sanahtlig

Alicesoft isn't interested in licensing their games. So a Rance series release probably isn't feasible to begin with. Seinarukana is an SRPG. There's no random encounters at all and all battles (except for boss encounters) initiate from the overland map, similar to Aselia the Eternal.

Tiagol from the MG forums reminded me that RPGFan reviewed Aselia the Eternal. RPGFan was pretty impressed by it, though it criticized the low resolution graphics. I think that's evidence that an H-RPG (without the ero) is capable of achieving critical acclaim in the "mainstream" RPG press. And that H-RPG happens to be the prequel to Seinarukana. If anything, the barrier to selling these games to the mainstream is that JAST takes so damn long to release them. In 2003, Aselia's graphics were actually not half bad. 8 years later, 640x480 wasn't so impressive anymore. Eushully's latest games are 720p, and they actually look pretty good.

For fun, I did a little experiment. I created a list of all VN releases on VNDB with the following filters: Japanese language, originally Japanese language, Windows platform https://vndb.org/r?q=;fil=lang-ja.olang-ja.plat-win;o=d;s=released Then I counted all VNs released 2/15/15-3/19/15 (I intended to count 1 month but accidentally counted 1 month + 4 days instead). I repeated for the subset of those VNs that weren't 18+. My results: All VN releases: 150 Non 18+ releases: 11 (7.3%) I'll therefore continue to use my 90% number as a good ballpark estimate of Japanese excellence in perverted entertainment.

Ironically, pirate sites are where I see JAST's ads. It's pretty amusing actually.

JAST can name the title whatever they want. re: H-RPGs are just inferior knockoffs of mainstream games I think that's the wrong way to look at it. H-RPGs (or without the H, VN-style RPGs) are unique experiences unto themselves. They're a blend of VN-style storytelling with an RPG combat system. Imagine a scale of Japanese-centric games on one end and Western-centric games on the other. Visual novel <-> H-RPG <-> JRPG <-> WRPG <-> First-person shooter Here I'm imagining that adjacent "nodes" are likely to have some overlap in audience, while non-adjacent nodes are much less likely. The catch here is that JRPG players have been lamenting a sparsity of good JRPGs for some time now. Many of them look back fondly on the good old SNES / PS1 / PS2 days of sprite-based JRPGs with anime-style character portraits. Many of these fans hang around places like NISA, eating up the shovelware that Idea Factory puts out because they don't have much choice. Enter Seinarukana. Maybe it doesn't have the best battle system they've ever seen. Maybe it doesn't have the best story of all the VNs they never played. But it has a better anime-style JRPG story than they've seen in a long long time. And it has a battle system to hold their interest. For fans of the Ar tonelico series starved for something similar, Seinarukana would be an easy sell. Seinarukana is the sort of gateway game that could appeal to JRPG fans that maybe might like VNs, but never gave them a try because they aren't "games". As for the argument that H-RPGs are an inferior experience to either VNs or other RPGs...those are fighting words. I'll disagree with that. And I bet Clephas would too. Both of us being longtime fans of RPGs that got into VNs, but still have a fondness for H-RPGs.

Seinarukana shouldn't be marketed as the sequel to Aselia the Eternal. It's essentially standalone. Aselia provides some background on the setting but playing it by no means is necessary to enjoy Seinarukana. If no one tells them, the casuals will never know the connection to Aselia anyway.

My real opinion is that letting on that you're the leader of a community dedicated primarily to erotic "dating sims" is probably not the best professional move when you work in a medical environment. Especially if you're a lolicon doing rotations in the pediatric clinics. It draws unwanted attention.

You should educate him that only 90% of VNs are pornographic.

Peter Payne, owner of VN publisher JAST and the J-List empire, made the following comment in their official forums: JAST's experience with RPGs JAST has released several RPGs over the years, including the Raidy series, Brave Soul, Aselia the Eternal, and most recently Yumina the Ethereal. JAST has said hinted before that the Raidy series did very well for them, and they seemed quite eager to work on Raidy 3, so I'd infer that it's not included in this assessment. Brave Soul was heavily pirated, as evidenced by the repetitive posts in the old forums asking how to save (which was explicitly outlined in the short paper manual that came with the game). The release of Aselia the Eternal was mired by issues, including a widely available fan translation patch, JAST's decision not to release a version with the original 18+ content due to concerns about the sexual portrayal of children, failure to pursue a Steam release, and the fact that by the time JAST got around to releasing it 8 years had passed and the game's graphics (640x480) and battle system were horribly dated. I previously discussed how Yumina the Ethereal's marketing was poorly handled, although eventually they did release a playable trial at least. Since Brave Soul was released 12 years ago and Aselia the Eternal probably didn't cost much to localize due to the existing fan patch (JAST worked with the same group for the official release), I presume JAST's statement is based largely on Yumina the Ethereal's sales. Seinarukana: JAST's most ambitious RPG license to date Synopsis Seinarukana follows the dimension-traveling adventures of Nozomu and his band of friends. The story opens in a typical high school in Japan. Nozomu's everyday life is shattered when the school is suddenly attacked by strange invaders from another world wielding medieval weapons and fantastic magics. Amidst the chaos he and others awake to supernatural powers that had long lied dormant--powers inherited from a previous life. When the dust settles the entire campus has dimension shifted, and the students find themselves stranded in an alien world. While at first Nozomu and his friends simply seek to return to their world, they gradually become entangled in a dimension-spanning intrigue that threatens the entire multiverse. In the process, they discover the nature of their powers, and memories of their former lives begin to awaken. Story and gameplay The premise is reminiscent of its prequel Aselia the Eternal, though it has lighthearted school comedy elements that more resemble spiritual successor Yumina the Ethereal. The gameplay system is an evolution of the strategic overland map movement and tactical combat found in Aselia the Eternal, streamlining leveling, adding greater complexity in the form of separate physical defense and magical defense, and introducing a large cast of playable characters with unique skills. Skills are awarded as map completion objectives, with faster and more complete conquest rewarded with rare and powerful skills, giving players incentive to master the gameplay. You can see screenshots of the gameplay on its VNDB page. Evaluation I've played through the entire game, and the gameplay is a blast. The story mixes typical high school comedy with a fascinating sci-fi / fantasy setting, but the blend is smoother and more convincing than Yumina the Ethereal, with the plot and setting gradually introduced rather than dropped in your lap halfway through like with Yumina. Unlike Yumina, there's no grind or random encounters, which I appreciate. Seinarukana is currently rated 8.4/10 with 151 votes on VNDB, ranking it #3 in untranslated RPGs below Eushully's epics Ikusa Megami Zero and Ikusa Megami Verita. English Release Insider information suggests Seinarukana is planned for a 2015 release, likely timed to coincide with Anime Expo in early July. Unfortunately, JAST appears to be heading for a repeat of the mistakes they made with Yumina the Ethereal: taking a high-caliber RPG, hurling it at fans, then expecting the game to market itself. RPGs require special marketing at a different audience Ask existing VN fans (JAST's typical customers) to buy an RPG, and they're going to whine that there's gameplay getting in the way of their story. RPG fans don't necessarily frequent VN sites, because they don't like VNs especially--they like RPGs. On top of that, when RPG fans are looking for RPGs to buy, they're looking for promotional materials that highlight the gameplay: gameplay screenshots, gameplay videos, and playable demos. Reviews are important RPG fans tend to read reviews before they buy, which means RPG review sites need to be engaged and persuaded to review these games. I never saw any reviews of Yumina the Ethereal on RPG sites, which was probably the #1 reason it didn't do as well as JAST had hoped. There's a huge potential audience for VN-style RPGs with strong gameplay, but it's going to take more effort to tap than JAST is probably used to. But if they're going spend the considerable resources to license a long high-caliber RPG like Seinarukana...why wouldn't they market it the best they could? Seinarukana is a Steam dream come true Seinarukana has to be released on Steam. Absolutely. Positively. If the game can be listed on Steam, priced affordably, and it gets noticed--the game will sell like hotcakes. I've played Seinarukana, and the gameplay is a blast. Steam users will eat it up. Censoring the H-content in Seinarukana will be no issue because there's hardly any to begin with. And with a censored version, sites like RPGFan and RPGamer should be willing to review the game, which will multiply sales. Getting these sites review copies before release, to boost pre-release hype, is a key aspect of proper marketing! My message to JAST Disappointing sales of your RPGs is your own fault. You're dropping the ball. Put some effort into the marketing this time around and you'll get results! You have talented people working for you on Seinarukana that know what it takes to market RPGs. Talk to them! Throw money at them and give them the authority to do what it takes to make this release successful! My message to readers It's outside the scope of this article to convince you that Seinarukana is awesome. You'll just have to take make word for it. Regardless if you agree, if you care about visual novel style RPGs then I have a message for you: JAST needs your help. They're at a fork in the road where they're debating if high quality RPGs are worth the effort of releasing. They don't realize they're sitting on a gold mine; all they see is a caved-in tunnel that is taking forever to clear. And if they don't dig down, they'll never realize it. I want YOU, the RPG fans, to help me tell JAST what they're doing wrong. Here's a pre-release thread for Seinarukana on the JAST official forums. Tell them what they need to do to reach RPG fans like you and me and make Seinarukana and future awesome RPGs a success. Do you want to see shining gems like Eushully's Ikusa Megami Verita in English? First we have to convince Japanese developers like Eushully that there's a market for these games in English, and we have to convince localization companies like JAST that translating a 100hr epic like that isn't going to bankrupt them. I leave the sword in your hands, RPG fans.

Have you played Seinarukana? It's a lot of fun. Even without the H. I think among the NISA crowd there's a lot of latent demand for games like this. If games like Sakura Spirit can succeed on Steam, I'm confident Seinarukana would do well.

My proposed solution does require an all-ages version of Seinarukana.

I explore a quote by JAST USA chief Peter Payne that the failure of Seinarukana could mean the end of JAST's RPG license spree, and therefore the end of H-RPG English localization. Is lack of fan interest to blame, or is JAST blind to its own failures? JAST’s failure to market Seinarukana as an RPG could doom English H-RPGs

Actually, now that I think about it, we really should keep this as simple as possible. Users can hack their own non-dynamic content into the signature. This ticker just needs to include the dynamic content. So avatar isn't needed. Neither is the blog title. All that's needed is the post title, a generated hyperlink, date (optional), and snippet (optional). The simpler we keep it the more customizable it'll be. Also we need to minimize the burden on your servers too.

Text as an image is fine, what I mean is using avatars as part of the image. The problem is avatars tend to use up a lot of vertical space and very little horizontal space. Since this concept is meant for forum signatures, those aren't good characteristics.

Looks like you're envisioning something more complex than I had in mind. Let's see, maybe make the image optional? I think it's important not to introduce too much clutter, especially vertical clutter. Blog title, date, and post title seem like good info. Snippet is hard to judge without seeing examples. I think the /index.php?/topic/9085-mangagamers-message-to-fan-translators/?p=246539">Steam tag is a bit bloated, IMO.

Sweet.

It'd be nice if there was a ticker I could put in my signature that would list the title of my most recent personal blog post, along with a hyperlink to that post. It would help drive traffic from the forums. Even better would be a ticker I could use in other forums.

(2) or (3) would have an identical outcome for me personally, but I'd rather see (2).

Ads from Mangagamer? I'll believe it when I see it.

As I recall, Mangagamer shifted their servers to the US because US customers complained about the conversion costs of buying in Euros. Comments like this really show a lack of understanding of the market. It's interesting how many casual observers think they could run a business better than every player who's taken a stab at this market in the past 25 years. Some of MG's best titles (e.g., those from Innocent Grey) didn't sell well at all. Bringing over popular titles doesn't guarantee they'll sell when the majority of the fanbase just pirates. MG has identified two profitable market segments: nukige and short budget all-ages titles they can sell on Steam. Everything else is high risk, and usually low return.

If I can't understand a sentence because it's so badly written, then there's a problem. At its core, the purpose of writing is conveying a message. If that message is being obscured because they can't figure out how to translate Japanese grammatical structures into clear and flowing English, then they're not doing a good job. I play VNs in English to give my mind and hands a rest from the difficult work of parsing Japanese. If they're making me stop auto-mode to puzzle out bad English, it's defeating the whole purpose of playing the game in English.

I haven't played any of those 3 titles, so I'll have to consult the Professor on this one. Sounds like a good subject for his next blog post. I can say that Mangagamer hasn't erased content out of existence with this release, so they have that in their favor at least.

So here's further news on editing plans: http://ask.fm/The_Doddler/answer/124887785969 That seems to indicate that the demo will be representative of the final product.

Clephas, connoisseur of countless Japanese VNs, got sucked in by the Sakura Spirit hype? I'm stupefied.

My overly cynical method to avoid bad OELVNs is to not play any. It's worked out for me so far. I should really get back to playing Ikusa Megami Verita. Need to finish that True History route so I can get on with my life.