This week’s header image comes from this week’s four releases: (Left to right) The Men of Yoshiwara: Ohgiya (Steam); Narcissu – A Little Iris (Steam); Seinarukana (Physical edition, or digital edition); and Starlight Vega (Steam)
Hey there. You’re probably here because you heard we’re serving up steaming hot plates of Zaka. That, or you’re here for Visual Novel translation news. Either way, it’s a judgement free zone. Cannibalism, yo. Just be wary of them prion diseases. Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s a b***h.
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.
The Short Version:
Only the New Stuff
- Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino – TL: 100%; Edit: 100%; The patch is now currently being tested and proofread. (Link)
- Angel Beats! -1st beat – TL: 41.42%(179848/434217)
- Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm – Team has been selected; More details coming this weekend (watch the blog)
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Norowareshi Densetsu no Shoujo – TL: 4/8 script files completed; 5th one 69% done; Team selected (see the roster here)
- Corpse Party BloodCovered – PC release date: April 25th on Steam and GOG; 3DS version coming Summer 2016.
- Dare ka ga Koi Shita Hankagai (Sekai Project) – TL: 37.71% > 51.79%
- Flowers (JAST) – Re-write/editing 25%
- Hoka no Onna no Ko to H wo Shiteiru Ore wo Mite Koufun Suru Kanojo – TL: 14,319 Lines > 14,755 Lines
- Junketsu Megami-Sama – Added to the list this week; Alpha patch #2 released (entire prologue) – get it here; Binaryfail patched Win 10 display issues (link)
- KARAKARA (Sekai Project) – TL Progress: 95.98% > 100%
- Koiseyo!! Imouto Banchou – TL: 6% > 7%; Edit: 5% > 6%
- Kono Oozora Retranslation Project – Ageha’s route TL: ~40%; Amane still being worked on; the other routes are done. Project is still alive, if a bit slow
- Majikoi A (1 + 2) – A-1 Overall: 72% > 81%
- Maitetsu (Sekai Project) – TL: 6.96% > 10.14%
- Malus Code – Coming Spring 2016; Steam page is live
- Memory’s Dogma (Sekai Project) – TL: 8.41%
- Narcissu Trilogy Remake (Sekai Project) – Narcissu – A Little Iris released! Available on Steam here; Narcissu Zero: Fully translated, in implementation; Narcissu Sumire: “Roughly 25%” (Link)
- Purino Party – Announced (link); Game site is up
- Seinarukana (JAST) – Released at long last!; Buy the physical edition here, and the download edition here; Steam version coming in Fall 2016.
- Sonicomi (JAST) – Debugging, Dub option recording/programming
- Starlight Vega (Sekai Project) – Released last week! Get it on Steam here!
- Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi – TL: 30.8% > 31.2%
- Sweet Home (JAST) – TL: 100%; Debugging script
- Trample on Schatten (JAST) – TL: 86% > 94%
- Wish Tale of the Sixteenth Night – Total Progress: 65.71% > 87.25%
- WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.03 (Sekai Project) – TL: 51.23% > 58.31%; PC version estimated to release in Late Summer; Unity port almost finished.
New Releases
- (Otome!) The Men of Yoshiwara: Ohgiya – Released this week! Get the game on Steam right now!
- Narcissu – A Little Iris (Sekai Project) – Came out on Monday; available on Steam here
- Seinarukana (JAST) – Released at long last!; Buy the physical edition here, and the download edition here; Steam version coming in Fall 2016.
- Starlight Vega (Sekai Project) – Released last week! Get it on Steam here!
Removed from the list this week
- HaraKano – The patch (get it here) completes the common route and the three school girls’ routes (Ren, Marina, and Ayana’s routes). UI TL: http://imgur.com/a/FBzuU
- Magical Eyes – Red is for Anguish – Get the game here. Congratulations to the team on this accomplishment!
All the Game Updates:
Fan Translation Projects
[wpdatatable id=112]MangaGamer (Updates)
[wpdatatable id=114]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)
- The translation of Kindred Spirits’ Drama CDs have been announced!
- Free Friends hardcopy has been put up for pre-order and is releasing May 20th!
Sekai Project (Update Page)
These percentages should be seen as vague indicators of progress, and are not entirely accurate due to a variety of reasons.
[wpdatatable id=115]Other
- Here’s a handy link to sort Sekai Project’s Steam releases by release date: link
Other Projects
[wpdatatable id=116]
— Commentary Section —
Zakabox™ Commentary
「(Zaka has been chopped up and served in delectable steaming bits to all of our adoring readers. He was a mighty viking and a good friend. He’ll be missed.) 」
Decay’s Musings
Seinarukanaaaaaa! Nearly 6 years ago on May 18th 2010, EchoMateria started up the Seinarukana translation project. Since then it has been a total rollercoaster spanning several years involving multiple translators, editors, project leaders, at least one total reboot, a project buyout by JAST USA, and a period of years where the game was completely translated and edited, and not even the freelance staff knew what the heck was happening with it.
It has been one long, convoluted journey, but it’s finally here. On April 20th, J-List customers started receiving shipping notices, and on April 22nd, the game was made available on JAST’s download store. Even if most of them didn’t have to do much over the last few years, I’m sure everyone involved is mighty relieved by this release and are happy to move on. Good work, guys. JAST still has to finish up work on the all-ages version that will go up on Steam, which is currently estimated for a Fall 2016 release. But hey, the version most of you have been waiting for is here at last.
This release kind of snuck up on us. JAST previously notified us that the game went golden master and was in duplication, but with no timetables provided, it was hard to know exactly what that meant, practically speaking. “Soon,” sure, but this is JAST, you know? So instead, they opted for the route of not disappointing anyone with delays by virtue of not telling anyone about the release ahead of time. I get it, but I hope this is just a temporary measure. Is just spontaneously releasing their games with little warning really going to be all that good for them? I mean, that goes against all common marketing sense. This isn’t a sustainable release philosophy. They’re either going to have to actually start meeting their deadlines, or just suck up the backlash.
For those of you wondering what’s going on in the world of Sekai Project, check out the Q&A video they uploaded to youtube here, or our summary of that video here. I found it to be rather informative, and they showed a good deal of transparency regarding a lot of their business decisions and even the stuff they’ve gotten flak for, such as their 18+ releases. For those of you who want more 18+ content from Sekai Project, they give some reasons to be optimistic. Specifically regarding Maitetsu, they haven’t yet confirmed anything but they did heavily hint that an 18+ release could be possible and that we should expect an announcement in the next few months. I hope Sekai Project continues to do Q&A sessions like that in the future.
As for me, I’m nearly done with Root Double. THAT VN IS HUGE. I imagine I’ll spend a lot of my time next week on Hearthstone, as the new expansion is releasing. Or maybe I’ll finally get into Dark Souls 3, which I pre-ordered and then have only had the time to play four hours of since its release. Whatever I do, it’s probably not going to be VN related. I really want to get into Seinarukana but playing Tokyo Babel and Root Double back to back is really taking its toll. There’s TOO MUCH GOOD STUFF! Please stop releasing VNs for a good six months, everyone. You’re killing me here. Remember the peaceful times of 2015 when nothing happened for months at a time?
Oh, also, Tay added Purino Party although I’m not sure it’s actually a VN in any capacity. That thing just oozes irony. Seriously, who expected Japan to start copying western VNs/Dating Sims? I love it.
TAYsteful™ Thoughts
State Hero of the People’s Revolution, Decay, forced me to do my job and include ALL the releases in today’s header image. Originally I just featured a big ole slab of adorableness (courtesy of The Men of Yoshiwara: Ohgiya which came out this week on Steam):
Isn’t that picture so cute? I rate it a solid D’awwww/10. Seriously, though. It’s hard to capture “tenderness” in an image like that. Be sure to check out the original image.
I was excited to see that we got an update on Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino (TL: 100%; Edit: 100%; The patch is now currently being tested and proofread). Always good to see that projects are still alive and moving.
I want to thank everyone who donated a few bucks to Loe (of Loe Quality TL). He mentioned all of us here. What a classy guy, eh?
So, yeah. I don’t really want to write any more right now despite having stuff to say. For now I’ll just say CONGRATULATIONS to JAST for achieving the impossible and finally releasing Seinarukana (physical edition here, and the download edition here). I’ve heard a bit about how hard the team has been working lately, and they deserve a hearty “congrats” from the fanbase for their work.
Oh, and here’s a little bonus content courtesy of my hate mail from last week. Have a good week, everybody.
From Tay’s Inbox:
“Hi Tay its been a while how are u? Im still mad and hat how ur going woman now and hate everything but otome fuckery.”— Archmage Tay (@ArchmageTay) April 16, 2016
From Tay’s Inbox:
“Otome sucks balls sometimes literally. If you actually cared about visual novels you’d hate them”— Archmage Tay (@ArchmageTay) April 16, 2016
(Last one) From Tay’s Inbox:
“Otome is not equal to eroge – period. Stop including them in your posts and site or I will kill you”— Archmage Tay (@ArchmageTay) April 16, 2016
My official response? Grow up.
danganronpa 2 on steam ?
gotta love dem otome hate
how dare companies make something to appeal other public then get translated cuz of the interest !!111
I know! The nerve of some devs.
Kudos for not raising to the extremely pathetic bait, Tay. Stay classy. Ozmafia comes out next week, but I think I have to avoid the internet until exams are over or I’ll be too tempted to have fun and avoid mental breakdowns disguised as studying.
I’ve had to do the same thing for the last two weeks. It’s worth it and you can do it! Video games/visual novels taste all the sweeter after exams are done.
We believe in you! Good luck!
I didn’t see notice of this kickstarter, but maybe I just didn’t read closely enough
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/57909428/chusingura46-1-a-visual-novel-with-moe-samurai-gir-0
It didn’t make last time, their staff is completely useless, and they can’t even come to terms on the title.
Nah, it doesn’t need to be listed, to be frank.
Well, the Kickstarter is going to bomb, but it succeeding would be a pretty bad thing for the industry, so I’d rather not promote it, lol.
I’m tempted to write a “Why you shouldn’t back ChuSinGura” post on the fuwazette but I don’t think I have the time for that.
Oh, It’s a pitty
It’d had been interesting
Well, it can’t be helped 😉
Okay that makes sense, the people running do seem to be quite lacking in organization and listening to the public. Thanks for the info
since when was Root Double released?
It wasn’t. He got early access to write a review for the release.
Let it be known that Tay is an awful enabler, that CG is adorable, and I’m gonna buy Ohgiya while it’s at a good price. And then I’ll buy Ozmafia next week. What a good week or so for otome games for me… I didn’t even see all the new otome games being added to steam! Thanks Tay for keeping up with that! …..But I missed the sales on most of them so I’ll probably wait a little for the others (and no ojiisan fetish, either…) I’m looking forward to the release of Akaaka, too. Wasn’t expecting that to pick up ever again, either.
As someone that reads otomege and games for guys, those comments are hilarious.
So let it be written, so let it be d–wait, what? Enabler? Me? Nevah!
RE: Steam games – It’s crazy how many are coming out. And don’t thank me for the tips — they’re coming from dev emails and our fellow commentors here each week.
RE: Those tweets – Yeah ; P
Another my VNTS Review here http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/1178-a-little-good-news-review/. As for why Decay had Root Double copy, it was the review copy and the only one who could get that was selected reviewer.
How long has that Angel Beats project been going for? Hadn’t heard of it but it seems to be making good progress.
It’s been going on for about 4-5 months by now
I respect Otome, but for many viewers here ( who are mostly male) its a bit….. cringy
and so is eroge/yuri/and sometimes just vns with male target audiences cuz oh boy there are some ugly vns out there, for some girls but you still don’t see that many loud complains :DD