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Aokana Release by Nekonyan [UPDATED]


littleshogun

Aokana Poll  

39 members have voted

  1. 1. Which is the best girl?

    • Kurashina Asuka
      6
    • Tobisawa Misaki
      18
    • Arisaka Mashiro
      11
    • Ichinose Rika
      4
  2. 2. Which girl that have best route?

    • Kurashina Asuka
      12
    • Tobisawa Misaki
      24
    • Arisaka Mashiro
      2
    • Ichinose Rika
      1


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Just now, Seraphim88 said:

You'll probably see it quite a lot in VNs you read from now on! The Monster Hunter series has been huge in Japan for a long time now, so it's a pretty common reference!

If I remember correctly, there were some in Sanoba Witch too. (Meguru was a player, right?)

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23 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

You'll probably see it quite a lot in VNs you read from now on! The Monster Hunter series has been huge in Japan for a long time now, so it's a pretty common reference!

yeah I know, I only ever played the psp version like 12 years ago but psps were rare in my country so didnt really have anyone to play with other than my one neighbour so barely remembered anything before playing World

 

4 hours ago, adamstan said:

Another quick impression - this VN does "anime episode format" thing pretty well - there's no annoying OP replaying, but there are nice previews at the end of each chapter, and I absolutely love those "eyecatches" (they are animated):

aokana-eyecatch1.png

aokana-eyecatch2.png

Those chibi portraits really capture girls' personalities :D

 

Yeah the Chibi art is used pretty well with the comedy, like when Madoka was left out of their game session or Mashiro couldnt control her flight :wahaha:

Madoka also deserves a route, she's hilarious and love her voice actress 

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4 minutes ago, Freestyle80 said:

Btw does anyone knows whats the extra PS4/PSV stuff? Are those in the steam version?

AFAIK not. NekoNyan is planning to release "Perfect Edition" as a patch later on, which is said to contain some extra scenes for Misaki, but I don't know if it's the console content (probably not, since they're talking about h-scenes as well) or something other.

Edited by adamstan
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47 minutes ago, Freestyle80 said:

Oh damn I didnt know there was stuff planned, I guess Aokana was really costly and they couldnt break even? :vinty:

sprite hasnt really released anything after that I believe, did they go under?

Don't quote me on that because I have no source, but I am pretty sure I read somewhere that sprite didn't go under but decided to stop making VNs, to seek more profitable work elsewhere. (mobile games?) I think it was on twitter or Discord where someone more familiar with sprite or the Japanese industry wrote that, but I would be happy if someone could point me to a source that prove or disprove what I just said.

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48 minutes ago, Freestyle80 said:

I guess Aokana was really costly and they couldnt break even?

They mentioned something about the industry declining 15% per year. I don't know how accurate those numbers are, but it's probably safe to say that Aokana didn't sell well enough compared to the development costs.
 

50 minutes ago, Freestyle80 said:

sprite hasnt really released anything after that I believe, did they go under? 

They released the previously mentioned Perfect Edition and Extra 1, which serves as an after story for Mashiro and is in the process of being localized by NekoNyan, but other than that, they never got the chance to release anything else.

While we won't see anything more from Sprite, it may not necessarily be the final nail in the coffin for Aokana. To quote an article from ANN:

"sprite noted that it is not possible to "revive" the company, and the company has no plans for crowdfunding. sprite also clarified that there is no possibility of producing new works and continuations of old works for sprite, but noted in a Twitter post on January 30 that, following the sale of its IP and brand, that the IP may be revived by a different company with different staff."

I have no idea what it would mean for the overall quality of the VN if a different company/staff takes on a new Aokana project, though.

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11 hours ago, Formlose Gestalt said:

Don't quote me on that because I have no source, but I am pretty sure I read somewhere that sprite didn't go under but decided to stop making VNs, to seek more profitable work elsewhere. (mobile games?) I think it was on twitter or Discord where someone more familiar with sprite or the Japanese industry wrote that, but I would be happy if someone could point me to a source that prove or disprove what I just said.

I think they declared bankruptcy like 5 months ago? I cant confirm though. As for VNs, they barely make any so ofcourse there's not gonna be much profit. The ones they made were fairly popular in Japan and won some accolades so its weird they made no effort to make more

 

11 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

They mentioned something about the industry declining 15% per year. I don't know how accurate those numbers are, but it's probably safe to say that Aokana didn't sell well enough compared to the development costs.
 

They released the previously mentioned Perfect Edition and Extra 1, which serves as an after story for Mashiro and is in the process of being localized by NekoNyan, but other than that, they never got the chance to release anything else.

While we won't see anything more from Sprite, it may not necessarily be the final nail in the coffin for Aokana. To quote an article from ANN:

"sprite noted that it is not possible to "revive" the company, and the company has no plans for crowdfunding. sprite also clarified that there is no possibility of producing new works and continuations of old works for sprite, but noted in a Twitter post on January 30 that, following the sale of its IP and brand, that the IP may be revived by a different company with different staff."

I have no idea what it would mean for the overall quality of the VN if a different company/staff takes on a new Aokana project, though.

Oh well, we'll have to see what happens with that. I doubt we'll get anything but the demand for Aokana is certainly here judging from the massively successful kickstarter. Its sad though, sprite makes a lot of interesting characters, like the Sensei in Koichoco and Madoka in Aokana and never does anything with them lol

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8 hours ago, Freestyle80 said:

I think they declared bankruptcy like 5 months ago? I cant confirm though. As for VNs, they barely make any so ofcourse there's not gonna be much profit. The ones they made were fairly popular in Japan and won some accolades so its weird they made no effort to make more

I have heard nowhere that they declared bankruptcy!

In the article that Seraphim88 quoted it states "The official Twitter account for the sprite company revealed on Sunday that the company will cease operations at the end of March, and its "sprite STORE" online store will also close at the same time." Cease operations is not a bankruptcy. In another article it is state that they halted operations.

So their financial situation was never so dire that they had to declare bankruptcy instead they decided to stop and sell their brand (Sprite) and the rights to their games. What is left open for interpretation is if they made a loss with Aokana and decided to stop or if they thought that the profit of Aokana was to small for the effort that they put in and considering the trend for the Vn industry (declining) they decided to stop before they make a loss. But I guess it matter little in the grand scheme of things.

Here are link to the arcticles I am referring to:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-02-11/aokana-game-maker-sprite-halts-operations-at-end-of-march/.143245

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-06-26/aokana-game-maker-sprite-halts-operations/.133419

Edited by Formlose Gestalt
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The demise of Sprite wasn't particularly surprising, considering how long they took for their games. I'm not a big fan of the one release per year cycles of most studios and I'd vastly prefer 2-year cycles, but a development time of 4 years for Aokana is pretty damn long. You need a serious smash hit then or a very tiny studio with little operating expenses to compensate for that. And even then, if you need 3 years for a short fan disc then you don't have to be surprised if your finances aren't balanced anymore.

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Finished a route atlast, man Rika is just adorable isnt he :Chocola:. I liked the pacing, route didn’t feel too bloated, i thought it would be unnecessarily long. Even the FC matches dont drag on too long, impressive that they managed to balance it

 

Btw if anyone can tell me without spoiling too much 

Does Masaya actually return to flying in any of the routes? Is it just Asuka’s? It was a bit weird Rika never told him “ok now i’ll solve your problem!”

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5 minutes ago, Freestyle80 said:
Spoiler

Does Masaya actually return to flying in any of the routes?

 

Spoiler

He does in Mashiro's, which is the only route I've finished so far, but it's just mentioned briefly rather than something that's actually a part of the storyline.

 

Edited by Seraphim88
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1 hour ago, Seraphim88 said:
  Reveal hidden contents

He does in Mashiro's, which is the only route I've finished so far, but it's just mentioned briefly rather than something that's actually a part of the storyline.

 

I see, thats a bit sad.



Doing Misaki's route now, she's a bit annoying at the start of her route, hope she gets less depressing :sacchan:

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17 minutes ago, Freestyle80 said:

she's a bit annoying at the start of her route

She's been kinda annoying for most of the VN so far, honestly. :P
It's probably mostly due to the fact that I generally have a hard time liking people who just do whatever they feel like at any given moment, never truly committing to anything.

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2 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

She's been kinda annoying for most of the VN so far, honestly. :P
It's probably mostly due to the fact that I generally have a hard time liking people who just do whatever they feel like at any given moment, never truly committing to anything.

I find Asuka's endless optimism a bit more annoying and Mashiro doesnt really interest me so just went for her route first lol

 

Also I like the dynamic Misaki has with Masaya more than the other girls but who knows maybe I'll change my mind after doing Asuka's route as well

Edited by Freestyle80
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15 minutes ago, Shaun said:

I recommend saving Asuka's route for last.

Yeah, +1.

6 hours ago, Freestyle80 said:

Btw if anyone can tell me without spoiling too much 

  Hide contents

Does Masaya actually return to flying in any of the routes? Is it just Asuka’s? It was a bit weird Rika never told him “ok now i’ll solve your problem!”

 

Spoiler

He returns to playing FC in Asuka's and Misaki's routes. (Near the very end of Misaki's route if memory serves)

 

Edited by adamstan
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