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Visual Novel Translation Status (07/08/2017)

This week’s header image comes from Dracu-Riot! (VNDB) which was picked up by Sekai at AX 2017.

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:  There were a ton of announcements last weekend at Anime Expo. Prepare yourselves for an especially beefy “Short Version” listing, and let me know what you thought of AX. – Tay

The Short Version: Only the New Stuff

All the Game Updates:

Fan Translation Projects

Fan Translation Projects

[wpdatatable id=413]

JAST USA Projects

JAST USA (Updates; Archive)

[wpdatatable id=414]

MangaGamer Projects

MangaGamer (Updates)

[wpdatatable id=415]

Sekai Project Projects

Sekai Project (Update Page)

[wpdatatable id=416]

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

Misc. Projects

Other Projects

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VNTS Commentary Section

Zakabox™ 「This is the place where Zaka occasionally shares his wisdom. Will he show up this week? Will he have anything to say? Only time will tell.」

Decay’s MusingsSo this has been quite the AX, huh? To get the obvious out of the way: yep, Dracu-Riot was picked up by Sekai Project, and the fan project I’ve been leading for a while now has been in talks with them. If you want to know more, read this post on the Oxford Comma is Superior Subs blog. If you have any questions/comments, please direct them there or in the Fuwanovel thread for the project here.

Outside of Dracu-Riot, there were a ton of really cool VN announcements! I really didn’t expect SP to announce Senren Banka as well, for a start. It’s a little silly to see one publisher have three active translation projects for the same developer like this. But Yuzusoft’s VNs are not only absurdly popular in Japan, they’re also among the most popular VNs in the west, and I have no doubt that the official releases will be really successful. I hope Yuzusoft sees that success and continues licensing out their stuff.

I’m also pretty excited for Evenicle. It sounds like it could be a pretty fun game on its own, and while I’m not a fan of the Senran Kagura games, I do enjoy Yaegashi Nan’s general artstyle, so I’m looking forward to playing a game with his art that I actually enjoy! I’m sure there’s also a subset of players who are just interested in getting Nan’s art in an eroge, the first such eroge to be translated since Da Capo 2, where he had a pretty different style.

And Majikoi getting picked up?? Even though it was plainly obvious that Peter Payne was trying to get that license, I’m not sure anyone expected this to actually happen. Part of the problem was that Yandere Translations, the group who Fan TLed most of the VN, is hard to reach due to its leader Takajun being AWOL. The solution? I guess to just throw that stuff out and forge on regardless. I’m told that the Yandere translation is not being used and Maji Translations will be redoing those parts. Which is all well and good, since the folk at Maji Translations seem more capable of handling comedy than Yandere were.

I’m also excited to hear that Subahibi is only a month or two away. I certainly didn’t expect the release date to be so soon. I also didn’t expect it to be embroiled in so much controversy. The cut bestiality sequence (consisting of about 10 – 15 lines) is raising a lot of eyebrows, but if it’s just those few lines that are cut, then I’m okay with it. I think we can also expect to see a restoration patch in very short order, considering how brief that sequence is.

There’s not just that censorship issue, but also a twitter controversy sparked by the translation’s former editor Herkz (back from when it was a fan translation). I’m not gonna lie, I don’t like how it sounds like Frontwing handled the acquisition of that fan translation. If you’re respecting a fan translation enough to actually use it in an official release, you should respect the people who made it. But beyond that issue, I’m not sure how much I buy into the other accusations being made here. Outside of the ChiruChiru debacle, Frontwing has shown themselves to be a competent publisher of English VNs, and we haven’t really be given a compelling reason as to why they shouldn’t be trusted with Subahibi. I’m cautiously optimistic that they’ll still do right by that game, but combined with this and the censorship issue, I don’t blame anyone who wants to take the wait-and-see approach.

Anyway, there are so many other games announced at AX that seem cool! Which ones are you all looking forward to?

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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littleshogun
littleshogun
6 years ago

Easy question there. Out of all of thise announcement, what I’d look forward into was four which is Evenicle, Damekoi, Senren Banka, and Nanairo. As for Subahibi, I didn’t count that as new announcement but regardless it’s good that we finally got the timeline of the release even with some controversy in regard of censorship.

Cro
Cro
6 years ago

Oh god, Subahibi coming !

I’m so hyped right now, really looking forward for it, Tsujidou-san no Jun’ai Road, Maitetsu, Nanairo and Evenicle!

Really good news, thanks for this wonderful update!

Logos
Logos
6 years ago

Machine Child remind me Princess Maker.

Katie
Katie
6 years ago

These games are all from Aksys. 4 otome titles! http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2017/6427.html

mochisato
mochisato
Reply to  Katie
6 years ago

it’s 3 announcements cuz Code Realize -Bouquet of Rainbows is just a PS4 port ;;

nin
nin
6 years ago

Evenicle is at my must-buy list. JRPG’s are my favorite medium of entertainment, hearing that it harkens back to the SNES days hypes me up more. I would rather have Rance, but Evenicle’s always been high on my wishlist anyways. Rance during Otakon would be really neat, but I’m not betting on it.

I’ve heard interesting things about Damekoi. I might check it out.

Kokopukkur at least seems like it has potential. I’ve liked actually Itaru’s art ever since Rewrite, and I find it interesting that MG seems to be aiming for nakige fans rather than nukige fans. Maybe they figured they needed to add more nakige to their own store one way or another. Well, the extra risk is why they are using Kickstarter for it. I’ve been a loyal customer for MG for years, and I don’t mind risking some money to help them out. I hope they do a prefundia at least.

I’m not expecting Machine Child anytime soon, but I’m still pretty hype for it. I like Oyari’s art style even if his games aren’t the best. I haven’t played Majikoi yet, maybe I’ll wait for the JAST version.

Mangagamer won AX IMO. Evenicle was just too hype. Sekai had a lot of VNs, but other than Rewrite (which was technically announced last year), nothing really grabbed my attention. Though, that’s mostly because I only play moege once in a while and am not a huge fan of them in general. JAST is second place for me. Frontwing only announced one new game, which is a shame. I’m slightly annoyed over the censorship, but I understand and don’t blame Frontwing for it.

wyldstrykr
wyldstrykr
6 years ago

Rewrite+ doesnt use ametarasu translation??? thats sad… considering how long they translated those game….

Outrunner
Outrunner
Reply to  wyldstrykr
6 years ago

Sad indeed but not really unexpected. All ViusalArts/Key did was silence Amaterasu to prevent them from releasing their Harvest Festa translation. They pretended to give Amaterasu the job then gave it to Sekai.

ashe
ashe
6 years ago

I thought Dracu Riot is translated by someone else? Oxford fansubs just use that traanslation and edited them, and now they sell it to SP as if it is their own? Wowowowowowow just wow…..

Decay
Reply to  ashe
6 years ago

I don’t know what led you to believe that is happening, but it is not, I can assure you. If you have any other questions, please take them to the oxford comma blog or the fuwanovel thread. 🙂

You-kun
You-kun
6 years ago

First of all to have forgotten to add:

https://vndb.org/v16981
https://vndb.org/v21437
and news about SakuSaku

And I have a few questions:

1) Are you guys (Oxford Comma is Superior Subs ) are responsible from translation of Senren Banka too?
2) Is Majikoi A translations going to be affected in any way by localization of Majikoi?
3) Until several weeks ago there was 7 secret MangaGamer projects and 2 more unannounced Sekai projects. What happened to them? I know one of MangaGamer project still secret, 3 of them revealed at AX but what about other two? One week they were here, next week they suddenly disappeared.

Decay
Reply to  You-kun
6 years ago

Thanks for the reminders! I’m not sure how I missed those. Can you remind me again what the news about SakuSaku was?

1) No, we are not involved in Senren Banka.
2) Since Maji Translations is working on the original Majikoi now, it’s safe to assume that A’s progress will at least be slowed by that. As for A’s release plans, Maji Translations says that those have not been affected “yet,” which implies that they might be in the future?
3) MangaGamer had 6 secret projects going into Anime Central in May (note that there was a secret project 7, but not a secret project 6 at that point). Marina’s Cuckolding Report was #5, while Funbag Fantasy: Sideboob Story was #7. I believe one of SP’s secret projects was Re;Lord, while another was The Bell Chimes for Gold.

littleshogun
littleshogun
Reply to  Decay
6 years ago

As for Saku Saku, it’ll be released at Fall. Keep in mind that it’s just an estimation though so it might be change in the future. Oh, and Baldr Sky would be out at eay next year.

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

Thanks for reply! About sakusaku:

https://twitter.com/sekaiproject/status/881590831660113921/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffuwanovel.net%2F

It’s funny actually how you missed these since my sole information on AX your tweets an retweets at main page (and vndb forums).

As for 3), I think there wasn’t any indication of those vns are actually some of the secret and unannounced projects at vtls of the May so I thought those announcement came out of nowhere, thanks for clarification.

littleshogun
littleshogun
6 years ago

This week VNTS Review, along with my AX commentary. Enjoy.

https://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/1882-twilight-reincarnation-review/

As for Frontwing, I didn’t count Subahibi as new announcements imo (Only update). Instead, the two secret projects should be what I called Frontwing announcement imo.

haerts
haerts
6 years ago

Some corrected updates for Sekai Project list part:

Baldr Sky 1&2 are going to be a single package and release some time in 2018

Maitetsu is in QA

Dizzy Hearts isn’t going to be released by SP

Wagamama High Spec releasing July 25th http://store.steampowered.com/app/575480/WAGAMAMA_HIGH_SPEC/

Eternal Heart appears to be missing from the list (stretch goal was met)

Serment has a demo released on steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/632900/Serment__Contract_with_a_Devil/

Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki (SakuSaku) planned for fall release
https://twitter.com/sekaiproject/status/881590831660113921

additional sources: http://www.dualshockers.com/baldr-sky-dive1-baldr-sky-dive2-now-coming-single-package-sekai-project-shares-line/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
https://sekaiproject.com/progress/

Hope this helps!!

Kuromax
Kuromax
6 years ago

Personally I still don’t understand why they’re gonna retranslate Rewrite completely…
I don’t remember having any issues big enough to make me cringe while reading it. A lot of people say it deserve an official translation but I had more problems while reading official works like Tokyo Babel and Himawari more recently, when every 10 minutes (maybe 20 to be fair) I see a line that’s completely different from what the character just said and I’m like… why ?

lostn
lostn
Reply to  Kuromax
6 years ago

They probably thought about it but couldn’t reach an agreement with Amaterasu.

Decay
Reply to  lostn
6 years ago

We know based on a reddit post from a team member that Visual Arts/Key did actually pay for the Amaterasu translation. An agreement was made, and Visual Arts presumably obtained full rights to use Amaterasu’s work.

We also know based on a statement by dovac that Visual Arts did not even offer the Amaterasu translation to Sekai Project. We don’t know exactly how the deal went down, but VA might have went to SP and asked them to translate Rewrite+ without offering the Amaterasu translation that VA already paid for.

One possible explanation for this unusual string of events is that Visual Arts struck a deal with Amaterasu without knowing what the quality of the translation was like, and later in the process they discovered that it was of poor quality and decided it was easier to retranslate from scratch than try to fix it. This is a process that the Muv Luv team eventually went through, when they decided for Muv Luv Alternative to basically throw out the Amaterasu translation there and retranslate it from scratch, despite having already paid for it.

The fact that this has happened twice with Amaterasu’s translations is not really a coincidence. Most translators will tell you that even the best-reading Amaterasu TLs are still full of translation errors (and Rewrite read kind of okay, especially compared to how sloppy earlier Amaterasu TLs were). The Rewrite translation is known to be quite bad among most of the translation community. I still enjoyed Rewrite a decent amount despite the bad TL, so if SP can provide a much better one then I’d be eager to read that.

Sorry for rambling here, but this is an issue I wanted to get into in my commentary but it was already running long and I was getting tired writing it last night. :p

Kuromax
Kuromax
Reply to  Decay
6 years ago

Do you know where I can find examples of how bad it was ? Since if people debated about it I guess someone was bound to have linked some sentences/screenshot at some time, cause I really don’t remember it too be bad like a lot of people said…

TamakiSakura
TamakiSakura
6 years ago

Among the brand new AX announcements, I’m most looking forward to Damekoi and Nanairo Reincarnation (yay for slightly more grown-up romances.) I’ll certainly play the moege, and it’s good to finally hear who’s publish Rewrite+.

Koropokkur’s development will be watched with great interest. It’s too early to tell, but it being a nakige is a plus.

mochisato
mochisato
6 years ago

Update on the partial patch of Anniversary no Kuni no Alice and translation is 91% done
https://marchentranslations.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/patch-updaterecruiting-translators/

Elucar
Elucar
6 years ago

Is there any fanpage/Translation who translate Sengoku Hime 7? or Sengoku Hime series?
I hope there is

https://vndb.org/v19736
https://vndb.org/v19736/rg

Decay
Reply to  Elucar
6 years ago

If there was, we’d be listing it here. 🙂

But there is not, sorry.

gagantous
gagantous
6 years ago

fyi, PURE PURE vn will be relased on steam, regarding from abyss translation

http://imgur.com/r9uxwUM

since the game not listed in this VNTS

the game is a bit old ( well, it’s been a while since the translation begun, maybe 4-5 years )
https://vndb.org/v1272

Decay
Reply to  gagantous
6 years ago

That sounds rather uncertain, to be honest. You can’t just obtain licenses at the snap of your fingers like this person seems to expect. I think we’ll wait for an official announcement before adding it to the table.

gagantous
gagantous
6 years ago

pure pure translation is back