In the recent years I have become acquainted with visual novels. I'm an avid reader on a good day so when I discovered that I could play a game that was actually a story and I didn't need to "play" the game I'm like sign me up. So i delved into my first visual novel which was Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom on my PS3 published by Aksys Games. It was an otome game meaning that it was a reverse harem. For those not familiar with that concept it means that the main protagonist is female and she is the one surrounded by gorgeous men who are trying to woo her. Needless to say, the game had all of the typical anime tropes as well as a bit of history, although not entirely factual, along with romance. It took me hours to finish that game and it was worth every second.
Fast forward to now. I have managed to play 4 other visual novels that were all on the Vita. There is at least one that I know of that is coming out this year but I haven't heard of too many more. From my research there are a ton of visual novels on Steam which is probably the only reason why I would explore PC gaming but even those have to be fan translated into English. I also tried to play one of the many mobile offerings but those are pay to progress which I refuse to spend my money on (read: again lol).
I guess my question about it is why is that the case? I suppose the reason for it would be that there isn't an audience for it here but I disagree. We want these games but they just aren't coming out as frequently as they other titles and genres from Japan. My only other thought is that because they are so text heavy that they have been having issues justifying the cost of localization for a few thousand sales. I already play a ton of games with only Japanese voices so to me they don't even need to be voiced in English.
Are visual novels not really wanted in the West? Are they only for weeaboos like me? What can we do to get them to bring over more titles besides supporting kickstarters and complaining on official forums? Let me know what you guys think?
Until next time,
Drea Poetic
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All images are owned by Aksys games.
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