To JAST USA Staff: Anime Convention Promotion Request

Visual Novel Community Visual Novel Talk
#1

To JAST USA Staff,

I’m posting here on behalf of Anime Punch: Armgeddicon V, a small anime convention taking place in Columbus, OH, USA on April 2-4. We had around 1200 attendees in 2009.
Website Link: http://www.animepunch.org/

I was wondering if JAST USA would be interested in contributing any promotional materials for the event, such as demos or OPs of the their games. I was planning on burning some DVD-Rs with demos and OPs and handing them out at the panel I’m giving (see below). We’ll also have a gaming room where people will be able to play visual novels and other games. Games we plan on showcasing include Princess Waltz, Yume Miru Kusuri, and Lightning Warrior Raidy.

I’m also personally heading a 1hr panel talk about visual novels, with a focus on visual novels that have spawned anime series. If you have anything you’d like to contribute, I’d be happy to incorporate it into my presentation. Here’s a draft of the program description:
Dating sims - When Ecchi Meets Romantic Drama
You’ve probably heard of them spoken in whispers: visual novels, hentai games, erogames. Extremely popular in Japan, they’ve garnered a cult following in the US as well. Join us as we discuss this huge and unique genre of games (focusing on translated titles), popular games that have spawned their own anime series (hint: you’ve probably seen some of them!), and finally end with a brief discussion of how to play PC imports in Japanese using new cutting edge translation tools. Note that due to the nature of the subject matter, this panel is 18+ only.

I look forward to hearing your response, and thank you for your time. If you’d like to talk more personally, I’d be happy to share my contact information via e-mail or PM.

#2

Are you sure Lightning Warrior Raidy is a good title for newcomers? I mean, it’s not exactly a top tier title (even for English market standards) and its gameplay is quite old and unappealing. You’re gonna show it to people who probably come out of playing Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age, so well, I don’t think they’ll be captivated :?

Have you considered showing Fate/stay night? It’s a top tier title, well known, the new film has just recently came out, and there’s an English translation.

#3

Lightning Warrior Raidy seems fairly popular among casual visual novel players. The reason I suggested it was that our lineup didn’t really have any ero-ero titles. Raidy seems like a good fit, and a grindy sort of game seems like it’ll work well in this setting. We also plan to have Sengoku Rance and Fate/Stay Night. I just listed the titles JAST would care about. :wink: If you have a better suggestion for a localized ero-ero title, I’d be willing to listen–it’s not exactly my expertise.

We’ll also be showing off MG titles, including Shuffle! and the 3 trials they’ve posted on their site: Kira Kira, Suika A.S., Da Capo. Unfortunately the DRM will prevent us from showing their other titles. I also plan on making up some DVD-Rs with trials and OPs, along with links to the JAST USA store and Mangagamer catalog.

#4

Ah, I was forgetting about Sengoku Rance. Nothing better to steal the soul of a gamer :twisted:

Anyway, good luck for your project :wink:

#5

Don’t have anything big to say except good luck and all the best. :slight_smile:
And do add The Sagara family :twisted:

#6

Aside from Raidy, another ero RPG Jast has is Brave Soul, which has its art done by the guy who did the art for Scrapped Princess. Actually, that’s something you can point out im your presentation, how alot of artists who have done the artwork for popular anime and manga have done the artwork for eroge. Masami Obari, who did the artwork for Chain (and most of ZyX’s games), worked on the Fatal Fury movies and the Gravion series as well as the openings for Code Geass and Weiss Kreuz, and Kiyotaka Haimura who did the artwork for Yume Miru Kusuri did the illustration for the novels for “To Aru Majutsu no Index”.

Also, as fan translations go, will you be including Sharin no Kuni, Himawari Shoujo? That would make for another good addition as it is considered one of the best of the renai genre to come out, not to mention Norio Wakamoto’s performance as Hozuki is a very good one.
Other fan translations to consider would be Utawarerumono and Tears to Tiara since they both have anime versions that have been released in the US. Then there’s also Kanon and Words Worth.

A couple of questions, first, will there be anything on non-ero VNs like Umineko, Higurashi, and Phoenix Wright? You could even point out games with VN elements like Persona 3 and 4, Growlanser, Ar Tonelico 1 and 2, Vanguard Bandits, and the upcoming Sakura Taisen 5. Also you could include a mention of Bioware’s games with its developing a relationship between your character and one of the heroines (or heroes if your character is female) as an example of what can make eroge appealing (not to mention I have a strong suspicion now that some of the Bioware staff may be familiar with eroge considering a joke item and an NPC conversation that occurs in Mass Effect 2).
Second question, when you present at least Fate/Stay Night, will it be with or without the voice patch?

And one last thing, good luck!!

#7

I’ll think about Brave Soul. I would say it’s the best localized H-RPG out right now. I don’t know about Sagara Family, but if it gets suggested by an attendee we’ll probably consider it. I have suggested Sharin no Kuni. Utawarerumono, Ar Tonelico 2, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, and Kanon are on our list. I should note that as far as the gaming room is concerned, I’m just an emissary–I’m not the one coordinating it. I volunteered to help out with the visual novels because I’m most familiar with the topic. And of course nothing has been finalized–obviously we need staff that have the game to bring it in, and enough PCs to go around. I’m leaving such details to others. I do plan to pull some strings and see if I can get AGTH and Translation Aggregator set up with an import game on at least 1 PC.

I’m not sure whether the Fate/Stay Night voice patch will be applied, and for legal reasons, I wouldn’t say even if I did know. :wink:

As for my presentation, I’m not sure if I’ll go into all the names and try to draw all the connections. I know some people are into that, but I don’t usually pay attention to such things, and therefore I don’t know that much about them. I will definitely talk about non-ero VNs, and games with VN elements like Ar Tonelico and Sakura Taisen 5. I probably won’t cover non-Japanese games or VNs.

#8

Here’s an idea for one possibility for the AGTH thing, the demo of Gun Katana. This way all you need to do is download the demo and install it and I’m pretty sure AGTH will work on it since I played the game itself using AGTH. Here’s the link in case you don’t know:

http://www.cyc-soft.com/b-cyc/b-cyc-main.htm

I figured that an FPS eroge might interest whoever comes to the panel, that and I want to spread the love for Black Cyc :twisted:

#9

Agree! Have to spread the love for Black Cyc. More people want them the more likely their titles will be localized.

#10

Great, introduce people to Black Cyc with a hideous translation of one of their games >_> Show Gun-Katana, but my advice would be to forget the machine translation side of it. You don’t want to introduce people to eroges that way. Why not a Eushully game too (maybe Mine Fukaki)?

#11

True forgot about that. I would try the demo without the machine translation as well.

#12

Dark_Shiki: If you haven’t gotten a response yet, I would suggest emailing Peter directly. I don’t think he checks these forums as religiously as his email :wink:

#13

Sorry for not noticing this. We’ll be happy to help by giving some stuff you can hand out, as long as you’ll be checking ages properly. I’ll have Shingo take care of this.

#14

There’s some great conventions here in the south on the east coast…would love to see some reps of bishoujo games at them. I would add Crescendo and Sagara Family, Lightning Warrior is also an awesome game imo.