This is Shingo, (re-)reporting for duty! AMA.

Visual Novel Community Forum Rules & Announcements
#1

Greetings! This is Shingo, announcing that I am once again reporting for duty as part of team JAST USA. For those who’ve joined the forum since I was last around, a brief introduction:

I lived in Japan from 2003 through 2011, and worked for JAST USA from 2007 until I left. The first title released under my watch was Yume Miru Kusuri and the last was Yukkuri Panic: Escalation. For much of my time in Japan I ran a blog called Heisei Democracy that chronicled my immersion in otaku culture, and is something I’d love to get back to should the opportunity arise.

I was recently asked to rejoin the JAST USA team and was happy to accept. I’ll be working primarily in a PR role at first, collaborating with Makoto, Tomakun, and the rest of the staff to connect with y’all and make our web presence even better (we know there are plenty of places to start).

There’s not much else for me to report at this point - we have some spicy things brewing that we’re excited to show in the coming weeks, but I can’t talk about those quite yet. For now I thought I’d open this thread up as a Reddit-style AMA (“ask me anything”) conversation. If you have any questions about my involvement with JAST USA, the forums, the games, or anything else, please fire away.

It’s great to be back!

#2

Woohoo! Welcome back!

What’s your favourite eroge? (other than ???

#3

Thanks!

Bullet Butlers is at the top of my list for plot and setting. Action-packed gas lamp/steampunk fantasy? HECK YEAH. Demonbane comes in a close second here.

Sengoku Rance is the best for gameplay. Logged 80-100 hours over winter break of '06. Fond memories of an amazing game. Plus, you can’t get classier than the East German national anthem as Rance’s “conquest” theme.

Discipline may be my favorite nukige. Sei Shoujo games don’t leave me entirely comfortable, but he’s a master craftsman. Shichinin no Online Gamers ~Offline~ gets the nod as my favorite Sano-illustrated game, and Kiss x 400 or Oshioki Sweetie wins for INO. I have a thing for artists…

Yume Miru Kusuri has a spot in my heart as both the first and my favorite game produced during my original tenure at JAST USA.

Finally, Sodom no Shima ~Night of Blind~ wins the “WTF obscure guilty pleasure” award. There are games I like that are more bizarre, but this is undoubtedly the least well known. I wouldn’t claim it’s good, but something about it clicked for me.

You know I can’t pick just one. :stuck_out_tongue:

#4

Yeah, mine too. Welcome back.

#5

Most important question you’ll ever be asked in your life: [color=red]Who are your favorite twins?[/color] 8)

#6

So is this going to be a return to the days near Peach Princess’ launch where a company rep was here posting basically for hours every day? :wink:

I still like how Peter attempted to erase all traces of this poster’s existence, but neglected to scrub places where the posts had been quoted by someone else …

Edit: And of course, welcome back! :smiley:

#7

And now with an actual question - Has Jast figured out whatever it was that keeps repeatedly delaying all their projects? I really hope “Feb 2014” for Steins;Gate doesn’t turn into September 2015 …

#8

Has Overflow said anything to you guys about this?

http://www.siliconera.com/2014/01/10/is … o-3ds-may/

#9

Thanks!

I’ve spent the past several days mulling this over and don’t have a conclusive answer yet. I promise I’ll get back to it, though. For you, Narg.

Not quite hours every day; there are other duties tied to the role that don’t afford me quite that much time. Ramping back into it though, and I’ll be around enough that you’ll probably get sick of me. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thank’ee!

I can’t speak to the cause of delay for projects that have been released since I left, aside from the general difficulty of working with Japanese companies that have their own timetables and priorities. I’ll be updating the stickied “status” post on the English Bishoujo Games forum to give a clearer idea of where various projects are at.

We’re also taking the feedback in Tomakun’s website suggestions thread to heart. My primary job is to improve how we communicate with you, and that includes work on a lot of the features mentioned so far in the thread (and we’re still welcoming feedback there).

Not to my knowledge, but I’ll check on it. I’m still getting up to speed with what we know these days.

#10

Sounds good, except I’m a little worried your tastes haven’t been updated in five years. There’s nothing from 201X you’d count as a favourite?

#11

A brief history of my engagement with VNs over the past few years: Toward the end of my tenure at JAST USA HQ in Japan I was primarily focused on games as we were producing them (including Demonbane, School Days, My Girlfriend is the President, Aselia, and others) and I didn’t have much time for recreational visual novel consumption. I left JAST in October of 2011 and switched focus to a new job back in the States, but brought a raft of games back with me; the ones I’ve played most recently date from that time and include Starless and Rance Quest. I was back in Japan to visit a couple of times over 2012-2013 and picked up a some random titles on the trips (Rance Quest Magnum, some Lilith stuff, some other indie nukige stuff) but I haven’t had the time to seriously devote myself to VNs again until now.

Part of my mission as I resume work in this role is to get caught up on what I’ve been missing. I think there’s no substitute for ones’ first experiences with VNs, and the games I played in the '00s will always hold a special place, but I’m excited to see what else is out there now and what’s on the horizon (Rance 9 is one I’ll be following closely). And I’d be negligent as an INO fan without a copy of ??? and the forthcoming 3Ping Lovers… Having to import is going to suck (I know, join the party).

#12

MangaGamer has done quite well for itself getting an in-house programmer to port titles and provide post-release support. Has JAST considered a similar approach?

#13

We’ve started enlisting the aid of programmers to ensure better quality releases and post-release troubleshooting support. There are still some Japanese companies that prefer to keep all engine-related work in house, and there’s not much we can do in those cases (short of continually trying to persuade them otherwise), but our goal is to work with specialists whenever possible to improve the game that ends up in your hands.

#14

Good to have you back Shingo!

#15

Hey I just saw this now. It’s good to have you back. Hope you stick around, when you’ve been on this forum as long as some of us old timers have seeing a familiar face return is always welcome.

#16

Thanks Kanna, thanks Billybob. :smiley: It’s good to be back. I’ve been bouncing around a lot between various components of the Steins;Gate release, but now that it’s safely out the door I’ll be a more regular face again. In it for the long haul!

#17

Saw Shingo for the first time in years at ax. Was awesome seeing ya!