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Visual Novel Translation Status (02/13/2016)

This week’s header image is from “Kindred Spirits On The Roof ” (VNDB), which was released yesterday over on MangaGamer. Check it out, here!

Not a bad week. Not bad at all. We’ve got a new otome Kickstarter project (Beastmaster and the Prince; see below), just yesterday MangaGamer released Kindred Spirits On The Roof, and both JAST and Sekai had some interesting updates. Party time! Excellent!

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. 

The Short Version:
Only the New Stuff

  • Beastmaster and Prince -Flower and Snow (Otome) – Added to the list; Kickstarter Project launched. $31,761 pledged of $150,000 goal with 28 days to go
  • Dare ka ga Koi Shita Hankagai (MangaGamer)- TL is now 7.74%
  • Eien no Aselia (JAST) – Greenlit! Coming to Steam Soon*; 18+ version is “possible.” (link)
  • Immoral Little – TL: 21% (Link). Release date goal is no longer the end of February (no set date, now)
  • Kindred Spirits On The Roof (MangaGamer) – Released! Get it here
  • Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki – QC: 64% > 65% (This may or may not be an actual update. It’s possible we just had the wrong value listed for a long time. You can think whatever you want, but I believe we had it right and a vast KoiSaku conspiracy is pulling a 1984 on us. Newspeak is slavery. Down with Big Brother. There are four lights. – Tay)
  • Kono Oozora Retranslation Project – Project is still alive; Amane and Ageha routes are still partially completed and being worked on. (Link) The other routes are done.
  • Lovely x Cation – Overall Progress: 26% > 28%; Many translators have left the project, but nothing is dropped (Link)
  • Noble Works – The boys over at The Oxford Comma is Superior Subs are still at it! We’re not adding this back to the list or anything, I just wanted to mention that they’ve released a “maintenance patch” yesterday (Link) in order to correct several errors in the translation pointed out to them. This coincides with the release of the Download Edition, making it easy for anyone to legally obtain the game, now! Buy it here! (NSFW)
  • The Orchard of Stray Sheep (Sekai Project) – TL is now 76.13%
  • To Heart 2 – Beta8 Patch released (Link); still looking for editors and proofreaders
  • WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.03 (Sekai Project) – TL is now 18.50%

New Releases

 

All the Game Updates:

Fan Translation Projects

Fan Translation Projects

[wpdatatable id=62]
JAST USA Projects

JAST USA (Updates; Archive)

[wpdatatable id=63]
Other
  • Starless – Script check 10%, added new mosaic to fix list.
MangaGamer Projects

MangaGamer (Updates)

[wpdatatable id=64]
Other
  • Rance 5D, Rance VI, and Rance Quest fan translations on hold in anticipation of potential official release by MangaGamer.
  • Magical Eyes – Red is for Anguish – Pre-Order is up! (Link)
Sekai Project Projects

Sekai Project (Update Page)

 

Important note: These percentages should be seen as vague indicators of progress, and are not entirely accurate due to a variety of reasons.

[wpdatatable id=65]
Other
  • Here’s a handy link to sort Sekai Project’s Steam releases by release date: link
Misc. Projects

Other Projects

[wpdatatable id=66]

 

The Zakabox

— Commentary Section —

Zakabox™ Commentary

「This commentary is brought to you by waking up at 7:42 in the morning. There’s a special kind of hellish death inside only possible through this kind of thing. Please attend my mental funeral, to be held on 4/20 (the 4th of Vigintiary). Anyway…

Deccy talks about 屋上の百合霊さん Yurirei Yuri Ghosts Poltergays Lesbooans Kindred Spirits On the Roof enough below, so all I’ll say is I’m happy it’s released and may or may not actually pick it up (I’ve fallen into a non-reading state). When the backlog looms ever larger, picking up something new and just finishing that off quickly can be quite therapeutic. Or you stall that one too. It does seem like Kindred Spirits is at least somewhat long, so that’s the more likely option. Damn.

Having previously completed his grandest mission yet, the Journey for Salami (after translating the cute yuri nukige Lilium x Triangle), it looks like Nosebleed’s managed to work a bit on Immoral Little again after a period of inactivity. If you enjoy sadistic loli little sisters, this might be what you’re looking for (onii-chan). If not, he’s also translated about a million yuri doujins (some NSFW pics here) if you’re interested in that. He’s also a global moderator on the fuwa forums, but that’s easy, man.

MoaCube, known (to some of you) for Cinders, have released their second VN: Solstice. It was actually released much earlier for people who pre-ordered it, but its public release was just two days ago. Cinders had some decent reviews in the OELVN sphere and also by our very own Palas, though I honestly have a hard time trusting reviews of OELVNs in general. Solstice has an interesting setting, and the art looks pretty cool, though some will be turned off by non-animaymay-style sprites.

A new Kickstarter, for an otome VN, featuring a localization company you’ve probably not heard about before (they have one failed Kickstarter to their name, which was actually also for a visual novel localization.), has popped up. Will they be able to market it like MiKandi Japan did with pissing lolis Libra of the Vampire Princess? Will they sway otome hearts to the tune of $150k? Time will tell if Beastmaster and Prince -Flower and Snow- makes it through.

Part of JAST’s Aselia comment might want quoting: “After we’re finished with releasing Seinarukana, we’ll revisit Aselia and its H content”. I wonder how many sales they’d get from that if they chose to; personally, what turns me off is the apparently tedious gameplay. I’d had enough of that in actual good JRPGs, thank you – can we have another TWEWY already?

The Orchard of Stray Sheep has the Mystery tag on vndb, and I have to admit the numbered haloes magically floating above the characters’ heads in some of the vndb pictures do intrigue me. I wonder if they are actually special in any way. Literally nobody has voted for it on vndb, and there are 3 votes on EGS (bottom 45, top 70) which isn’t terribly promising. We’ll see if this is another of the unimpressive doujins Sekai Project picks up, releases, and gets good reviews from people that have never read VNs before. Or whatever.

Darekoi seems to be a more conventional moege with a few spins on the setting which may or may not actually be used much (Clephas has an interesting view on that and other things.) The sequel in the works is listed as being 18+ on vndb, but as far as I can tell EGS says it’s not (非18禁). It would be somewhat amusing if SP had to censor the sequel after having no problems with the original, lol. It’s rated a bit higher on EGS than Stray Sheep, but the sample size of 4 votes, fairly evenly distributed from 57 to 80, doesn’t really say much.

Oh, and it looks like WEE ep.3 is actually moving again. Weeeeee…

Well, in the process of writing this the clock struck 10:17 and I woke up somewhat. Thankfully. I’ll leave you with a topic on some vndb features you may not know about, plus a bit on their new and improved filtering system letting you properly search for translations.」

Decay’s Musings

Hey all. Kindred Spirits is finally out, and it’s probably the biggest release of the year thus far. The first impressions seem to be positive, if you’re a fan of Yuri at all, then you really owe it to yourself to check it out. It may not be an award-winning work of fine literature, but it looks cute and funny, and a step above most of the yuri we see out of VNs. Maybe I’ll give it a shot, myself.

Not much else going on this week. I’m waiting on March’s releases, mainly. In the meantime I booted up Koichoco. I’ve already played through the Chisato route partial patch nearly two years ago, it’s hard to believe it’s been that long. Upon playing through it again, I realize that I like this VN. It’s charming, it’s humorous, the drama is a bit contrived but that’s alright. It’s able to get away with the moronically donkan protagonist and the contrived drama with an interesting main storyline (the school election), a strong cast, and humorous dialogue. I’m really looking forward to the other routes when I can finally cuck Chisato and watch her jealous reactions. … Maybe I’m a bad person.

Aside from this, I’ve been dealing with some drama over the last week. Let me ask you guys, what do you think makes a visual novel a visual novel? What about hybrid games? What about Long Live the Queen, which as of a few days ago, is no longer on VNDB? It’s hard drawing a line somewhere, but a line must be drawn otherwise VNDB would end up with every game ever with any amount of text or story. No matter where we draw that line, there are going to be similar games on both sides of it and these kinds of messes will arise. I’m of the camp who wants to put Long Live the Queen on the other side of the line, while many of its raising sim brethren are still included.

In the end, it all comes down to “feel.” We can draw up arbitrary criteria all day long, but if something doesn’t “feel” like a VN, then it’s hard to find justification for its inclusion at VNDB. And yet, everyone feels differently about each title. In my time playing Long Live the Queen, I never felt like I was actually reading a VN, but I was instead playing a raising sim and witnessing the consequences of my actions. Other people feel staunchy about it being a kind of VN. The discussion is ongoing, and is pretty important for the VN community as a whole.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that in some ways, VNDB is the core of the entire english-speaking VN community, and our policy has far-reaching effects. VNDB has an open-minded administration and all policy and even new site features are driven completely by the community. If you’d like to participate in the discussion, feel free, but if you do, PLEASE be considerate and constructive, we’ve suffered enough trolls already.

 

TAYsteful™ Thoughts

Tay's Tinfoil Hat SectionThe KoiSaku Conspiracy: I know that some of you hate when we inject commentary into the “Short Version” section, but this week needed it. Someone has to speak the truth, even if I am the last sane man on the Earth. SO. Here’s what happened: our VNTS posts have listed the KoiSaku QC percentage as 64% for… a long time. Decay and I have both done many VNTS posts for many weeks, and I’ve probably looked at that d@&m table a hundred times. I swear it read 64%. For months. And yet, if you go to their website today, or you check the Wayback Machine, it reads “65%”.

6-5-%.
Sixty five percent.
Sixty and five damnable percent.

VNTS Survey Results: So! I’m still planning on releasing a dedicated post all about the VNTS survey results, but I can give you a sneak preview here. Why? Because I’m a nice guy. A very sane, grounded guy. A smart and th—-SIXTY FIVE PERCENT! IT’S A CONSPIRACY I TELL YO— 

*ehm* Sorry about that. Moving on, here are a few little tidbits you may find interesting. Just to be clear: I will be releasing a full report with the actual numbers/percentages and comments for everyone in the world to read, treasure and enjoy. This is just stuff to tide you over:

  • More than three thousand people responded to the survey! Thank you! My best guess is that this means approximately one out of every four or five readers took the survey. Wow. Blows me away.
  • Our readership has grown pretty steadily throughout 2015, and a solid chunk of you began reading just last month (Welcome!)
  • Overall you rated the quality of our posts very highly. It means a lot, so thanks. These posts take a lot of time and effort, and both Decay and I are very glad to hear that you enjoy them.
  • Many of you wanted VNDB links in the “Short Version” section. We implemented that last week. I have no idea why we weren’t doing that before. It takes, like, 2 minutes, and the orange link color actually helps readability.
  • I’m working on some ways we might better highlight the otome games in the list (and get more of them that I may be missing). I think of myself as an ally of the Grand Otome Conspiracy, but I think I need more otome playing friends. That could actually be a great option for a guest essay from time to time in the commentary section. Hmmm….

Any opinionated otome bloggers/writers/players out there?: Hi. I’m Tay. Do you want to be friends? I’d like to be friends. Partly because I want your help figuring out ways to give Otome the space and ink it deserves, and partly because friends are fun. And partly because if you’re actually reading this, it means you read my commentary section, and I <3 you forever for that.

Fuwanovel Update (Short version): Stuff broke. I fixed it. Only a few people noticed. There was much rejoicing.

VNTS Stuff I want to do next: At some point in the next few weeks we’ll be adding links or a section (or something) which will help you track all the projects we’ve dropped or which were released in 2016. Whether it will be a table like the others, or just a google doc, or an Excel online spreadsheet — nobody knows. Literally nobody. We’re flying by the seat of our pants, here. But by Grabthar’s hammer, I promise it will happen. Someway, somehow.

Have a nice week, everybody.

Tay

I'm the Fuwanovel community admin and a big fan of Visual Novels. The easiest way to get a hold of me is via a PM on the Fuwanovel Forums, by twitter (@ArchmageTay), or by email.

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NeoAnkara
8 years ago

Two of my most awaiting project AoKana and KoiSaku delay just make me sad.

Hiecchi
Hiecchi
Reply to  NeoAnkara
8 years ago
invalidname
8 years ago

I you might have missed a Kimi ga Nozumu Eien update. On Jan 29, @enjoievan said the Mitsuki route was now complete: https://twitter.com/enjoievan/status/693131976480419840

The Alternative Projects site has gotten real quiet lately, so following Evan directly is probably the best way to get updates on KGNE, since he’s the one working on it.

Katie
Katie
8 years ago

Thanks for letting us know about the otome kickstarter. I’ve backed it, but the kickstarter itself is rather disorganized with a cripplingly low top tier ($140 are you f***ing kidding me?!) for a game that wants 150k and lots of people want a Vita port, possibly not realizing that those rights probably belong to a different company. I guess we’ll see how it goes. : And good luck finding an otome blogger; you guys are awesome :3

mayumin
mayumin
8 years ago

i rll hope the beastmaster and prince goes well ;^^
i keep having the feeling that the counter isnt going high fast enough and might never reach it’s goal in time cuz a lot ppl have been bickering too much about the primary goal being a steam release and then later other platforms

wyldstrykr
wyldstrykr
8 years ago

i like the update fro, xx% -> xx%

why dont you do that to all the new updates?
and why didnt comment that in the survey?

Zakamutt
Reply to  wyldstrykr
8 years ago

Decay touched on this in his last commentary, and we commentary guys have talked about it briefly among us. It probably mostly depends on Decay / Tay feeling arsed when progress is updated, and finding the best way to represent it in the tables. Can’t really guarantee anything. EDIT: Tay’s not published his commentary on the survey results yet; I’m not sure when he’ll get it actually done. Probably before the front site gets its remake~!

Decay
Reply to  wyldstrykr
8 years ago

The reason for this is kind of silly, Me and Tay split our duties this week and I did the official tables while Tay did the fan translation tables. I didn’t know Tay was doing that new style of update and did my tables business as usual.

Taimea
Taimea
8 years ago

I think it should be noted that Beastmaster and Prince -Flower and Snow is 2 visual novels the main game and then the fan disk they are doing so that why its more. and they are also adding new tiers soon

Palas
Palas
8 years ago

Oh now that’s just great. The debate about LLtQ seems to be leading towards the exclusion of the Ace Attorney series too.

akerou
akerou
8 years ago

By the way, I have no recollection of updating the SakuSaku progress table for months. I probably should’ve added a “TLC” column – since that is what I’m currently doing – but as we’re getting a new website soon, I figured that could wait.

Tinecro
Tinecro
8 years ago

Hi,
I don’t know if you’ve heard about it, but there is a translation project of the first Bishoujo Mangekyou here:
https://euphemictranslation.wordpress.com/