JAST going all-age...?

[TDOMMX]

I was just flipping through through J-List's catalog and came across a new entry that caught my eye: an English version of Aselia the Eternal. I figured they'd just announced a new license acquisition while I was out, and, indeed, they had.

Reading through the product page and the official subsite, I came across a bullet point I never thought I'd see in a JAST release: "Fantasy-themed bishoujo game for ages 15+". This of course means that they've licensed the PS2-to-PC backport of the game. Excuse me if I'm reading too far into this, but the announcement of an all-age title tells me that JAST might just be dropping its "there's not enough sex in it" mantra when licensing games.

Am I being overly optimistic here, or can we really expect to see future licenses of titles that JAST previously dismissed for not being sexy enough?

[fujifruit]

Why all ages... >_>

The all ages version was the one that got the fan translation, so my guess is they are working with the fan translators and so had to license the version the fan translators worked on.

It's not a plan by JAST to go all ages, I think it's a plan to work with fan translators more (like My Girlfriend is the PRESIDENT and Demonbane).

[KaioShin]

Actually they said they won't use the fan translation.

[TDOMMX]

Apparently, Xuse created their own English translation of the game in-house and offered that script to JAST once the license was secured. JAST didn't need to contact Dakkongo regarding their work because they already had an English script they were contractually required to use. Personally, I would have talked with Dakkongo anyway and compared the two scripts to help improve the quality of the final release. I'm sure there are legal reasons why JAST can't do that.

From what I can tell, JAST wants to try and expand its market by starting a line of all-age offerings. Also, they've gone on the record as saying that the all-age version of Aselia was licensed because it's regarded as the definitive version of the game (I haven't played it myself, so I can't vouch either way for the accuracy of this statement).

It'd have been interesting to see them combine the PC and PS2 versions in order to appease those who insist on having sexual content in the game; a couple of people on the JAST forum seem to be accusing the company of censoring the game (O_o)...