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This Week in Games - Classic Visual Novels Get a New Lease on Life


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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3588
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 9:50 am Reply with quote
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oHeart and Tokimeki Memorial burst those doors wide open, and the moé boom was supported by a healthy list of animated adaptations of other visual novels like Shuffle! or Klannad (twice, in the latter's case).

Youi probably meant Clannad.
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LinkTSwordmaster



Joined: 23 Dec 2005
Posts: 564
Location: PA / USA
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 10:06 am Reply with quote
Katawa Shoujo sure is a blast from the past - I played it once the final version launched ages ago, and while it was a pleasant experience and remains one of the nicer VN times I've had, I don't know that I really feel like returning to it. It seems like you either get a VN that's a one-off & not worth re-running once you've seen your favorite character's story play out, or you get the sort that you have to play 14+ times to see the secret/true ending and finally figure out the answer to the mystery. Hopefully this gives new players a shot at it though, it's worth at least trying once.

Extra Credits on YT did a great video titled Fortnite Crossovers Corrupted the Industry (Skeletor Wants your Cash) and when I see that even Gundam is coming to Fortnite, it just underscores the point they made that games like Fortnite don't really care about the integrity of the properties they're bringing in (Nintendo refused to allow Samus according to an interview with Epic creative lead) and the game started functioning ages ago as a vehicle to market more purchasable characters/nostalgia to you rather than just be it's own functional experience. As a Gundam fan, it kind of blows my mind that BamCo basically threw Gundam Evo out to die, but now there's a whole map thing happening in Fortnite? To state that Fortnite is a good way to get new people into old properties.... I find that to be a dubious train of thought. One wonders if that new Funko Pop game will get new people excited for Back to the Future if that's how this sort of nostalgia-farming does indeed work.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4671
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 10:18 am Reply with quote
The Fortnite crossovers pretty quickly went the way most crossovers do. It happens frequently enough now that it isn't special, and the only thing that gets attention is if they happen to land on a property that somebody already liked. And even then, does it really matter if it's just Fortnite stuff with a character skin? Gojo running around shooting the same guns as everyone else doesn't make it feel like you're a Jujutsu Kaisen character.
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 28 Oct 2018
Posts: 656
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 10:22 am Reply with quote
Blanchimont wrote:
Quote:
oHeart and Tokimeki Memorial burst those doors wide open, and the moé boom was supported by a healthy list of animated adaptations of other visual novels like Shuffle! or Klannad (twice, in the latter's case).

Youi probably meant Clannad.


I most certainly did Laughing A thing that happens to me a lot is that I'll say the wrong name or mix names up because I'm talking about one thing but have another tangentially-related thing on the mind. In this case, I was very obviously thinking of Kanon while talking about Clannad.

LinkTSwordmaster wrote:
(Nintendo refused to allow Samus according to an interview with Epic creative lead)


Yeah, people got so weirdly upset at Nintendo for stonewalling that deal even though doing so would've been more of a favor to Epic than to them. Fortnite needs cameos to keep bringing people back, Nintendo just has to announce a new title to get people running to play it.
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 10:40 am Reply with quote
Other nice bit of classic visual novel news this week: the remaster(*) of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien / Rumbling Hearts went out to backers on Wednesday, complete with its first-ever EN translation, with the general public getting it on Steam in October.

(* - in this case, “remaster” means they ported the all-ages “latest edition” from 2008 to âge’s new multi-platform-friendly engine, added some fandisc content, and removed one of the most infamous bad ends. They also removed the entire route for Hotaru, an adult nurse with a growth deficiency that makes her look young. A to-be-released patch will restore her for JP players, but the patch will explicitly not be made available in EN. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why.)

EDIT: also in visual novel news, credit card companies forced Denpasoft to pull a bunch of their titles: https://denpasoft.com/official-statement-regarding-removal-of-products-from-site/


Last edited by invalidname on Fri Aug 02, 2024 11:03 am; edited 1 time in total
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 11:03 am Reply with quote
LinkTSwordmaster wrote:
and the game started functioning ages ago as a vehicle to market more purchasable characters/nostalgia to you rather than just be it's own functional experience.


That’s the thing the game is years old and with biggest draw of the game being a Battle Royal style game there’s not much for it. Even the Save The World campaign which was its primary mode originally (I think) with Battle Royale being its secondary mode wasn’t much to write home about. And then of course rather than expand the mode to incorporate some of the BR elements like driving, swimming, & flying along with more QoL functions they just decided a few years ago to have the bulk of the newer updates go to BR some of which break the game’s functionality and doesn’t get fixed for months if at all.

LinkTSwordmaster wrote:
As a Gundam fan, it kind of blows my mind that BamCo basically threw Gundam Evo out to die


I don’t it didn’t look like terribly engaging game it was also trying to make headway into a crowded genre. So it’s fate was all but decided before it even launched.

LinkTSwordmaster wrote:
One wonders if that new Funko Pop game will get new people excited for Back to the Future if that's how this sort of nostalgia-farming does indeed work.


Considering how the physical Funko Pop stuff has been declining in relevance and losing money in turn. The idea that someone thought to make a video game built around them knowing that is incredibly ballsy.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 11:44 am Reply with quote
Quote:
ToHeart takes a ton of cues from that other seminal visual novel, Tokimeki Memorial


I only know what I've seen in that six-hour Tim Rogers review, but I don't see how TokiMemo can be considered a "visual novel". The term "dating sim" has been disparaged in the last decade or so, from what I've seen, but it seems like the exact right one for TokiMemo.

My own experience with visual novels is more on the mystery/SF end -- Danganronpa, Zero Escape, Raging Loop, Ace Attorney, secondhand experience with When They Cry -- which I gather traces its ancestry more to YU-NO than Leaf games. Also I've played Muv-Luv, which I guess is a hybrid, though I haven't yet gotten to Alternative, which seems to be considered the franchise's main course. (Never actually played Steins;Gate, though I saw the anime back in 2013.) I have seen all three of KyoAni's Key adaptations, though the end of After Story gives me the sense Clannad's VN might draw a bit from the YU-NO stream too.
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Avec ou Nous



Joined: 17 Feb 2023
Posts: 154
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 2:01 pm Reply with quote
invalidname wrote:
Other nice bit of classic visual novel news this week: the remaster(*) of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien / Rumbling Hearts went out to backers on Wednesday, complete with its first-ever EN translation, with the general public getting it on Steam in October.

(* - in this case, “remaster” means they ported the all-ages “latest edition” from 2008 to âge’s new multi-platform-friendly engine, added some fandisc content, and removed one of the most infamous bad ends. They also removed the entire route for Hotaru, an adult nurse with a growth deficiency that makes her look young. A to-be-released patch will restore her for JP players, but the patch will explicitly not be made available in EN. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why.)


At this point I do not see the appeal of video game remasters. I get stuff being out of print or expensive on the secondary market on the retro market if you insist on collecting physical copies but are people really that averse to emulation (either due to moral reasons or lack of technical knowledge) that they prefer to wait for a modern release that isn't very good to play classic games with less content than the original?

At the very least I hope all this information was announced when the crowdfunding campaign was launched and it wasn't a surprise for backers later on.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
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Location: Finland
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 2:25 pm Reply with quote
invalidname wrote:
A to-be-released patch will restore her for JP players, but the patch will explicitly not be made available in EN. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why.)

Doesn't really matter. As popular as this VN is, and knowing the general coding background of the visual novel scene, I anticipate a 'translated' patch to appear eventually. Along with a patch for the rest of the content missing. If it was a console release or a more obscure title it might have worked, but here, nope...


Last edited by Blanchimont on Fri Aug 02, 2024 2:28 pm; edited 4 times in total
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That Little Rapscallion



Joined: 31 Jul 2023
Posts: 61
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 2:26 pm Reply with quote
invalidname wrote:
(* - in this case, “remaster” means they ported the all-ages “latest edition” from 2008 to âge’s new multi-platform-friendly engine, added some fandisc content, and removed one of the most infamous bad ends.


Let me guess: Manami?
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invalidname
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2487
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 4:11 pm Reply with quote
That Little Rapscallion wrote:
invalidname wrote:
(* - in this case, “remaster” means they ported the all-ages “latest edition” from 2008 to âge’s new multi-platform-friendly engine, added some fandisc content, and removed one of the most infamous bad ends.


Let me guess: Manami?

That was my original assumption, but now that I look at the statement (scroll to bottom), it looks like it’s Mitsuki’s “dog” and “slave” endings that are out. I thought I saw somewhere (discord?) that the green devil was cut, but maybe not?

If they’re all cut, then like a third of the post-credits omake in the 2006 anime won’t make sense anymore.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 6364
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 5:24 pm Reply with quote
Avec ou Nous wrote:
At this point I do not see the appeal of video game remasters. I get stuff being out of print or expensive on the secondary market on the retro market if you insist on collecting physical copies but are people really that averse to emulation (either due to moral reasons or lack of technical knowledge)


It’s most likely the second reason. Not to mention not every system has 100% functional emulation.

For example if you want to play PS3, Xbox, or Sega Saturn games on a PC that’s not happening regardless of how powerful your PC is.

Avec ou Nous wrote:
that they prefer to wait for a modern release that isn't very good to play classic games with less content than the original?


Which is an weird argument since not all remasters cut out content most of them are likely to add content that wasn’t in the original game such as QoL improvements, fixed bugs, etc.


Last edited by BadNewsBlues on Fri Aug 02, 2024 5:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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cemex



Joined: 28 Sep 2009
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 5:27 pm Reply with quote
One thing regarding Katawa shoujo, weee is actually person#221793
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 28 Oct 2018
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2024 9:41 pm Reply with quote
cemex wrote:
One thing regarding Katawa shoujo, weee is actually person#221793


Ah, thanks for this one! I didn't know weee had an entry in the encyclopedia!

I appreciate weee and ge-b a whole bunch. I really liked their art a lot, but also it was my understanding that Katawa Shoujo was where weee cut her teeth with art; she basically went from not really knowing how to draw to having her own style as a result of working on KS for several hours every day for a couple of years. Which goes to show, sometimes all it takes to get better at something is a little elbow grease.
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Mikan-box Glasses-kun



Joined: 21 Apr 2023
Posts: 88
PostPosted: Sat Aug 03, 2024 5:37 am Reply with quote
Avec ou Nous wrote:
At this point I do not see the appeal of video game remasters. I get stuff being out of print or expensive on the secondary market on the retro market if you insist on collecting physical copies but are people really that averse to emulation (either due to moral reasons or lack of technical knowledge) that they prefer to wait for a modern release that isn't very good to play classic games with less content than the original?

At the very least I hope all this information was announced when the crowdfunding campaign was launched and it wasn't a surprise for backers later on.

One really important thing to keep in mind with this visual novel especially is that this is the first English translation of it. There was no fan translation ever released, so for people who can't read Japanese this is also the first actual opportunity to play it. Even if that wasn't the case though, sometimes people just miss the boat the first time or want a more convenient way to replay something, in a way that at least feels like supporting the original companies involved?

BadNewsBlues wrote:
For example if you want to play PS3, Xbox, or Sega Saturn games on a PC that’s not happening regardless of how powerful your PC is.

Hey now, all three of those systems are doable nowadays (especially Saturn). PS3 emulation is the most problematic still but with certain games you can get some really great results, even on a (fairly recent) mid-range gaming laptop.
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