Windows 8.1 Plus and Minus

For those who knew me for awhile now knows that I’ve mention about a VN that’s being made and that there’s been a tour from which the makers were going to anime conventions to anime conventions showing off a demo.  That was probably back in 2006 when I first heard of it too at FAnime Con. Since then, I haven’t talked too much since there hasn’t been any new developments on the web site or anything of that sort.

Three years later they have posted some updates including some videos on there YouTube page. Seeing how close they are to finishing it I decided to mention it on here since it seems like there’s not too much talk about it.

So what exactly is a VN? VN stands for Visual Novel, also known as a ren’ai games or H-Games. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure book but as a game format and typically I’ve seen it where you read for hours then you’re given a few options to choose from then read for hours again but each choice you choose depends on the ending.  Some of this titles has H (or Hentai (or nudity, I should say)) while others don’t.

Aren’t there any VN’s out in the US? There are a few but not high quality. Most really good VN’s are only out in Japan and is only in Japanese.  If you’re lucky enough to read Japanese, then all you have to do is buy it and enjoy. Other’s don’t have such a luck and would need to wait until someone comes along release an English patch.  Although nowadays it’s becoming more and more popular so expect more VN’s to be out in the US.

What makes this VN that you’re going to talk about a bit more makes it so special? Because of the fact that it’s the first VN ever created in the US and natively in English, that’s why. Well… I guess it’s also because of the fact that any feedback you give them either through email or on there forums are actually taken into consideration compare to other game makers.

But, anyways, moving on, I’m basing all this information off of there official site Shira-Oka.com and Okashi Studios.com as there’s no other references I can use.

So, anyways, there’s a small startup company called Okashi Studios based out in the San Francisco Bay Area (pretty much about 45 minutes away from where I used to live). There team consents of artists, writers, and programmers who share interests in Japanese culture, gaming, anime, and manga.

First game they’re ever making/releasing will be Shira Oka. When will it be released? I don’t know but it would be nice once it comes.

Looking at the videos on there YouTube page where it shows you the game layout reminds me a bit about True Love because of the concept that you have to build up your character which is not like your normal everyday VN.

So what is this VN all about? From the little bit of information on there site it sounds like you have the chance to go back to your days of high school to re-live your life. This is also apparent from one of the videos that’s available for viewing.

But that’s pretty much all the information I can find.  If I can find anything more that’s useful then I’ll post it here, otherwise, check out there site for other information.

Shira-Oka: Second Chances
Okashi Studios

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Tags: Dating Sim, Shira Oka, Visual Novels