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Visual Novels Community Thread | A Little Something for Everyone

Lie is a strong word, I'm not sure it fits here. They're certainly the kings of over-promising (often too early) and under-delivering, but none of what they've done strikes me as particularly malicious.

If you promise something once and under-deliver, that can be excused as over-promising.

If it happens 17 times, often surrounding the same things, then I think the trust level has to go down. At a certain point, it stops being acceptable behavior.
 

Yuuichi

Member
It's happened in this very thread on at least two occasions. The trust level is pretty low from where I stand. It's at the point where believing SP or their official word requires going out on a limb. It doesn't help that there is a constant tone of contempt coming from their employees. JAST has had their difficulties, but I've never felt like Peter Payne has been pissing on me.

If you promise something once and under-deliver, that can be excused as over-promising.

If it happens 17 times, often surrounding the same things, then I think the trust level has to go down. At a certain point, it stops being acceptable behavior.

I still don't see any malice, I certainly agree that it doesn't excuse their behavior. I gave up on SP months ago, when I backed out of the WEE kickstarter. SP could desperately use a trained PR person on top getting some actual content out instead of just releasing announcements.

As a side note, JAST has it's own share of issues. Lots of people got screwed over with starless, and let's not talk about their inability to release pretty much anything. At least Payne had the smarts to stop announcing shit, a lesson SP is yet to learn.
 
I still don't see any malice, I certainly agree that it doesn't excuse their behavior. I gave up on SP months ago, when I backed out of the WEE kickstarter. SP could desperately use a trained PR person on top getting some actual content out instead of just releasing announcements.

As a side note, JAST has it's own share of issues. Lots of people got screwed over with starless, and let's not talk about their inability to release pretty much anything. At least Payne had the smarts to stop announcing shit, a lesson SP is yet to learn.
SP only announced a few smaller games this weekend, but they have a backlog of like 40 titles. They have titles announced a long time ago very low in translation %, Hapymaher will likely come out before Chrono Clock despite a year and a half head start for SP. It feels like only their doujin games or EVNs get timely releases and everything else is stuck in JAST time.

Does that mean that Mangagamer is the uncontested king in the western visual novel market?

In terms of fan perception, I'd say so. Sales, probably not, even if they're doing much better than in the past.
 

Shizuka

Member
In terms of fan perception, I'd say so. Sales, probably not, even if they're doing much better than in the past.

Well, that's the thing. Despite constantly delivering every project in a timely manner, Sekai Project and JAST USA managed to grab high-profile titles that Mangagamer can't really compare.

I mean, Steins;Gate for JAST USA and Clannad for Sekai Project, what would be Mangagamer's biggest title? Higurashi?
 

jzbluz

Member
I was going to say Umineko, but that hasn't sold as well as I thought. What title could MG even license that would be on the same level as Clannad and Steins; Gate? White Album 2? I'm not really that knowledgeable.
 
Well, that's the thing. Despite constantly delivering every project in a timely manner, Sekai Project and JAST USA managed to grab high-profile titles that Mangagamer can't really compare.

I mean, Steins;Gate for JAST USA and Clannad for Sekai Project, what would be Mangagamer's biggest title? Higurashi?

Most of those high profile titles are with partners that have already moved on, MangaGamer is built to survive selling niche games on narrow margins and I'm pretty content with that as they are delivering good games with good translation quality. Nekopara is the only really high profile thing SP has left, the rest of their releases are mostly doujins and smaller games.
 

Lain

Member
A couple more SP announcements?

This World Unknown
Developer: Ebi-Hime
Product page:
https://sekaiproject.com/products/this-world-unknown/

Peace is scarce in the country of Aslande, which has been at war with the neighboring country of Eressia for centuries. To Rhea, however, war is a distant concept; something she has heard about, but never witnessed. Born in a small, secluded village, Rhea occupies her life with more mundane concerns: her job at the local hospital, her playful bickering with her friend Asa, and her prayers for a successful harvest come autumn.

However, when Rhea's childhood friend, Luca, returns home after fighting in one of Aslande's many wars, Rhea is suddenly faced with a problem. Why is Luca suddenly so cold, so distant? What did he see out on the battlefield, and how did it change him?

At the same time, new worries plague Rhea, as one of the patients at the hospital is suffering from a rather perplexing illness - and a failure to cure him could have some unpleasant outcomes…

From Ebi-Hime, the creator of Asphyxia, The Way We All Go, and Strawberry Vinegar, This World Unknown is another fantastic example of a truly unique high quality offering of Western visual novels. Fans can expect rich and colorful artwork, a loveable cast of characters and a colorful world of romance, humor and friendships.

Vote for the game on Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=740215243

Connie Amarance
Developer: FULSE/April Arts
Product page:
https://sekaiproject.com/products/connie-amarance/
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hecHph1fNqY


"Connie Amaranth", the popular visual novel from April Arts with more than 50,000 downloads on Korea's app store, is now coming to Steam!

It's the tale of Connie Amaranth, a woman who has lost everyone she loves -- her friends, her family, and her fiancé -- and has been left all alone. The story of a woman’s internal struggle that leads her to see the world through her younger self, and deal with the enchantment and consequences of those who her heart now touches.

Join Connie, Chloe, Leaf and the rest of the cast on a whirlwind of emotions, tears and revelation and experience yourself what caused Connie Amarance to become a smash hit in Korea and Japan.

The narrative of this visual novel is told from a first-person perspective and has captivating music, high quality character CGs, and professionally acted character voices to bring the emotions of pain, happiness, shock and relief to life.

Won't you listen to her story with us? Maybe then, we can all find closure.
 

Crocodile

Member
I hope I'm in the right thread?

Anyway I stumbled upon a kickstarter project called Harem Protagonist thx to a recent Team Four Star video. It's a kind of parody/satire harem-genre animated visual novel. They even have a demo to try out. It's low brow (right word to use?) and I usually hate harem-shit but the writing in this was a lot sharper/funnier than I expected. I think the fact that its pretty tongue-in-cheek (though it does play some things straight) probably contributes significantly to me liking what I was seeing. I figured I should bring it up here in case this looks appealing to anyone here. There's about a week left to contribute.
 

Lain

Member
Regional Availability
17 AUGUST - JAST USA
We've been hearing reports of some regional availability issues. We've contacted Valve about this issue and they'll do their best to resolve this problem quickly.

Now to see how long it takes Valve to fix.
 

Lain

Member
Flowers is now available worldwide, looks like. I'm guessing there is a launch discount that isn't applying though, because the game is 20€ here and I see it at 18$ with the ES comparison.
 

Curler

Unconfirmed Member
So I checked JList and the limited box copy is also available, too. Huh, I have to say that I'm surprised that Rightstuf never carried it in stock, as they normally carry JAST titles. I got my copy of Steins;Gate and Sonicomi from them.
 

Yuuichi

Member
Well, that has happened to other devs as well.
Ray Gigant release, anyone?

I didn't even know this was possible until a team one of my friends is on did it. It's actually pretty easy to do, especially if you've never deployed to steam before.
 

Knurek

Member
So i am tempted to pick up saya no uta off jast usa's site
Yay or nay?

Only Visual Novel I've read so far where sex scenes are important to the story.
They are as terrible as they are in all other VNs, but at least here they are terrible by design, not by writer's incompetence.
Also a good test run to see if you're able to handle Euphoria.
 

Tizoc

Member
Oh i can handle euphoria just fine
I mesn if euphoria is seen as MORE extreme than saya no uta i dont think it can be that bad
 

JulianImp

Member
So, I fiished Higanbana no Saku Yoru Ni on 3DS yesterday night... it was really good IMO, and I really felt like I wanted to go and punch the girl's classmates for bullying her so much, but it made lots of sense how she couldn't just rebel against her whole class, teacher included.

It wasn't until the credits rolled and I returned to the main menu that I realized the 3DS version didn't include the second disc either (I thought it did since the game name didn't allude to it being the first episode), which was a real shame.
Game 2 when.

All in all, it was a pretty interesting take on the harsh subject of bullying in a society that encourages bottling up your emotions rather than calling out things you feel are unjust. The whole thing about how it's an ego trip that takes advantage of being able to overpower the victim socially, as well as the awful issues such behavior creates both on bullies and their victims, was something I enjoyed quite a bit, and the Ryukishi spin on it using fantastic elements added a unique flair to it that allowed the story to develop in more peculiar ways and also get both darker and lighter if needed.
 
Huh? Did they make changes to the PC version and use console assets? I'd be a lot more interested in this if so, it'd be nice the definitive version wasn't on the PS3.
It seems 5pb straight-up ported the PS4 version to their current PC engine.

The old PC version was on a Nitro+ engine, heavily modified by the English translators at that.
 
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