The Final Nail In A Dying Industrie´s Coffin Been Hit - Known As The Day "ELF" Has Perished From The World

[XReaper]

thank you for gently popping my cherry back then 18years ago and remaining by my side all the time.
thank you for the sheer amount of high quality novels you´ve produced over the past decades, which greatly helped me forming my own personality and therefore having influenced me in more than one way.
happiness, hatred, excessive love and hellish pain - i experienced them all thanks to your awesome stories.
Sayonara dear friend, the astounishing legacy of yours shalt not be forgotten.

edit: they weren´t just some major game developer, they simply were ELF, as their works pretty much shaped a whole generation + x of otakus & personally i always loved them for the overly beautiful plus detailed artwork of theirs, with even olden stuff still looking great and appealing - something many other works are lacking these days, which i´m truly going to miss.
 

                        

[CeruleanGamer]

*buys 10 boxes of tissues* 

They are for my tears obviously!  

[Zodai]

Always sad to see another dev fall off.  Let's hope those involved with making them can keep moving forward elsewhere.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

Always sad to see another dev fall off.  Let's hope those involved with making them can keep moving forward elsewhere.

Especially one with such a long history in the business. The tribute you can find linked on vndb is decidedly touching. (I've not linked it as I'm not 100% sure it's ok to, but if you go on the Elf vndb page you'll see it in the descriptor)

Edited October 15, 2015 by AaronIsCrunchy

[CeruleanGamer]

Always sad to see another dev fall off.  Let's hope those involved with making them can keep moving forward elsewhere.

Especially one with such a long history in the business. The tribute you can find linked on vndb is decidedly touching. (I've not linked it as I'm not 100% sure it's ok to, but if you go on the Elf vndb page you'll see it in the descriptor)

27 years is a long time for a company. And my god, that tribute makes me want to replay Maro no Kanja wa Gatenkei once again. Oh and a bucketload more of tears has been shed. 

Edited October 15, 2015 by CeruleanGamer

[Deep Blue]

http://blog.livedoor.jp/insidears/archives/52712738.html

[Down]

RIP Elf. Sad day for the eroge industry. Let us hope it will recover some day.

[Funyarinpa]

Were these the guys that made YU-NO?... 

 

Fuck

[CeruleanGamer]

Were these the guys that made YU-NO?... 

 

Fuck

And Boku no Kanojo wa Gatenkei, one of the best NTRs out there. Someone from here recommended it to me, and I loved every moment of that game.

Edited October 16, 2015 by CeruleanGamer

[Narcosis]

Wow, this kind of came out of the blue. It's sad to see them closing their business; Elf has been known as one of the father companies of the eroge industry and they preety much influenced the modern visual novels, whilst games like Doukyuusei, Kakyuusei, Dragon Knight and YUNO becoming cult classics.

I have to admit Elf has been in a constant decline over the past couple years and their latest games couldn't really keep up in terms of quality with the rest of the market. Hopefully the team members will continue off elsewhere, or even form a new studio. I'd love to see more games from them that would keep with their past spirit, but use everything the modern industry has to offer.

[XReaper]

@cerulean guess that was me & sanah, as i slightly remember a thread in the recommendation topic regarding ntr & stuff, but yeah they definitely made a whole bunch of great games almost every single one of them well worth playing, especially since many olden titles meanwhile got a remastered version, including animated h-scenes and more.
for me elf simply was the godfather of well written porn & interpersonal drama

my most favourite titles of theirs are:
- Kawarazaki-ke no Ichizoku 1-2 (original or remastered)
- Biniku no Kaori - Netori Netorare Yari Yarare (mostly netori)
- Hana To Hebi
- Shin Mikagura Shoujo Tanteidan
- Shuusaku + Kisaku
- Yu-No
- Gatenkei
- Doukyuusei 2

[Clephas]

Elf has been downsizing for over half a decade... this comes as no surprise to me.  The only surprise is that they actually released anything in the past few years.   Most of the companies from the early part of last decade and the late twentieth century disappeared long ago... and those that remain are usually those that branched out a lot (Will) or those that managed to gather a stronger, more varied audience (Key)...  this is opposed to Elf (the main company) which remained pretty much the same company, with the same audience... and though that audience was hardcore, it was also relatively small, even as VN company fan groups go.

[CeruleanGamer]

@cerulean guess that was me & sanah, as i slightly remember a thread in the recommendation toipicregarding ntr & stuff, but yeah they definitely made a whole bunch of great games almost every single one of them well worth playing, especially since many olden titles meanwhile got a remastered version, including animated h-scenes and more.
for me elf simply was the godfather of well written porn & interpersonal drama

Thank you for that. I also played the Maro series because I was curious about their other works, (I only played Yu-No and Doukyuusei from Elf before all this) and I was definitely hooked with the rest. They are definitely a company worth putting in the VN hall of fame.

Edited October 16, 2015 by CeruleanGamer

[Kawasumi]

the final nail in the coffin?

lol, maybe a bit overdramatic maybe?

 

Either way because im a pleb I havent really played old school VNs really, but they certainly had a big impact on the industry as it looks today

[XReaper]

nah its more or less true, as many companies struggle hard these days and the most famous writers of theirs seem to more or less swift over to writing light novels now

[Down]

It's not the final nail, but it's probably not the first one either. Eroge is dying, and everyone in the industry knows it.

[Kawasumi]

funny how its dying after people are getting a lot more into it in the west.

Maybe it could actually be a good thing in the long run.

[CeruleanGamer]

It wont be good in the long run if all we get is 99% all ages version and we have to dig far and wide for an 18+ or uncut version/patches.

Edited October 16, 2015 by CeruleanGamer

[Kawasumi]

It wont be good in the long run if all we get is 99% all ages version and we have to dig far and wide for an 18+ or uncut version/patches.

true, but if we can get the japanese companies to see that there is a much wider market for VNs, that would somewhat give them more reason to keep making VNs right?

[CeruleanGamer]

I prefer quality over quantity personally. 

[Kawasumi]

I prefer quality over quantity personally. 

well if it keeps going on like this, you wont have the freedom to choose what VNs to play anymore.

[Clephas]

I generally prefer quality over quantity as well... but most of what Elf produced after Yu-no wasn't to my taste, so I basically ignored them. 

[poplarbrook]

It wont be good in the long run if all we get is 99% all ages version and we have to dig far and wide for an 18+ or uncut version/patches.

true, but if we can get the japanese companies to see that there is a much wider market for VNs, that would somewhat give them more reason to keep making VNs right?

There are producers trying this way - too bad they are otome companies. Voltage Inc. publishes mobile VNs for girls in multiple languages and earns more than 10 billion yen a year.

 

[Funyarinpa]

Man reading the farewell post hits hard when the wrong song is in the background (Around from Hotline Miami 2 OST) and then you see the innocently made 

＞Thank you for the last 27 years.


＞Thank you for the last 27 years.


＞Thank you for the last 27 years.

I ONLY PLAYED YU-NO AND THIS GOT TO ME SO BAD

FUCK

[WinterfuryZX]

YU-NO... there's a reason if kanno stopped writing for them afterwards... they forced him to butcher his own script...

Edited October 16, 2015 by WinterfuryZX