Oh for the love of God.... when does it end!?

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

I know I shouldn’t hate too much on a successful eroge company: but when is enough, enough!?

There this game series called ??? - or Ijitte Purinsesu in romaji - made by Vitamin. It’s a cash cow more or less, and with the exception of one title - which was supposed to end the series - they all share the same music, game engine, and plot. Basically the only difference between most of them, are the girls - later editions added more to the harem.

Sexfests really… sucky music and zero depth: but they’re discount priced and make good “quickie” entertainment if you’re not looking for plot or actual development. One of them was even twincest centric: so Narg didn’t bitch about them too much. However I did have this “cash cow” hate for the series.

Then Vanilla announced that they were going to end the series. For Ijitte Princess it was actually a pretty big bang: they made it tactical game, which was a totally different approach for the game engine… and the music (while still sucky) was new and improved.

“At last,” I thought, “now I can retire this series with a warm feeling.”

Then I go to Vanilla’s site a few hours ago… first time in several months… and I see this:

http://www.vitamin-soft.com/newIP/newip_top.html

WTF!? Again!? Another more of Ijitte!? I thought it was done. Yea… sure… this new one has a totally new cast (even the player is a new guy)… but the hell… you said it was over!!!

Damn them.

Part of me doesn’t want to get the game, because it’s just recycled. The other half wants to get the game, because my collection is currently incomplete… that and I can’t compare how crappy or good it is to the earlier titles, without playing it.

Ugh… choices… :roll:

#2

Hahahahahaha.

I’ve been marveling at the ability of Vitamin to stay alive by stretching that one franchise out for ever and ever and ever… every time a new installment is announced I’ve wondered who the heck buys them, but I guess some people must.

Constantly recycling the same characters and themes must keep development costs down, at least.

#3

Wouldn’t they only save money on characters by reusing prior art of those characters? And wouldn’t that detract from the game’s value to its fans? So, even with a sequel for the same characters, they still have to do new art, correct?

Re-using the same engine would save money— but not staying in the same theme. It doesn’t really cost you more to think of things in the same theme.

I’d think keeping to the same general character look/design and using the same themes would be a smart move for a company on the edge. They know what their prior games sold for, after all— and can estimate similar for anything “similar enough”. Right?

#4

All valid points. I was rethinking what I wrote after I made that post, and realized that what Vitamin is doing is more or less what Crowd did with the X-Change series, after all; I can’t knock them for doing the same thing.

I suppose the fact that I don’t personally see the appeal in the Ijitte Princess series doesn’t mean it couldn’t be as successful as other niche makers with similar production formulas.

[ 11-30-2007, 02:25 AM: Message edited by: Shingo ]

#5

Aye… but they’re going to KILL the series with this idiotic recycling. It’s the Rambo/Rocky Syndrome. :roll:

In the first Ijitte incarnation, Charlotte (the knight woman) and Nina (the outgoing maid), were by far the most popular characters in the series. So what does Vanilla do in the next? Have a knight woman and out going maid.

IT’S THE SAME DAMN GAME AGAIN!

Sure… new voices… new CG’s… new character designs. But the plot is the same. The concept is the same. The script may not be exact, but looking at the example screenshots here and there: it has the same gist. Knight woman is combative… maid is ultra friendly… etc…

In short: Ijitte was never a shining gem of perfection, but it did what it did. However the series was going stale… and that’s why Final was made, and even changed how the game worked (the tactical engine). So after a few months of inactivity, they go and make ANOTHER title for the series? A series that was said to be done and over?

Seriously… are they that hardup for new ideas? Is it that difficult to make a new concept from the ground up?

Thing about sequels is: you WANT people to want them… not loathe and groan. If they do loathe and groan, you want your follow up to be so awesome, that it makes them reconsider that the series is really dead. Look at Sakura Taisen or The SIMS or Pokemon: it’s more of the same, but it’s more of the same IMPROVED.

Ijitte is more of the same… that’s STILL THE SAME. This new title, didn’t even bother to use the tactical engine from Final… it’s the old “pick an option” system from the VERY FIRST title.

Sheesh… it’s like eroge necromancy. :roll:

EDIT
I’d also like to add, that this new Ijitte is actually INFERIOR to the previous titles. The new one only has 3 winnable girls… the older series, since it had droned on for so long, had 10 winnable girls… and 3 bonus (the evil princess and the twincest princesses).

[ 11-30-2007, 10:37 AM: Message edited by: Nargrakhan ]

#6

It ends when fans just like yourself stop buying the newly released games when complaining it sucks and is the same as the previous game. :smiley:

#7

As long as the fans keep buying it in profitable numbers, they are going to keep making it. If you really dislike it that much, don’t buy it. If enough of the rest of the former fanbase do the same, then the newest rev won’t be profitable, and they truly won’t do the same thing again— although they might go back to a prior version and tinker with it, or start a new IP, if they survive their product failure. Who knows?

#8

It’s not really the fact that I’m going to buy or not buy that miffs me… it’s the fact that they said the series was done. Finished. Over. Retired.

Final was a nice end. It put a little shine, on an otherwise low quality series. The twincest title even added a little change - and my bias for twins aside - the slight change to the pattern was nice… and it made a good setup for Final: in that the twincest title ends with a cliffhanger that was resolved in Final.

But with this new Ijitte series… it totally ruins everything. Rather than let it go with dignity, they pulled the rotting corpse from the ground…

It’s rare that I hope a series fails and a company died because of that failure… but Vanilla is now one of them. And to think I kinda defended them from time to time. :frowning:

Ugh… I’m not getting it. Which is a shame really…

#9

You do realize you sound like a junkie in withdrawal?

duck

#10

LOL!

I really did enjoy the Ijitte series. It was crap… but it was crap that grew on me. Despite knowing and playing dozens of series a million times better, I always picked up the latest edition of Ijitte because it was familiar. When the twincest chapter came out, I was happy as one could imagine: and it’s honestly not bad twincest… the sex events at least.

Thus I feel violated with the “resurrection” of Ijitte. It’s like how some purist Star Wars fans hate the Episode 1 thru 3 versions. Only Ijitte doesn’t have the “story strength” that the Star Wars universe did…

It’s an insult to the series I liked… and it’s an insult to think fans/customers are mindless cattle. :mad:

#11

[color=#FF0000]It still won’t die!!![/color] :shock:

I just noticed “placeholders” for Ijitte Princess NEXT (???NEXT) on various ero sites. Now I know there’s no God in Heaven. This copy-paste nightmare just won’t stop. Ijitte has to be one of the longest running series around: that’s like 8 titles that are all related somehow. Although technically, ALL of Vitamin’s games are practically the same.

Ijitte Princess (started it; three princesses + 1 maid)
http://www.vitamin-soft.com/iji/iji_top.html
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=235625

Ijitte Princess Again (added twosomes and threesomes)
http://www.vitamin-soft.com/after/after_top.html
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=249665

Ijitte Princess Motto (three new princesses)
http://www.vitamin-soft.com/motto/motto_top.html
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=270985

Ijitte Princess Charlotte (twincest)
http://www.vitamin-soft.com/IPG_cha/IPG_cha.html
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=227785

Ijitte Princess Nano (mahjong)
http://www.vitamin-soft.com/IPN_top.html
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=313185

Ijitte Princess Final Road (three new princesses; was supposed to be the last)
http://www.vitamin-soft.com/DIP/DIP_top.html
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=479005

Ijitte Princess (rebooted with a new cast of three princesses + 1 maid)
http://www.vitamin-soft.com/newIP/newip_top.html
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=433405

Ijitte Princess NEXT (just one new princess - they’re running out of ideas)
http://www.vitamin-soft.com/nIPnxVi/nIPnxVi_top.html
http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=520825

Ugh… I think Square-Enix will go out of business before these guys do…

#12

Ahahahaha… Even i wonder why sucky titles get repeats, yet we don’t get more of the really good titles. Probably majority preference of sorts.

If you want it to end, just nuke them.

Or have them name it ‘Ijitte Hollow Ataraxia’.

#13

So bloody true…

#14

You know what really pisses me off with this? The standard of quality is seriously going down. Let me explain…

Previously each “major” expansion to Ijitte added three new princesses: the original title, Motto, and Final Road.

Again, Charlotte, Nano don’t count, because they’re more of a side story ¬ñ they really don’t introduce new characters, and merely expand on the characters already created or mentioned in dialog.

Then we get the series reboot: three new princesses. Same as before… but suddenly the first “major” expansion to the reboot, has only ONE new princess.

So my issue with that? This title took far less time to push out, because it has one-third of the work required in previous expansions. I see this as a new “test” to see if customers are gullible to buy an Ijitte entry that only has one new princess. If it succeeds, then why bother releasing more expansions that contain 3 new princesses at a time? Just release new princesses 1 at a time. You pretty much TRIPLE the life span of the series in one fell swoop.

Guh… am I the only one who hears the sheep and cashcow making noises here? :roll:

#15

When the world ends, only two things will continue: roaches and new releases of Ijitte Princess. :frowning:

And my prediction came true - the series now only releases ONE new girl at a time.

Narg’s next prediction: When they finally run out of ideas for this “second generation” version, they’ll do some kind of “ultra version” where the first generation cast meets the second generation cast. It worked for Sakura Taisen. :roll:

They should hold a contest for people to submit new ideas for girls… sorta like the Robot Master thing CAPCOM did for old school Megaman. :lol:

#16

I see what they did there. Sneaky. Real damn sneaky. Narg won’t fall for that.

#17

wau, that’s a brand new game and absolutely original! :roll:

#18

Come on! We all know that you won’t be able to resist…

… Minnie! :stuck_out_tongue:

#19

I don’t suppose Mink’s Yakin Byoutou series was similarly stretched out? As I recall Nanase Ren seemed to be such a popular character there were many NSN spinoffs made starring her.

#20

I suppose it could be… but then, Vitamin has pushed 9 releases (not including renewals) of the Ijitte Princess series. And now they have a Prince spinoff. :expressionless:

I’m also lead to believe that the (so-far) two part Megami series, takes place in the Ijitte World as well (earlier down the timeline if the allusion to Final Road means anything).

I’m willing to bet that during December or January, another Ijitte title will be announced.

I know there’s a huge demand for “princess/queen” eroge… but I didn’t think the community was this desperate.