S.G. Croup's Blog, page 129
January 9, 2016
lalalalack:
本日チェインクロニクルでリリースされた【懲役一億年...
本日チェインクロニクルでリリースされた【懲役一億年 クライン】担当させていただきました！どうぞ宜しくお願いします～
http://chronicle.sega-net.com/members/info/detail/017838.html
konohanaya:
The English version of THE END OF DREAMS V1.0 is in...
The English version of THE END OF DREAMS V1.0 is in translation. Thanks for the love and support from the English players. :D
And here’s some from Herc’s followup series!
And here’s some from Herc’s followup series!
I spent a while this morning filling out a long-ass tumblr meme/questionnaire thing and tagging lots...
I spent a while this morning filling out a long-ass tumblr meme/questionnaire thing and tagging lots of people in it but then but tumblr ATE IT. D:<
So instead I’m going to post a bunch of naked Hercules.
Great Moments in Bara Gaming History (#5) - The Emergence of BL/Bara Games in the West
Coming Out On Top (Obscurasoft)
Visual Novels, a genre that not even ten years ago was a foreign concept to many western gamers. Outside of the import crowd or those in the niche PC game market, visual novels were something most people outside of Japan read about in small, quarter page blurbs in the miscellaneous news section of their favorite gaming publication, or on fan-fueled fringe sites. While a few VNs managed to make their way over to the US and beyond (to little fanfare), many thought the genre was destined to remain a curiosity, exclusive to Japan. That all changed when a certain western publisher decided to take a chance on a peculiar series, Ace Attorney, starring a plucky defense attorney, and the age of the English visual novel was upon us.
The success of the Ace Attorney games paved the way for other popular VN series like Zero Escape and DanganRonpa, which have fostered adamant cult followings. Meanwhile, companies dedicated to the English release of some of the more obscure and niche forms of visual novels began to spring up in the US, offering players a chance to experience games running the gamut of Japanese slice-of-life stories, mind bending cerebral horror, and extreme erotica. (Most primarily marketed toward straight male gamers.)
The breakthrough of these varying types of visual novels in the west, from the mainstream successes, to the most niche of releases, eventually led to the appearance of otome games, a sub-genre of VNs geared towards women starring female protagonists, primarily featuring them in romantic situations with a gaggle of male suitors. But even after the advent of visual novels in the English gaming market and beyond, many still believed that this particular form of the genre would not be able to find an audience outside of Japan. Those doubts were soon quashed, and otome games began to foster dedicated fan communities all over the globe.
Super Health Club (OONYX Games)
Yet among this eclectic mix of visual novels being offered, there was still a particular style of VN that was almost completely unexplored in the west, BL games. (Titles featuring male protagonists in romantic/sexual relationships with other men.) Even within Japan, this sub-genre of visual novels usually remained on the outskirts of the gaming community. Complicating things more so was the fact that most BL games fall into two disparate categories, yaoi games, which generally feature slender and toned young men in dramatic romantic relationships, (the primary fanbase being female gamers), and bara games, which tend to focus on muscular men in more overtly sexual situations. (Mainly marketed toward gay men.) There was of course crossover between the two types of BL game communities, but for the most part, they tended to remain separate entities, and with many US companies hesitant to broach any games featuring gay content, the fate of these titles outside Japan was left to dedicated gamers providing fan translations. With seemingly no BL games slated to make the journey west, and few English developers providing even a modicum of substantial gay content in their games, players interested in these types of experiences seemed resigned to fanworks and the rare morsel of consideration from forward thinking companies.
This all began to change in November of 2012, when US indie developer Obscurasoft launched a Kickstarter campaign for a gay themed visual novel called Coming Out On Top. Promising a cast of affable, muscular male characters of different backgrounds and ethnicities, a fresh western artistic style, and general thematic tone of self discovery through humor and romance, the campaign was an unprecedented success. Being one of the first visual novels to be crowd funded on the site, and the very first Kickstarter video game project to feature a storyline based around gay male relationships, Coming Out On Top was confirmation that there was indeed an audience waiting for exactly this type of game.
Less than a year later, fellow indie developer OONYX Games announced their plans for Super Health Club, a combination dating/business sim, featuring the artwork of the popular artist Dongsaeng. Starring a group of buff physical trainers trying to turn their beloved gym’s fortunes around, Super Health Club is inspired by the vibrant and sensual aesthetic of some of the most renown bara titles in Japan, and aims to be the first true taste of traditional bara style gaming in the west.
No, Thank You!!! (Pa-rade, Licensed by MangaGamer)
With two burgeoning developers now entering the BL field with their original titles, western players yearning for this type of content finally had projects to support, but what of the sub-genre’s roots in Japan? This was answered in the summer of 2014, when English VN localization company MangaGamer, announced that they had licensed the BL/bara game No, Thank You!!!, from developer Pa-rade. One of the few games to straddle both the yaoi and bara styles, No, Thank You!!! was a standout among BL games in Japan. Well received by Japanese gamers, not just for its stunning, high quality artwork, but also for its engrossing storyline and intriguing characters, the title was one of the most suggested BL games to the MangaGamer staff. And thus, yet another BL game was on the horizon for English fans.
While these games have yet to prove themselves in the market, (Coming Out On Top & Super Health Club are still in beta, and No, Thank You!!! has yet to make its English debut), this sudden influx of VNs featuring gay characters and storylines holds the promise of being the turning point for developers, realizing that the desire for this type of content exists, and is worth investing in.
What the future holds for these titles, and more of their ilk, is still up in the air, but one thing is for certain, the gates of the west have been opened to BL games. With all three titles expected to release by early 2015, what would not of been in the realm of possibility five years ago, is now on the cusp of realization. Gay content in games is becoming more and more prevalent every day, and hopefully these three forays into the world of BL gaming in the west will be the harbingers of more to come.
(“Great Moments in Bara Gaming History” is a series of spotlights on particular instances in video game history where the sexuality of male characters is brought to the forefront. It’s a celebration of muscular men in this medium where their physicality and sensuality is showcased in a positive and inclusive manner.)
Shameless reblog to fix outdated links and commemorate/celebrate the fact that all three of these games have now launched in English. It’s a big step forward for bara & gay centric content in gaming, and that’s pretty great IMO. So congratulations to all the developers and publishers, and hopefully we’ll see continued support for these titles (and beyond) going forward.
What will 2016 bring for bara games in English?
January 8, 2016
tonystarksredthong:
Hercules Vol 1 Issue #2
What an excellent...
Hercules Vol 1 Issue #2
What an excellent book. We don’t think we’ve spotted a shirt yet!
bigbadblackooze:
Sorry Hulk, but if Venom wants to bond with...
Sorry Hulk, but if Venom wants to bond with you, you might as well just let it happen. Because, you do not have a chance trying to fight the bond.
