#dgm fangame

[arimiaromage]

Strange house - DGM doujin fangame guide book scans

so in January I found a physical copy of a 2010 d.gray-man doujin visual novel called Strange house by the doujin group MOONLIGHT CAFE. the game is a romance visual novel where you play as Lavi and can date Kanda while out on a mission with him to, you guessed it, a strange house.

the game is completely in Japanese and almost all mention of it online has gone away as it's a 14 year old game, so suffice to say finding anything about this game has been difficult. it won't be a complete mystery now though as I have the game and the guide book!

so... let's look inside this guide book!

before we crack it open, here's the scans of the DVD cover slip. the outside is similar to the guide book (see above) but the inside is an adorable collection of chibis.

now let's look at the guide book! all of these scans are at a high dpi so open them up in a new tab if you'd like to see them up close. also, most of this is in Japanese and I won't be able to translate a majority of it. if you'd like to translate it, please feel free to and add it to the post!

D.Gray-man LaviYu Only

Windows only sound novel type adventure game

(side note- visual novels are usually called adventure games in Japan. sound novel is another term for them that was more popular to use years ago)

The next two pages go over the system menus- the main menu, the CG gallery (where you can view cut scene artwork), in game menu, save & load, and the options menus.

Now that we've gone over the system, it's on to the character bios! Lavi is up first as he's the player character followed by Kanda and the finder Doma.

(somehow Kanda ends up in a bridal gown in this game)

(she has doll arms and legs? it says she's the other guy's sister)

(I have no clue what her name is suppose to be. Yuno Moreta? Yunoo Moreeta?? I'm guessing it's trying to be like Yu Kanda??? Allen's bio here mentions him being the 14th and that he doesn't appear much as he wasn't assigned to this mission)

(Lenalee's basically says that she's an exorcist and Komui's younger sister, but mentions that she might be seen on the mission in front of Lavi? the guy on the right was apparently meant to be something like a love rival in the MVP [think beta build] for the game)

after the character bios is the route guides!

while not every visual novel has choices or multiple endings, visual novels that do have multiple endings refer to them as "routes" or "scenarios", i.e. the series of choices you make to reach each ending. this game has 4 routes, each with a different artist.

scenario A is called Dolly and written by 響夜 and illustrated by Guriko.

scenario B is called Coming Home and written by 響夜 and illustrated by Seiko and others.

scenario C is.... something about a bracelet? it's written by 秋吉 and illustrated by Bonnu.

scenario D is called lonely travels / loneliness while traveling and is written by 木花 and illustrated by ネコ科ノコ.

to be honest this is a lot more than I was expecting! we're already at 7 team members and haven't touched the programming or music aspects. I also have no clue how long this game is - there's only a few choices listed here to get each route so each ending could be 5k words (short) or over 50k words (long).

now onto staff!

sadly, I won't be able to translate these as it's a majority kanji, but here they are.

and that's it! there's a lot of cute art here that I hope will be saved on the internet now that the sites for MOONLIGHT CAFE's games are mostly defunct.

personally as a visual novel developer I find it amazing that they were able to not only make such a good looking fan visual novel in 2010 with multiple endings but to get so many people on board and make it all work out. and then to make a physical release of it! (side note- I'm still unsure what engine this was made in! I'm thinking kirikiri but I'm not sure)

I have the game set up and am able to play it, so at some point I'll share some footage of it on this tag on my blog. I'm hesitant to put the exe online as this was a paid game at one point and the doujin circle seems to be disbanded, but I might if there's interest (is this considered a no-no for doujins? I'm unfamiliar on etiquette for doujins, so some advice on that would be appreciated if you have any)

#dgm #dgrayman #d gray man #lavi bookman #kanda yu #yu kanda #yuu kanda #laviyuu #lavi #kanda yuu #dgm fangames #dgm fangame #fangames #fangame #moonlight cafe #I'll be honest. I'm neutral to laviyuu but I find this project so cool that I'm dedicated to getting all the endings

[arimiaromage]

good news - it works!!

bad news - I need to do some more tweaking to my computer to get the text to render properly. I thought having JP installed as a language on my computer would be enough but I'll have to try some other things like changing the locale.

pretty excited though!! I'll try scanning the guidebook in today and recording a bit of the game. if you want to know more about this dgm fangame, here's my initial post about it.

#dgm #dgrayman #d gray man #dgm fangame #dgm fangames #fangame #fangames

[arimiaromage]

LOOK WHATS FINALLY HERE AAAAAAAA

I'm so excited to crack this open and play it 🥹 here's to hoping it actually still works 🙏 I'll be making longer post(s) about it shortly!

(they wrapped up the guidebook lol)

#dgm #dgrayman #d gray man #dgm fangame #dgm fangames #fangame #fangames

[arimiaromage]

I'm back with more dgrayman doujin fangame updates! after last time where I found Kanda x Lavi fangame that got a physical edition, I decided to keep digging to find the other games the developer made while waiting for it to come in. well, I've found another!

(if these interest you, I'm going to tag all of these posts as "#dgm fangames")

I was able to find & order a disc for their first dgm fangame, Infinite Melody (also called unendliche Melodie). like before, this game was so old (from 2007!!!) and only in JP that I basically haven't been able to find anything on it. and when I got the disc in...

...it was a preorder bonus for the game that's just a strategy guide! a bit of a letdown haha, but still interesting nonetheless. (side note: the site I found it on had translated part of the kanji as "attack"- but if you add 本 to the end of it, it suddenly becomes... strategy guide!)

so I loaded it up and found a 16 page pdf by the creator that is a guide for how to play the game. and now I'll share it online for preservation/archival purposes.

A bit of a shoddy translation-

Hello, nice to meet you! My name is Rindo, the owner of moonlight cafe. Thank you very much for choosing the sound novel type adventure game "Infinite Melody" produced by our circle!!

They then go on to say that this is their first (?) work for dgm and that they've published several works before (other games?) so they're more familiar with that than making manga. From their experience this game isn't that hard but they wanted to make a strategy guide just incase for the people who didn't want to keep retrying. After that they talk a bit more about the game structure itself- it sounds like Kanda is the main love interest and there are 2 scenarios, one for Allen and one for Lavi. It also sounds like there's a CG gallery in the game.

So, a bit of explanations for those not used to visual novels- in Japan (especially in the 2000s) they were referred to as sound novels or adventure games rather than visual novels (nowadays you'll see them called adventure games). A love interest is a character that's romanceable for you, the player character. A route is a set of choices that leads you down a particular story, usually just meant to signify a specific character- so if you have a game with multiple love interests, then saying "the Kanda route" would mean you're talking about the storyline that happens when you romance Kanda (but "route" is not specific to just romance).

The next section is character bios! This game is set in modern times with Allen as some sort of apprentice working for a magazine company.

a brief translation summary-

Allen is a newbie reporter for the music magazine "Asian Music". He heard Kanda's songs over the radio years ago which got him interested, but this turned into disgust the more he learned about Kanda. That doesn't stop him from buying Kanda's new CDs, though. He lives alone in a very cheap apartment.

Lavi works for an entertainment production company (Rozenkuroitsu? Rosenkreuz?? (????)) and Kanda's manager & music arranger. He's supposed to only be his manager but Kanda insisted on him doing arrangements too. There's more here about Lenalee being the younger sister of the company's president and her and Kanda are childhood friends with Lavi.

(side note- the oval at the top of these says "character [number]" followed by their name, and Lavi's lastname is still listed as Bookman, even in modern times. just a funny little detail)

Kanda is a singer-songwriter who's very popular- his songs always reach the top of the ranking charts. Despite this, people fixate on his looks when mentioning him. He's currently under a lot of stress due to his increasing workload and his popularity. He's a bully who loves Perrier (the water??), quietness, and the sky.

top one- Bak Chan (yes, that's Bak!)

Bak is the editor-in-chief for "Asian Music" and Allen's boss. He's old friends with Komui Lee, the president of the studio Kanda and Lavi work at, but he refuses to ask for special interviews because pride (?).

bottom one- Lenalee Lee

Lenalee is the younger sister of Komui, the president of the studio Kanda and Lavi work at. She's also the one who writes the lyrics for Kanda's songs. Her, Lavi, and Kanda are all childhood friends.

next is a few screenshots of what the game looks like! lots of CGs, too bad we can't see any fully. (a CG is basically cutscene artwork)

the next section is a quick strategy on how to get the good ending for each route. it looks like this game has a different way of setting it up- usually a "route" is for a love interest, but in this game you're able to play as Allen or Lavi and date Kanda as either of them, so the "routes" are for Allen and Lavi (despite playing as them).

Allen route

the creator listed some of the important choices in the game and gives a small idea of how to answer them to get the best ending. for players this would be a helpful guide, but for us it'll help us get an idea of what the game covers.

the first choice is set in Kanda's office where you choose a drink. Allen hates alcohol so that's a no-go, but if you remember from Kanda's bio he love Perrier.

the next choice is when Kanda asks Allen out on a date. despite wanting to go, it might be better to decline him so both of you can focus on work.

the next choice is where to take Kanda on his day off. it should be somewhere where Kanda doesn't have to use a microphone (as that's his day job) and somewhere where people won't be staring at him (as he's basically a celebrity).

the last choice is a bit hard for me to understand- the author said they left some of these vague, and this one is basically "Kanda asked me directly!!". maybe it's a love confession? once you reach this part, the creator says you can rest easy (and maybe bully him a bit).

Lavi route

Lavi is Kanda's manager so several of his choices are related to, well, managing Kanda.

his first choice listed is whether or not he should interrupt Kanda and Allen arguing in a room together. even if you might be in the way, Kanda might appreciate you being by his side.

his next choice is about going to Los Angeles (a vacation?). Kanda is Kanda and will be grumpy, but lying to him will make things even worse. (I'm not sure if this is Lavi trying to convince Kanda to go to LA for a vacation or Lavi going alone to LA and Kanda ends up going)

the next choice is Kanda insisting on going back home to Japan. work is important, but Kanda's health is even more important (especially as you're his manager). after persuading him, indulge in what he wants for a bit.

the last choice is.... where should Kanda sit on the plane?? if you made it this far then the creator says you can relax. they say Kanda may be stubborn but he's not a child- you don't have to always take care of him.

you can play either route in whatever order you want, but if you get the true ending in either route, you'll get bonuses! the creator really encourages you to play both routes.

this is a mini skit between Lavi and Allen with Kanda interjecting. It's basically Allen and Lavi arguing who Kanda likes more.

last but not least is a final credits page for the doujin circle.

...and what's that? a new website link? let's check it out!

surprisingly.... the website is still active!!

on the website there's this description for the game, which we already kind of understand from the character bios:

見習い雑誌記者アレンは、メディア嫌いで有名なミュージシャン“神田ユウ”の取材をすることになった。同じく、神田のマネージャーのラビは多忙を極める神田の、心労を解消させる方法を模索していた。取材当日、生理的に嫌いだと思っていた神田を前にアレンはとんでもない失言をしてしまう……。 　みたいなノリです。詳しくは体験版をお試しください。 　最初の選択肢でアレンルート（神アレ）とラビルート（ラビュ）に分かれます。

basically- Allen works as an apprentice reporter who is assigned to interview Kanda, a popular singer who hates reporters. Lavi is Kanda's manager who is trying to find a way to relieve Kanda's stress. on the day of the interview, Allen said something (improper/embarrassing/a slip of the tongue) even though he thought he hated Kanda.

even more surprisingly, there's still a trial file on the website?! I'm not brave enough to download this lzh file right now, but maybe soon once I get an isolated environment... if you press the Trial page and then the first line under the image, there's a lzh file (a type of zip file) you can download. please only do this with virus protection on your computer or in a virtual machine, don't download strange files with no protection!!

yep, that's about it. I'll be on the lookout for this game's physical release (that's not the guide book haha) and the developer's other games, but I hope this was interesting!

I apologize for the shoddy translations, if you'd like to translate the parts here feel free to add it as a reblog/comment. I've posted every single page from the PDF so there's nothing additional I have. if you have any more info on the developer/doujin circle feel free to add those as well.

or, maybe.... you're brave enough to try the trial version for yourself? 👀

#dgm #dgrayman #d gray man #dgm fangames #allen walker #yu kanda #lavi bookman #kanda yu #dgm fangame #ari rambles #this is not how I expected to indoctrinate more people into visual novels but here we are