Natsume clarifies the fate of Chulip

Whatever happened to Chulip? Natsume announced they were bringing the title over a couple of years ago, but it’s suffered constant delays. Graham Markay from Natsume tells us that the creative “kissing simulator” is coming out soon and explains a little more about the game.

Siliconera: Chulip has been a long time coming in North America, when are we getting a chance to play it?

Graham: Chulip is currently on schedule to release on February 13th, 2007 – the day before Valentine’s Day.

Chulip is commonly referred to as “that kissing game". Is this accurate? Is there more to Chulip?

There is a great deal more to Chulip, but in the end it is kissing the various characters that earn you the reputation you need to be with the love of your life.  There are sub-stories with all the characters in town.

How does Chulip play? Is it an RPG, action game, stealth game where you sneak kisses?

It is a little bit of everything…but the kissing is more of an action game style.  The main story flows like an RPG would, completing different tasks and moving forward in the story.  However, the kissing of the 50 different characters in the game is a little action/stealth/puzzle/arcade rolled into one.

What were some of the difficulties localizing Chulip for a North American audience?

There were a few issues…a lot of the graphic text in the game needed to be translated, so it took a good amount of time to change that art.

The game was originally made four years ago, has Natsume made any updates to the game?

Chulip has been localized and remains the same game it was when originally released…why fix it when it’s not broke.

It’s taken a long time for Chulip to bring Chulip over, what were some of the reasons that it took so long to bring Chulip over?

Punchline has been involved in a variety of projects and in the beginning we were hoping that they would be able to make the graphic changes needed to be done to the title.  Unfortunately their schedule never really let up, therefore we found another company to help out.  Which in turn took time…but Chulip is well worth the wait!