Posts Tagged ‘manga gamer’

Sad news for eroge gamers who thought that they were going to be virtually cuddling with the ladies of Koihime Musou in the near future are going to have to settle for the not entirely near future instead. In a post put up on the official blog, the company announced that their next two releases would have to be delayed with Koihime Musou being pushed to February 28^th and Guilty the Sin being pushed to March 14^th which I admit is lame but before anyone gets too upset, they have good reasons!

In the post, MG lays it out for fans and admits that due to scripting errors and delays in getting reports back from their testers the delays were going to unavoidable if they want to put out something that fans will actually enjoy. And you really can’t fault them for this; the delay is only for a couple of weeks and they’re openly stating that it’s only because they want to make sure their fans are getting a quality product. I’d like to be snarky and say that maybe if their testers washed their hands once in awhile it’d be easier to type and we’d be getting things on time but I’m going to take the higher road this time. Because that’s just the kind of guy I am.

I’ve been missing out on some of the best eroge news lately but I promise that I’ll be doing a better job of keeping it covered in the future. On that note, Manga Gamer has announced their next release to be the sequel to Edelweiss titled Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia so much as an additional two endings. As I understand it, after Edelweiss was released in 2006 eroge studio Overdrive were surprised to find out that the most popular characters in the game weren’t the heroines but two background characters named Rin and Sakura that never even got to have their own story paths.

Two years later, Overdrive fixed this by creating Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia which features the previously mentioned characters in a story that picks up from the first bad ending. Kazushi is still living a dream on the fantastical all girl Eiden Academy located on a beautiful island and is facing two brand new good endings. The new release from Manga Gamer will be available (NSFW) on March 20^th for €19.95 (a little over $27).

So far in 2010, it’s been pretty quiet on the eroge front but finally that streak has been broken by Manga Gamer. The European based eroge localizer stepped up yesterday with two license announcements for the coming months. First announced on their website, Manga Gamer will be releasing the 2005 sci-fi eroge from Score, Cosplay Alien (Cosutte Alien- Yuuwaku no Cosplay H). We’ve heard the sci-fi set up before: hapless hero sees a UFO flying overhead and out walks a beautiful alien who says she’s traveled to Earth in order to marry him. The twist to this one is that the hero, Yuusaku, doesn’t want to marry her so she uses sexy cosplay in order to seduce him.

Throw in the alien’s family members, Yuusaku’s childhood best friend and a few sexy space pirates and you have… a comedy that kind of reminds me of Please Teacher, World of Narue (only with more sex) or Cosplay Fetish Academy (with more actual cosplay). The game will be released digitally via the website on February 20^th for an uncharacteristically low €19.99 (a little over $28).

That’s not all though! Also listed at the bottom of the same announcement is a short blurb reading ‘we also have the rights to Koihime Musou and translation is already underway,’ which I’ve deciphered as: We’ve also licensed Koihime Musou. So since no one there seems to want to elaborate a little; Koihime Musou is finally coming to the US. Originally released in 2006 by BaseSon, the historical fantasy follows a hero back in time to when sexy women carrying big weapons are fighting for the unification of their country (a sequel featuring another time traveling hero was released in early 2008).

Very loosely based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the title has been hard to ignore for the last two years thanks to two TV series (which are already available on Crunchyroll) and two OVAs. No details were given regarding when fans are going to be able to pick this one up but the third TV series starts airing in April so maybe that will tide everyone over in the meantime.

Image ©Score, Manga Gamer

Thanks to the holiday season and the close of 2009, it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve had the chance to write one of these. However that’s all old news and now that 2010 is here, it’s time to pick up another Highs and Lames! In this edition, it’s all about eroge and the all the fun things that they can do to improve your life. Did you know that a slightly ecchi workout partner can also be the key to finding a good night’s sleep? Well, you do now!

Soul Link Available Now, Cat Girl Alliance Available Soon: Starting with news closer to home, Manga Gamer announced over the holiday season that their latest release, Soul Link, is now available for purchase from their website. The sci-fi adventure created by Navel (Shuffle) takes place on a space station that has been taken over by a terrorist organization. Taking on the role of second year military cadet Shuuhei Aizawa, the game follows him and his friends as they attempt to take back control of station.

Meanwhile, JAST USA has announced on New Year’s Eve that their latest release, Cat Girl Alliance, has been given ‘Golden Master’ status and is in the replication phase even as I type this. The new game will be released on the G-Collections brand and focuses on the futanari (hermaphrodite) theme. J-List already has the download and physical versions already listed for pre-order. While I’m generally not really into the futanari theme (just not my thing), I’ll still probably check this one out if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity. Anyone else planning to close out the winter with some futanari school comedy?

AquaPlus to create 2D Fighting Game: At the AquaPlus Fiesta event held last week, visual novel publisher AquaPlus (Tears to Tiara, To Heart, White Album) announced that they would be working on a 2D fighting game. While details are still slim, Canned Dogs reports that sample footage shown at the event revealed characters from various games created over the last decade duking it out including: Rhiannon (Tears to Tiara), Multi (To Heart), Hakuoro (Utawarerumono) and others. Details for the game will be revealed later this year.

I have to admit up front; just the idea of two happy go lucky characters like Rhiannon and Multi trying to bitch slap each other into submission makes me giggle just a little too much.

Training with Hinako becomes Sleeping with Hinako: Last year otaku around the world got a little boost in their motivation to exercise thanks to Hinako. If you haven’t met her, Hinako is a 16 year old girl who “helped” otaku everywhere shape up by exercising with them while wearing very little animated clothing to cover up her bounciness. Now Hinako is returning in a sequel release which is intended to help otaku… sleep?

In the new Sleeping with Hinako DVD, users will get to watch Hinako sleep and decide her posture, dreams and other options via the menu screen. Now, before you perverts out there start thinking that this DVD is being released strictly so that you can watch an anime character sleep and have naughty dreams you’ve got a dirty little mind because Hinako is here to HELP you!

So, let’s say you’ve been having trouble waking up in the mornings. Alarm clocks don’t work because of snooze buttons and you can’t always count on someone being around to throw water on you (ah, childhood memories). With this release however, otaku will now have the option of setting up an alarm on the DVD. When the appointed time comes, Hinako will wake up and then help get you out of bed by whispering loving phrases like “Wake up you lump of shit before I whip your ass.” I’m sure there’s a certain beauty to that phrase which has been lost in translation.

Though I may be alone here but is anyone else even remotely concerned with the idea of leaving a DVD running all night long while you sleep? Just how many times will you be able to do that before you have to replace the DVD with a new one that isn’t burnt out from running for 8 or more hours every night? Oh well, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who don’t mind and have already preordered their DVD or Blu ray from Amazon.

Single of the Week

There weren’t any particularly exciting new releases this week and so instead, I leave you with one last bit of eroge: the very cool opening animation to Princess Waltz from Pulltop (localized by JAST USA). Enjoy and I’ll talk to you all tonight as I post up the first of, what will hopefully be many, new Funimation licenses!

Once again it’s time to recap all the bits and pieces that fell through the cracks in the last few days. Before we get into that, I’d like to use this space to announce my vacation next week. It’s actually been a very long time since I’ve given myself some real time away from updating the site and now seems like as good a time as any. So as a holiday present to myself, next week I will be stepping away from daily updates. Hopefully I’ll get to use the time to catch up on some things that aren’t anime, write some reviews and other things that I’m behind on. I’ll be back in time for the new year and subsequent new winter season of anime so have a happy winter gift giving celebration of choice!

Now, on with the news…

Detective Conan Gets 14^th Film, Sgt. Frog Gets 5^th and SD Gundam Gets February Premiere: Detective Conan will be getting another movie premiere in the spring of 2010. The movie, titled Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in the Sky, will feature the detective facing off against his nemesis Kid the Phantom Thief with a jewel aboard the world’s largest airship as the prize.

A trailer for the fifth Sgt. Frog movie was launched on the official website following a press conference held last Wednesday. The movie will premiere on February 27^th as part of a double billing with the new SD Gundam Sangokuden movie. The new Gundam movie will feature super deformed mechs recreating the Chinese story Romance of the Three Kingdoms which I am going to avert my eyes from.

Manga Gamer and JAST USA Lay It out Early: After a couple of small incidents this year for both companies regarding censorship in their games, it seems that JAST USA and Manga Gamer have taken a new transparency approach. On the Manga Gamer staff blog and official JAST website, notices were put up this month addressing any localization changes to their upcoming respective releases.

On their blog, Manga Gamer staff noted that there are some features missing from their release of Higurashi. While no censorship will be taking place, their release will not have the music room, staff room or mini game included due to license and copyright issues.  Over on the JAST USA site, it was noted that no major changes or alterations will be made to the upcoming release of Cat Girl Alliance though a few lines of redundancy were removed. Higurashi is available for order now from Manga Gamer while Cat Girl Alliance is still available for preorder from J-List and Right Stuf.

LAMES

Imagi Loses 25% Of Its Staff: I’m not an expert on big business or how large companies work but I can’t imagine that sacking 100 employees is a good sign. Most of the staff that was released were from the animation department and seems to be a direct result of the colossal thud left by Astro Boy upon its release to theaters earlier this year.

In the linked report, it’s stated that Imagi put $60 million into Astro Boy and have barely earned back a third of that which disproves my theory that it ever stood a chance at recouping costs on DVD. No idea what this means for Imagi’s planned adaptation of the anime series Gatchaman but hopefully they’ll have good news regarding that in 2010.

STUFF YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED UNTIL NOW

Ten Free Songs from FFXIII: As part of their ramp up to the release of the latest Final Fantasy, ten songs from the first disc of the soundtrack (which will be released as a 4 disc set January 27^th) were posted to the official site for fans to enjoy. Luckier for fans, Gigazine has pointed out that the virtual player is flash based meaning fans can easily download the songs for their own personal enjoyment. Just click track list on the official site and you’ll see the tracks composed by Masashi Hamauzu (FFX). The game itself hit store shelves in Japan today (December 17^th) while US players won’t get to enjoy it until March 2010.

<Higurashi – When They Cry image ©Manga Gamer>

Manga Gamer: Serving your loli needs since 2009

In the last Highs and Lames post that I put up, one of the notes inside regarded a decision made by MangaGamer.com to willingly censor the upcoming release of eroge Soul Link. After making the announcement, fans were less than pleased and the staff noted that the decision was being revisited. Earlier today, a post went up to the main site announcing a reversal of their previous decision.

Specifically citing the uproar caused by Equality Now in Japan earlier this year and other English speaking countries that have recently tightened their laws, the staff blog noted “we originally felt it necessary to take extra precaution to ensure that neither our company nor our customers would face prosecution or other action as a result of our products.” After a new round of discussion, the company has decided that they will replace the 6 CG images taken out of Soul Link and a single image which was originally set to be replaced in the upcoming Higurashi – When They Cry release which features a naked Satoko.

Now everyone should go say their thanks to MangaGamer while they still can. I’m sure the bat phone has gone off with the international police who have already zeroed in on them as the new ‘enemy #1′.

Updated: I forgot to include this when I originally posted this but Manga Gamer also recently made the opening animation available for download on their site. I haven’t watched it myself yet so I’m not entirely sure about the content. Since it’s from an eroge, just assume that the d/l is likely NSFW.

You can't spell slaughter without 'laughter'!

To know me or read this site is to know that I am a big fan of the Higurashi (When They Cry) series. I’ve seen all of the animation released for the series but I’ve yet to play the visual novels created by Ryukishi07 they were originally based off. With no translations ever being made available, I honestly thought that I would never get to play them until Manga Gamer announced their license of the games earlier this year. Since then, the localization group has been fairly quiet about their progress with the series while fans continued to wait patiently.

Finally all that waiting has paid off as Manga Gamer has announced their tentative release date for the first four parts: December 15^th. Also mentioned in the post were plans for chapters 5-8 which are now tenatively scheduled for release in February 2010. No other information was made available at the time including the pricing plan but as soon as I get more information I’ll have it up for everyone.

<Via Japanator>