It seems one of Pulltop’s newest game’s is getting an offical release, but it seems JAST has no involvement in this:
can be preordered here:
http://www.play-asia.com/If_My_Heart_Ha … -6iiv.html
While I plan on getting this I’d like to know, if anyone can tell me, what happened on JAST’s end to get the deal with Pulltop to go sour. Did Princess Waltz not sell enough?
That game has twincest.
Let me say it again: THAT GAME HAS TWINCEST.
Did I mention it has twincest?
[attachment=0]beggingu.jpg[/attachment]
On a side note: this Moe Novel came outta the left field without warning. They even have the game getting an ESRB rating… though I’m sure we all know what it will give.
There seems to be some worry that the pending rating could mean the ero scenes will be cut; I really hope they’re not going to as that will surely alienate potential customers.
BTW, Narg, you gonna support this in hopes we get the fandisk (and subsequently more twincest)?
Edit: Someone claiming to have inside info has said the release will be all ages. Damn… :evil:
We’re actually going to be selling this game through MangaGamer. Though it seems Play-Asia beat us to getting the catalog page ready for it.
We’ll have a blog post up with more information in the near future, but for now, those of you with some questions can read our thread over on the MangaGamer Forums.
Ugh… it’s censored? Suckage.
On the other hand, I guess they’re going to risk angering the devoted eroge customers, in an attempt to target the casual market. Can’t say I think that’s a good idea, given the oh-hum sales of most non-ero visual novels… but that’s their choice. Besides… everyone’s been waiting for that “perfect storm” scenario for a non-ero visual novel to take the game industry by storm an sell over a million copies. Doubt it will be this one… but I can always hope.
I think I’ll hold off and wait before getting it. I’m worried they might have censored more than just the sex. Not sure it has the twincest route anymore… 
I already own the original Japanese, so it’s not like have to get it. Now if the game was uncensored, I’d be first in line to preorder. 
That’s going to take marketing to pull off (and even then, 10-20k would be “awesomely successful”). If Aselia the Eternal couldn’t do it, a game that no one’s heard of (but is still good) won’t do it either. They’re just shooting themselves in the foot by censoring the game and not bothering to market the game specifically at the wider audience they want to target. Even Hirameki had the sense to at least get their games sold in more mainstream outlets, and we know what happened to them.
For the people worrying about the translation quality, I summed up Mangagamers posts over on fuwanovel forums:
Like having another month is going to fix a bad translation. And I haven’t heard anything good about the other things they translated.
Going for a “wider audience” when you aren’t even advertising is completely retarded.
Trial translation appears to be an accurate representation of the original text. I don’t think it’s worse than typical JAST/MangaGamer work.
What Fujifruit said is spot on, though; if the only people who have heard of this so far are people who play eroges, releasing the game non-ero will not pull in more sales and may in fact hurt sales. I’ll take this back if they suddenly go on an advertising blitz, manage to get the game into Steam and so forth, but as it stands I see this title being selling 1000 copies and ‘moenovel’ might just decide to give up if that happens. Which would be a real shame because the game is good and if you can’t sell a good game, how are you going to sell anything else?
I’ll buy a copy though.
It might be “accurate” but it’s very awkward to read.
Without any sort of advertising, I’d say 1000 copies is very optimistic.
I didn’t say 1000 copies right away. If people like the game word will get around. It’s certainly not enough if we want this title to break out of the traditional bubble and lure more people into the world of eroge (you know, that thing Eien no Aselia was supposed to do.)
As things stand, it seems to me that this release cuts off more existing customers than any new audience it could possibly attract.
[] No ero = no buy crowd - gone. That’s obvious.
[] Censorship = no buy crowd - also gone. Not to mention that some people would let it slide if there actually was a prior Japanese all-ages version. Censorship specifically for the West is a serious offence for some (not me personally, although even I am a bit disappointed).
[] No anime adaptation or existing brand recognition in the West. Those who know Pulltop at least from Princess Waltz are not new to eroge by any means.
[] No marketing of any kind so far that would reach a new audience. Well, none that I’ve noticed, I don’t frequent mainstream Japanese entertainment portals tbh.
So yeah, color me extremely skeptical. I’ll probably pick it up anyway though.
Jbox has the game listed now:
http://www.jbox.com/product/KONOSORA
The HC is 5 cents cheaper then playasia 
Yeah, when I saw it for the first time on j-list blog post I almost had an heart-attack from excitement, but then I saw that it is all-ages and I’m almost crying ;_; . I try to never support this kind of practice, I don’t see why there can’t be two versions of game. Also, if you want to sell all-ages title, why not try to license a freaking game that is all ages in the first place, which there are plenty of awesome ones.
Just got an email from Play-Asia saying the game has been pushed back to June.
I wonder if they’ve heard the laments of the fanbase and are considering how to respond?
Some interesting info coming out on 4chan from people ripping apart the trial.
The h-scene images are in the files still (no word on if they’re uncensored or not). If they still exist in the final release I wonder if it’ll be GTA:SA all over again?
References to “SweetLovePatch” are in the registry with the installation files. It has a registry key which is set to 0. ( 18+ DLC?)
http://i39.tinypic.com/35a969t.png
It says it was developed by MoeNovel not Pulltop.
The name MoeNovel seems to have been chosen last minute. The files reference ‘Our Brand’ fairly often. The name ‘MoeNovel’ only comes up twice.
edit 1:
I just downloaded the trial and ripped the material myself.
18+ thumbnails are in the trial game files but they are censored.
18+ character dolls are in the trial game files and they are uncensored. (However they look like barbies with nothing below. Still, breasts are on display which would fall under an 18+ content tag)
edit 2:
From my registry:
http://i43.tinypic.com/11jp05u.jpg
