2015 is Shaping Up to be a Banner Year for Visual Novel Localizations
It’s not every day a Japanese visual novel heads west, and it’s certainly not every year when westerners are treated to multiple visual novel localizations! Most releases are for the PlayStation Vita, which is steadily becoming the go-to system for such games. But if you’re interested in the niche genre of visual novels, 2015 could make Vita owners proud.
Already we’ve gotten Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters for PS3 and PS Vita. Steins;Gate (PS3/Vita) will hit Europe next month (and hopefully North America soon after). Then there’s Xblaze: Lost Memories (PS3/Vita), follow-up to last year’s BlazBlue prequel Xblaze: Code Embryo. Plus, at least three otome games have been confirmed for localizations: Amnesia: Memories (Vita/PC), Code: Realize ~ Guardian of Rebirth (Vita), and just recently announced was Norn9: Var Commons (Vita). That’s quite an assortment for a niche game genre!
I really tip my hat to the localization companies responsible for sharing these games with us westerners, especially Aksys Games for offering digital and physical editions of their games, at least in North America. And with so many of these titles being exclusives for PlayStation 3/Vita, they’ll breathe a little more life into the retiring PS3 and overlooked Vita. :D
This really gives me hope for future visual novels releases. Maybe someday we’ll see other popular otome series like Diabolik Lovers, or the upcommig Reine des Fleurs, or even mega-hits like Fate stay/night (it’s always baffled me how that series eludes localization). In the past, I often shied away from visual novels so as not to get my hopes up for a game that had no chance of being localized. But the video game industry is obviously changing, and for once, I’m not complaining. ;)
Already we’ve gotten Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters for PS3 and PS Vita. Steins;Gate (PS3/Vita) will hit Europe next month (and hopefully North America soon after). Then there’s Xblaze: Lost Memories (PS3/Vita), follow-up to last year’s BlazBlue prequel Xblaze: Code Embryo. Plus, at least three otome games have been confirmed for localizations: Amnesia: Memories (Vita/PC), Code: Realize ~ Guardian of Rebirth (Vita), and just recently announced was Norn9: Var Commons (Vita). That’s quite an assortment for a niche game genre!
I really tip my hat to the localization companies responsible for sharing these games with us westerners, especially Aksys Games for offering digital and physical editions of their games, at least in North America. And with so many of these titles being exclusives for PlayStation 3/Vita, they’ll breathe a little more life into the retiring PS3 and overlooked Vita. :D
This really gives me hope for future visual novels releases. Maybe someday we’ll see other popular otome series like Diabolik Lovers, or the upcommig Reine des Fleurs, or even mega-hits like Fate stay/night (it’s always baffled me how that series eludes localization). In the past, I often shied away from visual novels so as not to get my hopes up for a game that had no chance of being localized. But the video game industry is obviously changing, and for once, I’m not complaining. ;)