Anime & Dating Sims

[neocount]

There is no shortage of dating sims on Steam and the genre is quite prolific, but...

Where are all the interactive anime games with actual animation?

I realize that consoles have enjoyed games that could meet that description (the Persona series... I think?), but am I just out of luck as a PC gamer? Is there some huge untapped resource of properly animated games in Japan that are not being brought to the US? Or perhaps I just don't know where to look?

[neocount]

Dating sims are usually visual novels tbh.

Yes, exactly my point.

[Edge-]

Yes, exactly my point.

I'm sure there are some, but none I can think of. I still want Love+ to come West...and release on PC : (

[Medusa Cascade]

School Days was animated partly, mostly the sex scenes

[Edge-]

School Days was animated partly, mostly the sex scenes

No, fuck that anime, and by extension the game. And curse you for making me remember it exists.

[unholytestament]

No, fuck that anime, and by extension the game. And curse you for making me remember it exists.

What's the matter?

Don't you like... boats?

[Medusa Cascade]

No, fuck that anime, and by extension the game. And curse you for making me remember it exists.

The boat end was good

[Remilia]

Animation as in characters during dialogue or animated clips/cg? They're both rare anyways. All the Neptune series have animated characters during dialogue which felt strange at first but grown to prefer over a static image. Then again that may be my bias and Tsunako.
Recent Gust games use the 3D models for dialogue and scenes like Yoru no Nai Kuni and I think recent Atelier ones.

- - - Updated - - -

Btw, there are a lot of VNs that aren't from Japan on Steam to begin with.
Look for the publisher Sekai Project if you're interested more in those. Dovac, former owner of yande.re is the one leading it for bringing it to the west. Talked to him on a few occasions on the aforementioned site, good guy.

[neocount]

Animation as in characters during dialogue or animated clips/cg? They're both rare anyways. All the Neptune series have animated characters during dialogue which felt strange at first but grown to prefer over a static image. Then again that may be my bias and Tsunako.
Recent Gust games use the 3D models for dialogue and scenes like Yoru no Nai Kuni and I think recent Atelier ones.

Yeah, I mean... this is what I don't understand. Well, for example: The Last of Us. Now, I've never actually played it (since as I mentioned I'm a PC gamer and don't own any of the consoles) but my friend constantly tells me how seamlessly the game transitions from gameplay to cutscenes and back. What I don't understand is why there aren't any anime games like that - essentially interactive movies. With the graphics capabilities of PCs as they are now, that should be possible - particularly since reproducing something animated like that should be actually easier to accomplish than trying to produce a game that is as lifelike as possible.

- - - Updated - - -

Btw, there are a lot of VNs that aren't from Japan on Steam to begin with.
Look for the publisher Sekai Project if you're interested more in those. Dovac, former owner of yande.re is the one leading it for bringing it to the west. Talked to him on a few occasions on the aforementioned site, good guy.

::nods:: Problem is that they aren't animated which is what drove me to make this post. I don't want to read visual novels - I want full animation and voice acting. AAA game type stuff.

[Remilia]

Yeah, I mean... this is what I don't understand. Well, for example: The Last of Us. Now, I've never actually played it (since as I mentioned I'm a PC gamer and don't own any of the consoles) but my friend constantly tells me how seamlessly the game transitions from gameplay to cutscenes and back. What I don't understand is why there aren't any anime games like that - essentially interactive movies. With the graphics capabilities of PCs as they are now, that should be possible - particularly since reproducing something animated like that should be actually easier to accomplish than trying to produce a game that is as lifelike as possible.

::nods:: Problem is that they aren't animated which is what drove me to make this post. I don't want to read visual novels - I want full animation and voice acting. AAA game type stuff.

Expense/cost. That's purely it. These companies are small, they don't have the luxury of producing these kinds of things. When I say small, I mean really small, dem credits be tiny/short. Best you'll find is Gust games in terms of style and animation and they're waaaaaay smaller than Naughty Dog in your aforementioned. They also fit in the niche category in the west, and really doesn't justify a lot of expense for it.
Though honestly I like some of these small ones. Nippon1's Yomawari was just a small group that created it, and it's one of the best horror games I've played to date.

[Shinzai]

Because what you are asking is nowhere near mainstream enough to justify the budget of AAA games?

This pretty much sums it up. They'd never be able to justify the visuals or animation for a VN, especially given how long the better ones can be. This is why a lot of JRPGs have visual novel elements, or some visual novels will borrow from adventure games/rpgs to use sprite-based characters to represent interactions.

There is work being done on unified 3D visual novel design kits, but again, until VN creators can afford extra budget for animators, modelers, directors, 3D storyboarding, etc, etc, that comes with 3D animation, it's just not going to happen. A lot of visual novels don't even have good art, never mind actually making anything move.

Things like Nekopara 2nd episode (despite how uninteresting the game may be), show where an affordable future for visual novels can be, without having to add too many more assets to the production.

[neocount]

Because what you are asking is nowhere near mainstream enough to justify the budget of AAA games?

Yeah, I suppose that is possible - but surprising. I run across more gamers that are into anime than have played The Last of Us, to recycle my example from earlier.

[Halicia]

Expense/cost. That's purely it. These companies are small, they don't have the luxury of producing these kinds of things. When I say small, I mean really small, dem credits be tiny/short. Best you'll find is Gust games in terms of style and animation and they're waaaaaay smaller than Naughty Dog in your aforementioned. They also fit in the niche category in the west, and really doesn't justify a lot of expense for it.
Though honestly I like some of these small ones. Nippon1's Yomawari was just a small group that created it, and it's one of the best horror games I've played to date.

Heck, calling them "companies" is an exaggeration in many cases. I don't look into it too deeply, but I get a strong feeling that a *lot* of the visual novels on steam are done by one person in their spare time. (eh... I don't mean the *same* person, but ya know...)

[Radio]

Yeah, I suppose that is possible - but surprising. I run across more gamers that are into anime than have played The Last of Us, to recycle my example from earlier.

It's really a quantity over quality thing with lots of small development teams pushing out lots of content hoping for a hit.

At least, that's what the anime that portray VN development tell me.

[Remilia]

Heck, calling them "companies" is an exaggeration in many cases. I don't look into it too deeply, but I get a strong feeling that a *lot* of the visual novels on steam are done by one person in their spare time. (eh... I don't mean the *same* person, but ya know...)

Most of em actually aren't even from Japan from what I've seen. Which is why I said to look at Sekai Project have devs that have multiple of em under their belt and some very very well known illustrators. Of course there are ones that don't even bother porting.

[Lady Dragonheart]

I know that I've been looking for new ones as well... However, I honestly don't know what's good and what's dubbed/subbed... Preferably some otome ones...

[Remilia]

It's really a quantity over quality thing with lots of small development teams pushing out lots of content hoping for a hit.

At least, that's what the anime that portray VN development tell me.

Depends entirely on where you're getting it actually. Navel, Ensemble, August Soft, Innocent Grey etc etc are bigger developers. Then there are ones that you'd mostly see in like comiket which aren't really that much in terms of quality.

[Usagi Senshi]

I know that I've been looking for new ones as well... However, I honestly don't know what's good and what's dubbed/subbed... Preferably some otome ones...

Hatoful Boyfriend and Kindred Spirits on the Roof! Thank me later...... :P

[Edge-]

Hatoful Boyfriend

I still need to load this game up, I have the Dakimakura from Humble Bundle but still have yet to get around to playing this.

[Lady Dragonheart]

Hatoful Boyfriend and Kindred Spirits on the Roof! Thank me later...... :P

First off, lol to the first one. If I was one of the last woman on earth I'm not sure that I could even think about a relationship with a giant pigeon.

As for the second one, that one looks pretty interesting. Is there anything that I should know about it, per se?