Decay

Deadly Premonition port was an utter mess full of crash bugs, missing textures, and a multitude of other highly unfortunate issues, and it was never fixed. It's not a Dark Souls situation where it was mostly bug free but had fan patchable configuration and control issues. Now is the time to pick up all those games you had your eyes on but never got a daily or flash deal.

There's some kinda frustrating drama involved. Also an absolutely abysmal translation. Honestly, at this point I'd just wait for the in-progress retranslation patch.

Soul collection was such a grindy, terrible aspect of those games in my opinion. I never want to see something like that return to Castlevania.

Whyyy? it was so close.

There are actually a fair amount of eroge set in religious schools. Such as a very large percentage of VNs on this list: https://vndb.org/g423 Surprised there isn't an actual christian/religious school tag on vndb.

It shouldn't baffle you as to why people support them because this thread is on page six and full of arguments for and against their activities. Please actually read these discussions and post a well-reasoned counterpoint if you have one, otherwise don't bother with the pointless thread shitting. As for your "get robbed" remark, so far they've delivered on several of their kickstarters and don't show any signs of abandoning the others. I'm not exactly sure who they're supposedly robbing.

There is no way to make the voices not messed up, but it's perhaps less jarring than you're thinking. At least it's better than no voices at all outside of the prologue.

Also the protagonist is kind of a d-bag in the Aoi route.

lol if you think any of the people hired by any of these companies are being paid well. It is a requirement for the people they employ to be motivated by passion for the games they work on rather than by money, because they get paid a laughable amount. Like, a tiny fraction of what actual translators get paid. All people hired by MG, JAST, and SP are essentially volunteers with minor benefits. Except for Clannad, where Sekai Project used all the money they acquired to hire multiple translators at, AFAIK, the actual standard wage for translators, which is why progress is so fast. But even still, they can pay to make it fast, but apparently not pay to make it good, because according to Herkz the quality of their work is leaving something to be desired. edit: I do agree that people heavily underestimate the operating costs of these companies and overestimate their profit margins. I'll toss a guess out there and say that Sekai Project still is not exactly laden with cash, they seem to be spending it as quickly as they're getting it in order to keep the gears turning. But my point is that the "skilled labor" issue is worked around by not actually paying them much, which is achieved by not actually employing "skilled" labor but amateurs who do this as a second job in their spare time. This is why official VN translations are also slow and unreliable. If anything, I hope that SP's approach can help break this mold. Because if you actually want this industry to grow and become more popular, they are absolutely going to have to earn much more money than they currently are and actually hire full-time employees at industry standard wages. Unfortunately, I don't see many signs of this happening any time soon.

I don't understand WHY it's dirty. You're saying it's a dirty business tactic because they make a lot of money off of it? Is every highly profitable business tactic inherently dirty? That doesn't make much sense. I don't understand what is ethically wrong about selling a high demand item for a high price. And yes, businesses do this kind of thing all the time, charging premiums for limited edition game/movie/music packages, special rare figurines and other collectables, etc.

Everyone who buys into those tier levels know exactly what kind of deal they're getting, and are basically knowingly donating to cause.

Sacrament Sheep and Atom Grrrl!! Also somebody give Nayleen even more work to do, we need some kind of VNDB integration so I don't have to constantly search for stuff on VNDB when linking VNs.

Well, they have two 18+ only yuri titles lined up right now. It's not that they won't release any eroge, it's just that they know where most of the money is at right now.

lol, no.

Pillars of Eternity launched at $45 and was $20/$25 on Kickstarter (depending on whether or not you got the early bird special), so it can go both ways. The main problem being is that when a game's budget isn't even set in stone, it's hard to know how big it will be and how much it's actually going to be worth. Visual novel translations do not run into this issue. The games are already made, the translator should know exactly how much they are going to sell the completed version for, and that will not change. Sekai Project very reluctantly released Grisaia on Steam with a 10% introductory discount, and only after the backers commented saying it would be okay. 10% off isn't all that much, and people generally won't feel burned and the feeling of helping make something otherwise impossible happen is probably enough to overcome that. I don't expect VN translations to fluctuate in price in a major way after being funded on Kickstarter. OELVNs on the other hand can do this, but it should almost always go UP in price, giving kickstarter backers a better deal, not the other way around. Just curious, what games released with a notably lower price than their Kickstarter price?

I don't have a PS3 either. I've actually gone console-free for the last 8 years. I'm probably going to scrounge up some dough for a new console later this year. I've thought about going cheap and getting a PS3, but I dunno man, seems like an odd time to get one now.

So your problem then is the quality of their titles, not that they're using Kickstarter. What if all of these titles were super appealing to you? Would you still be singing the same tune about overusing Kickstarter? Sekai Project is new to this industry, and they are attempting a rapid expansion strategy. Part of this rapid expansion strategy is trying to use Kickstarter as much as possible. They aren't just sitting on the money or pocketing it all. They are using their cash reserves to get a lot of the doujin stuff you're seeing, like both of those yuri titles they've announced recently, while using Kickstarter to additionally fund the more expensive or potentially riskier stuff since they don't actually have a lot of money setting around. And also, again, some of these projects aren't even for SP. It is entirely possible that they are expanding too quickly. Just because all of their projects have met their goals and been profitable doesn't mean that this is a good strategy. I can foresee a future where they start to buckle under their own weight as they grow too big too fast. I'm not sure that's actually going to happen, but it's a possibility. But right now that's the strategy SP is going for and Kickstarter continues to be vital for propelling them so rapidly. I won't begrudge them for using it in that way. I don't buy into the whole philosophy of Kickstarter being a tool that must be used in very specific ways. It's a very versatile tool and companies should be encouraged to use it in any way that can assist them, as long as they aren't running scams.

Some of these kickstarters are like the Human Reignition Project where Sekai Project doesn't actually get the money, the devs do. They're just pitching in their name to help raise awareness. I dunno, Kickstarter is a pre-order platform where they can also back out if not enough people show support. I don't have any problems with their continued use of it, their customers obviously like it and will give them plenty of money. Yes, MangaGamer and JAST don't use it, but why should that mean SP shouldn't? That's MG and JAST's own foolishness for not taking advantage of that platform. Also...

This remake is almost certainly coming to XBox One and possibly PC as well. Anyways, everyone knows the real reason to buy a PS4 is Persona 5. edit: Yes, I know there will be a PS3 version but I am a big enough fanboy to want to get the best possible version.

You're questioning this but not Atelier Kaguya HonkyTonk Pumpkin?

Really, I would have thought the opposite from you.