Hey all,
For anyone who, like me, is really into Little Busters! by Key, it's been a bit of an exciting time recently!
First off, Little Busters! is officially getting an English release on Steam... next week! November 1st! And it has a store page! I read a lot of visual novels, but Little Busters! is my favorite one out of all of them and you should absolutely give it a shot if you're even remotely interested after reading the synopsis. The version releasing on Steam will be all ages just like the original release was, so you don't need to worry about that, but it will have all of the extra character routes and non-18+ content that were added with the 18+ version of the game (none of which was in the fan translated version that's been available for several years). Some of the minigames have also been updated for the PC release, and I think I heard that it has some features that make it compatible with touch screens and tablets, though I don't remember for sure on that one.
(If you don't like visual novels, there was an anime adaptation that came out several years ago, but I can't attest to the quality of that since I've never seen it. The visual novel, however, is absolutely fantastic.)
In related news, Kud Wafter, a spinoff VN based on Little Busters!, was recently greenlit for an all-ages anime adaptation after a successful Japanese crowdfunding campaign. They said that they'd later do a separate international crowdfunding campaign... which is now here! You can get in on it right now; the $65 tier or higher tiers will include a crowdfunding-only version of the Blu-Ray release of the full anime release. I didn't check whether there'd be an English dub (since I'm not into dubbed anime), but it will at the very lease include English subtitles. At this time there doesn't appear to be a digital-only backer tier (which is the only one that would work for me), but I'm holding out hope that they'll add one at some point. I think I heard them say at some point that if the anime is successful enough internationally, they may translate the VN as well (most likely all-ages version), which would be a cool bonus if this takes off since I personally prefer VNs to anime, but I can't find any official source at this point.
If you're interested in Key and want to keep up on their releases, the only official page they have set up for English speakers (that I'm aware of) is for their parent company: VisualArt's has an English page on Facebook that you can follow, VisualArt's USA. Keep in mind that as this is the page for Key's parent company, the posts are not limited to information about Key releases, and while I've followed their page for well over a year and have never seen them post anything 18+, VisualArt's does produce 18+ titles (and so does Key, for that matter), so it's possible such things may show up there.
Note: I'm not including VNDB links because VNDB has (hidden by default) 18+ images in the screenshots section for VNs, but VNDB is generally the best place to go if you're looking for information on VN titles. If you're interested in knowing more about the VN versions of either of these titles, I'd recommend starting there, although it's also worth noting that the Kud Wafter VN was an 18+ release and given its main heroine, it's pretty obvious that it probably contains content objectionable to a lot of people. Just a heads-up on that.
For anyone who, like me, is really into Little Busters! by Key, it's been a bit of an exciting time recently!
First off, Little Busters! is officially getting an English release on Steam... next week! November 1st! And it has a store page! I read a lot of visual novels, but Little Busters! is my favorite one out of all of them and you should absolutely give it a shot if you're even remotely interested after reading the synopsis. The version releasing on Steam will be all ages just like the original release was, so you don't need to worry about that, but it will have all of the extra character routes and non-18+ content that were added with the 18+ version of the game (none of which was in the fan translated version that's been available for several years). Some of the minigames have also been updated for the PC release, and I think I heard that it has some features that make it compatible with touch screens and tablets, though I don't remember for sure on that one.
(If you don't like visual novels, there was an anime adaptation that came out several years ago, but I can't attest to the quality of that since I've never seen it. The visual novel, however, is absolutely fantastic.)
In related news, Kud Wafter, a spinoff VN based on Little Busters!, was recently greenlit for an all-ages anime adaptation after a successful Japanese crowdfunding campaign. They said that they'd later do a separate international crowdfunding campaign... which is now here! You can get in on it right now; the $65 tier or higher tiers will include a crowdfunding-only version of the Blu-Ray release of the full anime release. I didn't check whether there'd be an English dub (since I'm not into dubbed anime), but it will at the very lease include English subtitles. At this time there doesn't appear to be a digital-only backer tier (which is the only one that would work for me), but I'm holding out hope that they'll add one at some point. I think I heard them say at some point that if the anime is successful enough internationally, they may translate the VN as well (most likely all-ages version), which would be a cool bonus if this takes off since I personally prefer VNs to anime, but I can't find any official source at this point.
If you're interested in Key and want to keep up on their releases, the only official page they have set up for English speakers (that I'm aware of) is for their parent company: VisualArt's has an English page on Facebook that you can follow, VisualArt's USA. Keep in mind that as this is the page for Key's parent company, the posts are not limited to information about Key releases, and while I've followed their page for well over a year and have never seen them post anything 18+, VisualArt's does produce 18+ titles (and so does Key, for that matter), so it's possible such things may show up there.
Note: I'm not including VNDB links because VNDB has (hidden by default) 18+ images in the screenshots section for VNs, but VNDB is generally the best place to go if you're looking for information on VN titles. If you're interested in knowing more about the VN versions of either of these titles, I'd recommend starting there, although it's also worth noting that the Kud Wafter VN was an 18+ release and given its main heroine, it's pretty obvious that it probably contains content objectionable to a lot of people. Just a heads-up on that.
