Wewt! Finally some more shiny things to stare at stage-nana.
The Narcissu Side 2nd Opening movie is available for download:
VisualNew's Mirror cause Japanese servers suck to the US
Hehe, yeah, we had a debate about the "fan"-ness of Narcissu, and I'm not going to delving into it here, but Narci2 has an all star cast that Tomo Kataoko has gathered around.
Art done by Goto-P
Opening Song/Music provided by Eufonias and riya (and a couple others)
Written by Kataoko-sensei himself.
Narcissu Side 2nd
More pre-release hype material. 
Ah, sometimes... I wonder what's become of this. It was an artistic thing that I didn't like, but it went its own way. Now it's got this glamour around it, demo release, OP relase, anticipation... and I'm thinking someone who has been constantly flattered by his fans won't admit that it was actually them who made him do a sequel that wasn't necessary in the first place.
Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice and anime-ish and cool OP. With a different name and protagonist, I think it would be a fresh and deep story made with an all-star ensemble, from the makers of Narcissu. But the way it is now, using the Narcissu name, I just can't imagine it being anything than a disappointment in the end.
Ah, sometimes... I wonder what's become of this. It was an artistic thing that I didn't like, but it went its own way. Now it's got this glamour around it, demo release, OP relase, anticipation... and I'm thinking someone who has been constantly flattered by his fans won't admit that it was actually them who made him do a sequel that wasn't necessary in the first place.
Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice and anime-ish and cool OP. With a different name and protagonist, I think it would be a fresh and deep story made with an all-star ensemble, from the makers of Narcissu. But the way it is now, using the Narcissu name, I just can't imagine it being anything than a disappointment in the end.
I don't know. As I was talking with PyTom earlier, Tomo Kataoka has failed to disappoint me yet from any of his writings.
I saw the original Narcissu as a ground breaking experimental piece. With it, Kataoka explored whether fans prefered a story with our without voices, whether a work could be minimalistic but powerful, and what could be achieved with "limited" resources.
As much as we debated it in the other thread, Narcissu was made with "limited" resources in comparison of what Kataoka was capable of acquire. People claimed it had an awesome soundtrack, but 80% of that soundtrack was stolen from the NekoNeko Soft archives. The artwork was minimal, well he chose specifically not to seek someone who could provide a huge amount of artwork. And finally the voice acting was done by a VA friend of his.
He made his experimental piece and story, and his fans loved it beyond belief. It is the most successful piece stage-nana has made to date. It was translated (with permission) into four other languages within a matter of a month (sometimes even multiple times in one language). And finally, he had created characters his fans had become endeared too.
I think for Narci2, Kataoka wants to expand on his characters that were loved in Narcissu (well... Setsumi, since it was only her and the protagonist). He is not trying to make a ground breaking revolutionary work this time, he merely wants to expand the character he created within Narcissu that everyone fell in love with.
And to do this, he chose this time to approach it from a non-minimalistic POV. This time Narci2 has an all time star voice cast, Goto-P has committed to drawing a considerable amount of artwork for the title, he has a list of A class composers and the second most famous combo from I've Sound. But in exchange for all this he has in Narci2 that he didn't have in Narcissu, he sacrificed time... and a lot of it. Remember, Narci2 was supposed to come out (i think) around last summer. Its been so long that I even forgot the original release date goal. He is just this time not choosing to make the game from a minimalistic POV.
In fact, you could actually see Narci2 as an experiment of sorts. An experiment to see if the prologue of a game can be equally loved as the originally when it is told from a "professional" style of game. It will tell him which style is truly more popular, the "professional descriptive" game or the "artistic minimalistic" game that Narcissu was originally.
In that perspective, it was sort of like how Narcissu came as both a voiced and non voiced version, so Kataoka could "really" feel what people preferred. You can't compare a free doujin game to a commercial game in people's true preference of style because one requires the end user to inherently pay for it, and thus it becomes a comparison of apples and oranges. With Narci2, he would have a psuedo comparison point of apples to apples (yes, there is still some skew, but a bit less).
Narcissu Side 2nd may not be the ground breaking and revolutionary doujin that Narcissu was. But I doubt Kataoko's devotion and story telling skills will fail us now, and thus I truly believe it will be an enjoyable story, quite possible as enjoyable as the original. And thats fine with me, not every title has to break the mold to be entertaining and loved.
I saw the original Narcissu as a ground breaking experimental piece. With it, Kataoka explored whether fans prefered a story with our without voices, whether a work could be minimalistic but powerful, and what could be achieved with "limited" resources.
As much as we debated it in the other thread, Narcissu was made with "limited" resources in comparison of what Kataoka was capable of acquire. People claimed it had an awesome soundtrack, but 80% of that soundtrack was stolen from the NekoNeko Soft archives. The artwork was minimal, well he chose specifically not to seek someone who could provide a huge amount of artwork. And finally the voice acting was done by a VA friend of his.
He made his experimental piece and story, and his fans loved it beyond belief. It is the most successful piece stage-nana has made to date. It was translated (with permission) into four other languages within a matter of a month (sometimes even multiple times in one language). And finally, he had created characters his fans had become endeared too.
I think for Narci2, Kataoka wants to expand on his characters that were loved in Narcissu (well... Setsumi, since it was only her and the protagonist). He is not trying to make a ground breaking revolutionary work this time, he merely wants to expand the character he created within Narcissu that everyone fell in love with.
And to do this, he chose this time to approach it from a non-minimalistic POV. This time Narci2 has an all time star voice cast, Goto-P has committed to drawing a considerable amount of artwork for the title, he has a list of A class composers and the second most famous combo from I've Sound. But in exchange for all this he has in Narci2 that he didn't have in Narcissu, he sacrificed time... and a lot of it. Remember, Narci2 was supposed to come out (i think) around last summer. Its been so long that I even forgot the original release date goal. He is just this time not choosing to make the game from a minimalistic POV.
In fact, you could actually see Narci2 as an experiment of sorts. An experiment to see if the prologue of a game can be equally loved as the originally when it is told from a "professional" style of game. It will tell him which style is truly more popular, the "professional descriptive" game or the "artistic minimalistic" game that Narcissu was originally.
In that perspective, it was sort of like how Narcissu came as both a voiced and non voiced version, so Kataoka could "really" feel what people preferred. You can't compare a free doujin game to a commercial game in people's true preference of style because one requires the end user to inherently pay for it, and thus it becomes a comparison of apples and oranges. With Narci2, he would have a psuedo comparison point of apples to apples (yes, there is still some skew, but a bit less).
Narcissu Side 2nd may not be the ground breaking and revolutionary doujin that Narcissu was. But I doubt Kataoko's devotion and story telling skills will fail us now, and thus I truly believe it will be an enjoyable story, quite possible as enjoyable as the original. And thats fine with me, not every title has to break the mold to be entertaining and loved.
The game is using a different protagonist. You play as Setsumi (go female protagonists) this time and the protagonist from the original Narcissu is not in this prequel whatsoever.mikey wrote:With a different name and protagonist, I think it would be a fresh and deep story made with an all-star ensemble, from the makers of Narcissu. But the way it is now, using the Narcissu name, I just can't imagine it being anything than a disappointment in the end.
... and just to throw in some philosphical debate into this - if there were no professionally-made VNs, would you be able to appreciate the fan ones?monele wrote:I see it this way : if the second one is not as popular as the first one despite all the "professional" aspect... there'll be a good lesson to take from it
. It just wouldn't be known at all. It'd be categorized as "adventure" or something else, very vague... because amateur games rarely get a category name of their own ^^;..-
rg4619
I didn't think Narcissu was that great (decent concept, but the story seemed rather exaggerated and heavy-handed. It just felt a little artificial to me). Nonetheless, the effort going into 2nd Side certainly has me intrigued.
Yes, Kira and Collage were easily the best al|together pieces, at least IMO.Kira, Collage, and At Summer's End where all truly pieces I liked and definitely not on a "professional" level grandeur.
Have they made anything else recently? afaik, Stage-Nana was Kataoka's circle from before his Nekoneko Soft days, with Narcissu being the first release since 2000.It is the most successful piece stage-nana has made to date.
Not recently, but if you notice, Narcissu was labeled as Stage 24 IRC. They've done numerous "releases" of various things before Narcissu, some of their were doujin games, though none of their older doujin games got "Web Releases".rg4619 wrote:Have they made anything else recently? afaik, Stage-Nana was Kataoka's circle from before his Nekoneko Soft days, with Narcissu being the first release since 2000.
All the recently "stages" have been extra material for the Narcissu story, such as Drama CDs.
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rg4619
Hmmm.....Stage-Nana's original site seems to have gone offline recently. However, cached pages indicate a November 2000 release for Vol.23.Not recently, but if you notice, Narcissu was labeled as Stage 24 IRC. They've done numerous "releases" of various things before Narcissu, some of their were doujin games, though none of their older doujin games got "Web Releases".
I guess activity ceased as Kataoka's pro career got busier. Nonetheless, it'd be interesting to find out what his previous works were.
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I don't care what you guys say, that's the best animated OP I've EVER seen. Hands-down.
As an animator and a CG artist, I have gallons of respect for the background artist pouring out his heart into his work there. The details on some of those buildings and the trees, clouds, are insanely good. Goto-P wins.
As an animator and a CG artist, I have gallons of respect for the background artist pouring out his heart into his work there. The details on some of those buildings and the trees, clouds, are insanely good. Goto-P wins.
I'm not even the same person anymore
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