D.C. ~Da Capo~ (Official English Release)
 

zalas has a nice article about the Official English release of Circus's D.C. ~Da Capo~ video game (warning: game and sites contain adult content -- 18+ only!).

Previously, Arkanos had released a fan translation patch of the Plus Communication re-release of the game. Plus Communication is also being considered for release by MangaGamer sometime in the future.

Anyway, zalas's article is pretty comprehensive. Purchased my own copy earlier today without difficulty, and looking forward to giving it whirl over the next short while (though, with D.C. II P.C. being released tomorrow, it'll have some tough competition!). I'm glad to hear that the translation, while not perfect, seems to have addressed a lot of the issues everyone was initially concerned about.

By the way, this set of lines from the game made me chuckle...

does the site take US credit cards? I have tried buying it with several cards and always get an error. I guess cause it does not convert dollars to euro or whatever. Anyways I can't buy it =( Does someone know a way around this?


This and Suika were the only 2 games I was interested in from them ( unless they do edelweiss eden soon). I think the prices are outrageous though, especialy since it's download only. But I figured hey I spend like $60 US for an average XBox360 or PS3 game, so I'll bite on it one time for a title like Da Capo.


Anyways anyone else in the US purchase it and how?

My transaction seems to have gone through without problems. Your credit card company might have issues accepting charges from foreign addresses, so you should probably give your credit card company a call ask them what's up. I remember with my old credit card company that I had to call in advance everytime I wanted to make an order with Amazon Japan.

What the game is?

:heh: I suppose it helps if people remember the era when the game was released. I guess it wasn't that long ago, but nowadays that sort of feels like one of those stale pop-culture references. I wonder how many of those playing the game will get it?

In Canada here, but it worked fine for me. I agree with zalas that it may just be your credit card's international blocking policies taking effect. I don't think it's anything on MangaGamers' end.

Easiest way to explain it is that it's a Japanese romantic novel game. As a warning, it also contains explicit/adult content. If you're totally unfamiliar with the genre (and I assume you are if you're asking this question), perhaps I'd start with the anime series and go from there if you're interested.

I've played both the original D.C. and also D.C.P.C. but I feel like buying this for the uncensored HCGs... they are uncensored right?

I think Mangagamer said they uncensor the CG's.

Was it


Why would you buy games just for the uncensored HCG? You might as well subscribe to porn sites...

Then again, if you've got tons of money that you're eager to waste, or if you would like to support english translations... personally I'd buy for the story... it's different to read walkthroughs than to play through myself...

I'll wait until Plus Communication comes out (if it does) before I get it :P

Yes, you got it. :p

Well, looks like it got pulled due to some "bug" that was reported for the release and will be available on January 20, 2009 now. It's still available for download though for people who bought it already.

:heh: Well, if the bug were such a bad thing, I imagine they wouldn't allow people to still download it and/or would tell those of us who already paid to hold off on installing it. So who knows... maybe someone decided it needed more overall QC?

In any event, these are all signs of a small publisher without a lot of experience releasing any sort of software. Eventually they might "grow up", so to speak.

I just wish that they communicated more. Silence is a lot worse for your PR image than even saying that you're "working on it."

Right -- this too just makes them look like small fries who don't know what they're doing at all. Even if that is the case, that's not the impression you want to give your customers, because then they won't be inclined to buy your products. Besides, "product recalls" in software don't happen except for the most grievous of problems, normally. They could just release a patch later, for all it matters, unless it really is critical (in which case, they need to advise their customers more than the way they did).

Anyway... as I said, hopefully they grow up through all this. If they continue to over-promise, under-deliver, and communicate poorly through the whole process, I can't see how they'll stick around for too long.

So... apparently the reason it was pulled was that it was not supposed to go on sale on December 25 in the first place. There was a final quality check run that was scheduled, and they forgot to extend the release date on the website.

What? :heh:

So in other words, they delayed it again, but forgot to update their webmaster, and had already provided a fully-functioning version for testing purposes, and so it launched as scheduled without their knowledge? Like their website just launched products by itself when the date hits? Or the webmaster never calls them up like "hey, we're scheduled to launch this today, so is that fine?"

Wow... just wow... *facepalm*

Half of me wonders if this isn't because you and others commented on some of the mistakes in their translation, and word of the errors got to a certain someone, so now they're going to act like "oh, sorry, that wasn't the final! It was an early build!" and fix it. How is that less of a PR disaster than just saying that you're going to issue a patch? One way is sloppy, but this is just incompetent.

You (the company) can't say that you "forgot" to update your website, when your website is the only portal for information about your products. It's not like you need to send out press releases or update your merchant solicitations or whatever. Updating the website is the one and only thing you needed to do. If you didn't update the website, you didn't delay it, now did you?

Running an Internet-based software company really isn't so hard, guys... Get your act together already! :heh: At this point, it's almost comedic.

Oh, interesting things going on around here. It looks like I missed a lot with my schedule and very occasional visits (let's say I can no longer watch anime and check the corresponding threads). Releasing the game and then pulling the release. This is something I see for the first time.
Say, Japanese people have always been original but when it comes to releases they tend to be rather convervative just postponing the release date. Except that once the wrong version of summer days went to print and the subsequent patches weighed almost as much as the game itself. But still, these guys are just over-creative.
At a sidenote, aren't we supposed to be playing D.C.II P.C. instead? Ah, I forgot that we also need to support english releases with falling ruble and rising euro.

After reading the post zalas linked to on encubed, I guess I feel a bit more sympathetic. If it's true that this was QC being done by volunteers within the Japanese game industry, 1) that's a bit surprising, but 2) that's a little bit more understandable. Still, perhaps it would be a good idea to review their release process (and revise their website code) to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again. Plus, if they are being staffed by volunteers, perhaps they'd be better off to remove all the dates completely from their site and only release things when they're ready. I realize they want to increase anticipation, but that only works if you have a history of meeting your dates...

Oh well...

Finally officially released. Came out to $64.30US. Haven't played it yet.