As people have been greatly anticipating, this past Friday (September 8th) the fan translation group Studio Frisay has finally finished their complete release of Makura’s H2O √after and another Complete Story Edition (originally called H2O -FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND-.) This project started right after finishing their previous project, Ima Sugu Onii-chan ni Imouto da tte Iitai! on October 5th 2022. Their progress would be documented in the fan translation section within our forums from start to finish.
The patch can be found here/here and the full game can be purchased on DMM (a Japanese proxy service might be required.)
H2O -FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND- was first released by Makura in June 2006 as the debut project for the brand. A year later, additional content followed with √after and another, containing new after stories and routes. Through Regista, it was made available Japanese only ports for the PS2 around 2008 as well.
Here we get to what Studio Frisay has localized, and this is a version of H2O √ after and another Complete Story Edition, originally released at the end of July 2009 containing both the original game as well as its afterstories. This version of the game took another decade to receive a Digital Edition, which then released in June 2019.
In H2O -Footprints in the Sand-, Hirose Takuma is a blind middle school student, though the cause for his blindness is undetermined. After his mother died unexpectedly, it left a deep emotional scar on him, causing him to become lonely and reserved. Due to this, Takuma moves from the city out into a rural area to live with his uncle and Takuma is enrolled into a new middle school. There, he meets several new girls, including the firm and obstinate Kohinata Hayami, the kind and obliging Kagura Hinata, and the cheerful and mysterious Otoha.
In √ after and another, there are new after stories for two of the heroines from H2O (Hayami and Hinata), plus new routes for Yui and Hamaji/Yukiji, the latter of which also unlocks Maki’s route.
Studio Frisay’s Post
The game is fully released by now, but there’s still some praise that must be granted to Studio Frisay. They came out of nowhere and not only created a successful translation group, but also kept steadily progressing at a constant rate. People who follow Fuwanovel’s VNTS threads will notice that we often talked positively about their progress numbers.
Compared to perpetually running translation projects like Yosuga no Sora, White Album 2 or even the infamous project Aiyoku no Eustia, the H2O project management really delivered on all levels.
Doubly impressive, Tooko and NReus are the only members on the team. A duo working together this smoothly we have last seen with Triplicate and Irru. Magnificent!
Common: 6953 / 6953: 100%
Hayami: 20620 / 20620: 100%
Hinata: 14112 / 14112: 100%
Yui: 13151 / 13151: 100%
Hamaji: 4973 / 4973: 100%
Maki: 5437 / 5437: 100%
Otoha: 8301 / 8301: 100%
Total: 73547 / 73547: 100%
(Descriptions taken from Wikipedia)
Hirose Takuma
The main protagonist of the story.
He has a moderately quiet personality partly because he suffers from blindness and for his condition, he carries around a white cane he named Tomoda Chisa (友田千紗), (a pun on the word tomodachi — friend.)
His mother committed suicide, which left a deep emotional scar on Takuma. To rectify this, he moves to the countryside to live with his uncle. Takuma is naturally friendly and likes to befriend everyone he meets in his new town. There is a rift between the rich and the poor, with Takuma being on the former end of the divide.
Otoha
VA: Naruse Mia
Otoha appears to be a normal girl, but she is in fact a spirit, and only Takuma can hear or see her. She is always cheerful, and will appear out of nowhere, clinging suddenly to Takuma. She refers to herself with the masculine pronoun boku (僕).
She refers to Takuma as the “Promised Person” (約束の人, Yakusoku no Hito).
Kagura Hinata
VA: Isshiki Hikaru
Hinata is the granddaughter of the village’s headman, and is one of the rich members of the town. She is in Takuma’s class and is the council president for her class; she has a kind of obliging personality, and is popular in her school. She is clumsy and tends to fall down, though.
She refers to Takuma as “Hirose-sama”, a very polite form of expression.
Kohinata Hayami
CV: Izumi Mayu
Hayami is a girl in Takuma’s class who sits next to him. She has an unsociable personality and a sharp attitude towards others, not wanting to become friends with anyone, due to her accepting her own status as an outcast.
We asked the translator, Tooko, whether he could pick nine screenshots he was proud of translating. Here’s what he came up with!
The patch can be found here/here and the full game can be purchased on DMM (a Japanese proxy service might be required.)
If you enjoy our work, please follow us on Twitter for more visual novel news and join the community in our forums and discord server: we’re pretty active there!
In addition, you can also support us on Patreon or by buying us a Ko-fi.
