What would you change about the SciADV series?

[Maypews]

It can be about anything in the franchise FYI, the VNs/anime/whatever. For me...

1. That the Xbox releases were localised
As a fan of the brand I've always wished that the Xbox releases were brought over. MAGES was always quite loyal about supporting Xbox over in Japan, and back when the 360 was trying to garner Japanese support under the watchful eyes of Peter Moore (before all of this progress was later destroyed by Mattrick... ugh, the death of Xbox is a whole different topic) a lot of SciADV titles released only on PC or Xbox. Chaos;Child was even a timed Xbox One exclusive.

It especially sucks since the titles seem to often get little in the way of physical releases. The original Steins;Gate VN for example is only available physically for the PS3. I do on the other hand have an imported JP X360 copy, but I don't speak Japanese so I can't read it.


2. Chaos;Head gets a good anime in the 2000s
The C;H anime is of course widely mocked in the fandom for just how terrible it is. It makes several awful cuts including in my opinion the best scene in the game and even has the audacity to add in random anime-original content into it's 12 episode run time.

The material in general is just made for an anime. Similar to Steins;Gate it follows a more linear narrative path. It's also not the longest title in the world and totally could've worked in a 2 cour, 24 episode show. C;H also has a fair bit of action sequences, which will pretty much always work better in an animated format as opposed to a visual novel. I wasn't exactly a fan of the hundred Seiras scene towards the end, but that would've probably been one hell of a visual spectacle in the anime.

C;H is such an incredibly unique work as it basically functions as a character study of Taku, and they don't try to soften the edges of his character in order to garner mass appeal in the slightest. This naturally makes it into a bit of a love or hate it entry, but the anime medium is pretty much completely bare of stories that really go into the nitty gritty of hikkidom outside of Welcome to the NHK. It would have definitely become a sleeper hit among the hardcore otaku of the 2000s had it gotten the adaptation it deserved, potentially causing the series to rise to prominence in the West much sooner than it did.

Anyway, there are probably a few more things I could think of but I'll leave it here for now. What say you, what would you change about the series?

[Maypews]

I want to give this topic a bump because I think it's an interesting one that's just been buried in the subforum a bit.

I bet @Parzival would have lots to say in it, lol.

[Parzival]

Honestly the main things I would change are what you've already said and what most say they would. Bring over the Xbox releases to the West and make sure Steins;Gate isn't the only entry with good anime adaptations.

I guess I'd probably also go back and tell MAGES to not release C;C as an Xbone exclusive because the Xbone is gonna fucking bomb in Japan and thus so will it, permanently kneecapping SciADV- AS WELL as BEAT Chiyo into releasing Anonymous;Code under its initial, revised and edited draft instead of constantly having it rewritten until COLOPL finally forces him to release what they have almost a decade after it was announced. I like what we got, but the series would be in such a better place and so much money that MAGES desperately needs wouldn't have been pissed away if Chiyo wasn't obsessed with accurately predicting the future with his VN for whatever reason and we actually got A;C in 2016/2017. A;C taking so long was undoubtedly the other kneecap that's nigh permanently grounded the series to a halt as MAGES now struggles to get even a mere remake out.

This leads us to another thing I'm not sure I'd change exactly but that I would suggest to MAGES regardless. I love Anonymous;Code and Robotics;Notes, but I personally think SciADV is at its best when it's contemporary and dealing with super insane high concept scifi in those contemporary settings. SciADV trying to be harder scifi actually set a bit into the future leads to stuff like A;C taking forever and, I must admit, to kinda taking me out of the story and setting at times because they inevitably get stuff wrong. It's easier (for me) to suspend my disbelief about secret time travel or reality bending projects than it is for robots being everywhere in 2019. It's the smaller details that get me. So I'd probably just tell MAGES to keep the details of the world simple and real, and go hog wild on the crazy conspiracies and secret tech/abilities the protagonists have to contend with.

Another thing that's less something I'd change and more something I would want to happen in the event Steins;??? comes out and doesn't sell as well as COLOPL/MAGES want/need and effectively puts the final nail in SciADV's coffin is for Chiyomaru and Naotaka Hayashi to at least write up and release a kind of "Science Adventure Perfect Works" like what Tetsuya Takahashi and Kaori Tanaka did for Xenogears when it became clear they weren't going to be able to continue their planned series so we can at least have some idea of where they want(ed) the series to go and ultimately end.

[Maypews]

Honestly the main things I would change are what you've already said and what most say they would. Bring over the Xbox releases to the West and make sure Steins;Gate isn't the only entry with good anime adaptations.

I guess I'd probably also go back and tell MAGES to not release C;C as an Xbone exclusive because the Xbone is gonna fucking bomb in Japan and thus so will it, permanently kneecapping SciADV- AS WELL as BEAT Chiyo into releasing Anonymous;Code under its initial, revised and edited draft instead of constantly having it rewritten until COLOPL finally forces him to release what they have almost a decade after it was announced. I like what we got, but the series would be in such a better place and so much money that MAGES desperately needs wouldn't have been pissed away if Chiyo wasn't obsessed with accurately predicting the future with his VN for whatever reason and we actually got A;C in 2016/2017. A;C taking so long was undoubtedly the other kneecap that's nigh permanently grounded the series to a halt as MAGES now struggles to get even a mere remake out.

This leads us to another thing I'm not sure I'd change exactly but that I would suggest to MAGES regardless. I love Anonymous;Code and Robotics;Notes, but I personally think SciADV is at its best when it's contemporary and dealing with super insane high concept scifi in those contemporary settings. SciADV trying to be harder scifi actually set a bit into the future leads to stuff like A;C taking forever and, I must admit, to kinda taking me out of the story and setting at times because they inevitably get stuff wrong. It's easier (for me) to suspend my disbelief about secret time travel or reality bending projects than it is for robots being everywhere in 2019. It's the smaller details that get me. So I'd probably just tell MAGES to keep the details of the world simple and real, and go hog wild on the crazy conspiracies and secret tech/abilities the protagonists have to contend with.

Another thing that's less something I'd change and more something I would want to happen in the event Steins;??? comes out and doesn't sell as well as COLOPL/MAGES want/need and effectively puts the final nail in SciADV's coffin is for Chiyomaru and Naotaka Hayashi to at least write up and release a kind of "Science Adventure Perfect Works" like what Tetsuya Takahashi and Kaori Tanaka did for Xenogears when it became clear they weren't going to be able to continue their planned series so we can at least have some idea of where they want(ed) the series to go and ultimately end.

Yeah the Xbox One thing is sad. Honestly the way that Don Mattrick just completely ruined Xbox and set it up to reach the abyssal lows that it has in the modern age could be it's own thread topic, but his pulling of Japanese support later in gen 7 in particular stands out. The 360 actually performed modestly well in Japan, and you have to wonder why on a machine with such a large Western market share that they didn't bother porting any of them. I assume they must've stuck with them out of brand loyalty or something but it sucks.

The information about A;C is quite interesting (and very much agree about the setting), thanks as always for the lore dump! It is peculiar that it was stuck in dev hell for so long and still ended up being so short.

[Parzival]

The 360 actually performed modestly well in Japan, and you have to wonder why on a machine with such a large Western market share that they didn't bother porting any of them. I assume they must've stuck with them out of brand loyalty or something but it sucks.

The information about A;C is quite interesting (and very much agree about the setting), thanks as always for the lore dump! It is peculiar that it was stuck in dev hell for so long and still ended up being so short.

They stuck with them for a while out of brand loyalty to some degree, though I think they also had some kind of deal/contract worked out with Microsoft, not having any idea what was going to happen or why it was happening but it seems that they did eventually sour on Xbox and get out of that deal after C;C because nothing after S;G 0 and Occultic;Nine's VN have been released on Xbox (S;G Elite, C;C LCC, R;N DaSH, A;C). I think the reason why they didn't port any of those releases is because in a cruel twist of fate, SciADV didn't really start taking off in the west until around the time of the release of the Xbox One.

Remember, the Steins;Gate anime's dub (which is how most of the Western fanbase were introduced to the series) didn't release until later in 2012, only about a year before the One dropped in North America. It wasn't even remotely profitable to port any physicals of the series, period, until after the 8th console generation had already begun. By the time we got the first official physical releases (the PS3 and Vita ports) of Steins;Gate, in summer of 2015, the disaster that was Chaos;Child's launch had already occurred the year before, and it's clear MAGES was done with Xbox by then because the only games we got for it after C;C were 0 and O;N, and I personally think that was purely a deal Chiyo cut with Microsoft to release 0 on the Xbone (0 was a Playstation exclusive originally until it got a PC port a year after its initial release) so he could also release O;N's VN on it (0's Xbone port and O;N's PS/Xbone simul-release were the same year) and hopefully boost its sales.

Anyways, no problem lol
Cap may be the archiver but I'm the LORE KEEPER

Also, it's not peculiar when you realize it was stuck in dev hell so long because Chiyo kept ordering rewrites. If it wasn't for that fact (along with other mismanagement (like Chiyo acquiring MAGES in full from Dwango/Kadokawa when he nor the company were in any position to be that independent)), leading to MAGES basically HAVING to be acquired by Colopl to stay afloat and them no doubt ordering him to just fucking finish their current rewrite and release it (says a lot I think that once Colopl acquired them A;C finally released only 2 years later), it honestly might have still been in that dev hell today. There's a worldline out there somewhere where that's the case.

In the end, though, A;C didn't do anywhere near as well as it needed to and MAGES had to declare insolvency only a few months after it released, so, lot of fucking good that did.

So basically, because of all this, if ReBoot and ;??? fail too, SciADV is probably dead in the water and at best Colopl, a company famous for mainly developing gachaslop, will probably just use the IP for that purpose.

Non-zero chance the grand, long awaited for Avengers tier SciADV entry we've been promised for a DECADE now will be a fucking GACHA

YAY

[capstasher]

Anyways, no problem lol
Cap may be the archiver but I'm the LORE KEEPER

Can confirm, there is a big difference. I can find the documents for anything requested in the archives, but I do not necessarily know their contents. Parz stores just their contents in his mind and doesn't necessarily have the documents themselves.

[Parzival]

Can confirm, there is a big difference. I can find the documents for anything requested in the archives, but I do not necessarily know their contents. Parz stores just their contents in his mind and doesn't necessarily have the documents themselves.

Can't believe we're both just Oreki and Satoshi from Hyouka

[capstasher]

Can't believe we're both just Oreki and Satoshi from Hyouka

That sounds like something I need to watch

[NonoEnjoyer]

Gonna come out swinging and say I would straight up delete the ending of Anonymous;Code. Might be the worst thing the series has done narratively in my opinion. Honestly I would be fine with striking A;C from the record entirely.

I don't understand the point of "pulling back the curtain" if all you do with that is try to make the preceding works of your series (the ones everyone knows and loves) meaningless. This might be a dissenting opinion here, sorry if I sound rude but I just don't like what A;C does at all.

I definitely think some good anime adapations would benefit the series but I don't even know if it's possible with the likes of Chaos;Head/Child. Maybe if they had like 40+ episodes a piece, you might get somewhere, but with things like delusions, routes, and true ends to consider, I just find it basically unfeasible. Maybe if MAGES ever makes an assload of money and can afford to take a loss on it (lmao)

[NonoEnjoyer]

Gonna come out swinging and say I would straight up delete the ending of Anonymous;Code. Might be the worst thing the series has done narratively in my opinion. Honestly I would be fine with striking A;C from the record entirely.

I don't understand the point of "pulling back the curtain" if all you do with that is try to make the preceding works of your series (the ones everyone knows and loves) meaningless. This might be a dissenting opinion here, sorry if I sound rude but I just don't like what A;C does at all.

I definitely think some good anime adapations would benefit the series but I don't even know if it's possible with the likes of Chaos;Head/Child. Maybe if they had like 40+ episodes a piece, you might get somewhere, but with things like delusions, routes, and true ends to consider, I just find it basically unfeasible. Maybe if MAGES ever makes an assload of money and can afford to take a loss on it (lmao)

Fuck I remembered something else. I would un-fuck the marketing for Chaos;Child (implied spoilers ahead). Get rid of the map screenshot that spoils the entire plot up to Chapter 9 from the steam page. Remove Senri from all marketing material. Remake that intro movie that plays if you idle on the main menu for too long and remove the spoilery shit from it. Chaos;Child is so sensitive to visual spoilers and they honestly seemed pretty damn careless with it most of the time