TORaIKI

99 Spirits Pre-orders Open

/ Fruitbat Factory / Leave a comment

Fruitbat Factory is proud to announce our new project, ‘99 Spirits’ is now available for pre-order! You can read the full press release after the trailer:

99 Spirits revolves around the popular Japanese folklore of Tsukumogami, everyday objects coming alive on their 100th birthday, and features an original battle system where players puzzle out the true identity of the enemy before defeating them.

Features:

  • Work out the true identity of your enemies in a unique battle system
  • Capture enemies, master their skills for battle and use them to solve puzzles on the field
  • Interact with over 40 unique characters and battle over 100 monsters
  • Beautifully detailed art and an atmospheric original soundtrack bring feudal Japan alive
  • Discover multiple unique endings that change based on the player’s actions
  • Dual audio: Toggle between English and Japanese voice

“We’ve tried to make the release the best it can be and listened to feedback from all channels, including Steam Greenlight and IndieGoGo. This has resulted in a number of fine additions such as the option to toggle freely between English and Japanese combat voices.” says Project Lead Jakke Elonen.

99 Spirits will be priced at $14.99.
Its soundtrack will be released simultaneously for $6.99.

Additionally, a Deluxe edition will be available that contains the game’s soundtrack and the original Japanese version bundled in, priced at $19.99.

As a special pre-order bonus, everyone who pre-orders the game will receive the Deluxe edition for the price of the regular edition.

“The Deluxe edition of our previous release War of the Human Tanks turned out far more popular than we anticipated, and we’ve had many people asking whether 99 Spirits will have one available as well, so there was never a question about it. We’ve tried to make the Deluxe edition even more appealing to collectors this time around while providing great value to all players”, explains Ozhan Sen, Marketing Lead.

99 Spirits is now available for pre-order from our homepage, and will soon be following on most major distributors including GamersGate, Desura, Amazon and Green Man Gaming.

99 Spirits is planned to be released on PC (Windows) on May 31st. An official trailer has been released to celebrate this (above). For more information visit the game’s website: http://fruitbatfactory.com/99spirits/ or visit our Twitter, Youtube or Facebook Page.

About us

Fruitbat Factory is an independent localization company focusing on bringing interesting Japanese indie games to English-speaking audiences. We previously released Yakiniku Banzai’s critically acclaimed strategy game War of the Human Tanks in Fall 2012. For more information, visit our homepage at http://www.fruitbatfactory.com/

TORaIKI is an independent Japanese game circle that aims to produce Windows PC titles suitable for gamers of all ages. 99 Spirits is TORaIKI’s first release, published in Japan in August 2012. For more information, visit the developers’ homepage at http://www.toraiki.com/

The Spirits Grow Stronger

/ Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

While we are hard at work preparing the game’s upcoming release, there is a bunch of exciting news to share.

We have had people on Steam Greenlight commenting that they would like to have 99 Spirits available in the Japanese language as well.

Hence, not long after announcing that 99 Spirits will carry dual audio, English and Japanese, we now have the pleasure to announce that to meet popular interest, we will also be including the original Japanese game in a Deluxe version we will be offering (similarly to our previous release War of the Human Tanks). Players will be able to choose between installing the game in English or Japanese.

Those who would prefer to enjoy the game in its original condition will thus benefit from having it available from major digital distributors.

The alpha version of the game has meanwhile been extended to the full game, and now also includes the promised English audio option. Check out the new build from our backer forum if you have access, and let us hear your thoughts.

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In other news, the IndieGoGo pledge rewards are coming together nicely as well, and we’re currently gathering backers’ wishes regarding the T-shirt and body pillow details.If you’re a backer, make sure to check the IndieGoGo updates and our forums for more information. We need a confirmation of the chosen goods by 30.4. at the latest.

We have received spectacular new art for all of them from TORaIKI, as you can from the image above.

Fruitbat Revelations

/ Ozhan Sen / 3 Comments

Since our last update we’ve been hard at work on the preparations for 99 Spirits’ release , especially the IndieGoGo pledge rewards. All art assets are ready for printing aside a few that we are waiting for the final versions from TORaIKI. When those arrive, everything will go to print and we’ll start shipping the goods other than those waiting for the physical copy of the game, that is to say the Collectors Edition.

Speaking of the Collectors Edition,  the promised special boxes are now made, and I’ve been painting them. Without the prints on their faces, which will be applied at the last stage,  they don’t look much yet, but we thought some might be interested to see their “making of” photos. So here we go, enjoy the very first look into the 99 spirits Collectors Edition boxes:

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On other news; War of the Human Tanks, our first release that got picked as the 4th best indie strategy game last year, is now featured in the Indie Royale. Alongside some great titles like Waveform, Avadon: The Black Fortress, Zafehouse: Diaries, Derrick the Deathfin and Tidalis. If your collection is missing any of these games, don’t miss this chance to grab them for a nice price.

99 Progress Reports

/ Fruitbat Factory / Leave a comment

This weekend our first crowd funding venture, 99 Spirits IndieGoGo campaign ended with great success. It gathered 252% of the funds we set as our goal and even reached to the stretch goal to release the 99 Spirits Fan Disc.

99 Spirits - Indiegogo Blog Banner

We can’t thank enough to everyone who helped us along the way to making this a reality.

Currently we are working hard to release the 99 Spirits as soon as possible while preparing the pledge rewards for all the contributors.

You can follow our progress on this by checking our forum. We just started a thread there detailing every step of the process. Check it out by following this link.

99 Spirits - screenshot 06OH NO! The fourth wall!

99 Spirits in Dual Audio

/ Jakke Elonen / 2 Comments

The great reception has been great for 99 Spirits on IndieGoGo and there’s much to write home about.

Currently at 134% with 5 days to go, we are striving towards the stretch goal which would allow us to also localize the 99 Spirits Fan Disc released in Japan this winter.

This is a sizable addition, and it will be added to all pledges that include a copy of the game for free!

It’s a shame that this kind of extras seldom make it outside Japan, and we hope we’ll get the opportunity to release the fan disc, which is a visual novel format side story for 99 Spirits.

Big thanks to everyone who’s helped us get this far!

Thank you for helping 99 Spirits reach its goal

And in other happy news:

After considering feedback from the audience, we have decided to add dual audio to the game. You heard right.

We will always keep the original Japanese audio in our releases, but we’re not unsympathetic to those who prefer playing with an English dub either. What’s most important to us is that all players can enjoy the game.

In our release of 99 Spirits players will be able to toggle between Japanese and English audio at will, giving everyone the best of both worlds.

For the English version, we have the pleasure to announce that Amy Ann Burke will be narrating the opening and voicing Hanabusa in combat. She has previously done acting work for the BBC and is currently voicing in the animated webseries “JRPG Parody” (the irony of which we’re not blind to).

We hope this addition will prove useful to many players.

Gather Your Fruitbat Party

/ Ozhan Sen / Leave a comment

Yesterday we had a nice chat with Jake Booth from Gather Your Party dot com. You can read it by following the link below:

http://www.gatheryourparty.com/articles/2013/03/07/interview-with-fruitbat-factory/

We would like to thank Jake for this fun interview, and we hope you’ll enjoy reading it.

OH! By the way, we are at 85% on the 99 Spirits’ IndieGoGo campaign. It’s so good to see more people pledging everyday. Thank you!

Cutest character ever

Cutest character ever

Here’s a sketch from the 99 Spirits artbook we’ll release as part of the campaign. A taste of things to come.

Spirit Hunt Progress #2

/ Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

The 99 Spirits IndieGoGo project just hit 40% of target funding – big thanks everyone!

To commemorate that, we’re launching a 4-day 40% discount for our previous release, War of the Human Tanks – you can head over to Desura to grab your copy.

Shizuru expresses her gratitude like only she knows how.

Shizuru expresses her gratitude like only she knows how.

Also, here’s an update on the current status of the localization:

We just finished working on chapter 7 out of of 12 of the story.
The game mechanics are starting to be in playable condition – as illustrated by this gameplay preview we put together last week.

We’ll still need to perform a lot of play testing before the release, and there may yet be large changes ahead. However, the first compiled versions are starting to look pretty good.

We are working on a trial version and aim to have it complete by the time the IndieGoGo project closes – note that one of the pledge rewards features an early access to the trial a week ahead of others!

99 Spirits – Playing the Game

/ Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

Our IndieGoGo project for 99 Spirits is running well – in the first week we have raised 31% of the total goal, which is cause enough for celebration. Big thanks to everyone who has already helped us there!

One theme has come up repeatedly in comments since our entry to Steam Greenlight and IndieGoGo – many players would like to see detailed gameplay footage from the English version.

After many revisions and 4 days of recording, here it is: the first English gameplay footage from 99 Spirits.

Do note that the video above is from a pre-alpha version of the game, and all content is subject to change.

We found that trying to explain the gameplay in a compact video isn’t an easy task due the puzzle mechanics mixed in. I tried to shoot different aspects of the gameplay, and we added overlay explanations (top-right) to clarify what’s happening on screen.

We hope you’ll enjoy the footage and don’t hesitate to drop any comments, questions or improvement suggestions.

Call to Arms: 99 Spirits

/ Fruitbat Factory / Leave a comment

After a long preparation, here it is:

Fruitbat Factory is proud to announce our new project, Puzzle RPG 99 Spirits is doing a simultaneous entrance on IndieGoGo and Steam Greenlight.

99 Spirits, recently released in Japan Fall 2012, is the first RPG produced by the Japanese indie game circle TORaIKI, and is currently being localized for English speaking audiences. 99 Spirits was the recipient of the December 2012 Indie Dev Grant.

The game features an original battle system where players will have to puzzle out the true identify of the enemy before defeating them. 99 Spirits revolves around the real Japanese legends of Tsukumogami, where everyday objects come alive on their 100th birthday.

99 Spirits - screenshot 06

We are actively seeking the community’s support for the ongoing localization on IndieGoGo and for the game’s Steam release on Greenlight. “We truly appreciate the support of everyone interested in playing more unique Japanese PC games in English to help fund our current project and ongoing work. We are doing what we love and will continue to do so even if no funding is made available. We are doing this to gauge popular demand and to cover some of our immediate project expenses in the hopes of making a timely release possible so that we may continue creating interesting titles in the near future.” explains project lead Jakke Elonen.

30% of all the proceeds of a successful campaign will go to the original Japanese developer of the game, TORaIKI, giving fans a unique chance to support both the localization and original developer directly. Fans of the genre will also be able to enjoy exclusive items for their early support of the game including t-shirts, posters and a sneak peak of the game before it’s available to the public.

The project also offers all kinds of cool rewards for the pledgers, including t-shirts, posters, an artbook, a special boxed collector’s edition and a dakimakura.

99 Spirits will also be making it’s debut on Steam Greenlight. “Every independent developer faces the day they must enter the arena known as Steam Greenlight. For 99 Spirits, today is that day,” says Yoshifumi Ishii, the game’s translator. “Go to the game’s Greenlight page to check it out, and vote for it if you like what you see. Tell your friends. That’s all we can ask of anyone.”

99 Spirits is planned to be released on PC (Windows) in Spring 2013.

Additionally , our homepage has had a Downloads section added with trailers, screenshots and more!

Brewing Spirits

/ Ozhan Sen / Leave a comment

We have been preparing something big for 99 Spirits. You can look forward to an announcement within a week or two. Meanwhile, here’s a new screenshot from a little further into the game:99 Spirits - screenshot 04

We are presently also working on adding a feature some of our players have requested to War of the Human Tanks, and making good progress with that.

In other news, we have added some more distributors to our list of partners; here is the current list of them:

Amasson Amazon
Bandcamp
Desura
GamersGate
Green Man Gaming
Indievania
J-Box
Nyu Media
Shiny Loot

We are still working on getting War of the Human Tanks onto Steam, but we need more help on that front. You can lends us a hand by dropping a YES vote to War of the Human Tanks’ Greenlight entry.

It gives us great joy to see the ongoing, overwhelmingly positive response from people who have tried the game. We are still small profile, so if you like our work please tell your friends about us also.