As with many doujin games, most of their titles were initially released only in Japan often during Comiket, however the Los Angeles-based publisher, Rockin' Android, had expressed interest in localizing SUGURI and exporting the series to a Western demographic as their CEO wanted PC gamers outside of Japan to enjoy these games. In 2009, the SUGURI series made its North American debut through digital distribution via Direct2Drive and GamersGate, as well as the limited physical DVD-ROM compilation, SUGURI - Perfect Edition, which helped gave their games a cult following in the West. They continued to work with Rockin' Android for a time, whom also published Flying Red Barrel overseas physically and digitally, until they had a falling out with the publisher after they opted out of localizing further games by Orange_Juice such as sora, which was where the publisher ΩTH, who turned out to be an internet troll, took the publishing rights of the game from right under their noses and released a low-quality bastardization of the game in 2012. This however changed as the Finland-based publisher, Fruitbat Factory, whom also previously localized 100% Orange Juice! in 2013 after it was turned down by Rockin' Android, stepped in to rescue sora and gave it a proper localization in 2016, and has since published their newer titles overseas.
Orange_Juice's official website can be viewed here
(Japanese). For international audiences interested in Orange_Juice's works, you can find many of them available and localized through digital distribution platforms such as Steam, Humble Bundle, Amazon.com, DLsite* , and their respective publisher's website for the overseas version.
Works created by Orange_Juice:
Video Games:
- QP Shooting (2004)
- Xmas Shooting (2004)
- Scrambled Eve (Canceled)
- SUGURI (2005)
- Acceleration of SUGURI (2006)
- QP Kiss (2007)
- Flying Red Barrel ~Diary of a Little Aviator~ (2007)
- 100% Orange Juice! (2009)
- sora (2010)
- acceleration of SUGURI 2 (2011)
- QP Shooting - DANGEROUS!! (2012)
- 200% Mixed Juice! (2014)
- Xmas Shooting - SCRAMBLE!! (2015)
- Alicianrone (Unreleased)
Soundtracks:
- Trancenation of SUGURI (2006)
- Hoshi no Kakera ~acceleration of SUGURI sound track~ (2006)
- Realism (2008)
- Sora no Kakera (2010)
- Celeste -SORA EXTRA SOUND TRACK- (2010)
- Accelerator (2011)
- SUGURI the Best (2011)
- SUGURI COLLECTION (2013)
- SUGURI COLLECTION vol. 2 (2015)
Other works:
- Love Love Star Breaker (2012, audio drama)
Tropes associated with Orange_Juice:
- 2½D: Some of their games use a 3D engine, often used to create the background and visual effects, yet the gameplay is solely fixed in 2D.
- Action Girl: Most of the protagonists of their games are cute girls who are more than capable of holding their own against the adversaries they face.
- April Fools' Day: The (formerly available) freeware game, QP Kiss, was developed for this purpose, featuring gender-bent versions of the characters from the QP Shooting and SUGURI series in a boy-love dating sim parody.
- Art Evolution: hono and Junpyon's artstyle has gradually improved over the years with each title they produced. This is especially apparent when comparing one of their games to its sequel if they have one.
- Combos: Many of their shoot 'em ups have some form of a combo-based scoring system.
- QP Shooting: Defeating enemies and collecting stars will start a chain meter that steadily mounts in score as you collection more from defeating them and converting their bullets into stars, but the chain meter slowly drops if you don't pick up anymore stars. Taking a hit, regardless if you were in Hyper Mode or not, will drop the immediately the combo meter as well.
- SUGURI: A successful hit will start a combo meter that will chain together the amount of damage you do to enemies and builds up your score bonus, but the combo meter will slow drop if you don't attack anything for a few seconds or drops instantly if you take damage. sora made changes to the combo meter where it pauses between transitioning areas without enemies and it no longer drops immediately from taking damage.
- The Acceleration of SUGURI games however is a more straightforward example of combos due to being a fighting game, which tallies how many hits you were able to land and how much damage your combos did.
- Flying Red Barrel: Destroying enemies with your missiles will start a combo meter similarly to QP Shooting, but rather than a gradual score bonus, this game instead uses a score multiplier that raises from x1 to x16, and the multiplayer lowers if you don't shoot down enemies with your missiles.
- Crossover:
- 100% Orange Juice!, 200% Mixed Juice!, and QP Kiss, which crossovers of characters from the various series they've created along with a few original ones.
- On an unofficial capacity, the titular Sora has made a crossover cameo appearance in Daisessen's Lethal Crisis.
- Cute and Psycho: A few characters in their games, such as Saki (SUGURI) and Syura (QP Shooting - DANGEROUS!!), have an underlying crazy side that's often played for comedic effect. Characters like Star Breaker (sora), on the other hand, play this dead straight.
- Fanservice: hono sometimes indulges in drawing fanservicey, and at times, somewhat risque artwork of characters of his own games.
- Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: Many of their games feature chibi-styled sprites during gameplay to contrast with their traditional artwork.
- Improbably Female Cast: Most of their works have female characters make up the bulk of their respective cast, with no more than one or two guys thrown in. Inverted and parodied with QP Kiss which featured gender-bent versions of the aforementioned characters.
- Limit Break: Some of their shoot 'em up games feature the ability to unleash a perform a powerful attack or enter a super mode by filling up a special meter and activating it with a button press. Sometimes bosses may have these as well.
- Super Move Portrait Attack: A brief glimpse of the character's portrait is often accompanied when a limit break is unleashed.
- Mascot: Marie Poppo from 100% Orange Juice is featured prominently on their website. The protagonists of their various games also serve in this capacity to a lesser extent.
- The Merch: Thanks to popular demand and a very successful Kickstarter campaign in collaboration with Fruitbat Factory and Symbiote Studios, you too can have your own 100% Orange Juice plushie(s) of Suguri, Sora, Hime, QP, Marie Poppo, and Star Breaker along with their own accessory and cards in your own home. Another Kickstarter campaign has since led to the creation of plushies based on Saki, Marc, Aru, Tomomo, Ceoreparque and Alte.
- Protagonist Title: QP Shooting, SUGURI, and sora all feature their main characters' name in the title of the games.
- Puni Plush: Their games and many of their characters are drawn in this style.
- Regional Bonus: The overseas localizations of their games sometimes receive extras bundled with their games and/or quality-of-life improvements.
- Scoring Points: A common gameplay element in their games, especially in their shoot 'em ups.
- Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Many of their works usually lean towards being lighthearted and comical (e.g. QP Shooting, 100% Orange Juice!), with a few varying between the two sides such as SUGURI, and sora which is much more serious in tone compared to their other works.
- Video Game Dashing: A prominent gameplay element of the SUGURI series, which involves their characters being able to dash around stages/arenas at high speeds and leave a trail of rainbow-colored rings that can "catch" enemy projectiles to build up energy for their Hyper Attack and extend their combo chains in the shoot 'em up games.
- World of Action Girls: Most of their games feature female characters that can kick ass one way or another that make up the bulk of their respective cast.
