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Visual Novel Translation Status (04/23/2016)

This week’s header image comes from this week’s four releases: (Left to right) The Men of Yoshiwara: Ohgiya (Steam); Narcissu – A Little Iris (Steam); Seinarukana (Physical edition, or digital edition); and Starlight Vega (Steam)

Hey there. You’re probably here because you heard we’re serving up steaming hot plates of Zaka. That, or you’re here for Visual Novel translation news. Either way, it’s a judgement free zone. Cannibalism, yo. Just be wary of them prion diseases. Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s a b***h.

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

New Releases

Removed from the list this week

All the Game Updates:

Fan Translation Projects

Fan Translation Projects

[wpdatatable id=112]
JAST USA Projects

JAST USA (Updates; Archive)

[wpdatatable id=113]
Other
  • Starless – Script check 10%, added new mosaic to fix list.
MangaGamer Projects

MangaGamer (Updates)

[wpdatatable id=114]
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)
  • The translation of Kindred Spirits’ Drama CDs have been announced!
  • Free Friends hardcopy has been put up for pre-order and is releasing May 20th!
Sekai Project Projects

Sekai Project (Update Page)

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

[wpdatatable id=115]
Other
  • Here’s a handy link to sort Sekai Project’s Steam releases by release date: link
Misc. Projects

Other Projects

[wpdatatable id=116]

 

The Zakabox

— Commentary Section —

Zakabox™ Commentary

「(Zaka has been chopped up and served in delectable steaming bits to all of our adoring readers. He was a mighty viking and a good friend. He’ll be missed.) 」

Decay’s Musings

 

Seinarukanaaaaaa! Nearly 6 years ago on May 18th 2010, EchoMateria started up the Seinarukana translation project. Since then it has been a total rollercoaster spanning several years involving multiple translators, editors, project leaders, at least one total reboot, a project buyout by JAST USA, and a period of years where the game was completely translated and edited, and not even the freelance staff knew what the heck was happening with it.

It has been one long, convoluted journey, but it’s finally here. On April 20th, J-List customers started receiving shipping notices, and on April 22nd, the game was made available on JAST’s download store. Even if most of them didn’t have to do much over the last few years, I’m sure everyone involved is mighty relieved by this release and are happy to move on. Good work, guys. JAST still has to finish up work on the all-ages version that will go up on Steam, which is currently estimated for a Fall 2016 release. But hey, the version most of you have been waiting for is here at last.

This release kind of snuck up on us. JAST previously notified us that the game went golden master and was in duplication, but with no timetables provided, it was hard to know exactly what that meant, practically speaking. “Soon,” sure, but this is JAST, you know? So instead, they opted for the route of not disappointing anyone with delays by virtue of not telling anyone about the release ahead of time. I get it, but I hope this is just a temporary measure. Is just spontaneously releasing their games with little warning really going to be all that good for them? I mean, that goes against all common marketing sense. This isn’t a sustainable release philosophy. They’re either going to have to actually start meeting their deadlines, or just suck up the backlash.

For those of you wondering what’s going on in the world of Sekai Project, check out the Q&A video they uploaded to youtube here, or our summary of that video here. I found it to be rather informative, and they showed a good deal of transparency regarding a lot of their business decisions and even the stuff they’ve gotten flak for, such as their 18+ releases. For those of you who want more 18+ content from Sekai Project, they give some reasons to be optimistic. Specifically regarding Maitetsu, they haven’t yet confirmed anything but they did heavily hint that an 18+ release could be possible and that we should expect an announcement in the next few months. I hope Sekai Project continues to do Q&A sessions like that in the future.

As for me, I’m nearly done with Root Double. THAT VN IS HUGE. I imagine I’ll spend a lot of my time next week on Hearthstone, as the new expansion is releasing. Or maybe I’ll finally get into Dark Souls 3, which I pre-ordered and then have only had the time to play four hours of since its release. Whatever I do, it’s probably not going to be VN related. I really want to get into Seinarukana but playing Tokyo Babel and Root Double back to back is really taking its toll. There’s TOO MUCH GOOD STUFF! Please stop releasing VNs for a good six months, everyone. You’re killing me here. Remember the peaceful times of 2015 when nothing happened for months at a time?

Oh, also, Tay added Purino Party although I’m not sure it’s actually a VN in any capacity. That thing just oozes irony. Seriously, who expected Japan to start copying western VNs/Dating Sims? I love it.

TAYsteful™ Thoughts

State Hero of the People’s Revolution, Decay, forced me to do my job and include ALL the releases in today’s header image. Originally I just featured a big ole slab of adorableness (courtesy of The Men of Yoshiwara: Ohgiya which came out this week on Steam):

VNTS Header 04/23/2016

Isn’t that picture so cute? I rate it a solid D’awwww/10. Seriously, though. It’s hard to capture “tenderness” in an image like that. Be sure to check out the original image.

I was excited to see that we got an update on Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino (TL: 100%; Edit: 100%; The patch is now currently being tested and proofread). Always good to see that projects are still alive and moving.

I want to thank everyone who donated a few bucks to Loe (of Loe Quality TL). He mentioned all of us here. What a classy guy, eh?

So, yeah. I don’t really want to write any more right now despite having stuff to say. For now I’ll just say CONGRATULATIONS to JAST for achieving the impossible and finally releasing Seinarukana (physical edition here, and the download edition here). I’ve heard a bit about how hard the team has been working lately, and they deserve a hearty “congrats” from the fanbase for their work.

Oh, and here’s a little bonus content courtesy of my hate mail from last week. Have a good week, everybody.

My official response? Grow up.

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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HMan
HMan
7 years ago

danganronpa 2 on steam ?

mochisato
mochisato
7 years ago

gotta love dem otome hate
how dare companies make something to appeal other public then get translated cuz of the interest !!111

Katie
Katie
7 years ago

Kudos for not raising to the extremely pathetic bait, Tay. Stay classy. Ozmafia comes out next week, but I think I have to avoid the internet until exams are over or I’ll be too tempted to have fun and avoid mental breakdowns disguised as studying.

Derpagath
Derpagath
7 years ago

I didn’t see notice of this kickstarter, but maybe I just didn’t read closely enough

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/57909428/chusingura46-1-a-visual-novel-with-moe-samurai-gir-0

Ryechu
Reply to  Derpagath
7 years ago

It didn’t make last time, their staff is completely useless, and they can’t even come to terms on the title.

Nah, it doesn’t need to be listed, to be frank.

Decay
Reply to  Derpagath
7 years ago

Well, the Kickstarter is going to bomb, but it succeeding would be a pretty bad thing for the industry, so I’d rather not promote it, lol.

I’m tempted to write a “Why you shouldn’t back ChuSinGura” post on the fuwazette but I don’t think I have the time for that.

Ane
Ane
Reply to  Decay
7 years ago

Oh, It’s a pitty
It’d had been interesting
Well, it can’t be helped 😉

Derpagath
Derpagath
Reply to  Decay
7 years ago

Okay that makes sense, the people running do seem to be quite lacking in organization and listening to the public. Thanks for the info

Kud
Kud
7 years ago

since when was Root Double released?

abc
abc
Reply to  Kud
7 years ago

It wasn’t. He got early access to write a review for the release.

Lambda
7 years ago

Let it be known that Tay is an awful enabler, that CG is adorable, and I’m gonna buy Ohgiya while it’s at a good price. And then I’ll buy Ozmafia next week. What a good week or so for otome games for me… I didn’t even see all the new otome games being added to steam! Thanks Tay for keeping up with that! …..But I missed the sales on most of them so I’ll probably wait a little for the others (and no ojiisan fetish, either…) I’m looking forward to the release of Akaaka, too. Wasn’t expecting that to pick up ever again, either.
As someone that reads otomege and games for guys, those comments are hilarious.

littleshogun
littleshogun
7 years ago

Another my VNTS Review here http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/1178-a-little-good-news-review/. As for why Decay had Root Double copy, it was the review copy and the only one who could get that was selected reviewer.

Littlezero
Littlezero
7 years ago

How long has that Angel Beats project been going for? Hadn’t heard of it but it seems to be making good progress.

Arcadeotic
Reply to  Littlezero
7 years ago

It’s been going on for about 4-5 months by now

Bruh
Bruh
7 years ago

I respect Otome, but for many viewers here ( who are mostly male) its a bit….. cringy

mochisato
mochisato
Reply to  Bruh
7 years ago

and so is eroge/yuri/and sometimes just vns with male target audiences cuz oh boy there are some ugly vns out there, for some girls but you still don’t see that many loud complains :DD