Hello everyone!
Thank you so much for the overwhelmingly positive reception the game has received. I'm really overjoyed. I don't think I've ever been this excited in my entire life. All the positive feedback and suggestions have been really encouraging. I'd like to talk more about how this project started and my friendship with Another Story.
I've always been a huge fan of these types of games. I think that's how most developers start out; they start out as fans. I started out as a fan lurking the Hongfire forums under the alias, "chiakisan." At the time, I really loved the games by Alicesoft and they had just released their WW2 parody VN, "Daiteikoku." It was then that I started a translation group in an attempt to fan translate that game. Unfortunately, that project fell through. But my passion remained.
For the remaining years leading up to late 2017, I ended up pursuing other things, but there was always an emptiness inside me. A void that couldn't be filled by practical means. And as I continued to play many of the translated games that were coming out on Steam, that void grew bigger and bigger. I couldn't take it anymore. The standards should be higher. The business practices should be better. If no one else is going to do it, then I'm going to do it myself. So I eventually gathered up the courage to contact Another Story, the Japanese developer of Fallen.
If you've ever studied Japanese for any period of time, or have been involved in the anime and/or manga communities, there's a stereotype that Japanese developers hate foreigners. This was totally on my mind while contacting Another Story. There was a lot of anxiety because of that. I was absolutely terrified that he was going to reject me... however, in this specific case, it was completely unfounded. Another Story couldn't have been more gracious. I don't know what he saw in me, I don't know if he saw anything at all, but he immediately put his trust in me and bought into my vision. He has helped me every step of the way through this process. Every day since November of last year, we've corresponded and spoken to each other. I now consider him one of my best friends. And I plan to travel to Tokyo to visit him in June.
Anyway, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into this project. There were several times when I wasn't sure if this was going to work; if we would receive the amount of support we would need to continue to keep going. After Fallen, I plan to keep licensing more games and releasing them with high quality translations; however, I can't do it without your help. So if you would join us on this journey to help increase the translation standards and business practices in this industry, we would greatly appreciate it. We promise we won't let you down.
Thank you guys so much! Please look forward to the release of the game on February 23rd!
- Rakushun