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NEWS: MangaGamer Licenses Higurashi Hou, Myth Visual Novels


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GiriOni



Joined: 10 Aug 2012
Posts: 218
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 9:44 pm Reply with quote
YES! Happiness x1000!
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MetalUpa1014



Joined: 24 Aug 2013
Posts: 283
Location: USA
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 9:44 pm Reply with quote
This is great! But that pricing model is killer though. It's going to be $84 for everything if all the chapters are priced that way. I have to also wonder how long it's going to take.

Fantastic that they've included the updated graphics. Wish there was voice acting though.
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Angel Investor





PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:12 pm Reply with quote
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'm happy to have an official English release for all Higurashi story arcs with new sprites, but on the other hand I think it's completely unnecessary and inconvenient to have them released one chapter at a time. I know the chapters are very long to read through, but that does not excuse releasing 14 individual titles when they were all compiled into one in the original Japanese version of Ho.
Secondly, why only Steam? The Japanese version had a PS3 and Vita versions.
I really hope Mangagamer comes to their senses and releases the game the way it should be released, otherwise I won't support them by buying the game. This is a very clumsy way to handle what would normally be fantastic news to the fans of the series.
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FlamingFirewire



Joined: 03 Jun 2013
Posts: 461
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:30 pm Reply with quote
YES! This is what I was hoping they would announce - very glad to see the rest of the stories get translated. PLUS, we are finally going to see the original music in the game.

While the price may be "killer" at $84 dollars with all the chapters if each of the 14 are $5.99USD, the TL cost are immense for something so immense that they are also putting a ton of work into (new engine for higher res sprites both original and new, plus the ability to switch between ENG and JPN). PLUS, with the release schedule for each episode so far out, the price is really not even close to unreasonable.

They could have gone the extra mile and licensed the voice work from the console versions, but I'm betting those costs would have bankrupted them considering the length.

I really hope this does well for them as it is definitely going to take a lot of work and dedication from them to release all of the 14 CHs in the quality that they are now targeting with their new TL.
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doubleO7



Joined: 17 Jul 2009
Posts: 1068
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:33 pm Reply with quote
So, is this somehow different from the remastered Higurashi they've had in the works for awhile?

Angel Investor wrote:
Secondly, why only Steam? The Japanese version had a PS3 and Vita versions.
I really hope Mangagamer comes to their senses and releases the game the way it should be released, otherwise I won't support them by buying the game. This is a very clumsy way to handle what would normally be fantastic news to the fans of the series.

MangaGamer is strictly PC-only. They've never done console games before. There was no reason to think they were going to start now.

You might as well get mad at every English VN publisher ever for neglecting platforms other than PC. There have literally only been a handful of such titles released on consoles and handhelds in the West... ever, and it's only something that really started to happen within the past few years. Hardly a common practice (or even expected, for that matter) at this point.

Quote:
The game will be available via Steam as both an adult game and an all-ages game.

Say what? Shocked


Last edited by doubleO7 on Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5521
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:36 pm Reply with quote
fan translations for higurashi hou took like 6 months. I imagine that's because most of it was older content, but it still applies....a long wait for the original stories shouldn't happen.

At first I thought the price was pretty high but the first 8 chapters have 100 hours of "gameplay" between them for 47.92 USD isn't bad at all. They would have to sell the rest of quite a bit less though since there's less content in them. Right now VNs (on Steam and mangagamer) are averaging around 20 dollars for 10 hours of content so 50 dollars for 100 hours is pretty awesome.
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FlamingFirewire



Joined: 03 Jun 2013
Posts: 461
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:48 pm Reply with quote
doubleO7 wrote:
So, is this somehow different from the remastered Higurashi they've had in the works for awhile?

Angel Investor wrote:
Secondly, why only Steam? The Japanese version had a PS3 and Vita versions.
I really hope Mangagamer comes to their senses and releases the game the way it should be released, otherwise I won't support them by buying the game. This is a very clumsy way to handle what would normally be fantastic news to the fans of the series.

MangaGamer is strictly PC-only. They've never done console games before. There was no reason to think they were going to start now.

You might as well get mad at every English VN publisher ever for neglecting platforms other than PC. There have literally only been a handful of such titles released on consoles and handhelds in the West... ever, and it's only something that really started to happen within the past few years. Hardly a common practice (or even expected, for that matter) at this point.

Quote:
The game will be available via Steam as both an adult game and an all-ages game.

Say what? Shocked


The last part of the article refers to the other VN that they licensed - MYTH - , and not Higurashi.

EDIT: I wonder now that we're going to see the entirety of the existing Higurashi VN content, as well as with the complete(?) release of the manga in English, if an enterprising anime company would be willing to release the rest of Higurashi, Kai, Rei, etc. on DVD and/or BD for the respective series now...


Last edited by FlamingFirewire on Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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FlamingFirewire



Joined: 03 Jun 2013
Posts: 461
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:52 pm Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:
fan translations for higurashi hou took like 6 months. I imagine that's because most of it was older content, but it still applies....a long wait for the original stories shouldn't happen.


Considering how piss-poor the original release of the game was, I wouldn't be surprised if following Chapters after the first still take a while to be released. Afterall, they still have to re-translate and edit the other 13 chapters now as well as make new sprites for all of the future chapters (also not taking into account the programming required for this new version).

If I had to guess, we'll probably see MangaGamer release the 14th chapter sometime in 2017-2018 at the current pace. I'm REALLY hoping it's faster than that, but that would be my guess at this point.
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partially



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 702
Location: Oz
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 10:54 pm Reply with quote
doubleO7 wrote:
So, is this somehow different from the remastered Higurashi they've had in the works for awhile?


Yeah the article is quite confusing. From what I can tell it is just what Mangagamer has had in the works for about a year now in regards to Steam. This is not a new license, so dunno why the article seems to think it is.

The Steam page for Onikakushi has already been around for 3-4 months.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/310360/
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FlamingFirewire



Joined: 03 Jun 2013
Posts: 461
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:02 pm Reply with quote
partially wrote:
doubleO7 wrote:
So, is this somehow different from the remastered Higurashi they've had in the works for awhile?


Yeah the article is quite confusing. From what I can tell it is just what Mangagamer has had in the works for about a year now in regards to Steam. This is not a new license, so dunno why the article seems to think it is.

The Steam page for Onikakushi has already been around for 3-4 months.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/310360/


The license refers to getting the additional chapters beyond the original 8 that they had previously licensed.

Hou is an amalgam of all of the original and extra chapters that were written for the game plus an original chapter. This new license now confirms/announces that:

- We will actually see all of the extra Higurashi VN content beyond the original 8 CHs in ENG (we did not know this before!)
- That we will get the original BGM where MangaGamer previously said we might not (their original release of the games had a different and very small BGM vs. the original JPN games).

If you read the original blog entry, it should make things sufficiently clear for you:
http://blog.mangagamer.org/2015/04/03/anime-boston-announcements/#more-9074


Last edited by FlamingFirewire on Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:03 pm Reply with quote
doubleO7 wrote:
Quote:
The game will be available via Steam as both an adult game and an all-ages game.

Say what? Shocked
The article's wrong - MangaGamer's reserving the R18 version for their website.

But Steam does now have an AO-rated game on it, even if it was because of "context" of violence(Hatred just offended the ESRB that badly - the violence in the trailers isn't beyond M level), and Valve let the HuniePop devs get away with making the ero content hidden behind what was essentially a hidden setting, so I'm not sure where the limits are anymore. I'm fairly certain Mangagamer isn't going to be the one to push them, since they almost always sell R18 and all ages versions as separate products.
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partially



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 702
Location: Oz
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:15 pm Reply with quote
@FlamingFirewire, thanks for clearing that up! I thought it might be additional chapters but was unsure.

Polycell wrote:
I'm fairly certain Mangagamer isn't going to be the one to push them, since they almost always sell R18 and all ages versions as separate products.


Well all the VN publishers do really, JAST is the same with their release of Littlewitch Romanesque today. It is just that the companies rarely brought across all-ages VN games until recently.


Last edited by partially on Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:19 pm; edited 1 time in total
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AsherFischell



Joined: 24 Feb 2014
Posts: 327
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:16 pm Reply with quote
I was super excited for a few seconds until I saw no mention of voice acting. Well, maybe one day.
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FlamingFirewire



Joined: 03 Jun 2013
Posts: 461
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:40 pm Reply with quote
AsherFischell wrote:
I was super excited for a few seconds until I saw no mention of voice acting. Well, maybe one day.


I'm sure someone will make a fan patch to implement the voice acting from the console versions sometime down the line - hope we can see the voices someday as well though. At least we got the original music this time around...
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heliodorh



Joined: 31 Mar 2015
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 7:27 am Reply with quote
I am so friggin' stoked!!!
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