Today, I have big news to announce for RockmanDash Reviews, one that will shake up the core of how content is produced here. It’s going to be a big change, but I hope you guys hang on for the ride. As the picture and header says, RockmanDash Reviews has a new home, and it might be closer than you think: I’m now a part of the Fuwanovel Reviews Team!
So... why? It’s been nearly 3 years since I started the RockmanDash Reviews Kinja blog, and almost 4 since I started doing reviews as a whole. As time has gone along, many things have changed: I have changed, the reviews I have written has changed, but most importantly, the community and industry as a whole has drastically changed... and because if these changes, the way that I need to do things in the past needs to change along with it.
Back then when I started reviewing, I
was a middle school kid, doing exactly what a middle school kid would do: go to school and play video games. At the
time, I was a part of a retro gaming forum called PGRF, and thanks to recommendations from some members, I got into
Uchikoshi’s 999: 9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors (my
favorite VN/Game) and that lead me to Ever 17: The Out of Infinity. These
games impressed me in ways I wouldn’t have ever expected, becoming some of my favorite experiences I’ve ever had, but
there was one thing that bothered me a lot, one thing that lead me into action... There was almost no discussion.
Looking around the internet to see what people had to say about it, I would find literally a handful of articles or
videos that were either extremely dated, or or extremely poor quality. There was no voice, there was no discussion
about the things that I have experienced, that moved me in ways I have never seen before. This was something that
changed my life, and all I could think after playing it (after the games blew my mind, of course) was that *nobody
is talking about it* and *I have to make a review of this, to get my voice out, a voice out*. I
promised myself that I would absolutely do something about this, spread the word about my new hobby and inform those
who would come after me. To make Visual Novels Popular in the West.
Fast foward to today: I’ve been semi-successful at my goal, with articles doing rather well (my guide hit over 100k views!), and I do reviews on games I really care about (See Root Double), but with the growth and commercialization of the industry combined with others who do the same thing, it has come to my conclusion that I can’t do this alone anymore. At the moment I’m reliant on a service that could abandon me at any moment, by myself... even though the discussion of Visual Novels isn’t a lone voice screaming into the void anymore. I’ve been trying to play this game of community and my lack of production, leaving VNs I don’t have the capability to make a video version to others (I’ve tried not to overlap with Ashadow Reviews, for an example), but there’s a better solution, and I’ve taken that now. I know some of the people on the team quite well, I share the same goal as them to help make VNs more popular, I’ve been on the FuwaReviews external reviews hub for the longest time and I’ve even guest reviewed for them so it only seemed to be the natural option. I’ve joined the FuwaReviews team, and my main RockmanDash Reviews will be on Fuwanovel from now on.
Now, for what this means for RockmanDash Reviews:
- First off, my reviews will get more exposure: while they were getting views from the reviews hub, they were still external reviews and thus weren’t promoted. Now because I’m a part of the team, my words mean more, people actually care.
- Next, this means that there will be more reviews from me: because I didn’t get review codes for everything in the past, I had to pay out of my hand for a lot of games. Fuwanovel is well known in the western Visual Novel Community, and because of that they can get review codes from virtually anyone.
- 3rd, this means if Kinja self destructs, I’m safe from that. This is good for the stability of RockmanDash Reviews, much better in the long term.
- 4th, My structure of review will change a bit to comply with Fuwanovel on that site. No hard breaks like on previous reviews, but it’s basically the same writing.
- And last but not least, This doesn’t mean I’m stopping all writing on Kinja. I will still be a member of AniTAY, posting AniTAY reviews and articles there. I will still write my thoughts on things that aren’t necessarily reviews. My reviews will still be posted here, these things aren’t changing, and they really shouldn’t. (As a side note, if I ever get the time and energy to make a video review, I’ll be able to do that still, and those will be on my YouTube channel as well.)
All of this starts today: My review for Ace Academy has gone up on Fuwanovel, and you can read it
there. At the beginning I will release the kinja versions late, becuase I want to promote the Fuwanovel version so
there will be links to it, but I don’t want to abandon Rockmandash Reviews and it’ll get back to normal eventually. I
apologize for the inconvenience, and I hope you continue on the ride.
You’re reading Rockmandash Reviews, a blog focused on
everything revolving Visual Novels. If you want to read more of my writing, check out AniTAY
and KMTech.