The developer of the beloved visual novel Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien, also known as Rumbling Hearts, announced that it'll launch a crowdfunding campaign for a new release.
The plan is to create a high-resolution port for modern Windows of the game in the brand-new AGES MK.II engine used for the latest Muv-Luv releases. It'll be based on the "Latest Edition" released in 2008.
Unsurprisingly, it will also be an all-ages game, as the original game was an eroge. Âge moved away from adult content years ago, targeting a wider audience for its visual novels. This doesn't mean that the game won't be dedicated to a mature audience, as the story of Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien is extremely dark, tragic, and complex.
In order to gather feedback and make the crowdfunding campaign the best that it can be, the developer has launched a Discord server for the fans, available exclusively in Japanese.
At the moment, the plan is to launch the campaign in late May with the end in late June. The port should be complete in late July, and rewards should be shipped in late September. While the original release will be in Japanese. If successful, it will then be used as the base of a following localized release in English on Steam.
Originally launched by Âge in 2001 for Windows PC in Japan, Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (which translates as "The Eternity You Desire") is extremely popular among fans of the genre in Japan. It received ports for PS2 and Dreamcast, and then the updated "Latest Edition" version in 2008.
It's known as a foundational work for Âge, set in the same world as its following visual novel series Muv-Luv. In fact, many of the characters from Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien then reappear in Muv-Luv Alternative.
The game's popularity was amplified by an anime TV series aired between 2003 and 2004 followed by an OVA series. The anime is the only media dedicated to this story that has been officially localized in English with the title "Rumbling Hearts."
If you're unfamiliar with the Muv-Luv franchise that follows in the footsteps of Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien, it's widely considered one of the best (if not the best) visual novel series of all time (even the AI of the new Bing agrees albeit it obviously can't get past the PTSD) and one of the first isekai stories that made waves within Japanese pop culture when the genre wasn't as oversaturated as it is now. It mixes a tragic and romantic story with one of the best and deepest sci-fi worlds ever written. It's so influential that Attack on Titan mangaka Hajime Isayama cites it as one of his main sources of inspiration.
Most Muv-Luv visual novels are currently available in English on Steam (while Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative have also been released on PS Vita) alongside the early access action game Project MIKHAIL: A Muv-Luv War Story. A dedicated magazine titled Muv-Luv Regenerative has also been released.
