[GAME] Why the hell did they make GFOS a game?

[LeoXiao]

Alright, I just got done with it. It was rather entertaining, but the whole time, I kept thinking to myself, "Why the hell was this not made into an OVA or something?" Really, the only thing the player actually gets to control is what ending there is.

Who else had this opinion? Also, are the other NGE games like this?

[The Bastard King]

Budget:profit ratio. If they had made it into an OVA, they would have had to animate, which would require a shit ton of cells to be drawn. Whereas, creating only 1-2 cells per scene and creating a visual novel instead, you could sell the whole set for the same amount of money, and get more profit for it in the end.

The Gainax cash cow spins on...

[V]

I do not feel that GFOS fits within the Eva storyline and thus really wouldn't have worked as an OVA

[LeoXiao]

Maybe it would be like ghost in the shell where the anime is not in the same universe as the movies.

[V]

well that would be kind of hard to explain to people

but my problem with it is that it advances several of the characters storyarcs far too early; i.e. in the first half of the series, Shinji's outer shell would never break down like this nor would Asuka's....otherwise they wouldn't have had the problems they did in episode 15

[LeoXiao]

yeah i get what you mean...

[CorporalChaos]

I don't agree with the arguement that it didn't fit into the canon of the series, so they decided not to make an OVA out of it. I mean, look at Gundam, with all its incarnations, none of them fitting into the same continuity, but still with scads of OVAs and series around anyway. It wouldn't be hard for GAINAX to just announce that it was an alternate reality based on the Evangelion universe, and just leave it at that. There wouldn't have to be any attempt to tie it into the original canon or anything.

I find myself leaning towards the theory that it was more cost effective to make a few cels for a visual novel rather than animate an hour to an hour and a half of anime.

[V]

to its credit, GFOS is not blatantly offensive -- as in I dont' need to tear my eyes out at the very concept of it, a la the "star wars holiday special"

they needed to make a spinoff one-shot story with beginning/middle/end actual narrative. Somethiing that, as a one-shot video game release, is more like a movie than "another standalone episode set in the monster of the week arc"

Nonetheless, my point from before stands: it makes the characters advance too quickly

thus raising an interesting question: could it be another "Branching point"?

I think it could be: that is, Episode 15's kissing incident, etc, could never have happened after GFOS.

However, given that GFOS is set sometime during the Monster of the Week arc (somewhere between episodes 9 and 14ish).....unlike much fanfic, the characters DO, DO INDEED act "in character"....for their episode 9-14 selves. Well, at least close enough to their character.

But it was sort of the effect of asking a question: "What if a perfect Mary Sue girlfriend (combining Rei and Asuka's best traits and canceling out their worst) moved to Tokyo-3 during the Monster of the Week arc for Shinji; probably as a child pilot of another Jet Alone-ish robot. How would this force Shinji to grow as a person? and the rest of the cast?"

and it's not downright bad, it's just that it branches; the rest of the series couldn't really follow after the events in GFOS; it's sort of like an alternate direction the series could have gone if it hadn't suddenly gotten dark and psychological.

I don't hate it outright, and its indeed interesting, but its not what I came for

(and frankly, Mana is just a weakly written character)

[Zaiku]

Budget:profit ratio. If they had made it into an OVA, they would have had to animate, which would require a shit ton of cells to be drawn.

What do you mean? They would recycle a shit ton of cells anyway. >_>

Al jokes aside, Bastard King is right and it probably is cheaper to do a visual novel game. Also, no spin offs get OVA's, only manga or games. They are small budget Eva products, my guess is that the budget is mainly centred on Rebuild.

[Mr.Sexy]

Alright, I just got done with it. It was rather entertaining, but the whole time, I kept thinking to myself, "Why the hell was this not made into an OVA or something?" Really, the only thing the player actually gets to control is what ending there is.

Who else had this opinion? Also, are the other NGE games like this?

Hey dude im right there with ya!
I woulda (and still would) Have loved to see an OVA of GFOS.
As i personally loved the game itself. Especially Mana

(In B4 Mana hate flood.)