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Greetings! It’s been another eventful week in the VN world, with a release, a release date announcement, and plenty of project updates! This week’s release happens to be No One But You, a kickstarted highschool romance VN. You can buy it on MangaGamer here. I have some things to say about it in the commentary section below you may want to read first. Also, praise be to Tay for fixing a critical issue with the blog just in the nick of time, saving this week’s VNTS.
Anyway! Welcome to our weekly VNTS (Visual Novel Translation Status) series, in which we track visual novel translation updates in-house (we don’t rely on /jp/ posts on 4ch, for example) and post it for your enlightenment and enjoyment each Saturday. If you find any errors, or you think a project is missing from this list, please let me know in the comments. Any new updates are marked by orange text.
The Short Version:
Only the New Stuff
- Amagami – Hurray, more progress! Translation is now at 65.9%. They’re still badly in need of help if they want to get it done sometime in the next year or two, so if you’re interested, check out their site.
- AstralAir -Translation at 66.87%. The table entry for this isn’t updated for this week, but this is the latest update.
- Bunny Black 2 – Aroduc has announced a tentative release date for the full patch: January 26th.
- HaraKano – We actually missed this for a couple weeks, but Loe has started work on the Ren route and has completed 505 lines (out of how many, I don’t know)
- Harumade, Kururu. – “Harem route” translation at 86.2%
- Koisaku – Only the Ann route and part of Konami’s route remain for their final edit pass. TLC has begun as well.
- Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi – Translation at 23.7%
- To Heart 2 – Editing now at 55%, Karin and Konomi routes were recently edited and a new beta patch will be released in a few weeks.
- Witch’s Garden – Translation now at 67.75%
- Flowers – Editing at 40%. Remember when this was supposed to be released in the fall? lol
- Seinarukana – Working on package design, and making the Steam page. Yep, with zero fanfare, through their rarely visited project status page, they announced a Steam version of Seinarukana. So look forward to that, I guess.
- Sweet Home – Translation now at 45%.
- Beat Blades Haruka – Now available for preorder! (link) Release date announced to be February 23rd.
- Bokuten – TL at 77%, editing at 43.28%
- Da Capo 3 – TL at 75.3%, editing at 74.3%
- The House in Fata Morgana – TL at 100%, editing at 26%
- Kuroino – Translated resumes at last, now at 20%
- MYTH – TL at 94%
- OZMAFIA – editing at 40.63%
- Princess Evangile W Happiness – 14% TL, editing at 5%. Translation has begun at long last! I know there are lots of PE fans out there looking forward to this.
- Shadows of Pygmalion – TL at 10%
- Tokyo Babel – Editing at 88%
- No One But You – Released! Buy it here!
- Root Double – Its kickstarter is trucking along, and has recently seen a small upturn in activity. It is still in need of your support, though, so check it out!
- Libra of the Vampire Princess – Kickstarter finished! Much money was raised and three stretch goals were met. Congratulations to MiKandi Japan!
All the Game Updates:
Fan Translation Projects
[wpdatatable id=48]MangaGamer (Updates)
[wpdatatable id=50]Other
- Rance 5D, Rance VI, and Rance Quest fan translations on hold in anticipation of potential official release by MangaGamer.
- Magical Eyes – Red is for Anguish – Pre-Order is up! (Link)
- No One But You – Released on MangaGamer’s store and Steam! (Buy it here!)
Sekai Project (Update Page)
1/23/2016 – We enter into the third week of their tracker being down. Desperation is spreading, people have turned to eating their clothes for survival and there are rumors of cannibalism. When will these trying times end? In the meantime, No One But You released! Buy it here!
[wpdatatable id=51]Other
- Here’s a handy link to sort Sekai Project’s Steam releases by release date: link
Other Projects
[wpdatatable id=52]
— Commentary Section —
Zakabox™ Commentary
「…」
Decay’s Musings
Whew boy! That’s another VNTS update down. A pretty decent one, too. MangaGamer’s many updates are all exciting. I know there are a lot of PE fans out there who desperately want that fandisc, I’m sure they’ll be pleased with the translation finally beginning. It seems like it just may come out this year after all. Beat Blades Haruka also coming out next month is pretty cool. That’s no small game, MG must have worked hard to get that out ASAP. If it sells well, which I’m sure it will, we may finally start seeing official Rance releases in the west, and the nearly-finished translations of 5D and 6 may yet see the light of day!
I’m also excited to see Amagami progress. If you ask most Fuwanovel users what their most anticipated translations are, I don’t think Amagami would even break the top 20 for the large majority of them. Yet it’s right near the top for me. It’s one of the most, if not the most highly lauded dating sim/VN hybrid out there, and I really like its look. Maybe it gets overlooked because it’s an all-ages, console-only VN, but I think more people should care about this one. Unfortunately not all updates from the translation team are positive, and it seems like they’re really struggling. The project lead is thankfully very dedicated, and I hope they get the help they need.
This week also saw the release of No One But You. I talked a bit last week about how the developers seemingly over-scoped the project, and I hoped it wouldn’t suffer for it. I’ve played it for a bit. I haven’t actually finished a route yet, I was planning on maybe doing that later today, but unfortunately my impressions on it are not positive so far. My fears have been realized, and it simply feels like a half-finished game in nearly every aspect. Art, music, and story. Backgrounds are filled with placeholder objects but occasionally have well-drawn and highly detailed objects thrown into the mix, giving off an odd, disharmonious sensation. Some of the BGMs are okay, others feel exceptionally amateurish. The story is paced pretty bizarrely, it feels like some characters are missing characterization, and relationships are apparently established “off-camera,” away from the reader’s eyes.
So if they had all the time in the world to polish this game up and fill in the lacking content, would it be good then? Probably not, no. I can’t yet judge the story as a whole, but what I can say is that the dialogue is just bizarre. There is no consistency to the characters’ talking styles and the protagonist especially can utter off some of the most cringeworthy statements you’ll ever hear in a VN. But it’s not just him, there are plenty of cringes to go around. No amount of polish can fix bad, unnatural writing and unfunny humor, unless you want to start over from scratch. It’s unfortunate, it seems like no one can capture the magic Katawa Shoujo holds for so many readers of OELVNs. NOBY misses the mark by a mile.
I should have a full review of it up some time next week. Hopefully during the weekend, but maybe not. If I don’t, I’ll have to review something even longer, or else Ryechu may pull out his blood-spackled “positive reinforcement cane” again. *shudder* Anyways, that’s it from me this week. Have a good one, folks!
TAYsteful™ Thoughts
Hi everybody,
I’ve been busy this week dealing with real-life responsibilities and upgrading behind-the-scenes Fuwanovel coding. I just want to say that I’m extremely grateful for Decay and Nayleen – these two people, in particular, have kept some of the Fuwanovel properties in order, and I’ve been able to build off their work to ensure the coming weeks are prepared for coding updates. I want to thank sanah and many others for their patience – there are many year-end reports which need to come out, and the statistics involved are a bit beyond my personal abilities. I spoke to a statistics professor who told me the information I’ve gathered are far-beyond trivial graduate student levels. As soon as the preliminary statistical models are verified, I’ll release the year-end surveys. I’ve found three graduate students (and several Fuwanovel community members) who are willing to review the 2016 surveys, re-write them, and eventually share as much information as possible with the community.
Fuwanovel is a large (and growing) VN community, and it’s supported by end-users. I’m dedicated to sharing the latest data with all of you, and I hope to remain as transparent as possible as we move forward. If anyone wants to dig into the statistical methods we’re employing as a community, please message me, personally, at my personal email (or Fuwanovel Forums PM inbox).
Hope you’re all well, and I look forward to sharing information with you soon.
– Tay
[This week’s header image is from Amagami, or more specifically, an Amagami SS fanbook]
Might want to reword the Koisaku part of the Short Version.
It’s only Ann’s and what remains of Konami’s route left to be edited, but the way you guys wrote it make it seems like it’s the only stuff edited.
You’re right, that was a silly mistake.
I heard that noby was forced to be released early by sekai
Where VN Fortune Arterial? Gone?
This VN still partial patch.
https://vndb.org/v87
All of the translators went MIA and there hasn’t been any news on the project since late 2013. There was a brief attempt to resurrect the project but that didn’t go anywhere. August curse is strong.
My two target Visual Novel is coming up to complete ..
Time to search seed and stuff now x.x
Anyway thank’s for update ~
Make me easier for check the stuff and other xD
Seinarukana!! Finally. Took a lot longer than I had expected though since it was first fully translated by Seiha. But at least it’s finally here. Except… I hope there’s a physical copy and a full version rather than the censored version that will be on Steam. I only had to wait for a translation since 2007 haha.
Don’t get your hopes up yet…This is JAST we are talking about I’m sure they will find a way to delay it for two more years because of that steam page lol
In case you needed confirmation: http://follow.jastusa.com/post/137999889441/since-you-are-making-a-steam-version-of
In essence, yes there will be an uncut physical version.