Comments on: News: Prancin’ Aboot With Yer Heads Full’a Eyeballs

By: Jenifer

Jenifer — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:55:10 +0000

Even if they use the same five characters and trade their names, I LOVE Type-Moon. I eventually want to get my hands on the Kara no Kyoukai novel, as I absolutely adored the anime. I’ve also been meaning to get around to Tsukihime, as well as 07th’s Higurashi series, but LOL laziness.

By: Oyashiro

Oyashiro — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:20:07 +0000

Type-Moon is one of the better VN makers, along with Key, 07th Expansion and I hear Circus is pretty good.

By: breaka666

breaka666 — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:38:54 +0000

@SolutionNooB – they’re not that linear, actually. I know for a fact Fate/Stay Night, one of the more popular VNs, has branching paths and dialogue choices. the issue is that that’s all they have. if you can imagine Persona 3/4 without any combat that’s pretty much a VN.

By: SiliconNooB

SiliconNooB — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:00:42 +0000

Solution 1: Ban all gameplay videos from Youtube.

Solution 2: Don’t make your game so damn linear that the entire bredth of its gameplay experience can be had by watching youtube videos.

By: Jenifer

Jenifer — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:07:37 +0000

@Breaka: Because when you’re talking about the obsessive otaku, visual novels are the closest interaction with females that they get. Hell, its probably the closest interaction with other human beings.

Plus, think about how easy it would be to make one of those games:
Step 1. Write a script based on any of the typical anime archetypes (i.e. schoolgirl, magical girl, about-to-be-tentacle-raped girl, etc.), probably in flowchart format to accommodate the different choices.
Step 2. Draw each girl in the following picture types: normal, happy, angry, sad, and blushing. If you want to make this really complicated, draw two or three different outfits, but facial expression always the same.
Step 3. Repeat a broken meme.
Step 4. Profit.
So even if they don’t sell millions of copies, it also didn’t take them millions of dollars to create it. As long as they make a good deal of money on the few copies that they do sell, they’re set.

Then factor the glorious world of sequels. Clannad was a rather good visual novel…..and then they went batshit insane with whoring it out. I have no idea how many various versions of Clannad there are, but I’m pretty sure Nagisa is the reigning queen of visual novel cash.

By: breaka666

breaka666 — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:16:26 +0000

@Dan – for a book? how the hell do they stay in business?

By: DanChiSao

DanChiSao — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:21:38 +0000

As someone who has played quite a few VNs, if the story were ruined for me, I probably wouldn’t buy them anymore. The thing is, if you know you won’t play if you already know the story, you tend to avoid watching the videos; so, the majority of people will just avoid watching them.

The developers could also consider adding some other sort of physical merchandise to the game purchase to entice people to still buy it like collector’s editions do here. I mean Jesus Christ those games are expensive over there, we’re talking the equivalent of $80-120 US for some of them. It’s ridiculous.

By: Oyashiro

Oyashiro — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:21:44 +0000

It’s the group of people, the Otakus that they are pissing off. These are the type of people that issue death threats and stalk developers if they do something not to there liking with the characters they like. They buy VNs even after watching it being played 5 times in a row. You don’t mess with them.

By: darthgibblet

darthgibblet — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:05:03 +0000

Even for Heavy Rain, a portion of the game was the controls. That’s really not the case for games that are entirely menu-driven. While I don’t really agree with the decision and it has yet to be seen what kind of impact it’ll have, I can definitely understand where they’re coming from. Like Breaka said, there’s not really any gameplay to this type of game. Nobody’s playing them for the awesome menu mechanic.

By: breaka666

breaka666 — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:37:27 +0000

@oyashiro – I’m not so sure that they are. it’s not like lookin up gameplay of an action game or an rpg, in most visual novels all you do is read. it would be like showin gameplay vids of Heavy Rain, not much point in buyin if you know the story.