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Noraneko 2 Censored Overseas Release Announced


littleshogun

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Here's the Steam store link below, and they already released the demo if you want to try it.

The Princess, the Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart 2 Steam store

So anybody else look forward for the sequel of Nora 'We didn't have much money to license the voices in the sex scenes so we decided to released console version in order to cut the cost' neko here? I'm not and obviously Harukaze here is in dire need of money if they released the sequel quickly. So yeah they're more or less like Pulltop, although at least Harukaze here is not released the shorter VNs like Pulltop here (Yet). In any case, even with no censorship here I still not interested with this anyway seeing that it's the FD and all. For the release date, well they still not decided on it so perhaps we may wait until they announce it (In case you interested with it).

PS - I know that the publisher is Fruitbat, but I still blame Harukaze anyway for the censorship because they shouldn't go to Fruitbat if they didn't want this uncensored and we know that Fruitbat release is all age VNs. Granted they have so called license cost, but it's still censorship and all here.

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That is a shame, but not surprising, tbh. With the cost of 1 probably not having been that high due to the voice fees they cut, they almost definitely made a decent profit off the Steam sales. From the JP side, who probably did not even see much of our complaints as they all just stopped at Fruitbat, it was a big success. So why not just censor the next one too for some extra profit, right? 

I quite enjoy these games, so it’s a shame to see them censored, but at least the second game is being released quickly for the people who are okay with censored versions. There’s a lot of text missing from these versions, (think 8k+ lines worth,) but if you’re okay with that, I guess this is good news. 

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The VN seems interesting, censorship not so much. Probably going to pick up the japanese release of Noraneko in the future maybe next time I go to Japan which hopefully is in about a year and a half, the 1+2 pack thing seems nice. At least glad that releases like this and the ones by Moenovel at least make me not have to worry about a english release without mosaics (pretty much a superior release) coming later when thinking about buying the japanese one, they make it pretty clear that the japanese version is the only good option.

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9 hours ago, Dergonu said:

...they almost definitely made a decent profit off the Steam sales...

I'm not so sure about that. I think they decided to do Noratoto 2 before they were even done with Noratoto 1. They picked this one up so quickly that I don't believe it was a decision based on how well the first one sold. It was likely in the process of localization right after they released the first one or at least sometime before they even finished putting it up on Steam.

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5 hours ago, Ramaladni said:

I thought all Fruitbat did was PR. It was quite explicit in the previous thread where the CEO himself intervened...

They also handled QA, and were directly involved in making the license deals. They were the ones speaking with Harukaze about the English version. So they absolutely could have changed things like censorship, had they actually tried. 

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On 10/27/2019 at 12:46 AM, Ramaladni said:

I thought all Fruitbat did was PR. It was quite explicit in the previous thread where the CEO himself intervened...

Well even if they only did PR, it still count because PR here is one of publisher's job. Also Fruitbat here is already well known to only release all age VNs and possibly have it as their policy, so it's inevitable that Noraneko need to be censored if Fruitbat was the one who publish it seeing that Fruitbat adhere to their policy. That said even if the one who offer the help first was Fruitbat I'll still say that Harukaze is at fault anyway, because it mean that they should know that Fruitbat only deal with all age release so it mean that Harukaze was already firm with their decision to censored their overseas release of Noraneko.

Edited by littleshogun
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On 10/27/2019 at 12:51 AM, Dergonu said:

They also handled QA, and were directly involved in making the license deals. They were the ones speaking with Harukaze about the English version. So they absolutely could have changed things like censorship, had they actually tried. 

 

On 10/27/2019 at 7:02 AM, littleshogun said:

Well even if they only did PR, it still count because PR here is one of publisher's job. Also Fruitbat here is already well known to only release all age VNs and possibly have it as their policy, so it's inevitable that Noraneko need to be censored if Fruitbat was the one who publish it seeing that Fruitbat adhere to their policy. That said even if the one who offer the help first was Fruitbat I'll still say that Harukaze is at fault anyway, because it mean that they should know that Fruitbat only deal with all age release so it mean that Harukaze was already firm with their decision to censored their overseas release of Noraneko.

 

Fruitbat only signed on as the publisher after Noraneko was announced, and they have been explicit about the fact that they did not license the game, so it is pretty silly to blame them for something they had no part in:

On 6/2/2019 at 11:19 AM, PhleBuster said:

We're a co-publisher, not "the" publisher; since you already know we only became involved at the very end, it should be pretty obvious we're not making any executive decisions regarding the release. Our main role is in handling English user support, promos, storefront negotiations and what have you.

We are running our own QA for the game as part of the service, but can only report issues and actually implementing changes happens between the developer and the localization company they used for the translation. I want to be very clear about that, since our own standards would be considerably higher when it comes to the end quality (we already need to compromise on the level of things which we report due to not having direct freedom to implement them). IMO the translation itself is decent though, above par for a commercial localization and certainly good enough to enjoy the game.

 

Quote

 

Just to clarify again, we've neither licensed nor localized The Princess, the Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart. We're handling the English press and user support, and provide additional QA for the game.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1010600/discussions/0/1639788130288331293/?ctp=7#c1643167006305644608

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25 minutes ago, Inflatable Lemon said:

 

 

Fruitbat only signed on as the publisher after Noraneko was announced, and they have been explicit about the fact that they did not license the game, so it is pretty silly to blame them for something they had no part in:

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1010600/discussions/0/1639788130288331293/?ctp=7#c1643167006305644608

They have also stated on several occasions that they were involved with dealing with Harukaze directly, and that they were involved in meetings and the likes. Had this been a company actually willing to push for 18+ releases, it almost certainly would have gone differently. So yes, they are partly to blame. 

They did not license the game, but were in talks with Harukaze as sort of advisors about the English market. In addition, they stated in their Discord after 1 released that they would try to fight for an 18+ release for 2. Looks like that was either bs, or they didnt fight very hard. 

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Just now, Dergonu said:

They have also stated on several occasions that they were involved with dealing with Harukaze directly, and that they were involved in meetings and the likes. Had this been a company actually willing to push for 18+ releases, it almost certainly would have gone differently. So yes, they are partly to blame. 

Where have they stated this and did these interactions take place before or after the licensing deal was already made?

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4 minutes ago, Inflatable Lemon said:

Where have they stated this and did these interactions take place before or after the licensing deal was already made?

Like I said, on their Discord channel. The second part, I don’t know. But seeing as the licensor is the JP company itself, it seems irrelevant. There was no deal made with anyone, they licensed their own game in the west, and used Fruitbat as an advisor. 

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Just now, Dergonu said:

Like I said, on their Discord channel. The second part, I don’t know. But seeing as the licensor is the JP company itself, it seems irrelevant. There was no deal made with anyone, they licensed their own game in the west, and used Fruitbat as an advisor. 

Pardon me, looks like I replied before you ninja-edited in that paragraph.

However, I also overlooked a statement to that effect in the thread that I originally quoted:

On 6/6/2019 at 11:21 PM, PhleBuster said:

I think we have a pretty good understanding of the market, and this is certainly something we already brought up in the first meeting. They had already made all the plans tho and it was clear that there's no 18+ version coming in the immediate future. 

We'll discuss it again in the future for sure. And if they're interested in bringing out the sequel too, we'll be able to start with a clean slate and hopefully have more of a say in the release strategy.

So it is quite clear that the discussion to release an all-ages version lies at the feet of Harukaze.
While it is regrettable that FF were not able to persuade Harukaze to release an 18+ version, it is still silly to blame them for a decision made by another company.

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1 minute ago, Inflatable Lemon said:

Pardon me, looks like I replied before you ninja-edited in that paragraph.

However, I also overlooked a statement to that effect in the thread that I originally quoted:

So it is quite clear that the discussion to release an all-ages version lies at the feet of Harukaze.
While it is regrettable that FF were not able to persuade Harukaze to release an 18+ version, it is still silly to blame them for a decision made by another company.

Actually, these meetings can, and have in the past, changed companies minds about 18+ versions, so it absolutely is fair critisism in my opinion.

Ninetail weren’t going to release an 18+ version of Venus Blood Frontier, but after getting in talks with JAST, (who only worked as advisors and not licensors, just like Fruitbat,) Ninetail changed their minds as JAST stressed how important the 18+ content is to many consumers here. 

Meanwhile, Fruitbat is a company that has never even once released an eroge uncut, and so it’s fairly obvious this isn’t very important to them. So I feel like it’s fair to blame them to a certain extent about the lack of a full version, as it almost certainly would have been a thing had a different company been the advisor. 

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12 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Actually, these meetings can, and have in the past, changed companies minds about 18+ versions, so it absolutely is fair critisism in my opinion.

Ninetail weren’t going to release an 18+ version of Venus Blood Frontier, but after getting in talks with JAST, (who only worked as advisors and not licensors, just like Fruitbat,) Ninetail changed their minds as JAST stressed how important the 18+ content is to many consumers here. 

Not every JP dev is the same. Just because JAST managed to convince one doesn't mean anybody else can manage to convince any other JP dev. Granted, it's likely that Fruitbat doesn't have this negotiating power like JAST does (nor does Fruitbat look like they would care enough to bother that hard to get that 18+), but the final decision still lies at the JP side. If Harukaze had wanted it, they would've went a different route and got someone else to advise them. I mean... how did they even turn to Fruitbat of all in the first place :face_palm:

12 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Meanwhile, Fruitbat is a company that has never even once released an eroge uncut, and so it’s fairly obvious this isn’t very important to them. So I feel like it’s fair to blame them to a certain extent about the lack of a full version, as it almost certainly would have been a thing had a different company been the advisor. 

Not necessarily true at all. While Fruitbat indeed has no real incentive to bother Harukaze about it, that doesn't necessarily mean we would have 18+ version had some other company like Sekai or JAST taken the role of the advisor. You're saying this as if it would be easy to convince Harukaze to do something they may be very reluctant to do, no matter who bothered them about it. JP devs can be both easy and difficult to deal with. Who knows what's in these people's minds over there...

Edited by Infernoplex
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8 minutes ago, Infernoplex said:

Not every JP dev is the same. Just because JAST managed to convince one doesn't mean anybody else can manage to convince any other JP dev. Granted, it's likely that Fruitbat doesn't have this negotiating power like JAST does (nor does Fruitbat look like they would care enough to bother that hard to get that 18+), but the final decision still lays at the JP side. If Harukaze wanted it, they should've went a different route and get someone else to advise them. I mean... how did they even turn to Fruitbat of all in the first place :face_palm:

Not necessarily true at all. While Fruitbat indeed has no real incentive to bother Harukaze about it, that doesn't necessarily mean we would have 18+ version had some other company like Sekai or JAST taken the role of the advisor. You're saying this as if it would be easy to convince Harukaze to do something they may be very reluctant to do, no matter who bothered them about it. JP devs can be both easy and difficult to deal with. Who knows what's in these people's minds over there...

Sure, but this is all just speculation at this point. Meanwhile, there’s other examples of "very stubborn" JP devs changing their minds based on these dealings, such as Akabeisoft with both Sharin no Kuni and G-Senjou no Maou. They were dead set on not doing 18+ releases at first, but changed their minds after being persuaded by western fans/ partners. 

Light too was sceptical at first with Dies irae. Clearly talking with the right people in the west helps change companies’ minds on these matters. 

While there is always the chance that Harukaze was just completely and utterly unwilling to even consider the idea of an 18+ release, I find it highly more likely that the need for one wasn’t pressed nearly as much by Fruitbat as it would have been by a company like JAST, and that this had an effect on their final decision. 

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Just now, Dergonu said:

Sure, but this is all just speculation at this point. Meanwhile, there’s other examples of "very stubborn" JP devs changing their minds based on these dealings, such as Akabeisoft with both Sharin no Kuni and G-Senjou no Maou. They were dead set on not doing 18+ releases at first, but changed their minds after being persuaded by western fans/ partners.

Yeah, of course, there are companies that can be convinced to mend their ways. But for every such example, there's another counterexample. To this day, nobody managed to convince PULLTOP/Moenovel to give us 18+ releases of their VNs, and it's widely speculated that Sekai didn't manage to convince Giga to give them a license for the 18+ release of Baldr Sky. There are likely more examples that I can't recall right now.

5 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Light too was sceptical at first with Dies Irea. Clearly talking with the right people in the west helps change companies’ minds on these matters. 

What stopped Harukaze from reaching out to the fans and asking directly? Nothing. If a company like Nexton can do it, I don't see any reason why other companies can't do it too. Also, I am quite confused as to why Harukaze picked up Fruitbat of all to advise them. We clearly have more established companies than them, and yet they specifically wanted Fruitbat. It's like they were purposefully trying to avoid localizers who deal with 18+ content (and therefore seeking only companies that won't bother them about it).

10 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

While there is always the chance that Harukaze was just completely and utterly unwilling to even consider the idea of an 18+ release, I find it highly more likely that the need for one wasn’t pressed nearly as much by Fruitbat as it would have been by a company like JAST, and that this had an effect on their final decision. 

Oh, that's definitely true, but it doesn't make Fruitbat the most responsible party for the lack of 18+ in my eyes. There are things I'd blame them a lot for, but the lack of an 18+ release isn't one.

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Does this fix the borked formatting? Just think of this as a quote...

Yeah, of course, there are companies that can be convinced to mend their ways. But for every such example, there's another counterexample. To this day, nobody managed to convince PULLTOP/Moenovel to give us 18+ releases of their VNs, and it's widely speculated that Sekai didn't manage to convince Giga to give them a license for the 18+ release of Baldr Sky. There are likely more examples that I can't recall right now.

 

Yes, to many a fan's frustration, this is very true. Though, granted, Pulltop just self-published, and never reached out to anyone for help, outside of platforms to sell on.

21 minutes ago, Infernoplex said:

What stopped Harukaze from reaching out to the fans and asking directly? Nothing. If a company like Nexton can do it, I don't see any reason why other companies can't do it too. Also, I am quite confused as to why Harukaze picked up Fruitbat of all to advise them. We clearly have more established companies than them, and yet they specifically wanted Fruitbat. It's like they were purposefully trying to avoid localizers who deal with 18+ content (and therefore seeking only companies that won't bother them about it).

This is going back to speculation, but yes, that is one possibility. Another is that they simply didn't know anything about the English market, (happens often,) and they either A) got contacted by Fruitbat, or B) knew someone who had a connection with them, (seeing as they have done obscure doujinge like Seabed, this could be possible,) which got them in touch with Fruitbat.

21 minutes ago, Infernoplex said:

Oh, that's definitely true, but it doesn't make Fruitbat the most responsible party for the lack of 18+ in my eyes. There are things I'd blame them a lot for, but the lack of an 18+ release isn't one.

Do note that I have always specified them being partly to blame. At the end of the day, Harukaze made the final decisions here, but I personally feel like Fruitbat's involvement most likely had some hand in that, and as such, I see them as partly responsible. Of course, if there's actual proof out there of Harukaze just being like "fuck, nope!" then that's fair, but based on the situation and what we have to go off, I'd say the criticism is fair.

Edited by Dergonu
Formatting got messed up
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21 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Yes, to many a fan's frustration, this is very true. Though, granted, Pulltop just self-published, and never reached out to anyone for help, outside of platforms to sell on.

There's one other thing about them to have in mind too. They let JAST license one of their older games back in the day. Or at least, JAST's subsidiary. So they definitely knew about one of the localizers at the time they released their first butchered translation (IMHHW). We can't say they didn't know at least something about the English side of localization business. Harukaze, maybe, but PULLTOP definitely wasn't completely ignorant on the matters of localization with their first western release. Actually... scratch that. Considering in what a poor state IMHHW came out, I guess their one partnership with JAST was for nothing.

21 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

While there is always the chance that Harukaze was just completely and utterly unwilling to even consider the idea of an 18+ release, I find it highly more likely that the need for one wasn’t pressed nearly as much by Fruitbat as it would have been by a company like JAST, and that this had an effect on their final decision. 

Definitely true, and I wish it wasn't like this. Noratoto deserved more than a lackluster translation and a butchered all-ages release.

21 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Do note that I have always specified them being partly to blame. At the end of the day, Harukaze made the final decisions here, but I personally feel like Fruitbat's involvement most likely had some hand in that, and as such, I see them as partly responsible. Of course, if there's actual proof out there of Harukaze just being like "fuck, nope!" then that's fair, but based on the situation and what we have to go off, I'd say the criticism is fair.

Fair, I can agree on them partially being at fault for that. I just feel more angry at Harukaze than Fruitbat regarding all of this. I see them as the main party at fault here.

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I don't know wtf is going on with the quoting right now, but uh, gonna have to leave this one like this too. Actually quoting breaks the whole site it seems :thinking:

Infernoplex quote 1:

Definitely true, and I wish it wasn't like this. Noratoto deserved more than a lackluster translation and a butchered all-ages release.

Fair, I can agree on them partially being at fault for that. I just feel more angry at Harukaze than Fruitbat regarding all of this. I see them as the main party at fault here.

 

Yup, it's a shame. Crossing my fingers you guys get the fan patch done one of these days, so people can at least enjoy the full game. Good luck on that, by the way. :D

5 minutes ago, Infernoplex said:

There's one other thing about them to have in mind too. They let JAST license one of their older games back in the day. Or at least, JAST's subsidiary. So they definitely knew about one of the localizers at the time they released their first butchered translation (IMHHW). We can't say they didn't know at least something about the English side of localization business. Harukaze, maybe, but PULLTOP definitely wasn't completely ignorant on the matters of localization with their first western release. Actually... scratch that. Considering in what a poor state IMHHW came out, I guess their one partnership with JAST was for nothing.

Right. Yeah, the whole Moenovel thing is... really weird. They just went for that 12 year old French girl money and never looked back. :wacko:

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Just now, Dergonu said:

Yup, it's a shame. Crossing my fingers you guys get the fan patch done one of these days, so people can at least enjoy the full game. Good luck on that, by the way. :D

Thanks, and I hope so too :) I'm not as involved in that project as I should be, but I know the other folks are motivated to finish it. We talked the other day about maybe doing a patch for the second Noratoto, but that depends on TLer's motivations and other things. While I'd love for both of these to happen, I don't want to get anyone's hopes high just yet.

6 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Right. Yeah, the whole Moenovel thing is... really weird. They just went for that 12 year old French girl money and never looked back. :wacko:

I don't know what they are doing right now, but I pray to God they are not butchering my dear Cocoro Function :(

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I still wonder who actually buys these vns. Definitely not the original target audience.

But you know? I'm totally not surprised and it's a perfect case study. This is what mindless piracy does. You have all these horny teens pirating every single game out of two reasons: 1. They have better things to spend what little money they have on 2. Why buy anything at all, if it's always available for free?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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