The fruit of the past few months on the job for me hit prime time today with the official release of Lightning Warrior Raidy. To paraphrase from last month’s announcement of “master up” status: Raidy was originally published by Japanese maker ZyX as 雷の戦士ライディ ～破邪の雷光～ (Ikazuchi no Senshi Raidi ~Haja no Raikou~) in 2005. Itself a remake of the original Ikazuchi no Senshi Raidi released for MS-DOS in 1994 as ZyX’s flagship title, the game broke ground in its day and is an enduring classic remembered fondly by an early generation of Japan’s erogamers. The ‘05 reissue has received criticism for being a literal reinterpretation of the original that didn’t stand the test of time too well, but with new artistic conception from Kazuma Muramasa and a style of play not yet seen in an English localized eroge I think it’s a game that will appeal to a pretty broad Western audience.
For more information an official site for the game is now online here. If you have a few bucks laying around that you don’t know what to do with I’d say there are worse options than supporting a fledgling industry in its attempts at world domination bringing eroge to English-speaking audiences around the world. (no more)
You can support HD by purchasing Lightning Warrior Raidy at J-List, or by simply purchasing it anywhere it’s legally sold.
Is there any chance a trial edition will be released, or was there even one for the original Japanese version?
>>gsl
No trial edition was released for the Japanese version, and there are currently no plans to release one for the English version. I wish I could say otherwise, I think we would all prefer the ability to sample before purchasing.
Edit: Ignosco and Light below me have pointed out that there was, in fact, a Japanese demo available for Raidy I.
… I hope anyone reading this will put down my mistake as due to the lateness of the hour, and not the fact that I am a total fucking idiot.
At any rate, downloading the Japanese demo will give you a decent idea of what to expect in the English game, if you’re interested in trying it before purchase. I… don’t know why I didn’t know this.
I thought there was a trial edition for the Japanese version available for download – at least there seems to be one. It contains the first level of LWR.
actually the Japanese edition did have a trial version
here the http://holyseal.net/cgi-bin/mlistview.cgi?prdcode=4831
dont remebre played the demo of the first and second game, 1 of them gave me issue
here teh link for the second game
http://holyseal.homeip.net/cgi-bin/mlistview.cgi?prdcode=5626
I will definitely be getting this title. Just need another 3 titles to get the 15% discount from Jlist.
So far, JastUSA is the best company for me in terms of converted Japan-Ero titles – English subtitles with the original Japanese voice actors and most importantly, UNCENSORED (unless the raw source code is already gone)
(The former Megatech (Knights of Xentar, Cobra Mission, etc) is in a distant 2nd as they substituted the original Japanese voices with (not very good) English actors.
I ordered my copy some wweks ago and I hope getting it soon; I need a good, old-school, ecchi-enhanced dungeon romp ^^
Do you have any estimation as for when Raidy 2 will be released, please ? ^^
I just got my copy in the mail about 2 days ago. Although the gameplay is as simple as old-school dungeon-crawlers come, I’m having a blast. I never thought combating wererats, werebats, chimeras, and skeletons could be so… exhilarating. :)
>>Ignosco, Light
I think the reason I overlooked the Raidy trial version is that
Pretty Soldier Wars didn’t have one, andI was so buried in production for Raidy that I just assumed…. and it made a pretty big ass out of me here. Oops. Thanks to both of you for pointing it out.>>blacklotus
JAST USA (its partner brands Peach Princess and G-Collections, to be precise) is the only company currently licensing and releasing eroge in English, other than Kitty Media’s one-off releases of Bible Black and Discipline. I’m afraid we’re doomed to be the best by default… I’d welcome more competition in the field, it would mean the market was expanding.
Missing source code tends to mean the abortion of an entire project; on some old games the original uncensored CG was lost, resulting in releases with some censored CG left intact. This is no longer the case for any of the games we are currently producing.
Alas that Megatech is no longer around…
>>Ialda
We’re looking at a late ‘08 release for Raidy 2, optimistically; I’d say it’s a 50/50 chance that we’ll have it out before year’s end.
>>Elegant Succubus
It’s a pretty silly concept, but I have to agree it’s strangely gratifying to have victory signaled by a monster’s clothes falling off. ^^;;
Any word on when Amorous Professor Cherry is going to be ready? It seems like I pre-ordered it almost a year ago and still no word on it . . .
I’m quite interested in this game as it seems like it’s going in a different direction than the usual standard visual novel erogame, however I’m a bit concerned about how it might turn out as previous efforts to combine genres haven’t turned out too great (e.g. Brave Soul, Pretty Soldier Wars 2048). There’s plenty of pictures around of the CG scenes, but not very many that show what the actual gameplay is like.
Anyway, thanks for the link to the Japanese trial version, I’m downloading that now and will try it out.
>>loplop
Cherry will be in beta next week and hopefully master up by the end of the month, for release in May. That’s the goal, at least – you can keep tabs on game progress here, and see the latest official word on the status of upcoming games here.
>>Danj
I’ll not lie to you, Raidy is a very limited game. The gameplay and content are direct adaptations of the 1994 version. With that in mind I’d say it’s pretty fun, if you’re not expecting Neverwinter Nights: The Eroge.
If you ask me this isn’t the sort of game you buy for the Ultimate PC Gaming Experience ™, you buy it for a dozen hours of campy fun and to support the industry in the hopes that we can bring out something like Seinarukana or Sengoku Rance in a future not expressed in decades or centuries but in a few short years. ^^;;
If you like Lightning Warrior Raidy, you should also check out “Dungeon Crusaderz” by Atelier Kaguya (2006). Same RPG gameplay, but with more character interaction and clever humor.
>>Neverwinter Nights: The Eroge
We need to get on that right now!
>>Terry Bogard
Thanks for the recommendation! I was watching the development of Dungeon Crusaderz back before it came out but ultimately decided not to pick it up; if it’s like Raidy it sounds like it’s worth looking into.
>>unangbangkay
I’m not aware of any eroge that let you completely customize the protagonist in a D&D sort of character creation process… There are games where you can create the heroine, and there are RPGs, but no real hybrid of the two that I know of.
Maybe once eroge are selling in the millions instead of the thousands…. ;_;