Just curious, but has anyone here played the game Tokimeki Memorial? I’ve heard that it’s a good game, so I’m curious about it.
Another question, has Tokimeki Memorial ever been released over here in the states or has anyone done a fan translation?
Sadly, Konami has shown absolutely no interest either in releasing the game in English or leasing the rights to someone who will, despite much begging from fans.
I’ve played a SNES ROM of it once, but the Japanese of course turned me off. I liked the rest I saw, though.
No fan translations of any of the games exist, oddly enough.
Konami is being very stubborn about translating it, saying that it wouldn’t sell, and stuff. This while the related merchandise does get sold overseas, and apparently well.
I have Tokimeki Memorial 2. I picked it up mainly because I was offered a deal on the LE which also came with a PocketStation. The game itself spans 5 whole discs and is fully voiced. This was also the first game to feature the “Emotional Voice System” where 2 of the girls can actually pronounce your name by simply typing in the hiragana. Anyway the game itself is overal excellent, but its really not my type of thing. Most of the time is spent just boosting your stats. You then can ask a girl out over the phone. The dates are rather fun and never the same. Somtimes you’ll even get attacked by a Yakuza gang and have a mini rpg-style battle. I keep meaning to go back to it, but I find simple ADV style games more entertaining cause something is always happening in them.
I highly doubt Konami would ever bring them here because they would take a lot of time and money to localize and the audience would be rather limited.
Thats cause there aren’t alot of fans. Anyhow yea yea I played it its good, if your looking for ones like those Dating sims and Nippon PSX etc try Gametz.com or ncsx
[This message has been edited by oceanfrr (edited 02-01-2006).]
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Thats cause there aren't alot of fans.
I think you're mistaken. The game's related merchandise sales say otherwise.
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Originally posted by Benoit:
I think you're mistaken. The game's related merchandise sales say otherwise.
This proves nothing and may or may not even mean anything.
* Merchandise is generally bought for one of two reasons: 1) familiarity with the property, or 2) nice-looking artwork. Since the number of people who've actually played the games is very low 2) is far more likely to actually be the driving force behind brisk sales.
* Merchandise generally costs $5-20. Games cost $50. People are far more willing to plunk down $5-20 on a whim than $50.
* Games are judged on the basis of how fun they are as games. No game of its genre has ever done well here. (Granted there really weren't any attempts.) The most analgous genre is the adventure genre. See Zork: Grand Inquisitor, Myst, Syberia, etc for examples. They have a small but dedicated fanbase, which is far from mass appeal.
well I dont think many fans in US… most like those you know 1st person shoot em, action and rpgs. Thus the reason Konami won’t port em here
[This message has been edited by oceanfrr (edited 02-01-2006).]
… You don’t give the impression of having a huge knowledge of the gaming industry.
For that matter, adventure games CONTINUE to be released regularly. The real problem is the old how much effort for how much reward question - would it sell copies if well marketed? Sure. But how much work would they have to put in to get it translated and get those sales? Too much to be worth their time, when they could do something else with that time that would be far MORE rewarding to them.
So big companies tend to focus on mass-market games that will earn them the biggest rewards, and smaller companies pick up the niches.
However, big companies are often unwilling to sell off the rights to smaller projects, EVEN IF they are also unwilling to continue developing those projects themselves. Often you can’t get your hands on that sort of thing unless the parent company goes out of business and the rights get auctioned off.
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Originally posted by papillon:
However, big companies are often unwilling to sell off the rights to smaller projects, EVEN IF they are also unwilling to continue developing those projects themselves. Often you can't get your hands on that sort of thing unless the parent company goes out of business and the rights get auctioned off. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img][/B]
Sadly True, but in other side of the view: Not only because of the great risk involved, but most of the time, the Japanese were somewhat pretty cautious for letting their work get 'modified' (that include translated).
I mean, as an analogy: if Leonardo still alive, would he let someone to 'copy' his Mona Lisa and modify it to something that he can not perceive and enjoy? (mind you, there aren't many japanese understand english well...)
IMHO, maybe he will... but ONLY if it still depict the same sense and artfulness that the creator intended.
Translating is a hard job, and preserving the meaning and intent of the creator is far even harder.