I have been planning to make a little review of this doujin fighting game but somehow got a bit lazy lately. Anyway here it goes.

What would an ex-Capcom employee do if he just stepped down from his job carrying with him experience of making fighting game for huge company that produces Street Fighter? Well, making free fighting game of course! Vanguard Princess is something I would like to call as Street Fighter + Arcana Heart in the nutshell. It has nice graphics, cute girls, fun gameplay, and most importantly IT’S FREE.

Character selection screen

This game plays almost like your usual 2D fighting game albeit less combo-heavy. There are 10 playable characters and they’re all girls. It also has the assist system where you can choose one from the four assistants. Each of them have their own skills and can be executed with the combination of directional buttons and D button. Assist is useful if you want to connect the gap between you and your opponent if you’re trying to pull out a combo since chaining is nearly non-existent in this game. Pulling special after normal attacks is also a bit hard to do which makes VanPri rsembles your old classic fighting game compared to the fighting games we have today. To make pulling combos more difficult is the lack of air dash in this game which is bad for those who like spamming them to close the gap. Another thing that annoys me is how there’s no option to control the damage output since I found each battle round to be extremely short.

Typical battle scene

Using assist to PWN opponent

Although there are flaws in the gameplay system, I must praise this game for its beautiful graphic. For a fanmade game, VanPri’s graphic is gorgeous and the character pixel is so smooth. Perhaps I can say that it’s nearly on the same level as BlazBlue. Even the famous Melty Blood doesn’t have graphics on the same level as this when it first came out. This game is also fully voiced which is a plus and the music is also nice.

Character artwork and their movelist

Overall this game has its own flaw but I suggest for fighting game enthusiasts to at least try to play it (after all it’s free). It might not fit the taste of those who love combo heavy games but those who love playing older style fighting games probably can enjoy this more. Overall VanPri is a unique game on its own and as an amateur (or should I say ex-professional?) product it’s just simply good.

Official Site

Download VanPri here for free

It’s been long since I’ve done a PICS TIME

Finally tidbits of information regarding the upcoming Answer arc for Umineko no Naku Koro ni is released.
WARNING!

EDIT: Now complete with the opening scene!

There will be spoilers regarding the Umineko series in this post. If you’re currently following the anime series or reading visual novel but haven’t reached episode 4 yet then advance at your own risk.

Inconveniently put banner is inconveniently put.

Finally some good news! JASTUSA announced this wonderful partnership during Anime Expo 2009 (which I didn’t attend). The first Nitro+ masterpiece that will localized is the awesomeness that is Zanma Taisei Demonbane. Although its uncertain whether already fan-translated or partially-translated games such as Saya no Uta and Sumaga will also get localized. JASTUSA also haven’t said anything about those BL games that are released under Nitro+Chiral banner. It won’t be too difficult for JASTUSA to manipulate the lolis’ age since most lolis in Nitro+ games are already around 100 years old or more lol. Anyway I just can’t wait to get my hands on translated Gekkou no Carnevale and Tenshi no Nichou Kenju since that means I have a reason to replay them.

When many are expecting this year to be a good year for the world of otaku-dom all over the world with the release of many VN translations, it turns out this year marks the worst record of history for this niche market. As you might all know, hell started to break lose with the news of the famous H-game, RapeLay, getting banned and forced to be pulled away from the market by some Western feminist group. Things started to get from bad to worse when EOCS finally put a ban to many categories of hardcore H-games. And now the worst finally hit us, overseas fans, by having an eroge company blocking foreign IP addresses from accessing their websites. The famous company of minori (the creator of ef series) is the one that starts this trend and I hope this doesn’t go widespread. They blocked all non-Japanese internet connection from connecting to their website and gave us this message.

THE MESSAGE OF ILL-OMEN!

That’s not all; minori also blames foreigners for all the mess that struck their market. They even ask us to negotiate with their government if we want this treatment to end. What makes it worse is how majority of Japanese otaku agrees with that decision and it doesn’t take long for them to start raging on us for what happened. They started to forget how the situation they got into right now mostly is the result of Japanese media portrayal and their politicians and activists trying to push this niche market down. In fact throughout history, Japanese animation entertainment business has received many critics and harsh treatments from around the world (remember that accusation of Pokemon being demonic? Critics regarding vulgar elements in children show? And numerous other bad memories that I just can’t remember right now) and they managed to survive. If we compare to how fellow Japanese themselves treat their minor community, the pressure from overseas can be considered as small. However apparently they gave in to their weak stereotype and prefer to push the blames to someone else. Of course I cannot say that those feminist groups behind the ban and pressure to eroge industry is completely guiltless, but at least this small minority must stand united and try to save the industry they love most with their own effort. Then again, I know it’s hard to convince them for doing so remembering their position in public, the bad stigma that sticks to them and the overall mindset of Japanese people in general.

But we can be grateful that aside from the sentiment that struck us, some people (like Ryuukishi07 bro, the people at mangagamer and numerous other doujin creators that actually care about overseas fans) are actually trying to break down the giant wall between Japanese fans and non-Japanese fans. We can hope that someday this little hobby of ours can actually help people from various countries to sit around one table and discuss about it rather than actually separating us like this. Of course this sounds like a cheesy dream but this is actually what we actually expect to happen compared to shitstorm that takes place. At last let me quote something from Ryuukishi’s letter of encouragement to the Witch-Hunt staffs

Eastern and Western world-views mix together, a world-view where reality and illusions are mixed together.

Source: Suzacu Late Show

PS: There’s a shitsorm happening at above site thanks to a mistranslation resulted from machine translation.

М-м-м-моэ!

We all know how moe Putin can be but do you have the hidden desire to fap vigorously to the genderswapped version of the man that can make your family vanish in a night? Well, don’t feel depressed because the Glorious Land of Nippon once again proves itself to be the expert when it comes to fulfilling your messed up dreams.

For some reason the logo has US flag pattern on it.

The upcoming eroge from ALcot titled Osananajimi wa Daitoryou or My Childhood Friend is the President (but for some reason its official translation is My Girlfriend Is the President) will have a character named Irina Vladimirovna Putin who is your childhood friend and at the same time the president of Russia. To make her more moe, she has the nickname Pu-chin which I admit is quite HNNNNGGGGG inducing. On the other hand, the game doesn’t seem to deliver something new from your standard VN. However, having Putin as the main heroine seems to be an enough gimmick to make many anons out there to buy dl once it comes out. As for me, I have to admit that I’m not too interested in this game aside from the Putin stuff but I think I’ll just dl the cg set.

Chibi Putin... HNNNNNNNNNNGGGGG!!!

It’s a good thing that ‘Genderswapped version of the President of Russia’ is not one of the banned factors from the EOCS mess or else we will not have this… interesting idea. Anyway keep in mind not to mess around with Putin since in Soviet Russia, president assassinates you!

From 0.1% to 100% in less than six months, this must be the work of magic! Well magic aside, Umineko fans should rejoice since our beloved Witch-Hunt team has finally finished the final patch for the 4th episode of this epic tale. You can check out for the patch here. Unfortunately the old save file from the first patch won’t work this time due to massive changes. However WH has also prepared the solution and you can check it out from the Animesuki link.

This also means that the Western fans are finally standing on the same spot as the Japanese fans. With the upcoming Umineko anime and the beginning of the answer arc next Comiket, it seems that this year is a good year to become an Umineko fan.

Do you like Tenshi from Touhou?

Do you like hopping?

Do you like boasting your score from an endless game to people around you?

Then maybe this is the game for you! Sadly I’m suck at games like this and my highest score is only slightly more than 3000.

What started as (seemingly) joke project from 4chan finally got its first demo released. Yes, I’m talking about Katawa Shoujo the first high-quality (you got to admit it) VN from English speaking community. If you don’t know what Katawa Shoujo is, it’s basically a VN that explores the moe moe side of disabled girls. Of course what is a VN without all the drama? You play as a dude who suffers from typical anime AIDS heart disease. Now you must spend your days in a school dedicated for disabled people. Can you regain the life you’ve lost from the hospitalization and somehow experience love once again?

After playing the first demo, my impression is quite positive. The character interaction is enjoyable and considering this comes from English speaking community like 4chan somehow makes the experience quite unique. I must jump along with many 4chan’s anon to Hanako bandwagon. Her design is pretty unique for a VN character and I’m just weak against quiet character. My other favorite characters so far are Shizune and Misha.

Here I’m hoping KS might endorse other creative fans out there to make plausible VNs instead of just LULZ SO RANDOM XD stuffs we usually get. Of course I’m expecting we can get the full version sooner so let’s just hope the developers don’t lose their spirit. BTW Lelouch is such an attention whore.

Sorry for teh lack of updates. I just realized there’s no new posts at all for this month so I’ve decided to write my experience with ryona games. Before you proceed I must tell you that THIS POST MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME PEOPLE ESPECIALLY IF YOU OPPOSE GURO, SADISM, OR SUCHLIKE. It’s stated in red therefore it must be true!

Well I myself am not a fan of ryona games but one of my friends is a die-hard fan (don’t ask). Since he’s quite busy with college and isolated from the internet thanks to the sucky internet connection they have there, he asked me to fetch him some ryona games he considered as ‘interesting’. It’s a good thing that 4chan is much crueler than the wildest ryona game available so I’m able to stomach those games.

Ryona games are basically games that exploitate violence on women. It doesn’t have to go as far being guro but any realistic or semi-realistic violence towards women can be considered as ryona genre. That’s why the DOA series is categorized as ryona by fans from the great Nippon. In my voyage to seek more knowledge of darker otaku sub-culture, I have stumbled upon several free fanmade ryona games you might (not) want to check out.

Hanakanmuri

The first ryona game (that’s truly dedicated to ryona) I played. I also played this game long before my friend asked me to embark on a quest for ryona games. This game basically tells the story of Fia who was abducted and must find her way home. At first it might look like your happy fun joyful adventure game featuring a cute girl with some strange yet cute monsters as the enemies. But I realized that I was wrong after falling into the first pit. Not only Ruona, this game also features hardcore hentai and mild guro. The chibi artsyle in this game doesn’t help anything at all. Right now Hanakanmuri is in the progress of being upgraded into a full fledged doujin game. That’s not all! The developer also begins a new game project called ‘Elizabeth’ that combines adventure with ADV gameplay. Oh, joy!

Another typical scene in Hanakanmuri.

Evigen

This one is not too heavy on ryona but it’s categorized as ryona on this site. Even I don’t know why this one is ryone. It’s just a side-scrolling platformer game featuring a maid with two guns and inconsistent artwork. But since the Japanese says it’s a ryona game then it must be a ryona game.

Mouse Ryonage

A ryonage-in-progress. Once it’s finished, basically it lets you torture your own mouse-girl. Ideal game of torturing simulation for spies, dictators, messed-up husbands, and ronery otakus everywhere.

Ryona Quest

A buggy fanmade RPG from RPG Maker 2003 that allows you to enter your favorite heroines (Sophia, Celes, Lenneth, and many more) into a massive messed up ryona tournament. So buggy that I don’t even know what I should do.

Demonophobia

What is an article about ryonage without the slightest mention of Demonophobia? It’s basically everything you want from a ryona game. Gore, vore, decapitation, urination, humiliation, and a giant enemy vagina. You play as Sakuri, a poor girl who summoned demons from the underworld to punish her classmates. Just as usual, shit happens and now she’s trapped in the underworld and find herself unable to die. Yup, that means after every gruesome deaths you will be recovered to the way you were. This game is so legendary to the point where the creator decided to give it a sequel, Xenophobia. But for some reason the creator got lazy and the project is stalled. Anyway, this is the first ryona game I stumbled unto during my honorable quest. A word of warning, the latter part of the game can be quite frustrating thanks to the semi-danmaku boss battle. The glitchy control can also drive you mad.

A gamer dude plays Demonophobia.

Silent Desire 2

Last but least (not counting the ‘hey, where’s my ryona?’ Evigen) ryona game is Silent Desire 2. Despite its title, I must assure you it’s nota hentai title. SD2 is a 2D hack-and-slash game with annoying control and quite challenging difficulty. What makes it ryona is there are several death scenes drawn in detail to show you how miserable the girl is. In case you’re wondering, yes it’s a sequel and Silent Desire does exist. But no, the first game is not a ryona game. It’s just a simple dungeon-crawling RPG with boring gameplay.

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I must shamefully admit there some kind of appeal in these ryona games but at the same time this game is DEFINITELY not for everyone. In case you’re curious then I welcome you to try playing several of these games. Although I can see why Hanakanmuri and Demonophobia might get popular. Ignoring the faulty control, both have solid gameplay and might offer you some challenge. In fact, there’s a site dedicated to host ryona fanarts. If you’re interested to find more about ryona games, you can check out a Japanese wiki dedicated to free fanmade ryona games or the BBS for ryona games.

Because Japan thinks that Twilight light novel and a manga about socialism are not brilliant enough, they’ve decided to torment us with High School Musical – the manga.

Oh, Japan...

For extra lulz just look at the mangaupdates entry. It’s not scanlated yet, let alone got published, but we already have 21 people (by the time this post is written) who decided to give this… thing score of 1. At least 2 people are generous enough to give it 2. Then again this is a manga adapted from a *coughshittycough* musical movie, there ought to be something very wrong with it.