A history of Vita games: Spotlight on Compile Heart/Idea Factory

The tenth in a series of articles I’m writing, looking at the output of a number of Vita-supporting companies from launch through to the present day. I’ll be examining what the games they released were; (if the data is available) how well they sold; (in cases of them being ports) how well they ran; as well as a brief look at games which perhaps should have come to the console either in the west or in general.

While I’ve recently written articles looking at publishers with a dual-role – Japanese-developing and western-publishing – there are actually three separate companies I need to examine in this one. There’s Compile Heart, the Japanese developers of a certain niche type of game; Idea Factory, their parent company focused mainly on otome titles and Idea Factory International, the western publishing arm who localize both company’s titles. The company as a whole is often seen a producer of kusoge – low-quality games with few redeeming features, although this is an image they have managed to improve in recent years with a number of higher-quality RPGs; many of which landed on Vita.

 

Launch & 2012 – absolutely nothing

For a company that released close to a hundred games on the handheld and is still supporting it well into 2017, Compile Heart & Idea Factory started in a very low capacity. They weren’t there for launch, nor did they release anything during 2012 – which doesn’t place them worlds apart from similar companies like Nippon Ichi Software, although at least they managed to get a port of Disgaea 3 out for launch.

This means a number of games were skipped that would have made perfect sense for the handheld. Leading the charge was Record of Agarest War: Marriage, a PSP spin-off to the company’s popular generation-building home-console series that hit the last-gen handheld in July. Developed by Felistella, who would later go on to collaborate with Compile Heart on multiple titles including the Neptunia Re;birth games and Moero Pirates – the game would likely have benefited from a cross-gen release due to a Japanese software drought on Vita, as it opened to a fairly lukewarm 14k on PSP (localization chances would also have increased, as sadly the game remains Japan-only for now).

The company also worked a brand new IP in the form of Mugen Souls in 2012 which released on PS3 in March (opening to sales of 23k in Japan). Featuring a combat system based on their popular Hyperdimension Neptunia series mashed with massive damage numbers of the Disgaea series, the title would go on to spawn a sequel in 2013 but both were tied to Sony’s last-gen PS3 and would likely have reached a better audience as a multi-plat release with the brand new handheld. As it stands the IP is currently dormant, suggesting the company weren’t too happy with the sales achieved.

All of this paints the picture of a company who weren’t willing to give the machine a chance and wouldn’t support it in the coming years – but this isn’t how things played out at all. They actually revealed that they had very little planned for the handheld but seeing Soul Sacrifice (Sony’s epic hunting game) changed their minds – and personally I’m very glad this happened, because a number of great games were released by them in the coming years.

 

2013 – the beginnings of support and some major successes

Despite their previous trepidation regarding Vita, Compile Heart started 2013 with a bang on the console and rewarded with immediate sales success; beginning an on-going love affair that would last well into 2017.

They kicked things off in January with the release of Monster Monpiece, a trading-card battling game with some questionable rubbing mechanics. The title was very much a case of ‘right game at the right time’ it sold out of its initial shipment in Japan within a couple of days, leading to the company apologizing for shortages. It’s worth noting that the amount of copies sold (27k) is similar to the amount their Hyperdimension Neptunia series was selling on PS3 – their flagship franchise with much higher production values. It was an all-round outstanding success.

They followed up this momentum with the release of Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God in March. A successor to the Madou Monogatari series of Japanese first-person dungeon-crawlers made by Compile Heart’s predecessor company Compile, the game shook things up to go for an isometric perspective and rogue-like gameplay which in my opinion didn’t work particularly well. Still, the game was a mild sales success – shifting 25k in Japan by the end of 2013 and was quickly localized by Aksys for the western market the same year.

The rest of Compile Heart’s year was represented by their aforementioned premier franchise – Hyperdimension Neptunia, which received two new entries on Sony’s handheld. The first was Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection, an idol-sim spin-off from the main franchise developed by Tamsoft of Dream Club fame. As with Monster Monpiece, the game was a surprising sales success in Japan shifting nearly 30k copies in its first week and a localization quickly came from NIS America in 2014.

This was followed by another Neptunia title – this time a remake of the very first game under the title Re;birth 1, which received a much more positive critical reception than the original title by bringing a variety of gameplay improvements. This was met with sales success in Japan – shifting 31k copies in the first week and nearly 60k by the end of 2014; although it was the title’s runaway success on Steam in the west that was really noticeable (thankfully it also released on Vita overseas).

Speaking of overseas releases, it’s worth noting that during 2013, Idea Factory established an overseas subsidiary – Idea Factory International – to handle the western releases of their games. They would not actually release anything until 2014, but it was the beginnings of the company having a global presence – something that would be important for them going forward and would benefit Vita greatly.

In Japan, the year would be wrapped up in December with three releases from Idea Factory themselves in the form of remakes of PSP otome titles – something that would be a massive focus for them going forward on Vita. The games were Amnesia: Memories; Diabolik Lovers: V Edition and Hakuouki: Kyoka Roku based on three of their most popular franchises. Each had modest openings in the region but managed to shift more than 10k copies over time – showing the niche that this genre caters to as these were generally seen as successful.

Of course, there were still games skipped in this time – Mugen Souls Z still failed to hit the platform (and suffered a sharp sales decline on PS3 to just 13k) and no Re;birth version of this franchise ever existed, which seems a slightly odd choice. Still, it was obvious both Compile Heart and Idea Factory were on board with the Vita by 2013 and they would continue to support the console well for many years to follow – arguably they’re actually the handheld’s best supporter, although the selling power of their franchises has always been fairly muted.

 

2014 – hitting their stride

If 2013 was a good year for Compile Heart & Idea Factory on Vita, then 2014 would be an amazing year. They brought multiple premier otome games to the console; as well as a number of enjoyable Neptunia spinoffs and handled their first overseas releases through Idea Factory International. Truly, the publisher was on board like never before.

Overall, the company released four Neptunia games in Japan in 2014. The first of these was a remake of MK2 entitled Re;birth 2 – rather than being rebuilt-from-the-ground-up like Re;birth 1, this was more of a straight port which disappointed some fans – but sales were still solid, shifting 42k in the region. They also reworked Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory as Re;birth 3 in December of 2014 which also cleared 40k in domestic sales; both games suffered from slightly choppy performance compared to their predecessor but still looked lovely on the Vita’s screen.

During this period, Compile Heart also experimented with various spin-offs for their premier franchise. The first – Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart, was a tactical RPG set around Noire (one of the goddesses from the game) and developed by Sting (of Dungeon Travelers fame). Receiving fairly positive reviews, the game was yet another sales success in Japan (reaching series-staple figures of 42k) despite some fans being disappointed by the self-insert main character. The company’s biggest experiment was Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed, a brawler spin-off developed by Tamsoft (of Senran Kagura fame) – opening to a series-high of 34k physical copies sold in the first week, it was clear the game was a financial success; although fans seemed less enthused about the game due to its repetitive content and gameplay.

In other ventures, due to the runaway success of Monster Monpiece in 2013 a sequel was quickly developed for release in 2014 – this game was Moero Chronicle, a dungeon-crawler featuring similar lewd elements as its predecessor. Just like Monpiece, it seems this game was a fantastic case of right game at the right time – it became Compile Heart’s highest selling game on Vita clearing 61k copies domestically. In a surprise move, the game also received an Asian-English release in lieu of a western version (likely due to the game’s content), which made a nice compromise for people wanting to play it in English.

Speaking (again) of overseas releases, Idea Factory International was in full swing releasing their first title in North America in Europe – Monster Monpiece. The game caused a minor PR storm in the fact that it featured censored content for western audiences (as well as the fact it was digital-only), but seemingly the game did well enough for the company that they ported it to Steam in 2017. They followed this up with a localized version of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 1 in August which was their first physical release – although this faced its own controversy as a limited edition version sold out in seconds.

Domestically and outside of Compile Heart’s games, Idea Factory were going from strength to strength with their otome label Otomate. A wide variety of games released throughout the year – the most successful of which was Hakuouki: Sweet School Life which cleared 35k copies sold in Japan. They also managed to release sequels to Diabolik Lovers (Vandead Carnival) and Amnesia (Crowd; World) as well as new IP’s such as BinaryStar and Senjou no Waltz. Most notably they ported their classic PSP game Norn9 to Vita as well as releasing a brand new title – Code Realize: Guardians of Rebirth, both of which were localized by Aksys in 2015. All these games saw varying levels of success on Sony’s handheld, but given the company continued to release titles like this going forward it seems that overall things were going well for them.

As always, there were missed opportunities during this time. The company brought their PS360 tactical-RPG Record of Agarest War to Android & iOS during 2014 – clearly the game would also run on Vita given the tech available, but sadly the company elected to not to look into this. They also skipped various RPG’s developed by their new studio Galapagos RPG including Fairy Fencer F and Omega Quintet – despite both sharing similar tech and gameplay mechanics to the Neptunia series, none of them released in portable format. Still, it was an incredible year for Compile Heart and Idea Factory on Vita and thankfully this momentum would continue forward into 2015.

 

2015 – continued output but downturn in sales

Throughout 2015, Compile Heart & Idea Factory continued their assault on Vita with a variety of titles including – for the first time in a while – a new IP. Sadly it seems that as the market had become more saturated on the handheld their sales were decreasing, although they were still selling enough for Compile Heart to keep producing new games.

The year kicked off for them in July with the release of a long-delayed game – Trillion: God of Destruction, which was originally supposed to land in 2014. Designed and directed by key members of the Disgaea and Mugen Souls franchises, it marked the start of a new franchise for them (Makai Ichiban Kan) and provided some interesting new gameplay ideas – as you help raise various Demon Lords to fight the titular Trillion. Despite lukewarm first-week sales in Japan, it went on to sell more than 35k in the region and a localization followed in 2016 – suggesting Compile Heart were happy with the title’s performance. The company also ported their visual novel duo Date-A-Live to Vita under the subtitle Rio Reincarnation in July, although sadly these games stayed Japan-only.

It would take until September for their next game to appear – and to the surprise of no-one, this was a sequel to their uber-successful Moero Chronicle entitled Moero Crystal. Once again, this was a first-person dungeon crawler with a number of lewd elements and it seemed that consumers were beginning to get a little tired of this – sales dipped to 40k in Japan, although this was still a good result for Compile Heart. Oddly, another Asian-English release was announced but as of the date of this article no such SKU has become available – suggesting it was quietly cancelled.

Given the runaway success of their Neptunia spinoffs in 2014, it was unsurprising to see this strategy continuing in 2015. First off, Tamsoft were hired yet again to make a brawler – this time was a game themed around high school entitled Megatagmension Blanc & Neptune vs. Zombie Army, which didn’t manage to hit the domestic sales highs of its predecessor at only 31k. Felistella (of the Re;birth series fame) also worked on Superdimension Neptune vs. SEGA Hard Girls – a spinoff featuring SEGA’s line of anime characters, but this sold worse still at only 26k. It seems that the Neptunia fanbase were finally getting a little tired of being milked.

The studio’s year was capped off with the release of MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death in December, a dungeon-crawler set in the same universe as Trillion: God of Destruction. Sadly this was Compile Heart’s lowest selling game on Vita in Japan ever, clearing just 5k first week – which caused the collapse of this new IP immediately afterwards. The game itself was seen as a fairly average entry in the genre that never really did anything to impress, something that gamers evidently cottoned on to.

Overseas, Idea Factory International were having a very busy year. They kicked off with the western launch of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 2 in January; Hyperdevotion Noire in February; Hyperdimension Neptunia U in May and Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 3 in June – it was certainly a busy time to be a fan of the IP. It was during this period that it became clear IFI would be porting all of these games to PC, which boded well for any future releases coming to the west with the promise of a Steam version for extra sales.

Of course, Idea Factory themselves were continuing to be active in Japan during 2015 releasing a metric tonne of otome games. Some of their bigger titles during this time included Hakuouki: Kyoto Winds – the first half of a full remake of their most popular otome franchise, as well as sequels to other popular series including Diabolik Lovers: Dark Fate and Norn9: Last Era. As always, they also introduced a tonne of new IP’s – Reine Des Fleurs was their biggest of the year, but others like Bad Apple Wars; Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly and Yunohana Spring! stood out as well.

While Compile Heart would continue to support the Vita going forward releasing games as recently as October 2017 in Japan, 2015 would mark the final year they were fully on board with it – future releases would be lower-effort and less frequent. Idea Factory’s Otomate label would continue to go from strength to strength going forward, but with very few of these finding their way west this wouldn’t make a large difference.

 

2016 – downturn in output

Releasing just two games for Vita during 2016, Compile Heart’s downturn in output was obvious – and while they were still two very solid titles, it was nothing compared to how things had been in previous years.

The first of these games was Moero Pirates, the fourth entry in their Genkai Tokki series that had started way back in 2013 on Vita with Monster Monpiece. This time, instead of being a card-battling game or first-person dungeon-crawler, the game was a more traditional JRPG with exploration mechanics – developed by Felistella, who based much of the design on the Neptunia Re;birth titles. Sadly, this would be the lowest-selling entry yet – shifting just 12k in its first week of sale, which caused Compile Heart to migrate the IP over to PS4 for the next game (although this sold the even-lower amount of 10k, suggesting the move was slightly ill-advised).

Their second release for the year was Mary Skelter: Nightmares, a collaborative dungeon-crawler with Dengeki Bunko and Dengeki PlayStation. Despite an over-saturation of the genre on Vita already, the game actually received a positive critical reception in both Japan and the west, who praised its unique and inventive elements. It would be successful enough to lead to a second collaboration the following year – Tokyo Clanpool, although that game did not fare quite as well in sales.

Of course, Idea Factory International had a predictably busy year bringing Compile Heart’s content to the west. They kicked things off with Megatagmension in May; followed by MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death in September and Superdimension Neptune in October. Unsurprisingly, the Neptunia titles fairly quickly appeared on Steam but interestingly MeiQ is still a Vita-only title – possibly suggesting that it didn’t sell well enough overseas to make it worthwhile porting (the last game this happened to was Omega Quintet on PS4, which eventually made its way to Steam via Ghostlight).

Otomate was also continuing to go from strength to strength in Japan, with a slew of titles throughout the year – the highlight being the second part of the Hakuouki dual-release entitled Edo Blossoms which has just been announced for western release. They also released the brilliant Collar x Malice as a flagship game which was localized by Aksys in 2017, alongside a Code Realize fandisc entitled Future Blessings and their take on Sword Art Online called Period Cube. The majority of their other releases stayed Japan-only, though – Nil Admirari no Tenbin; Diabolik Lovers: Lunatic Parade and Wand of Fortune R being some of the highlights, all of which were passed on by Idea Factory International.

2016 would also be the year when Otomate finally committed to PS4 – suggesting that they could see the impending twilight of Vita and would want to start shipping their games elsewhere, something that Compile Heart were also doing. While 2017 and 2018 still have games lined up, it seems clear that we’re beginning to head into a period where the companies are finally looking towards a Vita-less future.

 

2017 & 2018 – to be continued?

So looking forward, what can we expect from Compile Heart & Idea Factory? Well, all three companies do still seem on board with the console – just in a much reduced capacity.

For Compile Heart, the year kicked off with the release of Gun Gun Pixies from developer Shade, who became known for working on the Bullet Girls franchise under D3 Publisher. Despite the similarities between the titles, Gun Gun Pixies was met with both a mild reception and sales in Japan, clearing just 8k copies in its first week on sales and with no western (or Asian/English) release planned. With that said, the game was a notable technical achievement for being one of the few 3D Vita games to run at 60fps, as well as being a surprising amount of fun.

Their other title for the year was the free-to-play card game NepNep Connect: Chaos Chanpuru which recycled the gameplay from Monster Monpiece with characters from all of Compile Heart’s titles ranging from Neptunia to Trillion. While it sounds like the perfect crossover fanservice game in principle, their decision to make it free-to-play at this late stage in Vita’s life is a bizarre one and killed any chance of the game coming west – which is a real shame.

Overseas, Idea Factory International were busy bringing Mary Skelter to western shores in September of 2017, where it was well received by critics. They also decided to take a gamble on their second otome title – Hakuouki: Kyoto Winds, the remake of their long-running samurai dating series. With the second part of the story now confirmed for western release, it’s nice to see them branching out a little beyond Compile Heart’s titles.

Speaking of otome, Idea Factory & Otomate had an ever-busy year, including an otome spin-off of the popular anime series Osomatsu-San as well as various other sequels and new IP’s including Diabolik Lovers: Dark Eden and Black Wolves Saga: Bloody Nightmare. All sold within the realm of previous otome games on Vita, suggesting the genre has a home here for at least the next few years.

But do Compile Heart still have a home on Vita? Their latest release in Japan – another dungeon-crawler entitled Tokyo Clanpool – opened to an abysmal 5k and while the project seemed like a low-effort game without much of a budget it must still be disappointing for them. Judging by MeiQ‘s overseas performance, they’re unlikely to recoup many sales from the west either and with titles like Moero Castle Panzers and Death End Re;Quest skipping the platform, it suggests this may be it for Compile Heart.

It would be a shame to see them end on a low-budget, cash-in gridder – especially when games like the Neptunia Re;birth series have flourished on Vita – but all things must come to an end at some time and it seems likely Compile Heart won’t release anything else substantial for it going forward. We’ll still get Otomate games of course, as well as localizations from Idea Factory International (I’ll be shocked if Tokyo Clanpool doesn’t come across), meaning if you’re a fan of the publisher you can still expect to play their games in the west into 2018; but substantial support like Neptunia is gone.

 

Conclusion

Despite an initial 12 months where it looked like we weren’t going to get any games from them at all, Compile Heart and Idea Factory quickly stepped up their efforts to become one of the Vita’s strongest supporters. While they’ve always released software that hits niche audiences, their constant flow of games and efforts to improve the quality of releases has left the handheld with a great number of enjoyable titles.

Amusingly, even though Compile Heart’s output soared compared to the PSP days; Idea Factory’s non-Otomate output plummeted. Franchises which had flourished on that console such as Generation of Chaos and Spectral Force were dropped altogether, although this appears to be more of a representation of the changing direction of the company as a whole rather than a reflection on Vita itself.

Still, while old franchises were lost, new ones were gained and both companies have released plenty of titles which have surprised me with their quality – whether it be the experimental weirdness of Trillion or the lovely storytelling of Code Realize. While their output may now be coming to a close, both Compile Heart and Idea Factory have been a key factor in making Vita’s library the varied and interesting place it became.