Notes on "A dragon girl looks up at the endless sky"

This post is to supplement a curation I made on Steam's J-Indie Arcade group.

1) I didn't know what genre to call it so I called it "hybrid action RPG". It seems to be like two different kinds of action RPG though - dungeon room type stuff (e.g. like Recettear) and also 2D hack-and-slash type (e.g. like Odin Sphere)

2) The developers are Debonosu - I assume they still count as indie... well, I had a look at their site http://www.debonosu.jp/ and there's a banner flashing past mentioning Comiket 90, so I am guessing they are still on the circuit. According to https://vndb.org/p709 they have an imprint for another game.

3) According to VNDB: https://vndb.org/v3988/releases
The original version of this game was 18+ and was released on PC in 2010. The PSP version is 17+ and was released in 2013, and included additional characters and scenes. So this is based on the PSP version.

4) Their other game on Steam - Kagura Douchuuki - was originally an 18+ game (all about raping miko - I am not going to post details but if you want, you can read about it here), but when it came out on Steam, they'd removed all that and it became a 12+ version. So there is no knowing whether anything further has been censored in the game's transformation from "Sora o Aogite Kumo Takaku" (17+ PSP version) to "A dragon girl looks up at the endless sky". Possibly nothing? Possibly much?

MINUS ZERO - PC game review

Normally if I play a game on Steam and want to post a review, I just post it there. But I've tried to post a review for this game a few times this afternoon and it's just not working, so I'll post it here instead. :)

It's a fun little shoot-em-up by Triangle Service, originally part of the "Shooting Love, 200X" compilation, and is currently in Steam's big "Shoot-em-up sale", priced at £1.19 including 25% discount.

Japanese indie (doujin) game English localisation companies

I decided to start a list because I think the little guys need a shout out. ^_^

I have:

http://rockinandroid.com/

* GUNDEMONIUM Collection
* Flying Red Barrel ~ Diary of a Little Aviator ~
* QLIONE (Qualia)
* SUGURI Perfect Edition

http://www.carpefulgur.com/

* Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

(There's only a demo out so far, but I like it. I don't like some of the language they have used in localisation, but the game seems good fun nevertheless. I'll probably buy it when it's out if they do digital download sales)

http://www.dhm-interactive.com/en/home/

* Chantelise
* Gunners Heart

This is a French company, and I haven't bought from them, but they seem to publish in English as well as French.

EDIT: 6th Sept 2010
I placed an order with them via the website. At first, nothing arrived, so I wrote to the company to complain. A few minutes later, the director of the company had sent me an apology by email and put the order in the post the next day. He had received the payment but had not got the order, somehow! So, I guess I have to call that... good customer service but poor website!

http://www.mangagamer.com/allages/

* Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni
* other stuff. ;)

(though, I think they have massively overpriced Higurashi...)

http://www.nicalis.com

* Cave Story
* La Mulana

I'm kind of reluctant to put the last one in because those games used to be freeware with fan-translation patches, and they are just releasing the games on wiiware which I don't trust. But, I thought I might as well include them.

--

Some Japanese game creators like to release their games in English/Japanese on Xbox indie games, too. They are usually pretty cheap and often have pretty interesting game mechanics.

(Note: Recettear, Chantelise and Gunners Heart were originally made by the same group - EasyGameStation. They seem quite varied!)

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - doujin game translation - Onikakushi complete

Okay, I'm nearly a fortnight late on this but updates had become few and far between. The fan translation of the "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" (When They Cry) visual novel has come so far that they have completed the whole of the first story in the game! :D

Their website: http://sonozakifutagotachi.blogspot.com/

Hooray for Sonozaki Futago-tachi! ^_^

Now I can happily read this and make myself go O_o aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!! >_<
[tenshi_a hides under a duvet or something]

(well, I will do if they've done it right!)

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - doujin game translation

Over the last few weeks I've really been getting into the anime version of "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni". It's a really brilliant series, excellently executed in such a way that it's richly layered, unfolding in the most gripping and entertaining way. It's fairly gruesome in a few places, though, so not for the weak-stomached... I'm up to the 23rd episode of the first season so far...

This first season of this series started being released on DVD in the US by Geneon, but they've since stopped releasing DVDs, so that's a pity. It's only possible to legally buy half of the TV series in English.

The series was based on a multi-part doujin visual novel (or, sound novel, the box says - which means it's mostly text, not so visual) by "07th Expansion", and a group of fans are working on translating the text into English. Their work is available here: http://rapidshare.com/users/MQK6IW

So far they've done the first five days of the Onikakushi arc game (the first story in the anime series), both for the free demo version of the game and for the full version of the game. I haven't tried it yet. I've placed an order for what I thought was a copy of the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni game, but if the pics on wikipedia are anything to go by, that may just be the Himatsubushi arc game (which is the "time wasting" arc, the last of the "question" arcs in the game and the middle of the TV series). Which, on its own, would be a waste of time. But then, the fan-translators point towards instructions on buying Higurashi online to download and play, and it has the same boxart. So, I'm a bit confused. It mentions on wikipedia that each of the answer arcs contains the previous game, so maybe the final question arc did too? Oh well, I'll see how it goes. I also ordered a CD at the same time so I expect I'll be happy with whatever turns up. I want to finish watching the anime series first, and go onto viewing the second season (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai).

BTW there's a live-action movie coming this year as well. The very idea makes me somewhat afraid.

EDIT - 2008-02-11 20:30: My copy of the Higurashi game arrived today, hooray! It says on the fan translation site that their patch is made for the Himatsubushi-hen version of the game (maybe I didn't notice before), so it'll be the right one. I need to clear up some space to install it. I've listened to the CD - the Yukino Satsuki version of "you" - I really love it. I like this tune, it's so addictive. ^__^