Ninetail announces an upcoming Kickstarter for an English version of Venus Blood Frontier, a corruption-focused strategy RPG with Law and Chaos routes.
Strategy H-RPG Venus Blood Frontier Kickstarter: Why you should care
With your support, Venus Blood Frontier could drive a desperately-needed renaissance for English gameplay eroge.
Venus Blood developer Ninetail has launched a teaser site for an English version with a story synopsis, character descriptions, and basic gameplay mechanics. There's also a trial version of the visual novel portion (MEGA mirror). They're currently planning a Kickstarter for a commercial release, and they're soliciting feedback on the campaign before launch via Prefundia. The translation is being performed in-house by a recently-hired fluent English staff member who understands Japanese.
Though it was initially unclear how the game's adult content would be handled, Ninetail revealed that it plans to release a non-adult version on Steam and a patch that restores the missing content [source1,source2]). Sexual corruption, frequently involving tentacles, is a core theme of Venus Blood Frontier, and the game contains a great deal of ero: most of the game's CG are from erotic scenes. Some H-scenes are also integral to the main story. In addition, optional H-scenes form their own self-contained story arc and influence individual character endings. In short, this is a game that was clearly designed around erotic content and themes.
Ninetail is a top-tier gameplay eroge developer--on par with Eushully and Alicesoft--and Venus Blood Frontier is one of their better titles. Frontier is also the only game in the Venus Blood series to get a sequel. The combination of excellent SRPG gameplay, solid action-based storytelling focusing on a protagonist that can be either an anti-hero or a villain based on player choices, and copious and well-integrated ero would make this game pretty unique in the English market. Not to mention one could easily spend 50+ hours on a single playthrough, with high replayability.
My main concerns are whether the localization can live up to the quality of the original title with (potentially) unproven translation staff and whether the ero content will be handled in a manner that satisfies fans. That Ninetail went the extra mile to revoice the opening in English suggests that they won't cut corners, and illustrates their enthusiasm.
I previously reviewed Venus Blood Gaia to raise awareness of the Venus Blood games among English fans (Frontier shares many of the same gameplay systems). I also translated a brief exchange with Ninetail Director Keimaru about Japanese developer attitudes towards eroge localization ("For sale in Japan only": A Japanese developer's perspective on the eroge embargo).
Update 7/8/18: Ninetail has fully addressed my concerns in its Prefundia proposal by partnering with JAST to provide a completely uncensored and demosaiced 18+ version and a free 18+ patch for the Steam version. JAST will also be revising and polishing the translation to assure industry-standard quality. I can now endorse this project, pending release of an updated demo showcasing the new translation process.
Update 9/23/18: The Kickstarter is live! Take a look at my new feature article with details about the game and its potential impact.
Strategy H-RPG Venus Blood Frontier Kickstarter: Why you should care
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