JAST USA Licenses Steins;Gate Visual Novel in N. America

[Mickeymac92]

Eh, I don't know, they sent me the digital key, I used it, and it works.  Maybe they mean the physical version as April 30th?

They sent the Download codes early, according to their news page: http://jastusa.com/blog/2014/02/14/steinsgate-golden-master-and-other-news/

Not entirely sure if you can get the downloads of the standard edition right away...

[Kevadu]

It seems pretty clear to me that April 30th is the release date for the standard physical edition, which was a relatively recent addition  (last I checked the limited edition was the only physical version, but I guess that changed).  They said a while back that March 31st was the release date for the download version and the limited edition.

I don't know whether or not you can get a download code now if you order the standard physical edition, but you certainly can get the download-only version.

[Mickeymac92]

I wasn't sure because I don't think the Download-only version has its own page now. Oh well, I'll have to wait until I get my first pay check before I buy anything, so I'm waiting regardless...

But good to know for those who want it now, of course.

[Holykael1]

Im getting this next month. I just hope they don't run out of limited editions in the meantime.. Ill settle for a regular boxed copy otherwise.

[Cyril]

Just thought I'd share this.

For all the localizing they did, well, it looks like they just put the site (you get linked here in-game) through google translate.
http://futuregadget-lab.us/

Edit: I realize it's likely intentional, given it says it was outright machine translated, but I still found it pretty funny.

[insertnamehere]

A bit off-topic, but that editorial about censorship in VNs made me wanna ask:
Why do visual novels without sex like this one generally get labeled as for all ages?

[Chronix112]

There are really only two categories for VNs. Those that have porn, and ones that don't. Anything that doesn't get tossed into the all general ages bracket. I don't necessarily agree with it as some of these VNs deal with content that is definitely not "all ages" material. VNs get such a negative stigma for porn that the All Ages rating is flat out telling you there is none in it.

[Andrew]

Yeah, though I didn't explain it in the editorial, All-Ages is a hilariously terrible term. I've played one or two "All-Ages" titles that are still very violent and strongly sexual, even if there aren't any actual sex scenes.

[TiamatNM]

yeah "all ages" is very misleading; what it really means is "no porn"

I'm strongly anti censorship so I disagree with the editorial.  If there is an "all ages" japanese release and they bring that over like Aselia then whatever, it's not a big deal depending on the title.  In Aselia's case the all ages actually had some new content that wasn't in the original version and I wasn't interested in the erotic content for that title, though I could understand some others may be.  The problem is when you get something like If my Heart Had Wings where the changes take out a drastic amount of content.  Admittedly I didn't look into the game myself much cause it didn't seem interesting to me but I heard the changes where pretty major with tons of CGs getting removed, kissing censorship (lol) etc. 

[Lando]

I'm hearing mixed things about If My Heart Had Wings' editing.  Some people are saying that the loss of H-content made little to no difference in the storylines and others are saying it did. 

It's like, in Mugen Souls the omitted bath house scenes made no difference.  If Agarest War 2 omitted the oil massage scenes, it would make no difference since those felt like a tacked-on afterthought. 

On the other hand, I didn't know till after the fact that Tea Society of a Witch was originally an H-game and its English release had THREE characters' storyline branches omitted. 

ASIDE: Although Crescendo's good endings are beautifully written, I actually felt that the non-H endings were often more powerful.  That being said, that game would be an absolute mess if it was ever edited. 

[Kevadu]

Frankly I find the idea that the editorial would use If My Heart Had Wings as an example of 'good' censorship completely ludicrous.  That game is absolutely censorship at its worst.  It's nothing like Mugen Souls where the cut content had little effect on the core game.  One of the character routes had to be re-written basically from scratch since the original story revolved around starting as sex friends and slowly transitioning into an actual relationship.  On top of that there are the total excesses pointed out by TiamatNM.  They really did edit things like kissing.  I mean, WTF?  Why?  It's estimated that about 50% of the CGs in the game were either cut or edited in some way.  Seriously, 50%. 

If MoeNovel wanted to release a 'clean' VN they really should have picked a different title to work with...

The editorial's defense of If My Heart Had Wings seems to be entirely based on pointed out that there are douchebags out there giving low metacritic scores to a game they haven't played.  Which might be true, but two wrongs do not make a right.  That in no way invalidates the legitimate criticisms that have been made about the game.  And the editorial doesn't even address these criticisms.  In fact it mostly just talks about games that didn't have ero content to start with...which doesn't have anything to do with censorship.  Being anti-censorship is not the same thing as advocating that all games have to have ero content.

[Chronix112]

Frankly I find the idea that the editorial would use If My Heart Had Wings as an example of 'good' censorship completely ludicrous.  That game is absolutely censorship at its worst.  It's nothing like Mugen Souls where the cut content had little effect on the core game.  One of the character routes had to be re-written basically from scratch since the original story revolved around starting as sex friends and slowly transitioning into an actual relationship.  On top of that there are the total excesses pointed out by TiamatNM.  They really did edit things like kissing.  I mean, WTF?  Why?  It's estimated that about 50% of the CGs in the game were either cut or edited in some way.  Seriously, 50%. 

If MoeNovel wanted to release a 'clean' VN they really should have picked a different title to work with...

The editorial's defense of If My Heart Had Wings seems to be entirely based on pointed out that there are douchebags out there giving low metacritic scores to a game they haven't played.  Which might be true, but two wrongs do not make a right.  That in no way invalidates the legitimate criticisms that have been made about the game.  And the editorial doesn't even address these criticisms.  In fact it mostly just talks about games that didn't have ero content to start with...which doesn't have anything to do with censorship.  Being anti-censorship is not the same thing as advocating that all games have to have ero content.

It was so bad fans have started restore patch project to try and fix the damage.

[Ramza]

There are really only two categories for VNs. Those that have porn, and ones that don't. Anything that doesn't get tossed into the all general ages bracket. I don't necessarily agree with it as some of these VNs deal with content that is definitely not "all ages" material. VNs get such a negative stigma for porn that the All Ages rating is flat out telling you there is none in it.

per Andrew's own explanation in the article, I'd say there are three categories.

1) nukige -- sex is front and center. It's the point of the game. It's the gaming equivalent of porn.
2) eroge -- sex happens. It can be seen as a "reward" of some kind, or just something that happens. It's the gaming equivalent of a Hollywood movie with a racy sex scene that includes nudity.
3) "all-ages" -- no nudity. Caveats noted elsewhere in the thread apply. :)

[Chronix112]

There are really only two categories for VNs. Those that have porn, and ones that don't. Anything that doesn't get tossed into the all general ages bracket. I don't necessarily agree with it as some of these VNs deal with content that is definitely not "all ages" material. VNs get such a negative stigma for porn that the All Ages rating is flat out telling you there is none in it.

per Andrew's own explanation in the article, I'd say there are three categories.

1) nukige -- sex is front and center. It's the point of the game. It's the gaming equivalent of porn.
2) eroge -- sex happens. It can be seen as a "reward" of some kind, or just something that happens. It's the gaming equivalent of a Hollywood movie with a racy sex scene that includes nudity.
3) "all-ages" -- no nudity. Caveats noted elsewhere in the thread apply. :)

Nukige is just a subgene within Eroge though, just the most common thing that gets incensed and sold in the west cause it sells the best.

[Kevadu]

So apparently this will be getting a PS3 and Vita release in North America.  Pretty cool, we don't get a lot of pure VNs on consoles here.

Edit: Europe too, it looks like.