Yeah, can tell it’s not the OP movie because they advertise extended versions of the OP and ED songs and it seems pretty unlikely that the tune used for that demo movie would be extended and sold on an album. The actual OP will probably use the theme song.
Confusing, though, because demo movie frequently means OP movie when it comes to eroges… and BLACK CYC have used it to mean that in the past too.
Indeed it does, as it appears to be much more of a dedicated nukige than some of their previous titles, and the writers are likely to push it in that direction too. So for me, this will almost certainly be a pass, but I don’t think it’s likely to be too much worse than certain upcoming games in similar genres, like euphoria.
I dunno, I’d be about ten times more likely to get euphoria than this. I guess it’s a matter of whether the subject matter seems like it could be interesting or not, which varies a lot per person.
Euphoria sounds interesting. An eroge version of Saw, basically. Probably gonna get it.
Is it just me or does this new Black Cyc game look more like a game from Guilty? Still, with this it’s almost assured, Black Cyc is doomed.
I’m not sure if they’re doomed financially as a company, as badly written, poorly thought out nukiges still have the potential to sell well (as an extreme example, people are stupid enough to repeatedly buy things from circles like this and this, which just generate most of their products with this). But, if this is the road they’re choosing to go down with more of their future releases, it’ll be increasingly unlikely to see anything that’s able to do everything well across the board.
Been playing the demo for Inunaki and this one may turn out good (please God ;__;). The intro scene had some inklings of a dark atmosphere, which I like, though I’m not quite sure how I feel about the game following a slasher movie trope.
On a side note, it seems our main heroine (according the front cover) is our hero’s long lost twin sister. Does that interest you at all Narg?
To be honest, I’m more interested in identical twins. 
They don’t have to be carbon copy clones - but they should strongly look alike. For example Haru and Sora from Yosuga… and of course Mana and Mayu from MDB. If you have two characters who don’t even look related, calling them twins is a waste IMHO. Sure… they may be “twins by birth” and all that… but looking different is what takes away the whole appeal about twins in the first place.
I’m still on the wall about this game… so I’m gonna wait until it’s released, and the reports from 2chan start getting posted. I’ve lost all confidence in BCyc. Tsurumiku is my new source for perorder it automatically dark eroge. They’ve got some great talent and ideas going: I’m hoping they hone them enough to create a serious darkside blockbuster. ??? is certainly worth the money to get (has twincest too). Waiting for them to do a supernatural themed title one day. crosses fingers Tsurumiku really reminds of old school Touchy (now Assemblage).
Well, my main reason for paying attention to Inunaki (I keep slipping and calling it either Inukai or Inugami when typing it for some reason) is that for me this is Black Cyc’s last chance at redemption in my eyes, if they screw something as simple as your generic dark mystery taking place in a remote Japanese village centered around an ancient family up then I’m officially done with that company. Don’t care if they make a MInDead 2 or Gun Katana 2 following this, it’ll most likely suck.
Anyway on the subject of Tsurumiku, how good are their games? Do they have a good story to match their dark ero?
Speaking of story-oriented dark eroge, Narg, what did you think of Force’s Shoin? I’d like to get a copy of it one day but the cheapest I’ve ever seen it was over 30,000? and the cheapest I can see it available for now is over 50,000?.
No. I’ve played Yumekui, and the story is decent. The main character is in charge of an eroge company, and will enslave any female needed to make their next game succesful. You even get to play the game produced (and I’m not talking about five minutes, but more like one hour of gameplay, so they cared about this part a little too). But sure as hell you’re not playing the game for the story. Let’s say we have a 10/10 dark ero, and a 5/10 story.
Yeah pass. Although I like the idea of playing an eroge in which you create an eroge. I’ve only played two other titles with that concept before and they both approached it in interesting ways.
Alright, I’ll give Yumekui a try, though it’s going to be at the bottom of my to play list for now.
Took a look at the opening movie…and it was okay. It’s better than Cthulhu’s OP musicwise. My only problem is that this doesn’t look or sound like the opening for a Black Cyc game; it lacks that energy to it that all the other OPs had. Also while the music and first half of the opening do their job in showing that this is going to be a “dark supernatural set in the country side” kind of story, the latter half’s use of the ero CG seem to interfere with that presentation more than anything else.
Obviously this (and that game that’s next to be released) shows Black Cyc’s experimenting to try and find just what kind of dark eroge they want to release, and to be honest I’m hoping Inunaki succeeds because I actually have a fondness for the “dark supernatural set in the country side” kind of story. Also if this proves to be a good game maybe Black Cyc will finally remember how to make good games again.
The problem is that ‘dark supernatural set in the country side’ has some VERY STRONG competition, whereas the area Black Cyc was working in with their other titles; they were pretty much doing the best work in those areas. Black Cyc had a good niche before but if they try to move into a niche already occupied by very good eroge, the comparison does not favour them.
Not arguing against what Overlord posted, because what he says is true, however I’d like to just mention that a major part of the appeal from this studio, is the characters themselves. Their works aren’t about deep thinking or high innovation (naturally), but rather the emotional situation of betrayal or imposing one’s will over another. The heroines’ reactions, the depths of their desperation, and the malevolence of the protagonist’s actions after gaining their trust or submission. It’s quite a ride. My hope is that they get a lead scenario writer who CAN provide a deep thinking plot, but KEEP that “emotional breakdown” they’ve cultivated.
Agreed. For awhile there, BCyc was a king of supernatural eroge with a horror mystery theme, over-the-top dark sex, surprisingly deep characterization, and interesting plot twists. They had clean professional artwork, kick ass soundtracks, wonderful opening movie sequences (Fairy Yui FTW), and above average scenarios that encouraged replay to see another angle of the same story. Not to mention the adorable women and badass men (or “thing” in cases like Gore). There was also a time when it seemed BCyc was also going to test their limits with “shock sex” - those tentacles in MDB, GSS, and EXTRAVAGANZA were getting more and more outlandish with each new title. Then it all came crashing down… they actually moved backwards and toned down stuff. BDD is REALLY tame compared to MDB.
And where are they now? NOT doing what made them a dark eroge household name. Things have gotten so bad, they keep making renewals and box set second releases to relive the glory days. Oh BCyc… I’m so disappointed how you’ve changed. 
Just curious, but is there any definitve reason why Black Cyc started to suck after BDD? I remember some of the staff left at about that time, was that it? Did the company decide to tone things down because of that rape eroge controversy that came up? Or was it some thing else?
Cyc didn’t start to suck after BDD- remember they still released MK2 after that and it was all kinds of awesome. Hasn’t been so great after that, though, and for a number of reasons; Cyc’s two main artists: Metawo and Hinaki- as well as two of Cyc’s main writers- Banya Izumi and Kusabe Matsuri- have left the company over the years. Cthulhu had no problems in terms of concept but the game was rushed and released most definitely incomplete. I’m not sure what the exact catalyst for this was but it could well be the same reason Cyc have lost so much of its staff- and I’d put my money on organisational/managerial problems.
Oh yea! How could I forget about that one. :oops:
Seems like there was a series of huge shake ups… going over them through memory…
#1: Cyc began putting more $$$ into their non-Black branches, allowing those to make new titles. Since the sister branches weren’t as profitable, the losses were likely absorbed by leeching off the Black division. White Cyc was a major offender of this.
#2: The artists and writers Lancer mentioned began leaving or stopped being full time partners (not to mention some programers). Enough left to create a much smaller studio that tried their hand at Corpse Maid. From the outside it looked like a schism… probably was. After a few months of silence, a few authors and artists “rented” their services back to BCyc. I say rented, because it doesn’t honestly look like they returned “fully” like they did before. The only exceptions appear to be MK2 and the MDB remake. They probably returned, soley because it was MK2 and MDB (their babies so to speak).
#3: The whole “international anti-eroge movement” made some waves. Cyc’s content rater creates new rules for their clients. I’m sure BCyc at least paused for thought, since their kinds of titles were exactly the kinds of games being targeted.
#4: BEye started taking more direct control of Cyc’s day to day affairs. For awhile there was an ass ton of BEye branding all over the Cyc sites.
#5: Cyc got some totally new owners.
I personally think that BCyc not getting all the funds, despite making the most profit, was a major factor in getting staff members to leave. Then all those useless non-BCyc ventures, not to mention poor selling BCyc titles, had the parent company all upset their bread and butter was becoming a sink hole… so they [color=red]ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL[/color] on them, made things worst, and just sold off Cyc to someone else when they had enough.
Judging by the comments on the development blog about most of the work being done on weekends, I think Corpse Maid was completely separate from Metawo’s and Izumi’s normal work. I guess there was some sort of schism between them and Black Cyc, although it doesn’t seem to have been that serious, as Metawo seems to have been willing to work on several short members only products/omakes/Sayoko in addition to his normal job (not exactly sure what he’s doing now, but I don’t think he’s full time in the eroge industry anymore). Not sure if Izumi’s career has been helped by leaving Cyc, as he certainly has written anything anywhere near MinDead’s/EXTRAVAGANZA’s level since going freelance, and as Lancer-X can also attest, he’s worked on some hideously bad dl sales eroges too.
At least with the examples I’m familiar with, generally scenario writers that are attached to individual companies tend to produce better/more consistent eroges than freelance writers (Maruto being one big exception), and I guess as an extension of that, the most consistent games tend to come from companies that have writer/artist teams attached to them.