Nitro+ by JAST USA

JAST Games Game Discussions
#41

Nope, I’m talking about reactions to Starry Sky ~In Spring~, whose license was announced just the other day at Anime Expo. There were a few snide comments regarding its licensing on this very forum as well as the usual suspects.

Personally, I see this as a smart move. As I’ve said countless times before, both JAST and MangaGamer need to expand their market beyond the male “hardcore otaku” crowd if they expect to thrive in the long run. JAST supplements its income by selling anime and manga merchandise (among many other things), but, in order to secure their future, both companies have to acknowledge that catering solely to otaku can only take them so far; worst-case scenario, the North American visual novel industry will crash the same way the anime industry did a few years back and the video game industry did in the 80’s. Starry Sky and the all-age version of Aselia the Eternal cater to new markets; I’m guessing some people aren’t too thrilled that the new licenses simply aren’t for them (I’d give them a shot anyway; I enjoyed Yo-Jin-Bo and Animamundi even though I’m a guy, and my purchase decisions testify to my preference of story over sex).

On a related note, this is one of the reasons why I’m so critical of works that insist on using cliquey or inaccessible translation styles (and proponents of these styles who aren’t able to see the big picture). In order to appeal to a particular market segment, you need to speak their language. The typical North American doesn’t understand memes or otaku jargon, so adhering to such a style is self-defeating. Fansub fans themselves make it perfectly clear that fansubs and official releases target different audiences, yet get up in arms when an official release doesn’t follow their preferred style…

But enough about that; I’m not about to get dragged into another flame war on the subject, far less start one myself.

While my reaction to JAST’s licensing so many previously-fan-translated titles is mixed, I understand why JAST would want to maximize their throughput and release as many titles in the near future as they can, appealing to many different markets simultaneously. However, if all of these titles are published in the same release window, I don’t think I’ll be able to afford all of the titles I’d personally like to acquire. Here’s hoping that the releases are spread out somewhat; I know it’ll be a good while until School Days is released (and a good friend of mine is covering the bill in return for the Premium Edition I got him for his birthday).

I do have to ask, though: since we’re seeing so many licensed fan translations, will we see uncensored versions of Big Bang Age, Sengoku Rance, Fate, Tsukihime, Cogwheel Country (Sharin no Kuni), The Devil on G-String (G-Senjou no Maou), Utawarerumono, Tears to Tiara, Symphonic Rain, or any of the other countless translations already released? As I recall, BTAxis offered to sell JAST the completed translation of Kingdom, but they didn’t go for it…

#42

That deal fell apart because at the last minute Giga decided they didn’t want to release it uncensored and wouldn’t budge.

#43

In an interview a year or 2 ago, JAST said they approached Alicesoft (they didn’t mention which title) and were told No. With their games featuring a-lot of ‘taboo’ subjects (Rance and Rape for example) I actually think it may have been for the better currently. I’d hate for JAST to get attacked by one of those Anti-Eroge groups.

Leaf also told them no.

As for Fate and Tsukihime, I think we’ll most likely see Mangagamer release the Tsukihime remake. Type-Moon is one of the more requested publishers in the license thread.

As for SnK and Devil, if they are going to be released it’ll probably be Mangagamer who does it since they did invite AKABEiSOFT to AX and mentioned that all the companies that went were impressed.

#44

Akabeisoft2 and sister companies (Applique, Applique Sister, Syangrila, Syangrila Smart, Akatsuki, Akatsuki Black, Akatsuki Hibiki, CollaborationS and all the other ones I’ve forgotten about) have removed their geoblock, so for people who consider the geoblocks to be a sign that a company isn’t interested in localisation, this logically could be the reverse.

#45

Comparing the visual novel industry to the anime industry or video game industry is I think being overly generous. Both of those industries were essentially stable and self-sufficient before the crash. But visual novels? Every single company that has ever tried to get into the business has died, with the exception of companies that are also in other lines of business that provide enough cash flow to make them stable.

Visual novels haven’t yet reached the point of self-sufficiency. They’ve never been successful enough that there is a place for them to crash down from. The industry isn’t in danger of crashing; it’s in danger of being snuffed out entirely.

#46

I have to admit, ‘North American visual novel industry’ made me snigger. There are what, two companies? (other than the stragglers that release a very low volume of things or are focused on titles in existing franchises) Both of which are mostly based in Japan? You could probably just say ‘eroge localisation industry’ although ‘industry’ is still perhaps going a bit far.

#47

To be fair, it depends on how broadly you define visual novel. There were a considerable number released for the DS. Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk, Touch Detective, and a few others.

Those releases are I think dwarfed by eroge translations. By my estimate at least 100 h-games have been translated into English officially over the past 20 years or so (which is as far back as it goes). Even if you restrict it to games put out by currently-active companies; Mangagamer by itself has ~15 adult releases; GC has 32; and PP has 15. That’s 65 games right there. (Technically, G-Collections isn’t around anymore; Jast license rescued their library and even released new games. So I count them as still active.) **

If you include non-h games, Mangagamer has 7 of those and Hirameki released a bunch. That boosts the total well over 100.

And eroge are much more pure visual novel; many of the DS games are more properly classified as adventure games anyway. But there have been a few pure visual novels released. Hotel Dusk actually did fairly well, as I recall.

** - When I sat down and counted, it was a lot more than I’d thought there would be.

Edit: Oops. I corrected some math in my post, and I changed the wrong column. I guess I can go work for an investment bank now?

#48

???

And yeah, titles like Phoenix Wright and 999* are ‘visual novels’ but they’re certainly being sold as adventure games on partly the appeal of the gameplay, so while they are (minor) wins for eroge localisation, I don’t see them as a significant impact by themselves.

*yes, I know it’s technically a ‘sound novel’ =P

#49

At first I’d written 20 + 32 + 15 = 70. Then I decided to break out non-h MG releases from their h-games. So I intended to change it so it read 15+32 + 15 = 65. Somehow I ended up with something entirely different. (I fixed the post already.)

No, Peach Princess has not released 65 games. That would work out to roughly 6-7 games per year, and we know THAT can’t be right :wink: The correct number is 15.

EDIT: My quick-and-dirty number also includes several non-visual novels in the h-game category, like Raidy.

#50

Point taken. Even Nitroplus insisted on watermarking Demonbane because they were afraid of what would happen if anyone decided to reverse-import the game.

Fair enough. “Industry” may be too strong a word, but isn’t “eroge localization business” a bit too weak? Besides, there are a handful of companies that localize VNs for other languages and countries.

Your comment for some reason reminded me of that lovable gray brick we used to call the Game Boy way back when. It wasn’t just part of the handheld gaming industry; it was the handheld gaming industry. Sixteen different devices tried to compete against it; thirteen were stillborn, and three were slaughtered within a matter of months.

Of course, the Game Boy made publishers lots of money. Visual novels and eroge, not so much. But, hey, at least Capcom’s still localizing Ace Attorney titles. And its… doujin anthologies? Really? I shouldn’t be surprised. Viz and Dark Horse are doing the same thing with Evangelion doujins since the official manga is taking ages.

On a tangential-but-related note, that Raidy doujin anthology was pretty bad. It would have helped if the translators had played the original game, but not much.

BlazBlue could count as a visual novel given the way that its Story Mode progresses (not unlike Melty Blood). Of course, it’s a fighting game first and foremost. The same could be said for Big Bang Beat (on that note, I wonder if that BBB translation project ever got anywhere…?).

Man, I jump all over the place when I’m dead tired, huh?

#51

I think you’re mixing together a lot of different viewpoints. There’s people who don’t like otome games. There’s people who don’t like all-ages games. Then there’s people who just don’t to see localization companies wasting resources licensing games that have already been translated and releasing them a year later (a selfish but reasonable viewpoint). I think most of the people complaining about Starry Sky are of the latter group.

#52

Saya no Uta and Hanachirasu preorders are up:

http://www.jlist.com/product/SAYASET

They’re in a bulk pack together.

#53

Thanks, preordered. :slight_smile:

I don’t think I ever bought so many stuff from jlist before.

I’ve ordered up to two stuff before, and now its up to two stuff this year.

#54

I just found these english subbed “Hello, world.” opening videos :

Peace OP
War OP

That user has quite a few other random VN openings subbed as well :smiley:

EDIT: Oh and something kinda interesting, a different older version of the Peace OP :
Original OP?
It’s not very different, but watching them side by side; you definitely catch a lot…
I wonder if this was a pre-release OP? Or did they change it for the re-release?

#55

Actually, that’s a PV. I think you’re thinking of this one. That PV you linked wasn’t included in any Hello World game- it was simply used as an advertisement.

That’s the very first OP released with the first version of the game. It was changed for the rerelease. It’s also my favourite Hello World OP (although this is standard for me: I liked the original Kazoku Keikaku OP the most, I liked the original Kimi ga Nozomu Eien OP the most, the original Killer Queen OP etc. etc. With PHANTOM I like INTEGRATION’s OP movie the most though (the 100% engrish one) - it’s classy.

#56

That’s just a PV that was never used in the game?! It seems like such a waste… I suppose the opening movie doesn’t play on application startup? If it did, it surely would make a nice easter egg : playing the original OP until you reach that point in the game and then the next time you start the application again it would show the new PV, surprising the player. :slight_smile:
(Blaze Up! is even Demonbane’s Kurou’s “ending theme?”! It’s just that awesome :D)

Also, wow, looking at the various OPs you mentioned, I liked a lot of the original clips better as well. I had to watch them simultaneously to notice all the differences though…

Integration’s OP? This must be the one? Engrish OP Nice…
I want to play the new Phantom X360 remake… (in english! ><)
PV for X360 Phantom
What is this?

#57

There are sometimes limitations to what we can do, e.g. some singer or something has the copyright on the PS2 version so we can’t use it. The larger the companies we deal with get the more they are careful (sometimes anal) about such things, alas. Anyway we always add everything we can to the games.

#58

I can only imagine the red tape forest you’ve traveled to bring these games over…

I think someone once said “Aim for the stars; you just might reach them”…

You managed to land Nitro+… so I’d say you’re doing a good job of it.
Keep up the good fight :smiley: I’m looking forward to buying many more good novels in the future…

#59

That’d be me that he’s referring to (an email I sent him regarding an announcement I made a couple of weeks ago). The lesson I was underscoring: never, ever assume that the answer to any question is an automatic “no”; ask anyway and the results might surprise you. You can’t win if you don’t play, and payoff is all the more rewarding when the odds are against you.

In this case, I meant “the stars” literally; a handful of professional voice actors have volunteered to lend their voices to the revised English release of Rosenkreuzstilette, an indie game my group first localized two years back. If you love old-school games and haven’t checked it out, you might want to give it a shot - the whole game is a love letter to retro gaming. I wouldn’t have spent so much time working on the game if I didn’t think it was worth the effort.

Back on topic: if I had the resources to port the Phantom of Inferno 360 remake back to PC in English, I’d do it; Phantom is my second-favorite VN of all time (between Crescendo (1st) and Fate / Stay Night (3rd)). If an official release is possible, it definitely has my support.

#60

Regardless, thanks for the hard work. I don’t think in my history of following these games I’ve ever seen such a big strong line-up of games in the works. I was surprised, I had not visited these forums in a few months, and coming back and taking a look at the recent announcements was very nice.