New Japanese dating/otome game being translated into English
Posted: Oct 23, 2011 10:40 pm
Thought I would post this here because I figured many people here might be interested in something like this.
The Japanese name is "Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan" There's a popular anime that has been subbed (you can find it on youtube) that is actually based off of this. The version they are translating is for PSP, and it's being translated by Aksys. Thier official website is here: http://www.aksysgames.com/ however they don't have a page yet for the game. I does, however, have a release date of Feb 14 2012.
Yeah, Valentine's Day. Sweet.
The game is a visual novel. That means the gameplay consists of reading. That's about it. Remember those old "choose your own adventure" games from the late 90's? That's what a visual novel is, only with more pretty anime men. Lots of them. And lots of "doki doki" moments. There's 6 guys you can "capture", each of which have a good ending and a bad ending. It's also rated "M". Yes, that is correct. Why? Lot's of blood and violence. There's a few, mild, harmless sexual innuendos. You don't see/hear anything, it's more along the lines of "oh they are in love" *fade to black* but it's mainly rated "M" for how gory it gets.
The art is gorgeous. It's one of the strongest pulls the series has in Japan (besides the voice actors, which, btw they will all remain in japanese), and the game is set in fedual Japan. Here's a few pics: (For those of you familiar with the series, you'll notice I'm only posting pics that have to do with early in the game, so I don't given *anything* away)
Pic 1- http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/236/ ... ikita0.jpg
Pic 2- http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WVY3j1KIl8g/T ... 7146-2.jpg
Pic 3- http://anime.es/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/haku3.jpg
Now there's certainly a lot prettier images, but you can google them yourself. You'll also see a lot of spoilers though and I wanted to avoid that for people who are spoiler sensitive. FYI, I did try to use both BBC and HTML to post images, but neither worked in he preview, so I assume the webmistress has picture posting for fishies turned off. Sorry about not having an acct to post the actual images.
For anyone who is unaware, this game is also something of a historical fiction piece. Shinsengumi were real people and the characters are based off of famous historical figures, but I doubt they were as ridiculously pretty as their anime counterparts. This particular era though (Meiji restoration) is very popular for using in animes and manga (Rurouni Kenshin, Peacemaker, etc.) Expect some talk about [s]manly codes of honor[/s] bushido. If any of you know about the history of the Shinsengumi, you have a pretty good idea how the game may end and why it's rated "M". Some basic info: http://www.gamertell.com/technologytell ... i-hakuouki
Aksys is looking to "test the waters" with this game and see if otome games have any kind of market over here, stateside. I'm hoping it does well. I know it's just a visual novel but if it does well, it can open up the doors for other, more interactive otome games to get a translation, like the Tokimeki series, Vitamin X, Neoromance titles (La Corda, Angelique, HaruToki) etc. I've been following a lot of different series since around 2004~ish and it's great to see games like this finally taking off.
Anyway, if this is all new to you and sounds interesting, give it a look. I love the series myself, but I've known about since before the anime came out and got subbed. I think for those of you more into the love/romance of games or anime, this would be right up your alley. For those of you that like a good storyline and don't mind a romance, this is also good too but for those that hate romance aspect, you'll probably hate it. While it's not the most important part of the game it's still a huge aspect of it.
They've got pre-orders out on amazon for the LE version:
Or the regular:
I'm just hoping to spread the word. It really is a good series and deserves a fighting chance here but I feel as if because their may not be a lot of advertisement, it wouldn't get the recognition it needs. Even if this isn't your type of game, could you at least spread the word to people who might think would be interested in this type of game? Right now I think would be a crucial time to show support for a niche game like this, especially if you know they are anime fans, or fans of the series (they may not realize the game is getting an official translation).
((reminds me of being a teenage and writing petitions to get "HM: For Girl" localized >_>;; ))
If you have any questions, I'll see about checking back here to answer them, but the Devs at Aksys are actually kind of active about answering fans on their forum. Series wise I could give you a lot of answers but if it's technical stuff I won't have a lot of those answers, unfortunately. Anyway, hopefully some of you (that are old enough) will be willing to give it a try.
The Japanese name is "Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan" There's a popular anime that has been subbed (you can find it on youtube) that is actually based off of this. The version they are translating is for PSP, and it's being translated by Aksys. Thier official website is here: http://www.aksysgames.com/ however they don't have a page yet for the game. I does, however, have a release date of Feb 14 2012.
Yeah, Valentine's Day. Sweet.
The game is a visual novel. That means the gameplay consists of reading. That's about it. Remember those old "choose your own adventure" games from the late 90's? That's what a visual novel is, only with more pretty anime men. Lots of them. And lots of "doki doki" moments. There's 6 guys you can "capture", each of which have a good ending and a bad ending. It's also rated "M". Yes, that is correct. Why? Lot's of blood and violence. There's a few, mild, harmless sexual innuendos. You don't see/hear anything, it's more along the lines of "oh they are in love" *fade to black* but it's mainly rated "M" for how gory it gets.
The art is gorgeous. It's one of the strongest pulls the series has in Japan (besides the voice actors, which, btw they will all remain in japanese), and the game is set in fedual Japan. Here's a few pics: (For those of you familiar with the series, you'll notice I'm only posting pics that have to do with early in the game, so I don't given *anything* away)
Pic 1- http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/236/ ... ikita0.jpg
Pic 2- http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WVY3j1KIl8g/T ... 7146-2.jpg
Pic 3- http://anime.es/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/haku3.jpg
Now there's certainly a lot prettier images, but you can google them yourself. You'll also see a lot of spoilers though and I wanted to avoid that for people who are spoiler sensitive. FYI, I did try to use both BBC and HTML to post images, but neither worked in he preview, so I assume the webmistress has picture posting for fishies turned off. Sorry about not having an acct to post the actual images.
For anyone who is unaware, this game is also something of a historical fiction piece. Shinsengumi were real people and the characters are based off of famous historical figures, but I doubt they were as ridiculously pretty as their anime counterparts. This particular era though (Meiji restoration) is very popular for using in animes and manga (Rurouni Kenshin, Peacemaker, etc.) Expect some talk about [s]manly codes of honor[/s] bushido. If any of you know about the history of the Shinsengumi, you have a pretty good idea how the game may end and why it's rated "M". Some basic info: http://www.gamertell.com/technologytell ... i-hakuouki
Aksys is looking to "test the waters" with this game and see if otome games have any kind of market over here, stateside. I'm hoping it does well. I know it's just a visual novel but if it does well, it can open up the doors for other, more interactive otome games to get a translation, like the Tokimeki series, Vitamin X, Neoromance titles (La Corda, Angelique, HaruToki) etc. I've been following a lot of different series since around 2004~ish and it's great to see games like this finally taking off.
Anyway, if this is all new to you and sounds interesting, give it a look. I love the series myself, but I've known about since before the anime came out and got subbed. I think for those of you more into the love/romance of games or anime, this would be right up your alley. For those of you that like a good storyline and don't mind a romance, this is also good too but for those that hate romance aspect, you'll probably hate it. While it's not the most important part of the game it's still a huge aspect of it.
They've got pre-orders out on amazon for the LE version:
Or the regular:
I'm just hoping to spread the word. It really is a good series and deserves a fighting chance here but I feel as if because their may not be a lot of advertisement, it wouldn't get the recognition it needs. Even if this isn't your type of game, could you at least spread the word to people who might think would be interested in this type of game? Right now I think would be a crucial time to show support for a niche game like this, especially if you know they are anime fans, or fans of the series (they may not realize the game is getting an official translation).
((reminds me of being a teenage and writing petitions to get "HM: For Girl" localized >_>;; ))
If you have any questions, I'll see about checking back here to answer them, but the Devs at Aksys are actually kind of active about answering fans on their forum. Series wise I could give you a lot of answers but if it's technical stuff I won't have a lot of those answers, unfortunately. Anyway, hopefully some of you (that are old enough) will be willing to give it a try.
