Tokyo-based studio Lifewonders is developing an English version of its gay dating sim Fantastic Boyfriends: Legends of Midearth. However, as progress is slow, the studio has launched an Indiegogo campaign to speed it up.
If the studio cane raise $20,000, it will bring the 2.0.0 version of Fantastic Boyfriends over to the west, covering the cost of testing it for non-Japanese iOS and Android devices, translating over 400,000 characters of narration and dialogue from Japanese to English, and covering advertising and PR for the English version.
The goal of Lifewonders is to bring more variety to the types of romantic relationships in videogames to enrich the culture. It’s starting off with Fantastic Boyfriends, which is primarily for gay men, but hopes will appeal to everyone. To meet its goals, Lifewonders is hoping to bring Fantastic Boyfriends to as many people around the world as possible.
However, Lifewonders does note that while it’s trying to bring Fantastic Boyfriends to as many countries as possible, it is at the behest of the App Stores. This means that due to its themes it may be rejected for publication in certain countries and so the studio cannot guarantee that it will be available in everywhere.
Fantastic Boyfriends pays homage to classic JRPGs as you play a male hero who is summoned to the fantasy realm of Midearth to save it from a demon king. “As if your hands aren’t full enough,” writes Lifewonders, ”you’ll also be forming bonds and falling in love with characters such as a fierce horned ogre, a monk skilled in magic, a rough Adventurer’s Guild master, and a dragon in the form of a man (all male characters!). ”
You can currently download Fantastic Boyfriends for free in Japanese on the App Store and Google Play.
