So I’m sure everyone’s heard it by now but for anyone who’s been under a rock:
So yea Hakuoki & Starry Sky have been picked up by USA publishers. My thoughts? Well I’m jealous that I can’t be working on these projects with them and getting paid for it! 😆 (not that it would ever happen seeing how I’m on the opposite end of the coast il||li＿|￣|○il||liｶﾞｰﾝ。 ) I’m not really that excited as I don’t think Starry Sky or Hakuoki franchises are ALL THAT GREAT. There’s a lot of better games (Cough TAKUYO cough) but for a foot into the otome market I think they made the right choice. Let’s face it, I still get a shit ton of hits daily on my starry sky in spring post and I get hits for Hakuoki in RUSSIAN. So needless to say, I think both games have a pretty big following despite what anyone may think and it will help earn revenue for both companies so that perhaps one day they can pick up better games for the English market.
かわいいじゃなきゃダメなの！ 
I wonder if Quinrose’s Alice series will ever get picked up. The manga did already cement an overseas customer base (as sucky and having almost nothing to do with the game as it was), and the soon to be released movie has attracted some attention from anime fans.
Heh, neither franchises picked up interest me. Hakuoki because, like you said, everyone dies, and I hate that. It’s why I despised Armen Noir, and just like I did not like Swords in that game, I do not like Chikage enough to make me want to deal with the all the deaths. And Starry Sky…meh. Not bad, but I don’t think it’s anything special. It’s mostly just boring to me, a typical school-themed otome game, but all ages, so no rape. I probably won’t be getting either anytime soon, if ever, since I have a huge backlog of games to buy and play already, so I don’t feel like replaying games that didn’t interest me much in the first place.
Hakuoki’s terrible because EVERYBODY DIES. I mean seriously by the end of the game I only liked Chikage cause he was like the only one who didn’t freaking die =_=; I realize they’re being true to history here (except for Saito lol wtf man) but come on man, otome game, let’s have some fantastical happy endings. I guess Japan takes their war history seriously I dunno. I still think it will be popular enough to make them money. Pretty sure it was named 2010’s (?) otome game of the year.
Starry Sky I haven’t played (yet), but I think Hakuoki is pretty terrible, and I don’t see it doing very well over here. I’d be disappointed if they localized it, it bombed and then they left other better games unlocalized because of it. Well, hopefully I’m wrong.
It’s the wide range of bishies for Starry Sky! Lol. And the amount of 萌え～（笑）
I agree with you 100% regarding Clock Zero. It’s probably the best otome game I’ve played so far.
I mean starry sky is cute but its weirdly popular so I don’t really blame them. It would be great to see CLock Zero translated cause even I had a hard time in some parts of it and had to pull out Jim Breen to help. I mean I can’t see how you can screw up a translation unless you start pulling out shit like “at a time like this…!”
Starry Sky too? Now this one I can’t get (I mean if any game is super popular because of overrate alone, it’s this, and imo the art isn’t even THAT pretty) Hakuouki really deserves it though, for obvious reasons, KazukiYone’s art IS that pretty, plus it’s one of the best games that can help promote Japanese culture & history. I’m really happy about the localizations for the rest of the world who can’t read Japanese. I’m still so happy I studied Japanese, since it is still the only way to get to play the best/all the games, coz the fact that the best games won’t always be the most popular ones will most likely never change…
Localize better games in the future? YESS I hope they do more! But if they do CZ?? I’d be seriously jealous of the translator and I’d NEVER forgive him/her if they got any of the character’s feelings wrong or didn’t put enough love into the translation. Probably I’d be happy that more people can play it but at the same time, I’d be afraid that they might mess up my favorite game…それを絶対許せないから。
tegami> I’ll be honest, some of Takuyo’s mini games make me rage more than enjoy the game. I like their scenarios/stories more than their mini games rofl but to each their own I guess XD Maybe eventually they will make their way to the US but like you said, its safe to start with a popular franchise.
AriaAi> Erm I think this situation is only applicable for American dubs or mainstream games like Final Fantasy? I really doubt this would affect a VN as they tend to translate the text and not do much else with the game.
hairband> Lol yea it would be great to have more otome game fans. Starry Sky already helped people get into it so now with the license I expect the fandom to explode to be honest lol
I definitely agree that there are better games that would suit the US market better but this is a good start. There are people buying the games just to support more of it coming to the US. I’ve already played SS and Hakuouki but I’ll definitely buy the US version. I think Takuyo would have been a better start since it has mini games and is one of the most shoujo manga-like game. But the other two have bigger fandoms b/c of the merchandising and anime.
I’m excited! But the thing is, I prefer the Japanese versions. xD;; Because from what I’ve seen, they tend to change things up in the english versions to make it fit the American-ized theme. Sort of? xD;; I’m gonna stick to playing Starry Sky in Japanese. 😀
(has been living under a rock) OMGGG YAYYYY!!!
Not really excited about the actual games cuz… Yeah. Starry sky mehh (though I am excited for the winter psp version with that redhead…) Hurrah for more generic highschool storylines!! (Personally, I really liked the astrology stuff… Even if I don’t remember any of it now. It made me feel like I was learning something. =D)
But no. All of that wasn’t the point. What I’m REALLY excited about is how if this whole thing goes through, I WILL REALLY BE ABLE TO FORCE MY FRIENDS TO PLAY OTOGES WITH ME MUAHAHAHAHAHA yehhhhhh
Rin> Did you ever make it through the Japanese Hakuoki or did you quit? XD I definitely wouldn’t replay Hakuoki twice….I can’t even get myself to bother with Reimeiroku （ಠ_ಠ）
Ana> It’s not a BAD game, and I think its worth playing but by no means is it the best game ever, and it deserves all the hype it gets. Starry Sky is so generic I am confused on why it’s popular lol. Maybe the genericness or maybe people like astrology I dunno lol.
I do hope it leads to some better choices in the future too. Hakuouki doesn’t really sound like my bag, and I still haven’t tried the Starry Sky in Spring patch so I dunno about that series. Will get anything that’s released though, just to support the cause. Kind of tempted to badger JAST USA with other PC titles to try going for if they can’t grab the Starry Sky license…
I’m not really that excited either.
This and Hiiro no Kakera turning into an anime left me wondering why all these series are so popular. Because of the artist and cast list? Personally I think Hakuouki and Starry Sky is really overrated.. yes I like them and went ε-(*´∀`|萌| here and there while playing, but there are better games out there. It’s really sad nobody knows about how great Bloody Call is just because it’s not drawn by Kazuki Yone or Kazuaki. ;_;
But yeah they made great choices there. If this means they can bring better games then why not. I might try playing the English Hakuouki just to see things. xD