Hakuoki Podcast tomorrow!

My podcast chat with Anne on Hakuoki and otome games will be ready tomorrow. I’m almost done editing but I have to prepare it for being on itunes etc. and I don’t want to rush it.

Aoiza Kaika Bunmei and Storm Lover – Version 2

This doesn’t happen often – a game released for the SAME platform twice – and two companies are doing it almost at the same time.

Otomate and Furyu are releasing a new, improved version of Aoiza Kaika Bunmei this year, with scenes and stories that ‘couldn’t get told’ in the original. I don’t know if they mean that they ran out of time on the original, or that they were added. I’ve been playing Aoiza recently, and it’s true that there are many questions that aren’t answered fully in this version, so it might be the former case.

D3 is also releasing a powered-up version of Storm Lover called Storm Lover *Kai*. It will be about 2 years after the original release date. This one will also have extra scenes and events.

But I have to say, I think it’s kind of unfair to release the same game twice on the same platform, fairly close together. There have been a few cases of this – Hisui no Shizuku Hiiro no Kakera 2 was re-released with significant changes as Shin•Hisui no Shizuku after the original did poorly, and Quinrose re-released Wizard and Master. However, Wizard and Master was after five years with totally new art and voices、I don’t consider it the same at all really.

Since these are both on the PSP, couldn’t they make the extra stuff available as a download on the PSN? Why make people buy it all over again if they want the new material?

Another game that did something similarly annoying was Harutoki 4 – its “fandisk” was more of an extended version, except the extra material was all in flashback-type screens; I don’t even think there were more CGs. I thought that was a bit much as well (though I bought it because I was hoping for more).

Though I’d like to play the new material, I　don’t think I’ll get these – I just checked, and Aoiza was released in August, and the new one comes out in May. 9 months between the original and the ‘improved’ version…no.

I know we often complain about companies emptying our wallets, but has there ever been a game that you REALLY felt ripped off by? I might add Love Root Zero to my list, as I found it had unacceptably low production values.

Getting set for Hakuoki – will it sell?

I just read an interesting article on otome games which focuses a bit on Hakuoki and asks whether otome games could be successful in Western markets. (It’s a month old, I wish I had seen it before!) The author, Anne Lee, doesn’t really think the market will work, but I disagree for a few reasons.

First of all, even in Japan otome games are really fairly new. Though Angelique came out in 1994, it wasn’t until around 2005 that otome games started to come out regularly, with established brands and creators. That means that even though we as otome gamers might wonder why a breakout could happen now, the genre is really just maturing now.

Also, I feel like otome games are not just for women who want romance, but also women who just want something made for them – with the female gaze in mind. And recently the female gaze has been getting a lot of attention, growing from BL and shoujo and the slash community into anime, and now into Western mainstream film and TV. A lot of otome games aren’t heavy-handed with the romance (part of this is due to the young target audience and characters, but whatever), and I could easily see women, who are still a growing share of the gaming market in general, embracing otome games not only for the romance but for the overall atmosphere that they’re made for them.

One of the points brought up in the article was that bishoujo games(1 male/many females harem games) had a few localizations that didn’t do very well, so otome games might not either. To rebut this, let me throw a few stats at you:

From RWA – Romance Writers of America – Industry Statistics:

2010 Romance Fiction Sales in Comparison (ed: this is as a share of all fiction)
(source: Simba Information)

• Romance: $1.358 billion
• Religion/inspirational: $759 million
• Mystery: $682 million
• Science fiction/fantasy: $559 million
• Classic literary fiction: $455 million

I got into otome gaming not only because I love playing videogames, but because I love romance and am used to buying romance novels. Culturally, women are about a thousand times more likely to buy a piece of romantic fiction, whether it’s a novel, movie, or a game, than men. In 2010, romance as a genre sold almost TWICE as much as its closest competitor, and overall was 36% of the fiction market. That is a huge number yo! And most romance is bought by women. So…I really believe that otome games might succeed where bishoujo didn’t.

And to finish, I checked out Hakuoki’s Amazon.com rankings. The first thing that surprised me was that the limited edition is doing better than the regular edition! Aksys definitely hit the right price point there, I think. And it’s currently in the top spot for Adventure PSP games!! However, looking at the other games in the category, there’s not much new there. In total videogames it’s #784. Now that sounds really low, but taking a look at the top 100, a lot of those are actually accessories >.>;; Hard to tell what it really means.

Anyways, of course I want Hakuoki to do well so more otome games are localized, and so I’m inclined to be optimistic, but I really feel otome games have a chance in the Western market. Now I have to go and plan my Hakuoki party!

Diabolik Lovers

Diabolik Lovers is the new series being published by Otomate. As you can see by the banner add on the right, the art’s pretty nice, and the character designs are interesting. The story is that the heroine has to transfer schools because her parents move abroad for work, so she moves in with her relative and transfers to a night school that’s full of up-and-coming entertainers. It also has a shady reputation though, and the heroine’s relative runs (or lives in, not sure) a boarding house where six troublemaker brothers live. There are even rumours that someone was attacked by a vampire, but the heroine doesn’t believe them. In the drama CDs that are coming out monthly, the brothers actually suck your blood (they’re all vampires, and S).

From the left: ??, Shuu, Kanato, Ayato, Raito, Reiji
The six brothers are the other main characters (apparently Kanato, Ayato, and Raito are triplets), and they’re all vampires:

Ayato (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru) – A huge S, loves teasing, and has no commonsense

Kanato (CV: Kaji Yuuki) – the smallest and weakest, he’s easily sent into temper tantrums, and is also S and kind of yandere.

Raito (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke) – a perverted S who’s often suspended from school for harassment, he talks fast when he gets excited.

Shuu (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) – the oldest brother who’s lazy and unspirited about everything except music (also S).

Reiji (CV: Konishi Katsuyuki) – he acts and talks kind of like a butler, but is a very strict S about etiquette and sometimes makes up his own etiquette rules. His hobby is collecting fine china.

Subaru (CV: Kondou Takashi) – the youngest brother and violent S, he’s a loner who’s quick to start fights and doesn’t like his brothers prying into his business. He usually stays in his room.

Weekend Videos

I couldn’t get these up yesterday as I had important things to do *cough*Assassin’sCreed2*cough*, but here are some videos for upcoming games. OH, and I found out that Diabolik Lovers, the vampire drama CD series, is being made into a game by Rejet and Otomate.

Midnight Bells & Cinderella


Hakuouki Bakumatsu Musouroku
This one is pretty good for showing the action gameplay, although it doesn’t seem as if there’s any otome stuff in it unfortunately. You do get to play “What if” scenarios where historical enemies like the Shinsengumi and Joui Shishi team up, or the Shinsengumi and Chikage (not historical but enemies in the original) join forces.
At the end of the vid they show what you get with the limited edition, and it includes a little fake katana! Or maybe it’s a wakizashi, I can’t tell the difference.

Atelier Elkrone
Uh, I found a PV of this and thought it would be great to have some gameplay info, but this looks like any visual novel PV, there’s no gameplay shown at all. I hope some comes out soon…

Ouma ga Toki
It’s a visual novel, but I’m excited about it because the characters and setting sound really good (high school = ok, supernatural high school = much better!). Look at the homepage, right up in the left corner there’s a girl holding her own head.

Harutoki 5 Fandisk
I wish #4 had gotten a proper fandisk, but oh well. I’m sure I’ll get this sometime.

Strobe Mania
And lastly, I never put a Strobe Mania vid up, so here’s one – looks like there’s a bit of detective gameplay and I just ordered it, yay!

Kimi ni Todoke – I was catching up on the manga a few days ago (how can it be so long and not feel like it’s dragging yet??) and wondered what the game was like so I found this vid – it looks like you can get events, and maybe endings?, with not just Kazehaya but Ryuu and Kento too. I wonder if it would feel wrong not going for Kazehaya.

How to get to Otome Road in Ikebukuro

I actually thought about doing this while I was on my trip, but I didn’t have time. I had a really tough time finding Otome Road, but once I got it down (took a couple times), I thought it would be great to have a photo guide because there are some good landmarks for it. This guide starts from Ikebukuro station since you’d have to be crazy to drive in Tokyo.

Now, one of the simplest ways if you’re ok with asking people directions (and they either don’t know, or you’re shy about asking where Otome Road or animate is), is to ask how to get to Tokyu Hands. The Tokyu Hands store is a hop skip and a jump away from Otome Road, just on the near side of the highway overpass.

If you’d rather find it yourself, here’s a guide.

First, a linkie to a Google Map of walking to the Ikebukuro Animate. If this is enough, fantastic. However, when I went, I had the Otome Shopping Guide with a diagram that looked pretty similar to this, and I TOTALLY got lost. Partly my own fault for thinking I could wander around and find it.

Anyways, start off in Ikebukuro station. Depending on which train/subway line you take it will be different places, but once you exit you’ll likely be underground. Now, if you can, use exit 35. This is the closest to the street you need to go down to get to Otome Road. It may feel like you’re walking underground forever, but it makes things easier!

Exit 35.
If you can’t, you may end up going out the main entrance. You want to cross the big road in front of you, and start going the road that looks like this.

The red box is the Exit 35, you want to be on that side of the road. Notice on top of the building above it, the red cube with the Bic Camera (in Japanese) on it.

Now,once you get to exit 35, turn around and look back, you should see something like this:

Tuen back around and continue going down this street, but not far. There will be a crosswalk, and two roads going off to the left. Don’t go down the first one, but the second – the Lotteria should be on your left.

Leading up to the turnoff.

See the red box? That’s the Lotteria, you should go on the road to the right of it.
 
Now if you see this before you, you’re practically there!

Lotteria on the left, Sanrio on the right. Now just keep walking down this road, past a Denny’s:

Past KFC…

Past Book Off (it took me a while to find this as well, since in addition to being recessed the sign is orange instead of yellow!):

Actually if you have time check the Book Off out, it`s pretty good.

And finally you`ll get to Tokyu Hands – almost there!

Now, see the overpass? You’re going to go under that, and get to that glass building, the Toyota Amlux building..

(This pic is shown from where you end up across the street.) Admire the cars inside – just kidding, we have otome shopping to do! Now at this point, you can either go straight from the crosswalk, or you can turn right. Both choices are good, but I’m going to go right. Just ‘cuz. So follow those mini trucks!

Hmm, what’s this 7 story building? It’s Animate! You have now arrived at Otome Road, dance, jump for joy, whatever you feel like!
Now, Otome Road can both feel small and big. When you first see it, it seems small. Yay an animate, yay a K Books. But don’t be fooled. Let’s take a tour of all the otome shops (or at least the ones I went to).
Once you’re done with Animate, keep going down the same road. Two doors down past a ramen shop, there’s Lashinbang:

If you find out what the deal is with the name, please tell me. This has games, DVDs and CDs, and I’m not even sure what they have on the second floor.
And look what’s right beside it! K-Books Anime. Enjoy this as well.
You may be thinking, “Is this it? Is this all of Otome Road Lijaka?” NO. NOT AT ALL.
Continue down the road.

I didn’t go into this K Books, because I think it’s mostly cosplay and I was on a serious game mission. But I’d love to go and explore. And hmm, I see a red sign on the right, what could that be?

Hm still can’t see very well.

Oh yes, the holy of holies for doujinshi, Mandarake. This may not be the multi-story monstrosity in Akihabara, but it is almost ALL for women. Rock on.
You may feel an urge to stop here. Animate, Lashinbang, K Books Anime and Premium, and Mandarake can take quite a bit of time. It seems like this might be the end. But I think we should keep going. Don’t turn around (in fact I would save Mandarake for later to browse at leisure), but keep going down the same road.

Focus on the red box. Let’s get closer…

K Books Doujin. This is the ONLY place I found doujin otome games. They had one small shelf upstairs for games, and I found them there. If I could go back right now, that’s one of the first places I’d go.
Surely, you’re thinking, that must be it? But don’t you feel like something’s missing? I can’t quite place it, so let’s go down just a little further.

K Books Comic. Just in case you haven’t gotten enough otome stuff, this can probably fill some empty spots in your bag (and empty some of your wallet). They had back issues of otome gaming mags here…very tempting.

So those are the stores that I found on Otome Road. Mandarake and K Books Doujin alone took hours of my time, and I think I ended up visiting Otome Road three or four times (in four days, I was getting a little embarrassed by the end because they recognized me).

If anyone is heading to Tokyo, I hope they find this useful – I wasted hours looking for Otome Road, but once you figure out the basics it’s very close to the station, and oh, such awesome shopping!

 

LOVE.101 – Raj Prequel

I’ve just posted a little prequel story for Raj on the LOVE.101 site! Please take a look and feel free to leave your impressions here or via email! I just managed to squeak this out, I want to get Al’s out earlier in February.

February News

Not a ton of news this month, but definitely some things to watch out for:

From Otomate:
L.G.S – Shinsetsu Houshin Engi, another classical Chinese novel adaptation. I don’t know anything about the source material, but the setup is that in ancient China, there’s the human world, and then the ascetic world. In the human world, the good king Chuuou was made to do evil things by the machinations of Sotatsuki, so the ascetics decided to seal her. Because of her skill, Yousen was nominated to do this.
Yousen, the heroine, is regarded as a genius ascetic (sennin is hard to translate, I always think of them as wise men but obviously she’s not a man, and they seem to have special powers pretty often) and lives on Mt. Konron. She’s not very sociable, but is meek when talking to her teacher, Gyokutei Shinjin. She was also turned into a youkai somehow by her father as a young child. Apparently depending on your choices during the game, Yousen will either remain a sennin (light ending) or become a true youkai (shadow ending). I’ll do the characters once the seiyuu are announced.

Arabian’s Lost: Quinrose is redoing this for the PSP! I’m kind of excited for this, because I really liked this game way back when it was released for the PS2. It was my first Quinrose game and I loved the non-standard characters. You might recognize Curtis Nile from Crimson Empire, here you can actually get him! The art’s all updated too, which is good, although I’m not sure about Shark’s redesign. Tyrone definitely looks better though. The article in B’s Log doesn’t show Maisen at all, so perhaps his parts are being removed?

Also, the seiyuu for Abunai Koi no Sousashitsu (scheduled for May 31 release on the PSP) are announced:

Mikechi Masaomi (CV: Maeno Tomoaki)

Fujimori Kenji (CV: Kondou Takashi)

Kisaragi Kouhei (CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke)

Ogasawara Ryou (CV: Suganuma Hisayoshi)

Onose Aoi (CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki)

Hozumi Rui (CV: Miki Shinichirou)

Fujimori Takashi (CV: Narita Ken)

And there are screenshots of the different areas in Bakudan Handan which SOUND like they’re different types of minigames, which would be great. However I still can’t find any description of gameplay in articles or on the website, so I’m not going to assume anything.

That’s about it that I can see, of course there’s more info on several fandisks and upcoming games, but mostly just scene descriptions. Oh, and a new character in Jyuuzaengi, Bachou (CV: Sugita Tomokazu)

Early 2012 in Otome Games – Looking forward

Since my B’s Log STILL hasn’t arrived, I figured I’d do an upcoming games post, which I was originally planning for Friday.

The next few months are pretty good for otome games, not only are there several new games coming out, but several with interesting GAMEPLAY. I know it’s a remake, but the PSP Tokimemo GS3 looks awesome, and I can’t wait for the otome Atelier game!! Alchemy!! Also Hakuouki Musou, I don’t know if I’ll pre-order it, but I hope it’s good. Don’t know if it will have romance in it though. I never did buy the action adventure game Otomate put out where you go through dungeons – Ore wa Omae ga Mamoru, I think it was? Oh, and I’m really looking forward to Koi Sentai, especially after enjoying Hotokensaa (though I’m still hoping for a fandisk or something there…). I listened to the first drama CD over the holidays and it was cute. And let’s not forget Jyuuzaengi! History and catboys, what more do you need?

Here’s the list, what are you interested in?

Jan:
Kannou Mukashibanashi
Renai Banchou 2
Tokyo Yamanote Boys Jelly Beans

Feb:
VitaminX Detective
Beastmaster FD PSP
Midnight Bells and Cinderella
Hakuouki Musou
Hitofuta Kihyou
[R18] PersonA

Mar:
Utapuri Debut
Tokimemo GS3 psp
Ouma ga Toki
Hanaoni FD
Atelier Elkrone
Amnesia FD

Apr
Armen Noir PSP
Exorcism of Maria FD
Soukoku no Kusabi Hiiro no Kakera 3 FD
Jyuuzaengi
Brothers Conflict Passion Pink
Bloody Call FD – tentative
Starry Sky After Winter
Black Wolves Saga Bloody Nightmare
Tokyo Yamanote Boys Fresh Ginger

May (spring)
Kamisama to Koigokoro
Kimikare New
Koi Sentai
Xechs FD PSP
Harutoki 5 FD
Miyako FD
Akai Suna Ochiru Tsuki

Oh, and a Tokimemo PV just came out, so here it is! I gotta say, the animation looks really good here:

 

Japan Otome Festival

Boo, my B’s Log didn’t come today, but I really didn’t have time to read it anyways.

I did find THIS: Japan Otome Festival 2, happening late February.

I know there are lots of events for otome games in Japan, though I’ve never been to one. This one though, is a collaboration between Neoromance and Otomate and B’s Log, so it’s pretty big. It’s basically a two-day stage show, with a HUGE number of seiyuu doing live sketches in character, songs, and some discussion (in their own personas).

Here’s the list of seiyuu (and the characters they’ll be performing as underneath):

伊藤健太郎 Kentaro Ito
土浦梁太郎（金色のコルダ）

井上和彦 Kazuhiko Inoue
橘 友雅（遙かなる時空の中で）/ 梶原景時（遙かなる時空の中で３）

岡野浩介 Kousuke Okano
鴉取真弘（緋色の欠片）

置鮎龍太郎 Ryotaro Okiayu
アクラム（遙かなる時空の中で）/ 白龍（遙かなる時空の中で３）

下野 紘 Hiro Shimono
桐生 祟（遙かなる時空の中で５）/ ルシア（猛獣使いと王子様）

関 智一 Tomokazu Seki
森村天真（遙かなる時空の中で）/ 源九郎義経（遙かなる時空の中で３）

高橋直純 Naozumi Takahashi
イノリ（遙かなる時空の中で）/ ヒノエ（遙かなる時空の中で３）

高橋広樹 Hiroki Takahashi
レイン（ネオ アンジェリーク）

津田健次郎 Kenjiro Tsuda
風間千景（薄桜鬼）/ 無責任番長（ビーズログTV 恋愛番長）

寺島拓篤 Takuma Terashima
桐生 瞬（遙かなる時空の中で５）/ シルビオ（猛獣使いと王子様）/ ヤス（恋愛番長 命短し、恋せよ乙女! Love is Power）/ 貴樹（闇の皇太子）

鳥海浩輔 Kohsuke Toriumi
藤原泰衡（遙かなる時空の中で３）/ 英 円／ビショップ（CLOCK ZERO〜終焉の一秒〜）/ 斎藤 一（薄桜鬼）/ セクシー番長（恋愛番長 命短し、恋せよ乙女! Love is Power）

浪川大輔 Daisuke Namikawa
海棠鷹斗／神賀旭（CLOCK ZERO〜終焉の一秒〜）

成田 剣 Ken Narita
アリオス（アンジェリーク）/ レヴィアス（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）

野宮一範 Kazunori Nomiya
狗谷 遼（緋色の欠片）

平川大輔 Daisuke Hirakawa
ベルナール（ネオ アンジェリーク）/ 大蛇 卓（緋色の欠片）

堀内賢雄 Kenyu Horiuchi
オスカー（アンジェリーク）/ 闇皇<御門>（闇の皇太子）

前野智昭 Tomoaki Maeno
不動翔麻（100万人の金色のコルダ）/ ヨハネ（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）/ 加納理一郎／放浪者（CLOCK ZERO〜終焉の一秒〜）

森川智之 Toshiyuki Morikawa
エルンスト（アンジェリーク）/ カイン（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）/ ホスト番長（恋愛番長２ MidnightLesson!!!）/ 安倍晴明（闇の皇太子）

森久保祥太郎 Showtaro Morikubo
沖田総司（薄桜鬼）/ ジョヴァンニ（アンジェリーク 魔恋の六騎士）/ 恋愛番長（恋愛番長 命短し、恋せよ乙女! Love is Power）

森田成一 Masakazu Morita
火原和樹（100万人の金色のコルダ）

吉野裕行 Hiroyuki Yoshino
藤堂平助（薄桜鬼）/ ヤンキー番長（恋愛番長２ MidnightLesson!!!）

代永 翼 Tsubasa Yonaga
天神 后（闇の皇太子）

Huge, right? For this event, they do 4 shows, 2 each day, and each one focuses on different titles. Tickets range from Y4800 to Y8800, holy expensive! But I guess for something that’s so rare, maybe it’s worth it. I’ve seen DVDs of these events as well, I wish I’d gotten them when I saw them. I wonder if they sometimes use the sketches later in drama CDs or something – it seems like a waste not to.

Anyways, I just saw this while I was lamenting the delay of B’s Log and thought I’d introduce one more thing we miss out on outside of Japan