Top producer of unplayably buggy and endlessly delayed eroge Overflow has announced that “Shiny Days” will be its “final” work and that it is “not going bankrupt or anything like that!” – and, surprise of surprises, its release will be delayed 2 months as well.

As might be expected from Overflow, there is total confusion following their admission on a live Nico broadcast that upcoming title “Shiny Days” will be their last title ever (and that it will be delayed until April):

“They are going bankrupt and Shiny Days will be their last game, they say. Unless it sells really well they have no chance to survive. They say they need to sell 20,000 copies. Buy it guys!”

“Endless delays and now a ‘final’ game?”

“Isn’t this just a marketing scam? This company will say anything for sales.”

“Finally. These fools have been mocking their customers with the buggy trash they put out for years.”

“I saw the announcement, they seem half-hearted about starting a new brand so this is going to be complete dissolution.”

“Their CEO looked pretty gutted.”

“There aren’t 20,000 people who like Kokoro-chan enough to order this, are there?”

“So they are saying they need ¥200,000,000!?”

“If it is a bankruptcy, why are they still able to release it?”

“Their creditors financed it based on projected sales. If it sells OK they can pay them back, but there will be nothing left to run the company.”

“They have been saying this sort of vague and ambiguous stuff on their official Twitter account:

‘This is not a bankruptcy or anything like that. This is our last work. We will continue to provide support for it.’”

“So they aren’t going bankrupt? What the hell is going on?”

“Perhaps they are continuing the company but withdrawing from the eroge market?”

“If they don’t make enough they’ll withdraw, that’s probably it.”

“Don’t they mean they’ll withdraw irrespective of how well it sells?”

School Days HQ, the recent “HD” re-release of much esteemed eroge School Days, now has more yandere content than ever with the addition of an entirely new and hideously tragic ending, featuring a train and plenty of blood and dismemberment.

The ending contains obvious spoilers (although it is only one of the many horrible ways the love triangle portrayed in the game can end):

It would appear the only thing more inexplicable than the insistence of Overflow on packing their games full of their now trademark bad ends is their inability to program the most basic of code.

Quality eroge maker Overflow is set to release an upgraded version of its classic bugfest School Days, “School Days HQ,” a high definition remaster of sorts. However, it has already announced the first delay in release…

The game was previously set for an August release but has now been delayed an additional month to the end of September.

The game itself promises significant upgrades – by eroge standards at least. Game resolution will be increased from 640×480 to 800×600, graphics will be upgraded to Cross Days standards, and new scenes will be added.

Assuming it is released this year, a generous assumption indeed, fans are sure to be appreciative of the chance to revisit the title’s signature crazed yandere antics in slightly higher resolution.

Cross Days has begun finding its way into the hands of eager ero-gamers, and players have been stunned (and in no small part, delighted) by some decidedly unexpected twists and turns, leaving nobody in any doubt what the “Cross” part of its name apparently refers to:

Gamers not interested in the prospect of hot male on male action need not worry, as these encounters apparently occupy only a few optional branches of the story, and there is plenty of heterosexual action too:

Of course, nothing can equal the shock of this game finally being released after a seemingly interminable series of delays, and in an apparently playable condition at that.

Infamously incompetent yet strangely successful eroge maker Overflow has delayed its flagship interactive anime Cross Days for a staggering 6th time.

The game, originally scheduled for 27/2/2009, was first delayed to 24/4/2009, then to 26/6/2009, 20/11/2009, 18/12/2009, 29/1/2010 and now “finally” 19/3/2010, making Overflow the 3D Realms of eroge developers, and about as successful.

The huge number of successive delays probably suggests a development and QA fiasco, so just what shape any putative final release takes is anyone’s guess.

Notorious producer of barely working interactive yandere ero-anime Overflow has announced it will be delaying the release of its flagship title by two months, for the second time.

Previously the release was delayed from February to April, but it seems their nightmarish coding incompetence necessitated yet another delay.

The release will be moving from April 24th to June 26th. Whether this will require gigabytes of patches will be interesting to see…

Just how hard is it to string together a series of videos? Too difficult for Overflow, it would appear. Even their compatibility checker has had eleven revisions.

Most eroge producers may be almost devoid of technical talent or ability to innovate, but even so this is only matched by the recent debacle of Mahou Shoujo Ai’s pictureless release…

Strangely, they did feel able to put together this jolly April 1st video:

Flat chested School Days favourite (maybe) 清浦刹那 / Setsuna Kiyoura, or Secchan, gets an unexpected dakimakura incarnation, showing off an unusual choice of underwear underneath her uniform.

She can be had readily enough, having been released today.

This is certainly one way of enjoying an Overflow product without the bugs or yandere chaos…

School/Summer Days sequel Cross Days has been subjected to a significant postponement, of no less than two months, which surely signifies the title is shaping up to be a disaster as with previous titles.

The previous release date was February 27th, which has been pushed back to April 24th. Their announcement only gives “making a better product” as reason, so it looks as though developer Overflow’s complete inability to program is as enduring as their crazed yandere heroines.

For those who do not recall, the previous title, Summer Days, received 2.3GB patches and still remained unplayable; they were actually forced to issue a recall. Even their flagship product, School Days, adapted into an anime, received 11 patches.

Oddly, they only announced a few days ago that the limited edition release sold out completely in the pre-order stages. It would be unkind to suggest they held back the delay announcement until after they finished selling their pre-orders…

Details of the latest title in Overflow’s at times overly ambitious interactive ero-anime/eroge School Days series have emerged; the sequel is titled “Cross Days”, and is due in January.

There look to be some interesting developments, so if Overflow manage to get things right this time, they may be onto a winner. There are, however, some slightly ominous signs as well…

The game’s story is said to follow in the same setting as the previous School and Summer Days, which the developers stress is a difficult undertaking where multi-linear branching storylines are involved. The game also takes place contemporaneously with prior titles, so further difficulties of continuity arise, especially if we consider the “bad end” severity the series is notorious for.

The protagonist is said to be reworked, and will be much more capable than previously, with the result that some new story directions become possible, and the narrative is apparently more morally ambiguous, without a strong antagonist or otherwise.

It looks as though Cross Days is to be a much more nuanced (or perhaps simply confused or ambiguous) title than previous ones.

One element remains a constant – the tasteless and jarring yandere bad ends (I presume these now have far too much of a following to get rid of) will still be present, so expect some ludicrous murder-suicides to appear out of nowhere from time to time.

On the technological front, the (partial) introduction of 3D animation is promised. It’s far from clear what this will entail (presumably pre-rendered CG), and whether Overflow are up to the task.

In a series where some titles remained barely playable even after gigabytes of patches and countless months, even years, of waiting, I think we can be forgiven for having misgivings about what would otherwise be a very welcome and innovative title (at least, the original School Days was innovative), in the pathetically stagnant genre of visual novels.

Hopefully, they have learnt from past mistakes and can get the series firmly on track for even greater successes, although I would not care to wager on the matter.

The good source is the December issue of Tech Gian.