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Koihime Muso, A Shot in the Dark

By Gaudy6523 1 year, 4 months ago

Koihime Muso, A Shot in the Dark

Manga Gamer, being the forerunner of commercial visual novel localizations, has developed a firm reputation for maintaining communication with the desires of their fanbase and doing everything possible to keep people informed. Unfortunately this is one of those times such close ties have come back to bite them in the rear. With the continued delays of their upcoming game Koihime Musuo, a very loose retelling of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the word on the street has degenerated into an “any news is good news” mantra, but today the Manga Gamer Staff Blog dropped a bomb: the game will not be voiced.

In Japan, visual novels are without a doubt one of the domineering forces in the anime/manga industry, and probably one of the few that can consistently roll a profit. In America, not so much… according to the Manga Gamer Staff Blog, due to the extensive cast (roughly twenty-five voiced characters) and subsequent amount of royalties that would need to be paid, the game will be released without voices in order to cut costs. Nexton, the parent company of BaseSon whom the Koihime franchise belongs to, financed the localization of this project and has been cited as the source of this decision. Apparently, Manga Gamer’s current sales record didn’t impress them enough to justify such an investment.

But all is not lost! With the obvious outcry from the community impending, Manga Gamer has managed secure a deal with Nexton. Should they manage to sell 2,000 copies of Koihime, Nexton will provide a voice patch for the game, free of charge. As an apology to their fans, Manga Gamer has lowered the price of Koihime from the original €44.95 to €39.95, adding that the decision is now in the hands of their fans.

Not being familiar with the franchise outside of the god-awful anime that just keeps coming back for more, I can’t say just how significant this news might end up being. Manga Gamer has been talking about Koihime for the better part of a year now with delays for just about as long. Now on the verge of finally releasing the demo for the game, they drop this bombshell. Of course Koihime is also the first of their games to feature an actual game element so that might help to boost sales to the 2,000 mark. Being a fan of the Da Capo series, I do hope that this incident doesn’t hurt Manga Gamer, since I really want my Da Capo II.

Source: Manga Gamer Staff Blog