I can tell I would enjoy Natsu no Ame a lot. Only thing I didn’t like from what I read was the cliche that is “we’re related, so let’s live together.” I think I would like Midori a lot, so I’ll hope JAST gets this one out of my own interest. JAST has been branching out, but I think that game feels like a game MangaGamer would more likely pick up.
Hmm… well, I think the approach to it was at least uncommon among eroge. From what I recall it was mostly that the mother was extending support to the daughter of the woman her husband ran off with, which was really quite a kind thing to do. But yeah, I enjoyed the heck out of Natsu no Ame, certainly moreso than I did Yosuga no Sora.
hmm ok with recent announcements my guesses:
- Osananajimi wa Daitouryou license announcement
- Deus Machina Demonbane and Osananajimi wa Daitouryou simultaneous release*
- Osananajimi wa Daitouryou Fandisc license announcement
- = the longest parts of both have been completed ( translation and Editing ). Both seem to be in the same stage ( Quality Control )
I do doubt #2 is one of their planned monthly announcements. If that is one of them and something happens to prevent them in printing the discs they will have two announcements for three months. Not to mention the fact that even if #2 is real that it wouldn’t be an appealing announcement unless the consumer wanted both.
I also doubt that Jast would license a fandisk to a game they haven’t released yet. Jast passed over the XChange 1/2 remakes because they wanted to focus on new releases and not spend too much energy focusing on one IP. They’ve never licensed a fandisk, with one exception - Little My Maid: Pandora’s Box, which they cancelled. And while I think it’s a safe bet that Osanajimi wa Daitouryou is going to burn up the sales charts, in a niche market like this you have to really be cautious about overcommitting. I’d want to see how the game performed sales-wise before I signed a deal for the fandisk. ALcot probably doubly so wants to wait and see how the game itself does.
Especially since the word from people who played the Japanese version was that it wasn’t actually all that great of a game.
That’s weird. The hiccup on the server must have changed the server time or something. My post should be after eropanic’s …
I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if all three announcements were licenses of fan translations. They’re “easy pickings”, once the original developer gives the go-ahead. There seems to be an increasing awareness of the English market among Japanese developers; while some companies simply see fan translations as a threat, others see them as a gateway into the market.
A fan translation near completion indicates several things:
- There’s interest in the title among English speakers.
- The title could be localized with fairly little effort.
- Immediate action must be taken or localization potential for the title will be diminished.
The incident with minori and the deal with Nitro+ have demonstrated that fan translators are willing to work with developers if the opportunity arises. I don’t think it’s mere coincidence that we’re seeing a blossoming of new licensing deals, and I believe more are in store.
I like your point on over-committing, Nandemonai. As someone not that interested in that game I would likely not get the fandisk for it. This would lead us back to the only known announcement being the one that has already came to past, haha. With that in mind, perhaps they are very confident they will be able to announce a Demonbane gold status in January or February that they planned to have that as one of the three announcements? Or must it be assumed that Demonbane has nothing to do with the next two? I’m guessing Demonbane gold is one of the announcements because it isn’t like they don’t have any other games to work on right now. Yukkuri Panic and Yumina come to mind.
As for our posts being out of order, I must apologize. I’ve been replaying the Infinity series lately and it seems that act alone has created a time paradox. That would be more romantic than a hiccup anyways.
I would love an easy pick up to be Little Busters!, but the people doing it aren’t doing the version what I would assume other fans would want to be picked up.
I think announcing Demonbane going gold is not going to be one of the announcements. First, they can’t predict when exactly it will happen. They thought it would be summer 2010, that already slipped, they’re not going to want to make themselves look silly by repeating that mistake. Second, that wouldn’t be a big deal - everyone knew Demonbane was coming out already, they just weren’t sure when. I think the two announcements have to be at the least games that weren’t announced before, if not new partnerships.
And a fandisk is always going to be a fairly big risk. Only people who played the original and liked it enough to want more will buy a fandisk. That means the fandisk is always going to sell significantly worse than the game it’s based off of. For a market as small as this one, I’m skeptical a fandisk would really work. You might be able to do it by bundling the fandisk+game for a fairly cheap price, but then people who bought the game when it came out will be upset.
still praying for 3 methods to conquer the world
On that note, in a J-List email Peter mentioned that Crowd and JAST USA exchanged presents this year. I don’t think their relationship has stagnated, as some here have suggested.
Sweet. I’ve been tracking this one for a while now.
same with me i hope we get 3 methods or at least word they are starting it soon
That would work for me 
Fan discs are cheaper if for the original company to make as it uses the same character and engine, but translating it you don’t save much since the amount of work is similar, unless the fan disc is mostly mini-games. However, MangaGamer has shown the willingness and ableness to release them so it may put pressure for the future with some of JAST’s more popular titles to do that with.
MangaGamer is driven much more by the Japanese side; and they may find out that the fandisk doesn’t sell nearly enough copies to have been worth it for them. They’ve only released the one so far. Peter’s also said he doesn’t really want to retread ground all that much, preferring to move on to new things, since he can only put out a few games per year.
Of course, if the game in question sells gangbusters, then the fandisk is just more of the same, so it might make sense. I still think not until the market gets bigger than it currently is, though.
We should hopefully be hearing about the January big announcement soon …
Actually Mangagamer’s released two fandisks, Edelweiss’ and Kira Kira’s. They also seem to be hinting at releasing a Da Capo fandisk sometime
i hope they do the pc games first
there are like 5 da capo fandisks
so far no jast titles have had fandisks except Saki no Love Love Honeymoon and Kazoku Keikaku ~Soshite Mata Kazoku Keikaku Wo~
i wish jast would release reprints like the Crescendo or x-change r and r2 games
or they would release the non neutered versions of the Hirameki stuff
Little My Maid had one called Pandora’s Box. Peter even announced it, then ultimately cancelled it.
I think they’ve also hinted at a Higurashi’s fan disc also.