If My Heart Had Wings Open for Pre-Orders!
By Kouryuu May 13, 2013 May 13, 2013 Announcements
We at MangaGamer are proud to announce the addition of If My Heart Had Wings from Moenovel to our all-ages lineup!
Aoi Minase, a boy whose dreams were shattered has returned to his hometown of Kazegaura where there, on top of a hill lined with windmills, he encounters a wheelchair-bound girl, Kotori Hanabe, and a large, white glider soaring through the sky.
Before long, they will begin to revive Keifuu Academy's Soaring Club, which is on the verge of having its club status repealed, in order to ride the "Morning Glory", a phantom cloud brought by the wind which blows across Kazegaura.
This is a tale of youth, a tale of those students who loved the sky.
Winner of 3rd place in the 2012 Bishoujo Game Awards (and 4th place for scenario), If My Heart Had Wings marks the first game published by MoeNovel, a new visual novel publisher. We wish them well in their new endeavors into this market, and hope all our visual novel fans will enjoy the translation provided by Active Gaming Media (AGM), the same company who translated popular titles like Demon's Souls and No More Heroes!
If My Heart Had Wings will be available on June 28th, 2013, but you can pre-order it from us right now and get 5% off!
This game has been rated T for Teen (and 12 by PEGI standards).
Tagged If My Heart Had Wings, MoeNovel.
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Isn't the original 18+? 🙁
0_-
So? What does it matter? If the story is good why even bother chucking in the adult scenes. I actually think its brilliant. To many times a good story had been ruined by sudden intrusive fuc… sexual intercourse.
See, here's the thing. For people like myself, the sex doesn't ruin the story. In fact, it often enhances it. Also, it's not like people in real life don't spontaneously have sex.
Anyway, I get you may not care for the scenes and that's fine, but there are other people who do. So yes, it does matter.
StromIV
Oh, don't forget, it isn't just the sex scenes that are getting butchered, they are also censoring kissing scenes. So yeah, they are taking a VN, removing kissing and sex, and selling it. I can deal with no ero in my VN, but to go as far as to censor kissing scenes? No thanks.
nothing956
They edited out everything above hugging. Can it even be called romance anymore?
Nurio
Also, it seems that the sex/nude scenes are quite an integral part of this game, what with its adult jokes and themes like "guy in a girl's dormitory".
If the average eroge sex scene "enhances the story", I have serious questions about what kind of story you're looking for in a VN.
Seriously, most VN sex scenes are downright pandering and just plain awful. The one small exception I've seen, at least from MG titles, is ef (and even that still has over-the-top moaning), but from what I've heard this one is not. Most recent Japanese VNs I've bought and read, including ones with highly-rated scenarios (Hatsuyuki Sakura for one), aren't exceptions either. Sure, the H is somewhat present in post-scene conversation in some of them (often in the form of dumb jokes), but in my opinion you can cut down most H-scenes in most story-based eroges to something like the "sex scene" in CLANNAD and not harm character development or "the story" a bit.
And not only is the "taking out kissing" scenes totally incorrect and based off some dumb commenter making assumptions (in fact they did say they would be keeping those for the most part), the assumption that they're taking out sex jokes appears to be plain wrong. Did you not notice the duck stealing Kotori's panties in the demo? Do you not realize how many sex jokes most American games can slip under a T rating?
Why thank you for calling me a dumb commentor. What a way to get your point across in a polite manner instead of sounding all superior. I meant to say censoring both times instead of removing the second time. And the censoring is the way they are trying to cover up kissing like it is some big thing that can't ever be seen. Of course this is all information that should be taken with a grain of salt, as there is no way to really prove what is/isn't 'official'. And I am talking a statement on their website, not people that supposedly copy/pasted info onto the vndb thread.
Also, I don't know who commented about the jokes being removed (unless you think Nurio was referring to that which it doesn't sound like it), but that really had nothing to do with what anyone posted.
And yes, I know exactly what can slip into a teen rated game. Ever heard of The Sims? Yeah, not text, but a lot of 'content' can slip into that little rating quite easily. As for text and content, well I don't know how bad Hyperdimension Neptunia gets, but that was rated PEGI 12+.
So really, we can speculate how nice and lovely it will turn out, or we can speculate on how much has been altered cut (which is how I tried to word my first post, but text is hard to convey anything), but no one will really know unless they have played the original version and then compare it to the all-ages version. That is what I will wait for. I am all for giving a new studio a chance, but until I hear about how well the did in the localization attempt to take an 18+ to all-ages with what seems to time to really add content (which is what most 18+ to all-age titles do), then I am leery on how well they will do. And until I get some nice info on how it stands in their attempt, $35 is too much to gamble with.
Edit above comment:
18+ to all-ages with what seems like too little time to really add content
Just to clarify… If lurker was talking about me…
I never said that the adult jokes were removed. In fact, I said quite the opposite! I said they were very much present.
To that extent, I meant that the adult themes seem to be quite integral for this game, and that trying to remove the sex scenes only cripples the game.
If they took a game where the sex really was an afterthought, then I might've been tolerant of it. But playing the demo makes it obvious that If My Heart Had Wings is a game where the adult themes are just as important as the story.
This. Oh, so much this (0_- and lurker's comments). Good story VNs are better without the out-of-character ero stuff where the virgin protagonist transforms into super stud and the heroines get stock porn moaning.
Money where my mouth is, so to speak. Awaiting the turning of the calendar so I can download my fully-paid-for copy. Thanks for carrying this one, MG! More, please.
MagicalDuck
Due to the bowdlerized localization, I won't be purchasing this title. Which is a real shame, since it was pretty high on my list of games I wanted to see licensed.
If an unedited English-language version ever becomes available for purchase, I'll among the first to pre-order.
Eukanaria
I agree. I can understand the point of the company, but I think the treatment we get is awful.
If they ever release the "full" game I'll throw my money at them as well.
This. So much this. If they release an non-butchered version, then I'll be the first in line to buy this game. Because I really am very very interested in this…
Exactly. Let's hope our voice will be heard, like in time we succeeded in the Soul Link censorship case.
I would so totally buy this game if it's released uncensored.
I can't in good conscious support this level of censorship, especially when the ero and h scenes in question are not even that bad in taste. I've done my best over the years to support this market the best I can to help ensure that more and more VNs get released to the western market, but I refuse to stand by and support the decision of companies release edited versions of the originals for god knows why. However, if by some miracle enough support is shown on this version to warrant the release of the original 18+ version then I'll jump on board and spend my money on that.
Not going to support the hypocrisy which is western morality. The United States for example believes in freedom of artistic expression and speech and yet due to the fear of backlash they've cut/censored content and as such this is a no buy. It is not the content actually being cut I can live without sex scenes but it is more about the mutilation of the original idea that I cannot abide to.
It is a real shame because if this game actually was the complete and full version I likely would have picked this up in a heartbeat as it is in its present "all ages" state this game will simply be ignored and will make no one any money.
The treatment and the way this game is being handled is appalling and I and many others will not support it. Censorship is the destruction of an idea and seeing as how this game is losing aspects of it which actually make it a romance it's hard to say what this butchered game actually has going for anyone.
If they ever release a full version of the game no censorship and no other bullshit then I will pick up this game and happily pay for the complete version. Until then though I hope this idea of cutting content dies and never becomes a norm because it would be quite sad to see one of my hobbies destroyed by poor decisions.
I will probably buy this as soon as it's available, it's really nice to see a publisher trying to bring us an all ages release 😀
I would like to buy a physical copy, though: will it be available on your store? For that matter, when will your physical store be back online?
Kanshisha13
I stumbled across the Physical copy pre-order of this game first.
I'll give the all ages a shot before making any rash declarations or decisions. However, I hope that the talk of over-censorship is just talk.
To me, a kiss can speak volumes about how a relationship has progressed and the complications involved.
Just wondering. Does Mangagamer have a partnership of sorts with Jbox or Jast?
and as an aside: The inclusion of sex scenes in great Visual Novels can easily detract if it is out of place or extremely poorly written, whereas when it makes sense in the situation/universe and is well writtten it can become something else entirely. (my 2cents)
I'm not sure how to say this without coming off as being anal about the censorship and sex, but here goes.
The inclusion of humor in visual novels can easily detract if it is out of place or extremely poorly written. The inclusion of action sequences in visual novels can easily detract if it is out of place, extremely poorly written, or poorly illustrated. The inclusion of music in visual novels can easily detract if it is out of place, or the music track just plain sucks. The inclusion of art work in visual novels can too easily detract if it is poorly drawn.
The reality is that any element of any work (visual novel, anime, tv show, etc.) can become a problem. Beyond that however, whether something included in a work is a problem is something that is ultimately subjected to subjective perceptions. In other words, what I consider as good music someone else may not find it "good." It doesn't make sense to cut things out of a work relentlessly just because it's maybe "poorly done." Though that's not the case with "If My Heart Had Wings (i.e., the reason it was censored was to reach a wider audience), but some people still find the removal of sex scenes acceptable because they may have possibly been "unnecessary," or they "don't add anything to the story." I can easily imagine though that some people wouldn't be okay with editing the game's art to make it look more western. In fact, there would probably be an uproar. It's absurd that it's okay to butcher the erotic, but when it comes to non-sexual stuff, then there's a controversy. This schism in thought is ridiculous.
Anyway, all this brings me to another point. Just like a kiss can speak volumes about how a relationship has progressed, so can sex.
One final thing, I want to make it clear that I'm not targeting you. Rather, your post was useful in allowing me to illustrate my points.
The "removing kiss scenes" assumption is totally incorrect. Don't worry about that.
We also don't know if they'll replace sex scenes with implied/non-explicit text-only (think CLANNAD) sex or something similar. You can definitely fit both of those under a T rating.
tl;dr: I'm not sure MoeNovel knows what they're doing…
Censoring of kissing is ridiculous, but sex scenes are different and I'll explain why.
From experience, non-otaku book/manga readers that venture into VNs do NOT want sex scenes in their media. Constantly I have seen that the "otaku" crowd will love their sex scenes and the "non-otaku" crowd will think sex scenes take away from the rest of the content. I most recently ran into this in regards to Fate/stay night – most fans of it don't seem to be overly-otaku and find the sex-scenes laughably bad and were shoe-horned into the plot for no reason, but just yesterday I ran into quite the otaku that specifically said that the sex scenes were "the most important part".
So considering this VN has been officially rated by the ESRB and PEGI, I think MoeNovel may be looking to try to break out of the otaku crowd somewhat. Of course, I along with ChunSoft feel that doing that would require attacking the ebook market with an Android and/or iOS version, but such a thing doesn't seem to exist nor be planned, which makes the entire endeavor of censoring and being officially rated a seemingly pointless venture…
Even with the censorship, I'll still support moenovel because we already have so little so I'm not going to nitpick about the decisions made for this game "not being true to the original." Only time I'll not support a translation/publication of a Japanese media is when the dialogue translation is "Westernized," which usually happens because Japanese jokes/humor isn't really funny if you can't speak/read the language yourself thus missing the punchline.
My backlog is all in part due to the sex scenes that I myself cannot garner the interest to read through them. I can easily skip them but I don't even feel like loading the game as well. The sex scenes are like a stopping point or something to me now.
Of course censoring a nukige is bad because its FPS and all the nukiges released in English so far doesn't even have a storyline worth reading for.
Just found out now from the comments about the censoring of kissing scenes but I'm sure this "information" is just blown out of proportion. I'm guessing its the "kissing scenes that would in turn lead to the sex scenes" which are the ones being left out.
Just the fact that a new company entered the western market is a huge plus to me, more so than the censoring of still image porn.
This is just about the kissing part. This was 'supposedly' (I say that as there is no real way to confirm/deny the info but take the posters word for it) confirmed by MoeNovel about it: http://vndb.org/t4066/15#353
"Although the kissing scenes do not show lips touching each other, the animation does make it abvious to the player that it is a kissing scene (i.e. the main character's head will be covering a female character's head. It will be like a back view scene of a couple kissing.)"
So is the kiss scenes any different from the original version?
I'd want to clarify where I stand though so…..
I still don't really mind either way because the game being a 2012 release and apparently having said to have a solid story that didn't result from "fan hype" fits my criteria. Even if they did release a title with an all ages version I'm sure the question would then be, "Why didn't they license H version? Those idiots won't be getting my money." Also all we have is Jast and MG with the former being extremely slow.
We do have fan translations, but really, they translate games they enjoy not necessarily the top 5 on everybody's wishlist. I can't see it turning out into something like the manga or anime community.
So in conclusion, I'd prefer to welcome any new company with open arms precisely because I am a "fan," and would prefer to bet on the chance of possibly seeing more games than discouraging a new adventurer just because of some missing FPS element in my games.
I agree, I want to see more new companies step up to the plate and bring more VNs to us. But, I will take a stance on cut/removed content of poor quality. And by poor quality I mean it is so obvious it happened that it slaps you in the face.
That is why I am, in the end, waiting and seeing just how well they do this 18+ to all-ages switch. Most titles that do this have time and resources to actually seem to do it correctly, as in correcting text flow from the part where a h-scene was originally, and by usually adding in content to make up for the 'missing' scenes. Does that always happen, I don't know. But that is what I read, see, and hear from the VN scene.
If they do a bang-up job and hits the mass market, well freaking awesome. If their little port is a train wreck, well their attempt to appeal to a wider audience and bring more attention to the VN market might backfire. Look at the controversy that has happened already over the material cuts?
But a lot is speculation and praying and hoping and bitching and moaning. At first I was pissed, because I hate cut content, even if the content is mostly pointless (ero, trust me, as a beta-tester I know how pointless it can be). But after cooling down I will wait and see how people really respond to it.
I can't say I agree. If a company is going to censor stuff, I mean it when I say I hope sales are just good enough for them to get one more chance, and if they censor again, I'm content to have their company fail miserably.
Honestly people who wish for a niche within a niche localization company to die are just either stupid or retarded. No need to give my reasons as to why I think they're stupid/retarded, people who wish that probably won't change their stance and I won't change mine. If Moenovel doesn't ever back out due to retarded westerners then it means more visual novels in English for me. I pay for the things I love and I'm more than sure that A LOT of people would know how apparently bad this game is without porn by getting it in a different way.
Yeah, you're absolutely right. People who don't share the same opinion with you are stupid/retarded!
And if this game is successful (which I hope not), they will start censoring everything. It's only about money and if a censored game can bring more money, we can say goodbye to 18+ games.
Pirkaf is dumb
Or they will realize that there is money in this market and that if they release the uncensored version they will make more? The reason they are releasing an uncensored version is because they are seeing if it will even sell (this is a new company with little knowledge of the western market) and this is the safer option. It's not that it will make them "more money" because they don't even know if this will make them enough in the first place.
if this game is successful it will be despite being censored not because of it and that will be very obvious to them.
Man I wonder why this market is so bare and publishers aren't jumping at the chance to give us translated stuff? Oh yeah this is why
I don't think so. You don't probably remember the "Soul Link" case. But if we didn't raise our voices several years ago, all Mangagamer games would most probably have been censored since then.
Want to point out, even uncensored, Soul Link was said to have sold poorly yet everyone knows how "apparently" bad it was. Everyone. Maybe it was the backlash for having considered the censoring of the game or people just being cheap. Probably being cheap since everyone still asks for more titles from Navel without knowing if said titles are good or bad.
I wish people would just be more honest instead of beating around the bush, just say "I want porn, there's no eroge without the ero."
Here, here to that! It'd be great for us if people were more open and honest too.
Dark_Shiki
Um, no. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. MoeNovel has stated that they censored the game specifically to reach a wider audience. If the game succeeds (and sells better than MG's usual titles), they will assume "censorship -> more sales" and continue to censor future releases. The million dollar question: would that help or harm the English EROGE market? I don't think anyone knows the answer to that.
This is very simple for me. If you bring a game from Japan to the west, and you remove content for ANY reason, I will not buy it.
I'm not going to go full on "boycott Mangagamer" or anything idiotic like that, but they will get money for games that weren't censored in localization, and they will get zero dollars for games that were.
Mangagamer tweeted that they hoped to have a message from "them" soon for us, regarding this. I don't need a message. It's non-negotiable.
A censored VN??????No,thx ¬¬
ChaosRaven
Ah, speaking of 2012 Bishoujo Game Awards, Minori's Natsuzora no Perseus was voted best art and um… ero there. I have to admid that's a tempting combination. But I'd also be interested in Minori's Supipara which is all ages. I really like the art of the Minori VN's and both of them aren't Utsuge anymore or have multiple protagonists, which were my main issues with Ef.
Are there any plans to release further games from Minori after Ef or are they not interested anymore? Both are mid length, so it wouldn't be impossible I guess.
There are no forum plans (read: contracts), but we are definitely interested in releasing more titles from minori once ef is released. We plan to talk to them about a few other titles once ef is out.
Ah, that's good to hear. I'll definitely buy the second part of ef, so they surely have my support.
It worked for Aselia the Eternal only because the sex scenes were pretty horrific and were in my opinion out of place. That is the only game where I have felt that censoring has helped.
What do you mean? Aselia was licensed using the already made All-Ages version, not the 18+ version. So there was no censoring done to it. And also, the all-ages version of Aselia added to it (I think, someone can correct me if I am wrong). This version doesn't seem to have anything added, just removed/altered (unless they just haven't come forth with stuff being added).
Honestly, I'm not concerned about the lack of porn and wouldn't be bothered if there was already an all ages version. I'm more concerned if they haphazardly cut out some plot-relevant sex scenes and make the story fall apart somehow. Granted, such sex scenes are quite rare, so it could easily be a non-issue for this particular visual novel.
Incidentally, I took a quick look at vndb and found that only one game of Pulltop has an all ages adaptation. Still, it could easily mean nothing like I said before.
Not only sex scenes, they also censor kissing scenes. Who can expect such release to be true to the original? This is unacceptable.
Rexz
I don't like the game that cut or altered contents.
If original version are 18+ then I prefer that version even someone said sex scene ruin the story etc.
No Sex = No Buy
blueskydreams
I really don't see the point in all of this complaining about something that won't be changed just because some people can't have their "sex." Get over it people. I, for one, care about story and the art work. And from what I have seen the CG art is absolutely beautiful. "If My Heart had Wings" definitely has my attention. The game is even coming out on my birthday too.
If you had read closely a few of the arguments, you'd have noticed that this is not just about the lack of sex. (Despite what Ryan's comment may have you believe.)
No I am quite sure that I read all of them. Censorship, why sex scenes have to be cut, oh and sex. Or would you prefer me use just "sex scenes" instead?
The issue is with content being cut in general — not with said content being sex. If any other content were cut, it'd still cause similar resistance.
The content that's being cut is pretty integral to this visual novel (accounting to 60% of the graphics or something). That's quite a lot! That's what people are upset about!
Also, it's not just the sex that's being censored. Jokes are being censored. Kissing is being censored.
So it's really not about the sex.
this sounds like a romance with all the romance removed am i right?
Hyosuk
This isn't going to work, this just isn't going to work. This company obviously didn't do it's homework, and grabbed a visual novel that would grab peoples attention because of it visuals and popularity. Their mindset was also probably that a visual novel could have is ero content removed and it wouldn't change anything. Like the ero is only tacked on. When in fact while their are visual novels where this is the case, as others have already pointed out like Nurio, this visual novel is not one of them. Though taking out the ero is somewhat acceptable, to make matters worse they're also censoring kissing and even jokes. Which is just unacceptable, because that is not censoring… its changing. Which is funny when they want their translation to remain as close to the original as possible. All for what? So they can appeal to a wider audience. Even though it's not like their advertising is going to reach this wider audience, because only the people who know about visual novels and where to look will know about their release anyways. So unfortunately they've taken an interesting visual novel, and americanized it. There really is no other way to explain it. I honestly don't understand how they hope to succeed with this. I know what they're trying to do, and appreciate another company jumping in to translate and release visual novels… but they're just going about it all wrong. A shame, it really is a shame. If this were just a translation of the original, I would have grabbed it, but this… I won't bother with. It's just disappointing that we'll probably never see the original with a translation and no editing. (sigh)
1st off Nurio haven't experienced the original. To my knowledge he cannot read the Japanese written language, that's why he's here. His allegations are all speculations formed by other people. The 60% CG count of sex would probably not add anything to the story element with exception to one scene that is said to include an important element to a certain girl's route which is really up to speculation as no one knows what it is or even asked the original poster what it is. All these speculation are made worse due to every1 joining the bandwagon.
And yes, sex is tacked on just to make sales, if you did your homework, you would know this. Good example is Minori's Supipara and Natsuzora no Perseus. Supipara failed for lacking sex. Due to that Minori then added, going by nnl1.com's post, the people who translated ef, "And THIRTEEN ERO SCENES in about 18000 text blocks. ef, tft and tlt combined, has nine ero scenes (including the near-ero scenes) in 40000 text blocks!" in their next game and thus Perseus was a major hit. End of sex scene. Now that is a real reputable source, not some random joe's allegations.
That 60% of the GC is removed or altered is not speculation. People have checked how many ero CG are in the game and how many non-ero. It appears that it's 646 out of 1109, if I'm not mistaken.
And that doesn't include the kissing scenes which are also altered.
And sex isn't always just tacked on. Yes, sex sells and that's why it was in the original game. But that doesn't mean it's not an integral part of the game.
I did not explicitly say that the 60% hcg count was speculation, I do realize I failed to point that out. I did go to the vndb link that was given to me from one of the reply's to me and saw Moenovel's several "reply" to a guy on there. From what I can gather though, it doesn't sound as bad as what everyone is saying. Fap to kiss scenes too eh? That's why I pointed out my own speculation on the kiss censoring which would only be kissing scenes that are obviously erotic(swapped with just the guy's back head). And a scene like the one I mentioned about Otoboku would be just fine, if the game had any.
Here's the actual numbers, from a post on vndb, and what each CG involves: "Non-H: 463 (includes swimsuits, wet t-shirt with bra showing through, scene where it looks like a girl has nopan)
Ero: 646 (includes CGs that are part of H scenes and bath scenes with visible nipples)
SD: 110 (chibi characters)"
The poster also mentioned the counts included variations of the same image, meaning all that oral sex clean/cum covered face, cum inside/outside girl etc.
By saying that's 60% content being cut makes it sound worse than it is as that 60% content includes all the variations of each sex scene. And we still don't really know if they would be using lighting effects etc. to censor those nipple showing scenes or just remove it all together.
Well, Moenovel did explicitly say any lips touching, so it's not only the erotic ones that were censored. It's any kisses.
And no, stop strawmanning, man! =P People don't fap to kissing scenes. (Though, I've learned there are always exceptions.) Kissing is a very important part of the romance between a couple, and it's silly that it's being censored.
It might be true that 60% is accurate if you count every variation CG as a unique CG. Indeed, if you only consider true unique CG, then 60% probably isn't completely accurate, and I am curious for the true number. In any case, the true number is still most likely quite high — too high to be considered simply tacked on.
As for the censoring of the bath scenes, I believe Moenovel said that the girls will be wearing towels.
…In bath.
I was getting my hopes up. This one really looked Interesting, but althought the story is more important i rather a lot more story VN with some Sex scenes in some part, not because i'm looking for something to fap, but because it mean the love has consumated, it mean that you really got in the final stage with the girl, it felt half way and too inocent without it. Still i may consider to buy it for the story althought i would not be too up for ot, but it also censured the kiss then that is going to far, i can't underswtand wh. I'll pass this one until something change in it.
The company who translated should be aware of how is the marked in this side of the earth, VN are not so popular as they are in japan, even less with kids. For what i know Sells here are better if the game has a little of sex in it. Some people buy them without it, but not as many and even less of them want something that has so many changes from the original ones, it is something that has been proved many times with less sells that was anticipated. Koihime no muso cold be selled even better if it has brought voices, but that only happen time after time, a lot of them better took the ilegal want and the fan made patch to add the voices.
I must disagree – in my experience people that know of VNs but don't read them is purely because they're seen as "porn games" or "dating games", and obviously someone that thinks that doesn't feel it to be worthwhile to talk about VNs with other people.
Remember, the current VN niche is just that – a niche. There's a reason Chunsoft feels attacking the Android/iOS ebook market will be key – it's the "blue ocean" strategy.
Adris
Censoring and cutting material like this is just a bad move. I for one will not buy , download or pirate this game.
On a much MUCH lighter note, this is the first VN on MG that's 1280×720.
Akeashar
Of split minds on this. The All-Ages area of the game really does need more love, so I can support the initiative in that spirit. However, I will not be purchasing this one myself, at least anytime in the current scheme of things, as the All Ages variant doesn't interest me.
I do hope that it is successful in generating more sales, and interest for Mangagamer however. 🙂
The Big Guy
I heard from one poster that the kissing scenes are more referring to the foreplay where they kiss for 20 minutes with all of the gooey sound effects and such, not all the scenes with actual kissing. That makes a lot more sense to me instead of the puritanical censorship that people are assuming will occur. If so, I'm down for the all ages version, and I look forward to playing it for the awesome art.
I don't know… Moenovel's reply seemed to indicate it was any kissing with lips touching. Especially the way they described the censored scenes made it seem like they censored the normal romantic kissing scenes.
Moenovel's reply was said that kissing scenes would show the male protag's back(head?) and motions hinting that the characters are obviously kissing. I'm guessing(like every1 else is doing) this sort of scene would replace those that show the sides of mouth to mouth with drool coming out of the girl's mouth with her face slightly blushed as she is being turned on due to it being such a hot and steamy kiss. Something like the scenes in Koihime with Kanu(Aisha).
With all these speculations though, if a kiss scene was something like Otoboku's with Mizuho and Takako on the tree lined street, I'm sure a scene like that wouldn't be altered.
I believe Moenovel pretty explicitly stated that any scenes with touching lips or tongues will be altered. This doesn't mean just the drooly and/or erotic ones. All kisses with the lips touching, including the clean romantic ones.
There ARE no non-ero kiss scenes where it shows lips touching in the CG, so they didn't have to even "censor" anything (why they've been pressing on no lips touching, probably because they think they're being asked these questions to placate the puritan crowd and wanted to tout a built-in aspect of the game as a "feature", idk). A person who played the Japanese game has confirmed this.
I dunno… I now took the liberty to look through the CG online and found at least these two:
http://g.e-hentai.org/s/949c7f4054/494235-257
http://g.e-hentai.org/s/09e17d0063/494235-349
The former kiss has some tongue, yes, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it erotic. If a tongue is all it takes for it to be erotic, then… I can't even finish that sentence. …I also doubt that this so-called erotic kiss immediately turned to sex, considering they're outside in the middle of the day.
The latter kiss technically doesn't show lips simply because there is a stylistic lack of them. It's very obvious the lips are touching, though. Would this kiss be censored or not? It's all a bit vague. What counts as lips touching?
There's no clear cut answer to all this, naturally. It's still very clear that plenty of the game is being cut.
I'm going to check all the CG and see how many would be censored myself.
Far too much effort for them. They surely used an automatic censor program that works like that:
if (VisibleSkin(Girl) > 20% or
Distance(Boy, Girl) 0 or
VisibleGirls(Scene) > 1 or
SuspiciousSounds(Scene) > 0) Then
Delete(Scene);
I don't mind too much eroscenes being removed, but the kissing CGs is what I play for. Kissing scenes containts all the emotions transmitted during the previous hours of play, I just won't be satisfied with only text. Too bad since the art is so nice. I'd buy it if someone would release a mod though.
A person who played the Japanese game (or just looked through the CG set) noted that all kiss scenes not associated with an ero scene are already "lip-free". They aren't censoring anything.
Whether they would've censored them had they existed, who knows, but yeah.
When I say "anything" I mean in terms of kiss CGs, sorry.
that makes this game sound better if its not there to begin with i don't have a problem with it. hopefully that means the romance wasn't toned down any
MG releasing Nukige :
"I think MangaGamer should concentrate on real Visual Novels and not only Nukige. I would actually buy several VN's from them if they have a decent story and Artwork."
MG releasing censored story-centered VN :
Oh the irony…
i know but its the censoring of the romance stuff that bothers me i may be jumping the gun here since all i have to go on this the comments here
And it's not all the same people saying these different things…
In any case, I think you're severely misinterpreting most people's stance on this.
And I know that I'm reacting way too seriously to this, but I still think it needed to be said.
Seriously just make the game as faithful as it's JAPANESE RELEASE. Not a half-assed butchered game. Seriously I was expecting much from this since you guys clearly have no plans in making DA CAPO III.
Aside from selling it from their website, MangaGamer doesn't have much to do with If My Heart Had Wings. They weren't the ones translating this and they aren't the ones who made the decision to censor this title. (If anything, they tried to convince Moenovel not to.)
And MangaGamer does have plans to 'make' Da Capo 3, but you have to consider that their resources are limited. Instead of translating the same game over and over with each iteration, they rather wait for the final, definite, ultimate version and translate that.
If they'd actually translated the first available version of Da Capo 3, you'd have an all-ages non-ero version, and that's not something you want, right?
Infireus
I have nothing against all-ages games. Umineko and rewrite were some of the best reads that I've managed to enjoy. However as has been said above, I don't think I'll be paying money to play a VN with content removed.
Seems like the only way to solve this is to make two version of this game. An AO version and a T rated version. But I wish the former would just be the only version made. This is a no-go considering most buyer of vn from mangagamer are otakus that loves eroges. Still, here's hoping for an AO Version. If the latter was true then I won't buy this games. Would rather wait for SUMAGA from JAST USA.
At this point, it's no wonder that the market is floundering in the West.
Things like this happen, causing the VN not to sell as much as it could, and the original creators see it as "lack of interest".
Even so, I refuse to purchase a gimped release catered towards a niche of a niche of a niche, one that simply doesn't exist in a form big enough help sustain the abysmally small VN industry in the west. I don't care how much it hurts the market, because accepting things like this just encourages it.
I'd rather we be ignored completely than a VN with cut and censored content get pushed to release. At least it means they're not treating us like sheltered children.
I know some of you probably think this is a childish reaction, but at the heart of the matter it really isn't that difficult to just release two versions of it.
Two version of it exactly. I now hate MOENOVEL for making this kind of move. I just wish that they would make it as faithful to it's japanese release. Just as what "MEH" said, it's a "butchered version" of the original game. We VN players don't want it do we?
And for the record, yes I want it to have ERO SCENES just to be honest.
BlackWolfX
The idea of removing the sex scenes is an alright idea but to me it seems like they just picked the wrong VN to do it to.I mean there are plenty of story based VN that have sex scenes crammed in when they don't really need it but this one actually has okay scenes and doesn't butcher the story.If your going to remove the scenes for the sake of "reaching a larger audience" then you need to advertise.If your just going to remove the scenes and sell it like normal your just shoving out crap truthfully.
I stumbled across VN from my like of manga and anime but most people in america don't go past watching bleach and the other stuff that is just now coming back on cable TV if those are the people your trying to get to buy this ADVERTISE if your not going to don't make the move of pissing of the people that do buy VN. You took one of the better VN out there and are butchering it.I like the ero scenes in most story based visual novels and I like some nukige but I like them in their original form if your going to remove ero scenes from a VN then do it on a VN that has a sex scene shoved in at the end as an after thought don't do it on one that has this much sexual content through out the story. So I say the premise of the idea is not bad but the way that you have gone about it is truly horrible. If you wanted to do this you should have studied the market thought about what you were doing and how this would be taken these kind of ideas are what destroy small markets. i.e. poorly planned ideas by people with little to no marketing experience but with enough resources to enter the market. This should not have to be said but you actually think before you enter a market not pick one then try to break into it by pretty packaging a bad idea.
hitori no hito
I'm gonna get this game even if it's censored. why? because I think it still has a good story and HOPEFULLY it isn't ruined by the unnessasary censorship. I don't really care about the ero content in a game because I could just go to fakku for that but that's not to say I don't think it adds to a story or anything. After all to me the few 1 to 2 sex scenes in a route is the consummation of their love.(sounds cheesy but true) but if it flows well and the story still hits hard I could give two shits and a fuck less if it has ero or not IMHO.
but they censored *everything* (kissing and dirty jokes), and a route seems to *need* ero.
Wow, lots of controversy on this release.
Why don`t we all take a deep breath?
*inhale* *exhale*
Now, the visual novels have deep roots in the use of porn. Maeda Jun, knowing he couldn't make it as an ordinary writer, moved over to the industry so he could write, though with the inclusion of sex scenes. However, with more recent titles and the progress of visual novel writers attaining more liberties (Urobuchi Gen's recent anime work, Kinoko Nasu on non-porn games, Maeda Jun scripting anime for example), I think it's fair to say that the market is moving away from porn elements.
The translation isn't being looked at terribly well, which is stupid considering them dumping the erotic elements in favor of story. There's no talking around that. However, I think now people are now acknowledging visual novels as an acceptable medium for stories rather than just a cheap outlet for pornography. This much is evident when nearly every serious /a/ thread on 4Chan highlighting Fate/Stay Night ends up with a few hundred replies discussing the mechanics of the game's universe.
That said, it could be that this is an action to test Western reactions to an official, relatively high-end, non-porn Japanese VN release (because we just don't any that don't also have porn versions). Nothing speaks like money, after all. It's not a fantastic release, but I think we should support it as a movement to help make visual novels evolve past a tool to satisfy our carnal desires.
VNs still haven't made that evolution in Japan, what makes you think it stands a chance in 'Murika, where reading might as well be socialism?
Arkblaze
This localization sucks. I am not really playing VNs for the sex scenes, but please try to keep in mind that these games are originally what you call "porn" games. If you are trying to port an all-ages game, then I don't see the point in trying to port kono oozora. There ARE VNs like clannad and rewrite which are all-ages in the first place, safe to say the story makes perfect sense without the scenes. It frustrates me to think that the game is not the original untouched content. Then again, I am open to all ages versions of ero games. Yoake has a version called brighter than dawning blue, which in exchange for the h content has more heroines than the original game. G senjou no Maou is a game which has H-scenes, but if you look closely at the game, it potentially has 20-30 hours of gameplay, whilst the ero scenes composed of two-three scenes for each four heroines take up some 30mins-1 hour in my estimate, instead of the romance focused on the sex, romance can be seen everywhere, especially in Haru's route which reveals her unrequited love ever since they were kids, her bearing that same emotion to the present, and her blaming herself for the death of the protagonist's father. Romance is evident again in Haru's rooute especially in he epilogue where the main character excellently direct all suspicion of killing Maou towards Haru to himself, while Haru desperately begs him to let her take responsibility and ultimately created a story that does not contradict the evidence to prevent Haru from taking responsibilty of her actions, leading to 8 years of imprisonment of Kyousuke. The epilogue was superb, Haru waiting for Kyousuke at the gate of the facility, introducing to him their daughter, and her claiming that he was the only man for him it was all a work of art. This may be me sounding like I was promoting G senjou no maou, but actually, I am showing you how good a VN could be even without sexual content, but the fact is, this happened because G senjou focuses their romance outside of the sex scenes evident in the limited scenes(total of only 11 even outside the main route). I could only wish that if Moenovel, or any other company is planning to make an all-ages release, they should at least choose the games that they would translate. I would totally buy G-senjou no Maou if it was translated to english even if all ero scenes were removed, but Kono Oozora? Unless they release it as the original 18+ game, I would not buy it, the original game was a LOT better than this release, if my interpretation of the removed content is correct.
Nooo the game must keep hot sexy scenes! but anyway the game looks nice to buy and eagear to play!
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