I’m not sure if you all have heard about the Visual Novel Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition getting a west release thanks to Sekai Project and Lemnisca Translations. They are running a kickstarter for the game and plan to get it out on Steam around March 2016 (with a PlayStation Vita version following 2017). There’s only one problem…it still looks like the game won’t reach the initial goal.
To be honest I don’t really approve that Sekai Project relies on its ‘fans’ to give them money for all the stuff they want to bring out. Kickstarter’s a nice way for small companies who want to create a game but need help to get everything together. Root Double on the other hand’s a complete Visual Novel and Lemnisca already worked on the translation before Sekai Project decided to pick it up. A kickstarter doesn’t seem necessary to me.
It doesn’t even look like Sekai Project put much work into the kickstarter project itself. Instead of having everything ready from the start, they throw in dozen of updates with small information details and videos and keep on correcting the tiers. I’m not sure if they got overly confident because of the huge success of some of their other kickstarter projects but it slowly goes downhill for the publisher. People are fed up with it…
Very sad to see that Root Double’s affected by it because I really want to see this truly amazing Visual Novel in English. I even planned to make an exception and throw in some money to snatch a physical copy but it’s impossible without PayPal support.
The main reason I write this post isn’t a rant about Sekai Project and their way of handling localization (even if it looks like it) but to make some more people aware of the exists of Root Double and its planned English release. If you like games like Zero Escape (999, Virtue’s Last Reward) and Ever 17 or are simply interested in trapped-themed Visual Novels with some nice bad ends, you should take a closer look at this game. To read the story and character description pay the kickstarter page a visit!
Trailer:
Opening Movie:
If Root Double manages to get funded and released in English you can look forward to see a guide on my blog!
Update:
It was a close call but the Root Double kickstarter reached its initial goal just in time. Sadly, it wasn’t enough for the first strech goal but it can’t be helped. Since PayPal support was added pretty late, Sekai Project decided to let it run for another week. you can still back Root Double via PayPal over at this website https://crowdfunding.sekaiproject.com/
Of course, I’ll keep my promise and write a walkthrough for Root Double.
To my knowledge, Kickstarter doesn’t support PayPal. Which is why funding is being continued for one more week at https://crowdfunding.sekaiproject.com/ .
Thanks for the comment!
After seeing that the kickstarter project reached the initial goal (which was a pretty close call) I eagerly waited for Sekai Project to add PayPal support. I threw in 60$ as soon as the side you linked went online.
I’m very happy that it worked out with Root Double and I hope other people will like the game as much as I do. Thanks for all the hard work!