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Visual Novel Translation Status (01/14/2017)

This week’s header image comes from our lone release: the Labyrinth of Grisaia‘s ages 18+ version is released. Buy it here.

VNTS (Visual Novel Translation Status Updates Series) is published each Saturday and brings the latest updates from VN translation projects — both licensed and by fans — from around the net. If you find any errors, or you think a project is missing from this list, please let us know in the comments.

From The Team:  This week is the yearly list purge, in which we remove a bunch of dead projects. We only removed 9 this time — far from a record — but you can catch the full list in the “Removed” section below.

The Short Version: Only the New Stuff

Releases

Removed from the List This Week

01/2017 List Purge

Each January we trim our list down by removing stalled, abandoned, or low-quality projects. Nine titles were removed from the list this week. Details below:

01/14/2017 Purge

Games We Stopped Tracking (2017)

[wpdatatable id=291]

 

 

All the Game Updates:

Fan Translation Projects

Fan Translation Projects

[wpdatatable id=286]

JAST USA Projects

JAST USA (Updates; Archive)

[wpdatatable id=287]

MangaGamer Projects

MangaGamer (Updates)

[wpdatatable id=288]

Sekai Project Projects

Sekai Project (Update Page)

[wpdatatable id=289]

Other
  • Here’s a handy link to sort Sekai Project’s Steam releases by release date: link

Misc. Projects

Other Projects

[wpdatatable id=290]

VNTS Commentary Section

Zakabox™ 「 … 」

Decay’s MusingsJust like Tay below me, I am extremely late on basically everything in my life. I have finally finished Himawari and have begun writing my review. I got one whole paragraph done in the last 30 minutes! Now I just have to come up with a good ten to twelve more. The opening and ending paragraphs are always the hardest for me, actually. They’re the parts where you actually have to write. The middle parts of the review are just filled with your standard evaluative fare anyone could vomit out. At least, that’s how it is for me, and is probably a sign that I have a lot more room to grow.

30 minutes for the first paragraph is much less time than it took for me to come up with how to open Labyrinth of Grisaia, actually. I was really puzzled by how to express myself in that one, for whatever reason, as evident by my confused metaphors. Just what was with that bridge nonsense? Anyway, Himawari will probably be the last review I do for a while. I apologize to all who have been affected by my recent unreliability. I just can’t do regular reviews anymore.

So anyway, Dies irae, huh? I was always reasonably sure that it would make it, even when others called me delusional for thinking so. I’ll admit that things were a little too shaky for comfort, but in the end the surge came as predicted and brought things over the finish line. Actually, it did more than come as expected, it slammed through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man, offering refreshment in abundance. Even I, Mr. Optimistic, was taken aback by that. The final two days ended up accounting for over a third of the overall funds, which is well above the norm. My personal pet theory as to why this surge was so large was because the rest of the campaign was so lackluster. A lot of people were offput by the shoddily run campaign. These people become fence sitters, waiting until the final days to make a decision. But when push comes to shove, they want their Dies irae.

That campaign ended up proving some things. First and most obvious: God, is decent PR ever important. If the campaign was better run, those fence sitters would have joined much sooner and brought some stability to the affair, which would have encouraged more people in general to back. The other thing it proved is that there is indeed an audience for this kind of game. I saw plenty of skeptics, and I believe the campaign doing as well as it did despite the rough road it traveled proved those skeptics wrong. Think about how much better it would have done had the campaign gone more smoothly. The $300k goal is plausible in a well-run campaign. I have hopes that a successful Dies irae can help spur interest in the chuuni genre here in the west, and get people looking at similar VNs.

Anywho, I recently shifted my sleep schedule to something slightly more sane, so it’s getting pretty late for me. I should hit the sack. See you all next week!

TAYsteful Thoughts™I’m late on, like, everything in life. Except bills and taxes (still on top of those, thank goodness) (and I’m pretty sure that makes me a responsible adult. And you know what THAT means? It means I can eat ice cream for dinner if I damn well please, thankyouverymuch, and I’m going to go and do just that). I’m also sleep deprived. Not just a little. A lot. What was the question again? I am not a crook. Have a good 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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Katie
Katie
7 years ago

Oh good, now it’s SPs turn to screw over otome. I really hope they do right by the developers. While the game is niche, the developers are passionate about their work and want the western world to enjoy it. I really hope things work out.

JJ
JJ
7 years ago

If you haven’t voted already, make sure to give your three suggestions to MangaGamer for games you would like to see released in English.

http://bit.ly/MG2017SURVEY

Netherlicht
Netherlicht
Reply to  JJ
7 years ago

My picks were

Soukoku no Arterial
Fortune Arterial
Aiyoku no Eustia

Thanks for the tip

littleshogun
littleshogun
7 years ago

This week VNTS Review from mine, and yeah I knew that I’d use same title months ago. But I think it’s quite sppropriate with Meikyu 18+ release. Speaking about Dies Irae KS, I think my feeling would br half sceptic and half hopeful, although it’s over now though and I look forward for the release there.

https://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/1625-la-fin-du-monde-redux-review/

Ziljon
Ziljon
7 years ago

Great work mates really awesome to have the news gathered in one place like this. I’m wondering though if there are someone that have made an updated extensive list recently of every VN that is translated to English fansub and official? Been googling and scratching my head for about 3 hours now and only found some older ones from 2015 and well I hope there are some new VN’s translated since then! ^^ I may just googling the wrong things but I haven’t found anything but maybe someone here know of such a list? Would appreciate the help, cheers!

Decay
Reply to  Ziljon
7 years ago

VNDB can sorta give you what you need. Here’s a list for all english translated release, sorted by release date: https://vndb.org/r?q=;fil=lang-en.released-1.olang-ja;o=d;s=released

Using the filter, you can further filter by platform.

This list is a little bit neater and allows you to filter for tags as well, but it doesn’t allow you to sort by English release date, only original Japanese release date: https://vndb.org/v/all?q=&fil=olang-ja&rfil=type-complete.released-1.lang-en

With that second one, you can perhaps get something more along the lines of what you want by filtering specific release years and such. Here’s every VN translated in 2016 and later: https://vndb.org/v/all?q=&fil=olang-ja&rfil=type-complete.released-1.lang-en

Ziljon
Ziljon
Reply to  Decay
7 years ago

This is awesome thank you very much my friend! 😀

Alchemicalhaze
Alchemicalhaze
7 years ago

Alright, so I just finished Yuuji’s past in Grisaia no Meikyuu, and I would like to give a bit of advise: If you are like me, and don’t like partial common route patches because you can’t stand being cut off before the end, I would refrain from reading this particular route until Grisaia no Rakuen gets released.

I have heard tale of the “cliffhanger”, but if I knew it was this bad, I would have held off! Not saying it is a bad novel, Made one of my favorite visual novels even better, But knowing that I will have to wait until early summer(If by some miracle there are no delays) to see the true ending is kind of depressing!

animefan71109
animefan71109
7 years ago
Decay
Reply to  animefan71109
7 years ago

It’s a machine translation edited by someone who only barely knows english in the first place. Not the kind of patch we’re interested in sharing.

littleshogun
littleshogun
Reply to  animefan71109
7 years ago

Quite an interesting news there. I’ll try that if possible, although my stance was still supporting the group in the list though.

Mochisato
Mochisato
7 years ago

Black Wolves Saga has been fully translated in Visual Novel Reader
http://orlandoblue.tumblr.com/post/155189645540

Katie
Katie
Reply to  Mochisato
7 years ago

Hello, procrastination, my old friend.

You-kun
You-kun
7 years ago

Are the gonna release +18 of Tenshin Ranman?

Alchemicalhaze
Alchemicalhaze
Reply to  You-kun
7 years ago

Probably won’t know until it is closer until the steam release.

Decay
Reply to  You-kun
7 years ago

Sekai Project continues to say frustratingly little about their upcoming 18+ Denpasoft releases. If I was to have a guess at their upcoming lineup:

WagaHigh – Likely
Chrono Clock – Confirmed
SakuSaku – Confirmed
LeyLine – Who knows (they are shooting for Q1 release though)
Tenshin Ranman – Unlikely

The thing with Tenshin Ranman is that they licensed the Happy Go Lucky version because it has some entirely new characters and a new route, and makes for an easy Steam release. Now, I have no idea how those new characters are integrated into the game, but if it’s done well then that means a decent amount of the common route would be rewritten to fit them in, which would make for an additional burden on an 18+ release.

On top of that, licensing can be problematic. If they licensed the all-ages version from Russell, its publisher, that may mean they don’t have the license for any of the 18+ content.

Of course, neither of those issues makes it impossible, just trickier. For now, I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for an 18+ version.

You-kun
You-kun
Reply to  Decay
7 years ago

So you mean bigger the difference between all ages and +18 version harder to get +18 version release? And if translated game is originally +18 they just have to re-add content they cut for all-ages version. But in this case they licensed psp version which originally is an all-ages version so if they wanted to release +18 version of game they have to license windows version too. Did I get right? Sorry I don’t know much about how these things work.

Btw getting license for windows version cost them anything?

DharmaFreedom
DharmaFreedom
Reply to  Decay
7 years ago

Why is there always an uncertainty with Sekai project releasing 18+ content?

Mangagamer always releases the 18+ version if one is available and sometimes along with a steam release, seems like without issue. Is is because they have a better connection and more trust with other Japanese companies through nitroplus [i think its nitroplus that founded mangagamer right? correct me if i’m wrong], or is it a just a direction Sekai aims for, like focusing on steam releases with their broad consumer base without spending extra resources on 18+ content.

I’m just curious since i often seem people arguing about Sekai not releasing 18+ versions or being silent about it till the last minute. Thanks.

JJ
JJ
Reply to  DharmaFreedom
7 years ago

It is the direction Sekai Project has chosen. They are focused on the Steam market. They have frequently shown their disdain for long time visual novel fans and people who enjoy 18+ content. Also, some of their employees/contractors seem very uncomfortable with 18+ content.

MangaGamer is owned by Overdrive, Nexton, and other companies who ended up with the shares from MangaGamer’s other original founders (Circus, Tarte).

Decay
Reply to  JJ
7 years ago

It’s less disdain, more disinterest. SP doesn’t hate hardcore VN fans, they just don’t see them as their primary market. This is due to them jumping in right when the Steam bubble was forming. They almost immediately found far greater success than MangaGamer ever did, all without even attempting to sell their products to hardcore fans. In contrast, MangaGamer has made their business for the 5 years prior to their Steam debut catering to the traditional eroge playerbase. MG has changed with the advent of Steam, but only slightly. They’re still primarily working from the same playbook they always have been. When looked at in this light, it’s easy to see why the differences between the two companies’ philosophies exist. And it’s clear that it has nothing to do with resentment.

Each company looks out for their primary market first and foremost. With MG, that means they always try to get 18+ versions done first and foremost. With SP, that means that they simply want the license, they can worry about 18+ options later. As a result, there are still games we don’t know whether or not there will be 18+ releases for. They probably don’t know with some of them, either. I don’t think this uncertainty comes as a result of them being uncomfortable with 18+ content, but is instead a side effect of their business strategy.

Kurama
Kurama
7 years ago

RIP Yosuga no Sora 🙁
hopefully they update soon ;_;

HerbalNekoTea
HerbalNekoTea
Reply to  Kurama
7 years ago

I gave them less than 3 week and we will get a still alive ping from them, it’s always like that with them. I am into VN since 2012 and even Yosuga no Sora was a joke back in the day that it will never happen to finish. Well, don’t wanna twist my fork more into your ass but it also has a sequel they also started translating until they decide to focus on yosuga since it was going way too fast than the sequel would be finish before the first one. If they do finish Yosuga no Sora, expect less than 3 year for sequel to release and 2 year for yosuga to finish.

HerbalNekoTea
HerbalNekoTea
7 years ago

I am sure Big Otome’s laughing is ass so much about Sekai Project she sound like a super vilain in front of her screen.