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Visual Novel Translation Status (05/13/2017)

This week’s header image comes from our five releases (including Hatsukoi 1/1, the first major fan patch release in a long time, which you can check out here).

In order the images come from: A Butterfly in the District of Dreams (Sekai Project); GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class: Slapstick Wonderland (Fan TL); Gakuen Club (Dogenzaka Lab); Hatsukoi 1/1 (Fan TL); and Taishou x Alice (E2 Gaming)

VNTS (Visual Novel Translation Status Updates Series) is published each Saturday and brings the latest updates from VN translation projects — both licensed and by fans — from around the net. If you find any errors, or you think a project is missing from this list, please let us know in the comments.

From The Team:  Hey everyone, Tay is grueling through exams so here I am again! We have a few good releases this week, and one notable clunker. We like to remain mostly impartial here, but it’s hard to this week. Just… maybe don’t buy Taisho x Alice. If you have money burning a hole in your pocket and an urge to get an otome game, Period Cube and Nightshade released recently, Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is releasing very soon, and Silent Voices is a promising-looking project on Kickstarter.

The Short Version: Only the New Stuff

New Releases!

All the Game Updates:

Fan Translation Projects

Fan Translation Projects

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JAST USA Projects

JAST USA (Updates; Archive)

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MangaGamer Projects

MangaGamer (Updates)

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Sekai Project Projects

Sekai Project (Update Page)

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Other
  • Here’s a handy link to sort Sekai Project’s Steam releases by release date: link

Misc. Projects

Other Projects

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VNTS Commentary Section

Zakabox™ 「This is the place where Zaka occasionally shares his wisdom. Will he show up this week? Will he have anything to say? Only time will tell.」

Decay’s MusingsHow’s everyone’s week been? It’s been a pretty good week for me. I’ve been enjoying me some Nier Automata, which I finally picked up. I won’t get too deeply into it here, but man, that is a hell of a game. Even going in after seeing it get hyped to hell and back, it still manages to seriously impress me. That game’s entire aesthetic feels tailor made for me.

But visual novels! We’ve been getting plenty of them and I’ve been reading not a lot of them! I started up Eden of Grisaia. I do plan on reading that one through sooner rather than later, but I have to say that the prologue didn’t really pull me in. Maybe it’s the pacing that’s throwing me off, because of how it starts. I’ve only read it for like an hour though, so don’t take my words too seriously. I’m looking forward to playing more of it soon.

I’ve actually put more time into Hatsukoi 1/1 than Grisaia, which, well, I don’t have much of an excuse for except maybe I’m more in the mood for something brainless. It’s a pretty good moege. Some people complain about the protagonist, but he’s pretty much fine in the common route. I think some people put too much stock into what their ideal vision of what a “badass” is and what that in every VN. But my view on what is and isn’t “badass” seems to be pretty different from most of the community. I digress. Hatsukoi 1/1’s protagonist is indecisive, a pushover, and colossally moronic, but I don’t really care? At least he has more of a presence than most moege protagonists. I hear he gets worse during the routes, and I hate myself some ultra-donkans, which this guy seems to be, so we’ll see how it goes then.

The other characters are pretty great, though. This kind of VN heavily depends on the strength of its cast, and I really enjoy basically all of the heroines except for the ultra boring and stereotypical student council president. The banter is amusing and everyone is charming in their own way. Me and my wife Runa will lead the revolution together. Down with the man!

I’ve expressed some gripes with the translation in the past, and those gripes still remain. They’re gripes even the translator himself has shared on his blog. The gist of it is that it’s accurate, but has some pretty flawed English writing, leading to a very stiff and unnatural feel. Among the list of problems include an over reliance on stock phrases (including the dreaded “it can’t be helped”), an adherence to the Japanese sentence structure leading characters to say things in weird ways, and nothing but the most standard translations leading to very samey dialogue, weakening the otherwise distinct personalities the characters possess. In short, it’s a very literal translation. If that bothers you, then maybe wait for whatever changes Triplicate plans on eventually making to it. Because the thing is, while it has those issues, it still contains a firm basis to work from and has the potential to become a great translation if it is given the proper attention and care.

I think maybe I’ll start an editing blog like all the cool kids are doing and post some of my editing thoughts there. Other people like Fred the Barber are doing blogs about general good editing practices, while maybe I’d like to dig deep into specific common issues I’ve run into and possible ways they could be handled. I don’t know if I’ll be doing this anytime soon, it’s just a thought I had. One item among many on the long-ass todo list.

Anyway, that’s enough out of me. Have a good week, everyone!

TAYsteful Thoughts™Clinical exams are just about over. Thank goodness. Life’s been absolutely nuts for me, how about you guys? At about four in the morning, as I finished my last exam and stumbled out the door, I saw that Decay was still up and working on VNTS. He put in a lot of time and effort this week combing through the tables and sprucing them up. I was able to step in and finish the last few bits of the post for him, but if any of you have a chance, let’s give him a big ‘thank you’ for all of his work.

I’m traveling this week, so communication will be spotty. If you have an emergency-level issue, Skype is still the best option. Otherwise I’ll get back to you around Thursday-Friday. Have a good week, everybody!

Decay

Hello, I'm Decay, an avid fan of visual novels and a regular poster on Fuwanovel. Also, I now review and write about VNs officially for Fuwanovel? Yeah, that started happening at some point. You may also see me on VNDB as dk382.

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castrix
castrix
7 years ago

I think you forget that BiMan1 has reached 100%

castrix
castrix
Reply to  castrix
7 years ago
takarei
takarei
Reply to  castrix
7 years ago

they wrote about it last week

castrix
castrix
Reply to  castrix
7 years ago

it looks like i was who got late info

Joshuu
Joshuu
7 years ago

Isn’t the editor’s fault if the translation reads overtly literal?
I mean what does he even do?

zaidk
zaidk
7 years ago

waiting for the epic boss (dies irae)
i’m really excited for it

jetpack003
jetpack003
7 years ago

It looks like Wagamama High Spec is still coming in “Early 2017”.
Whatever the hell that means anymore…

Also, it’s link to steam greenlight doesn’t seem to work right now.

willzyx9
willzyx9
Reply to  jetpack003
7 years ago

Sekai Project streamed Waga High on twitch yesterday. It was the demo so I hope we get release date soon.

You-kun
You-kun
7 years ago

Decay, I dare to say most of the time literal translations will feels stiff, unnatural to you if you are native English speaker or really close to that level. For example “it can’t be helped” doesn’t sounds weird to me much. And I imagine there is much more non-native English vn readers than native English vn readers (excluding Japan).

I can understand about %15-20 of voiced Japanese lines and I really hate it when I hear one thing from spoken line and read entirely other thing in English. There are lot of times (I am talking about in general here, I didn’t read Hatsukoi yet) when I yelling to my screen “That wasn’t she said! How the hell you are translating it like that!”.

Of course everything in moderation. I like literal translations but in my opinion its good to resort liberal way of translation if you can’t translate it without screwing up meaning of sentence. In other words if you can’t translate a part like jokes, idioms, figure of speeches, slangs you should resort liberal translation there.

Katie
Katie
7 years ago

This is an excellent article about the whole E2 mess. PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU BUY THE GAME!!!
https://figurativelyspeaking.me/2017/05/10/taisho-x-alice-vol-1-now-available/

Freestyle
Freestyle
7 years ago

Cant wait for W Happiness

littleshogun
littleshogun
7 years ago

My VNTS Review for this week, enjoy.

https://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/1777-first-love-childhood-friend-and-shoujo-manga-review/

Poor Midori by the way now that apparently people think she didn’t quite interesting. Well, good luck to your HatsuKoi playthrough there Decay, and beware of how stupid Yuma could be.

rlan
rlan
7 years ago
Minerva
Minerva
Reply to  rlan
7 years ago

Wait, what ?! It will be on Steam ?
Ah … such a good memories.

Although to be honest, the art feels … strange than the original IMO. I dunno why, maybe because the palette background doesn’t blend well with the HD image.

VirginSmasher
VirginSmasher
7 years ago

In terms of Hatsukoi, I just couldn’t stand 3 of the heroines and the other two just barely caught my attention. I just cannot see it getting any better, but I’d say that this is more fitting for somebody who actively seeks out and enjoys moege and not somebody who thrives on serious plots like me.

voidpointer
voidpointer
7 years ago

I’m dying waiting on Nier to go on sale. It’s too damn expensive right now! Glad to hear you like it though!

Mike
Mike
7 years ago

Good updates this week, however, MangaGamer is still taking its sweet time with the VN’s that have been sitting at 100% for a while now, including Evangile and Imouto Paradise. Its frustrating to have to wait so long, and still no release dates as of yet.

Ark
Ark
7 years ago

Jeeeeez, hatsukoi 1/1 is an absolute slog to read. It started out decent enough but I regret getting invested cause daaaaamn the protagonist is just the most infuriatingly stupid character I’ve ever read about. Starting with Runa’s route was a super bad idea but i heard it was the best, I hope not, cause I still want to finish this thing. 🙁

Katie
Katie
7 years ago

The first part of the re-re-release of the Hakuoki otome for vita is out on Amazon and IFI’s store.

Mochisato
Mochisato
Reply to  Katie
7 years ago

its a remake tho, the old routes get new stuff and a lot of new routes uwu

Katie
Katie
Reply to  Mochisato
7 years ago

I still think it’s a waste of money.

Mochi
Mochi
Reply to  Katie
7 years ago

eh you do you i guess
its better than period cube so im going back to hot samurai hell

Kevin
Kevin
7 years ago

Luna Translations link leads to a page not found.

Kevin
Kevin
Reply to  Kevin
7 years ago

The Luna Translations link beside Witch’s Garden.