New VN localization company: MoeNovel

[sanahtlig]

With no fanfare, a company calling itself MoeNovel has launched a website and plans to release its first title by the end of May. The title is "If my Heart had Wings", a highly regarded 2012 VN from acclaimed developer Pulltop. A demo of the game is available on their website. Pre-orders are available for US $35 on PlayAsia. According to VNDB, the title is long and offers 30-50hrs of gameplay. The English release will have the H-scenes removed to "reach a wider audience".

News as of 5/14/2013:

MoeNovel is the newest localization company to enter the market. The company appears to have connections to Active Gaming Media and Will, Pulltop's parent company.

VNTLS MoeNovel news summary: http://vntls.org/news/

MoeNovel's debut title will be "If My Heart Had Wings" or KonoSora (http://vndb.org/v9093), one of Pulltop's most successful story-driven titles, and is slated for release at the end of June 2013. The original title was winner of 3rd place in the 2012 Bishoujo Game Awards, and ranked 4th place for Scenario. News that the English release will be all-ages (no such version exists in Japanese) has attracted criticism.

Summarizing currently known information from the closed VNDB discussion of this title (http://vndb.org/t4066):

Content rating: The game has received a rating of T from the ESRB and 12 from PEGI.

Demo and translation quality: MoeNovel has released a demo. The translation is questionable and probably performed by a non-native English speaker: it appears to be accurate, mostly grammatically correct, yet very awkward. MoeNovel claims the script is still undergoing editing, and the final product should be more polished than the demo.

Overall content edits: The game's art will have to be heavily edited. The original game had 17 H-scenes and 5 heroines (2 of which are twins). Shini's count of the game's CG are as follows (note that these counts include variations of the same base CG):

Non-H: 463 (includes swimsuits, wet t-shirt with bra showing through, scene where it looks like a girl has nopan)

Ero: 646 (includes CGs that are part of H scenes and bath scenes with visible nipples)

SD: 110 (chibi characters)

Known alterations outside of H-scenes: Kissing CG will be altered to hide facial contact / sexual suggestiveness. Heroines will be covered by towels in the bath scenes.

Availability: The game will be available for sale from Play-Asia, Mangagamer, and J-List.

Promotion: The game has received coverage from several anime and gaming blogs including Siliconera, Anime News Network and Japanator. MoeNovel will be utilizing social media to promote the game, including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

VNDB link: http://vndb.org/v9093

Official website: http://moenovel.com/imh/

PlayAsia link: http://www.play-asia...en-70-6iiv.html

[kazameltis]

Sounds good. I wonder if they also do BL games?

[Eurobeatz]

This game sounds pretty interesting and cute, however, I'm not a big fan of the idea of removing sex scenes.

[RusAnon]

According to Reliable Sources on VNDB, its all-ages release. I doubt they will last long with this content-cutting and lack of marketing.

[Widi]

Hmmm the art is pretty good, ,

Maybe I'm should buy this since the price is worth and its free shipping

I wonder how the company got approve from the author?

[Tief Blau]

So that's where the original Fuwanovel picture came from.

I've seen pictures of this a few times, and the artwork is fantastic.

If I have leftover money at the end of summer, I might buy it.

[sanahtlig]

Available evidence suggests this is an initiative from the Japanese side: company based in Tokyo, awkward but grammatically correct translation, lack of advertising, no attempt to reach out to the fanbase. It's like Mangagamer's launch all over again.

[Tief Blau]

Available evidence suggests this is an initiative from the Japanese side: company based in Tokyo, awkward but grammatically correct translation, lack of advertising, no attempt to reach out to the fanbase. It's like Mangagamer's launch all over again.

I guess we will have to aggregate this news to make sure that doesn't happen again.

[Wahfuu]

Egh. If the demo is anything to go by the translation is really iffy. Not bad, but really doesn't flow all that well. It looks really pretty though, so thats nice. Not sure how this'll go. Does indeed bleed MangaGamer.

[Steve]

If they remove H, they are doomed.

If they leave all content in the game, I will consider it.

[Steve]

Added the option in the poll xD

I also contacted their support asking if the H is there, I wonder if they respond.

[kazameltis]

This game sounds pretty interesting and cute, however, I'm not a big fan of the idea of removing sex scenes.

Yeah I also agree. That would destroy the entire story. They would have to modify the game and the story to do that. That's what Peach Princess did with X-Change 3 and there were issues with the changes they made.

[Kendjin]

Just as long as they don't try to use this as an excuse to say.. Oh look there is no market.

No, there is no market for cut games with bad translation

[zhurai]

I'm not interested in H scenes at all (H scenes make it annoying to stream it too)

[Down]

I couldn't give the slightest fuck about H-scenes, but I think if they take them out some people won't like it. Plus in some rare cases it could hinder the story, because stuff has to be rewritten.

Anyway, as long as I don't have my own income source, I'm sadly not throwing money at things like that :/

[sanahtlig]

Personally my enthusiasm would be diminished if they cut the H-scenes out. My enthusiasm would be further diminished if they only plan to do all-ages releases.

[swiftnissity]

More information has come out on the MG forums.

http://forums.mangagamer.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1390&start=10#p26632

Mangagamer will be selling it too

It was translated by 'Active Gaming Media' who also worked on Demon Souls and No More Heroes

Confirmation that it is all ages.

They are submitting it to the ESRB for review and rating.

Erotic content was removed to give it wider appeal.

The demo isn't the finalized version.

Mangagamer hints of a release in the next few days.

[RusAnon]

Erotic content was removed to give it wider appeal.

I just cannot comprehend how anyone who knows at least something about eroge would reach such idiotic conclusion that removing h-content would give "wider appeal". Didn't MG already burn on this several times and switch to nukiges exactly because they sell better than all-ages stuff? Same for minori, who nearly collapsed due to releasing all-ages shit noone cared about.

[iNorton]

I like it!, looks promising as well however the fact that erotic content is removed is a bit of a... Well you could of just make a option to enable/disable...

[Steve]

Yes, it will be all-ages. We informed AGM how the visual novel audience feels about the removal of erotic content, but after discussing our advice with their client, they decided to make it all-ages in order to try and approach a wider market.

Its the stupidest excuse I've ever heard. Why couldn't they make option to auto skip H scenes or whatever or have normal and all ages version, if they really want "wider market".

What market are they targeting? If it is people who are over 18 (and actually have money), having just "skip H" option would work just fine as people who don't want H can just CTRL skip it anyway, people who want H can't CTRL add it on the other hand.

So they don't target adult audience? Who do they want to sell it to then?

Teenagers? Teenagers who

1. have much less money

2. are usually interested in JP as far as Naruto or Bleach goes, no further

3. want H scenes anyway

I really can't see what benefits are they gaining by removing the H content. Do they want lower ESRB rating? Why would you want E rated game if you sell it online anyway - people need credit cards to actually buy it. I understand all ages releases in JP where people buy it in retail stores, they can't buy 18 rated games if they are not 18. But online? You need credit card anyway so how the hell are they going to sell it to those teenagers they target? Or maybe they don't target teenagers - so why would they want lower ESRB ratings when most of the customers don't even care about it. So they maybe don't do it for the rating.

Then why?

Are they trying to target people who are strictly against any H in their moege dating sim? All 7 of them who can't just skip it if they don't want it?

And if you look at tags, it sure looks like classic dating sim, yeah it might have good story but it is about dating the girls.

Fictional Modern Day Japanese Town 2.3 Only Virgin Heroines 2.3 Dormitory 2.2 Student Club 2.2 Dormitory Manager Protagonist 2.2 Male Protagonist 2.2 Group of Friends 2.2 Airplane 2.2 Adolescent Romance 2.2 Romance 2.2 Classic Tsundere Heroine 2.2 Romancing a Family 2.0 Twin Tail Heroine 2.0 Kyonyuu Heroine 2.0 Comedy 2.0 Brother 2.0 Kouhai heroine 2.0 Osananajimi Heroine 2.0 Homecoming 2.0 Flashback 2.0 Student Heroine 2.0 Airhead Heroine 2.0 Same Roof 2.0 Genius Heroine 2.0 Senpai Heroine 2.0 Energetic Heroine 2.0 Student Club Member Protagonist 2.0 Househusband Type Protagonist 2.0 Siscon 2.0 Proactive Protagonist 2.0 Ojousama Heroine 2.0 Adult Heroine 2.0 Pettanko Heroine 2.0 Mid-game Videos 2.0 Inventor Heroine 2.0 Coodere Heroine 2.0 Crippled Heroine 2.0 Student Club Member Heroine 2.0 Transfer Student Protagonist 2.0 Twin Sister Heroines 2.0 Student Club Director Heroine 1.8 Deredere Heroine 1.7 Sister 1.7

So saying there is 7 people who want to play the game with these tags and at the same time hate H so much that they can't even stand the bother to skip it is pretty accurate.

So afte all that mentioned above, I -with my 2 years of study of logic- fail to see any logic of removing the H content from the game.

if anyone can explain what are they actually thinking and how are they benefiting from the all-ages version, please tell me. I might be extremely stupid, blind or mentally disabled because I really don't understand it.

So bottom line - no buy.

And if someone takes the translated scripts and applies them to the original version (if they don't actually change the story), I will be happy to torrent it.

[Wahfuu]

Erotic content was removed to give it wider appeal.

someone please inform these people about how the VN market actually works

[Steve]

someone please inform these people about how the VN market actually works

even the MG people say they told them (provided sale numbers for kira kira 18+ vs all ages version)... and they still don't listen.

[Daeyamati]

I never cared for H-scenes in the first place so I might buy this if there was something like a LE of the physical copy. The only reason I can think of for the censorship is them wanting break preconceptions of VNs being just mindless porn games (right MG?), though I doubt that's it.

[Steve]

I never cared for H-scenes in the first place so I might buy this if there was something like a LE of the physical copy. The only reason I can think of for the censorship is them wanting break preconceptions of VNs being just mindless porn games (right MG?), though I doubt that's it.

Then they could have just chosen a different games that is all ages and nobody cares about, this one is full of sex and ero, cutting it is like taking half of the game away.

I mean on vndb every main char has at least 10 sexual tags, even 2 of the side characters who don't even have route have sexual tags (so there probably are H scenes in common route).

It doesn't have "low sexual content" or "late sexual content" - it has "sexual content" which often implies that the sex is there all the time, more of it in the routes. It is full romance about dating, you date and then you do your thing... while enjoying relatively good story - that's the point.

How the hell does this game work without it?

If they want to break preconceptions of VNs being just mindless porn games - release a porn game that isn't mindless (unlike MG xD) - this one would be perfect, it isn't nukige but has quite a lot of sexual content - its a good VN with everything good VN needs.

[zoom909]

I'll buy it if they fix the translation. An "awkward" translation isn't worth 35 dollars to me. More like...35 cents.

I try to avoid pornography myself, but I'm a bit surprised that they wouldn't offer both ero and non-ero for download (and both in the boxed version). It's trivial to do that with the game engine, and it makes that debate moot, right?