JAST Densetsu

Visual Novel Community Visual Novel Talk
#1

I’ll be the first to acknowledge that brand name doesn’t really matter from the perspective of a well-informed player. Despite this, branding represents a categorization for customers, and in this case seems to imply a “vision” that JAST USA has for its games.

From the announcement:

From the updated release schedule (March 3, 2011):

I find it rather curious that Tenkuu no Yumina isn’t included in the JAST Densetsu brand. It’s a title at least as high profile as My Girlfriend is the President. In addition, Tenkuu no Yumina is loosely connected to Eien no Aselia (many of the staff that worked on the latter migrated to Eternal to work on the former). Not to mention that both titles are gameplay-focused titles that should attract a similar crowd.

Of course, if being branded as Peach Princess means it’ll be cheaper, I’m not against this decision. :stuck_out_tongue:

#2

I think its still part of Peach Princess because it from a Will company. However it does seem like a pretty epic title so it would fit the Densetsu brand.

#3

I wonder why they are even doing this branding deal.

I can understand G-Collections because it was a company they bought up, but Peach Princess and JAST is a bit confusing already. Now they go with JAST Densetsu and the Nitro+ by JAST USA. Seriously guys, I think you need about 17 more brand names before you’re good. I bet you love putting up the money to trademark all that. Just because Japanese companies do this doesn’t mean you have to too.

#4

Maybe they’re doing it coz it sounds awesome and cool? XD

#5

I think brand differentiation is a good thing (XUSE does this quite well), but it’s true that in this case it seems rather arbitrary- are Osananajimi wa Daitouryou and School Days HQ really that much more important / serious / high quality compared to Tenkuu no Yumina? Heck, I’d even worry about associating Eien no Aselia with any of the other titles simply because they’re 18+ games and Aselia is not. I’d think a non-18+ brand, clearly differentiated from the others and used for Eien no Aselia and possibly other non-18+ titles JAST might option in the future would be an idea.

#6

Its most likely being done because each brand works differently.

JAST is the parent company

JASTUSA is the main American branch

JAST Densetsu is a collaboration with fan translations
G-Collections is a collaboration with a single company with no subsidiaries (ZyX being the most prominent)
Peach Princess is a collaboration with companies that have subsidiaries (Will and Crowd being most prominent)

Hirameki is now gone but was a separate company

Kitty Media is a separate company

Mangagamer is a separate company

Nitro+USA is a subsidiary of Nitro+ not JAST

Their was also talk before the Rapelay scandal about a dark sub-branch (they were in talks with CyC) but it fell through. And if i remember right their was recent talk about an All Ages sub-branch.

#7

This seems like a reasonable explanation–but it conflicts with the reasoning stated in the press release. Also, it implies JAST Densetsu is essentially a “Miscellaneous” category for all the games that don’t fit into other labels / weren’t developed by existing partners. Branding should be focused on customer needs, not corporate organization. You want brands that are meaningful and relevant to your customers–brands that direct customers to games they’d be interested in.

#8

You are exactly right. I think it would be better for them to either have each brand tailor to a specific type of genre, or to the “quality” of the game. They could have Peach Princess for mid tier games (games that did generally well), JAST Densetsu for high tier games (games that did extremely well), etc. And have a certain price range placed for each brand. Or they could do by genres such as “Romantic/school genre” for Peach Princess, JAST Densetsu for Action/mystery/etc blah blah.

It would make more sense that way rather than some crap like what company is involved with what. I think the people who are involved in this market are pretty knowledgeable and won’t have any problem discerning what maker made what.

Perhaps JAST needs to rethink their branding strategy.

#9

Quoting my thoughts from the announcement thread.