It seems to be that the DVD version is the one being licensed, though I’ll need Shingo to claify on this.
Based on past experience, I would put it almost certain that the version released will have voice acting. Look at Crescendo; they actually created an entirely new version of the game just to stick the voices into the original release.
GC released a few games, very early on (their first batch only, I think) with no VA work. One of them saw a rerelease with the voice-added version (Kango 1). After that they released nothing without VA work.
PP has released one game with no VA – XChange 1. And they have said they were more interested in XC2 at the time, but didn’t think they could get away with not releasing XC1. (Possibly Water Closet might not have had VA. I never played it, so I couldn’t say for sure.)
Basically, at this point I think releasing a game without VA would seriously hurt that game’s profitability, so I think they won’t do it.
We will be producing the fully voiced DVD version of the game. I’d like to note that its official English title is “Family Project”, as the game has nothing to do with this; I’ve found at least one reference to the double entendre while playing through it thus far, though. Yamada Hajime knows his metacritical humor…
[ 07-08-2007, 10:04 PM: Message edited by: Shingo ]
Amusingly, some machine translation programs translate the title as “Birth Control”. 
After checking things out, I notice that Matsuri looks kinda young… Which initially had me worried about editing. However, given how Ruruka and Nekoko are OK, I don’t see how Matsuri is much different.
I mean, TSF is a big seller, and no major issues have sprung about Ruruka probably being 12 years old, (or “18”, as Xyz website on the title tries to insist…)
I guess the loli-phobia is only for extreme cases, like Lipp or, until recently, Hisui.
EDIT: Name Spelling Corrected.
[ 07-11-2007, 12:17 AM: Message edited by: Shade453 ]
Ive given up on the “under 18” issue, i laugh at it but for the most part just let them do their thing as long as i get the game as it was made, reguardless of what the text said.
Heres a synopsis someone on a board gave:
“”…a story about a group of misfits consisting of: a disheartened wife, a bankrupt businessman, teenage runaway, an illegal immigrant from China, a drug-dealer, a recluse artist, and a person who doesn’t trust anyone (yourself) start a family on their own. Each people have their own problems, and they are fragile in their own way - but together you create a strong bond called family to get through hardships of life."
Sounds interesting…
The text will probably be unaltered, as it probably doesn’t refer to the characters ages. (Edit: It actually DOES from what I’ve read, see below)
EOCS, to which all CD-BROS members belong, prohibits having ero-scenes with characters under 18. This means, usually, that they can’t specify there ages.(…unless said ages are over 18, like in this game) They usually don’t say anything unless most of the game’s characters are completely unbelievable (I.e. pre-pubescent-looking), THEN they put a disclaimer up saying that “all characters are 18+”
That said, this also prohibits mentioning Elementary-, Middle-, or High-school, Characters go to what basically translates as “Academies”.
I don’t think Matsuri is a problem, and her presence on the site confirms that she isn’t.(Her age is unspecified, but they can say she’s 18)
[ 07-15-2007, 02:24 PM: Message edited by: Shade453 ]
Actually, After reading something on a message board:
“Actually, I believe at least Masumi, Jun, Aoba and Tsukasa’s ages were all given in the game, roughly 5 years younger than what is quoted on the G-Collections page. However, as far as I can tell, the absolute age didn’t really matter that much in the game, but their relative ages played a role.”
Does THIS mean that there is any different text? I mean, it could imply that Haruka and Matsuri are underage, though they obviously couldn’t say that…
Actually, if That’s the case, I suggest these age assignments:
Masumi: 30
Aoba: 22
Jun: 20
Haruka: 19
Mitsuri: 18
That should work, Although I just heard they were about 5 years younger than currently listed, and these may no be exact.
[ 07-14-2007, 10:37 AM: Message edited by: Shade453 ]
I was just over at the J-List site and pre-ordered Family Project. The description of the game sold me on it. This is really the sort of theme that appeals to me most in eroge. The art looks pretty good, too. I was reading the description out loud to the wife (who generally takes of dim view of what she calls “those fucking games”), and even she thought it sounded good. I had to advise her, tho, that some scenes might not be suitable for more sensitive viewers. Would be kind of nice if I could con her into playing a game with me, because I think there’s stuff in them she might like. But there’s a lot she wouldn’t, too. But could this be the one?
Actually if a age issue comes up like it has in g-collection games in the past they will kind of avoid mentioning the grade or upgrading the class number to girls generally in classes that are 18 or older. they dont really alter the text otherwise, just a few minor things like that
[ 07-14-2007, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: Gambit ]
Of course, G-colls is part of PP now, so the translation might work differently. Remembering that YMK didn’t pretend that the characters were in anything other than the second year of High School, like what was implied in the original, I don’t think they modify the school years. Matsuri is a “first year school student”, but it doesn’t refer to which kind of school…
It would seem weird if they modified the ages of other characters when there original ages were “legal”…
EDIT: I checked some Japanese Sites and they say that Jun is indeed 20 years old, Masumi is 30, and Aoba is 22 (The other 2 are unspecified, Tsukaka is also 20, just like Jun, though). What’s the reason for the change? Also, the type of school that Jun “ran from before graduation” is unspecified in the Japanese version, it seems…
Everybody seems to have gained 5 years. Why, when they were all over 18 to begin with… You can just say that Haruka and Matsuri are 19 and 18, respectively…
I mean, I don’t think it will affect the plot in any real fashion , but I want to know why? I though we were above the old “College” routine when EOCS restrictions more or less made it unnecessary for localization. It might also mean that if the ages are voiced, then the translation will be inaccurate…
Maybe Shingo can clue us in on that…
[ 07-15-2007, 02:05 PM: Message edited by: Shade453 ]
BTW, There is a Fansub of the opening move done by NNL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvtD8B2CrCM
(NNL said that one of there members talked with Peter, and he said he has no problems with this fansub being distributed, so it should be OK to post this here…)
It’s pretty cool, of course, now I have the song stuck in my head…
Is there a path for Matsuri in this game? If so then I will buy this game. She is already my favorite character based on sheer cuteness.
[ 07-15-2007, 02:16 AM: Message edited by: GogetaSS4 ]
Of course there is, she’s one of the main characters, isn’t she? Of course, she was the only character on the cover of the DVD edition. I also read some walkthroughs on JP sites, so she definitely has a path.
So fear not, my loli seeking friend…
[ 07-15-2007, 10:13 AM: Message edited by: Shade453 ]
The character ages have been removed from the game descriptions on the sites pending a review of the facts of the case. As far as I’m aware D.O. never specified ages for the characters, so I applied ages that I thought were realistic after playing through a good portion of the original Japanese game. From oldest to youngest:
I thought Hiroshi was realistic at 47 mostly due to his slate-gray hair, and the fact that it’s hard to think of a Wakamoto Norio character these days as being any younger than his mid-40’s. Mostly the hair, though, as I am convinced that he could play a character of any age with equal awesomeness.
Masumi at 35 was mostly a judgement of a woman who would have to look convincing as the mother of several adult children. Even 35 is stretching it; realistically she should be in her mid-40’s as well, especially if we assume that:
Aoba is 27. I chose this based on her presentation as a jaded pretentious artsy type, the fact that her character feels far removed from her secondary education and doesn’t feel like either a) the recent college dropout or b) the VERY recent graduate that an age of 22 would imply. Even if we assume that she went through some fancy private education and bypassed the regular college system, she doesn’t act like a young spoiled heiress.
This brings us to Jun and by implication Tsukasa. If we assume he has graduated from whatever mystical gakuin/gakuen/academy/tech college that he attended, he’s probably in his early to mid-20’s, if not later. Japanese graduates tend to take longer than the required term to make it out of college into the workforce; many teachers, for example, don’t start their careers until age 27 or 28. Considering that Tsukasa has obviously been out of school (whatever school it was) for awhile at least, and assuming he completed SOME post-secondary course, an age of 25 does not seem unreasonable to me. Jun, we assume, is the same age as he is.
Haruka could be any age, really, but I thought that making her less than twenty would be rather sad given that she may have been wandering around Japan for at least a year or so before she meets Tsukasa, and the implication that she was forced into sexual slavery as a minor isn’t a place I want to go (I don’t know the full story of her past yet, but career options for illegal immigrants are pretty limited in Japan). So, 21 seemed reasonable to me.
Matsuri is, of course, the youngest, and still a student of the variety that wears a uniform and goes to the sort of school that must not be mentioned in eroge for fear that she be interpreted as underage. 18 is a no-brainer.
However, the bigger question might be: why the spread? Assuming there are romantic options with all of the female main characters (which there are), it might seem a bit odd for Tsukasa (at 25) to be involved with a woman ten years his senior or seven years his junior. My line of thought to the contrary was that the wide spread of ages serves to highlight the differences between the characters; if they’re all clustered around the magical “20” they could reasonably be expected to be somewhat more flexible in their thinking, and expected to share a similiar cultural zeitgeist despite dissimilar backgrounds. Much of the magic of Kazoku Keikaku lies in overcoming the differences between the characters, and giving them a diverse spread of ages seems to me in keeping with this theme. Aoba and Jun in particular seem too world-wise to fit in with the others in this respect; hence the higher ages.
Getting back to the point: D.O. doesn’t specify ages, so for now we won’t either. That may change in the future pending further review, however. If you could provide a link to your Japanese sources for the character ages that would help immensely, Shade453.
[ 07-15-2007, 09:33 PM: Message edited by: Shingo ]
You might want to ask Zalas on Visualnews, he told me first, But I did some snooping first, I found a couple of pages:
http://lendl55.gozaru.jp/kazoku_main.htm
Granted, this one is unofficial, but I DID get that Tsukasa is 20 and Aoba is 22 from there, not so clear on the first one, but since I heard the thing from Zalas, and I hadn’t played the game so I didn’t know what lines he was referring to, so I just assumed it was right. Jun was a classmate, so I guessed she’d be about the same age. Aoba is clearly listed as 22 years old, I didn’t think that 22 would be my first guess (in fact I think your 27 actually seems closer), so I took that one also.
(Of course, it’s pretty much a given that Tsukasa is at least 20, given his smoking habit I read about…)
I also found an official source for Masumi:
http://www.interchannel.jp/game/kazoku/special/special06.html
This is an interview with the voice actress of Masumi, from the site for the PS2 Port of the game, Where it clearly states that she, despite her maturity, is still only 30.
Again, I only looked at some sources after I was told by Zalas that they lost 5 years, you should ask him about it. The only official age I have is 30, since the interview is with the voice actress for the PS2 version, so she must of had some info on it.
Again, I think you should talk to Zalas, he replied to my post on the opening of the G-Collections page on VisNews, so he should be the one to ask.
EDIT: Why do I keep misspelling “Tsukasa”?
[ 07-15-2007, 11:57 PM: Message edited by: Shade453 ]
Thanks for the link to the interview, that’s definitely a hard number that makes me think other official ones may be available as well. I’ll check with Zalas to see where he got his figures.
I don’t know what’s the big deal with their ages ??? sometimes EGames don’t mention their actual ages at all, but I gotta hand it to shingo he does have a point, he played part of the story and figured a caculated age for the characters, haven’t anybody here heard the phrase “Don’t Judge a Book By His Cover”.
PS: Even me as a Eroge Gamer I do have question of such minor details too!. 