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Go! Go! Nippon! 2015, an expansion to MangaGamer and Overdrive’s Go! Go! Nippon ~My First Trip to Japan~, now has a launch date. The add-on to the educational visual novel will be released on October 16 for Windows PCs.

Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ is an all ages visual novel with romantic elements. Players explore Japan and learn about its sights and customs with the sisters Makoto and Akira Misaki. The story is twice as long and allows players to visit Comiket, Odaiba, Solamachi, the Tokyo Skytree, a planetarium, and a Japanese festival. New foods and activities are also available.

The presentation of Makoto and Akira have been improved for Go! Go! Nippon! 2015 as well. In addition to widescreen, HD visuals and character portraits that convey their emotions, the girls experience additional costume changes. As an example, Makoto will dress up as a maid when you visit Comiket with her.

MangaGamer is running a pre-order promotion for Go! Go! Nippon! 2015. The expansion is going to be 25% alone, or in a bundle with the original game. That means Go! Go! Nippon! 2015 is now $5.96 instead of $7.95 through MangaGamer, with the bundle that includes it and the base game is $11.21 instead of $14.95. This discount will also carry over to Steam, where it will be 25% off the week it launches. The pricing is already in effect on the MangaGamer website, and Steam keys will be provided to people who purchase directly through the publisher.

The post Pre-Order Go! Go! Nippon! 2015 To Expand Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~’s Horizons appeared first on Siliconera.

Go Go Nippon is getting an update, MangaGamer announced at AKON this week. A new version of the game, titled Go Go Nippon 2015, will be released as an update for the original game, and will add nearly twice the amount of content.

Among the new content are several brand-new locations like the Tokyo Skytree, Solamachi, Odaiba, a planetarium, and even Comiket. The expansion also adds several new events featuring Makoto and Akira, including a "late night moment" with each (although, this is still an all-ages game).

In of technical details, Go Go Nippon 2015 will update the game to run at 1280 x 720 px. The CGs in the original game will be updated to run at the new resolution, and all of the new artwork is being created at the new, higher resolution as well. Finally, the game will also now use animated portraits. Watch this in action above.

Go Go Nippon 2015 doesn’t have a release date yet.

The post Go Go Nippon 2015 Has Animated Portraits, More Content, And More appeared first on Siliconera.

Back in July, Hiroshi Takeuchi, the president of visual novel developer Overdrive, said that he was working on another Go Go Nippon game. This week, Takeuchi shared further details about the project on his blog.

The first Go Go Nippon was an attempt by Overdrive to tap into the growing visual novel market in the West. The game put you in the shoes of a boy visiting Japan for the first time, and you were shown around by a pair of twin girls. The new release, Takeuchi says, will have even more Japanese sights to visit.

Among these attractions will be the Tokyo SkyTree and the Comic Market. Takeuchi also revealed that the new version will feature a script that’s 1.75 times long compared to the original, and that there will be additional stories involving Makoto and Akira, the two twins.

The same production staff will return for the 2015 version of Go Go Nippon. The story will be penned by Yasumoto Toru and character art provided by Fujimaru. The game will be available both digitally and in the form of a hardcopy, although details on this front have not been announced.

Go Go Nippon is being developed using Unity, and following its PC release will be ported to iOS and Android devices. Overdrive hope to make the game available on PC by next year’s Anime Expo convention.

The post Go Go Nippon 2015 Version Will Have New Sights And Story Events appeared first on Siliconera.

Back in 2011, I spoke with MangaGamer’s Head Translator, John Pickett, about getting the publisher’s visual novels onto Valve’s Steam platform. At the time, Pickett was very critical of Valve’s supposed stance on visual novels. Steam, Pickett said, held a bias against visual novels and didn’t consider them actual games, which is why none of MangaGamer’s titles were being released via the service.

Cut to three years later, and MangaGamer have two of their games available for purchase on Steam, with a third scheduled to go up on the Steam store when it is released this Winter. In the future, Pickett hopes to make even more of MangaGamer’s catalogue available via the Steam service. So, how did we get from not being on Steam at all to putting several games up on the service?

“The short answer is Steam Greenlight,” Pickett said to me in a recent conversation. “Back before Greenlight was announced, we approached Steam with Higurashi, only to be declined by Steam representatives telling us they didn’t think it was a fit for Steam, even after making our argument with the inclusion of links to the various articles and press coverage Higurashi had already received. Since Steam refused to accept our best, most popular all-ages product available at the time, it meant Steam simply wasn’t a viable option for us at all, so we had to focus efforts elsewhere.”

He continued, “When I noticed that Steam Greenlight went live, I ed our staff immediately and made sure we got both of our all-ages titles—at the time, Higurashi and Go! Go! Nippon—into the listings ASAP. Since Steam still wasn’t certain how to handle Greenlight and titles on Greenlight at the time, it was a prospect with a fairly bleak outcome even given the promotions we were doing to encourage fans to vote for the projects to get them onto Steam, while many fans of other genres were trying to down-vote it or leave negative comments because it was different fare from what they were used to seeing on the platform.”

Go! Go! Nippon is an interesting case in that it is a $10 visual novel specifically aimed at a Western audience. You step into the boots of a young man spending a week in Japan, being shown around by a pair of sisters that describe the various locales you visit and form a bond of friendship with you during the course of the trip. This game was the turning point for MangaGamer’s relationship with Steam.

Eventually, Pickett says, Go! Go! Nippon, along with Higurashi, did make it through the Greenlight process, nearly a year after submission. Adjustments to the Greenlight requirements had made it possible for the two to earn a foothold on Steam, and Go! Go! Nippon eventually went on to sell over 16,000 copies on Steam alone, demonstrating to both Valve and MangaGamer that there was a market for these games on the platform. Once this happened, Steam representatives that were in touch with MangaGamer became much more open to the idea of seeing more visual novels released via the Steam service.

In the future, MangaGamer hope to put a few more games on Steam. These include the remastered version of Higurashi When They Cry, Eden*, The House in Fata Morgana (whenever that game’s localization wraps up), and even Ozmafia, an “otome” visual novel targeted primarily at a female audience.

Still, while MangaGamer and other visual novel publishers like Sekai Project have made strides in bringing visual novels to Steam, Pickett feels there’s more Valve could do to help raise awareness of the genre. “Maybe one day in the near future, Steam will actually start listing ‘Visual Novel’ as a genre to sort games under,” Pickett joked.

The post How MangaGamer’s Visual Novels Ended Up On Steam appeared first on Siliconera.

Earlier in the year, Hiroshi “Bamboo” Takeuchi, the president of visual novel developer Overdrive, said that he was encouraged by the sales of Go! Go! Nippon!, the studio’s first visual novel aimed at the Western market.

Go Go Nippon! is a game that puts you in the shoes of a boy visiting Japan for the first time, and being shown around by a pair of twin girls. The game went on to sell 10,000 copies, which is fairly impressive for a visual novel, and Takeuchi said that he would like to create a “version 2” of the game with updated aspects.

True to his word, Takeuchi appears to be doing just that. Last month, on Twitter he revealed: “I started the development of ‘Go! Go! Nipppon-2014-’.”

We reached out to MangaGamer—who share a partnership with Overdrive and published the first Go! Go! Nippon!—for comment, but were told they couldn’t quite talk about the new game just yet.

The post Overdrive Working On New Go! Go! Nippon! Game appeared first on Siliconera.

MangaGamer’s Go Go Nippon! is up for on Steam today for $9.95. Some of our readers may this as the game where you play as a character visiting Japan for the first time, and being shown around by a pair of twins.

Meanwhile, Overdrive president Hiroshi Takeuchi, who was involved with the game, posted a message on his Facebook page, commenting upon its Steam release and his desire to create an updated version of Go Go Nippon!, should the developer be able to gather the necessary funds.

"[The game] was put on [discount sale] for about $5, but I'm really surprised because I hear it might hit 10,000 units sold soon, at the rate it's selling," Takeuchi wrote.

"The PC game market abroad is impressive, but seeing all these reactions also made me think I'd love to update a lot of its aspects and create a version 2 for sale, so could someone please fund it? lol"

Takeuchi humorously added: "It doesn't have to be that much money, lol."

At 10,000 copies sold, Go Go Nippon has outsold a number of MangaGamer’s other titles. While the profit margin on the game is lower than some of the company’s bigger titles, like Koihime Musou, we have it on good authority that in of sheer numbers, Go Go Nippon is among MangaGamer’s highest-selling games.

The post MangaGamer’s Go Go Nippon Has Sold Nearly 10,000 Copies appeared first on Siliconera.

Steam Greenlight is a new initiative where fans are allowed to vote for games they’d like to see made available on the Steam service. Game makers can submit their games to the Greenlight program, beyond which its in the hands of fans votes to make it happen.

You can access the Steam Greenlight page here. Two games caught my eye in the Greenlight section this past week. The first is a neat game titled Melody’s Escape (above), which sounds like Bit. Trip Runner, except your own music library is used to generate stages and obstacles.

The other is MangaGamer’s Go Go Nippon. Visual novel fans might want to vote for that, since getting a game onto Steam has been one of the goals for English-language visual novel publishers like JAST USA and MangaGamer for quite a while.

The post Help Games Get On Steam With The Steam Greenlight Program appeared first on Siliconera.

MangaGamer held another of their livestreams yesterday, with president, Hiroshi Takeuchi, answering fan questions regarding the company’s working process and future projects.

While MangaGamer will be publishing a summary of the stream on their b the near future, a fan who assisted with translation during the stream has posted his own summary notes on Twitter.

One of the points mentioned during the stream was Go! Go! Nippon! sales. The game released at the end of September, and since then, MangaGamer say it hasn’t been selling all that well, but that they have better hopes for it over an extended period.

As of now, the cost of translating games in general is substantial, and even recouping that cost is proving to be difficult. This is the reason Go! Go! Nippon! doesn’t feature voicework. It would be possible were the game to continue selling, and if MangaGamer could release DLC for it and have it sell well, but as of now, the inclusion of voices in’t feasible, cost-wise.

On the subject of collaborating with Japanese developers, MangaGamer say that convincing companies to publish their games overseas is very difficult unless they get them to visit western countries and interact with fans in the west.

In the case of other publishers, interest depends on sales. When a Japanese publisher is approached with a proposal, their first question regarding the project is: “Will it sell?” The struggle in this case is proving that the business is sustainable. For example, in the case of Innocent Grey, localization of other Innocent Grey games depends on the sales of Kara no Shoujo.

Another example would be Visual Art’s Key brand. On the subject of Key games, MangaGamer say Key are interested in licensing titles out for Asia, but not for western territories. Visual Art’s president, Takahiro Baba, has even shown his disapproval for people outside of Japan importing their games, due to cultural differences.

The post MangaGamer On The Hurdles Of Collaborating With Japanese Publishers appeared first on Siliconera.

When I first turned on MangaGamer's Go! Go! Nippon!, I was greeted with a cheerful logo and opening music. The interface was cute, and as I clicked on the necessary button to start the game, it asked me for my name (of a male character, of course) and for the current U.S. Dollar or Euro exchange rate for Japanese Yen.

The premise is simple.  The main character is a guy who decides to meet up with two brothers in Tokyo for a week.  These “brothers” turn out to be “sisters” (naturally), but all the same, they will gladly take him out sightseeing.

The main character is a Japanophile. He’s very excitable and reacts this way to everything he comes across. I’ll it, his personality makes it very easy to move the conversation forward and prompt explanations on how different systems in Japan work, but it can come across as overdone because he does it so often. His personality is also written based off the assumption that his country is as different as possible from Japan -- for example, he’s never heard of a debit card-based public transport system before, nor has he heard of 24-hour convenience stores before. To me, who’s come across both these things, the unfaltering enthusiasm seemed a little ridiculous.

The two girls, Akira and Makoto, are very knowledgeable, which is just as well because the unique feature of this game is the guide aspect. Their portraits and personalities are pretty obviously geared towards appealing to those familiar with Japanese culture … in the sense that they’re the two main archetypes of girls you’d expect from a usual visual novel. Makoto’s the older “onee-chan” type, and Akira (to put it lightly) is a “tsundere”. If you don’t know what these mean before you start the game, you definitely will after you’re done with it.

Go! Go! Nippon! is separated between into two distinct sections -- the guide portion and the dating portion. This isn’t denoted by chapters or a “guide starting now!” notification, but when I was playing, I could clearly tell when the game decided to shift focuses and start talking about something different. The game, being only 7 days long, is very short. It has a bit of replay value in that you can get to see all the cities it has to offer, but past that, there isn’t anything that will make you want to play it again.

The guide portion of the game is well done.  It tells newcomers to Japan what to expect, and while it may not cover nearly everything, it does mention interesting details about day-to-day life, such as the SUICA card and how to use the public transportation system. For example, Japan is not as accommodating of credit cards as America is. It even goes as far as to use the exchange rate you supplied at the beginning of the game to calculate everything in a currency you’re familiar with. Of course, the famous toilets Japan is known for are mentioned as well.

Go! Go! Nippon! provides a simple tour of many of the main districts of Tokyo and a few other cities, such as Kyoto, Yokohama, and Kamakura. Some are areas you’ve probably seen in popular games or anime, such as Ikebukuro or Shibuya. Other areas include Asakusa, Akihabara, Ginza, and Shinjuku. All are places a tourist would likely go to during their first trip to Japan.  Akira or Makoto provide basic trivia -- the origin of the area’s name, cultural customs when entering the area, what to expect, where the restrooms are -- as well as historical facts that are very interesting.  I hadn’t expected to, but I found myself learning a lot about the country while playing the game.

The best aspect of the game, I feel, is a button that appears during certain scenes.  The “Show Photo” option pulls up your preferred Internet browser and brings you to Google Maps, where you’re dropped into the appropriate location and get to see the in-game sight you’re looking at in real life. It’s a thoughtful feature.

You can also choose the Sightseeing Album from the Extra menu at the title screen after you’ve completed the game once. This provides a synopsis of what the main character learned during his foray in the city, including all the trivia and key sightseeing points.

Despite all this, calling Go! Go! Nippon! a “guide” to Japan may be a bit of an exaggeration, since it’s essentially a quick crash course of each location. Additionally, many cities in Japan aren’t explored at all, since the game takes place over a week.

The dating aspect of Go! Go! Nippon! is even simpler than the guide aspect. Depending on which districts in Tokyo you go to for the first three days, you’re taken down the route for one of the two girls, which culminates in some “heart-to-heart” and a kiss. There’s some well-drawn art of the girls that you can view in a CG gallery after you finish one playthrough. You can also replay any scene or start from a specific day with the Scene Replay option.

I was honestly put off by the “dating” part of the game because I kept wishing that the focus would return to exploring Japan. The romance and the characters aren’t deep enough or interesting enough to warrant the amount of attention the game gives them. I think the main reason for this was that I approached Go! Go! Nippon! from the viewpoint of it being a “guide with visual novel aspects”. As such, the character-centric scenes just seemed in the way of everything, and kept making me think: “I want to learn about Japan, not read about these characters!”

About halfway through the first playthrough, I realized this was the wrong way to go about things. Go! Go! Nippon! isn’t a guide with visual novel aspects, it’s a “visual novel with guide aspects”. As such, the characters are ultimately the center of the game. That happens to be a problem in and of itself. The audience that is looking for the guide, like me, will likely be put off by the romance aspect. The audience that is looking for a visual novel with meaningful character-interaction won’t find anything here that will satisfy them.

Were the game aimed purely at newcomers to visual novels, one could say that Go! Go! Nippon! would serve as an introduction to both a style of game that sees little exposure outside Japan and to Japanese culture and sightseeing as well. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case and Go! Go! Nippon! can be very discordant, which is a shame, because it is rather entertaining to learn all about Japan in a visual novel format.

Food for Thought:

1. When the game opens up and asks you for the conversion rate between Japanese yen and US dollars, just enter what you think is logical and don’t think too hard about it. That is the only hint I have for you.

2. A pretty cool aspect of the game is that it displays both the Japanese and English text on the game screen at the same time without overcrowding the screen. This happens after we establish Akira can’t speak English.

3. I really liked the food pictures. One gave me a craving for some ramen…

The post Go! Go! Nippon! Playtest: When Sightseeing And Romance Don’t Mix appeared first on Siliconera.

MangaGamer have an update on Go Go Nippon on their official blog, introducing the game’s two lead heroines, Makoto and Akira. As reported previously, the two are twin sisters, but differences in both looks and personality set them apart.

Makoto, they say, serves the wise older sister role, and has big you-know-whats.

Akira is the opposite -- the frustrating tsundere type. You can read more detailed descriptions of the two sisters over at the MangaGamer blog.

The post The Difference Between Makoto And Akira, Go Go Nippon’s Twin Sisters appeared first on Siliconera.

MangaGamer have a blog post up about some of the locales you’ll get to visit in Go Go Nippon, their tour guide-meets-visual novel game. The first three days of the game will be spent in Tokyo, followed by another two days in Kyoto. After that, it’s back to Tokyo once more.

Akihabara, Shibuya and Shinjuku are amongst the areas you’ll be shown around in Tokyo. You can find images of some of these locales on their blog, and a few more on the game’s Facebook page. Go Go Nippon is slated for release on September 30th.

The post These Are Some Of The Places You’ll Visit In Go Go Nippon appeared first on Siliconera.

MangaGamer sent out the first official batch of screenshots for Go Go Nippon this week, along with details of the game’s set-up. Go Go Nippon has you playing the role of a foreign student who befriends a pair of Japanese siblings over the Internet. Soon, they make arrangements for him to fly to Japan and visit them for a homestay.

Upon arriving, he finds that the two siblings -- Makoto and Akira -- happen to be a pair of cute twin sisters (naturally). They’ll be showing him around and giving him a tour of the local culture. Don’t let your mind wander too far down the gutter, though; Go Go Nippon doesn’t have any rumpy-pumpy. It’s meant to serve as a tour guide of Tokyo in visual novel format.

You can get closer to one of the two sisters, but this is done by choosing locations pertaining to them. Both sisters will show you different sights and sounds around Tokyo, and depending on which one you’re closer to, the final location you get to visit will vary as well.

Once you’re at a particular locale, a “Show Photo” button on the bottom-right corner of the screen will allow you to go directly to that exact same spot, shot from the same camera angle in Google Maps. More on that feature in this post.

Go Go Nippon is slated for release on September 30th and will cost €9.95 (a little over $14).

The post Go Go Nippon Begins With You Visiting Internet Friends appeared first on Siliconera.

MangaGamer’s title, Go! Go! Nippon will give players a tour of Japan’s sights and cuisine in a visual novel format. Putting you in the boots of a foreign university student boarding with a pair of twin sisters, the game is meant to offer insight into famous Japanese locales as well as the country’s culture.

It also has a rather neat feature that’s probably going to be of interest to both players that have and haven’t visited Japan. Take a look at the bottom-right corner of the screenshot below:

The screenshot is one of the areas of the Ikebukuro district in Tokyo, which you’ll get to visit in the game. See the “Show Photo” button at the bottom-right? That’s linked to Google Maps. Clicking the button takes you directly to a real-life view of the same area through Google Maps.

Here’s an example. The screenshot above is of Akihabara. The “Show Photo” button isn’t present in this particular screenshot, but it will be in the game. Clicking it will take you directly to this link. Below is a screenshot of the link:

The post Go! Go! Nippon Gives You A Virtual Tour Of Japan Both In The Game And Out appeared first on Siliconera.

Overdrive and MangaGamer boss, Hiroshi Takeuchi, recently held another live stream Q&A session with the company’s fans, where he shed light upon the company’s Go! Go! Nippon, a visual novel also meant to serve as a guide to Japan.

While he couldn’t say how long the game is -- although, he did say that it would be short -- Takeuchi reiterated that the game will be “very cheap” to buy.  He also alluded to the possibility of adding additional locations to explore, such as Nakano Broadway, via able content updates. As reported previously, Go! Go! Nippon is being developed specifically for overseas players that haven’t had the chance to visit Japan.

On the subject of overseas players, MangaGamer will also be at Anime Expo next week, where they’ll be bringing visual novel developers from Japan as they always do, to help interest them in the overseas market.

“There’s a possibility that companies like Clochette will release games with us,” Takeuchi said about the company’s Anime Expo presence, “but we mostly take guest companies to AX to show them what the American market is like... It’s like a future investment to show them around and get them interested.”

You can read a summary of the entire livestream event on MangaGamer’s company blog.

The post Additional Locales To Explore For Go! Go! Nippon Via DLC A Possibility appeared first on Siliconera.

News on MangaGamer and Overdrive’s Go! Go! Nippon has been scarce, but we now have a single screenshot of the game, courtesy of their Twitter feed. The game is now in the beta-testing stage, according to MangaGamer head translator, John Pickett.

Go! Go! Nippon! is designed as a visual novel targeted at an overseas audience. It’s an all-ages game that follows you – in the role of a university student from abroad – during a one week trip and home-stay in Tokyo with a pair of twin sisters, and serves as guide to Japan of sorts.

The two sisters are your guides to the sights and sounds around. You’ll get to see Tokyo’s Akihabara and Shinjuku districts, the Japanese railway network, the local food, and insight into the country’s culture.

While the game won’t include any voiceover work, MangaGamer say they plan to price it competitively with your average guidebook. Early tweets on the subject indicated that this could possibly be between the $10-15 range.

The post The First Screenshot Of MangaGamer’s Go! Go! Nippon appeared first on Siliconera.