Mikandi Japan Revives From the Dead?! — Re-translation of Libra of the Vampire Princess

Vampires never die!

Vampire hunters, rejoice! Localizer and Publisher MiKandi Japan announced Onomatope*‘s action romance VN Libra of the Vampire Princess is getting a retranslation and it will be available on October 31^st. You can check their Patreon page to find more information about the updated release on that day.
On January 31^st, there was an update post regarding the patches:

This is a quick update to let you know that all versions of the patch are currently being tested by a limited number of twin-tail lovin’, vampire hunting players.

Full post on Patreon

If you want to play the game, it’s already available on Steam since 2017. Be mindful of the translation quality, which we’ll go into detail below.

A Story of Battle, Blood, and Love!

Kusanagi Shuuma was living a life of an ordinary boy until one day he got suddenly abducted by one of the three vampire ringleaders - Iris Pumila. She revealed to him the secret of his ancestors - that he has vampire progenitor's blood coursing through his veins and that it is her destiny to awaken his true nature. Fortunately, Shuuma was able to escape from Pumila at that time and return to his ordinary daily life, but as a consequence of his encounter with her - his body has radically changed and he became a half-vampire. As a side effect of his sudden change, Shuuma obtained superhuman strenght and vampire's vitality but he also started having spontaneous vampiric impulses that are calling for him to suck blood of living creatures.

On top of all of that, Shuuma made a bunch of new bizarre acquaintances with random women from both human and vampire side:

- Maritima Malcolmia, the cute werewolf maid who was tasked by Shuuma's deceased father to restore the family she served to its former glory;
- Calendula Officinalis, a daughter of one of the three progenitor's families, who declared herself as a Shuuma's fiancee;
- Aoi Kamishiro, a tsundere vampire hunter sent from the Holy See's secret anti-vampire organization - the Rubina;
- Lycoris Radiata, an airheaded subordinate assassin sent by Pumila to abduct and capture Shuuma.

While dealing with all these women as well as his old female friends, Shuuma is trying to live not as a vampire, but as a human. Tangled in the midst of this web of conflicting intentions, Shuuma will have to use his vampiric powers despite his aversion to them to oppose the rising forces of evil. His ordinary everyday life of a simple boy is no more.

Steam

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The game originally released in 2015, as a Download and Package Edition. Later on, it released with the Kyuuketsuki no Libra Shokai Gentei Hadaka Patch which makes characters sprite’s clothing come off. You may obtain this patch here.

Later, it got its own fandisc, Libra of the Vampire Princess: Lycoris & Aoi in “The Promise” PLUS Iris in “Homeworld”. Different from the main game, this is rated All Ages 13+. The game itself features only English support and is available on Steam.

This title features Miyasu Risa as the artist, who was also behind the art for the Nekonade Distortion series.

Onomatope* is a visual novel producer with parent brand by XERO and imprint brand by Panache, a collaboration brand between Clochette and Onomatope*. Its subsidiary brand, Onomatope*Raspberry, is a sub-brand that focuses on nukige.

Their first release was Mecha-con! on 2011 when they released its Trial version. Later, they released other titles, such as:

• Sakura No Reply (2012)
• Ore to 5-nin no Yome-san ga Raburabu nano wa, Mirai kara Kita Aka-chan no Okage ni Chigainai!? (2013)
• Zutto Sukishite Takusan Sukishite (2013)
• Kanojo ga Ore ni Kureta Mono. Ore ga Kanojo ni Ageru Mono. ~KISS My Darling:Mecha-con case3~ (2014)

Both Libra and its Fandisc are their last project.

Bad Translation Controversy

On October 9^th 2015, it’s been announced the game was getting its own English translation from Mikandi Japan, made available on Steam and the Mikando Store (which is defunct by now).

The plan was to release in November 2016, but the game had been delayed to March 2017 instead. Fortunately, the game did release in English on May 16^th 2017. Another delay followed as they were still working on the engine for the Steam release. After this final delay, the official date was announced to be June 20^th 2017.

Mikandi Japan released their Collector’s Box Set on May 3^rd 2017, made available on the (now inactive) Lx XERO Shop. It includes a Collector’s Box, a physical edition of the game, a physical edition of the game’s soundtrack, and a physical art book. On the same date, they released its Physical Editon. On May 27^th 2017, Mikandi Japan released the 18+ Physical Patch, a patch intended solely for buyers of the physical editions (the website was password protected, with the access being granted to the Kickstarter backers.)

On June 20^th 2017, the game became available for download on Steam and Mikandi Japan’s website, alongside its 18+ patch.

However, here’s where things started to go wrong, as the translation quality was minimal. The translator themselves lacked proper English knowledge, and on top of that, there was no editing whatsoever. Decay, which is now part of Eroge publisher NekoNyan‘s staff, discovered that several lines had been translated very badly, as show in the image below. Decay decided to contact Mikandi Japan throught their Kickstarter to ask about their translation quality and the need for change. You can check the discussion here.

After several complaints and feedbacks, Mikandi Japan felt the need to apologize for the translation quality provided. On November 22^nd, 2017, they announced to retranslate the project on their Kickstarter page. At that time, the Main Route at 30% completed and Mari’s route was at 20%.

Update after update on their Kickstarter page, until February 14^th 2020 came. Their last update was announcing that they had hit the Aoi Milestone, which was being translated/edited by Tormaid. They had also received support from Meru, the CEO of LoveLab. No more updates followed for a long time.

Three years passed with no updates. Then, on September 23^rd of this year, the official Mikandi Japan Twitter stepped out of the shadows to announce that the rumors of their untimely death are much exaggerated. In addtion, their retranslation patch is almost ready and they only need testers before the full release on October 31^st 2023 could happen. They also claimed that this will be a fully uncensored release: according to Mikandi Japan, they have a new translation for the 18+ scenes and a new patch for that as well. However, they need help distributing it since their distributor, MiKandi, shut down. They might reach out to Fakku, JAST USA, Kagura Games, or MangaGamer.

If you are willing to test it, please take a look at their Patreon page!

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