nisa kinda 'gets around to it' these days. they tend not to localize visual novels unless they seem like a sure bet (danganronpa wasn't at the time, but it was a big property in japan with a cult following in the us, and psycho-pass was a well-known anime property). so exile election is way off-base unless nisa localizes it like the way ghost stories came over here, where it's self-aware that it's a danganronpa ripoff. shin hayarigami is similarly difficult due to crappy platform choices (the first was ps3/vita in 2014? the second was ps4/vita in 2016?) princess is a miser and the world's longest five minutes might be coming over a year or two late, but they're making it. they also brought over cladun 3, yomawari 2, and a rose in the twilight last year, with witch and the hundred knight 2 also slated for early next year.
I agree with this. Visual novels usually are too much work. The Hayarigami series is much older than the 2014 PS3/PSV game (the first game released in 2004 for PS2), and even in the earlier days, they never localised it. Exile Election doesn't look like the kind of VN that would do well (at least in the west; I'm not sure about its performance in Japan, but I remember it didn't move a lot). Not on PS, but also not on Steam or Switch. I think NISA's priorities are a bit skew. The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 is a big game for NISJ yet it takes them more than a year to release it in the west. I was actually surprised by the October release of Yomawari: Midnight Shadows. Meanwhile, they're localising things that I don't think will make a lot of money, like The Lost Child and Tokyo Tattoo Girls. They also released Touhou Kobuto V in the west. They should've known that that's not a great game, and a 40/100 Metascore won't do good to their reputation. The same goes for Ys VIII's localisation catastrophe. They're not very careful, which is a real shame...
I think Hakoniwa Company Works was for the most part a learning effort for UE4 development. Lack of a portable version really hurt the game yeah. After all those reports about how easy it is to port UE4 projects to the Switch, I'm kind of surprised that they didn't release it on there too (since UE4 doesn't support the PSV). I don't see that game getting localised, but I think projects like this demand much less localisation work for NISA and therefore are easier for them to consider. It's weird that NISJ themselves seem so lax on the localisation of their games. NISA is 100% owned by NISJ after all.more often than not, platform choices matter too. hero must die seems to be a casualty of neglect. not sure why that one got passed over, but i think the vita mattered quite a lot as a platform. hakoniwa company works should have been on switch in some way, or at least vita for japan (but wound up being ps4-only). unfortunately i think the fanbase for that kind of game isn't on ps4 in the us either, and the lukewarm reception in japan means we're unlikely to see it too. coven wound up being an odd one because it was on vita and then ps4 during a whole time period in which dungeon rpgs really weren't doing it for those platforms (the only bright spot was stranger of sword city).
i'm sure that going forward you'll see more yomawari, small platformer games from the rose/firefly diary team, disgaea of course, and perhaps the new princess-style game, as long as penny-punching princess does well.
As for NISJ development efforts, I've written a whole post earlier in this thread. I think it's too soon for Yomawari 3, but instead hope they port 1+2 to Switch first before releasing the third game for PC/PS4/NSW in 2019. Disgaea 6 seems like a given. Coven 2 would be cool too, but I expect that to stay in Japan (or NISA needs to announce localisation real soon). NISA have had since June 2016 to localise the game and add it to the PS4 version that was released in September 2017 in Japan. About the Penny-Punching Princess team, NIS will release a new brawler on March 8, 2018 in Japan for NSW/PS4/PSV, so there's that.