Tuesday, February 19, 2013

No joke: another otome game (for PSP) is coming to North America

And not only that, but it appears that this forthcoming otome game will be released both digitally and on UMD à la Class of Heroes 2.

The name of the title in question is Sweet Fuse: At Your Side, by the way, and it's being brought to North America by Aksys Games.

Here's a summary of Sweet Fuse's story as per Aksys' website:

"Saki Inafune, niece to legendary game developer Keiji Inafune, can’t wait to visit her uncle’s new theme park. She’s been invited to the opening day ceremonies, and is looking forward to a day of fun and excitement when suddenly Count Hogstein—a villain as corpulent and cliché as he is evil—blows up the Ferris wheel, takes the park management hostage, and declares the beginning of a deadly series of games.



"Desperate to save her uncle, Saki volunteers to be one of the participants in Hogstein’s games, and finds herself thrust into the midst of excitement very different from what she’d expected when she woke up that morning. She’ll need all of her cunning, determination, and exceptional insight to get herself and her fellow participants—all available bachelors—out alive and maybe, with a little luck, find love along the way."

As for when Sweet Fuse will see the light of day in North America: according to the folks at Aksys, it'll do so sometime this summer.

20 comments:

Steve Pixel said...

So do you have any scoop on why Keiji Inafune wants to be associated with this game? I know he was in Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 as well, and I don't think I ever found an explanation for that either. It all just seems so bizarre and random. Still it sounds like a really neat idea for a visual novel game. I wish I was able to appreciate the genre a bit more than I do.

thegaygamer.com said...

Sadly, Steve, I know little more than what I included in this post. I'm going to try to find out more, though, so I'll let you know if I'm successful.


I understand not fully appreciating this genre, BTW. I wasn't much of a fan of it myself until I played Hakuoki. Even then, I'd hardly say I'm a fan of VNs. Rather, I enjoyed Hakuoki and this game sounds interesting, too, so I want to give it a go.

apricotsushi said...

Keiji Inafune is head producer at Idea Factory, the company that worked on both games :)

apricotsushi said...

Well I'm sure you know how excited I am for this news, Bryan! I can tell you right now that I'll be first to place my preorder for a physical copy when it goes up ;)

That said, I don't think Sweet Fuse would've been my number one pick if Aksys came to me and said "hey Anne, since we value your opinion so greatly, would you care to tell us what otome game you most want to see in English?" Not to toot my own horn, but the Sweet Fuse announcement spurred me to write up my own list of games I want to see/think would do well if they were brought over, which you can read here: http://videogamewriters.com/otome-game-localization-wishlist-59670



But beggars can't be chosers, eh? I definitely like the looks of this one more than Hakuoki, though!

Steve Pixel said...

Wow I had no idea he actually works at Idea Factory. That's kind of sad to end up at a company like that after being at Capcom for so long. His Wikipedia entry doesn't even mention Idea Factory -- it just says he started a company called Concept in 2010, so I guess that didn't work out?

thegaygamer.com said...

I didn't know this either! Interesting. Thanks for sharing, Anne :)

thegaygamer.com said...

I'll likely be pre-ordering this sucker, too, Anne. Which one of us will be first? Ha ha!


My PSP's really going to get a workout soon. I wonder if it can handle it?


BTW, thanks for the link to the article you wrote for VGW. I'm going to check it out shortly, as I'm pretty curious about this genre at the moment.

apricotsushi said...

I'm pretty positive his work with Idea Factory is in addition to his personal stuff – i.e Concept is working on that 3DS penguin game KAIO even though they haven't said anything about it for a while. He joined Idea Factory in 2011!

apricotsushi said...

No prob!

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, right! I completely forgot about that 3DS penguin game. Sheesh, it was announced shortly after the 3DS was released, wasn't it? I wonder when we'll finally hear about it again?

apricotsushi said...

Last I heard they announced they'd be making an anime out of it... but didn't provide any new info on the game itself -_-

apricotsushi said...

Hah, in all likelihood, you'll be first since you'll actually be awake when they announce preorders are open ;)


My PSP's pretty beat up, actually... I got a used one because I wasn't sure how much I'd like the system, but now I wish I had a new(er) one. Guess I'll put that on the list for when I go to Japan, too...


And you're welcome! I don't like to spam my articles, but that one's pretty appropriate. I actually own the Japanese version of the Alice game that I mention on that list... I really should play it soon and blog about it :)

thegaygamer.com said...

Hmmmm... Well, hopefully we'll hear about it soon-ish--assuming the game is at all good, of course :)

thegaygamer.com said...

Ah, you and I are in the same boat! I picked up a cheap, used PSP-1000 off of eBay a few years ago simply because I was curious about a few of the nichier games. I've since come to love the system quite a bit--and I now wish I'd bought one new. Maybe someday...


Oh, and, yes, you definitely should play the Alice game sometime soon and blog about it!

Kevin Bowling said...

I really have no idea what the hell is going on in Sony's mind. They're a bit obnoxious with the whole "OMG, VITA IS COOL!" followed by "HERE'RE NEW PSP GAMES." ... Seriously?

thegaygamer.com said...

But not all of that is in Sony's control, Kevin--or at least I don't think it is. I mean, Sony isn't publishing this game; Monkey Paw Games is. Are you saying you'd want Sony to force Monkey Paw to make this a Vita-only release, or not release it at all because it's a PSP game?

apricotsushi said...

Well, keep in mind that I just picked 5 off the top of my head, and though I didn't really have space to go into it in the article, I tried to steer away from DS games as much as I could since I know the likelihood of them getting localized is much lower than PSP games these days. Also, I totally know what you're saying about Starry Sky, but both that and UtaPuri have such massive audiences that I'd be sad to see them not come out in English at some point. The otome fans need their fluff! :P

Of course, titles like Sweet Fuse or Hakuoki are much better choices to start with since they have stories that appeal to a broader audience (Hakuoki) or gameplay that's a bit different than a regular visual novel (Sweet Fuse). So while I tried to throw in a few titles that I thought fit that mold (HaruToki, TokiMemo), I also tried to include some "fan favorites." It's tough to choose just five!

I've never played Kurayami no Hate de Kimi o Matsu - I'll have to check it out! As for Hoshizora no Comic Garden, I really don't like how the save points are spaced out in that one. It REALLY bothers me when you can't save at any time in an otome game. Argh! Either than that, it's a really cute game (and about a girl who wants to be a mangaka, what could be better?).



And you make a REALLY good point about the HaruToki text being in traditional Japanese top to bottom format. I totally forgot about that, and it definitely would make it way more difficult to localize. I guess you can probably scratch that off the list ;_;


Anyway, thanks for reading my article! I didn't realize you played so many otome games :D

miruki said...

Thank you for writing that article, I'm always glad to see other people being into otome games as well. :)

I actually started out with hentai games at the tender age of 15... my best friend sent me "Dividead" and I was pretty impressed by all the mystery going on between the occasional sex scene.... 8) Soon after that I played True Love '95 and got completely hooked on the stat-raising sim elements. When I looked for more like that, I found Princess Maker and played the hell out of that game.. 8) In 2004 I stumbled upon Hoshi no Oujo 3, an 18+ otome game (and one of the characters is voiced by Takehito Koyasu.. XD) with a similar premise like Harutoki & Fushigi Yuugi. You get summoned to another world, find out you're some sort of priestess, meet a few adorable gods and hear them moan from time to time.. *coughs* Ah well, I then found out the all ages releases of otome games were mainly located on consoles and handhelds, I got my PS2 modded, so I could import otome games. :) My Japanese knowledge is pretty limited, tho I do get a lot from conversations if the game is fully voiced... which is way too rarely the case.. I'll never get why they'd give everyone voices besides the hero / heroine - do Japanese developers really think we'd say the lines ourselves, to feel more like we're right there, in the game? Do Japanese gamers actually do stuff like that? 8)



Oh well, enough rambling from my side. But yes, I've played quite few otome games and I prefer the ones with gameplay over the pure VN ones with just occasional story choices.. I've grown tired of reading too much text without anything inbetween somehow. ^^; I'm also trying to develop my own otome'ish stat-raising sim... which will probably take another year or two until it's done. ;>


Anyway, looking forward to reading more otome game related stuff from you. :)

thegaygamer.com said...

I agree, miruki. Yes, it's frustrating that devs and publishers are supporting the PSP over the Vita, but at least a lot of the games being announced right now will be playable on Vita, too. Or at least that's how I choose to think about the situation.

thegaygamer.com said...

Just popping in here to say that I'm in awe of the knowledge you two have about this genre!