This week’s header image comes from our two releases: Koiken Otome (Fan TL by the Flying Pantsu team), and Muv-Luv (Official Release (congrats!) by Degica)
Hey everybody. Guess what? We have another episode of the VNTS Podcast for you! In it we tell you all the week’s updates (though, apparently, I have a terrible American accent and I’m a horrible person and nobody likes me and I’m going to die alone), chat a bit about them, and laugh at each other. Here it is:
Oh, and one other thing: past VNTS posts will be BROKEN for the next few days. You’ll still be able to open the posts and read the “Short Version section” and the commentary, but the tables will be broken until I can fix them.
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
- The Afterglow of Grisaia (Front Wing) – Releasing July 20th. Steam page up here.
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Norowareshi Densetsu no Shoujo – Edit: 22.9% > 24.3%;
QC: 3.1% > 14%; Team shakeup, see new crew here - Chrono Clock (Sekai Project) – TL: 23.43% > 25.97%
- ChuSingura 46+1 (NextNinja) – Chapters 2 and 3 are releasing as paid DLC in late July (link)
- Corona Blossom (Front Wing) – Releasing later this month! Steam page now online here.
- Eiyuu*Senki (JAST) – Translating adult content
- Flowers (JAST) – Re-write/editing: ~70% (According to Meru on Discord); Beta Testing: 15%
- Hanasaki Work Spring – Hikari Route: 29% > 32%
- Japanese School Life (Sekai Project) – TL: 77.88% > 87.70%; Estimated release in October 2016.
- Koiken Otome – RELEASED! Link to the patch: Download here; Purchase the game: on DMM or Amazon.jp
- Koiseyo!! Imouto Banchou – DROPPED
- Libra of the Vampire Princess (MiKandi Japan) – Mari’s Route TL: 100%
- Lovely x Cation – Overall Progress: 31.6% > 33.4% (Link)
- Majo Koi Nikki – TL: 21% > 23%; Edit: 11% > 13%
- Memory’s Dogma (Sekai Project) – TL: 68.19% > 97.07%
- Muv-Luv Series (Degica) – Muv-Luv Extra and Unlimited released! Buy it here.
- Nympho Sensei Ryoko (JAST) – Script editing 50% (waiting for new beta)
- Monster Girl Quest Paradox – Patch v1.21.36 released (see this post)
- Princess X – My Fiancee is a Monster Girl (JAST) – Translation 70%
- Still, I Miss Her (Sekai Project) – TL: 4.53% > 5.66%
- Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi – TL: 33.0% > 34.2%
- Tenshin Ranman (Sekai Project) – TL: 29.99% > 30.04%
- Tsui Yuri – Total TL: 50% > 53%; Total Edit: 43% > 44%
- Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou – Current: Luna’s Route: 20%; Overall: 31% > 32%
- Witch’s Garden – TL: 62% > 63%; TLC: 5% > 7%
New Releases
- Koiken Otome – RELEASED! Link to the patch: Download here; Purchase the game: on DMM or Amazon.jp
- Muv-Luv Series (Degica) – Muv-Luv Extra and Unlimited released! Buy it here.
Removed from the List This Week
- Kyoto Colorful Days (Dogenzaka Lab) – RELEASED on Steam.
All the Game Updates:
Fan Translation Projects
[wpdatatable id=1]MangaGamer (Updates)
[wpdatatable id=3]Other
- Rance 5D, Rance VI, and Rance Quest fan translations on hold in anticipation of potential official release by MangaGamer.
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=4]Other
- Here’s a handy link to sort Sekai Project’s Steam releases by release date: link
Other Projects
[wpdatatable id=5]
— Commentary Section —
Zakabox™ Commentary
「 … 」
Decay’s Musings
Hello all. I guess we’re just jumping right into this podcast thing, huh? This week’s episode is probably much more in line with what a typical episode will sound like, when there isn’t a huge convention to cover. Just a svelte half hour of us sort of shooting the shit, talking about the latest VN news. I didn’t really expect to do another episode so soon after last week’s, but Tay wanted to do it, and who could turn that guy down? I think it turned out pretty well, we had a pretty good cadence going for this being our second podcast, and never really talking to each other on skype much before (don’t believe Tay’s horrible lies about my maniacal glee whenever I get cut games from the list; there’s no way he could’ve heard my laughter).
Koiken Otome feels like it’s been getting a little overhyped. I’m not entirely sure why, either. But the desire for this release has been real, and it’s finally here. I gave the game a quick spin, and nothing about it really grabbed me. The art was good, but it also just seems really generic. I also seem to be basically the only person bothered by this, but I also get crazily annoyed by the way they translated Yuzu’s third person speech patterns. They even avoid second person pronouns! Isn’t that a little overboard? Well, whatever, a lot of people seem to like this, so I guess chalk this one up to me not understanding the tastes of you darn kids.
And woo… Muv-Luv? Yeah, sure, woo! Not gonna lie, I really disliked Extra when I played it a few years ago, but I know it has its fans. I know I talked a big game about the translation on the podcast, but to me at least, the differences really are like night and day. I want to give some major props to the Muv-Luv team. I’m not going to lie, I was a little bit skeptical at first. Some of the output of Alternative Translations has been a little sketchy in the past, so I wasn’t fully sure what to expect here, but they really knocked this one out of the park. Even if I don’t love Extra, I now actually find some of the dialogue to be pretty amusing, which is a huge improvement over how it was before. And I feel good knowing that Unlimited and Alternative will be that much better.
You can see a post I made listing a short excerpt from both versions of the game alongside some commentary here. This is just one short excerpt of one scene, but from what I’ve seen from various videos, the rest of the game is just as improved. Apparently some people don’t like these improvements, and I’m not going to lie, I just don’t get it. I can understand a lot of the differing viewpoints behind various translation philosophies even if I disagree, but I honestly don’t understand this. The complaints here remind me of complaints about the Tokyo Babel translation.
The main running theme I see behind almost all of these complaints seem to be that they want the translated script to be as close to the Japanese script as humanly possible, even if it means ruining readability. I’m sorry, but if that’s your aim, then maybe you should just learn Japanese? If you want the Japanese experience, then there’s really no better way to get that. If you want a readable English experience, then minor liberties simply must be taken, otherwise you end up with a script like Ixrec’s, which for real failed to invoke a single laugh from me for the entirety of Extra. Yeah, sorry, I’ll take this over that any day of the week. And of course this is all ignoring the fact that the new script is also overall way more accurate, above all else.
Anyway, I hope you guys have a good one and enjoy the new releases this week. We’ll be back next week with more updates and mmmaybe another podcast? Is Tay that insane? Tune in next week to find out!
TAYsteful™ Thoughts
Congrats to the Muv-Luv and Koiken Otome teams!
Have a good week, everybody.
I’m sure the hype for Koiken Otome is because of the after effect of recent takeover of several fan translation.
Koiken otome story sucks…
Sure. Plot is not great. But I thought everything else was great!
Yea I rly liked the art, the music and the UI is has very nice little touches. If only the story wasn’t so darn generic it could’ve became one of the better VNs
My VNTS review this week.
http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/1317-attack-on-beta-before-the-fall-review/
By the way, in regard of Tokyo Babel translation complaints, even if my condition was same as Kirashi here (Didn’t fluent in both of English and Japan), I didn’t had any complaint to Tokyo Babel translatiom here.
hey guys, evan from the Muv-Luv Team here. i just wanted to say thanks for the plug here and on the podcast, and for Decay’s very enthusiastic comparison post on the forums. i wrote the new draft for Muv-Luv (with plenty of help from koestl & Sachibelle, of course), and i was legitimately scared to death of transliteration enthusiasts not appreciating the new direction. this allays a lot of my fears for my similarly adaptive KimiNozo script as well, so thank you so very much for the kind words. it’s good to see we’ve garnered some good faith with the community. i hope you’ll look forward to MLA and the rest of what’s in store for the franchise going forward.
Hey, I recognize quality where I see it, and I was genuinely impressed by Muv Luv. It’s enough to make me jealous, actually. I’ve been hammering on a script similar in quality to Ixrec’s ML translation and it’s clear I’m nowhere near as good at this as you guys are, lol.
I only read Decay’s comparison post (18+ patch or riot), but the difference is quite pronounced. Good job. I think the level of revision was beyond what anyone had expected.
If what Decay posted is representative, you really knocked it out of the park. (I’m waiting for the 18+ version before I play it, myself, so I haven’t started yet.)
Lol about the “butchering” of Japanese. Honestly, it’s better than tripping over the names trying to pronounce them correctly. You’re a little hoarse-sounding, Tay, but other than that, you’re fine. Thanks for bringing Memory Dogma to our attention; it sounds pretty interesting! I love hacking/mystery stuff. I’ll definitely check it out. The new site looks fantastic btw. And my apologies about the avatars, Tay ;p
You have nothing to apologize for : P. The only one who did any wrong was that villain, Decay. He is one tricksy hobbit, he is.
I agree with you decay, koiken otome feels really generic even boring some times. I read Touko route and I’m not very motivated to continue, maybe I will read Akane route too and call it a day. I definitely won’t read suzu route though , what is the origin of this weird habit of some characters on anime and vns talking about themselves in the third person? I thought maybe with time I would get used to it and it wouldn’t bother me so much, but nope, I just keep getting progressively more pissed off.
“The main running theme I see behind almost all of these complaints seem to be that they want the translated script to be as close to the Japanese script as humanly possible, even if it means ruining readability. I’m sorry, but if that’s your aim, then maybe you should just learn Japanese? If you want the Japanese experience, then there’s really no better way to get that. If you want a readable English experience, then minor liberties simply must be taken.”
I agree completely. I wish something like this was posted in the Steam forums for every single game that began life in a language other than English.
“Tenshin Ranman (Sekai Project) – TL: 29.99% > 30.04%”
Aww yeah, we’re 0.05% closer.
Do you know about old Tenshin Ranman fan translation ?
Newbie Question… Is this Muv Luv the sequel or the fandisc of the original?
It’s the original Muv Luv (Extra + Unlimited), with higher resolution art, UI improvements, and a heavily revised translation.
I’m pretty sure the Aokana translation is dead now.
“Dead” would imply that work was even being done on it. Now while we obviously can’t prove this, the guy already lied once about the translation’s progress, I have no doubt that if he even put any work into it, it was only enough to realize he was in way over his head and had made no real work on it. He then decides to make up some excuse about how all the backlash he’s gotten have pissed him off and now he’s scrapping all the new work, just to “stick it to us”.