With our fifth year anniversary coming to a close, we decided to take a moment to showcase some of the thoughts and feelings of the staff that have been a part of MangaGamer over the years. This one comes from our beta tester, Nurio!
KiraKira. I suppose most of you know this visual novel. It was my very first visual novel from MangaGamer, and my second visual novel ever. To this day, it remains to be one of my favorites, and I have very fond memories of it. Probably the funniest memory is how I thought it was Edelweiss and didn’t realize something was wrong until the d2b band had finished their first tour.
See? The game covers look totally alike! …Okay, they don’t! But I was 19! Nineteen, man! That’s like two and a half in dog years! I had only just heard about visual novels and this MongoGoomer company before diving right into it! Anyway, for the longest time through KiraKira I had the nagging questions “When are they going to this all girls’ school?” or “What is all this punk band stuff about?”. Can you imagine the confusion!? I just wanted to have this visual novel about an all girls’ school and sex. Instead, I got a visual novel about punk bands.
Yes, my reason to play visual novels was, and I quote my 18-or-19-year-old self, “to have hentai porn with some nice story behind it because just pictures without context doesn’t do it for me.” If I hadn’t educated myself better, I might have ended up as one of those guys who buys all of MangaGamer’s nukige. Now, instead, I test these nukige for MangaGamer! Lucky… me…?
It’s actually because of my confusion between KiraKira and Edelweiss that I set out to do some research and found out about thing like… “Oh, so they are both made by Overdrive; that is why they look alike!” and “Oh wow, there are sequels being translated!”. I got involved, and before I knew it, I became a fan of MangaGamer and Overdrive especially. (Or a fanboy, as some might argue.) If there were no initial confusion, I might not be where I am today. I might just have not gotten as invested as I am now… That’s a scary thought! Imagine a Nurio who’s not invested in visual novels… That’s a sad Nurio!
There are days where I think back on my time with MangaGamer and I consider myself incredibly lucky. I do enjoy testing these games… I love correcting people, and now I can correct people who actually want my excessively harsh corrections. And my reward is being able to play games early, instead of the bitch slap I usually get when I correct people… Of course I can’t help but feel like I’ve lucked out.
It’s actually Edelweiss that got me into testing. People might be familiar with the old translation… I still remember how confusing it was! I loved the game, but by Mary was it hard to follow sometimes! So, when I heard about the retranslation, as a fan of Overdrive and being a wiseass, I was adamant to have this retranslation be as perfect as can be. I played through the demo and pointed out every error I saw. My list was pretty huge (just like my p……ony collection)!
At that time, I had turned 20 not too long ago and I just submitted my list of corrections on the forums. So, when I got an e-mail from my demi-god idol Kouryuu… My hear almost stopped. I literally had to jog (read: run around with flailing arms) for 2 hours before I was able to reply to him. I told everyone I knew about Kouryuu’s offer – that’s how happy I was. Kouryuu was inviting me to become a beta tester… *melts*
And here I am now… Having tested 6… 7… games (depending on when you read this), I am still glad and going ahead at full steam! Despite having been with MangaGamer since January 2010 (and being a tester since February 2011), I believe I am nowadays still as much out of the loop with anything Japanese as I was back then. The only names in this business I know are those affiliated with MangaGamer, and even then I only know half of those. I stick to purely testing! No time to investigate other things!
Looking back on it all… I’ve gained a lot. I’ve made a few friends (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! *stares*) and had some incredible experiences, like being convinced by the power of nukige for the first time… I’ve turned into a bear… I cry every time I hear certain background tracks… I’ve made a humble Kouryuu shrine… I swear I’ve gotten more Asian than before… I’ve become more elitist in spelling than before… I found out how to inject VNs directly into my veins… And I’ve given away my sister to Bamboo… (I have to keep her in the dungeon so she won’t interrupt my story again!)
My MangaGamer 5th Anniversary story is not that fascinating, but that’s simply because there’s not a lot to say. I didn’t and don’t have any special connections anywhere. I entered this business looking for porn, ended up loving visual novels, posted a bit on forums and before I knew it, Kouryuu stole my heart.
Yeah, I love MangaGamer and I love having been given this opportunity to work on visual novels. Nurio, out!
(If you have any more questions about me, don’t hesitate to ask. Nurio loves the attention! …Just don’t feed him anything after midnight.)
Possibly unhealthy idolization of Kouryuu?
I kid…
No idolization of Kouryuu is unhealthy! He’s the fountain of youth and happiness. Praise for Kouryuu can only bring eternal joy!
So if we were to get Kouryuu into doing an Applejack cosplay how would you react? 😉
Uh… Parts aroused and parts terrified.
Entertaining as always.
I indeed have a question: Have you ever played a game that you’ve tested again in its released form?
I’ve always been meaning to at least play the Overdrive games again.
…But no. Despite having bought them, I haven’t even touched them again. Maybe one day, though…!
You have to buy the games that you’ve tested? I assumed that MangaGamer gives their testers a free copy of the game they tested. Seems fair to me, since (in some part) they helped in creating it.
Well, we get a free beta copy, and that’s usually good enough. It’s not like the beta copy is unplayable or anything. Far from it. All my experiences I describe in my Tester’s Corners are from the beta copies, and as you might see, a beta copy does nothing to hamper the experience.
So, the only reason I’d buy a game I tested is to show support for it. …And okay, maybe I am also a bit curious about how much of my report has been incorporated into the full game.
You missed the “t” off “heart” when it “…stopped”.
That must’ve been painful. :-p
Dammit… I am unworthy to continue living my merry life!
…I-I mean! Th-This was totally intentional! Y-Yeah… My hear stopped. Sheesh, if you don’t know what it means when your hear stops, then I can’t help you, L-rouge! *pouts*
Hmm… I just now noticed that I am unlucky number 13… I hope this doesn’t mean I’ll die soon or anything… =(
too bad you didn’t test Valkyrie Svia I’m sure you wouldn’t have let “(Who… would let thing thing do what it wants…)” get through!
Heh… Thing thing. Well, thank you for that trust in my capabilities! Really! Hearing things like that always puts a smile on my face and motivates me to keep pushing on even harder!
But yep. Didn’t test that one. Never even heard of it until recently.
Glad to have had you on board. Now, while you’re waiting for your next assignment, I’ll just spin you a few times around and send you in the direction of Cosplay Alien. Despite my love of VN and P….onies, I find myself curling up in the fetal position when trying to play it. Have at it!
Wait, curling up in the fetal position… why? Is it that bad or something? D=