Hey guys, since this is a discussion of a forthcoming Japanese game with no English version announced I’ve merged the topic with the appropriate corresponding topic in the Japanese Game Discussion forum that’s been around for awhile. Sorry for the confusion.
Hmm, I wouldn’t really call this game a cash cow. Although the setting is similar to the other XC games - it does feature outright body swapping rather than switching into a girl. If nothing else, the protagonist won’t become a fugly woman. Also, although XCA was only released 4 months after XC3 in Japan, aside from the general setting and the protagonist changing from male-female courtesy of a potion, there is very little else in common between the games.The main XC series though is undeniably unoriginal - I’ve only played parts of 3, but if that’s anything to go by, I don’t want to suffer through the other games (Not to mention that Crowd made XCR and XC2R as well to cashwhore off XC and XC2).
(Narg: This is perhaps for another thread, but wouldn’t Yami no Koe ZERO be a much better example of a cash-cow than XCA2? I’ve only played the demos for 2 and ZERO and read the webpages for the other games in the series, but it seems like the characters in ZERO are either from earlier games, or are slight variants of previously explored degenerations. At least four tracks from ZERO are also taken straight from 2. Whilst from what I’ve seen, it’s definitely a much better designed and more interesting concept than the XC series, ZERO does seem a bit… unnecessary.)
Exactly!
… and I took a particular liking in some special characters of the cast: First and foremost seeing Asuka and Takuya as a couple and in X-Change 2, Chisato showed up and I started to like here there almost as much as Asuka - and I definitely cheered for her in X-Change 3 when she took on the challenge to turn Takuya back quicker than Asami could! So I was bound to follow the first series - and still feel that YinYang was a step n the wrong direction, because it cut all ties to the previous series.
As I said many times before: seeing the children of Takuya and Asuka having to deal with a genetically inherited sex-changing abilitiy (perhaps even at will for causing mischief… 
) would definitely have more appealed to me. X-Change without Asuka and Takuya (even if they are only sidecast) is like a hot dog without sausage… 
I agree. Yami no Koe is also something I would denote as a Cash Cow. It’s by far the most numerous of the Black Cyc lineup (1, 2 ,3 , Ibun, Remake of 1, Zero) and has fallen into the trap of recycling ideas. The only defense I could muster about Zero, is that it adds more back history to 'K and Sayoko… so perhaps its leading into something for a potential Yami no Koe 4. However considering that Cyc has handled sequels before, with Musashi being followed by EXTRAVAGANZA in the timeline, they are not being anywhere near as creative as they could be.
On a flipside though, there seems to actually be a reason WHY characters and events in Yami no Koe fall into a pattern. Sayoko is “collecting” people of the same bloodline; and there seems to be an ultimate final goal she’s striving for… that is to say, Yami no Koe Zero indicates that the series will have a “grand finale” to end it all… which might be Yami 4. If this is the case, then there’s actually a plot point to the endless “cloning”…
But to the point: Yes… I agree that Yami no Koe is Cash Cowing. And it will remain so in my mind unless it creates a sequel that completely revolutionizes the series, or releases the “final chapter” that ends the saga. This does not pardon X-Change however. In fact, it only makes it worst IMHO ¬ñ since it shows that Cash Cowing has levels of quality within itself. Black Cyc at least takes time to create an “epic” storyline with a (thus so far) unknown purpose. X-Change is episodic at best… and I don’t see anything that causes me to question or wonder about the Universe it takes place within (aside from the infamous busing system). Furthermore, playing Yami no Koe Zero revealed how little I actually remembered about 1 thru 3 ¬ñ which caused me to replay them in seeing what I missed, and how important those “little details” were in Zero (which explains why there’s a Box Set with all the old Yami titles). X-Change Alternate doesn’t do that.
So X-Change is not only a Cash Cow… it’s a TERRIBLE Cash Cow. At least Ijitte Princess has a point in Final Road (not to mention an entirely new battle system)… too bad the twincest didn’t return though. :?
Thanks for the YnK info 
- will give 1 a try via dlsite soon.
But on topic: thinking about it more, the main and alternative series do have more in common than I originally thought: there’s the ‘masturbating as a girl feels so good’, the ‘I’m suddenly the most attractive girl in the school/campus’, ‘I need woman’s clothing’, ‘whoever I’m living with is suddenly very attracted to me even though I was the opposite sex the previous day’ etc. If Alternate existed without the main XC series, it would be a good stand-alone title, but as it stands, quite a few parts of the game are very familiar. And as for XC3, the Something Awful review covers the cash-cow bit far more eloquently than I could.
Having said that though - if the script for XCA2 is good (the rest of it certainly looks up to scratch), then the game will probably be worth playing on it’s own merits, cashcow or not :).
Maybe XC-alternative 2 will show some originality… for exemple by not putting any rape.
…
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Lol… as if they would do that.
Hum… now that I think about it, the only kind of rape that would not bother me is if the main protagonist (male) is raped by one or several girls.
Are there eroge like that ?
Go try Discipline then, pretty much the whole game is about the main character getting raped and used by women.
I especially loved the part at the end about Blade. And they’re right, Blade the TV series was better than Trinity and the X-Change games.
(in fact, Blade the series was mostly pretty good, though they rapped it up far too quickly - it could have done with another season)
Aww, you’re bashing one of my favorite games. I enjoyed the XC series.
A few thoughts about this (information from here): I guess everything hinges on the script now - the art is excellent, and the voices and music are likely to at least be of average quality. (XCA’s script is 26274 lines - so XCA2 will be approximately 75000 lines :o) With a good script, this could be quite a memorable release, but a poor or even an average script, given the sheer length of it, could really drag the game down.
I can’t seem to find the demo movie though, even though it seems to have been released - the link on the XCA2 homepage doesn’t work, and it’s not up on Holyseal either.
And ‘fantasy-themed sex-changing game’… not another one :roll:. I guess the sex-change is becoming a gimmick for CROWD - which is great if you enjoy that, but it does limit the appeal of the game.
The demo movie hasn’t actually been released yet; it’s just poor site design on the game’s official page that makes it seem that that’s the case.
The movie is complete and has been shown at the Crowd booth at Dream Party Tokyo and Osaka earlier this month, so my guess is that we can expect to see it online pretty soon.
I’m eagerly anticipating it as well, with the hope that it uses either the Momoi or YURIA track for the BGM - it seems they’re really going all out for this release. I agree that the huge question mark now is the scenario, with Okomeman still untested as a writer. He seems like a good guy from his blog entries but that surely has no bearing on his ability as a scriptwriter… I hope they release a playable demo to help allay these fears before the game comes out.
The XCA2 opening movie is now online and available for download!
http://www.hs-crowd.co.jp/crowd/product/xca2/index.html
Not the best work Momoi has ever done, but it’s certainly decent, and watching the movie makes me want to play the game even more now. This is promising to be the most “equal opportunity” gender swap scenario of the series, and scenes like this one look like they’re going to be hilarious:
[attachment=0]xca2_onsen.jpg[/attachment]
Hooray. I remember clicking that button far too many times before the movie was actually up. :lol:
I like the song for the OP, quite catchy - and hopefully the game will be as humourous as some of the CG scenes suggest. Now… CROWD just needs to hurry up with the demo :).
shingo posted this on heiseidemocracy Crowd’s X-Change Alternative 2 delayed two months to September 26th release 
Yeah, it’s a bummer. They don’t give much of a reason beyond “delays in production”… I hope this means the scope of the game is truly epic, and not that there are difficulties at the personnel level.
hopefully this game will be longer than the last one
XCa 1 was on the short side
Personally, I’d like to see more with some of the characters from XCa 1, except for Kyoka.
Getchu has a few new pictures, from what i can gather…
Mine is a virgin
Tomoyo is a virgin
Theirs a threesome scene between, Mine, Yuki and a girl with black hair ( Makoto Possibly? )
Sayuri looks the most sexual with 4 sexual images so far out.
It’s the second game i’v seen that shows a guys bulge ( first being school days )
If all goes well this should come out in 5 more days.