"Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom" announced for North American release!

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

"Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom" for PSP announced for North American release! I'm watching the Anime Expo Aksys panel liveblogged now, check it out here:
Event is over but you can still check out the news here:
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/07/02/aksys-anime-expo-liveblog-starts-now/
And chat about it here:
http://angemedia.chatango.com/ :3
Can't say I want to play this game, [I don't need ANGST in my otome games :/] but maybe I'll go for it anyways. There will be both a normal and special edition to go for, and it will be available on PSN too. I think it was mentioned that it was tied to an anime too, has that been officially released in the west? I'm so behind on popular anime XD
Also announced was "Fate/Extra", don't know much about the series, but I think it's popular ^^;

I was a little disappointed when the liveblog mentioned "Second game is set in the feudal era of Japan and has ridiculously hot men?!", while I'm listening to Harukanaru music, and hoping for Hiiro no Kakera |D Oh well, maybe something good will come out of this if these sell well.

*edit*
more info on Hakuoki here - http://www.siliconera.com/2011/07/02/hakuoki-demon-of-the-fleeting-blossom-will-be-north-americas-first-otome-game/

more info on fate/extra here - http://www.siliconera.com/2011/07/02/fateextra-destined-for-release-in-north-america-this-year/

*edit edit* could there be even more otome in the works?! JList/JAST USA will also be having a panel at Anime Expo later tonight: "We’ll have complete information on our new license acquisitions at our panel at Anime Expo this weekend, Saturday July 2nd at 11:00pm, room LP3 of the Los Angeles Convention Center, including a project in the works that we think female fans will be particularly excited about." What could it be? There was mention of Starry Sky by one of the staff on SiliconEra... And there are a lot of other 18+ otome games out there too, so who knows? XD

*edit edit edit* Starry Sky officially confirmed from JAST USA! [no, it's not an 18+ game, or yaoi *smacks the liveblogger* XD] From the AX liveblog here: http://inside.anime-expo.org/games/2011-07/ax11-jast-usa/

Comments

[iverion.livejournal.com]

Darn you beat me to it XD I was just about to post about it. *is at AX too* I'm still going to buy it though. The otome game industry won't spread in America unless we support it.

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

Yea, same, I'll buy it just in hopes that something better will come later XD Wonder what they have in mind for the special edition, maybe an artbook?

[neozukin.livejournal.com]

I was exactly to say the same thing about buying xD

[indigozeal.livejournal.com]

Whenever I hear folks talk about Hakuouki, I hear the same "it's ridiculously popular"/"ehhh, don't care for it" combo. Does anyone have any info or opinions on why everyone's kinda blah on it yet everyone else can't get enough of it? (I'm totally ignorant of this series.)

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

It's full of angst; even in the good endings they die XD [I think this has to do with their basis on "rl history", but I don't know much about it]. Also there's some kind of vampiric element in there too, wtf. I just don't get the appeal :/ maybe I'm too old for this?! XD

ALSO [I need to throw this into my post], there will be some new games being announced by Jlist/Jast later today, including "a project in the works that we think female fans will be particularly excited about."
And there was mention by them earlier of Starry Sky so...who knows? Then again, it could just be a random 18+ otome title, but eh XD

[evergreen-chaos.livejournal.com]

I'm mostly interested in Hakuoki because of the artwork, the Shinsengumi, and Shinichiro Miki-sama. XD But I really don't have an opinion, since I haven't actually seen anything besides the first two episodes of the first anime season. lol Usually, I don't like otome game's anime adaptions because of the lackluster animation that's put into it or how's it's presented/handled.

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

Whoa, what, wait, stop, when the heck was Miki Shinichirou in this? D: Noooooo, I don't want to get sucked into this Hakuoki madness, I swore I wouldn't, rofl XD

[evergreen-chaos.livejournal.com]

He voices Hijikata from the Shinsengumi~ <3

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

Please tell me that's not the derpy faced guy ;>> *goes to search* Oh, phew, thank the gods it's not XD I didn't actually want to *play* this game, now look what happened, lol ^^;
...That must also mean there are some character songs to hunt for too, yay! X3

[summer-queen.livejournal.com]

I played the original on PS2 and enjoyed it immensely, even though, yes, it's angsty. I don't mind the angst, 'cause, well, I'm familiar with the Shinsengumi history and expected the darkness. The key thing for me is that they're keeping the seiyuu ... so I'll have to pick up a PSP.

No clue what Jlist might get, but I'm thrilled to hear it. And I hope both titles do better for these companies than Animamundi and Yojimbo did for Hirameki (I'd really hoped they could bring over more).

[indigozeal.livejournal.com]

It's a shame Hirameki couldn't stay in business, as Animamundi had the best translation I've seen in a game.

[summer-queen.livejournal.com]

They had a really hard time getting their games into stores. No one knew where to shelve them (I would've thought "video game section" would've been obvious, IMHO).

I really liked Animamundi and wish they could've brought Karin Entertainment's Princess Nightmare over too.

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

*is totally listing to a PN chara song right now XD* I so want to play Princess Nightmare [in English], it sucks that it never made it over :/

...I've never actually tried Animamundi, what's it like? O.o

Blah blah blah on Animamundi

[indigozeal.livejournal.com]

It's kind of a gothic take on Faust-slash-Dante's Inferno centered around alchemy with a shounen-ai slant. The main character's a young nobleman whose younger sister ran afoul of some backwater villagers who burned her at the stake for witchcraft. For some unexplained reason, she survives - but only as a head; she needs a new body grafted onto her. (Start makin' those 0_o faces now.) The only thing that can revive her is the forbidden art of alchemy - and, hey, a pact with the devil! - so off our young, Vampire Hunter D-cosplaying hero goes to the royal city of his land to hopefully learn enough dark juju to get his sister relimbed. Along the way, he can run afoul of: a dizzy inventor of steampunk robots who'd rather eat caramels than build death machines; an overly-pious swordsman with ridiculously curly hair; a Jack-the-Ripper-esque slasher; a different serial killer who slays with a kiss; a Hellfire Club where if you continue to seek admission after seeing their initiation rites, you deserve what you get; and a malevolent but ridiculously incompetent mad scientist voiced by Koyasu Takehito (see my icon). Oh, and Satan.

The gothic style and the splashes of nasty gore in spots make it not for everyone. (A taste of the artwork is available at this fansite (http://darknesseternal.50webs.com/index.html), but I think a lot of the images are down.) Despite being a shounen-ai game, it's actually quite tame in that regard; the gore, when present, is considerably more explicit. (That said, it actually *is* a dating game, of sorts; it's just that you're not explicitly told you're pursuing couplings - the game just takes you where your curiosity lies, and if you continue to pursue the attentions of the bad sorts, you'll be with them, yes, but on their terms.) I'm not fond of every decision they make - there are some ridiculous aspects to the scenario, and it revels in suffering a bit much; I wish there were an ending where everyone just got a nice chicken dinner - but it's well-acted (seiyuu are kept in the English version) and, again, very well-translated - there actually is a heck of a lot of plot.

Argh, that was more than I wanted to write. If you have a Something Awful account, someone did a quite good Let's Play of it a while ago.

Re: Blah blah blah on Animamundi

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

it seems lj has flagged this as a spam comment o.O or maybe its because you posted a link XD
Thanks for the quick[?] run-down, not sure if it's my kinda game, but maybe I'll check it out if I get bored or something XD [hey wait, wasn't this guy (http://www.nightmare.co.jp/03_character/15_mephisto.htm) from Animamundi but ended up in Princess Nightmare too? He's an awesome singer *-* rofl XD]

Re: My suspicious comments

[indigozeal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, linking to a page seems to trigger the "suspicious comment!" thing. Despite the fact that the LJ spammers don't use direct links anymore - bah.

...Oh, my god, that guy is from Animamundi. He's one of the most pathetic characters, too. Mephisto gets to cameo, and not St. Germant? Pah.

Re: My suspicious comments

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

Yea, I get stupid spam in other languages on my lj, there's usually no links, ugh ;>> It did get pretty bad at one point though, they were all over any open comm or journal D:

Awww, I think he looks cute X3 lol, and I like his character song [he's not an obtainable character though, I think he appears near the end, and I'm only like, 5 chapters into PN. I should get back to playing that. Too many games... XD]

[lite-wolf.livejournal.com]

They took one of the best Japanese period (shinsengumi), added the most popular paranormal element of the moment (vampires) and topped it with an incredibly boring and useless girl.

There is no appeal to this game other than the angst, and I don't care a thing about angst :/
And yes, I played every single ending of it, and only one was slightly interesting (Kazama) but still not enough to redeem this game ==

[evergreen-chaos.livejournal.com]

Actually, an employee of JList was asking opinions about otome games for the PC and in particular the Starry Sky series. But still... hearing about Hakuoki was a surprise and hopefully we'll hear something from JList as well... besides the 18+ eroge for men.

[mariye.livejournal.com]

Think of it this way - Hakuoki and Fate/Extra are Aksys' means of testing the waters. If they do well, the company may consider other otome games.

[mia-sailor-nova.livejournal.com]

So what, four more minutes until their panel? I might be able to stay up long enough to catch any possible news... or I might pass out...

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

Looks like about that, yea. I'm watching their liveblog thing here: inside.anime-expo.org/games/2011-07/ax11-jast-usa/

Yea, it's late, I'm glad it's the weekend so I can sleep in tomorrow XD

[mia-sailor-nova.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link!

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

No prob :3 It's starting now~

[mia-sailor-nova.livejournal.com]

Argh. I'm still waiting for something I can possibly care about.

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

you too? D: sheesh, they went overtime with this ;>> it would've been fun to spam in the ange chat while waiting for this XD

[mia-sailor-nova.livejournal.com]

HOLYSHIT

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

*img spam* lol, they had to say "all-ages"? XD This should be interesting...wish they hadn't wait until the VERY end though ;>> I don't think i could have sat through that whole panel in rl D:

[mia-sailor-nova.livejournal.com]

Me neither. I probably would have fallen asleep in my chair. @_@

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

Well that was awesome. Now I'm gonna sleep XD

[mia-sailor-nova.livejournal.com]

STARRY SKY WOO!

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

...who's the dumbass writing the liveblog? Starry Sky isn't yaoi -_-;

[evergreen-chaos.livejournal.com]

lol, I think anyone who's not familiar with otome games will label everything with tons of guys in it as a yaoi now-a-days..

[evergreen-chaos.livejournal.com]

lol yay~ so I wasn't the only one that did that? XD Even tho I have to watch soooo many children tomorrow/today. *is 2:35am for her*

[fandramon.livejournal.com]

D: oh gosh, kids drive me crazy. Have fun :p I'm in the same time zone x.x

[btamamura.livejournal.com]

STARRY SKY~~!!!!

[indigozeal.livejournal.com]

Are they using that fan translation for Starry Sky, then? I'm still wondering about JList's writing abilities in this genre.

[evergreen-chaos.livejournal.com]

As far as I've heard, there's nothing really known about Jast's decision with Starry Sky. So we don't know if they'll use the fan translation for the first game.

[eienkoe.livejournal.com]

That's so exciting!!!!
I actually also would like to play Hiiro no Kakera over Hakuouiki but oh well X)
I do, however, wish they would release the DS version of Hakuouki since I don't own a PSP.....
Starry Sky being localized is really cool too~ (though I've already played ~in Spring~) >.<
This is all wishing I could stop my time since I'm getting to the point where I think I might have to stop playing video games >.<