The J-List blog has reported on the Japanese mobile game, Heaven Burns Red, a few times over the last couple of years. This is mostly because the game’s scenario was written by Jun Maeda (Clannad, Air, and more than a couple of other big Key titles) who was returning to the world of games after a thirteen-year absence.
Sadly, since our last update where it was reported that the game was being delayed again until February 2022, Heaven Burns Red has run into a slow beginning. The game did eventually get released to mobile devices in Japan on February 10th, 2022, and Steam a few months later in August 2022, but has yet to really gain much traction or find a significant audience. A quick glance at the game’s Steam store page reveals only 1,079 total reviews in the eleven months since its official launch. Though to be fair, those who played it gave it an aggregate rating of “Very Positive”.
Things got worse for the game recently, however, when a new in-game event titled Youth! 31A Deserted Island Survival ~ Occasional Game Over ~ recently started. How did this event make things worse? By being so panned by players that Jun Maeda quit Twitter for a second time. You might recall the first time this happened was around the time of the ending of his most recent anime project, The Day I Became a God. The event will run until January 31st.
His last messages on the now-deactivated Twitter account involved him interacting with people and addressing the negative reception to the writing in the game’s event. As translated and reported by Anime News Network, Maeda reportedly quoted another tweet that complained about the game’s story and replied with “It has become like this. I am sorry for not being good enough.” He also replied to another user admitting that he wrote the maligned story while also admitting that he looked into the reception it was getting and referred to it as “the worst-reviewed event story so far,” before apologizing. He deactivated his account after those messages were sent out.
Speaking as a creative professional (bearing in mind that I am speaking only for myself and my experiences), it really sucks when you put your heart and soul into a project and the audience dislikes it. While I’ve been critical of Maeda’s writing in the past, I also don’t think that he’s terrible at what he does and I really hope that he can deal with the fact that he suffered a minor setback. Heaven Burns Red can still find its audience and perhaps get a global release, but as of this writing that’s still just a dream (very similar to my other dream of getting an English release for the Higurashi mobile game).
Source: Anime News Network
