Ren'ai-style games for mobile devices

[gekiganwing]

[Edit on Dec 28 09: the topic was called "Gift visual novel translated for iPhone," but after learning about similar content for iPhone and iPod Touch, I changed the subject line.]

[Another edit on June 29 2010: decided that since I'm finding some ren'ai style games on DSiWare and cellphones, the topic would be retitled "...for mobile devices."]

I read some surprising news on Encubed. This link should be worksafe: http://novelnews.net/2009/11/12/girls-on-iphone

Summary of the news: a visual novel titled Gift has been translated, and is now available for $9.99 on the iPhone, with no 18+ content. Similarly, the game Kira Kira will be available in translated form on iPhone, and it will use Mangagamer's translation when it is ready.

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of having visual novels on an iPhone in English. But if there are good translations in the future, and there are high quality games and stories, then this might be the future for this media form.

(I posted the above message on the Megatokyo forums a moment ago, except for the following...)

I know at least one person on this forum is creating iPhone/iPod Touch content. Do you think this translation -- which is said to be rough -- might benefit you?

[JinzouTamashii]

I don't have an iPhone so it doesn't benefit an oldtimer like me who lives without a cellphone at all...

[Vorsic]

Kind of wish I had an iPod touch. I already own Kira Kira but I would buy that Gift game in a heartbeat if it was released on a device that I own (like as a psp download or something).

[LVUER]

This is OOT...
Although perhaps it's a good idea to buy an IPhone (I will never buy it though, unless they made it $400 cheaper), I don't really suggest to buy an IPod Touch, since there are lots of better MP4/Wi-Fi products out there (unless you love Apple).

[gekiganwing]

Since creating this topic, I have...

- spent $200 on a basic iTouch (even though there's plenty of alternate devices which play music, videos, games, and work with wi-fi)

- spent $10 on the download... which was 1 GB, so it took a while

- synced the device and the computer, so it would actually work

My impressions so far:

* I can pause the game by pressing the Home button. But I *can't figure out how to save*! Hopefully I can at least charge the iPod Touch and resume where I left off.

* Text speed is slow. If you remember Xenogears, it's about that slow.

* All but the shortest dialogue phrases are Engrish, as if the translation was done by a non-native speaker who used Babelfish. Here's an example: [Haruhiko] "It fits you as gloves....." There are typos as well.

I'm willing to use this device for other games that don't exist on other platforms, like Rolando, or the retro-styled RPG Elven Chronicles. But if Kira Kira is in fact released on iPhone in English (as well as PC), then I'll make sure it will be more coherent, and have a better interface.

[DaFool]

I'm going to buy both if only for research purposes and for the fact that the iphone version of Kirakira would be the cheaper version for roughly the same game (Like Critter Crunch which resides on both iphone and PSN). Too bad I actually stopped watching the anime of Gift since I was too bored.

[gekiganwing]

I'm going to buy both if only for research purposes and for the fact that the iphone version of Kirakira would be the cheaper version for roughly the same game (Like Critter Crunch which resides on both iphone and PSN).

Understandable. With Kira Kira, I'm willing to sacrifice technological benefits for portability and cheapness.

Too bad I actually stopped watching the anime of Gift since I was too bored.

I haven't watched the TV spinoff, so I searched the web and tried to find bloggers who had opinions about it. A blog called Myucon called it "average."

It's entirely possible that the app could be updated with a better translation. (Apps get updated all the time.) But I have no idea if that will happen.

Thankfully, the player can press the home button to pause the game. It won't start over if you charge your iPhone/iPod. And touching the screen twice will speed up the text, if just for a second. But I don't know yet if save slots exist...

[Vatina]

I was excited about this at first, but... no saving? :S And terrible translation it seems. I might still get Kira Kira though, since it sounds like a great game, and this is so far the only way to get a non-h version of it.

Hmm. We'll see where this goes. I hope Gift's translation will at least get an update.

Getting something like this on PSN instead would be so wonderful.

[Vatina]

Sorry about the double post, but thought this would be good to know for people interested in these games:

On the iPod/iTouch it IS possible to both save and skip/increase text speed. So no worries there. Maybe you have the Lite versions? I don't know if those features are missing there.

(To open the menu, just tap the screen with two fingers instead of one)

Gift's translation is laughable at times, although you can still figure out what is going on. Yeah, it's pretty lame.

Kira Kira's translation seems nice so far, so I'm guessing they did use the Mangagamer text.

[gekiganwing]

Back in late November, Vatina mentioned that an English version of Kira Kira was available for iPhone / iPod Touch. I should've followed this topic closely -- because I only now realized that it's on iTunes for $10. The preview screens show that the text includes sentences with decent grammar and spelling... which is always preferable to Engrish. Once I make sure my hard drive has enough space, I'll purchase it.

So after realizing this, I browsed around, and found some content that surprised me:

A company called Daidai Inc has a number of puzzle (and gimmick-driven) games with anime/bishoujo-influenced characters, as well as a game called My Neighbor Girl, which appears to be a studying simulation. (I believe that the content rating was something like "strong sexual content or nudity.") Reviews state that it has lots of Engrish and cheesy dubbing. Free and $10 versions exist.

Fans of Android OS may be interested in knowing that the Daidai's puzzle game Girls Skip is also available for that platform.

[JinzouTamashii]

Oh, man, I need to order an iPhone so I can translate and play my own games! =D

[LVUER]

Oh, man, I need to order an iPhone so I can translate and play my own games! =D

Why not DS?

[JinzouTamashii]

Surprise, surprise! Someone dropped a phone outside Best Buy and we picked it up and took it... returned some other lost things up to layaway. Hmm. Could just be lucky~

[draringi]

A company called Daidai Inc has a number of puzzle (and gimmick-driven) games with anime/bishoujo-influenced characters, as well as a game called My Neighbor Girl, which appears to be a studying simulation. (I believe that the content rating was something like "strong sexual content or nudity.") Reviews state that it has lots of Engrish and cheesy dubbing. Free and $10 versions exist.

I've got the free version of that, the translation isn't that good, they say english or japanese, but it's more like engrish or japanese. apart from that it's not that bad and i'm considering getting the full version.

[Fluffycrow]

A few games I've noticed on the App Sotre:

-Ren'ai Shugi: Road to Emerald--A rather odd take on the Wizard of Oz. The art is beautiful and the story is pretty cute. Unfortunately, it's way oversaturated with Engrish, and there are a very small number of choices to make, most of which have obvious "right answers." (Be nice to the hot guy or leave him? HMM, I WONDER.)

--Surviving High School--Another odd game that, surprisingly, is a pretty decent visual novel-type game. It's an American game, so there's no problem with English. It's also updated every week with new stories, all of which are free. This is very nice. My only real complaint is that many of the characters are very stereotypical. To a point, I believe this is supposed to be part of the humor. However, it can get annoying.