Namco High

[gekiganwing]

I saw Namco High mentioned a couple times on Anime News Network, but didn't mention it here... because I had trouble understanding what it was. (A complex game? Comic? Animation? Some hybrid?) Today, I saw its official website. Here's what I read there: "From Homestuck creator Andrew Hussie and universally-acclaimed video game developer NAMCO BANDAI Games comes an all new gaming experience: NAMCO HIGH! As a cousin to the Prince from Katamari Damacy, you will meet total strangers with whom you have nothing in common, but before the school year is over you'll break rules, bare your soul, and touch each other in ways you never dreamed."

ShiftyLook is a subsidary of Namco Bandai, and makes webcomics and games based on its franchises, both old and new. There's more useful information on its site: "NAMCO™ HIGH will carefully mash up characters from across the NAMCO BANDAI Games universe and bring them together at a high school just for video game characters. NAMCO™ HIGH will utilize cutting edge HTML 5-based technology from developer Date Nighto LLC to deliver cross-platform dating sim enjoyment on top tier browsers regardless of device." The release date is "pre-Holiday 2013."

A Siliconera article states that the game will be technically free-to-play, but only six of the relationships will be available for free.

The cast includes some non-humans -- such as the Galaga ship, and Donko, an anthropomorphic drum from Taiko no Tatsujin. It's being sold on WeLoveFine along with merchandise. The "Deluxe Pak" costs $15 US and is actually the standard edition, with just the game, soundtrack, unlockable Homestuck characters, and wallpapers. Other editions include branded clothes and accessories.

Also, it seems that Date Nighto will be "...a full-featured HTML5 solution for featuring your visual novel." In other words, it will be similar to VNovel.org. Another similar service called Novelexp.com was active for a few months in 2011-2012 and sold some online-only VNs, but it stopped updating and now seems to be offline.

As a side note, I'm glad that NB resumed localizing Tales Of... games after several years of nothing, and that there's a group of three Idolm@ster rhythm games in English on iTunes. Still, there's a lot of other games I'd like to see translated...

[TsukiShima]

Oh wow, they have Lolo as a student character there! I'm a bit disappointed that Klonoa himself isn't here, but at least some of the 'older' games are still remembered! But I see that the actual artist is not there, or I'm not sure.

I'm not that a really big fan of Namco Bandai, but I'm still a little part of it! If it is indeed free, I'm excited to play it!

[SundownKid]

It would make sense if it was a free parody, but the price for the higher packs is ridiculous. I guess it's supposed to make fun of dating sims, but isn't that who the software is targeted to? I feel like an actual legit visual novel crossover might be a better strategy than "ha! ha! dating sims are dumb, date a Galaga ship!"

On the other hand, Homestuck is one giant sarcasm, so it makes sense...

[CKSqua]

It would make sense if it was a free parody, but the price for the higher packs is ridiculous. I guess it's supposed to make fun of dating sims, but isn't that who the software is targeted to? I feel like an actual legit visual novel crossover might be a better strategy than "ha! ha! dating sims are dumb, date a Galaga ship!"

On the other hand, Homestuck is one giant sarcasm, so it makes sense...

I suspect that it's aimed at Namco and Homestuck fans who have no interest in dating sims. The masses see the genre (which has gotten more attention lately) as a bad joke, so it's an easy target for parody. You poke fun at what they're already mocking.

ShiftyLook was set up to develop webcomics around Namco properties (and in that sense, we can think of Namco High as a webcomic with a VN parody theme), so I don't think they're interested in the VN fanbase. I suppose the high priced packs exist to make fun of Japanese otaku who drop hundreds of dollars into figures, character costumes, replica jewelry, etc. Obviously, it'd be great if Namco fans bought into it too, but I doubt they've factored it in as an expectation.

[gekiganwing]

Looking at Gamertell today, I saw their review of the game. The reviewer wasn't impressed by its writing or the microtransactions.

(To add some context, this was from a person who has discussed a number of VNs and romance games. Browsing the site for examples can take time... I remember that two were included in her best indie games of 2012 list, and I recall that her review Dandelion: Wishes for You started positive, but its score was poor due to frustration with always-on DRM.)

[SundownKid]

Looking at Gamertell today, I saw their review of the game. The reviewer wasn't impressed by its writing or the microtransactions.

(To add some context, this was from a person who has discussed a number of VNs and romance games. Browsing the site for examples can take time... I remember that two were included in her best indie games of 2012 list, and I recall that her review Dandelion: Wishes for You started positive, but its score was poor due to frustration with always-on DRM.)

It's a bit of a shame, since I've read the other Shiftylook comics and they put a decent amount of effort into expanding on these retro characters. Some of the comics were pretty fun to read due to their unique aesthetics, and even succeeded in making me more interested in the character. You'd think that for a visual novel they're trying to sell for the price of your typical indie game, they would put even more effort into it than a free comic, but it doesn't seem like it even succeeds at parody since it just makes them look lazy, throwing some slapdash art and forced "meta" humor into it. Even a satire requires a lot of effort to make it humorous and high quality.

[Rosstin]

I was really unimpressed. No choices, and not even the most basic visual-novel oriented features. It's like... it's like the people who made it don't love visual novels, and only made it as a sort of forced irony.

I'm saying this, and I'm absolutely a fan of many of the people who worked in it. It's sort of a trainwreck and tragedy. Not that it's terrible, it's just... not good.

[gekiganwing]

For what it's worth, Jay is Games had some good things to say.

[gekiganwing]

Sorry about the double post. The thread has been silent for a few months.

Unfortunately, Namco High along with both of ShiftyLook's projects are shutting down. Only a few franchises will survive this closure.

I'm not sure what the company did right or wrong. If you have insight into this, or thoughts on how NH could have been improved, be sure to post.

[SundownKid]

Sorry about the double post. The thread has been silent for a few months.

Unfortunately, Namco High along with both of ShiftyLook's projects are shutting down. Only a few franchises will survive this closure.

I'm not sure what the company did right or wrong. If you have insight into this, or thoughts on how NH could have been improved, be sure to post.

It doesn't seem as though they did anything wrong - as they say, the project was successful and it was always meant to be temporary.

It also doesn't say that only a few franchises are surviving - it says that they are "handing over" the franchises to the game developers to make games based on them instead of just comics.

Now personally, I think Namco High is a tough sell, since it expects people to already know and love all the crossover characters in the game, in addition to the fact that a crossover is hard to pull off while making sense. I think it would have been better if they chose one franchise and made a spinoff visual novel based off of that.

[DaFool]

Such is the fate of online F2P model: you spend just for user acquisition, playing a zero sum game by stealing attention from other games. Then if you fail, you shut down for good. There is no room here for the long tail. And the long tail is precisely what works for media with long shelf life such as literature and visual novels.