I don’t know how they did it, or what sort of dark magic they conjured together in a cauldron deep inside the Earth’s crusty anus, but Hikari Field and NekoNyan were able to publish the romantic visual novel comedy Senren Banka on Steam.
For those of you who don’t know, Valve has been cracking down on various Asian-made games of the visual novel and dating sim variety. Typically they’ve been targeting anything with an anime-style presentation, claiming that the visual novels or dating sims are “child exploitation” often because the stories center around schools, academies, dorms, or contain a loli or two.
This has led to an inordinate amount of games being banned by Valve from appearing on Steam, along with any DLC and even demos. Heck, even Taimanin Asagi was banned from Steam, prompting Lilith to go back, censor out all the sex and violence and re-release a trial version on Valve’s platform that was completely kosher.
In some cases, developers like Simon Creative were forced to completely remove a loli character from the all-ages visual novel Food Girls in order to get approval to release the game on Steam. Given the market reach and built-in popularity of various niches on the platform, most developers comply with Valve’s censorship requests/demands.
Heck, even some all-ages visual novels set in college, such as My Girlfriend, were also banned from Steam. So aging up the characters,setting story in college, and making it all-ages isn’t a guarantee that your visual novel will be accepted on Steam. Yet somehow Hikari Field and NekoNyan were able to get Yuzusoft’s Senren Banka onto the platform.
Given today’s climate, I’m impressed.
As for Senren Banka, the visual novel follows a young chap who visits a remote tourist village out in the mountains, and mistakenly breaks one of the village’s ancient relics: a sword in a stone.
To make amends for his accidental transgression, the protagonist is forced to marry the shrine maiden, but things get a little unwieldy for our hero as he encounters an enigmatic girl, has to deal with a busty transfer student, and attempts to prepare for married life.
The romantic comedy is currently available right now over on the NekoNyan Soft store page for $34.99. During the first week of release the game is discounted down to $31.49.
You can also pick up a copy from over on the Steam store for $34.99 as well, where it’s discounted by 10% off during the first week of release. There’s also a free trial version available to download as well.
(Thanks for the news tip MaverickHL)