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The big news this week is MangaGamer’s release of “Kara no Shojo – The Second Episode” (Link) and Sekai’s release of “Sound of Drop – fall into poison” (link). Click those hyperlinks to take a look at the games. Remember that there were five releases last week (and I’ll put links to them down at the bottom of the post in my comment section). So… yeah! Lots to play these days.
Anyway! Welcome to our weekly VNTS (Visual Novel Translation Status) series, in which we track visual novel translation updates in-house (we don’t rely on /jp/ posts on 4ch, for example) and post it for your enlightenment and enjoyment each Saturday. If you find any errors, or you think a project is missing from this list, please let me know in the comments. Any new updates are marked by orange text.
The Short Version:
Only the New Stuff
- AstralAir – TL bump: 32,765 / 64,574 (50.74%) (The page wasn’t updated when this week’s VNTS was updated, so they’re likely even farther)
- Kono Oozora Retranslation Troject – Amane and Ageha’s routes partially translated, rest 100% translated and edited.
- Kara no Shoujo – Second Episode (MangaGamer)- Released! Get it over on MangaGamer.
- Narcissu Trilogy Remake (Sekai Project) – Narcissu 0 TL: 13.4%; Narcissu 3rd TL: 62.29%
- Ne no Kami: The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto (Sekai Project) – TL: 37.79%
- Noble Works – Great to see a bump! TL is now 93.9% (54,169/57,690)
- Rance Quest Magnum – TL jumped a percent up to 48%
- Shiny Days (JAST) – Checking fix for Data replay, making new ending credit
- Sound of Drop – fall into poison – (Sekai Project) – Released! Get it on Steam!
- Starless (JAST) – Script check 5%, added new mosaic to fix list.
- Uchi no Koneko-chan – Picked up by Sekai
- Utawarerumono Portable – Found the real progress page and inputted all the details into the table. Here they are, as well: Graphics: 99.9%; Translation: [158 / 616 files]; Script Check: [92 / 616 files]; [10700/~37500 lines]; Misc. hacking: 99%
- White Album 2 – Very slight bump up to TL: 30.51%;
- Witch’s Garden – Another slight bump up to TL: 60.17%
MangaGamer Fall Sale ends today (10/31). Here are the titles and prices:
- Cartagra – Affliction of the Soul ($24.47) (Link)
- Kara no Shojo ($24.47) (Link)
- Cartagra + Kara no Shojo Bundle ($41.97) (Link)
- Kara no Shojo Regular Edition (Hardcopy) ($29.96) (Link)
- ef – the first tale ($20.97) (Link)
- ef – the latter tale ($24.47) (Link)
- Cho Dengeki Stryker ($29.22) (Link)
- Go! Go! Nippon! 2015 Bundle ($11.24) (Link)
- Go! Go! Nippon! 2015 (DLC) ($5.99) (Link)
- Guilty The Sin ($20.97) (Link)
- Guilty The Sin (Hardcopy) ($26.21) (Link)
- Harem Party ($17.47) (Link)
- Harem Party (Hardcopy) ($26.21) (Link)
- Koihime Musou ($34.97) (Link)
- Suika A.S.+ ($20.97) (Link)
- Valkyrie Svia (Hardcopy) ($18.71) (Link)
Fan Translation
| Fan TL Project | Team | Brief Status Summary |
| Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino (VNDB) | AkaAka TL (Updates) |
|
| Amagami (VNDB) | Ni Shi Shi TL (Progress) |
|
| Amairo Islenauts (VNDB) | Sakura Subs (Progress) |
|
| Anniversary no Kuni no Alice (VNDB) | Märchen TL (Progress) |
|
| Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm (Aokana) (VNDB) | OriginalRen (Progress) |
|
| AstralAir (VNDB) | AstralAir TL (Progress) |
|
| Ayakashi Gohan! (VNDB) | Hanataba TL (Progress) |
|
| Black Wolves Saga -Bloody Nightmare- (VNDB) | Golden Spirit (Progress) |
|
| Brother Conflict PSP (VNDB) | PassionAndBrilliance (Progress) |
|
| Bunny Black 2 (VNDB) | Seiha TL (Progress) |
|
| Clover Day’s (VNDB) | Yakusoku TL (Progress) |
|
| Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient (VNDB) | Hysteric 4 U |
|
| DSP #3 (Denwatls’ Secret Project) | Denwatls (Progress) |
|
| Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Voice Porting Project | Progress |
|
| Gore Screaming Show (VNDB) | Crying TL (Progress) |
|
| HaraKano (VNDB) | Loe Quality TL (Progress) (Twitter) |
|
| Haruka Na Sora (VNDB) | trjr (Progress) |
|
| Hatsukoi 1/1 (VNDB) | Kousetsu Translations (Progress) |
|
| Hiiro no Kakera (VNDB) | Otome Game TL (Progress) |
|
| Hoka no Onna no Ko to H wo Shiteiru Ore wo Mite Koufun Suru Kanojo (VNDB) | Washi TL (Progress) NSFW |
|
| Iinazuke wa Imouto-sama! (VNDB) | Imouto TL (Progress) |
|
| Immoral Little (VNDB) | Tiny Lily (Progress) |
|
| Irotoridori no Sekai (VNDB) | SakuSaku TL (Progress) |
|
| Ken ga Kimi (VNDB) | Golden Spirit (Progress) |
|
| Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (VNDB) | Alternative Projects (Progress) | |
| Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki (Koisaku) (VNDB) | SakuSaku TL (Progress) |
|
| Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate (Koichoco) (VNDB) | Basic TL (Progress) |
|
| Koiken Otome (VNDB) | Flying Pantsu (Progress) |
|
| KoiTate (VNDB) | Magicflier (Progress) |
|
| Kono Oozora Retranslation Project (VNDB) | (Progress in this thread) |
|
| Kud Wafter (VNDB) | Project Wafuu (Progress) |
|
| Kurukuru Fanatic (VNDB) | Dark Eye (Progress) |
|
| Little Busters EX/ME (VNDB) | Doki & Fuzzy (Updates: Page, Doc) |
|
| Lovely x Cation (VNDB) | Elevator TL (Progress) |
|
| Lover Able (VNDB) | EvilObject (Progress) |
|
| Mahou Tsukai no Yoru (VNDB) | Commie Fansubs (Progress – outdated) |
|
| Mahou Tsukai no Yoru (VNDB) | Loe Quality (Progress) |
|
| Mahou Tsukai no Yoru (VNDB) | nrvnqsr Team (Progress) |
|
| Majikoi A-1 (VNDB) | Maji TL (Progress) |
|
| Monster Girl Quest Paradox (VNDB) | DargothTL (Blog) (MGQP-Related Posts) |
|
| Muv-Luv Altered Fable (VNDB) | Jutsuki Sen (Progress) |
|
| Muv-Luv Alternative – Total Eclipse (VNDB) | Alternative Projects (Progress) |
|
| Noble Works (VNDB) | Oxford Comma (Progress) |
|
| Nursery Rhyme (VNDB) | Kururu (Progress) |
|
| Oreimo Tsuzuku (Disc 2) (VNDB) | Rinjinbu (Progress) |
|
| PersonA (VNDB) | (Progress) |
|
| Princess Maker 5 (VNDB) | (Updates: Page, Doc) |
|
| Rance 5D (VNDB) | 2.0 TL (Progress) |
|
| Rance Quest Magnum (VNDB) | 2.0 TL (Progress) |
|
| Rance VI (VNDB) | Arunaru (Progress) |
|
| Re:Birthday Song (VNDB) | Otome Adventures (Progress) |
|
| Rewrite Harvest Festa (VNDB) | Amaterasu (Progress) |
|
| Sanarara R (VNDB) | Gao Gao (Progress) |
|
| Sayonara wo Oshiete (VNDB) | TLWiki (Progress) |
|
| Shin Koihime Musou (VNDB) | SKM Team (Progress) |
|
| SonoHana 10 (VNDB) | Yuri Project (Progress) |
|
| SonoHana 11 (VNDB) | Yuri Project (Progress) |
|
| Starry Sky ~in Summer~ (VNDB) | Golden Spirit (Progress) |
|
| Subarashiki Hibi (SubaHibi) (VNDB) | TLWiki (Progress) |
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| Supreme Candy (VNDB) | Habluka (Progress) |
|
| Sweet Pool (VNDB) | Aarin Community (Progress) |
|
| Tasogaredoki no Kyoukaisen (VNDB) | Kohaku (Progress) |
|
| To Heart 2 (VNDB) | Ittaku Subs (Progress) | |
| Tsujidou-san no Jun’ai Road (VNDB) | (Progress) (Repository Link) |
|
| Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete (VNDB) | Sharin-Sub (Progress) |
|
| Utawarerumono Portable (VNDB) | BLACKlabel translations (Progress) |
|
| Wand of Fortune (VNDB) | Otome Game TL (Progress) |
|
| White Album 2 (VNDB) | Baka-Tsuki (Updates: Page, Stats) |
|
| Witch’s Garden (VNDB) | WG TL (Progress) |
|
| Yosuga no Sora (VNDB) | trjr (Progress) |
|
JAST USA (Updates; Archive)
| Game | Brief Status Summary |
| Bitch na Ichinichi |
|
| Django |
|
| Flowers |
|
| Seinarukana |
|
| Sonicomi |
|
| Sumaga |
|
| Sweet Home |
|
| Trample on Schatten |
|
Other
- Shiny Days (JAST) – Checking fix for Data replay, making new ending credit
- Starless – Script check 5%, added new mosaic to fix list.
MangaGamer (Updates)
| Mangagamer | Brief Status Summary |
| Beat Blades Haruka |
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| Bokuten |
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| Da Capo 3 |
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| Euphoria |
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| Free Friends 2 |
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| Gahkthun |
|
| Go Go Nippon 2015 |
|
| Higurashi (Retranslation) |
|
| Himawari -a pebble in the sky-! |
|
| House in Fata Morgana |
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| Kara no Shoujo 2 | |
| Kindred Spirits On The Roof |
|
| Kuroinu |
|
| Myth |
|
| My Boss’ Wife is My Ex! |
|
| OZMAFIA!! |
|
| Princess Evangile W Happiness |
|
| The Shadows of Pygmalion |
|
| Supipara (Ch 1) |
|
| Tokyo Babel |
|
| Umineko When They Cry. |
|
Other pre-orders on MangaGamer:
Sekai Project (Release Call, Update Page)
| Game | Release Date / Status |
| Atom Grrrl |
|
| CLANNAD |
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| Chrono Clock |
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| Dizzy Hearts |
|
| G-Senjou no Maou |
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| Human Reignition Project |
|
| Koenchu! |
|
| Kokonoe Kokoro |
|
| Memory’s Dogma |
|
| MMD |
|
| Moonshot |
|
| Narcissu Trilogy Remake |
|
| Ne no Kami: The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto |
|
| No One But You | |
| November Boy |
|
| PacaPlus |
|
| Planet Ruler |
|
| RaidersSphere4th |
|
| Resette |
|
| Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition |
|
| Rising Angels: Fates |
|
| Sacrament Sheep |
|
| Shizuku no Oto |
|
| Sierra Ops |
|
| Starlight Vega |
|
| Sunrider: Liberation Day |
|
| WAS -The Hourglass of Lepidoptera- |
|
| Witch boy Magical piece |
|
| WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.03 |
|
Here’s a handy link to sort Sekai Project’s Steam releases by release date: link
Other
Stuff from me/Decay/Zaka/helpful friends:
- Muv-Luv kickstarter is live! (Link)
- Magical Eyes – Red is for Anguish (vndb) to be released on Steam this winter.
- Miu-path of “Dracu-Riot!” going on here.
- Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ RELEASED! (Link)
- Norn9: Var Commons Coming to PS Vita November 3rd (thanks, Lambda!)
- Wish Tale of the Sixteenth Night – Kickstarter successfully funded.
Stuff from /jp/ poster VNTS (thank her/him, not me, if you find this helpful!):
- Eiyuu Senki – Delayed until…. later this year?
- Moenovel is working on another title
- Lucky Dog – Possible iOS released based on the ongoing text only fanTL
- Harvest December – 3DS ports being released
— Commentary Section —
Zakabox™ Commentary
「Hello, cruel world.
I have recently been sleeping at approximately sane times for a Swede, which makes timely collaboration with y’all USians and occasional Canadians (m’apologies to anyone somewhere else in the relevant timezones) a bit difficult. Thus, I start writing this three hours after the post’s release. At least I added the KonoSora thing.
Decay will speak of Chinese things below, so I’ll just point out that Korean VNs are also a thing. Most of the ones making it over seem to be female-oriented, and the one Sekai Project picked up back in april, November Boy, is no exception as it’s in the BL genre.
Shizuku no… ahem, Sound of Drop – fall into poison – looks interesting. I may have to acquire it. That said, one of the pictures on the Steam page looks awfully spoilery, sigh. Also, Sound of Drop sounds incredibly stupid. The literal translation of Shizuku does appear to be (water) drop or dripping, but that’s no excuse for poor localization. Of course, it’s possible that the Japanese company demanded it, because >Japanese companies. Also, am I just out of the loop or did they barely hype it at all before just releasing it out of the blue? I basically woke up, saw Sekai Project’s mail about its release, and tweeted about it on fuwa official…
The innogrey bundle is probably the highlight of MG’s sale. Cartagra is set in same universe as Kara no Shoujo, and there is a (forgettable) major spoiler for Cartagra in Kara no Shoujo, Cartagra was the first to be released. That said, they aren’t linked very strongly, so you can pick up KnS first if you want. Or at least, so my internet friends say.
Flowers might take a while if porting is close to as difficult as what Doddler had to do for MG’s innogrey releases. You wonder whether they can actually keep whatever dates they promised innogrey, lol. Or if it will even be out quicker than MG could do it. Well, considering MG’s schedule, maybe – look how long some of their titles have been fully translated and edited.
Oh, and I’m too lazy to add it anywhere else, but I just head that LB!EX Perfect Edition – which is LB EX without the fucking – is going to be released by Fruitbat Factory or something. Who knows, maybe this was the actual reason for the delay!」
Decay’s Musings
Who’s excited for Kara no Shojo 2? I know I am. I’m not completely in love with Innocent Grey’s series of dark murder mysteries but I still like them a fair amount. KnS2 is supposedly even better than the previous games with the highest scores of any IG game on EGS and VNDB. I can’t wait to get my hands on it soon!
But first, I’ve been playing Gaokao.Love.100Days…. wait, really? Yes, really. This game fills me with curiosity for many reasons. It’s hails from China, how do the Chinese handle bishoujo high school dating sims? It turns out… actually pretty well. The art is actually pretty decent, it’s fully voiced (although people’s’ tastes for the chinese voices seems to vary), the music is a bit generic but not bad, and it’s actually a pretty lengthy read. They boast over fifty endings and there are several main heroines to choose from and some sub-heroines as well… even though you start the game in a relationship already. They do a lot of things right, and this could have actually been pretty decent…
… Except the translation is trash. Truly bad. Perhaps what made me most interested in this title is the developer’s reaction to the feedback. Here’s the thing, nobody on Steam seems to care that the translation is awful. This is unfortunate but par for the course there, and really, seemingly everywhere else. But a tiny handful of people did complain, and the Chinese developers actually took it to heart and immediately pledged to improve it. They recruited people from the community and they gave the whole script an editing pass. When they recently released some additional free new content for it, they gave the whole thing yet another editing pass. They didn’t have to do this, it was already selling surprisingly well on Steam.
The result? It reads better, but it’s still bad. Like, opening years of MangaGamer bad or MoeNovel bad. Granted, that’s an improvement over what it was before, but it still has a LONG way to go before it’s truly acceptable as a product being sold to english readers. The whole point of this rant isn’t necessarily about Gaokao, but translations in general. Seeing Gaokao go through multiple editing passes and still end up bad exposes a truth about translations. If the original translation is bad enough, no amount of editing can fix it. We’ve seen this in another title recently, Tales of Zestiria, which is in much better shape than GaoKao due to better editing but it still has a number of unfortunate issues such as random non-sequiturs that weren’t present in the original Japanese. There’s only so much an editor can do if the translation is just wrong or badly written to the point where guesses need to be made.
I’m not alone in thinking this, translator Futsuu had some words to say on this (part of a series of tweets), and It’s the main reason why Pabloc decided to retranslate If My Heart Had Wings from scratch rather than simply TLC/edit it. It also has heavy implications for fan translations as well. For example, if you’re an aspiring translator who isn’t fully confident in your english skills, for example, perhaps try to find other ways to be helpful other than being a translator. Many projects are in need of translation checkers, for example. Or maybe just… wait until you’ve improved? These VNs aren’t going anywhere. And due to how averse translators are to retranslations, your translation may be the only one that VN ever receives.
Going back to Gaokao, it’s unfortunate how much the translation can bring that experience down. If the english script would have been well-written, I truly believe that it could have been at least somewhat popular and liked throughout the VN community. The developers seem like good and honest folk who simply lacked the resources for an adequate translation. The Steam users might not care, but that’s all it takes for the rest of us to shun it. My only hope is that other companies don’t use cases like Gaokao as an excuse to skimp on translations in the future.
TAYsteful™ Thoughts
It’s been a long week for me. Real life has been quite tough, and as far as Fuwanovel goes, Rose and I have been drowning in applications for the Player Mentors program. I’ve got some behind the scenes fixes to do tonight, and then tomorrow I’ll be active on the forums and site getting stuff done.
Zaka hasn’t posted anything in the Zakabox in a long time. I’m curious to see if he’s perma-dead. Hearthstone can be dangerous, like that.
Reading update: I’ve been reading a bunch of textbooks (yuck!), but have had the chance to get ~40% into The Shining (Amazon) (Powell’s). I’ve really enjoyed the way King has interwoven supernatural stuff into his horror/thriller fiction. Oh, and if you didn’t hear, I did finish “It” (Powell’s) and I loved it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than a bit upset about that Bev scene, but otherwise I thought the book was fantastic. I was especially delighted to discover the reason why the characters had to return to Derry as adults. So! Just want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who gave me advice about which King books to read next! (What have all of you been reading this week? Anything good?)
As promised, here are links to last week’s five releases:
- Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ (Otome) – Released on PS Vita! (Link)
- Divine Slice of Life – Adult Version -Released! Get it here: Link.
- HaraKano – Ayana Seno’s Route 100% English Patch (Link)
- Muv-Luv Chronicles 02: TDA01 and Aspiration (Link)
- The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya (Otome) (Link)
This week’s header image comes from Kara no Shojo – The Second Episode which is this week’s star release (take a look at it here). Sounds like people are enjoying it. If you’ve got and played the game, will you take a sec and share your thoughts in the comments? We’d really like to hear more about it from players.
Have a good week, everybody.
Comments (23)
Spillersays:
October 31, 2015 at 9:59 amDamn, I have been waiting for Kara no Shoujo 2, but with Trails in the sky second chapter which just came out and the MuvLuv kickstarter, that’s nearly $200 already…
Does anyone know if the trial is different from the demo they released previously?
KnS Fansays:
October 31, 2015 at 10:43 amThe trial and demo are indeed the same thing.
THERAPTORsays:
October 31, 2015 at 10:43 amUchi no Koneko-chan?
Never heard of it, tried searching it but found no result.
THERAPTORsays:
October 31, 2015 at 10:45 amFound it, https://vndb.org/v18185
For some reason google couldnt find it.
Zakamuttsays:
October 31, 2015 at 11:46 amAdded commentary and Konosora update. Killed kittens. Kicked puppies. Was sued by Rooke for lifestyle infringement. Pled* guilty. Was sentenced to listening to him for more than thirty seconds.
Still alive, but barely.
*Apparently “pleaded” is advised, but fuck that.
User221says:
October 31, 2015 at 12:22 pmYou probably should put in there that Mahoyo has a partial patch now…
Decaysays:
October 31, 2015 at 3:35 pmI believe that was mentioned the week it happened, perhaps we should make the status on the table more clear.
Decaysays:
October 31, 2015 at 3:41 pmFirst of all: We missed something. Or rather, I forgot about it. Flowers no longer seems slated for fall 2015. This date has been removed from its website. JAST has not spoken about this but yeah, don’t expect it next month and probably not even this year. Turns out they can’t generate a game engine at the snap of their fingers.
Secondly: BIG NEWS! Key is bringing over both Little Busters Perfect Edition (enhanced version of Memorial Edition) and Tomoyo After (hopefully also Perfect Edition) to Steam! This happened a few hours ago so the timing was bad with our post.
Kudsays:
November 1, 2015 at 5:10 amglad i’m not gonna see the 98% here again.
dawm…if i think that it takes 4 plus years just for 3 more routes…
RoziEllsays:
November 1, 2015 at 5:24 amBtw, what about Ecstasy version? They plan to release it?
dorjsays:
November 1, 2015 at 12:42 pmMemorial is EX without the sex.
RoziEllsays:
November 1, 2015 at 1:53 pmI know, but…
Well, I guess I’m not losing too much
dilworkssays:
October 31, 2015 at 6:29 pmAnd… I was thinking about buying Gaokao, because the history actually sounds good to me.
But you’re right – your average Steam buyer doesn’t care about quality more than about ePeen, er, backlog sizes and cute cards/emoticons. At least the devs do listen, but well, those are the risks of going all alone on the global market.
NeoAnkarasays:
October 31, 2015 at 7:58 pmAnd this month KoiChoco update stated that it’s still not yet finished.
Decaysays:
November 1, 2015 at 12:39 amLet’s be fair here. They announced that they are now working on implementation and seek to release the patch this month.
NeoAnkarasays:
November 1, 2015 at 2:34 amProbably that is. At least it will be done before the year end.
Kudsays:
November 1, 2015 at 4:33 amwell…i did doubt them…..a lot (and i still do…),but i will be really gratefull when the project is done.but it’s not like a quick line “don’t worry we are still alive” will cost them so much?unless they are sadists…
Zakamuttsays:
November 1, 2015 at 8:01 amWell…
https://basicvntls.wordpress.com/2015/10/31/wrapping-up/
https://twitter.com/basicvntls
Are you really looking for said quick lines?
Kudsays:
November 1, 2015 at 10:56 ammy comment was a response to that one (should be clear if i posted in a topic which mentions a koichoco update).
and twitter…if that counts ok…
Joshsays:
November 1, 2015 at 1:33 pm“Starless – Script check 5%, added new mosaic to fix list….”
What’s it means? I am already playing that eroge last May with a patch…
Decaysays:
November 3, 2015 at 9:46 pmJAST are trying to fix some issues with it, including a mosaic that was unintentionally left in. As for the script check specifically, I’m not 100% sure. They may be doing another QA pass on the english script? Don’t take my word for that.
Aria of Forbidden Magicsays:
November 2, 2015 at 4:37 pmI don’t know if you guys noticed because Mangagamer hasn’t updated their project status page, but chapter 2 of Higurashi releases on Steam on November 13th (Friday the 13th, ooh~). I just thought that in case you didn’t see that, it’d be nice if someone said something. Hope this was helpful!
Unoffizielle Übersetzungen von Otome Spiele | Heartliebsays:
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