Ryu 15 Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 (edited) JAST's Anime Expo Panel Close your eyes. Now imagine yourself at AX 2012. It’s late at night. You’re tired from a long day of running from panel to panel and scouring the exhibit hall for that missing manga volume you just can’t seem to find at Barnes & Noble. You pass by the programming rooms, and then you see it. A line. A line at 10:30 at night wrapping its way around the corridor. This is the line to Jast USA’s 18+ panel. And it is a fun one. Playing to a full crowd, Phil (aka “Makoto”) did a great job of being equally self-aware and informative, teasing the crowd with scintillating images paired with some clever wordplay. After going over a brief history of the visual novel distributing company, Phil went over a few of the games that came out around AX 2011, releases from the past year, and a few titles to expect in the near future. Titles covered included strategy game Aselia the Eternal and the fun and light-hearted My Girlfriend is the President. Phil described My Girlfriend as a game about “Japan and Russia going to nuclear war over your body.” Phil also gave the crowd a quick demonstration of their latest release, School Days HQ, available in limited amounts at the convention itself and soon to be available online. Different from other visual novels, School Days HQ doesn’t just show still images while dialogues take place, but instead has 13 GBs of fully animated videos. The game plays like a sexy (and sometimes horrifying) choose-your-own-adventure. The animated dialogues are good, but the mouths don’t always match up with the dialogue. Scenes with snow and rain effects, as well as fast moving objects like trains and cars, look like true anime. Characters walking and talking, and the choice of camera angles and the general direction of the videos add to the anime vibe of the game. Phil also showed off the choices system, where dialogue choices include the ability to stay silent, called “time out.” In the particular scene shown, choosing to not say or do anything came to a bloody and horrible end. Overall the game looks more impressive than most visual novels I’ve seen. The fully animated scenes and complete voice-over with subs really make the game come alive. After the quick School Days HQ demo, Phil went through a good collection of upcoming games. A few include: From Nitro +, Starminegirl should be out by the end of the year. The game is about an amnesiac who dies and goes to heaven. There, he meets god in the form of a kindergarten kid that lets the dead amnesiac relive his life over and over so he can re-do the choices he made in life. From the creator of Bible Black comes Starless. Not much was said about the game other than it won’t be out for awhile. Yumina the Ethereal was introduced with a trailer, showing chibi characters battling it out in turn-based RPG style. The game is currently in testing and will be released fairly soon. The big announcement of the night was for the newly announced Trample On Schatten!!, a Kamen Rider-style game where epic heroes fight evil with the power of love. This game was described as being full of epic transformations and hot blooded heroes. Translation on the game started later this month. Source -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nothing we didn't know already besides the new game, it's a shame that there are no news of Seinarukana. Edited July 1, 2012 by Ryu Link to post Share on other sites
Chipp12 10 Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 So no news about the other games from Nitroplus? And they are already translated, for the god's sake! Well, it looks like Nitroplus are slowing all the progress again... Link to post Share on other sites
Clouddy 10 Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I found this bit about Jast's Nitro+ game talk at the panel: Two of the announced Nitro+ games Saya no Uta (a psychological horror themed game featuring Hikaru Midorikawa playing the lead character) and Hanachirasu (an alternate history samurai game) have their translations finished but are being worked on by Nitro+ itself so as to ensure the release is compatible with today’s computers since those two are older releases. This will probably take a while since Nitro+’s first priorities will be their at home releases in Japan. Another Nitro+ game, Sumaga, however is being worked on by JAST and may release at the end of the year (though that’s a very big “may”). The last of the Nitro+ games for English license, Outlaw Django (a western style game featuring cowgirl elves (definitely looking forward to this) is still being translated. Finally, the rumors of a Steins;Gate localization have proven to just be rumors. Link to post Share on other sites
Nightbird 10 Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 star mine girl looks really good. Cant wait for its release. Link to post Share on other sites
Chipp12 10 Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Strange thing that I can't see any news on Kikokugai since, maybe, it's announcement. Also thanks about the news on the other titles, Clouddy. Link to post Share on other sites
Clouddy 10 Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Strange thing that I can't see any news on Kikokugai since, maybe, it's announcement. Also thanks about the news on the other titles, Clouddy. Yeah, that bit was about as much as I could find as to whats going on with Nitro's titles/why a few are translated but taking so long for release. Wish I could give you some information on Kikokugai! I'll keep looking and asking around though, since I'm curious myself. Link to post Share on other sites
Chipp12 10 Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Blick Winkel The rumors Makoto was referring to are the rumors that their new license announcement would be Steins;Gate. It was actually Trample on Schatten. If you would check JAST's twitter, which is run by Makoto, there are a couple of entries referring to the progress (or lack of progress) with their negotiations with 5pb. That's what he answered. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts