Jump to content

Giga is shutting down their operations on the 31st of March 2023


HataVNI

Recommended Posts

Giga was very popular and a staple of the Japanese visual novel/eroge industry, but the west barely got any of their first-party titles. We might onlym know them through Baldr Sky actually. Any other giga titles you have played? Which have you looked forward to to eventually get localized?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, HataVNI said:

Any other giga titles you have played?

I've read their 3 titles written by Maruto:

Chocolat ~maid cafe "curio"~
Parfait ~Chocolat Second Brew~
Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o

and Aonatsu Line

I liked them all - the latter three were 8/10 for me, while Chocolat got 7.5.

I also have some of their moeges at the wishlist/backlog.

41 minutes ago, HataVNI said:

Which have you looked forward to to eventually get localized?

Currently none, since I reached the point of being able to read untranslated moeges ;) But if memory serves, Parfait is getting translated by Sekai Project.

 

PS I actually haven't read Baldr Sky, and have no interest in it ;)

Edited by adamstan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I played the Baldr series up to the point where they for some reason decided to make the last game a piece of crap (both battle system and story).  I still don't get why they destroyed the traditions of the series to create a mindless game obviously designed for mobile phones rather than pc or consoles.  

Giga has been showing signs of collapse for a while now.  The over-production of the 'kiss' series, which was never that popular even amongst romance VN lovers, was another sign of this.  In addition, Giga's development costs were always excessive for the genre, which probably made it worse due to the borderline nature of sales of VNs.

Harvest Overray was decent, but after that I came to the conclusion that Giga was incapable of producing anything truly superlative outside of the Baldr series.  This was confirmed by my first attempt to play a game from the 'kiss' series, which was a total kusoge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, sanahtlig said:

Wow, Softhouse Chara and then GIGA.  The titans of gameplay eroge are falling one-by-one.

SofthouseChara was innovative, but they hadn't produced anything that remained in memory after you played it for years.  Heck, nothing at all since before Covid, which probably means they were already in financial trouble before Covid hit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Clephas said:

I played the Baldr series up to the point where they for some reason decided to make the last game a piece of crap (both battle system and story).  I still don't get why they destroyed the traditions of the series to create a mindless game obviously designed for mobile phones rather than pc or consoles.  

Giga has been showing signs of collapse for a while now.  The over-production of the 'kiss' series, which was never that popular even amongst romance VN lovers, was another sign of this.  In addition, Giga's development costs were always excessive for the genre, which probably made it worse due to the borderline nature of sales of VNs.

Harvest Overray was decent, but after that I came to the conclusion that Giga was incapable of producing anything truly superlative outside of the Baldr series.  This was confirmed by my first attempt to play a game from the 'kiss' series, which was a total kusoge.

Which Baldr game are you talking about so I can avoid it?

I'm going to get all the giga games that I'm interested in before they shutdown.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  

6 hours ago, Nemesis said:

I'm going to get all the giga games that I'm interested in before they shutdown.

 

1 hour ago, Templarseeker said:

I wonder who's gonna pick the rights to translate/localize their titles, Sekai Project maybe?

Giga's parent company - Entergram/TGL stays in business, so there should be no problem with older titles. It just means no new games under GIGA brand I guess.

Edited by adamstan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Nemesis said:

Which Baldr game are you talking about so I can avoid it?

I'm going to get all the giga games that I'm interested in before they shutdown.

Baldr Bringer.  Baldr Bringer's story is virtually nonexistent, and the combat is awful and slow-paced (the attraction of the Baldr series battle systems' was how fast-paced it was).  

Senkou no Clarias (the last gameplay game by Giga's Team Baldrhead) was interesting... until it wasn't.  The combat system was clunky and poorly designed, though not as poorly as Baldr Bringer's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, adamstan said:

  

 

Giga's parent company - Entergram/TGL stays in business, so there should be no problem with older titles. It just means no new games under GIGA brand I guess.

Nope. If you go to Giga's official site:
http://www.web-giga.com/close/

「戯画」ブランド商品の販売終了 2023年3月31日(金) ※パッケージ商品およびダウンロード販売商品も全て同日終了となります。 最後にお手元に残したいお客様におかれましては、販売終了日までにご購入いただけますと幸いです。

They stop selling everything at March 31, 2023.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Nemesis said:

Nope. If you go to Giga's official site:
http://www.web-giga.com/close/

「戯画」ブランド商品の販売終了 2023年3月31日(金) ※パッケージ商品およびダウンロード販売商品も全て同日終了となります。 最後にお手元に残したいお客様におかれましては、販売終了日までにご購入いただけますと幸いです。

They stop selling everything at March 31, 2023.

Damn, that's weird. So despite the publisher staying in business, they effectively turn all their games into abandonware?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only played Baldr Sky and Material Brave. Quite enjoyed the gameplay, since it's a nice change from the traditional turn-based, RPG-style from the like of Eushully or Alice Soft.

Never tried any of their non-combat one however. 

A shame that they are shutting down, thought not exactly a surprise - their recent titles in the last, like, 2 years all looked like gereric crap. Actually, make it 4.

Edited by Satsuki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Didn't expect Giga to do that bad. But considering that even other studios like Light or Minori closed doors in recent years, I guess nothing is impossible anymore.

Nevertheless, considering I didn't even like Baldr Sky that much, it's not a studio I'd personally miss. But it would be still nice to also have some exciting newcomers from time to time instead of just one veteran studio after another biting the dust.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For those who are interested, the best games by that company are:

Baldr Skydive

Baldr Sky Zero (alternate world setting, which makes sense if you completed the original, battle system was more clunky than Skydive due to a transition to 2.5D)

Baldr Force (has aged surprisingly well, but the visuals, while pretty, are very much yesteryear.  Occurs significantly before the development of biological AIs that led to Baldr Sky)

Baldr Heart (based a few centuries after Baldr Skydive, when Ark's digital mind transfer tech is in common use)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I only know that they have Baldr series, Duel Savior, Aonatsu Lines, and several Kiss titles. Obviously their most famous title is Baldr series with the most well received title, Baldr Sky, is already available in English thanks to Sekai, albeit with some censorship that was enforced by GIGA (That was rendered moot by the fans who provided the patch to remove it anyway). That aside, well, I don't know what to say other than their recent title is not as interesting as their past title, and that their recent big title Senkou no Clarias has lukewarm reception, so I guess this is an expected outcome to a degree.

Edited by littleshogun
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...