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Muv-Luv Kickstarter Ends With Over US$1.2 Million

Publisher Degica and developer Ixtl's localization of Koki Yoshimune's Muv-Luv visual novel Kickstarter campaign endedon Tuesday after raising 1,255,444 from 7,890 backers.

The campaign was launched September 25 and met its goal of $250,000 within eight hours. Since then, the campaign has met all of its stretch goals, including its goal to publish an English PC port of the "Photon Melodies" and "Photon Flowers," and its goal to offer physical copies Muv-Luv Alternative Codex art book.

The goal of the Kickstarter was to localize the Muv-Luv (Muv-Luv【Extra】 and Muv-Luv【Unlimited】) and Muv-Luv Alternative games. Since the first game's release in 2003, the visual novel series has sold more than half a million units in Japan, and has inspired several anime and manga series.

The campaign was focused on a PC/Steam localization of the two games, but will offer Android and PlayStation Vita ports for both games because it met its US$500,000 stretch goal. Developer Age also announced in a Niconico broadcast earlier this month that Japan will also get the PlayStation Vita port.

The PC localization of both games have already been greenlit on Steam. The physical releases of the games will be DRM-free.

The two companies are aiming for a March 2016 digital release of the first game with the sequel looking at a August release. They are aiming for a Fall release for the PS Vita versions of the games.

The two companies describe the two story arcs of Muv-Luv and the story arc of Muv-Luv Alternative:

Muv-Luv Extra
Shirogane Takeru was living a peaceful life as a 3rd year high school student, with his childhood friend Kagami Sumika. However, one morning Takeru awakens to see a mysterious girl named Mitsurugi Meiya sleeping in his bed. Thus begins the start of a high school love comedy where Takeru will have to choose between his childhood friend and the girl insisting they are bonded by fate.

Muv-Luv Unlimited
Shirogane Takeru finds himself stuck in a parallel world where mankind is on the brink of destruction after battling against alien invaders known as BETA for the last 20 years. Takeru soon finds himself enrolled into the United Nation force to fight these aliens and finds the parallel versions of all of his high school friends, with the exception of Kagami Sumika, who does not seem to exist. Soon he will have to fight to save mankind, and protect the girl he comes to love over the course of the story.

Muv-Luv Alternative
Three years after witnessing the tragic exodus of mankind, Takeru wakes up believing that everything that had happened was just a dream. The brief hope that he has at last come back to his world is dashed away as soon as he discovers that he is once more trapped in the parallel world of Unlimited. Restarting on that fateful day he first came here, will Takeru manage to use his knowledge of previous events to change mankind's tragic future?

The adult game brand Age released the first Muv-Luv title in 2003 after creating Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (Rumbling Hearts). The Muv-Luv franchise has since sold over 500,000 games, as well as over 3 million figures, models, and other hobby releases.

Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse, a light novel spinoff of the franchise, inspired a manga and a television anime of the same name. Its prequel, Schwarzesmarken, is also inspiring an upcoming anime. The Age brand's Kimi ga Nozomu Eien also inspired a television anime that Funimation released under the title Rumbling Hearts.