This might be a strange question to ask on a ero board

[B173_M3]

Originally posted by OrcAttack:
[b] Ever17 is too good of a game to not buy. I’ve never found anything in playing it to make me believe that it has been edited. It’s my second (a very close second) favorite game of all time (behind The Longest Journey) in all genres.

There’s a long discussion of the game on the AnimeSuki Forum: Ever17 [/b]

Hmm… I guess I’ll have to try it then.

Thanks for the feedback.

[ 12-18-2007, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: B173 M3 ]

[OrcAttack]

You’re welcome.

[Nandemonai]

Originally posted by Ignosco:
Their BBS is closed . A user started torrent spamming the Hirameki board a few months ago, and after quite a big delay, they closed it down for a week or two, and blocked any new registrations. Unfortunately, the torrent spammer had another account on the BBS and started spamming again, which caused Hirameki to shut down the boards again (and they haven’t been opened since). If Hirameki were prepared to moderate their BBS, none of these problems would have happened.

Oh, they closed the forums to get rid of that nitwit? I knew they closed them temporarily then reopened them. As I understand it the problem is the only guy who can do anything with the forums is their Japanese contact, and it’s hard to get hold of him to take care of this kind of thing. (Not that that’s a good sign…)

I guess, if nothing else, now we know definitively that they’re not dead. Of course, that’s not a lot of consolation at this point; they need to do SOMEthing soon.

[Ignosco]

Originally posted by Nandemonai:
[b]Oh, they closed the forums to get rid of that nitwit? I knew they closed them temporarily then reopened them. As I understand it the problem is the only guy who can do anything with the forums is their Japanese contact, and it’s hard to get hold of him to take care of this kind of thing. (Not that that’s a good sign…)

I guess, if nothing else, now we know definitively that they’re not dead. Of course, that’s not a lot of consolation at this point; they need to do SOMEthing soon. [/b]

The boards have been closed for quite a while now (since the brief re-opening), for maybe 3 months or so - that, combined with the big price reductions across all their games makes it seem likely that they will collapse soon (front page hasn’t been updated since May). From what was posted on Visualnews, it seems that the staff were aware of the torrent links on the boards, but as you mention, only the Japanese contact could do something about it.

The other major problem Hirameki had was the bankruptcy of KID. At the time, they were negotiating for the rights to the rest of the infinity series (Never 7, Remember 11). From what was posted on the Visualnews forums, they were re-negotiating with Cyberfront for the rights to those games, but I don’t think there’s been any more recent news since then. (If they did get the rights to the titles, they would have probably announced it by now though) .

[ 12-19-2007, 05:18 AM: Message edited by: Ignosco ]

[Nargrakhan]

Originally posted by Ignosco:
[b]

From what was posted on the Visualnews forums, they were re-negotiating with Cyberfront for the rights to those games, but I don’t think there’s been any more recent news since then.[/b]

Did you say Cyberfront!? CYBERFRONT!?

Hmmm… PeaPri should pickup the slack on this one!!! And not just for the leftovers of Hirameki… no sir. Something else… something more!!!

See the lower right hand corner? See it?

[Nandemonai]

Oh, it’s certainly not good news. But it’s not been THAT long since they re-closed the forums. Unless I’m losing my mind and it was months ago I went there, I’m pretty sure the re-closure only happened like a month or two ago.

And I knew about the bankruptcy; they had a booth at ACen this year and I talked to a guy who told me that’s what they were up to. That it’s taking so long is NOT a good sign, not at all, but then PP had a long drought where nothing was happening that lasted close to a year. It’s … questionable what’s going to happen, but I’m not going to say ‘dooooooooom’ just yet.

[Ignosco]

Princess Maker 4 … one can always hope…

I can’t quite remember when the forums closed either - actually while I think of it, I hope Hirameki also managed to get rid of the torrent links the spammer left on their retail site in the comments about the games (or maybe I’m mis-remembering that bit - I hope I am ).

[Ignosco]

They’re still alive! (From visual-novels.net)

[Nandemonai]

Hah. The BBS is still not up. I guess I should play Ever 17 so I can take their survey

[Nandemonai]

Actually I’m surprised that survey even works, all the rest of the stuff there is from Jan 06 (!). Somehow I don’t think that survey is going to be something they care too much about at this point.

It is good to see they’re still creaking along, regardless.

[ 12-29-2007, 01:59 PM: Message edited by: Nandemonai ]

[Bhelper]

One of the Hirameki titles that wasn’t mentioned so far was “Ishika and Honori”. That one is non-H, but you get the impression while playing that things were cut out. The Hirameki BBS used to have a post saying that the original Japanese property did have hentai scenes. Personally, given the loli style of graphics, I would have found that rather distateful so I’m glad that particular title was gutted. Even so, it’s not one of my favorite games.

[GogetaSS4]

Well seeing as I love loli, I would be utterly disappointed if they cut the Loli content from a game.

[ 12-31-2007, 11:39 PM: Message edited by: GogetaSS4 ]

[Yuri]

Sorry for necroing an old thread. :oops:

Got rather interested in VNs and I already bought Piece of Wonder, Ever17 and Animamundi from Jlist. Didn’t buy 4 'cos I was so broke then. Shipping to Singapore is expensive.

Does anyone have anything to recommend with a good storyline and without any or with minimal sexual scenes? I’m not biased against sex in games, just not very interested in viewing them. Plus in my country, it is likely illegal to even obtain games with such material from the internet(pay to download, etc.).

Are Phantom of Inferno and Hourglass of Summer any good? How are the interactions between the characters, the various scenarios and the plot themselves? And any other suggestions? Tsukihime and Fate/Stay night are out 'cos it’s too expensive to even bid for them. I’d wanted to get Kana: little sister but was put off completely by the incest and sex things.

Thank you.

P.S. Btw, why are some of the messages full of formatting?

[Ignosco]

Hourglass of Summer is a good game, stuck in a lousy format. The main downside is the interactive DVD format it uses, which removes the player’s control over the game’s pacing (you have to wait for the text to move on). The save/load format is also very annoying, and the game has problems running on some DVD players/programs (VLC media player works though).

On the plus side, Hourglass of Summer is fully voiced, and for it’s time, has some nice graphics and music. Some of the characters get much more developed paths/more CGs than others, but they all have their own stories to tell, that shed some light on the overall story. Hourglass of Summer is mainly a pure love/first love game, in a mystery style framework. The overall plot is well thought out, but the day to day interactions in the story take up more screentime.

If you’re looking for a game that shares some similar themes with Kana, but contains no adult content, I’d highly recommend Narcissu.

[Dalburnan]

@Ignosco

If you’re looking for a game that shares some similar themes with Kana, but contains no adult content, I’d highly recommend Narcissu.

Narcissu is a good one. You could also get a copy of Planetarian from Himeya, and get the English patch for it.

You could also try True Remembrance.

A Dream of Summer might interest you as well.

[Skua]

Are Phantom of Inferno and Hourglass of Summer any good?

Phantom of Inferno is outstanding, both in terms of the plot and script. The pace might be slow at times, but the prose quality is consistently top-notch.

IMO, Hourglass of Summer is a mixed bag. The execution is rather messy (poor music, jumpy pacing, drags a lot) and nothing is particularly spectacular. However, I still enjoyed it for the summer atmosphere and a couple of characters.

Does anyone have anything to recommend with a good storyline and without any or with minimal sexual scenes?

EVE Burst Error

[le_nuage]

HoS is quite good but only Kaho and Mana’s paths are good (Mana is the best ;)).
The rest…
Now it’s true that the DVD format is quite troublesome. It doesn’t work on all dvd players, the save system sucks and you can’t skip dialogues easily. I wanted to buy amusement park, but if there are the same problems, I think I will wait a little bit more.

I just ordered Kana this morning (it took me almots one hour to decide wich game to buy between Kana, Hitomi my step sister and Sagara family).

[Ignosco]

@Dalburnan

@Ignosco

If you’re looking for a game that shares some similar themes with Kana, but contains no adult content, I’d highly recommend Narcissu.

Narcissu is a good one. You could also get a copy of Planetarian from Himeya, and get the English patch for it.

You could also try True Remembrance.

A Dream of Summer might interest you as well.

For Planetarian, going by what Insani says on their website, the translation patch for Planetarian only works for the download edition, and not for the CD edition. (The download is much cheaper too).

[Yuri]

@Ignosco

Hourglass of Summer is a good game, stuck in a lousy format. snip

The overall plot is well thought out, but the day to day interactions in the story take up more screentime.

Thanks for the well written explanation. Wonder if I’ll get it… since this probably means I gotta read over an hour or more in the order to proceed from 1 scenario to another since you can’t save, right?

If you’re looking for a game that shares some similar themes with Kana, but contains no adult content, I’d highly recommend Narcissu.

Thank you for the recommendation.

And thanks for the tip about Planetarium!

@MrBiggens

I HIGHLY recommend the game. The sex is very minimal. Everybody else on the forums would say the same thing; play the game/read the story (either a bishoujo or visual novel… either one lol). I gaurentee that you will not be let down or turned off for any reason.

Okay, I understand your meaning that the sex has nothing to do with the plot quality of the game but there’re still sex scenes, right? Hmmm… eh, maybe in the future when laws are less punishing about this. Currently, the government has likely ignored anime/manga-ish stuff with sexual content but their position could change.

And yes, I’m a bit squeamish about incest.

It’s threads and replies from the old forum. They just don’t get formatted because they’re from the old one. PP revamped the forums to a current BBS, like we have now, from what I know.

Oh, I see… the new board doesn’t support the formatting used in the old. Gotcha.

@Dalburnan

Narcissu is a good one. You could also get a copy of Planetarian from Himeya, and get the English patch for it.

You could also try True Remembrance.

A Dream of Summer might interest you as well.

Whoa… cool. I’ll check out all these titles too. Though getting Planetarium … I look at the download form on the instructional pages and will have to figure that out slowly.

@Skua

Are Phantom of Inferno and Hourglass of Summer any good?

Phantom of Inferno is outstanding, both in terms of the plot and script. The pace might be slow at times, but the prose quality is consistently top-notch.

IMO, Hourglass of Summer is a mixed bag. The execution is rather messy (poor music, jumpy pacing, drags a lot) and nothing is particularly spectacular. However, I still enjoyed it for the summer atmosphere and a couple of characters.

Does anyone have anything to recommend with a good storyline and without any or with minimal sexual scenes?

EVE Burst Error

Hmmm… so this means Phantom isn’t one of those titles which focuses only on violence, right? 'Cos i’ve played mainly Western games up till now(and only a few), so I know barely anything about Japanese titles. Yeah, I don’t own a console…

Hmmm… so this means Hourglass is all right if you enjoy the atmosphere but not so much if you dislike other crucial components, huh?

EVE burst error? Hmmm… now, the aging art doesn’t really appeal to me so I guess the story will have to work its’ magic, eh?

Ugh… Yuri, prepare to be broke and completely bankrupt. :twisted:

Le Nuage: is Amusement Park any good?

[Ignosco]

@Yuri

@Ignosco

Hourglass of Summer is a good game, stuck in a lousy format. snip

The overall plot is well thought out, but the day to day interactions in the story take up more screentime.

Thanks for the well written explanation. Wonder if I’ll get it… since this probably means I gotta read over an hour or more in the order to proceed from 1 scenario to another since you can’t save, right?

Instead of trying to use the password saves , it’s easier to write down the Title and Chapter numbers the game is on when you want to save, and then navigate the DVD to there to load the game. Oh, and I just remembered that the game has both Japanese and English subtitles (it’s fully voiced in Japanese too).