After reaching their desired goal of 30 million JPY (~$200,000 USD) on the Japanese crowdfunding platform Ubugoe, an all-ages rendition of the Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien visual novel, otherwise known as Rumbling Hearts will make its way onto Valve’s Steam store alongside an official English translation.
https://ubgoe.com/projects/519
Publishers Anchor had asked fans to pledge 30 million yen with the main allure being an all-ages release of the iconic Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (Rumbling Hearts), set in the same world as Muv-Luv to release on Steam come Spring 2024, the campaign has been a tremendous success for Anchor who’ve reached their goal with one month still left on the clock.
As additional incentive, the more you pledge the more bonus goodies you’ll receive in return, you’ve got the usual “thank you email” for pledgers regardless of how much they’ve donated to the cause.
For example, the 44,000 JPY pledge donation, which roughly convers to just shy of $300 USD would net you in return the main game (obviously), alongside a digital art collection, an additional DVD-ROM copy of the visual novel in a tall case package, an OST soundtrack CD and a replica original artwork piece of either Mitsuki Hayase or Haruka Suzumiya that will be signed by BakaOzi, the character designer themselves.
For 66,000 JPY, you can have all of the above, both artwork replicas personally signed by Bakaozi alongside two digital picture books dubbed “True Treasures” and “Mayaul’s Gift”, remote auction participation rights and a medium credit notion.
As the crowdfunding ends on December 29, Anchor promoted an additional stretch goal, at the high mark of 33 million Yen ($220,000 USD), they will include bonus content in the form of “Kanashimi wa Kaze no You ni” (Sorrow is Like the Wind), which was originally released as a bonus for Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien: Latest Edition back in 2008.
Which coincidentally is the foundational basis for the intended Steam release.
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien first emerged as an adult visual novel in 2001, propelling the renowned developer Age into the spotlight. The success of the visual novel led to an anime adaptation in 2003, further expanding its popularity.
It takes place in the identical world (and school) featured in Age’s initial visual novel of the Muv-Luv series released in 2023. Numerous characters from Rumbling Hearts make appearances in Muv-Luv visual novels. The narrative is a blend of drama and tragedy as it unfolds a love triangle involving Takayuki Narumi and best friends Mitsuki Hayase and Haruka Suzumiya.
And obviously, who could forget that Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative are releasing on Nintendo Switch systems in Spring 2024 as well.
According to the crowdfund listing, accomplishing the crowdfunding goal and the subsequent Steam release of Rumbling Hearts marks the beginning of their intentions. The broader ambition is to enhance the series’ visibility, paving the way for additional media expansion which may include dramatization, more animation, and, ultimately, ambitious projects such as remakes and a potential sequel for the game.
Being genuinely honest, I at least trust the folks at Anchor to at least not hire belligerent woke “lolcow-izors” to translate the release into English, I still can’t help but feel rather disappointed that the whole intention of this crowdfunding campaign was to re-release such an iconic Visual Novel on the world’s most infamous digital PC storefront, a company notorious for absolutely hating Japanese eroge developers with a burning passion.
The reworked release will be maintained by most of the original team, despite the removal of the erotic content, Age has opted to remove the “dog” and “slave” endings for certain heroines with Amakawa Hotaru’s ending route being omitted entirely, it’s said that it will be made available at a later date, most likely in a modified state and will arrive at a later date.
Anchor declares that any and all modifications that are as a result of the all-ages approach will be done so to maintain story continuity, though there is a disclaimer that the game will NOT contain any additional CG artwork, I see this is disingenuous because this is intended to be an all-ages release.
All erotic content will be removed which will quite obviously win over the hypocritical retarded judges at Valve HQ, no matter the circumstances I do not like the fact that content will be removed from the Spring 2024 release.
Honestly this seems to be a disaster in the making for me personally, Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (Rumbling Hearts) is one of the few visual novels where the erotic content can be considered important to the main plot, alongside Age removing entire character endings outright is a complete joke to boot, if there was a free 18+ patch on offer made available to those who wanted it that would be fine.
I won’t be buying it out of merit.
But obviously, if the visual novel was being re-released on Steam it’s highly likely that it would be rejected and or banned by Valve given how it features erotic depictions of child-like characters, in a school setting no less which are Valve’s two largest criticisms of Japanese games on its platform, unless of course the game sexualized underaged male characters, for whatever reason Valve has no issues about that.
Without erotic content present, rest assured that Rumbling Hearts wont become another victim of Valve’s bizarre and unorthodox bans / prohibition of sale dubbed the “Waifu Holocaust” specifically targeting visual novels on the Steam Store come Spring 2024 with an English localization to come at a later date.
