FingerGaming

Despite their prominence overseas, visual novels are largely despised in the western world. There’s plenty of criticism to be leveled at the genre, to be sure — visual novels contain little gameplay, they often cater to bizarre niches and fetishes, and many titles are blatantly pornographic. Yet they remain popular among many audiences in Japan.

Few visual novel games are available in the English language, either, giving North American gamers little first-hand experience with the genre. Thanks to the ease of publishing in the App Store, however, visual novels have flourished on the iPhone. The platform has hosted ports of successful PC games like Gift and Memories Off, and many titles are available for purchase in North America, though they often lack English language support.

Daidai Inc’s My Neighbor Girl, released today, is one of the App Store’s few visual novels to feature a full English translation. Even more remarkably, it also includes English dubbing for the dialog sequences — and it’s drop-dead hilarious.

Before I get into that, though, let’s cover the basics. My Neighbor Girl is a fairly standard stat-raising game, similar in concept to Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial series or the Princess Maker games. You’re a junior-year high school student (or a “third grade of high schooler,” as the game puts it), and to your surprise and delight, the cute girl who sits next to you in your homeroom has asked you to help her study. Eeeee! Her name is Mana, and she’s, like, totally into you.

Gameplay begins after each class day, during which neither you nor Mana learn anything. Mana will do all of her learning at the library, with your coaching. You’re kind of a crappy teacher, though — your “coaching” involves telling Mana to study a certain subject, after which she’ll do her best to learn something.

Mana’s stats will rise faster if she focuses on a particular subject that catches her interest. If you can read her interests well enough on a daily basis, her “love” meter will gradually rise, and then…well, the demo ended before I could find out, but seeing as how the game is rated for ages 17 and up due to “frequent and intense sexual content or nudity,” I have at least an idea. Given Apple’s standards for content, though, you shouldn’t expect anything explicit.

The gameplay may be typical of the life simulation genre, but My Neighbor Girl is unique in that its English translation was created in-house by its Japanese developer. The result is as awkward as you might expect, with bad grammar and spelling mistakes available in plenty.

The best part is that Mana speaks her lines aloud. Word-for-word. Phonetically.

Set the in-game voices to Japanese, and Mana will be a typical squeaky-voiced anime schoolgirl. Switch the voices to English, and suddenly you’re being seduced by Cooking Mama. There are few joys in life that compare to hearing a professional voice actress stumble through lines like, “Oh, it is time of closing a library.”

My Neighbor Girl’s appeal extends beyond the humor factor, though. It also offers rare insight into what makes the visual novel genre compelling. Even with the shaky English translation, it’s still fun to watch Mana’s stats go up, and there’s always a hint of suspense in the moment before you find out whether your daily lessons are a success.

Gamers outside of Japan are given few opportunities to experience visual novels. Thanks to the iPhone and My Neighbor Girl, North Americans are finally able to catch a glimpse of what makes an obscure genre such a phenomenon, while enjoying a few laughs along the way.

The full version of My Neighbor Girl is available for $9.99. A free Lite version is also available.

Tags: adventure, daidai, iphone oddities, my neighbor girl, simulation, visual novel