General News IV: A New Hope?

Some time ago, Novelnews had an article about Rockin' Android. IIRC, at the time they were still finishing localization on their first two doujin shmup games.

Today, I noticed an interview with one of the company's staff on Siliconera (worksafe link: http://www.siliconera.com/2010/11/26...r-game-genres/ ) . When the interviewer asked about visual novels, the answer was, "...we did speak with a few visual novel circles, but discussions leaned toward mobile devices. We’ve been doing our research and we have plans to develop visual novels apps, but with so much of our focus on consoles at the moment, don’t expect anything until late 2011."

According to VNDB, there's some visual novels on Japan's iTunes Store. Nail has released several of its adult VNs (such as 3-days Marriage) on iOS with 17+ content, published through Daidai Inc. An indie developer called Talestune has released a number of VNs. There's the vintage F&C game Dousoukai ~Again~ with 17+ content. And I saw an untranslated version of Memories Off on iTunes.

Also, despite the boom in Touhou merchandise and popularity, it looks like ZUN is not currently interested in licensing his games.

[Moogy]

man, I think eroge on mobile devices is a really bad idea. the interface and input just aren't suited for them at all, especially given the size of the screens. I'm not exactly a fan of eroge on PSP because of whole resolution thing, but having to control them with a touch pad makes it even worse

[VDZ]

Yeah, because the controls of VNs are totally complicated. Like, you click/press a button/tap the screen to advance text. It would be a disaster if I couldn't do it with precision! (Okay, there's also a menu button, a backlog button and a skip button. But even then, what can be difficult about it?)

VNs seem to work fine on the DS, with a small resolution and a touch interface. Why wouldn't it work on phones?

[Moogy]

I hope you enjoy tapping the screen every time you want to advance a line. I'm honestly too lazy to even press the enter button to advance text; I use a PS3 controller and lean back in my chair while playing. I can't imagine a touch screen being pleasant to use in this regard, especially if you have to hold the damn device in question while using it.

Also, I don't really give a shit if "VNs seem to work fine on the DS," I'm stating my personal preferences for input and resolution. I have bad eyes and I don't like reading large amounts of text on small screens.

According to iTunes US, 5pb Inc is offering Chaos;Head Noah for $26 on iOS with English text... but if you look at the screens shown on iTunes, it's all Japanese text. The same is true for Memories Off 6 T-Wave ($19), which allegedly has both English and Japanese text, but I don't see any English text.

So *if* you have a compatible iOS device, if you can read Japanese, and if you're willing to pay for the VNs in this format, maybe you'll enjoy them. But unless iTunes is hiding English screenshots, I don't think the VNs are translated.

Originally Posted by VDZ

(Okay, there's also a menu button, a backlog button and a skip button. But even then, what can be difficult about it?)

The iOS version of Kira Kira gives the player an overview of how to save, load, advance text quickly, etc. But I found it easy to forget which swipe/press did which action...

This isn't true in VNs that have on-screen controls, like Ren'ai Shugi Road to Emerald.

Look, I do the same thing Moogy described when I read at home on my PC, but I am also a huge proponent of VNs on portable devices.
I've never owned a PSP or a DS, so I am missing out on a decent amount of ports, but I have an iOS device and an Android device, for which I have carefully kept track of just about every offering.

Most of the officially released ports to iOS suck, let me just put that out there right now. I bought Mangagamer's Higurashi for iOS, and I managed to play through the first arc, but... I'm not sure I'll be buying the next one.
Much more valuable, to me, have been the ONScripter ports to both of these platforms. There is an ONScripter port to iOS that supports halfwidth characters, and then Ogapee himself has ported ONScripter to Android, albeit without halfwidth support (I just run the scripts thought a little converter, though, and convert all the text to fullwidth. I have to change the window settings a little so it doesn't look quite as ugly, but afterward it's really not that bad).
The resolution of my device, by the way, usually exceeds the resolution of the games in the first place, so I don't feel like I am "missing out" on anything (most of the games I have put on my Droid X are 640x480, and my display is 848x480).
The control system, too, is not obnoxious at all. Since my screen is wider than the aspect ratio of the games themselves, it's no problem to tap in the margin between the game window and the edge of the screen (I can tap on the game image itself, but if I don't want to block the screen with my finger, I don't have to), and my Droid has several hardware buttons anyway, which Ogapee has conveniently mapped to enter (left click), escape (right click), s (skip mode), and o (text speed change).

If you have bad vision or something, fine, don't read on smaller-than-PC-sized screens, but if that isn't a concern for you, then really, reading on my Droid is just as comfortable as reading at my computer. I find it quite comfortable to lay down and hold my phone above my head or against my chest, and lazily tap the screen or hit the enter key.
There's also something to be said for having material in portable form. I can understand it if most of you never leave your houses, but periodically, I do get moved from place to place, and I find it convenient to have something to entertain myself if I have to sit in the back of a car for a few hours.

[Stranger]

MG list Da Capo Innocent Finale for €19.95, to be released on the 30th of November.

The final Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side DS translation patch has been released -- http://sites.google.com/site/tokimem...lpatchreleased

A group that wishes to remain anonymous has released a complete translation patch to honeybee's all-ages otome game, Starry Sky ~in Spring~:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=95TOOEEV
Apparently it translates all of the text and images and also contains the subbed game OP.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

A group that wishes to remain anonymous has released a complete translation patch to honeybee's all-ages otome game, Starry Sky ~in Spring~:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=95TOOEEV
Apparently it translates all of the text and images and also contains the subbed game OP.

WHAT.

Wow there's a lot of otome games being translated lately huh? That's a good news.

[yeah321]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

A group that wishes to remain anonymous has released a complete translation patch to honeybee's all-ages otome game, Starry Sky ~in Spring~:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=95TOOEEV
Apparently it translates all of the text and images and also contains the subbed game OP.

Wow, that's a really big surprise. I never thought that there are people working on the starry sky series, it's a great series game which main attraction is the bunch of famous seiyuus. I enjoyed every single one from Spring untill Winter, and currently waiting for After Spring fandisc. I would really want to congratulate and thank them for translating such a nice otome game, but since they want to be anonymous I just hope they'll see this message then.

[izmosmolnar]

Yes, if they do see this post then allow me to say a heartfelt thank you for all the hard work they must have invested into it.

[Minimoto]

It's a shame that they want to be anonymous, I would have liked to thank them but I guess I'll just throw it out here. Thanks for all the hard work.

[Cicero]

Originally Posted by Minimoto

It's a shame that they want to be anonymous, I would have liked to thank them but I guess I'll just throw it out here. Thanks for all the hard work.

Yeah, but if you stay anonymous then it's hard for the Japanese companies to find who to send the C&D to.

Originally Posted by Cicero

Yeah, but if you stay anonymous then it's hard for the Japanese companies to find who to send the C&D to.

Especially with honeybee's (the publisher's) encouragement to dob in people who make such patches.