Favorite Bishoujo Game (Revisited)

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#21
quote:
Originally posted by olf_le_fol:
Revisiting the BBS after a loooong time, due to... nostalgia? [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/redface.gif[/img]
Beware!!! (standard disclaimer follows [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img]) I'm pretty much a Complete Newbie¬ô, completely ignorant of what the English and Japanese "bishoujo" markets have to offer, so my opinion is based on what little knowledge I may have... Don't hit me, all of you!!! [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]

[img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/rolleyes.gif[/img] Heh... Yeah, right! I've been doing the bishoujo thing for about a year, now, so I think you can take the Complete Newbie cap off, and at least move up to Rank Ameture.

Thanks for a long list--I haven't heard of any of them, except Gin Iro, which a couple of other people have mentioned. I'm not sure how difficult some of those titles will be to track down, however, since it sounds like a few of them are old... and it looks like a lot of them are still in the original Japanese--which, as I've mentioned, still poses a problem for me. I'll see what I can dig up, though. Oh, and thanks for the Kanon link--I went and checked it out... I'm not sure how well I'd like the game--it sounds like the story might move along pretty well, but I think I'd get tired of the graphics pretty quick.

#22
quote:
Originally posted by perigee:
No, Kanon doesn't have anything to do with guns. For a good English summary of the game and plot, read this. It sounds like a great love story, but personally, I'm not entirely satisfied with the character design. Somehow the faces appear too 'flat'.

Sorry, Perigree, thank you for the Kanon[/] link (er... I knew [i]somebody gave it to me) [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/redface.gif[/img]

#23
quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:
OMG LIES! You are not new!

quote:
Originally posted by Wolfson:
Heh... Yeah, right! I've been doing the bishoujo thing for about a year, now, so I think you can take the Complete Newbie cap off, and at least move up to Rank Ameture.
Tsss, tsss, tsss... Every regular in this BBS knows how much of a Complete Newbie¬ô I am!!!!! [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]

#24

My top 3 in no particular order:

1.EVE DVD Ltd.Ed. (japanese) Having played the original Win 98 English version of the game made me appreciate it even more. This game gets rid of everything frustrating about EVE burst error (The save system, and the “I don’t know when to switch scenarios” questions) and improves on them to make an enjoyable game where you only have to concentrate on getting through the game.
(Check out my review of this game here:
http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/Forum11/HTML/000016.html)

2.Crescendo best stories in a bishojo game IMHO, and all the characters are interesting and makes you want to play the game to it’s conclusion(s).

3.Brave Soul best translated English RPG (again my opinion)

#25

Hahah the return of the Olf Newbie my ass If you get tsukihime make sure you get the bundle which comes with the character disks and the sequel story.


My favorite games include:
Cresendo
Divi-dead
Chain
tokemeki checkin

#26
quote:
Originally posted by Doug:
My top 3 in no particular order:

1.[b]EVE DVD Ltd.Ed. (japanese) Having played the original Win 98 English version of the game made me appreciate it even more. This game gets rid of everything frustrating about EVE burst error (The save system, and the "I don't know when to switch scenarios" questions) and improves on them to make an enjoyable game where you only have to concentrate on getting through the game.
(Check out my review of this game here:
http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/Forum11/HTML/000016.html)[/b]

I'd have trouble playing it in Japanese, but I did enjoy Eve: Burst Error (although I thought the ending was a little weak). I wasn't as thrilled with Adam: the Double Factor--it seemed like they kind of rushed through that one, and then they left the story hanging, and it's doubtful that they'll ever get the next part translated over to English [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img] By the way, I couldn't get the link to your review to work--I got a message saying that the page was unavailable.

quote:
Originally posted by Doug:
2.[b]Crescendo best stories in a bishojo game IMHO, and all the characters are interesting and makes you want to play the game to it's conclusion(s).[/b]

I think I've heard of this one... I'll have to go and look it up and see what I can find out about it...

quote:
Originally posted by Doug:
3.[b]Brave Soul best translated English RPG (again my opinion)[/b]

I don't have much argument there... other than a few quirks in name translations, I didn't catch any real errors, other than possible idioms. And the game was fun, too [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

#27
quote:
Originally posted by Wolfson:
Someone mentioned Kanon on another thread, but I've never heard of it, so I don't know what I'd be in for... I'm also not sure if I want to go the route of fansub patches--aparently the jury is still out on them. How good -are- the translations, anyway, and is it worth buying a game and only having 54% of it translated?

That's only sort of accurate. The jury hasn't even started deliberating yet, as none of them (the patches) have actually been completed. Yet. Kanon is being actively worked on.

As for buying a game and only having 54% of it translated ... that really depends. Kanon is all about the story - there's only 1 h-scene per character and the game is quite long (so I understand). The point of Kanon is the storyline. As such, the parts of Kanon that have been translated may (or may not) be worth it. Or they may just make you chomp at the bit for the remainder of the game to finish being translated. I have held off on getting Kanon for this reason, although I plan on rectifying this as soon as I feel I have a decent shot at understanding some of it untranslated.

#28

Right… That’s kind of my point about the whole thing. If I’m playing the game for the story–and I already gathered that Kanon was very story-oriented, although I had no idea of the length–it would be frustrating to only have part of the story.

I wasn’t aware of the fact that there were no actual completed fansub patches. I don’t think I’d waste my time, in that case–at least at this point. I may as well keep studying Japanese and working on my Kanji, while praying to whatever gods of commerce there are that the English translation market picks up.

On the other hand, in the year that I’ve been playing bishoujo games, I’ve actually seen several English releases, so that’s promising to me…

#29

Because I am busily wasting my time here avoiding my real work, I’ll fill you in a bit on the market before you showed up.

G-collections used to be a Japanese b-game import site. They had a fairly large selection of Japanese b-games. Then one day they announced they were turning into an English market site, and the Japanese games vanished. This would probably be about a year before your time.

Several months later a similar Japanese game site opened (mystix anime), this time selling games below Japanese retail cost. This means they had a deal with the Japanese companies. Unfortunately the site died a few months ago. I don’t think they had many customers. All the regulars here suspect they were trying to get translation projects going, but couldn’t keep it up.

Peach Princess itself is sort of the undead version of Jast USA. They’re both run by Peter, and Pea Pri started up after Jast USA basically ran out of titles. Unfortunately JAST (of Japan) went under, and so Jast USA’s prospects of doing new localization work are not great. (Their last title, Transfer Student, took something like 4 years for them to finish because they had to recreate the game from scratch.) Peach Princess is still going strong. (As a side note, Peter also runs J-list.)

For a few years, Peach Princess was the only one actively doing translations. (There was Hobibox Europe, but they released a series I wasn’t particularly interested in and I never followed them.) If G-collections hadn’t come along, the market may well have dwindled off and died eventually (Peach Princess’ rate of releasing titles is 4 to 5 times less than GC’s, it’s just a fact).

Before Peach Princess, we get before my time. I had been a fan for about a year and a half before Pea Pri, but of the “shiver me timbers” kind, if you know what I mean. Himeya Soft made an abortive run at getting into the market. They released a number of titles, including one I really like (but find frustrating) called Gloria. They actually abandoned the market immediately after releasing their last title (which was pretty clearly rushed out, so they could get out). Himeya soft is still around, selling Japanese games. There were a few other places.

I think (but I’m not sure) that Jast USA was the first, with 3 Sister’s Story, and several others tried to follow. All these early efforts failed, and were the source of all the games you cough may have played without the media. Milky House, Otaku publishing, Megatech, and I think one or two others; they all went under. I think Milky House only ever released 2 titles (one of which is STILL an all time favorite - Nocturnal Illusion). Don’t know about the others - Otaku Publishing I think had to stop because the British government made them?

Anyhow, I am getting beyond where I know, and I should stop procrastinating a bit and get some work done. If anyone has been around the American market longer than the start of Peach Princess, I’m actually curious myself.

#30

you Forgot Megatech, another defunct company had 4 games in the late 80’s early 90’s (Cobra Mission, Metal & Lace, Knights of Xentar, and PowerDolls)

[This message has been edited by Doug (edited 06-17-2004).]

#31
quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
I think (but I'm not sure) that Jast USA was the first, with 3 Sister's Story, and several others tried to follow. All these early efforts failed, and were the source of all the games you *cough* may have played without the media. Milky House, Otaku publishing, Megatech, and I think one or two others; they all went under. I think Milky House only ever released 2 titles (one of which is STILL an all time favorite - Nocturnal Illusion). Don't know about the others - Otaku Publishing I think had to stop because the British government made them?

No. Megatech was the first bishoujo PC game maker to come out with an "English adaptation". To be very blunt, they did a terrible job at doing releases and it's not too shocking that they eventually went under. Most of their games were altered, first with the character names so they were "Westernized" (despite that it was sold as a "manga-style" game). Then they often redrew the graphics so they were just R-rated, despite that the remaining game content was clearly NC-17. The story that I got was that they wanted to sell their games in even regular stores, like Babbage's Software, at the time. (How ridiculous).

Obviously this never worked, and when their hentai market started to collapse, they tried to get into just PG-rated games. But their brilliant marketing crew used the usual, erotic-looking bishoujo covers on the games anyway. I went to the stores and saw parents refusing to buy it since it had a dirty looking cover. Then a lot of hentai fans wouldn't buy it because there wasn't any H anyway. (In the end, a huge segment of the public wants *H*.)

Sakura Soft came out later with the first "real" bishoujo game, Three Sisters Story. As you know, Sakura Soft later became JAST USA.

#32

Very interesting.

quote:
Sorry, Perigree, thank you for the Kanon[/] link (er… I knew [i]somebody gave it to me)

Dog food gave the link you?! o_O

Nandemonai, I already pointed out that it’s 57%.

#33
quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:
Dog food gave the link you?! o_O
Hey! I resemble that remark. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img] Actually, I think I got the link from one of Lamuness' previous posts. Several of his reviews are posted at that site.

#34

Hmm… All the history is quite interesting, if a little convoluted. It turns out I may have been interested in bishoujo before my time, as it were, since (should I dare admit it?) I actually bought all the R-rated Megatech stuff way back when, all though I missed out on PowerDolls (Thank God…)

I’ve actually got a few Milky House titles (none that I’d really care to admit to, except perhaps Nocturnal Illusion), and a few JAST titles, mostly on the JAST Memorial Collection.

I picked up Desire,Divi-Dead,Eve,and it’s sequal, which I guess were all Himeya Soft; Chain, Kana,and Kango Shicyauzo, which look like they’re all G-Collections; Casual Romance Club, which is an anomaly; and most recently, I’ve started buying Peach Princess titles: Brave Soul, and Tokimeki Check In have both arrived, and I’m waiting on Jewel Knights: Crusaders, and Shield Warrior Sakigake.

That pretty much brings everyone up to speed on my collection, anyway–such as it is… all English titles, I’m afraid, and looking at both J-List and RightStuf (where I usually order from), I’m rapidly running out of things that interest me Not that there’s a lot left to choose from…

Oh well, better hit the Japanese books again…

#35
quote:
Originally posted by kasumi:
Sakura Soft came out later with the first "real" bishoujo game, Three Sisters Story. As you know, Sakura Soft later became JAST USA.

Actually, I did not know they were originally called Sakura Soft. Why the name change?

#36
quote:
Originally posted by Wolfson:
Hmm... All the history is quite interesting, if a little convoluted. It turns out I may have been interested in bishoujo before my time, as it were, since (should I dare admit it?) I actually bought all the R-rated Megatech stuff way back when, all though I missed out on PowerDolls (Thank God...) [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]
...

That pretty much brings everyone up to speed on my collection, anyway--such as it is... all English titles, I'm afraid, and looking at both J-List and RightStuf (where I usually order from), I'm rapidly running out of things that interest me [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img] Not that there's a lot left to choose from...

Oh well, better hit the Japanese books again... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]

Yeah, the market is a wee bit small at the moment. We're still waiting for the market to expand enough that more companies start getting into the market. Peach Princess is nice but they're more or less the Working Designs of the b-game world, and G-collections is nice too but I'd like to see more plot-heavy titles.

As for the history, it is quite interesting by itself, but the main reason I wrote all that stuff down is to drive home the point, that the English b-game market is not yet a stable market. Any significant downturn would probably be enough to kill it. But we're at the point now, where the market is steadily growing. Or at least it seems to be. G-collections' release schedule has only increased over time. A year ago and a half ago G-collections released games every other month. Now they're doing it monthly. I expect in about a year another game maker may show interest in coming Stateside (but then again, see Mystix-anime).

So the optimism I hold, is a very qualified optimism. I see the market as continuing to grow - I really do - but it seems like long-term growth. In the meantime I am learning Japanese.

#37
quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
Yeah, the market is a wee bit small at the moment. We're still waiting for the market to expand enough that more companies start getting into the market. Peach Princess is nice but they're more or less the Working Designs of the b-game world, and G-collections is nice too but I'd like to see more plot-heavy titles.

Hmm... I haven't paid attention to who puts out what when I go to RightStuf and order things--although of my three G-Collections games, two of them, Chain, and Kana, are both plot-intensive (heck... my roomates had to pry me away from my computer to eat when I was playing Chain, 'cause I kept wanting to find out what came next). Admittedly, Kango Shicyauzo is fluff, and I assume the sequel is, too...

quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
As for the history, it is quite interesting by itself, but the main reason I wrote all that stuff down is to drive home the point, that the English b-game market is not yet a stable market. Any significant downturn would probably be enough to kill it. But we're at the point now, where the market is steadily growing. Or at least it seems to be. G-collections' release schedule has only increased over time. A year ago and a half ago G-collections released games every other month. Now they're doing it monthly. I expect in about a year another game maker may show interest in coming Stateside (but then again, see Mystix-anime).

Well, the market may be unstable at the moment, but if I recall correctly, the anime market was very similar in the early days, and it used to be hard to find anything... and there were also companies that came and went--Harmony Gold, for example. I choose to find it promising that, when I first started ordering bishoujo from RightStuf, there was never any change in the available selection--now, I've seen new things coming up with more regularity. Hope springs eternal, and all that...

quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
So the optimism I hold, is a very qualified optimism. I see the market as continuing to grow - I really do - but it seems like long-term growth. In the meantime I am learning Japanese.

Yes, well... In spite of Western trends in Japanese business, the spirit of kaizen is still alive in Japan, I'm sure. But that means that they won't be in any hurry. Of course, I figure at the rate I'm learning Japanese, the English market will be booming by the time I'm fluent enough to understand one in "ú–{Œê [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]

#38

Sorry, my Japanese IME doesn’t appear to be working well

#39
quote:
Originally posted by Wolfson:
Hmm... I haven't paid attention to who puts out what when I go to RightStuf and order things--although of my three G-Collections games, two of them, Chain, and Kana, are both plot-intensive (heck... my roomates had to pry me away from my computer to eat when I was playing Chain, 'cause I kept wanting to find out what came next). Admittedly, Kango Shicyauzo is fluff, and I assume the sequel is, too...

Warning. Kango Schicyauzo 2 is EVEN MORE fluff than KS1. It really IS just a nookie game. The game pops up "character selection" boxes and all you have to do is make sure you always pick the same character. (The game does ask you questions occasionally but the answers are really obvious.)

#40
quote:
Originally posted by Wolfson:
Well, the market may be unstable at the moment, but if I recall correctly, the anime market was very similar in the early days, and it used to be hard to find anything... and there were also companies that came and went--Harmony Gold, for example. I choose to find it promising that, when I first started ordering bishoujo from RightStuf, there was never any change in the available selection--now, I've seen new things coming up with more regularity. Hope springs eternal, and all that...

This is exactly the reason I am cautiously optimistic. We've seen pretty much exactly this behavior before. The anime market used to be teeny. By the time I had gotten into it, it was fairly self-sustaining and there had been some big-name releases; but DVD hadn't hit yet and there were still plenty of good shows being passed over - the avalanche hadn't hit yet.

However - realistically - you really can not aritrarily generalize in this way. Just saying "oh well something isn't popular right now so that must mean it will be popular later on!" doesn't quite hold water. It is possible that bishoujo gaming will peak out and we won't see the market get much bigger than it is now. It's also possible that the Religious "Right" could take aim at us and crush us because we're easy pickings. (Then we'd have to sacrifice a few goats...)