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Soft Circle French-Bread,[5] also known simply as French-Bread, is a Japanese video game developer founded in 1995 as Watanabe Production (渡辺製作所, Watanabe Seisakujo), based in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan.[2] Originally a doujin circle, French-Bread became well known for their work in fighting games, particularly the Melty Blood series. In recent years, they worked on other licensed-based fighting games, such as Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax[6] and the company’s original game, Under Night In-Birth.[7] Most of its developed video games are commonly released for Microsoft Windows, Sega arcade systems, and PlayStation consoles.
 | |
Native name | フランスパン |
|---|---|
Romanized name | Furansu Pan |
| Formerly | Watanabe Seisakujo (1995–2003)[1] |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Founder | Nobuya Narita |
| Headquarters | , Japan |
Key people | |
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 14 (2021)[3][4] |
| Website | www13 unknown-corp |
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The studio was named after a friend of Nobuya Narita, with whom he often played video games after school. They initially developed desk accessories for Windows. Narita discovered dojin Windows action games and fighting games such as the Tokimeki Taisen (ときめき大戦) and Moon Lights 2 that were ported from the X68000 home computer. He subsequently decided to develop his own project for Windows. It was initially conceived as an original work, but creating unique character designs and graphics proved difficult. Narita was later introduced to the visual novel To Heart and decided to develop his game as a derivative work. Characters for his project were sourced from To Heart, while the system mechanics were based on Asuka 120%, a game that served as an influence for Narita and his team. The Queen of Heart '98 was released on December 30, 1998 to positive critical reception from dojin gamers.[8][9] The Queen of Heart series sold about 100,000 copies, and Watanabe Seisakujo became one of the most popular dōjin game developers.[10] This surfaced significant copyright concern.[11] Some hobbyists also uploaded M.U.G.E.N characters with data extracted from the game. Watanabe Seisakujo and Leaf received many inquiries about permission, although they had no relation to uploaders.[12] Narita didn't hope a derivative work disturbed its original work and developer. He decided to stop creating unlicensed games, and start fresh with French-Bread (フランスパン, Furansu Pan).[9] The circle name came from the dōjin circle to which Narita belonged to before Watanabe Seisakujo.
Since Melty Blood, French-Bread heavily uses a sprite drawing software known as EDGE2 to create character sprites for their future games.
Narita is also a close friend of Hiiragiboshi Takumi, the author of the Absolute Duo light novel series. They met over 15 years ago while both were still amateurs making doujins. Narita and the game developer's sprite artist Seichi Yoshihara has helped in designing battle suits for said novel series.[13]
The founder of freelance video game developer group Subtle Style and the creator of Akatsuki EN-Eins series, Subtle becomes reoccurring freelance sprite artist for later modern French-Bread games since Under Night In-Birth and exchange to allow French Bread to include the titular Akatsuki Blitzkampf protagonist guest appearing in French Bread's said first original game series.[14]
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As Watanabe Seisakujo
| Title | Year | Platform(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Queen of Heart '98 | 1998 | Microsoft Windows | Features characters from To Heart. Its game system was influenced by Asuka 120%.[8] |
| The Queen of Heart '99 | 1999 | Microsoft Windows | Features characters from Leaf games[15] |
| The Queen of Heart '99 Second Edition | 2000 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Ayu-chan Punch! (あゆちゃんパンチ!) | 2000 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Demon Hunter Mai (魔物ハンター舞 -少女の檻-) | 2000 | Microsoft Windows | Features characters from Kanon |
| The Queen of Heart '99 with Second Edition | 2001 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Party's Breaker: The Queen of Heart 2001 | 2001 | Microsoft Windows | Features characters from Comic Party[16] |
| -AIR- Flight (えあふり 観鈴ちん危機一髪) | 2001 | Microsoft Windows | Features characters from Air |
| Glove on Fight (GLOVE ON FIGHT ぐろ～ぶおんふぁいと) | 2002 | Microsoft Windows | Features characters from various dating sims, anime, and dōjin games. |
| Melty Blood | 2002 | Microsoft Windows | Features characters from the visual novel Tsukihime |
As Soft Circle French-Bread
Arcade Games
| Title | Year | Publisher(s) | Hardware | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melty Blood: Act Cadenza | 2005 | Ecole Software | Sega NAOMI | Updated to Version A in 2005, Version B in 2006, and Version B2 in 2007. |
| Melty Blood: Actress Again | 2008 | Ecole Software | Sega NAOMI | The first French Bread game to be featured at the international Evolution Championship Series tournament in 2010. |
| Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code | 2010 | Ecole Software | Sega RingWide | Updated to Ver.1.05 and Ver.1.07 in 2011. |
| Under Night In-Birth | 2012 | Ecole Software | Sega RingEdge 2 | Updated to EXE:Late in 2013.[17] |
| Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax | 2014 | Sega and Dengeki Bunko | Sega RingEdge 2 | |
| Under Night In-Birth Exe:Latest | 2015 | Arc System Works | Sega RingEdge 2 | |
| Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition | 2015 | Sega and Dengeki Bunko | Sega RingEdge 2 | |
| Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late cl-r | 2021 | Arc System Works | Sega ALLS HX | |
Console & Computer Games
| Title | Year | Platform(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drill Milky Punch | 2003 | Microsoft Windows | Features characters from Âge games[18] |
| Bike Banditz | 2003 | Microsoft Windows | Horizontally scrolling shooter, succeeding Wizards Star 2nd developed by the defunct dōjin circle NEXT.[19] |
| Melty Blood Re-ACT | 2004 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Melty Blood Re-ACT Final Tuned | 2005 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Melty Blood: Act Cadenza | 2006 | PlayStation 2 | |
| Melty Blood: Act Cadenza Ver. B | 2007 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Ragnarok Battle Offline | 2004 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Glove on Fight 2: Gleam of Force (小鳩ヶ丘高校女子ぐろー部 Gleam of Force)[20] | 2008 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Lilian Fourhand | 2009 | Microsoft Windows | Features characters from Maria-sama ga Miteru |
| Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code | 2011 | Microsoft Windows | Published on Steam by Arc System Works in 2016.[21] |
| Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late | 2013 | PlayStation 3[22] Microsoft Windows | Balancing update to Under Night In-Birth. Ported by Arc System Works. Updated to Exe:Late [st], then Exe:Late [cl-r] |
| Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax | 2014 | PlayStation 3 PlayStation Vita | |
| Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late [st] | 2015 | PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita Microsoft Windows[23] | Balancing update to a console version of Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late. Ported by Arc System Works. |
| Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition | 2015 | PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita | Balancing update to Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax. The first game to release downloadable characters. |
| Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late [cl-r] | 2020 | PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch Microsoft Windows[24] | Balancing update to Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]. Previous owners of PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows versions of Exe:Late[st] upgraded to this version automatically, although this version's new content remains as paid downloadable content. Ported by Arc System Works. |
| Melty Blood: Type Lumina | 2021 | PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch Xbox One Microsoft Windows[25] |
The first Melty Blood game depicts in remake timeline of Tsukihime series, and Melty Blood Act sub-series. Published by Aniplex subsidiary, Lasengle (formerly a game division of Delightworks in 2021). |
| Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] | 2024 | PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Nintendo Switch Microsoft Windows[26] | A sequel to Exe:Late sub-series. Published by Arc System Works. |
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