Rewrite’s OP was included with the trial that was bundled with Kud Wafter. Not entirely sure about the direction or the song (both are good, but not quite on the level I was expecting), but the contents… wktk
Axanael’s site is also open.
Fixed. 
“Philpsophyz” sounds rather…unspectacular for a Key opening song IMO and that even though it features Orito Shinji in charge of composition and MintJam handling the arrangement for it. Not sure yet what exactely makes it sound so mediocre though (vocalist maybe?).
Speaking of Key/Visual Art’s - Kud Wafter car up for auction. I wonder for how much this is going to end up for ^^
Also shops started taking pre-orders for Mahou Tsukai no Yoru - Getchu’s site also includes some Event CG sample art (and already is on place 1 of their weekly (pre)order ranking ^^)
Key OP songs haven’t been all that interesting since Clannad though (and even Mag Mell was a pretty far cry from the likes of Tori no Uta and Last Regrets IMO). On the visual side they haven’t been all that interesting ever, so I guess it balances out. Visually this is the most impressive one to date, although it’s still pretty dull. Still, the point of an OP video is to get me interested in the game and this one sure as hell does! Also, at least Philosophyz is better than LB!'s OP song!
You think so? Personally even though Rita’s voice took some time to get used to I really do like “Little Busters!” for it being something fresh on KSL relates and definitely ties-in with previous theme song works and past CLANNAD…well, I would say “Light colors” is among my favorites when it comes to Key themes altogether. As said, I can’t say for sure yet what it is exactely that bothers me with “Philosophyz” other than it sounds just so mediocre…but maybe it takes time to get used to.
On a somewhat related music note of Key news - Girls Dead Monster starring LiSA tour2010 - Keep The Angel Beats!- announced! Ticket pre-order opened/accepted today. Got mine pre-ordered for the Akasaka BLITZ tour stop, now here’s just hoping for some luck on terms of placement/row for it (one more week to know that result >_<)
On the upcoming release side of things…anyone remeber Bishoujo Brand ABHAR? They’ve gone under in the midst of crisis consuming/effecting Brands one after another (or something along the lines) and that was shortly past when they announced an upcoming 2nd project titled Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete. Guess who’s back or about to “unveil after a while.”. Getchu apparently couldn’t wait any longer and put up a page (not accepting pre-orders yet) for ABHAR’s 2.0 phase now Trumple’s 1.0 phase Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete. Good to see them back!
Rita is my favourite OP song singer, period. But I didn’t find either LB! OP song to be particularly great, and definitely not on the same level as Philosophyz. Rita to me is all about Lilith (Tenshi no Tamago), Le baiser de l’ange (Shiniseppun), Silent Snow (Sentinel), Adenium (Inganock), the raiLsoft OPs and probably many others, but not LB!'s.
Light Colors sounded good but I found it a bit boring. Above all, the lyrics didn’t ‘speak’ to me - they did not match with my experience of Tomoyo After. Then again, it’s possibly partly because I did not really like Tomoyo After as a game.
I remember them. I have a good memory for any brand that releases a landmine. I also remember that they followed it up with a fandisc with yaoi in it, then released another landmine in the form of the first in that ABHAR Tronc series. I also remembered seeing the site for that new title. It looks delicious but I’m still going to be very, very wary.
I found the original LB! OP to be a bit bland but I liked the LB!EX one; I think the song suits that type of instrumentation compared to the one in the original. The original one didn’t heat you up as much as the LB!EX one…
Presumably late enough now to go over July (doing this from memory, sorry if I forget anything). Lots of eroge this month because everything and its dog has been delayed into it. I’m sure at least one of these will be delayed again coughPARA-SOLcough
SECOND NOVEL by Nippon Ichi
PlayStation Portable (console I don’t have) title with scenario written by Romeo Tanaka, Setoguchi Renya (under his light novels name) and a bunch of others, sounds great. Primitive art but this thing is clearly all about the writing. Should be just awesome, awesome stuff.
Cla * Cra ~CLASSY CRANBERRY’S~ by Atelier Kaguya
Eroge by Hozumi Kei (worked on Koibito Doushide Surukoto Zenbu, Mashiroiro Symphony and several other things) and the Kanojo x Kanojo x Kanojo writer, with the Kanojo x Kanojo x Kanojo artist. It looks fantastic. I have a good feeling about the scenario, too. Could be the best A Kaguya since Prima Stella.
PARA-SOL by ROOT
If it actually comes out in July! The trial is supposed to be released when the game goes master up, which to me seems a bit late because by then it would probably be too late to preorder. I won’t get it without playing the trial first
Albatross Koukairoku by raiLsoft
Looks great and no doubt it will be filled with lots of fun kanji. I love this sort of thing and both former raiLsoft titles have been winners so this is a preorder for sure.
Tasogare no Sinsemilla by Applique
Great-looking game with some of the best backgrounds I’ve seen, great setting and great characters. By the Concerto Note staff, and this looks to be quite a bit better. Preorder for sure since the trial was good
Goth Deli -GOTHIC DELUSION- by Lose
Well, it LOOKS great, with lovely, detailed art, ridiculous amounts of graphic and animation. I’ve played the trial. It’s a wait-and-see, though, just to make sure the full game isn’t like 6 hours long / bad in the plot department. The trial was far too short to show anything except how wonderful it is visually.
Vestige by Alcot Honeycomb
Demo movie looked alright. Art seems quite nice. Didn’t really catch my eye though
Enbou no Felshis by NineTail
New RPG/AVG hybrid by NineTail, the makers of Kikaijikake no Eve and Amatsukaze, they’ve abandoned the card battle system in favour of a first-person dungeon crawl with a more traditional DQ / MegaTen-style battle interface. Good in theory, but it doesn’t really look all that fun from the preview video, the story doesn’t interest me and the art looks to be the worst out of all the NineTail games. So it’s a wait and see.
BUNNYBLACK by Softhouse Chara
I played the trial of this. Nothing about it really took my interest. It’s another first-person dungeon crawl, but honestly just seems like a less fun Rance 6 in a lot of ways. It’s also way too hard. This just lacks the innovation and variety of the normal Softhouse Chara titles we know and love. Pass.
Sora wo Aogi te Kumo Takaku by Debonosu Seisakusho
The second game by Debonosu, which rose from the ashes of Studio E.go, and it looks a lot better than their first game. It’s a top-down exploration RPG with Tales-esque battles and elements of raising games. I played the trial and it was quite fun. Not really planning to preorder it with everything else coming out but I could certainly stand to play this if the story is alright.
Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai AfterStory by Navel
Fandisc/anecdote for Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai. I don’t really plan to get this personally as I am not particularly fond of fandiscs, but we’ll see.
Nanapri by TOPCAT
TOPCAT, mostly known for the famous Hateshinaku Aoi which they released a followup title to last year (as well as rereleasing Hateshinaku with voice acting) but I can’t say I’m terribly excited by the concept and it has a new writer so this is a wait and see by default.
Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi by feng
This has been delayed a couple of times too, I recall. Pass because it’s by feng.
EDIT: of course I missed something. >_>
Kono Uta ga Owattara -When this song is over- by hourglass
Is it horror? It is nukige? Is it utsuge? Is it all three? Who knows! There’s no trial or anything out, just a very short teaser trailer. Could be awesome, but right now it’s wait-and-see.
Steal my Heart! by Palette
The worst Palette title in several years, virtual guarantee. It’s completely ridiculous. Scenario that rivals Gratin for incredulity. Played the trial which guaranteed I would not preorder the game. It was still sort of fun and I’d probably play it if it appeared on dlsite. Doubt that will happen though.
Otome ni Gogeki wa Zakoku na Kiss by agony
Otome game, it’s basically an 18+ retelling of the free game Kono Yo de Mottomo Zankoku na Kiss. It’s a Stockholm syndrome eroge. Darker, more horrifying and more in-depth than the original. Getting this for sure.
Akizora ni Mau Confetti by etude
etude’s artist forgot how to draw. I would be too bothered by seeing the work of a great artist ruined to be able to concentrate on this even if the concept was interesting (it is not) and the writer was notable (he is not). Pass.
I’ll add Mugen Yakou (Umiyuri Kugare/Kurayami Yokochou collaboration) to the list. It’s from the same two creators as Dareka no Yodomi (although this time, Meme is in charge of the planning and scenario, as well as the art) and given how good, unusual and original that was, I’m holding out the same hopes for this (as an added plus, both games are free). Mugen Yakou was originally conceived as a story + illustrations, and it’s available in that format here.
I guess there’s also Splash! by Atelier Kaguya, which is their first collaborative eroge using all of their major artists (M&M, 1:02am and Hamada Mari are each in charge of one heroine, and choco chip is drawing the SD CGs), as well as their first foray into the mid-price market. Unfortunately, they’ve gone for a very generic fetish ‘scenario’, which makes it a default pass for me.
For July, I’ve only preordered Tasogare no Sinsemilla. Gothic Delusion would be a must, if I knew the game was going to be of a reasonable length (300 CGs sounds a lot, but when you’re utilising minori level production values and also not using any tachie, the number disappears very quickly. They’ve also added short versions of 4 insert songs to the homepage, making the production balance look even more ridiculous.) RL seems like it will be rather busy in July, so everything else can wait for a while.
The Subarashiki Hibi Official Visual Memories book now has a listing at getchu, as well as at a few other stores (Amazon’s got the release date as the 14th of July, getchu as the 20th). As of yet, still no mention of it on KeroQ’s homepage.
On the Doujin Soft side of upcoming releases Luna System announced the release for Nanagane Gakuen -Kaze no Saifu- Chapter:2 set for Comike78…which is kind of a strange move now, since up to now it was believed -Suigetsu- to be the 2nd part they were working on rather than a second chapter for -Kaze no Saifu-. But anyways…if they enable a more up-to-date Save system (this was only possible at the end of one day in Chapter 1) for Nanagane Gakuen I may get around to finish the first chapter of -Kaze no Saifu- as well.
Ooh, I’ve never heard of Luna System before - pity that none of their eroges are available for dlsales yet. In addition to that, so far for potentially good C78 eroges, there’s Episode 7 of Umineko, Siscon, 3M, Deep onE, Gensou no Avatar and SNOW DROP. I’m sure there are a couple of others that aren’t coming to mind at the moment, and there are probably a few circles who haven’t confirmed their participation yet either.
Edit: Old news, but all of ZIGZAG’s upcoming games are on hiatus.
Mahou Tsukai no Yoru’s site is open. The scenario’s approximately 1/3rd the length of Fate’s.
The story for Great Hunting’s Fushigi no Kuni no Kuzuko (or in other worse, Kuzuko in Wonderland) is up. I wonder what Lovecraft and Carroll would think of this…
Nitro+ has announced Soukou Akki Muramasa Janenhen, for C78, featuring amongst other things, three new short stories by Haganeya Jin (Demonbane), Higashida Yuuichirou (Ayakashibito, Bullet Butlers etc.) and Akita Yoshinobu (Majutsushi Orphen). I guess bringing different writers on board like this is similar to what GIGA’s done on their fandiscs, but whereas most of the writers for DiveX make me rather concerned, Janenhen’s team is awesome.
Wavestar’s Framing Summer seems like another potentially interesting C78 release.
Edit: Akizora ni Mau Confetti has been delayed to August 27. PARA-SOL’s trial is finally out. And perhaps most importantly of all, TADA, the head of Alice Soft and the planner/main writer for Rance and Toushin Toshi series, has announced his retirement.
#ifdef’s (sister brand of #define) Mahou Toushoujo Suzune looks like another potentially decent C78 release. There’s a pre-page for it on dlsite and it seems like that version will be available before the C78 package release. I’m a bit sceptical about the writer and moreso the Mahou Shoujo with tentacles genre in general, but it’s still a possibility.
No really interesting new titles in this month’s Tech GIAN (for the full list, look at Uso900’s entry for July 17) - nothing from top brands/writers, and certainly nothing that’ll be a potential game of the year either. The new Rococo Works title (same creators as Katahane/Volume7/airy?F?airy) seems similar in style to Katahane, and if I knew it was going to be as good as that, I’d be all over it. However, given all the comments about airy?F?airy being very incomplete and somewhat on the short side, it’s going to be a wait and see by default.
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Mmhh…I was under the impression that the next time XUSE formally announces a release such would concern either the XUSE x FOG Kuon no Suzuna or Shinsei Mokushiroku ~ Death March on which there were no news to follow-up on ever since the initial announcement back at the end of last year >_<
RaM reminds us that two years passed… (I could swear -Five- was once announced as RaM’s last project :? )
perhaps they’re Just Sayin’
Looking through the early comments from today’s releases, two potential ‘landmine’ issues stand out. Firstly, as predicted in this thread, Gothic Delusion has turned out to be an extremely short full price eroge (as one comment put it, ‘Fate = 60 hours, Gosudeli ?6 hours’) and a few reviewers have also found the scenario to be problematic. I guess as a result of this though, the second-hand price is likely to bottom out fairly quickly, and once it does it might be worth getting for 2000 to 3000 yen. [Edit: A day or so later, there are a lot of wildly divergent reviews. I imagine that assessing a title that would get a score of 100+% for production values, and 20% for length involves a lot of personal taste.]
Secondly, in the Shin Koihime Musou fandisc, three rather important heroines (that had scenes in Shin Koihime Musou) have none in the fandisc. Considering that Shin Koihime Musou’s possibly the most blatant harem eroge that’s ever been made, the scenario’s structure makes it extremely easy to add as many character routes as desired, and the fandisc is full price, it’s a bizarre decision to make and one that will almost certainly come back to bite them now.
On a more positive note, on August the 27th, Softhouse Seal’s about to settle (one) of the ultimate questions in life, with their title ??? - ?? VS ??. I think Seal have outdone themselves here - needless to say this is going to be far too amusing to pass up on.
Speaking of Kaguya apparently choco chip left. It doesn’t seem as if it’s just something limited to the Bishoujo/Eroge side of this artist’s work (which probably shocked Kaguya fans enough as it is anyways) but also the personal website for choco chip is gone which apparently also means bad news for fellow choco BOX fans…haven’t received my copy of the Comike78 catalogue yet (a status which will hopefully change prior to me arriving in Tokyo >_<) to check/confirm whether this Circle is listed, but given the whole tone of this news article linked to I highly doubt so.
Maybe she just wanted some time to take care of her newborn. It’s hard to tell, really!