/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.7103323]

Why did no one ever attempt to localize console sound novels and horror visual novels from Japan to America? Why did no one attempt one on a Gameboy when 40-year-old moms all had one to play Tetris on?

Anyone familiar with these things?
I first saw them while watching GameCenter CX and they are my favorite episodes.

[Anonymous No.7103329]

[Anonymous No.7103337]

[Anonymous No.7103340]

[Anonymous No.7103950]

>>7103323
I have to imagine translating them would be pretty hard, the language and prose used is probably more complex, and generally I don't think selling a game where you do nothing but read text would be easy to market. Kids would have no interest and adults wanted more "edgy" stuff. Interesting genre though. I've always been really curious about the Yaku games since Hideshi Hino, a famous horror manga artist, wrote both of them. There was actually someone who was making translations on youtube for the second game but they quit after a couple of videos unfortunately.

Recently discovered one called Kamaitachi No Yoru 2 and the urban legends surrounding it. If you complete the game and get all four endings there a chance that, upon starting a new file, the game will begin to go apeshit. The screen glitches out and you're given a bunch of nonsense answers. Selecting one makes a random event play out. All the events seem to be bizarre rants from a developer talking about christ, murder, them being hospitalized, and other really bizarre shit. No one know if this is some developer's weird joke or if it ties into the game in some way. it's weird because, from what I'm reading about it, the series seems to more be murder mysteries then actual horror.

Got to say, it genuinely did spook me a bit when I first saw it. Whoever made these did a good job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP6A2aRt9Cg

[Anonymous No.7103957]

>>7103340
Oh, I'm pretty sure the creator of this one also made >>7103950 , I think these were really popular for some time and Chunsoft made a number of them. Japan really loves their murder mysteries.

[Anonymous No.7104168]

>>7103323
Cause people want to play GAMES on their GAME machine, not books. It wouldn't sell well and it would get panned. Just look at any shmup review.

PS1 novels were more like adventure games or arthouse shit, and that traditionally belonged to PC at the time.
And with novels being tropey as fuck by the PS2 era, even more people would be offput with it. And the target audience would probably be more satisfied in ordering the DVD for the many anime adaptations of PS2 era novels.

And the most important factor, the western kids and teens who would probably buy these were into COOL shit like fucking hookers for HP and robbing their money in GTA 3, and everyone knows reading is hella gay. This is also partly why the Gamecube failed, because it was a purple lunchbox with kid friendly gaymes.

[Anonymous No.7105819]

Bump

[Anonymous No.7105838]

>>7103323
Translation is hard, and sound novels aren't very popular to begin with. Anyone who would be interested in this kind of stuff in the west is almost certainly going to pirate it, too.

[Anonymous No.7105851]

I would like to play the Twilight Syndrome games in english.

[Anonymous No.7106192]

>>7103957
otogirisou and the kamaitachi no yoru games share producer and development/distribution company but the personnel are changed up, most importantly different writers. kamaitachi no yoru (the first one) was really popular and sold well, probably the most widely known novel game there is. in my experience even japanese normies (30s and up) will usually know/remember the game, particularly if they grew up with a super famicom. otogirisou is probably second in terms of name recognition.

the games genres/themes are a bit different, otogirisou being a more straightforward "haunted mansion" horror set of stories. there's a lot of different scenarios in it that can be accessed by multiple playthroughs (multiple choice selections during game) and the happenings change greatly between them. overall it's a lot more goofy and gag-filled than one might expect before playing. the games in kamaitachi no yoru series have a murder mystery scenerio as the main scenario that you must play through before getting access to a wide variety of other scenarios. this presents an extra game element that isn't typically in other novel games, in that you have to at some point type out the name of the killer to properly beat the game. sadly my first time experiencing the first game was watching someone play it so i wasn't able to use my sleuthing skills and figure out the killer myself lol. after beating that scenario you get access to a bunch of other scenarios where the themes and setting can change greatly: like a spy scenario, a true slasher/horror scenario, a ghost/monster scenario, a perverted/gag scenario, easter egg-ish scenarios, etc. because the game is simply comprised of text, some audio files, some pictures, and a few visual effects, the volume is enormous.

[Anonymous No.7106205]

>>7106192
>>7103957
also i've noticed on the english side of the internet i seems that a, or maybe a few scenarios in kamaitachi no yoru 2 (and to an extent a scenario in kamaitachi no yoru 1) are getting some attention, probably from a youtube video covering them. i want to experience it firsthand so i'm trying my best to avoid seeing too much info on it (so i skipped reading your second paragraph here >>7103950 no offense lol).

[Anonymous No.7106224]

>>7106205
None taken, thanks for the info. I'm an EOP so I don't really have any chance of playing these but I do find them interesting to research. I find Japanese forum culture interesting, I feel like a lot cool topics like that sadly get no coverage. I believe you're right about some eceleb covering the story, that's probably why I saw the topic in the first place, but not sure who.

[Anonymous No.7106252]

>>7103323
I wanted Twilight Syndrom and Moonlight Syndrome games translated long before I played The Silver Case. Now I want to play them even more

[Anonymous No.7106324]

>>7106224
it's not much, but for EOPs but there IS a kamaitachi no yoru 1 english translated port on iOS renamed Banshee's Last Cry. You can see it logged in under releases here: https://vndb.org/v1241.. i can't attest to the quality of it, there might be some reliable reviews of it though if you run through a search engine.

i think on the japanese side of the internet these old novel games have been getting a little burst of interest again thanks to let's play/streamers using them for engaging streaming material. come to think of it that's where i became aware of the big ones like the chunsoft titles.

>I find Japanese forum culture interesting, I feel like a lot cool topics like that sadly get no coverage.
i think that's true. however if it's any consolation, most japanese can't into english and feel the english side of the internet impenetrable so the feelings are 100% reciprocated lol.