Visual Novel Translation Status (10/22/2016)

This week’s header image comes from our two releases: Sakura Nova‘s (Sekai Project) Steam release (Get it here); and Wild Romance (Zoo Corporation) (Also on Steam, get it here).

Hey everybody. Well, it’s almost Halloween. I’m curious: any of you dressing up? I’m dressing up as the wall from “Stranger Things” (which is really good, if you have Netflix and haven’t checked it out, yet. It’s a kinda spooky (ish?) watch for the Halloween season!). Yes, you read that right. The wall.

Q: Dressing up for Halloween? Speak up in the comments!

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

• Bishoujo Mangekyou -Norowareshi Densetsu no Shoujo – Edit: 90% > 93%; QC: 85% > 88%; Proofreading: 42% > 45%
• Bishoujo Mangekyou -Katsute Shoujo Datta Kimi e – TL: 40% > 44%; TLC: 30% >35%
• Corona Blossom Vol. 2 (Front Wing) – Releasing October 27th.
• Eden of Grisaia (Sekai Project) – TL: 64% > 75% – Our apologies for missing this for several weeks.
• Kimi ga Nozomu Eien – That Evan character is at it again – Chapter 4 released! See this post for the video and info. “Another Episode 4 – いつか、きっと…… A VN adaptation of a short story published prior to KimiNozo’s original release, taking place prior to the events of First Chapter. Included as a part of 〜special FanDisk〜’s Another Episode Collection. As usual, a rough, unedited draft translation. Prepared for Akane’s birthday, 2016.” (Link)
• Kono Oozora Retranslation Project – Ageha’s route TL: 100% (link), editing ongoing; Amane route next, other routes are fully TL’d and edited; No partial patch planned (link); Estimated release in early 2017
• Labyrinth of Grisaia (Sekai Project) – Unrated (18+) Version: Editing nearly complete, technical work starting soon. – Our apologies for missing this for several weeks.
• Lover Able – TL: 19.27% > 20.01%; Edit: 1.29% > 1.39%; Image Editing: 64.38%
• Maitetsu (Sekai Project) – TL: 42.13% > 44.75%
• Majo Koi Nikki – TL: 50.4% > 52.3%; Edit: 35.7% > 37.1%; TLC: 17.6% > 18.0%
• The Melody of Grisaia (Front Wing) – Steam page is now live (link); Game releasing later this year (link)
• Monster Girl Quest Paradox – Next partial patch delayed a bit, see this post
• Muv-Luv Series (Degica) – Alright. Lots of news.
  • Adult Patch coming to Denpasoft in November (Link)
  • “We aim to wrap up all of our Kickstarter commitments before mid 2017, and with the help of Philip and Alternative Projects members Albedo, Suffolk, and Kevin, it’s now possible for us to work on Photonflowers and Muv-Luv Alternative’s translation simultaneously.” (Link)
  • Schwarzesmarken’s second visual novel, Junkyousha-tachi will be released this coming October 28 in Japan
• Sakura Nova (Sekai Project) – Steam version released! Get it here.
• Shuffle! (Navel + Yume Haven) – Steam page is up, release in November (Link)
• Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi – TL: 37.5% > 38.7%
• Tenshin Ranman (Sekai Project) – TL: 59.99% > 60.46%
• Tsui Yuri – Total TL: 90% > 95%; Total Edit: 84%; Total QC: 6% > 15%
• Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete –  Joining Luna Translations to take advantage of their resources. Can we start referring to them as “The Borg”, yet? (JK, guys. Much < 3)
• Wagamama High Spec (Sekai Project) – TL: 73.70% > 100%
• Wild Romance (Zoo Corporation) – Released on Steam, get it here.

New Releases!

• Sakura Nova (Sekai Project) – Steam version released! Get it here.
• Wild Romance (Zoo Corporation) – Released on Steam, get it here.

All the Game Updates:

— Commentary Section —

Zakabox™ Commentary

「Zaaaaakkkkkkakaaaaaa?…」

Well, this was a weird week. Wild Romance kicked things off by being a Steam release of a nukige, with no 18+ option available anywhere. It just sort of came out of nowhere and baffled everyone. To be fair, they’re now saying that they’re considering translating the 18+ content, but it still makes you wonder why they went this route in the first place. To be frank, without the porn Norn’s games are empty. They are pure nukige, through and through. Anything that’s not porn is somehow in service to it. This is like watching a Bang Bus video where you only get to see them picking up and interviewing the girls before fading to black. I’m not entirely sure who this is for.

What’s maybe even more confusing is that they’re cutting more than just porn. They’re also removing large parts of the script and further simplifying the already simple story because apparently they want their game to be as vapid as possible. Plot points are being removed, conversations are cut and replaced with short summaries, that kind of thing. I can’t even begin to speculate on the real reason for this, as that stuff actually seems perfectly appropriate for Steam. If you want some specific examples, brave Fuwanovel user Dergonu bought and played some of it side by side with the Japanese version and talked about this experience here.

And then a few days later, Shuffle reappears out of nowhere. Active Game Media, a huge Japanese localization company with hundreds of games under their belt and hit-or-miss results, is jumping into the VN business with their new brand YumeHaven, specifically targeting bishoujo VNs. No, that name is not MangaGamer. Turns out, after Navel’s breakup with MG, they decided they weren’t done milking Shuffle and licensed it to a new company for a Steam release. It will have a new translation, and this time it will be a port of the Playstation 2 version, with two additional routes the MG version did not have (Kareha and Mayumi).

Doesn’t that seem a little… wasteful? Doesn’t Navel have several other titles they could have localized instead? It seems they’d rather spend resources on redoing from scratch something VN fans have already had for seven years now. I could have understood it if it was the Essence+ version. Hell, I would have given Essence+ a shot. That version not only adds four more routes, but it also revamps most of the existing scenes, extending and improving them. But the same game with a couple extra routes and no h-scenes? Eh. I can’t think of a more boring first release for YumeHaven. I hope they have something more exciting in store for us than that.

Haha, wow, what a stupid, shitty, ranty commentary. My apologies. May the next week be saner for all. In conclusion, here’s this week’s ASMR chillax trip of the week:

TAYsteful™ Thoughts

I’ll be the first person to admit that my taste in music is bloody fantastic (major WROCKer, yo). So, this week, when I encountered three surprisingly diverse and catchy songs, I thought I’d share them for your edification and enjoyment.

1. First up are the dual Schmoyoho releases. I linked the catchier of the two above, but if you like it be sure to check out its sister (in which Wierd Al stars)
2. Second up is the surprisingly catchy “2016 Proposition Song” which is meant to drum-up voter interest in California ballot propositions. Sound boring? Sure. Am I a Californian? Hell no. Am I listening to this song, regardless? Yes. Please send help.
3. Last is a WROCK song. Because WROCK. It’s “Mischief Managed” by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls. It’s pretty rad. You may hate #s 1 and 2, but you really do need to check this one out.

What are you listening to? What did you think of my listening picks this week? Have a good week, everybody!