Several months ago, American mobile pornographic software distributor MiKandi sneakily established MiKandi Japan. Their mission statement, according to their twitter account, “We help top Japanese erogame, manga, and anime studios bring their projects to the West.” Well, today they just made their first announcement via Steam Greenlight.
Libra of the Vampire Princess, or as it’s known in Japan, Kyuuketsu Hime no Libra, is a still-unreleased title from eroge developer onomatope*. onomatope* has a history of releasing borderline nukige/moege. Libra of the Vampire Princess appears to be a departure from their usual fare, with heavy fantasy/chuuni vibes, although they don’t seem to be skimping on the fanservice. Steam is a rather interesting choice considering the nature of onomatope*’s works. There has been no word on whether or not there will be an 18+ version available, but considering Mikandi Japan’s mission statement and their parent company’s business, it’s a reasonably safe guess that one will be made available in some manner. Mikandi Japan has stated that there will be a kickstarter launched soon in order to fund translation.
Personally speaking, Libra doesn’t exactly appeal to me much, but it’s still exciting to see a brand new player in the western VN market. The synopsis on their greenlight page is well written, and they appear to have the desire to serve both the all-ages and 18+ sides of the market. Let’s hope for their success and for both more Japanese developers and more western localizers to jump into this growing market.
Update: The MiKandi Japan has confirmed in a thread on their Greenlight page that there will indeed be both all-ages Steam version and an adult non-Steam versions of Libra of the Vampire Princess.
Looks interesting, wiling to vote it through if nothing else.
Looks decent enough,not sure if i´ll be backing the kickstarter for this one but there´s no harm in voting for it on Greenlight i suppose.
Konnichiwa Decay,
What a cool site you have! By the way, thanks so much for adding our Greenlight story to your blog. MiKandi Japan and XERO really appreciate it! We also have an official press release we’d love to share with you about Kickstarter, and other recent developments. Please send a message to our contact email and I’ll be sure to send it your way.
Thanks for your time and consideration!
Best,
Jon
I love Chuunibyou games it let’s me escape the soul crushingly depressing real world and live in a different one for awhile so I’m very, very excited for this.
Loli + vampire? That’s too good to be ignored, voted up!
[…] campaign went live just an hour ago, so get it while the getting’s good! Libra, as we covered a couple months ago, is a newly-released title starring a newly-turned vampire, mixing urban […]
Pah, just another butchered, unfaithful localisation.
While the game would, under normal circumstances, appeal to me (loli vampire? Why yes, that’s awesome!), I just can’t bring myself to support this crap.
Sorry, but a censored game is a game that’s not even worth it to be localised. We had already enough Moenovels pulled off, and the fact that the all-ages release got a physical limited edition release, whereas the “mature” version, as MiKandi Japan calls it (I myself prefer to call it the “original” version), gets a measily patch is a dealbreaker to me.
I’m a collector, and if I get the game I want just via a patch, I might as well go and pirate it.
But heck, why would I even want to pirate a censored game?
If Japanese publishers start following the trend of butchering their own work just to get a quick shameless buck from casuals that either don’t know nor care about playing an unfaithful localisation, they might as well let their games keep rotting in Japan.
This isn’t solely something I complain about Libra just now, but Debonosu’s Steam release of Kagura Douchiki, which is based on the original version (there exists an updated one with more CG’s, playable characters, dungeons, pretty much everything), is also butchered as fuck.
Stop bringing over porn games, if you don’t plan to leave the porn intact – cause that’s an important part of these games.
You don’t watch a romantic movie and expect the two people not to get all lovey-dovey, especially if you know that such scenes exist, do you ?
Gosh, I find the situation with everyone bringing over VN’s now to be absurd, as, aside from most of Mangagamer’s releases, everything is censored in one way, or another.
I’m not sure you fully understand the situation here. MiKandi Japan plans on releasing the full game uncensored in English, just like what MangaGamer does.
Indeed – with an 18+ patch, whereas KS backers get a physical copy.
I’m well aware that they were funding for a steam release.
There just isn’t a reason to bring over a game in a censored state, if the majority of avid VN and eroge fans are anti-censorship.
You either cater to both audiences, or simply stop doing a half-assed job.
They could have looked out for other alternatives to Kickstarter, since KS isn’t really fond of anything lewd.
This way, both groups could have had their fill.
We do not yet have a full picture of what exactly their 18+ release plans look like, but Mikandi does run a very robust adult store, so I find it hard to believe that we won’t have a variety of 18+ options once the game is released.
I do wonder what the deal is with your opposition to patches, though. If the all-ages version + officially provided patch is basically the same as just a normal 18+ version, then what’s the matter with that? I honestly don’t care how it’s distributed.
I would also like to object to your assertion that the majority of VN fans are anti-censorship. The majority of all VN sales nowadays happens on Steam, and before companies released games on Steam they only had a fraction of VN sales as they do now. It seems like at the very least a very large percentage of the VN-reading fanbase nowadays are perfectly content reading all-ages versions.
Doesn’t matter to me how they will handle Libra now; if a VN/Eroge gets localised in the west, I expect it to be identical to the Japanese product, icing on the cake being removed mosaics (in fact, removed mosaics is what I expect anyways, since the west isn’t tied to Japanese obscenity laws).
It’s irrelevant whether or not Mikandi backs up the 18+ patch, or not; people that want to experiencd the uncut game are forced to purchase the all-ages version anyways, so that they can apply said patch.
And even if the original game got distributed directly in the uncensored state, it would be digital only anyways.
In my case, I refuse to waste money on something I can torrent for free, which is why digital only distribution is a waste anyways.
You may not care about how it’s being distributed, but I’m not you, I have my own standards when it comes to making my purchases.
I’m a collector first, and then, a fan of VN’s.
Not the core base whatsoever.
Or, do you think I haven’t noticed the Steam hype by now, and that the focus of the core fans drifting to casuals, that don’t give a flying fuck about these games anyways?
What speaks hereis one part frustration, one part drowsiness (it’s almost 4 o’clock in the morning here) and the rest my thoughts on the matter.
It disgusts me that the same game isn’t being catered equally to both, the all-ages type and the 18+ type.
In the case of Libra, there is no (physical) alternative for purchasing the game for me without having to buy the all-ages version.
Oh wait, that was a Kickstarter exclusive – I have no alternative at all.
Sorry, but the current situation with VN’s frustrates me incredibly… I see no point in making purchases, if Japanese developers consider the western casual market (aka Steam) to be more profitable than the people that liked this stuff before it started gaining pipularity here in the west.
A lot of publishers/developers, not only pertaining VN’s and eroge, market their games under their value and or seemingly alienate core fans, focusing on the cash cow that is Steam.
I myself, physical hardcopies of a not censored game being the only kind of release I will ever support, am better left of importing the Japanese releases.
So, from this point if view, what does the western release of Libra have to offer to me?
Nothing at all, despite it being seemingly a fun game that I would love to play otherwise (and mainly, own to begin with).