The Harukanaru Toki no Naka de games are an interesting hybrid of the niche, visual novel dating games found in Japan and console RPGs. Essentially, each game puts you in the role of female lead who saves the world while finding a boyfriend from her party. Yeah, Koei hasn’t localized any of these titles and I doubt they ever will. The Harukanaru Toki no Naka de series is also fairly Playstation-centric, only a few handheld releases appeared on Nintendo platforms. This is about to change with Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 4, Koei is giving it a simultaneous multiplatform release on the PlayStation 2 and the Wii.
I’m partially mentioning this as a nod to the rather obscure Harukanaru Toki no Naka (the fourth game comes out in Japan in March) and also to stir up discussion about the visual novel genre. Which console will have the most visual novels? They thrived on the PlayStation 2 thanks to a high adoption rate and low developmental costs. However, this cycle it doesn’t look like the PlayStation 3 is going to be the home for dating sims and other visual novels unless they become digital downloads. The Wii seems like it could be the best place due to the easy-to-use remote, comparatively low development costs and the sheer number of consoles in people’s homes. But will Nintendo really allow eroge content on it? Ah, now that would be an interesting twist!
Published: Jan 4, 2008 09:46 am