MoeNovel has announced that they are releasing the animated visual novel If My Heart Had Wings for the Nintendo Switch on September 5th. The game, developed by PULLTOP, was originally relesed by MoeNovel back in 2013 for PC and later for iOS/Android.
Set in the breezy, laid back town of Kazegaura, watch as these students come of age in their unique environment and experience the ups and downs in the journey towards their dream.
They story follows Aoi Minase who returns with shattered dreams to his wind-swept hometown of Kazegaura. There, atop a hill lined with wind turbines, he encounters a wheelchair-bound girl, Kotori Habane, and a beautiful, white glider soaring through the sky. Together, they decide to revive their school’s defunct Soaring Club in order to ride the “Morning Glory”, a phantom cloud carried on the wind that blows across Kazegaura.
This is a tale of youth, a tale of boys and girls who loved the sky.
The visual novel is fully voiced. Japanese, English, and Simplified Chinese are supported.
If My Heart Had Wings is already available in the Nintendo eShop for pre-load and is on an early bird 10% off sale. Right now the game costs $22.69 CAD instead of the regular $25.19.
Ah, prom; its a time for excitement, a time for bonding with your fellow classmates and a time for anxiety. This can be especially true if you happen to be a monster! What is a monster to do about finding a date for the big event? Well, that is where you, the player, come in. Monster Prom, brought to you by Those Awesome Guys and Beautiful Glitch, puts you, and if desired, your friends in the position of a young monster looking for their last minute date for prom! Can you whoo the monster of your dreams? or will your future be bleak and horrific? Which one of your friends can be successful at finding love?
As stated above, Monster Prom is both a single player dating sim and a multiplayer competitive dating sim. How did Beautiful Glitch make a dating sim competitive you may ask? Well that is one of the things that make this game one of a kind. First, let’s go over the general gameplay
There are three times you perform actions in the game per day. In the morning you choose a class to attend (or maybe you choose to party or skip class if you’re really a rebel); at noon you decide where to sit at lunch and in the evening once again you choose a class or to goof off. Depending on the classes you pick in the morning and evening, you can raise one of your character’s stats. You can also choose to go to the shop and buy an item to help increase a stat. These stats include Smarts, Charm, Money, Fun, Boldness and Creativity. These will help you be desirable to one of the games wonderful bachelors or bachelorettes. Some events will also help you bond with certain monsters, but if you make the wrong choices interacting with them, it could drive them away from you. Over the course of a number of weeks, depending on if you want to play the short or long version of the game, you must increase the right stats and make the right choices to get your dream date.
Multiplayer comes into play by allowing opposing players to affect certain players standings with certain monsters. You can also block opposing players from going to classes that you see will raise a stat they are trying to raise. You also have a chance to steal first player by playing a short debate game where you are asked to name something like an object, movie or even brand and then are asked a question such as “which object would be the strangest to use as a sex toy?” and the winner of the debate would take first player. If no conclusion can be reached, you can also click the “random” button to randomly select a first player.
After some time of going back and forth, you then each decide who to ask on a date. The winner is the one who successfully gets the date or its a tie if both or neither do.
So, the most important part of any dating sim are the eligible dates. So, how are the options? Well, its best if you don’t take these characters too seriously. The dates are played in a very tongue and cheek manner. You have Liam, the hipster vampire for instance, who is a very hyperbolic example of the hipster trope and only cares about irony, art and food photography. You also have Polly, the ghost who is the “afterlife” of the party and does copious amounts of drugs and only wants to have fun. Miranda is a Princess with a slightly sadistic streak to her when it concerns her enemies and commoners who is a clear play on Disney princesses. There is the werewolf Scott who is a real puppy of a sweetheart and the dumb athlete stereotype which was meant to be a joke on the movie Teen Wolf. You can chose Damien LeVay, the touch anti authority demon who pulls no punches and always ready to fight. Vera is the eligible gorgon who is all about good business and money.
None of these characters is particularly more than their tropes. This game is very light hearted and silly and really, I suggest playing through all the characters just to enjoy all the writing and humor. I did not feel connected strongly to any of the characters, but the banter and situations kept me interested. I actually found myself more interested in the outcast characters (the ones who you can not chose to date until you meet certain conditions) like the witch coven, the shopkeeper or the slayer than my first potential dates.
Overall, Monster Prom is a very fun time with cute art, fun gameplay, amusing writing and just over all a silly short game to enjoy by yourself or with friends. If you’re looking for something different, pick this up and enjoy the monster mash.
Soulless Wonder is on Kickstarter (http://kck.st/2nMZPwf) and it’s one of the most unique visual novels you’ll ever play! Featuring an absolutely twisted story about a cursed bard who desperately wants his soul back in his body, the game sees players venturing the wilds and trying to convince various monster girls to fall in love with our hero. Failing to do so doesn’t end in a game over however. The epic tale encourages gamers to continue forward even if some of the girls even grow to hate Lantz. With multiple endings and lots of choices to make throughout the adventure, there’s a lot to see here.
The game isn’t preachy or political, but it does take a look at some serious issues of today. Lantz himself suffers from mental health issues that are only made worse when he comes across an Eldritch horror possessed girl that he must romance. Other topics include a trans character who is involved because we wanted to tell their story, and not a way to be current or edgy. Another character is abused by her family with no hope of escaping the nightmare without help from Lantz. Further themes involve a succubus who is so terrible at harvesting souls that she is bullied constantly by her fellow kind. There’s a lot going on in this world and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. After all, the first character you meet is a cute and cuddly fox girl… who happens to be the last of her kind after Lantz’s girlfriend and Paladin Queen of the kingdom annihilated her entire tribe.
It’s huge, and we hope you’ll join us on this journey. There’s a ton of information over on the Kickstarter page. The team is looking for $37,000 Canadian to fund their game. So aproximately $5.50 US. Considering there are three people working on the game, not to mention the voice cast, that’s quite reasonable for a years worth of work.
We’re getting close to the release of the Soulless Wonder Kickstarter. It’s a wonderful game drawn by past Marvel and Dark Horse comics artist Rod Espinosa! The story itself is quite deep too. Gamers help make decisions of Lantz, a bard who is cursed to have to date Monster Girls. It’s a comical adventure but also takes on some very serious issues as well!
It’s an important game to Darkain Arts and we hope you’ll give it a look. Covering topics like mental health, bullying, and even transgender issues hasn’t been an easy task, but the writing is top notch. The game isn’t preachy. It’s about building relationships and getting to know each of the games complex characters.
Inspired by the conversation mechanics of NIS America titles but with lots of decisions like a Telltale Games adventure, Soulless Wonder is an ironically titled game that’s full of spirit.
There’s lots more to come on this fantastic new title so stay tuned. If you’re a Steam user, be sure to vote! It costs nothing to vote yes. It’s a poll and it shows your support for this title. The game is still in development after all.
Sister site Darkain Arts Gamers has released their very first game on Steam Greenlight and it’s a doozy! Lantz is a cursed bard who has to adventure out beyond his kingdom to try to convince monster girls to fall in love with him. Why? Because the Paladin Queen of the kingdom shattered his soul and it’s the only way to restore his spirit to his body!
Lantz can try to romance eight different characters ranging from a fox girl, zombie, slime girl, goblin, succubus, and even an eldritch horror inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft to name a few.
Inspired by companies like Telltale Games and NIS America, Soulless Wonder is a dating sim with meaningful choices to make and complex characters to get to know. Even more amazing, Rod Espinosa of The Courageous Princess fame is doing the artwork! He’s working for companies such as Marvel and Dark Horse comics in the past, as well as being nominated for both an Eisener and Ignatz award! The news just keeps getting better with composer Joel Steudler creating the music for the game. He’s best known for creating music packs with Degica for RPG Maker in recent years.
World of Darkness creators White Wolf have returned to the realm of video games with a pair of interactive stories available on Steam, iOS and Android devices. Modeled after the old “choose your own adventure” stories from the 80s & 90s either Vampire The Masquerade: We Eat Blood and Mage The Awakening: Refuge provide players with a certain degree of autonomy with regards to how each tale unfolds.
White Wolf CEO Tobias Sjogren had this to say about these latest digital titles:
“We know we can create great entertainment as well as serve the responsibility any content creators have helping the audience reflect on the world around them. These games show we are keen on trying new formats and that stories in World of Darkness doesn’t shy away from tough questions or contemporary issues.”
White Wolf Publishing was formally a subsidiary of Eve Online developer CCP games before being sold to publisher Paradox Interactive in October of 2015. Mage The Awakening: Refugee and Vampire The Masquerade: We Eat Blood represent the first time in over a decade that World of Darkness has been brought to life in digital form. Both interactive stories are available as a bundle for $10.99 CDN.
With titles like No Man’s Sky just being released this week, you’d figure it would be difficult to be anyone else. That’s not the case with Acttil Steam release of Ray Gigant which is still holding strong on the popular new releases list. Originally released for the PlayStation Vita, the game sees players tackling a visual novel story with dungeon crawling elements included. If that isn’t enough to grab your attention, the story feels like an interesting mix between Neon Genesis Evangelion (without the mecha) and almost a Percy Jackson vibe as you join with others who have powers given by a mysterious power known as Yorigami. Potentially you could even compare it to Pacific Rim with how the aliens just pop up and are classified. The characters are part of a school which seems to just be there to support these gifted individuals to fight back against these aliens who are called Gigants.
Combat in the game itself is turn based and the story itself plays out very well between the cast. At least the bit I’ve played so far doesn’t feel sluggish which I really appreciated for a more action based title. I’m really digging the feel of the story and clearly it’s piqued Steam users curiosity as well. That and the artwork is just beautiful! Both in battle and overall.
When you combine that with the fact that the game is 40% off until August 17th, it’s certainly a risk worth taking. The only complaint I’ve heard so far is so possibly some issues with the music not syncing up with the rhythm game section some battles have, but even that doesn’t seem to be a major issue. At $17.99 USD, it’s been a fun ride so far and I’ll be releasing a review in the coming future.
Sekai is teaming with Vifth Floor to bring military dating sim action to all of you! If you like fighting aliens, cute girls or VN’s your going to want to check out this all new release.
Love is just a sand dune away, but first it is time to give these alien invaders their “Just Deserts!” Sekai Project, a publisher and licenser of Japanese new media and electronic entertainment, in partnership with Vifth Floor, today announced the military-themed action dating sim, Just Deserts is now available on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This game is really mostly about getting cute girls to love you. It does have some plot and a little action, but its a VN through and through.
But like plot?
YAh its got a plot, in case your not just here for the cute girl. Sekai says
“In Just Deserts players will step into the combat boots of a soldier who must defend Aquarine City, after the neighboring city of Quentine was obliterated by a mysterious race of alien invaders. Assigned to a troop of highly-skilled and dangerously captivating girls, players will set out to save humankind and maybe even capture the heart of their dream girl(s) in the process.”
The plot is about aliens invading earth, and of course there are some cute girls to fight them off, and you need to do things for the cute girls.
You said fighting aliens?
Honestly I give exactly 0 craps about what the game is about, I am literally just here for the cute girls. In case you really do care, here is a list of features. With a wide spectrum of fun activities to engage in, a robust management system, hundreds of in-game items to use and collect, turn-based battles, and more, Just Desertswill keep players enlisted and engaged for countless hours.
Just Deserts Features:
5 unique heroines with different personalities and interests
Full English voice acting for each heroine
3 in-game languages (English, Indonesian, and Japanese)
7 different endings, based on your status with each of the heroines
Interactive and engaging turn-based battles with the invading aliens
List of activities which can be done alone or together with your favorite heroine
Management system with energy, health, money, day/night time, and love status
Hundreds of items to use as gifts, food, or aide in battle
Mini-map that allows players to travel across the desert area and within the city
A beautiful soundtrack composed by Ecky from the Vesuvia Circle
Steam Trading Cards and Achievements
So get out there and date the cute girls, because in celebration of the highly-anticipated release, Just Deserts will be 10% off of its regularly listed price of $9.99 for the first week!
If you know me, you know I am no stranger to Visual Novels (VN’s). I write news about them. I review them. My steam is full of them! So obviously I love VN’s. I am obviously not the only one who is an admirer of the medium. Degica has decided to bring the experience of creating Visual Novels to Steam this summer.
The Makers
Degica is no stranger to maker games, being responsible for the massive RPG maker series so loved by amateur game programmers. So i makes sense that they would publish a similar tool for Visual Novels. Degica describes the new game as “their latest installment to the ‘Maker’ series of game development tools”. Now as far as I know this is one of only two of their tools, but hopefully its a step in a direction towards a world where Degica has a ton of maker tools. I would love to see FPS maker 2016, or similar things. Now this Tokyo-based publisher specializing in localizing Japanese games for the global market is expanding to allow you to make your own!
The tool
Visual Novel Maker is Degica’s answer to the new, exploding demand for VN content from the US. According to Degica, it features:
Beautiful, free to use assets to get you started.
Dynamic creation tools aimed for artists and writers.
Scripting and Extension for user-integrated functionality.
Live2D and voice sync support.
Multiple resolution support.
Multiple exporting options.
Easy Game Localization tool.
The game will launch this Autumn on Steam, and fans can expect it to cost around 20USD$.
I hope that this tool is as easy to use as RPG maker, ill be reaching out to Degica in the coming weeks to see if we can get our hands on a review copy, which I am sure I will want to play with extensively, and then bring you a review!
Publisher Sekai Project has released a new trailer for their upcoming visual novel Highway Blossoms to celebrate the game’s release this past Friday. Set in an old gold rush valley town located in the US, Highway Blossoms tells the story of the budding romance between Amber and the lost hitchhiker Marina.
In terms of features, Highway Blossoms features around six hours of gameplay, handpainted backgrounds rendered in 1080p, accessibility options and the ability to skip forward if you’ve already played the game. Sekai Project also promises additional “silly content” for players who chose to experience the story more than once.
Highway Blossoms can be purchased on Steam for $9.99 CDN.
As a massive fan of Steins;Gate both in its anime and Visual Novel (VN) formats my heart skipped a beat when this mail arrived in our PR box today. For those not familiar with the anime or its primogeniture the visual novel just titled Steins;Gate it’s a story of love, and time travel, and a particular computer, or something. The real meat of the game is spoilers to the game itself so I wont spend many words on it and will just say its a really fantastic game, and an even better show so go watch it.
STEINS;GATE 0 is the sequel to Steins;Gate and will feature the same returning cast of characters, on a new adventure. Depicting an alternative world line unseen in the original STEINS;GATE STEINS;GATE 0 sees Okabe and the Future Gadget Lab members return once again in a story centered around Artificial Intelligence and the creation of ‘Amadeus’ a means of interacting with the stored memories of a fellow human being.
Stiens;Gate had some of the best story I have ever read period, and presented it in a beautiful Visual format for deeper immersion in the world. With its twists and world lines, and time travel and good and evil, I found myself wrapped up in the world and unable to stop playing for hours on end when I first played it. Even now years later, the anime is still one of my all time favorites, and I go back and play the VN at least once a year. If STEINS;GATE 0 keeps up the amazing writing and stories from the first installment I have no doubt that it will be my favorite VN this year.
If you are a fan of anime at all, this sale is going to empty your wallet. Even if you are just a fan of anime style fighting games you may be in trouble as all of the guilty gear and Blaze Blue games are also on sale! It seems like steam has really pulled out all of the stop on their anime collection. The discounts are a bit all over though, 10% on Helen’s Mysterious Castle doesnt really feel like its as good of a deal as 75% off of Chantelise. I could nitpick a whole bunch including how some of these games aren’t really anime but I am just glad to see steam featuring anything developed out side of the west.
Here is the full list if you really want it highlights include Hatoful Boyfriend for $2.49, Transformers: Devastation for $24.99 and the Mega Man Legacy Collection for $10. But if you are anything like me, that is a giant anime nerd, you probably already own at least a few of these, and the rest may be sitting on your wish list. Interestingly, also included in the sale are several Naruto movies, and as far as i can tell only Naruto movies. I didn’t even know that steam sold movies, I guess I know now.
Nekopara Volume 2 returns us to the bakery La Soleil patisserie where we last left our lovely cat girls Chocola and Vanilla. When last we left them they had reached a happy ending and were heading back to the bakery with their master Kashou Minaduki in tow. Volume 2 picks up right where volume 1 left off, our two primary cat girls are living in the bakery and things are going pretty well. Unlike the majority of the first volume, all is not well in La soleil. One of the first things we see after the game starts is a small fight between Coconut and Azuki, and Volume 2 has a lot more terms of depth than did Volume 1. We get to see some “family problems” that occur, and what can happen when you keep a harem of cute cat girls in your bakery. We get to see a bit of sibling rivalry between Azuki and Coconut with their sibling rivalry serving as a mode of conflict in the game.
Prepare to have your mind scanned and your every move recorded in the recently announced visual novel PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness published by NIS America. Based upon the popular anime series, PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness will be released in Europe and North America later this year on several platforms – PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Windows PC.
PSYCHo-PASS is set 100 years in the future where the omnipresent Sybil system monitors the mental health, stress and psychological condition of every resident of Japan. Every person is under constant surveillance 24/7. Individuals who commit violent crimes or have the potential to do so are brought to justice by the Bureau of Public Safety. Should a resident’s crime coefficient (a numerical value rating their behaviour) or hue (a visual represent of one’s mental health) reach certain values the Bureau is called into to enforce Sybil’s will, which often results in bloodshed.
Players will choose one of two new detectives who have joined the Bureau of Public Safety. Here is how NIS America describes the story:
“You must decide the best course of action for each given situation, but regardless of the hierarchy that separates Inspector from Enforcer, players must be mindful that every decision has its own repercussions. With an intricate decision-making system, PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness offers a twisted plot and compelling cases, providing a number of different endings.”
PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness was originally released in Japan exclusively on the Xbox One in May 2015. The North American and European versions are PlayStation / PC exclusive.
[youtube id=”nu5OQmiK3Mk”] Original Japanese Story Trailer From 2015
Dating Sims are a sort of game you can really just sit back and enjoy. Sometimes they play out like Visual Novels and just let you read along with the story. Otherwise like Fading Hearts give you choices as you get further in that allow you to craft the story to your liking… Or just ignore it altogether and slay monsters in the woods with Dragon Quest like combat. I’m only a little ways in so far, but it seems like a game I’ll be spending quite some time with. Especially with different choices to explore.Read More
