Last week on August 4th, the new localizer Inter De Pendence released the full version of KAGITORI -BIRD IN THE CAGE HIDING THE KEY-, a visual novel made by Cabbit Soft. The game is now available on Steam for $25.49.
Kagi o Kakushita Kago no Tori -Bird in Cage Hiding the Key- (also known as simply Kagitori) is a visual novel made by Cabbit Soft (Cabbit) — a sister brand of SkyFish. The game released its trial version on September 14th 2020 and soon after became available on September 25th 2020.
Skyfish is a VN brand, previously formed as DreamSoft. They released visual novels such as Midori no Umi (available with a machine translation by SakuraGame), Kimi e Okuru, Sora no Hana, Love Love Life ~Ojou-sama 7nin to Love Love Harem Seikatsu~, Hakoniwa Logic (this too, featuring a “translation” by SakuraGame) and its fandisc, as well as this game.
The scenario writer for this game is Mikuriya Mikuri. Her notable works are Nyan Café Macchiato ~Sexy Times at the Cat Café~ (featuring a translation by MangaGamer), Floral Flowlove as Assistant Writer (is an on-going translation project by NekoNyan), Trinoline and Trinoline: Genesis (both translated by MangaGamer), and My Klutzy Cupid (which got a recent English translation).
The artists behind the work are Saeki Hokuto and Yukie. Saeki Hokuto is a character designer and artist; her notable works are Hello Lady! and its fandisc (both translated by NekoNyan), Suisei Ginka, and most of the Shin Koihime series.
Yukie is a character designer and artist, and her most notable works such as Nyan Café Macchiato ~Sexy Times at the Cat Café~, Hakoniwa Logic and its fandisc, Hoshi Furu Yoru no Farnese, and Chuunibyou na Kanojo no Love Equation.
Inter De Pendence is a small Japanese localization company run by two people with their CEO, Shumpei Nakajima. They opened the company for game developing, translation, and dubbing, as well as sales planning. They officially made a registration of establishment on March 22nd 2021. Later on, they took the contract for Kagitori on April 1st 2021.
A murder case occurred in the city.
Tohko Kujakuseki, a girl who is a benefactor of the main character, Yota Kawasemi, was arrested on a murder charge and she confessed her murder.
However, Tohko was released due to a lack of evidence.
People around her didn’t allow that, and she was imprisoned in a large Western-style building.Yota, who has lost her grandmother and lives alone, decides to live with Tohko in a Western-style building.
And Tohko and her close girl, Mion Aobazuku and a class president Yoru Tsubamesawa,
With the addition of Izuru Mizuha, an oddball in the class, a communal life with five people begins.They cook, stay in touch, have small conversations and quarrels …
Yohta has come to like such a life.But the girl hasn’t committed the murder. She is hiding someone.
If that is true …
Who is the true criminal? Why Tohko is going to be guilty …
Is it possible to save a girl trapped in a bird cage?
Steam
On June 11th 2023, a sudden news shocked the English-speaking VN community: Kagitori suddenly appeared on Steam, and was translated by this new company. The game was labeled as “Coming Soon” and although the full version is out now, you can still play its demo.
Less than two months after, the game finally released in its full version. Unfortunately, this game has some issues, which you can see in the explanation below.
When the demo released, VN players such as Meru, the CEO of Love Lab, assumed the game was using machine translation due to the multiple errors, such as grammar mistakes and typos.
On release day, Steam user and developer nanamorist7777, who works for Inter De Pendence, made a post on a community thread. They stated this game had countless errors and unnatural writing due to the translator not being completely fluent in English.
The all-ages release was also discussed, since this game won’t have an external R18 patch.
As they developed the game with SkyFish as a limited partnership, they will release this game in iOS, Android, PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch if possible, so they need the game to be as accessible to all VN players as possible.
In the comments section, many people expressed their disapproval, either for this stance on the R18 patch, or for its mediocre localization.
Since this is their first project, we sincerily wish they can learn and grow from this feedback into a respectable publisher.
Because of the lack of a R18 patch, many players are hoping for a fan translation project to bring back the adult content – maybe on a different storefront.
But not all hope is lost, for a valiant community member called Ride to Hell: Retribution reached out to the developers at Inter De Pendence to give them some instructions in how to operate as a company that localizes into English and, on top, help them amend the translation of Kagitori into something more readable.
At this point, they also kept it ambiguous whether a R18 patch may follow, but it is not entirely impossible.
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