This week, JAST USA released an English language version of Aselia the Eternal, a visual novel RPG originally released in Japan in 2003. Aselia is the story of Yuuto, who gets sucked into an alternate dimension with his sister Kaori, and ends up fighting a war alongside warriors called “Spirits”.
Following its release, Aselia was later ported to the PlayStation 2 with adult content removed, but a new expansion pack and tweaks to the battle system added. This version was later released on the PC as well.
This is the version that JAST USA have chosen to bring over. The English version has been published with the help of fan-translation group, Dakkodango Translations, and includes the content from both the original release as well as the expansion.
The decision to release an expanded, non-adult version of Aselia came about as the result of JAST going through the game with original developer, Xuse. The two concluded upon watching certain adult scenes that they would need to be altered for the U.S. market, and preferred to release the expanded all-ages version instead of an edited adult release.
The reason for this appears to be Aselia’s art style. From JAST’s statement on their forum: “It’s our position that Aselia chose a visual aesthetic that is problematic in an adult context in terms of distribution outside Japan. You’re welcome to disagree with this position, but we feel that this is a case where the judgment call is pretty unambiguous (looking at some of the images from the evil path in particular).”
JAST consider Aselia the Eternal an “entry point” to Xuse’s games, and hope it will create potential for future Xuse releases in English, as well as the potential for more non-adult games. You can learn more about Aselia the Eternal at the game’s website.
