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Part of this is also because PC gaming in Japan until relatively recently was an extremely tiny market* and also the oddities of how Japan sells certain things like movies and TV shows are extremely expensive on home media because their video rental market is still very alive while video game renting doesn't exist and in fact is actually full bore illegal in Japan *people often talk about Japan being 5 to 10 years ahead of the rest of the world technologically but home computers and the internet are the opposite really, in those areas Japan had basically stagnated behind the rest of the world till very recently(like a lot of their websites still look like Geocities)
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Aug 22, 2021 03:11
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drrockso20 posted:(like a lot of their websites still look like Geocities) Hell a lot of them were Geocities, it wasn't turned off in Japan until 2019.
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Aug 22, 2021 03:16
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drrockso20 posted:Part of this is also because PC gaming in Japan until relatively recently was an extremely tiny market* and also the oddities of how Japan sells certain things like movies and TV shows are extremely expensive on home media because their video rental market is still very alive while video game renting doesn't exist and in fact is actually full bore illegal in Japan They do have a thriving used game market, though. You can tell the real flops because they wind up on the game shelves right next to the new copies.
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Aug 22, 2021 03:17
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RIP to Geocities imo
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Aug 22, 2021 05:53
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Endorph posted:they did actually put out a demonbane toy last year. for about 150 bucks  I love the design of the mecha itself so I’m bummed I’ll never own that ngl.
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Aug 22, 2021 06:01
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i mostly like demonbane's design but i hate its weird pointy angled shinknees
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Aug 22, 2021 10:29
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They kinda remind me of DaiRyOh which is probably part of why I like it 
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Aug 22, 2021 10:31
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With SRW30 still 2 months away, here's something that may help tide people over for a bit, maybe. https://ontlogy.wordpress.com/srw-cf/ A tl;dr - SRW CF is quite possibly one of the earliest attempts at an English SRW Fangame with a half-decent mission output before it was unfortunately cut short, but it was considered Lost Media for a very long time because the filesharing hosts it was on died and apparently no one kept backups. However, by a stroke of luck I have gotten into contact with the original creator, who still had the files with him, and we've worked together to create this version which has some minor touch-ups/bugfixes and make it available for download again. The website goes into more information so there's probably some redundancy here, but here's a short attempt to sell you on this game in this post itself. I think SRW CF is a very unique take on the SRW concept despite taking place in a "licensed" universe. Instead of the usual take of SRW storylines following the adventures of Gundam and Kouji, it instead focuses on the story of a team of original mercenary team with the licensed characters being supporting characters. SRW CF puts its own spin on several mechanics, such as the upgrade system, where instead of just putting points in various stats, you earn various mecha parts throughout the game like armor, weapons, shielding and some such and build your robot from its base chassis. There's a market where you can buy items to facilitate that.  The Visual Novels elements are more robust in the game which reminds me of Alpha 1 somewhat, there's quite a bit of "reactivity" even in the short amount of stages that it covers, such as an early chapter that's a recreation of episode 1 of the original MSG - you can choose to side with either the EFSF or Zeon which will get you a different mission - I picked the Zeon route because it's more fresh than the usual "play as Amuro styling on Denim/Jean" after playing that out a lot in G Gen and later on, that choice is acknowledged as one mission will have Zeon reinforcements show up as allies rather than enemies. When I went through the flags I was rather bummed out that the game was never completed since some of the future events implied in them would have been rather wild, but oh well. I hope the story of SRW CF gets completed one day, though it probably isn't likely to be in the SRC Engine (the same one I use for my own fangames). Still, do enjoy this blast from the past.
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Aug 22, 2021 17:59
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Davzz posted:The Visual Novels elements are more robust in the game which reminds me of Alpha 1 somewhat, there's quite a bit of "reactivity" even in the short amount of stages that it covers, such as an early chapter that's a recreation of episode 1 of the original MSG - you can choose to side with either the EFSF or Zeon which will get you a different mission - I picked the Zeon route because it's more fresh than the usual "play as Amuro styling on Denim/Jean" after playing that out a lot in G Gen and later on, that choice is acknowledged as one mission will have Zeon reinforcements show up as allies rather than enemies. When I went through the flags I was rather bummed out that the game was never completed since some of the future events implied in them would have been rather wild, but oh well. Mind saying what some of those flags suggest? You've got me curious about them.
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Aug 23, 2021 02:42
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chiasaur11 posted:Mind saying what some of those flags suggest? You've got me curious about them. That one mission I used as an example itself has "EFSFLoyalty" and "ZeonLoyalty" counters, which has had several flagged events later on, including one where you learn that the EFSF is very interested in nuclear weapons (this plotline is unfortunately not resolved in the current content) In addition, the Battle Mastery of said "Take the Zeon Contract" stage is to destroy the Gundam rather than having it retreat. If you do, it's not just a simple "Battle Mastery earned here's 10k funds" - you actually get to negotiate with Char on payment for the Gundam scrap parts. You got three options - give it to him for free, ask for additional payment above and beyond (since destroying the Gundam wasn't part of the original job scope) or keeping the parts in order to create a new OG unit. With where the current content ends, unfortunately the optimal decision is to keep it, but I believe any choice that involves Char getting his hands on the Gundam parts will lead to him building the non-canonical Casval's Gundam according to the flag name Another one is saving Captain Keyes from Halo if you make several correct choices, although it's rather arcane. You'll have to assign him a Jeep and then head to the Jungle when given the choice but well, it ended one stage before that could come to fruition, whoops.
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Aug 23, 2021 06:49
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I'm curious, has it been revealed anywhere how Namco-Bandai managed to work out the licensing issues and get SRW30 a full global release (even if it's just via Steam)? I imagine if they'd just shelled out for the licenses, they'd have at the very least done download-only releases on the Switch/PS5, if not physical copies. Feels like they maybe found some sort of legal loophole unique to Steam. That's pretty cool, though my great hope for any western-made fangame is to finally see Megas XLR get the SRW treatment it always deserved.
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Aug 23, 2021 12:39
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EclecticTastes posted:I'm curious, has it been revealed anywhere how Namco-Bandai managed to work out the licensing issues and get SRW30 a full global release (even if it's just via Steam)? I imagine if they'd just shelled out for the licenses, they'd have at the very least done download-only releases on the Switch/PS5, if not physical copies. Feels like they maybe found some sort of legal loophole unique to Steam. Someone should do a fanmade SRW where they actually finish the plot of Sym-Bionic Titan like they did with Shin Mazinger in BX and V
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Aug 23, 2021 12:50
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EclecticTastes posted:I'm curious, has it been revealed anywhere how Namco-Bandai managed to work out the licensing issues and get SRW30 a full global release (even if it's just via Steam)? I imagine if they'd just shelled out for the licenses, they'd have at the very least done download-only releases on the Switch/PS5, if not physical copies. Feels like they maybe found some sort of legal loophole unique to Steam. Probably just by choosing specifically enough to keep the companies involved to a minimum. There's only 3 or so companies who own all the series in 30 in the west. Sunrise is a particularly huge chunk. It's basically them, DIscotek, and Funi. They're not doing pure western releases for consoles because... there's no reason to. Steam's the only platform that decided to make a problem for them. Supremezero fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Aug 23, 2021 |
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Aug 23, 2021 12:51
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I remember hearing that the cost and effort of releasing console games is pretty high, and you need to do it for each region/release. They probably are just going the cheap/easy route with the assumption that most NA/Europe console sales would just be canibalising the other regions and steam.
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Aug 23, 2021 14:01
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The English release of SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays was similarly only availability outside SEA on Steam, and there's been no shortage of console Gundam games worldwide, so there must be some internal Bandai Namco thing going on with these games.
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Aug 23, 2021 14:04
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EclecticTastes posted:That's pretty cool, though my great hope for any western-made fangame is to finally see Megas XLR get the SRW treatment it always deserved. Unfortunately, the project lead decided to step away from the project due to personal circumstances (likely for good), and with the main designer gone the project has been retooled into something a lot more "classic" and smaller scope.
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Aug 23, 2021 14:38
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I keep hoping for Ulysses 31 and Mysterious Cities of GOld, but thinking on it since they're France-Japan coproductions the rights are probably a mess.
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Aug 23, 2021 14:56
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SpikeMcclane posted:I remember hearing that the cost and effort of releasing console games is pretty high, and you need to do it for each region/release. They probably are just going the cheap/easy route with the assumption that most NA/Europe console sales would just be canibalising the other regions and steam. Among other things, you have to go through certification for each region you release a game in, typically, and the cert process isn't completely uniform across regions; something that makes it through in SEA could hit a snag in America or Europe, for example, meaning you have to correct whatever it is and go through it again (and in the past, that could be stuff like "doesn't have English voiceover", which could be a dealbreaker). Meanwhile, so long as poo poo ain't broke, you'll provide support and correction if poo poo does break and you got it cleared legally, Steam don't care. The overhead is a lot lower. The licenses were always the biggest hurdle to an international release, but they were far from the only hurdle.
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Aug 25, 2021 07:22
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I'm basing this on basically nothing, but I suspect that what happened is that they knew there was demand for these games over here, so they lowered the barrier of entry by releasing them in English, but only in Singapore. So Americans could play them, but they had to import them. They did well enough that they decided to lower the barrier further by making them actually available in America via Steam, because "put it on Steam" apparently has way less overhead and hassle than putting it on consoles. We have yet to see results from this experiment, but if things pan out, they may decide that putting it on consoles is worth the trouble.
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Aug 25, 2021 08:19
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Yeah. They did a quick and dirty TL for MD, it did well, they did a TL for V, it did very well, they put together a proper translation team for X and T, they did very well, official english release on steam. People focused on the licenses but besides that and the overheads of a console release (and these games were console only until recently) there were also concerns like marketing, how much text is in these games, and so on. It's no surprise they've slowly built up to this. The dream is that 30 is so succesful that they not only officially release games as they come out from now on, but they also go back and port older games to steam with a translation.
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Aug 25, 2021 10:18
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I think it's a confluence of factors (heh)— 1) Domestic SRW sales in Japan have been in steady decline for a while now 2) Overseas SRW sales, conversely, have been on an upward trend, which culminated in COMBINED overseas sales (that is, English, Chinese, AND Korean versions put together) eclipsing domestic sales in SRW T 3) I don't have any hard numbers on GGen Cross Rays, but just spitballing based on the number of Steam reviews it's got by now, I suspect it wildly exceeded performance expectations on Steam with its global release. Note: This is based entirely on external info and personal speculation. I don't know any more than the rest of you guys.
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Aug 25, 2021 10:30
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Has there been any peeps about the next GGen game by the by? I'm curious when it'll bop out.
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Aug 25, 2021 11:37
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Kitfox88 posted:Has there been any peeps about the next GGen game by the by? I'm curious when it'll bop out. Absolute silence. Presumably the larger marketing machine is focused on SRW 30 right now, and Gundam marketing is currently focusing on a few other things (like that outta-nowhere Overwatch-like game they've got coming). Given how Crossrays managed, by all external indicators like Dramata said, to blow expectations out of the water, we'll probably see a steady stream of gandamu stuff going forward. Hokuto posted:1) Domestic SRW sales in Japan have been in steady decline for a while now There is one weird data point here: SRW V apparently did manage to get a Playstation Gold award, which is given for reaching 500,000 sales in Japan. It'd be the first SRW in a good long while to have managed that. None of the other international games have been acknowledged that way, not even T, so sales in Japan are evidently not hopelessly dire but I guess are really uneven? They have outright said the international version of SRW T outsold domestic, though (and from Terada's comments, it's super duper obvious they were picking series based in part on what's popular on the American continent - G Gundam is aimed right at the Toonami crowd, GaoGaiGar at the noughts hardcore set, and Rayearth is aimed squarely at the heart of every single 90s kid south of Texas in particular). So the sales situation is...fluid, I guess. 
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Aug 25, 2021 12:34
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It wouldn't be super amazingly out there for the game that included Yamato, the highly popular original japanese space opera, to have higher sales than normal just for including Yamato, honestly. Meanwhile the unusual series for X and T were... a kids show and Nadia, which are irrelevant and mildly popular, and Cowboy Bebop and Rayearth, a series that is far more popular in the west and another mildly popular one.
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Aug 25, 2021 12:43
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I think MightGaine also contributed, it's quite a well-loved series, but yes Yamato is huge in Japan and that has to have contributed to the spike in sales.
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Aug 25, 2021 12:53
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Supremezero posted:It wouldn't be super amazingly out there for the game that included Yamato, the highly popular original japanese space opera, to have higher sales than normal just for including Yamato, honestly. I think you underestimate just how much weight Wataru carries in Japan and China/Taiwan. Terada's said that one of the main drivers of the decision to put in Wataru was that he kept getting asked "When's Wataru?" at an event he attended in Taiwan.
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Aug 25, 2021 13:21
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Hokuto posted:I think you underestimate just how much weight Wataru carries in Japan and China/Taiwan. Terada's said that one of the main drivers of the decision to put in Wataru was that he kept getting asked "When's Wataru?" at an event he attended in Taiwan. Okay, but the question is Japanese sales, not overseas sales like Taiwan.
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Aug 25, 2021 14:34
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Hokuto posted:I think you underestimate just how much weight Wataru carries in Japan and China/Taiwan. Terada's said that one of the main drivers of the decision to put in Wataru was that he kept getting asked "When's Wataru?" at an event he attended in Taiwan. Yeah legit, my uni anime club is predominantly Chinese and when I started fanboying over Wataru there was a massive deluge of "oh drat I loved that show as a kid!"
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Aug 25, 2021 14:48
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Kitfox88 posted:
Is there any way to play the original VN or the updated version in English? I can't find anything except stuff saying that JAST did the US release and their site won't load on my phone.
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Aug 25, 2021 15:31
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Supremezero posted:It wouldn't be super amazingly out there for the game that included Yamato, the highly popular original japanese space opera, to have higher sales than normal just for including Yamato, honestly. I can accept that Cowboy Bebop is more popular in the west, but looking up sales numbers, it was pretty big in Japan, too. Looking at the DVD numbers (which I don't think include the international releases, but I'm having trouble nailing things down) it sold in Gundam territory, competing with Love Live. It was massive, with games and a movie and pachinko machines and manga... the whole deal. I think another factor for V was that it was the first console SRW that wasn't a sequel to Z or an OG released since the PS2 days. If you fell away or got intimidated by the setup when looking to start, then "Hey, new game, it's got Yamato, no setup needed, why not?" is a decent pitch.
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Aug 25, 2021 21:11
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wataru is huge in japan. it influenced rezero! (real)mrfreeze posted:Is there any way to play the original VN or the updated version in English? I can't find anything except stuff saying that JAST did the US release and their site won't load on my phone.
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Aug 25, 2021 21:15
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One day I hope the Demonbane sequel where you actually get to fight in the robots gets translated.
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Aug 25, 2021 21:21
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I actually played through the entirety of Demobane and it's really gross and I don't know why I did that to myself. It did have a few good tracks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu5JPk0NriQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F5-rxKUOLU But heed my advice and never actually read Demonbane.
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Aug 25, 2021 21:49
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MonsieurChoc posted:But heed my advice and never actually read Demonbane. Yeah much like Cross Ange or Seed Destiny engagement with it in native form is dangerous Kitfox88 fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Aug 26, 2021 |
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Aug 26, 2021 00:20
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mrfreeze posted:Is there any way to play the original VN or the updated version in English? I can't find anything except stuff saying that JAST did the US release and their site won't load on my phone. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the updated version - Demonbane bombed financially IIRC that they never translated the quasi-sequel.
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Aug 26, 2021 03:00
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Endorph posted:Japanese companies tend to price gouge dedicated fans while releasing the same products for cheaper overseas. Compare the price of an anime blu-ray in Japan to an anime blu-ray in the US. Thus, they don't want the Japanese fans to circumvent said gouging. shooting off your nose despite your face story of this Franchise's life at times
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Aug 26, 2021 03:53
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MechaCrash posted:I'm basing this on basically nothing, but I suspect that what happened is that they knew there was demand for these games over here, so they lowered the barrier of entry by releasing them in English, but only in Singapore. So Americans could play them, but they had to import them. They did well enough that they decided to lower the barrier further by making them actually available in America via Steam, because "put it on Steam" apparently has way less overhead and hassle than putting it on consoles. We have yet to see results from this experiment, but if things pan out, they may decide that putting it on consoles is worth the trouble. The idea that there's a potential future universe where we get a domestic release of a console SRW with a dub is wild to me, and yet it doesn't seem utterly absurd like it would have last year.
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Aug 26, 2021 05:54
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I wouldn't hold out much hope for a dub - it's a lot of dialogue to voice, and it'd be impossible to get the original voice casts for these show's dubs (not to mention some shows have multiple dubs, or have never been dubbed.) That said, there's a minute but not impossible chance an OG game could get a dub.
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Aug 26, 2021 06:08
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Kitfox88 posted:Yeah much like Cross Ange or Seed Destiny engagement with it in native form is dangerous Oh gently caress it's that level of bad? Awww alright then.
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Aug 26, 2021 11:14
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The PC version of the Demonbane visual novel is straight-up an eroge. It later got an all-ages version for the PS2, and IIRC all the further adaptations are derived from that.Endorph posted:I wouldn't hold out much hope for a dub - it's a lot of dialogue to voice, and it'd be impossible to get the original voice casts for these show's dubs (not to mention some shows have multiple dubs, or have never been dubbed.) Oh, I'm definitely not thinking it's possible SRW30 gets one. I'm more thinking a few games down the road. Reiska fucked around with this message at 11:28 on Aug 26, 2021 |
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Aug 26, 2021 11:26
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