Mangagamer: Da Capo, Suika seemingly licensed

Here's some unexpected news. It appears that a new company known as Mangagamer.com is striving to license H games with name recognition, and then offer them as paid downloads. The first two games on its site are Da Capo and Suika, which are ADV games originally created by Circus.

I remember that last year, during Anime Expo 07, Circus held a panel. The company was trying to find a partner company to distribute its games in English. Maybe a deal has been struck...

So if everything goes well, and the company gets these translations released, then I will glad to see licensed H games with some brand recognition. I admit it, that has been one of my complaints with the JAST family of companies -- to the best of my knowledge, only two of its properties have OAV spinoffs (Gibo and Enzai).

It also seems good that this company is limiting its initial licenses to just two. Too much ambition can lead to cancellations, especially if sales don't stack up...

Looking at the splash page, it looks like this company will be offering demos and paid downloads. If it works better than the awkward, rather demanding Virtual Mate system, then I'll be glad. Not sure if there will be packaged games -- much less how much these will cost. If the company is wise, it'll avoid the "Bandai Visual" pricing scheme.

The writing on these initial pages is inconsistent. Apparently, the writers didn't know that the term "hentai game" is slowly going the way of the term "Japanimation." Also, the Suika page has quite a few typos. Better than Babelfish in places -- but I hope that Mangagamer can work with Circus to reduce in-game typos.

IMHO, I'd rather see a licensee which reaches out to gamers with games involving strategy or RPG elements. And I would prefer to see a company advertising to the shoujo and BL fans. Maybe that's just me. But who knows, maybe this'll work.

[Asceai]

That is very interesting indeed. Be good to see what comes of this. Circus has a number of okay titles, so it would be a good start.

IMHO, I'd rather see a licensee which reaches out to gamers with games involving strategy or RPG elements. And I would prefer to see a company advertising to the shoujo and BL fans. Maybe that's just me. But who knows, maybe this'll work.

There aren't many decent strategy/RPG eroges beyond the really high-profile ones. I admit it would be interesting to see some Rance games localised, though!

I have no idea what the shoujo/BL market is like.. never had any games of either category really recommended to me (typically I don't end up noticing games unless there's a lot of talk about them)

I admit it, that has been one of my complaints with the JAST family of companies -- to the best of my knowledge, only two of its properties have OAV spinoffs (Gibo and Enzai).

Ehh.. remember that JAST is selling Hirameki's stuff as well, which at least adds Natsuiro to the list. Otherwise, I dunno, it doesn't really concern me when things don't have OVAs or anime adaptations. Out of my present top-10 visual novels list (devil, clannad, syarin, himawari, swansong, crosschannel,12tenani, kazokukeikaku, inganock, ever17) only one of them has any kind of associated animation (to my knowledge). I know that getting something that has an animation adaptation that's already popular overseas is the key to success, but to me, it's never been the key to quality.

[Ojamajo_LimePie]

I hope that this goes well, since I'd love to see more popular titles licenced. Maybe some minori titles. ^_^ Coincidentally, I was just going to purchase a Japanese copy of Suika, but now I'm going to wait.

[GatoNegro]

O_O wow, this is an amazing new!, if the form to pay is with credit card, for sure i'll pay for the download!

I don't know, I always liked having physical copies; it's my incentive against piracy.
Not like it matters, though. I'm still underage.

Apparently, the writers didn't know that the term "hentai game" is slowly going the way of the term "Japanimation."

It depends. Around these parts, we don't use "hentai game" much. However, it remains dominant within anime fandom, so they're probably going with the term that's most recognizable.

The company (Manga International) seems to be based in The Netherlands, which is interesting.

Wow, prices are quite high. Are these going to be available to North American players?

It also seems good that this company is limiting its initial licenses to just two. Too much ambition can lead to cancellations, especially if sales don't stack up...

Seems that they're releasing lots of stuff...........

No one ever learns.

[GatoNegro]

Hey, one game that Mangagamer will provide since the beginning is Edelweiss from OVERDRIVE, is it good? it focuses purely in H? the only thing that i finded is that the artist of this game is the same for the Green Green game, plus heres the offical page:http://www.over-drive.jp/ew/index.htm. ohh y almost forgot, this game i tjink that will cost 1 euro???(cannot reveal my source).

Plus, Da capo will be abailabe to buy in 30 Aug 2008 and will cost €49.95, and Suika in 30 Sep 2008 and will cost €49.95.

EDIT=OVERDRIVE is the same company that brought Kira Kira. does the company makes good game?

[Ojamajo_LimePie]

Originally Posted by GatoNegro

Plus, Da capo will be abailabe to buy in 30 Aug 2008 and will cost €49.95, and Suika in 30 Sep 2008 and will cost €49.95.

Almost $80 for a game that was released over half a decade ago? That's more than twice the going rate for English-translated eroge. Depending on where I bought it, I could find a brand new Japanese copy for the same or less money. And I'd actually have a physical copy, which doesn't seem to be offered in English at this point.

[zalas]

/me waits patiently for ONE, Katahane and Kira Kira...

[Ojamajo_LimePie]

Originally Posted by zalas

/me waits patiently for ONE, Katahane and Kira Kira...

I did a little bit of a victory dance when I saw that they were working with Tarte. I've already got ONE, and am moderately interested in trying Kira Kira.

[zalas]

They can't be working with Deal (company which published Tarte's games), so who knows if all of Tarte's properties went to a single company...

EDIT:
This game(NSFW) happens to be the game that has Haeleth as one of the characters.

It seems like they're working on all the games in their release list simultaneously, which is kind of dumb. They should stop doing what they're doing and just focus on one game at a time since nothing is going to be released at this rate.

I was all excited when these guys popped up and licensed Da Capo. I was hoping they'd release that first instead of all those yaruge surprise sex games. And Suika too.

Oh well, at least there's Princess Waltz and Kazoku Keikaku to look forward too...

[Dagger]

@Asceai: Off-topic, but whooo!! Fellow Inganock fan!

Anyway, these are two games that I'm too lazy to play in Japanese, but that I could be convinced to play in English. Not a bad start, haha. It would be nice to see someone reach out to the otome/BL game fans, I agree. But, well, I'm not gonna hold my breath.

[GatoNegro]

Yes, i have finded a link to prove the things that i made in my post, heres the link with all the information!!! http://www.mangagamer.com/hentai/(the only bad thing is that is in Euros...)

EDIT= it seems that they have signed with 3 medium size VN companys, Circus, Nexton and Overdrive. so far seems pretty good