GameLight - Cherry Tree High Comedy Club

Official Site: http://cherrytreehigh.com/
Source: Youtube Channel NyuMedia

Indie games have become a more prominent force in the market, but Japan has had indie games for the longest time created by "circles" or sometimes "individuals".  A lot of great indie games have been created in Japan for the longest time and only those who know about them has a chance of trying some of them out.  Certain indie games require a significant amount of reading but are still great games which leave non-speaking Japanese players out of the loop.  Luckily, more translating groups such as Nyu Media are established to give us English speaking gamers a chance to play those awesome Japanese indie games.

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club, although not entirely clarified, is a sort of adventure/visual novel game where much of the gameplay revolves around talking and decision making.  The main character is trying to create a comedy club within her school but is required to have at least 5 members to establish it (this should sound familiar to those who've watched Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu).  So the player goes around earning money, recruiting members, and building up conversational skills to finally get the club up and going.  The game is light hearted with humor, original animé-styled sprites and graphics, laid-back and catchy music, and all sorts of interesting characters.  Talking as a main gameplay concept might sound boring, but if you've played any adventure game like the Sam & Max series, visual novel type games like the Phoenix Wright series (I know it's sort of like a mystery and adventure game too), or any of BioWare's RPGs and enjoyed the dialogue parts of the game, there's a good chance that Comedy Club will be a very enjoyable game to play.  I've never heard of this game before (as I do try to keep up with some Japanese doujin/indie games), but I think it has made me that much more excited that Nyu Media/Capcom is surprising me with a game I've never seen.  I'm very excited about Cherry Tree High Comedy Club and thank Nyu Media for bringing it over to the Western market to give us a chance to play it.

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club releases on April 27th, 2012 on Steam, GamersGate, GameTap, GameFly, Impulse and the Capcom Store as well as their own site up on the top link for $7.99.