(18) MangaGamer Sets a Street Date for Koihime†Musou

[Draneor]

It's currently slated for an April 2010 release (http://novelnews.net/2010/01/20/press-release-mangagamer-adds-cosplay-alien-to-lineup/#more-1155). There's still no word on Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, Kira☆Kira Curtain Call, or D.C.II. It does appear they are doing the adult version.

At this point, I'm strongly leaning towards not getting it (unless reviews say it's amazing). My RPG/VN backlog is large enough as it is.

[Rhodes]

any word if this will be censored? it does have Loli Sex afterall...

There is no way you can pass those girls off as being 18 :0

It'll be interesting how they handle it.

[Draneor]

The trailer is up (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MT7I-uLpTI&feature=player_embedded) (NSFW). Well, it's not actually a new trailer (being created in 2006 for the original Japanese release), but now it's official and with the lyrics translated (on the blog).

After watching it, I'm now leaning towards getting it. I have a love hate relationship with eroRPGs. On the one hand, they can have really good stories like Utawarerumono. On the other hand, the combat usually sucks and there's way too much sex. But KoiHime does look shiny and pretty (but the character designs are crazily complicated).

[Betenoire]

I like most of the trailer but some of those characters may be too young for me to tolerate in an erogame...guess I'll wait to see who talks about the game and what they say.

[Fencedude]

I like most of the trailer but some of those characters may be too young for me to tolerate in an erogame...guess I'll wait to see who talks about the game and what they say.

Well, you can have sex with basically any of the girls, I dunno if its possible to entirely avoid all the lolis, but that may depend on how strictly you define such things. Like, I'd consider Rinrin and Koumei loli, but not Sousou.

I'll probably get this. Though I'd really rather have Shin Koihime, for the expanded roster if nothing else.

And is this really an actual SRPG?

[HitokiriShadow]

It seems so wrong for a guy to be sexually involved with any of the girls, as they all clearly belong in bed with each other. I might get it at some point anyway though.

[Draneor]

And is this really an actual SRPG?

I think there's a component. But neither of the two I played (Tears to Tiara PC and Utawarerumono) had a passable battle system so I'm not expecting much.

MangaGamer has hinted that an actual visual novel/RPG would be coming soon (either E.F. or V.C. seems likely).

[something]

This is ridiculous. (http://mangagamer.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/an-unfortunate-announcement-with-hope)

I was on the fence already, considering that my interest in the anime is due to the yuri, which makes playing a straight eroge of said story unappealing. But now this? Forget it. Crazy.

[Fencedude]

Ah fuck it.

I do get why its a problem, but I just don't have time for it. I have better ways to spend my time.

[Rhodes]

This is ridiculous. (http://mangagamer.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/an-unfortunate-announcement-with-hope)

I was on the fence already, considering that my interest in the anime is due to the yuri, which makes playing a straight eroge of said story unappealing. But now this? Forget it. Crazy.

Haha I dont buy their stuff cause it's DL only... but you know once this is released someone will rip the JP voices from the game and a patch will be made.

It's not like they are releasing these games on the PS3 where it's a virtual closed garden.

[Draneor]

I do get why its a problem, but I just don't have time for it. I have better ways to spend my time.

I don't plan on playing this myself (due to the F taint), but I can guarantee that it will be no harder to play this game with voices than it is for F/SN, Utawarerumono, or Kanon. I'd give it a day. If anything, they removed the aspect the most easily fixed.

[Draneor]

To add further to the discussion, 2,000 units may not be an entirely unreasonable number. We know that at least one title has sold over 500 units (Shuffle being the obvious possibility). In addition, sales for hard copies of Higurashi and KiraKira were brisk at Anime Expo and Otakon, leading other companies, including Hen Da Ne and Media Blaster, to stock them. On the other hand, the KoiHime anime is nowhere near as popular as Shuffle was. I'm also fairly certain that this decision will kill most of the sales they might have had.

[Damius]

This is ridiculous. (http://mangagamer.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/an-unfortunate-announcement-with-hope)

I was on the fence already, considering that my interest in the anime is due to the yuri, which makes playing a straight eroge of said story unappealing. But now this? Forget it. Crazy.

I never thought it would be that bad.......

[Buster Darkwings]

I do get why its a problem, but I just don't have time for it. I have better ways to spend my time.

I don't plan on playing this myself (due to the F taint),

Ick, I didn't know about that. How many of the girls does it infect?

[Draneor]

I never thought it would be that bad.......

This might help put the cost in perspective (http://zepy.momotato.com/2010/04/21/eroge-seiyuu-costs/). There was actually a similar situation with D.C.I.F., which used actual seiyuu (like Horie Yui). At one point, it wasn't coming out because the agencies of certain unnamed seiyuu were demanding too much. Since then, Circus/MangaGamer decided to use the PC voices with the all ages game so, as of Otakon, the game will be coming out next year.

Koihime's problem is likely just having way too many seiyuu rather than who they are.

Ick, I didn't know about that. How many of the girls does it infect?

At least one that I know of. Not sure about the others. Honestly, I've seen the CGs for KoiHime and they do little for me. I'd rather not have any ero myself.

[cress2000]

If nothing else, maybe someone will patch the voices back in.

[Fencedude]

Ick, I didn't know about that. How many of the girls does it infect?

Only one, as far as I know its either Daikyou or Shoukyou, I can never keep them straight

[einhorn303]

I do get why its a problem, but I just don't have time for it. I have better ways to spend my time.

I don't plan on playing this myself (due to the F taint), but I can guarantee that it will be no harder to play this game with voices than it is for F/SN, Utawarerumono, or Kanon. I'd give it a day. If anything, they removed the aspect the most easily fixed.

I'm not sure what you mean by the "F taint." Is it some sort of censorship issue? I haven't been following MangaGamer news very closely.

[EmperorBrandon]

I'm not sure what you mean by the "F taint." Is it some sort of censorship issue? I haven't been following MangaGamer news very closely.

I think they mean (NSFW) futanari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futanari).

[grgspunk]

This is ridiculous. (http://mangagamer.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/an-unfortunate-announcement-with-hope)

I was on the fence already, considering that my interest in the anime is due to the yuri, which makes playing a straight eroge of said story unappealing. But now this? Forget it. Crazy.

Huh? They take out a key feature in the game's presentation, and they expect us to want to buy it, much less convince others to do the same?

Dude, what the hell?

Even if getting 2000 copies isn't that unreasonable to do under normal circumstances, the fact that they're willing to remove content from the game makes it that much harder for paying customers like us to convince others to do the same. I can't effectively convince anyone to buy it if we're facing the possibilty that we might not ever get to see what we want.

Not only that, even if they do sell 2000 copies, how the hell are we supposed to know that we'll even get the voice patch if sales information tends to be tightly guarded? For all we know, even if they do sell 2000 copies, if it happens 9~12 months after it's been released, MG/NEXTON could easily have long forgotten about the issue and not release anything at all.

And what would happen if NEXTON goes under?

EDIT: Now that I think about it, the Japanese eroge companies themselves sometimes have a difficult time selling 4000~5000 copies in their own country. On top of that, they sell hard copies distributed across multiple retailers. Considering that, isn't selling 2000 copies outside of Japan horribly unrealistic when it's being sold exclusively through a single website via a digital-only means of distribution?

[Classical]

Not only that, even if they do sell 2000 copies, how the hell are we supposed to know that we'll even get the voice patch if sales information tends to be tightly guarded? For all we know, even if they do sell 2000 copies, if it happens 9~12 months after it's been released, MG/NEXTON could easily have long forgotten about the issue and not release anything at all.


About that, according to MangaGamer's twitter (http://twitter.com/MangaGamer/status/23932831970):
Lastly, after talks with Nexton, we at MangaGamer negotiated a guarantee that the voices will be added if #Koihime sells over 2000 copies.
Judging by this, it seems like adding the voices if sales figures are met is part of the Koihime Musou contract between Nexton and MangaGamer. I doubt MangaGamer would forget about it, because if they did it could severely damaged their credibility. Then again, we wouldn't be able to keep track of how many copies the game has sold once it's out. As far as Nexton is concerned, I'm no lawyer, but I imagine them not fulfilling their end of the deal could have legal consequences.

[Rhodes]

2K doesnt seem like much when you stack em against other video games like Halo or FF... but we are talking eroge games. They dont sell all that many copies even in JP let alone digital only copies from one online shop based in the EU.

Geneon in the US was selling DVDs in the 100s for certain shows... So asking to sell 2k copies is like saying when hell freezes over.

[Draneor]

They dont sell all that many copies even in JP let alone digital only copies from one online shop based in the EU.

Actually, the titles MangaGamer has released so far apart from Overdrive and the sex romps sell in the 30,000 -50,000+ or so range. These are , in a sense, the cream of the crop (minus Key, Leaf, and TypeMoon).

[einhorn303]

The English eroge market is a complicated issue for me. There are only two companies that release eroge in English, and both of them commit what I consider unforgivable sins: MangaGamer has DRM with limited activations, and JAST is open to censoring their games. However, JAST releases plenty of uncensored games as well, but MangaGamer doesn't release any games without DRM. So since I'm already stacked against MG, I'm even more tempted to say "just screw it" on this title.

Admittedly, MangaGamer has a really different variety of titles, some of which are much more appealing than JAST. But with MG's DRM and BGI porting issues, I wouldn't be too dissatisfied if JAST became the only player in this market once again.

[iserlohn]

MangaGamer has DRM with limited activations But with MG's DRM and BGI porting issues,

1) If you email MangaGamer support, they'll give you a new activation code if you run out of legit installs.

2) Most new MG games aren't using BGI, including Koihime and DC2