 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

So, as the all-ages version is confirmed, I've started wondering and I'm still not sure if I understand the premise of this: is the tentacle rape an optional game mechanic? Is there any consensual h-content in there (Eiyuu Senki - style) or a way to recruiting the goddesses without raping/mind-breaking them?

If I recall correctly,
each heroine has a mandatory rape scene when you recruit them.

I think there's a handful of consensual scenes if you don't go down each heroine's corruption route.  And if you do go down the corruption route... eventually it becomes consensual.

I added the new trial mirror to the article as well as plans for an 18+ patch.  When I have time later, I'll address the other new developments.

 

10 hours ago, assasinzassasin said:

 

Now seeing as I'm under NDA I can't divulge the full details, but uh...I have actually brought up Mangagamer, JAST, hell even FAKKU to them when it comes to sales platforms.

But let's just say there are certain...contractual problems and such that will not allow us to pursue those avenues. Terribly sorry, but we essentially have no choice in the matter and so we will be using Steam, with a patch for those who would rather have those scenes in it as well.

9 hours ago, assasinzassasin said:

After seeing your comments I have brought this up with the director, and I shall let you guys know the result.

He said that while there is no doubt that we will release it on Steam as an initial release, there IS a POSSIBILITY that we may release it on something like Jlist, or somewhere similar.

I suppose there is a possibility, at least? I will however say that this is not a guarantee, but merely that he intends to try and renegotiate some of these so called...'Contractual Obligations'. I certainly wish him luck, as I sit here slowly translating scene after scene.

For the Prefundia, you should try and disclose what you can about this, and keep searching for a possible alternative.  While a patch will satisfy many, there will be those who will be utterly baffled that this game could be sold without H-scenes--and more importantly, those who feel that downloading a separate patch is a nuisance, and those who feel that hiding the true nature of the game is unacceptable.  Yes, there have been Kickstarters and Steam releases before that used a patch as a sole workaround, but none of these games were anywhere near as sexual in concept as Venus Blood Frontier.

There's also other platforms you may not have considered, such as Nutaku.  Nutaku is highly-focused on gameplay titles and nukige, so VBF would probably sell pretty well there.  That is, provided they don't demand their own set of content restrictions...

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On 2018/5/1 at 8:18 PM, Plk_Lesiak said:

So, as the all-ages version is confirmed, I've started wondering and I'm still not sure if I understand the premise of this: is the tentacle rape an optional game mechanic? Is there any consensual h-content in there (Eiyuu Senki - style) or a way to recruiting the goddesses without raping/mind-breaking them?

Hmm...To be honest, there are also a few system restrictions considering this game is from like, 2012, so I honestly doubt we can make amazingly huge, crazy changes to it. Extra scenarios, extra CGs etc might still be possible, but something like reworking how the system works is a lil...tough.

 

The tentacle rape is only there if you apply the patch. If you don't, well...You'll find out how Loki gets them on his side in the actual game.

 

On 2018/5/1 at 10:50 PM, sanahtlig said:

"After seeing your comments I have brought this up with the director, and I shall let you guys know the result.

He said that while there is no doubt that we will release it on Steam as an initial release, there IS a POSSIBILITY that we may release it on something like Jlist, or somewhere similar.

I suppose there is a possibility, at least? I will however say that this is not a guarantee, but merely that he intends to try and renegotiate some of these so called...'Contractual Obligations'. I certainly wish him luck, as I sit here slowly translating scene after scene."

For the Prefundia, you should try and disclose what you can about this, and keep searching for a possible alternative.  While a patch will satisfy many, there will be those who will be utterly baffled that this game could be sold without H-scenes--and more importantly, those who feel that downloading a separate patch is a nuisance, and those who feel that hiding the true nature of the game is unacceptable.  Yes, there have been Kickstarters before that used the patch concept, but none of these games were anywhere near as sexual in concept as Venus Blood Frontier.

There's also other platforms you may not have considered, such as Nutaku.  Nutaku is highly-focused on gameplay titles and nukige, so VBF would probably sell pretty well there.  That is, provided they don't demand their own set of content restrictions...

Indeed, one twitter user said he won't support us on account of his values or something where he doesn't like the idea that we had to gut the core premise of the game, remove the H, and 'pander' to steam users. 

I...tried my best to talk to the director about this, I really did, but there are just problems that go beyond our own company, Ninetail, when it comes to certain rights or as I said earlier, contractual obligations. I do however know that the director has talked with companies like Jlist or others and I do believe we may have hope for Jlist or similar companies but he says that even if we can, it'll be at a slightly later date while the steam version will come out first, and those who can't wait or are impatient really have no choice. 

Personal opinion though.

I really, really wish this damn NDA wasn't a thing, if I could explain in detail why exactly we are unable to accomodate your(and mine own personal ones tbh) wishes when it comes to this point, you would have more information and possibly be able to understand us as well.

I'll try talking to the director and see if we can maybe divulge information on the prefundia but honestly, I doubt it, because NDAs.

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I'm going to take an educated guess and speculate that voice licensing is the hold-up.  It often is.  Ninetail probably has the right to publish/re-release the game themselves (e.g., on Steam), but not license releases out to other publishers (such as JAST, MangaGamer).  Re-negotiating this could be prohibitively expensive.  (You don't need to confirm or deny this.  Just my speculation.)

Also depending on how the adult release is handled is the issue of mosaics.  Mosaics are frowned on in the English market, especially for ero-heavy titles.  Once upon a time, games with mosaics were even considered unmarketable.  If you want to sell this as a sexy game (and if you want additional sales, you should), mosaics are a problem.  But if you want to self-publish a patch, you're legally required to keep the mosaics as a Japanese company.  That's why finding a distributor for an adult version is really important.  Not just to satisfy existing VN fans, but to potentially reach the much larger porn market as well.  There's a lot of people who don't play VNs but like porn and gameplay, but if you keep the mosaics you probably won't reach them.

 

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Just now, sanahtlig said:

I'm going to take an educated guess and speculate that voice licensing is the hold-up.  It often is.  Ninetail probably has the right to publish/re-release the game themselves (e.g., on Steam), but not license releases out to other publishers (such as JAST, MangaGamer).  Re-negotiating this could be prohibitively expensive.  (You don't need to confirm or deny this.  Just my speculation.)

Also depending on how the adult release is handled is the issue of mosaics.  Mosaics are frowned on in the English market, especially for ero-heavy titles.  Once upon a time, games with mosaics were even considered unmarketable.  If you want to sell this as a sexy game (and if you want additional sales, you should), mosaics are a problem.  But if you want to self-publish a patch, you're legally required to keep the mosaics as a Japanese company.  That's why finding a distributor for an adult version is really important.  Not just to satisfy existing VN fans, but to potentially reach the much larger porn market as well.  There's a lot of people who don't play VNs but like porn and gameplay, but if you leave the mosaics you probably won't reach them.

 

I actually fought tooth and nail (ie spent a few days discussing) for the removal of mosaics, but it simply could not be done due to a problem in japanese law, where if we are based in Japan we are bound by japanese law and cannot decensor. You seem to understand this, and yes, those publishers can decensor it because they are based outside of japan. Unfortunate, in this case we'll just have to settle for slightly thinner mosaics than the original. Hopefully that will be enough, sort of? Probably not, but I can only hope.

Also, I'm not allowed to divulge too much, but I will say that unfortunately, the hold up is not what you have mentioned. Erm, also you're wrong on the very next sentence regarding who owns 'All' the rights, and that's pretty much all I am allowed to say. we have certain contractual obligations with another company that, lets just say, holds a lot of sway within our company, and going against those contractual obligations would burn more bridges than it's worth. It would severely hamper our efforts in developing future titles and is a loss that is unacceptable on account of a single project that, as a company, we are not yet sure will succeed. 

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32 minutes ago, assasinzassasin said:

The tentacle rape is only there if you apply the patch. If you don't, well...You'll find out how Loki gets them on his side in the actual game.

That's true - I have to know whether I want to buy it first though. ;) My question mostly came from the fact that while I don't mind playing a a villanous protagonist, rape and over-the-top cruelty are definitely not my thing. So I  wanted to know how much of that stuff is avoidable in the game's narrative - really, whether I have to see the tentacle hentai is a secondary issue, I could easily suffer through a few of those scenes if it leads somewhere interesting later on. Whether I can stand the protagist or lead him into any kind of "not-total-homicidal-maniac" direction is actualy much more important for me. 

Thank you for your response though. :)

Edit: I also didn't really expect any changes to the game mechanics to cater to people like me in the Western release, I'm just wondering whether the game is worth following from my partical perspective. :)

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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3 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

That's true - I have to know whether I want to buy it first though. ;) My question mostly came from the fact that while I don't mind playing a a villanous protagonist, rape and over-the-top cruelty are definitely not my thing. So I  wanted to know how much of that stuff is avoidable in the game's narrative - really, whether I have to see the tentacle hentai is a secondary issue, I could easily suffer through a few of those scenes if it leads somewhere interesting later on. Whether I can stand the protagist or lead him into any kind of "not-total-homicidal-maniac" direction is actualy much more important for me. 

Thank you for your response though. :)

Well...There is the 'Law' route, everything there is nice, lovely, and even the 18+ stuff is all lovey dovey and stuff. I don't want to spoil, but I really love the scene he spends with his chosen heroine the night before the climax of that route.

If you want to be an over the top violent evil bugger, there is always the 'Chaos route'. Unfortunately, some of the more...cruel or sadistic parts of his personality remain intact. Sure, we might tone it down a bit but the base is still there. Rape and tentacle stuff is not in there if you do not patch it, though.

 

3 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

That's true - I have to know whether I want to buy it first though. ;) My question mostly came from the fact that while I don't mind playing a a villanous protagonist, rape and over-the-top cruelty are definitely not my thing. So I  wanted to know how much of that stuff is avoidable in the game's narrative - really, whether I have to see the tentacle hentai is a secondary issue, I could easily suffer through a few of those scenes if it leads somewhere interesting later on. Whether I can stand the protagist or lead him into any kind of "not-total-homicidal-maniac" direction is actualy much more important for me. 

Thank you for your response though. :)

Edit: I also didn't really expect any changes to the game mechanics to cater to people like me in the Western release, I'm just wondering whether the game is worth following from my partical perspective. :)

Also I will say that Loki is indeed one of the more popular(?) if not well known protagonists of the VB games on account of how despite being a bit of a cold, evil guys sometimes, he can have relatable motives and occasionally shows his softer side (especially in the law route). He is, indeed, a rather decent human(er, demon) being in this route, and you can choose not to taint the goddesses at all. Hell, even if you do, they still get a nice ending with him.

The chaos route, well, it's named that for a reason. Considering the rape and stuff is gone, all you might have to 'suffer' through would probably be violence? I do find the whole 'revenge' narrative rather cathartic in this route though, a different kind of happiness than the one I get from the law route. Also I don't consider mentioning revenge to be a spoiler as it's in the OP movie(Sorry if you consider it one tho...)

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3 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

That's true - I have to know whether I want to buy it first though. ;) My question mostly came from the fact that while I don't mind playing a a villanous protagonist, rape and over-the-top cruelty are definitely not my thing. So I  wanted to know how much of that stuff is avoidable in the game's narrative - really, whether I have to see the tentacle hentai is a secondary issue, I could easily suffer through a few of those scenes if it leads somewhere interesting later on. Whether I can stand the protagist or lead him into any kind of "not-total-homicidal-maniac" direction is actualy much more important for me.

The protagonist is more mellow in the Law route--but he's still a crafty "ends justifies the means" type, as I recall.  Also, when it comes to pretty girls trying to kill him... "to the victor go the spoils". 

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5 minutes ago, sanahtlig said:

The protagonist is more mellow in the Law route--but he's still a crafty "ends justifies the means" type, as I recall.  Also, when it comes to pretty girls trying to kill him... "to the victor go the spoils". 

Hey, craftiness is part of his nature. His name is LOKI after all. Crafty, tricky, a tactician, so to speak.

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6 minutes ago, assasinzassasin said:

Also I will say that Loki is indeed one of the more popular(?) if not well known protagonists of the VB games on account of how despite being a bit of a cold, evil guys sometimes, he can have relatable motives and occasionally shows his softer side (especially in the law route). He is, indeed, a rather decent human(er, demon) being in this route, and you can choose not to taint the goddesses at all. Hell, even if you do, they still get a nice ending with him.

The chaos route, well, it's named that for a reason. Considering the rape and stuff is gone, all you might have to 'suffer' through would probably be violence? I do find the whole 'revenge' narrative rather cathartic in this route though, a different kind of happiness than the one I get from the law route. Also I don't consider mentioning revenge to be a spoiler as it's in the OP movie(Sorry if you consider it one tho...)

Yes, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. I will have to keep an eye out for the Kickstarter after all.

:thumbsup:

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3 hours ago, Kiriririri said:

If I'm not wrong Mangagamer and Frontwing too are both based in Japan and have mosaic free releases but I don't know what is going on behind there.

Because they have...What is it, subbranches or something? In America or other countries and they host those decensored stuff on the servers there. Hell, Japanese IP addresses aren't even allowed access to those sites, and that's why it's allowed despite coming from a japanese company! Cuz we cant access it.

And that's another problem. No access = No chance for support or if any problems arise.

 

3 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Yes, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. I will have to keep an eye out for the Kickstarter after all.

:thumbsup:

Glad to hear it, friend. I'm just wondering personally, but is there any girl in particular you think you might like, looking at the official page? 

Course, you don't have to answer if you don't want to XD. Just curiosity on my end, like if any of them in particular catch your fancy.

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A common thread in the VB series is protagonists with villainous characteristics that aren't complete hedonists, sadists, or psychopaths (a common trope in rape games with villainous protagonists).  They're cunning and ambitious, yet relatable, and they're ultimately shaped by the player's choices.  Prioritize brutal efficiency and hedonism, and you'll end up on the Chaos route.  Prioritize justice and compassion, and you'll go down the Law route.  Mix the two prudently and you could enjoy the fruits of both... or suffer the potentially fatal consequences of being an embattled ruler that is neither just nor strong.

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3 minutes ago, sanahtlig said:

A common thread in the VB series is protagonists with villainous characteristics that aren't complete hedonists, sadists, or psychopaths (a common trope in rape games with villainous protagonists).  They're cunning and ambitious, yet relatable, and they're ultimately shaped by the player's choices.  Prioritize brutal efficiency and hedonism, and you'll end up on the Chaos route.  Prioritize justice and compassion, and you'll go down the Law route.  Mix the two prudently and you could enjoy the fruits of both... or suffer the fatal consequences of being a ruler that is neither just nor strong.

This really is what I find compelling about narratives that split into two divergent paths of law and chaos, which may not necessarily be good and evil, but can be close to it.

 

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9 minutes ago, assasinzassasin said:

Glad to hear it, friend. I'm just wondering personally, but is there any girl in particular you think you might like, looking at the official page? 

Tilca and Regret when it goes to designs and characteristics. I will keep them pure and lovely, just like they are and rule the world together (or something like that)! :Chocola:

3 minutes ago, sanahtlig said:

A common thread in the VB series is protagonists with villainous characteristics that aren't complete hedonists, sadists, or psychopaths (a common trope in rape games with villainous protagonists).  They're cunning and ambitious, yet relatable, and they're ultimately shaped by the player's choices.  Prioritize brutal efficiency and hedonism, and you'll end up on the Chaos route.  Prioritize justice and compassion, and you'll go down the Law route.  Mix the two prudently and you could enjoy the fruits of both... or suffer the fatal consequences of being a ruler that is neither just nor strong.

Yeah... And if someone told me this morning that I would be super-hyped about a series most well-known for tentacle porn coming to the West, I would be a bit skeptical. :michiru:

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26 minutes ago, assasinzassasin said:

Because they have...What is it, subbranches or something? In America or other countries and they host those decensored stuff on the servers there. Hell, Japanese IP addresses aren't even allowed access to those sites, and that's why it's allowed despite coming from a japanese company! Cuz we cant access it.

And that's another problem. No access = No chance for support or if any problems arise.

Would it not then be possible for you guys to offer a mosiac free version on a site like MG, or somewhere else, where JP players cannot access it? That would solve the problem, no? (Assuming whatever negotiations with Jlist etc actually goes well, and making such a version would be possible in the first place.)

A promise of a mosiac free version will absolutely make even more people buy it. (And, sadly, not having a mosiac free version does mean certain people won't buy it.) I personally don't mind all that much myself, (though I do prefer no mosiacs,) but I have seen people pull their support from KS projects several times because the mosiacs weren't removed.

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5 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Tilca and Regret when it goes to designs and characteristics. I will keep them pure and lovely, just like they are and rule the world together (or something like that)! :Chocola:

Yeah... And if someone told me this morning that I would be super-hyped about a series most well-known for tentacle porn coming to the West, I would be a bit skeptical. :michiru:

Don't knock it til you tried it, or so I think that saying goes? Or was it don't judge a book by it's cover, haha.

Tilca and Regret eh? Great choices. I'll drop a little tidbit for you, but even in the story these two are particularly close.

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Also, something that probably isn't widely known about the VB series is that the scenario/choice structure for optional scenes is pretty complex.  You have to juggle heroine favorability, Law, and Chaos points, and various combinations of these unlock additional scenes, character upgrades, and even new unit types.  I've literally spent hours trying to plot out dialogue decisions to reach desired endings while collecting as many upgrades as possible.  In many games, some upgrades and unit types aren't even available until subsequent playthroughs, and the Law/Chaos split and the additional difficulties and New Game+ features further incentivize additional playthroughs.

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17 hours ago, Dergonu said:

Would it not then be possible for you guys to offer a mosiac free version on a site like MG, or somewhere else, where JP players cannot access it? That would solve the problem, no? (Assuming whatever negotiations with Jlist etc actually goes well, and making such a version would be possible in the first place.)

A promise of a mosiac free version will absolutely make even more people buy it. (And, sadly, not having a mosiac free version does mean certain people won't buy it.) I personally don't mind all that much myself, (though I do prefer no mosiacs,) but I have seen people pull their support from KS projects several times because the mosiacs weren't removed.

See, I brought this up with my director and he checked with that other company whom we have contractual obligations with (I'm just gonna call is company V from now on), they didn't want to risk it so our hands are essentially tied.

IF they cave and let us negotiate a deal with Jlist or something, trust me, I'd be happy to let you guys know. Hell, I want that to happen too.

I realise the allure of mosaic free releases, I brought up that argument while I was still on a probation period before getting hired. So to prevent people pulling out, so to speak, we plan to make this information very clear.

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6 minutes ago, assasinzassasin said:

See, I brought this up with my director and he checked with that other company whom we have contractual obligations with (I'm just gonna call is company V from now on), they didn't want to risk it so our hands are essentially tied.

IF they cave and let us negotiate a deal with Jlist or something, trust me, I'd be happy to let you guys know. Hell, I want that to happen too.

I realise the allure of mosaic free releases, I brought up that argument while I was still on a probation period before getting hired. 

Is the problem that company V doesn't want any releases outside Steam, or that specifically they don't want any (official) ADULT releases in English?

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40 minutes ago, assasinzassasin said:

See, I brought this up with my director and he checked with that other company whom we have contractual obligations with (I'm just gonna call is company V from now on), they didn't want to risk it so our hands are essentially tied.

IF they cave and let us negotiate a deal with Jlist or something, trust me, I'd be happy to let you guys know. Hell, I want that to happen too.

I realise the allure of mosaic free releases, I brought up that argument while I was still on a probation period before getting hired. So to prevent people pulling out, so to speak, we plan to make this information very clear.

First of all, thanks for answering our barrage of questions :P

Anyways, I'm assuming tons of people will ask about it on the prefundia page, even if the prefundia itself says mosiacs will be intact. Perhaps showing the large number of comments about the issue from the consumers to company V would help sway them? (If past eroge kickstarters are any indication, tons of people will ask about them.)

I'd assume this particular title would get even more support for an uncensored release than other recent Kickstarted eroge, because of the importance and frequency of the H in the game.

3 hours ago, Kiriririri said:

If I'm not totally wrong the Japanese version of the game already has an option to disable all the H-scenes lol

If this option is anything like in Hypno, then that's not really what it is. Or, rather, you have buttons that lets you skip ... pretty much anything. Gameplay, story scenes, and yes, H. So, it's more of a "I have played the game once already, and want to get through X faster, to do a fresh run" button than a "I want to skip H, because all-ages is justice!" button. The button doesn't actually remove just some content to make the game readable in an all-ages format, but literally assumes you already read said content, to get to what you want to get to faster. (Like, doing a new run for a new route, making different choices etc.)

The all-ages version they are making would have to be created specifically to keep all story related, and gameplay related stuff intact, but remove any and all H + nudity, which will surely be a time consuming task. (I have not played Frontier, but the games all seem rather similar in structure, so if it is comparable to Hypno, then that will surely take some time, with how frequent and integral the H is to the game.)

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Played the demo, and yeah, it's given me a good impression of the title. I'd be very interested in playing it.

Spoiler

It's not often I see narration that isn't first-person in a VN. It's a bit more interesting to read as a result, I guess. It has the added benefit of not really revealing the protagonist's thoughts if it doesn't want to.

It's so funny seeing the main character's maid complaining about him while she fights. It's such a generic thing but I don't see it happen to the protagonist very often. Generally it's conflicted/forced enemies that act like that.

I really, really like Ymir's voice. He has a kind of voice I sometimes hear in cartoons, and I had no idea it also existed in Japanese. Human voices really are unique.
Also the sort of character I very much like.

Loki is pretty cool too.

 

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I doubt I'm in the majority here, but I will literally never touch this game as long as it's only available on Steam.  I have people I know in real life on my friends list, and there's no way I'll publically buy a tentacle rape game, censored or not, on a platform where they can see that I own it.  I'm also not going to make another Steam account because, quite frankly, I don't want to, and I shouldn't have to.

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28 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

I doubt I'm in the majority here, but I will literally never touch this game as long as it's only available on Steam.  I have people I know in real life on my friends list, and there's no way I'll publically buy a tentacle rape game, censored or not, on a platform where they can see that I own it.  I'm also not going to make another Steam account because, quite frankly, I don't want to, and I shouldn't have to.

But you can hide all your games and what you are playing on Steam! At the expense of them never seeing what you are doing

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8 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

So, as the all-ages version is confirmed, I've started wondering and I'm still not sure if I understand the premise of this: is the tentacle rape an optional game mechanic? Is there any consensual h-content in there (Eiyuu Senki - style) or a way to recruiting the goddesses without raping/mind-breaking them?

Except for the first time, you don't actually have to constantly deal with tentacle rape (there is a 'good little boy' way of ending things without breaking the heroines). 

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