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Event Coverage: Anime Expo 2023: What’s new?

JAST USA

We got 6 new announcements — one of them is a famous Nitro+ title! JAST USA also gave some updates on on-going and stalled projects, as well as merchandising. There will also be a Q&A section for some important and current questions. We will cover everything in this article.

New Project Announcements

This year, we got a our hands full with announcements of all kinds, so we hope you find at least something to be excited over!

There is no release date announced for any of the new projects as of yet, but we’ll keep you updated.

Mojika: Truth Rears Its Ugly Head

From famous developer NITRO PLUS comes the English version for Mojika: Truth Rears Its Ugly Head. Also known as Mojika, this visual novel came out on July 27th 2018 in Japan, for Windows. Compared to other NITRO PLUS titles, this is on the shorter side.


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Ren (CV: ayumi)

For starters, the title is a direct reference to “The Ugly Duckling“, a tale about judgment and exclusion — this already sets the tone for what the game is going to be about.

Story

Described as “Physical and Mental Violation ADV”, you assume the role of Tanezaki Suteru who is constantly being bullied due to his ugliness which is beyond words. As a result of this, he is an introvert and as much as looking into people’s faces is a horrifying task to him.

However, he has the special power “Mojika” which allows him to automatically read the true intentions of someone’s heart if he manages to see their face within a range of 120 cm. This information manifests itself through special text called “Moji” which show him time and time again how cruel and full of lies the world can be. Unable to bear the insults hurled at him as soon as he lifts his face, he sealed off his ability and has always had his eyes downcast.

And yet, after a prank confession by his personal crush Miyu, he finally decides to enact revenge onto those who look down upon him…

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Yomegami: My Sweet Goddess!

For all the moege fans out there, JAST announced the English localization for Yomegami: My Sweet Goddess!. This is a title from ALcot, also known for Onigokko! and Clover Day’s — both available in English by JAST USA and (futurely) by NekoNyan, respectively. This visual novel came out on November 25th 2016 in Japan, for Windows; the next year, it received a digital edition.


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Re:born (CV: Hanyuu Miina)
Story

In Yomegami the world is at peace, but mankind is unaware of the miracles in this world, as well as the struggle going on in the world of Gods.

We pick up the story in spring in a provincial town called “New Masado City”, when a transfer student named Hayato transfers in at an unusual time. Hayato is the reincarnation of a devil that went on a rampage in the past. His mother, iris, is also a reincarnation of a former power. But in her case it’s a goddess rather than a devil. She told him that if he performs enough good deeds in the human world, he would be able to return to the world of Gods. And so Hayato attempts to live his life as a youth in accordance with her words.

Unfortunately, the devil’s power still hold power over him and it happens that he snatches a kiss from his new classmate Mikoto. If this misunderstanding continues, all of his previously accomplished good deeds will be nullified! He takes on the help of his best friend and class president Mari to find the right way and time to apologize. But then a mysterious and mischievous dog-eared girl appears and events take a turn for the worst.

Why did this have to happen to him!? It seems his life is too deeply connected with his previous existence…

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Yamizome Liberator

From the same series as Yamizome Revenger, Yamizome Liberator is a nukige from developer Escu:de. Some of their titles are localized in English, such as the Re;Lord series (Denpasoft; Sekai Project) and HimeYoku: A Sacrifice of Lust and Grace (Shiravune).
This is a big title for all the sexual, evil corruption fans out there!


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Angelic Dark (CV: Akatsuki Yumu)
Story

Haruomi was a hero sent to another world to kill the demon lord and when he did, he wished to going back to Earth along with the Goddess Ninia, however she denied to go with him and decided to just sent him back to Earth alone. He was, once again, in earth attending a very prestigious school he is a part of the student council which he wish to turn into his harem.

After trying to save a friend of his, Haruoumi find he has the demon lord’s soul he killed within him, not only that but the goddess knew that the demon lord’s soul went to earth so she selected a few girls that have been previously sent to another worlds to fight demons lord and gave them once again power in order to kill him and destroying the demon lord’s soul. Now he has no choice but cooperate with the demon, so he’ll try corrupt the heroes and get their magical power in order to save himself, get his long wished harem and be free of the demon lord soul.

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Goblins on the March: Breed All Humans!

For a different flavor of nukige, we got CHAOS-R‘s Goblins on the March: Breed All Humans!. There is another localized title from this publisher and that is Sweet Sacrifices, also by JAST.
Play as a goblin and conquest, strategize and use both humans and elves for breeding!

(There is no cover image since it’s very… well, explicit. Well, you can imagine from the title alone.)


Djibril

This time, JAST decided to bring a classic to the West. Makai Tenshi Djibril — or Djibril, as it’s going to be called in the localized edition — is publisher Frontwing‘s 15th title, originally released in 2004. Now, almost 20 years later, we get an English localization. This game also won an anime adaptation by the same title; you can read more about it here.


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Let’s go lovely Henshin time (CV: U)
Story

When summer break began, Jinno Naoto and Manabe Rika confessed their thoughts that they had since their childhood and began to go out. Suddenly a boy named Asmo appeared. He said he was a devil, and he tried to take Rika away. Naoto did his best to save Rika from Asmo, but he couldn’t anything to do with devil’s power. At that very moment, a girl named Loveriel, who called herself an angel, appeared and saved them.

Loveriel injured in the battle against the devil and they took her home with them. There, Loveriel told them surprising things; angels from heaven and devils from hell have been fighting for a long time, and that devils would attack them again.

Because Loveriel had lost her powers during the fight, she asked Rika to fight for her. On the other hand, the devil had also lost his powers in the fight. Meanwhile, Otonashi Meimi, who was a classmate of Naoto, witnessed Naoto confess his love to Rika, and she became jealous. Taking advantage of her jealousy, the devil haunted her and made Meimi into an evil heroine, Misty Mei, and made her attack Rika again. Just before that, Loveriel turned Rika into “St. Djibril” and let her fight against them.

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Sisters ~The Last Day of Summer~

At last, JAST surprised us with a fully animated title, Sisters ~The Last Day of Summer~. It was originally published in 2011 by Jellyfish, so this could be considered an old title — it certainly retained its charm, nonetheless. If you enjoy a rural scenary along with spicy full incest (even the mom joins in!), keep an eye on this one!


Story

Far away from the hustle and bustle of the city lies a small rural town in a mountainous region. A young man meets a pair of beautiful sisters there along with their mother and lives together with them. Their days together are full of happiness, but he doesn’t know there is a hidden secret.

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Did you enjoy these new titles? Tell us in the comments!
Now, let’s get into the on-going projects and check their updates.

Project Updates

There were some quick status updates for some of the already announced games JAST picked up, such as Gears of Dragoon: Fragments of a New Era and Naka no Hito nado Inai! Tokyo Hero Project, among others.

Gears of Dragoon: Fragments of a New Era

From the same developer behind theVenusBlood series and The Alchemist of Ars Magna, we have ninetail‘s Gears of Dragoon: Fragments of a New Era. JAST had originally announced this localization at AX last year; however, due to some complications, the publisher hasn’t been able to finish this project… until now, that is! We finally get a release date, and that is around September this year!
JAST is also releasing Venus Blood GAIA that month, but since they are from the same developer, Gears of Dragoon is supposed to release only after Venus Blood GAIA.

Like many of ninetail’s games, Gears of Dragoon is a JRPG, so that should keep you having fun for hours on end!


Story

This dungeon exploration RPG is ninetail’s 10th anniversary title. The city-state Carnas flourishes thanks to its prominent magical culture. However, underneath it lies the ruins of a fallen machine civilization.

One time, a machine was excavated from the labyrinth and once it was restored, its power and convenience sparked great interest. This led to a delicate tension between the contrasting civilizations and the gears of fate began to turn.

Heeding his father’s last words to find the truth of history and obtain the great power hidden deep within the ruins, as well as following his innate inquisitiveness, the young ‘undergrounder’ Rosta sets out to challenge the labyrinth.

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Labyrinth (CV: Barbarian on the Groove feat. MAMI)

Tokyo Hero Project

Naka no Hito nado Inai! Tokyo Hero Project — also known as just Tokyo Hero Project — is another title from ALcot. If you recognize this publisher, it’s because they are the name behind My Girlfriend is the President, Onigokko! and Clover Day’s and now, the new JAST project Yomegami: My Sweet Goddess!.

According to JAST, while the translation is complete, the editing process is sitll at approximately 25%.
While we wait, JAST has just released the Onigokko! Fandisc, also by ALcot. It’s a great title for the incest lovers and the fandiscs even adds new routes!


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Shine Ring (CV: Marie)
Story

The Tokyo Hero Project was a plan which was implemented two years ago, placing cosplaying heroes in each of the 23 wards to promote public order. But not many people knew that they actually possessed special powers and fought against the secret evil society Black Outsiders (BO) at night.

Koutarou is a poor student who lives by himself. One night while he was making his way to a part-time job, he saw a fierce battle between a cosplayer and someone wearing a kigurumi. Due to the incident, he ended up missing his part-time opportunity and his friend Nagahiko suggested a new one for him. A young girl with a black manteau welcomed him: “How wonderful it is to have you here at the secret society BO group!”. From that day on, he battles against heroes while wearing a mascot character powered suit. Do your best, Koutarou!

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Outlaw Django ~ Zoku: Satsuriku no Django

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Along with Sumaga (which we will cover shortly after), Outlaw Django is one of NITRO PLUS‘ titles that JAST picked up. Since their announcement at AX 2011, more than a decade has passed. They sincerely apologized for the constant delaying, but they haven’t announced any release date. According to JAST, they rushed into these projects but got busy with others, so this and Sumaga ended up on the back burner.


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Brindiamo!〜Ore-tachi ni Kanpai (Watanabe Kazuhiro)
Story

The planet Sweetwater is a wasteland of burning desert sands, an abandoned utopia of thieves where the usage of galactic technology is strictly forbidden by advanced bio-mechanical lifeforms known as Protozoans who watch over the planet from the skies above.

Here, a single legend is uttered with equal reverence betwixt the ranks of the corrupt nobility, the downtrodden farming peasants, and the bloodthirsty rogues who make Sweetwater their nest – this is the legend of Black Franco, a gunslinger-cum-revolutionary who managed to amass a hidden fortune, incite a revolution, and earn a 500000 dollar price on his head before vanishing ten years ago.

Recently, however, there have been new rumors of a gunslinger appearing with Franco’s trademark gun, the Black Hawk, in hand… Lily Salvatana, a particularly sagacious headhunter, takes it upon herself to claim the massive bounty set on Franco’s head. However, Lily soon encounters a mysterious gunslinger who refuses to speak her name who seems to have the same idea – exactly who will end up claiming the bounty? And in the first place, who exactly is Franco?

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Sumaga

Just like Outlaw Django, Sumaga is an even more infamous NITRO PLUS title, known for never being updated. What JAST said about Outlaw Django applies to Sumaga as well, unfortunately. However, none of the projects have been cancelled.


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(a)SLOW STAR (CV: swinging popsicle)
Story

The protagonist regains his consciousness to find himself falling down from the sky. As he realizes that he doesn’t know why he’s here, even more that he doesn’t remember anything at all, three girls flying on brooms appear in front of him. Shortly after as he keeps falling he witnesses a tragic battle between these girls calling themselves Etoile and the monsters they call Zodiac take place.

Then he dies… and wakes up in front of a TV, that has “Kamisama” (God) written on it, with a little girl inside. She asks him “Do you want to be reborn?”…

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Machine Child

Published by Ooyari Ashito, Machine Child has a more straightforward update. Simply put, since the original game is still in development, JAST can’t finish the translation for a non-finished product.

According to the developer, progress is going smoothly, so let’s hope there are no issues along the way!

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“I thought I should report on Machine Child progress soon, so here it is. Work is progressing quite well.”

Story

“Machine Child” is a simulation game in which you “raise” girls who were born from a mysterious machine.

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Katahane

Katahane — translated as Katahane – An’ call Belle — is Tarte, 10mile and Longshot‘s most awaited title. It was announced by JAST a long time ago, but held up for various reasons — there was even a death involved. Nevertheless, JAST has now more freedom to advance on this project and so, we might see some progress soon.


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An’call Belle (CV: Blueberry&Yogurt)
Story

The story takes place in a world with 3 kingdoms, the Red, White, and Blue Kingdom. In this world, they have highly-advanced dolls with some closely resembling humans. These dolls occasionally need maintenance which is done by a “tuner”.

A young playwright named Wakaba writes a controversial play about a traitor named Ein who killed a ruler of the White Kingdom, Christina. In Wakaba’s play, she presumes that Ein did not betray Christina, but was actually her loyal supporter.

When Wakaba’s friend Cero needs to make a trip to get Coco, a doll that lives with him, maintenance, Wakaba and her brother Light travel with him. Wakaba travels in the hopes of finding some actors for her play. Along the way, they meet a beautiful doll with one wing named Belle and an aspiring actress named Angelina.

The story takes place in 2 parts:

1) Shirohane – the main story with Wakaba and gang

2) Kurohane – the historical events talking about the end of the reign of Christina

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Water Closet: The Forbidden Chamber

While this is certainly for a very niche public, JAST announced that the remastered edition of Water Closet: The Forbidden Chamber will soon release this year, although it doesn’t have a release month yet.

You can choose one of five different female characters and play through, to see different scenarios from that character’s point of view. It’s a game that explores some of the more bizarre fetishes that can be found in an eroge. Some say that it’s the worst bishoujo game ever made – and it even got a perfect score of -50 over at Something Awful. We think it’s a crazy ride through the darker side of eroge genre that many people can enjoy.


Ikumi-chan just can’t control her bladder. Julyne is a clumsy nurse. Reika’s a model with a constipation problem. Setsuko doesn’t know how to use a tampon. Shoko has too much time and a love of vegetables. Water Closet tells each of their stories in graphic, erotic detail, exploring themes that usually go unspoken. Follow their stories in this fetishist’s visual novel game that’s fully voiced with the original Japanese, subtitled and translated into English.

Product page

And that’s it from project updates! Now, let’s go into the physical merch and editions!

Physical Editions Updates

JAST has had many complications with some of their localized titles. Some of them haven’t yet arrived to the players and so they are addressing each of them.

Do You Like Horny Bunnies? Complete Edition — Collector’s Edition

Do You Like Horny Bunnies? – Complete Collection – Collector’s Edition is a physical collector’s edition for ZyX‘s Do You Like Horny Bunnies?. JAST has localized other entries from this publisher, such as The Sagara Family, Tsuki -Possession-, and Chain ~ The Lost Footprints.

They started the manufacturing process around “Covid times” — possibly around 2020. In order to avoid a slow process from a manufacturer located in Asia, JAST decided to work with one in the United States. However, it turns out this specific supplier was slower than they expected. Do You Like Horny Bunnies? is the last title left for them to ship; according to JAST, they won’t probably ever work with them again, so we might see some improvment with future titles.

This collector’s edition features:

  • Game DVDs
  • 5″x7″ Postcard
  • Madoka’s Button
  • Bunny Ears
  • Bunny Tail Plug
  • Game DL code

Story

Yukari Fujisawa had no idea what he was signing up for when he started working at the trendiest new restaurant in town, “Platinum.”

Platinum is a very classy, upscale place, catering to those with plenty of money in their pockets. And the gorgeous women working there all dress in bunny costumes! But these gorgeous girls aren’t your average bunny girls — they’re incredibly horny! As Yukari works alongside these sexy girls, they begin to let him know just how exciting they can be. Apparently you need quite the libido to be a bunny girl, and these girls seem to have some really unique desires.

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Tokyo Necro — Collector’s Edition

Tokyo Necro is a recent popular JAST release from NITRO PLUS. To make things exciting, JAST decided to make an exclusive collector’s edition.

This edition comes with:

  • Special “Frozen” Outer Box
  • DVD Game
  • 26-page Localization Commentary Book
  • A2-size Ex Brain Poster
  • 2 Sticker Badges

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Tokyo Requiem (CV: Masatoshi Ono)
Story

Nemo ante mortem beatus.
“Nobody can be called happy before their death.”
(Herodotus, “Histories”)

The era of “Necromancers” has come.

In the future, the world has been engulfed in the bitter cold of an ice age. And yet, Tokyo is surviving with its use of geothermal heat pipes to keep the city habitable.

The protagonists, Kibanohara Ethica and Nagaoka Souun, are young “Private Special Living Dead Stalkers”, contract killers who spend their working days executing necromancers and their undead minions. By practicing a special kind of martial art called “Close Quarter Armed Martial Arts”, both of them have achieved great heights in their career.
Out on a mission one day, Souun becomes involved in a fierce battle and meets a mysterious young girl who had been kidnapped for unknown reasons. Remembering nothing but her name, “Hougyou Ilia”, she has become the target of a mysterious group of necromancers.

The ice-cold and snow-covered wasteland Tokyo of gunpowder smoke, living dead, crime and cybernetics. But in this frozen hellscape people have survived, protected by the guns and cybernetics enhancements of the Living Dead Stalkers. Now begins the battle of the living dead stalkers and the heroine with their lives at stake.

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Slow Damage — Limited Edition

For the BL readers, we got Slow Damage‘s limited physical edition! This is one of NITRO CHIRAL‘s — NITRO PLUS’ branch for BL games — latest entries. Other localized titles by JAST BLUE — JAST’s branch for BL games — from this publisher include Togainu no Chi ~Lost Blood~, sweet pool and DRAMAtical Murder.

According to JAST, “Slow Damage has been a slow project… in a lot of ways. The game was originally supposed to be a simurelease with the Japanese [release]. (…) But of course, that didn’t pan out. So, Slow Damage came slower to digital than we wanted to, and now the physical [edition] has come slower. There have been a lot of weird complications with it (…) but I believe we’re in the home stretch on it.” (from JAST USA’s panel at AX)

This limited edition features:

  • Game disc
  • Soundtrack disc
  • Preorder bonus notebook
  • Digital download copy
  • Digital booklet

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il (CV: Yoshida Akihiro)
Story

The year is 20XX, and the declining nation of Japan has built the ultimate casino resort: Shinkoumi. This “special administrative region,” once known as Tokyo Waterfront City, is functionally its own separate country under the complete control of a private managing organization known as the Takasatogumi.

With the economy in turmoil, the masses flock to Shinkoumi with the hope of getting rich quick, or at the very least, venting the stress of their overworked, underpaid lives. With no restriction on who can enter, crime has flourished, and entire districts have decayed.

Our protagonist, Towa, lives a life of indolence on the third floor of a small neighborhood clinic. For you see, he has a hobby: painting human desire. Specifically, the moment before those suppressed urges break free from their constraints. And to do so, naturally, he must experience it himself firsthand.

In the art world, he is known as “euphoria”.

It can be dangerous to grant people’s darkest desires – sometimes, even deadly. But in the spirit of avant-garde, Towa is willing to die for his art…

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Flowers -Le Volume sur Hiver- Limited Edition

From the popular GL Flowers series, we’ve got Flowers -Le Volume sur Hiver-. This is the final entry in the series, and all previous titles were also localized by JAST. Other big Innocent Grey works include Cartagra ~Affliction of the Soul~ and the Kara no Shoujo trilogy.

This limited edition features:

  • The game on DVD-ROM
  • Three acrylic figures (3.5 inches high) with stands
  • Four single-sided laminated postcards showing illustrations and backgrounds from the game (display them behind the figures)
  • Steam key

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Fairy Wreath (CV: MANYO)
Synopsis (spoilers for previous entries in the series):

Suou/Mayuri: “Is there someone in your life whom you want to be with, forevermore?”

“Tell me the key necessary to arrive at the Goddess of Truth,”

challenged Suou after becoming the president of Council of Nicaea and overcoming the trials from Yatsushiro Yuzuriha. As promised, the name given was “The Seven Wonders of the Beginning of the End,” directly linking Kousaka Mayuri, her amity who disappeared in Spring.

A number of even more bizarre events arise in Saint Angraecum Academy during the season of Winter.

With the help of her friends, Shirahane Suou will stand up against many obstacles, but… the words she prayed to God, “Please forget about me,” still overwhelms her.

The reemergence of her step-mom’s shadow, passing thoughts, unexpected continuations… Just what will it all bring about to Suou?

The final wintry season will melt everything away…

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Onigokko! — Physical Limited Edition

Onigokko! is an old title from ALcot, but one JAST translated just two years ago. Now, with its fandisc brought to the West, its late physical edition is a more than relevant issue.

In accordance to JAST, “Onigokko! was actually delayed not of its own faults; it’s because it used the same box design that Muramasa had, so we had to completely solve the Muramasa problem before we could then commence production for the Onigokko! box. That’s all done, that’s all taken care of; and because Onigokko! pre-order is from two years now, we went ahead and included the Onigokko! Fandisc in the Onigokko! physical [set], free of charge.”

This limited edition features:

  • Game DVD
  • Special Wood Outer Box
  • Origami Set
  • A2 size Cloth Poster
  • Character Stickers
  • Game DL code

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Hyakka Ryouran Phantasm (CV: Marie)

On Miyajima Island, known for its mythical history, a phantom thief has arrived. Ura, known throughout the world as a cunning trickster, has his name is tarnished by an unknown foe masquerading as him. But on this island reside the Three Great families, descended from some of legend’s most storied heroes; Momotarou, Kintaro, and Otohime. These families work together to protect the Mystical Treasures and are sworn enemies of the phantom thief. Their youngest descendants, all high schoolers, have taken this oath and vowed to hunt down Ura.

The twist? They’re all schoolmates now!

Join Phantom Thief Ura as he seeks out his impostor and befriends his rivals in a story centuries in the making… and perhaps snag a few Mystical Treasures along the way!

Product page

And that was it for a status check! How was it? Did you buy any of these physical editions?

Q&A Section

Finally, we have a Q&A section. We transcribed some of the most important and relevant questions for you to read!

For context, the one answering these questions is Dave “Bloodnose” Adams, the current CEO of JAST USA.

Do you plan on getting more games on Steam?

Steam and us have a rocky relationship; I think that’s true of almost every publisher in the eroge sphere. When Steam went and banned Muramasa, they broke my heart — they really did. Because, before that, we had worked so hard to make our games palatable to Steam and we thought we made… anyway, (…) I’m not gonna whine about what Steam did to me but it does make me less inclined to make things work particularly with the Steam platform, with the Steam Deck. We tend to work with Steam more as an afterthought… This is a big platform that is very useful for people to be on particularly in certain countries that don’t access the JAST store very well, but we always focus on the JAST store first and so the shorter answer is: we don’t have a process where we make sure that our games work on Steam Deck. If they work on Steam Deck — if they can cooperate with Steam’s OS — it’s a great thing but we don’t actually go through the effort to make sure it does.
Now, Peter talked about our “remaster programs” that involve porting older games to an OS agnostic engine, which allows those games to work on basically any operating system pretty smoothly. There is some finagling you have to do on a MacOS because Apple is very closed, they don’t unsign their own licensed software if we don’t pay software distribution licenses, but you can still do it. Likewise, any of those games should work very nicely on the Linux — so basically the remastered versions of the games are done on our platform called [unintelligible] and so that’s basically the version we have on JAST, Windows, Linux…
So, to your question: we’re looking towards a future where games are more generally OS agnostic and in that regard we should have more more [of] an export available in the future; but the other thing that we do as developers is that we pick up “difficult” engine works, like these NitroPlus games, that all take place in NitroPlus custom engine. If you’ve looked at Tokyo Necro or Mojika, it has floating text — all of that is happening in NitroPlus proprietary engine. That can’t be easily imported and that’s why Tokyo Necro doesn’t work natively on Steam’s OS. The other answer I can give you is that basically for every single one of our games, the community has found a way to make them work on the Steam Deck; Tokyo Necro does work on Steam Deck if you go through the steps. The community has figured it out and I’ve linked this to people who have asked: here’s the steps so you can get Tokyo Necro on it.
The N&N engine (Gore Screaming Show and even the newer games like DeadΩAegis) doesn’t cooperate with Steam-anything — you can’t even share Steam screenshots — but the community has found a way to make those games work on Steam Deck and they are not even a lot of steps.
The short version is: we don’t actively look for way to make things work on Steam Deck or SteamOS but the community tends to step in and make it happen whether I want them to or not. Overall, I’m looking towards making things more OS agnostic whenever I can.


First of all, I’m a very big fan of Mojika — it’s my favorite visual novel — and I’m very, very excited the English release and I suggest that everyone here buys it because it is NOT getting on Steam. If it does get on Steam, it’s going to be exactly 5 minutes long. [laughs] So yeah, definitely buy it.
As a big fan of Mojika, I’m really curious to hear about any localization challenges.

I don’t think I have anyone who can speak of that here. Let me think: the translator is not here; the editor is not here yet. I personally haven’t done a run through the entire game yet so I’m sorry, I don’t have anyone who can really speak to details about that but maybe next year.


So, I’m highly anticipating the [remastered] Water Closet game. If you could tell me how long it will be until it comes out…?

We don’t have the “technical man” here, who can explain why it’s still not up. But we have been promised that it is coming along quite shortly — very soon, yeah.


First of all, thank you for translating Sisters ~The Last Day of Summer~. The question was: are you planning any physical release for it? Maybe the Regular Edition one?

As far as I understand, we don’t have an answer for that yet. We’ll have to way until we get closer [to the release date] and see how many of our physical [editions] from the backlog are actually out at that point, before we commit to more long projects.


Are there any plans to translate other Black Cyc works, like GUN-KATANA or Extravaganza?

Last year, I made a rule before the question time that if anyone asks me about any future projects or announcements that we weren’t discussing my answer would always be “yes”. So, my answer to you is yes! [laughs]


Thoughts on DMM and Shiravune and the rapid expansion into the English-speaking Visual Novel sphere?

That’s a good question. My answer is… long and complicated. The short version is: I think it’s always good to have more players, more investment, more money rolling around in the industry. I generally don’t think of other publishers as “competitors”. I don’t ever use that language; I tend to talk about other publishers as “peers” or “partners”, even (in certain contexts) — but always, at least, colleagues. I think Shiravune is doing some amazing work. I think they have gotten a lot of games localized that would be nearly impossible for anyone who didn’t have DMM’s tremendous resources. For those of you not in the know, the question is about the English-publishing arm of the gigantic Japanese conglomerate, called DMM. They have a branch that publishes visual novels and eroge in English; I think it started 3 or 4 years ago? They’ve done some really amazing stuff… They recently announced a translation of White Album, which is a very good deal; I’m excited for that one. They’ve done some really cool games that I personally enjoy, like Dohna Dohna by Alice Soft — really, really, really sick game. Overall, I think it’s a positive thing for us to have more players; especially with that kind of resources, that kind of reach involved in our sphere. Honestly, they do a lot of good work.


And that about covers everything for this year’s panel! Personally, I’m very excited for Mojika, but I think there is at least one title for everyone.

I hope you enjoyed it! Next is an entire page with a little bit of everything from other publishers.

HataVNI

Once a writer for German site VNinfo, now the guy running the show (we're trying to save him from Hell okay). His energy is infectious, his passions strong, and his attachment to Nanahira manifestly unhealthy. He likes Sayonara wo Oshiete, long walks on the Internet, and excels at koolaidmanning.

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Usagi
Usagi
10 months ago

Thanks for the article! It was fun read. And no, I don’t think anouncements were weak at all maybe only for wholesome moege fans. For dark eroge fans it was real party )