This week’s header image comes from this week’s four releases (left to right): Corpse Party (GOG or Steam); OZMAFIA!! (Otome) (Get it at MangaGamer); Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (Steam; Our Review); and Eien no Aselia (Steam).
Yo. Another week, another VNTS. Also, if you’re reading this, Katie, stop! Go back to studying! Focus on exams. The vast otome conspiracy universe can wait. (See, Lambda? I can be a good influence!) As for the rest of you, strap in and get ready for some visual novel TL news!
Oh yeah, we almost forgot to point out the ongoing Anime Weekend Sale on Steam right now, featuring plenty of heavily discounted visual novels. Check the commentary section below for Decay’s choice picks.
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
- Angel Beats! -1st beat – TL: 41.93%(182091/434217)
- AstralAir – TL: 74.20% > 75.03%; Edit: 74.20% > 75.03%
- Bishoujo Mangekyou -Norowareshi Densetsu no Shoujo – TL: 5/8 script files
- Bokuten (MangaGamer) – TL: 87% > 92%; Editing: 70% > 73.5%
- Clover Day’s – DMM Download version of the Japanese version available (more info here)
- Chrono Clock (Sekai Project) – TL: 10% (from their Q&A livestream, may not remain up-to-date)
- Corona Blossom – Game site is now live! English version here. Lots of new game info/assets to check out. Releasing Summer 2016.
- Corpse Party BloodCovered – RELEASED on PC! Get it via GOG (DRM-free) or on Steam
- Da Capo 3 (MangaGamer) – TL: 87.5% > 90%; Edit: 80.8% > 83.4%
- Dare ka ga Koi Shita Hankagai (Sekai Project) – TL: 51.79% > 53.31%
- Aselia the Eternal (JAST) – Steam version RELEASED! Get it here. Steam version contains extra content the original translated versions did not possess.
- Harumade, Kururu. – Image Editing: 90% > 100%
- Imouto Paradise! 2 (MangaGamer) – TL: 41.5% > 44%
- Kuroinu (MangaGamer) – Chapter 1 TL: 43% > 55%
- Maitetsu (Sekai Project) – TL: 10.14% > 12.11%
- MYTH (MangaGamer) – Edit: 81% > 100%
- Oreimo Tsuzuku (Disc 2) – Edit: 75.4% > 79.1%; Kuroneko Route 100% Finalized
- (Otome) OZMAFIA!! (MangaGamer) – RELEASED! Buy it here.
- Princess Evangile W Happiness (MangaGamer) – TL: 38% > 50%
- Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (Sekai Project) – RELEASED! Get it on Steam here. You can read our review for it here.
- The Shadows of Pygmalion (MangaGamer) – TL: 73% > 86.73%
- Tenshin Ranman (Sekai Project) – TL: 16% (from their Q&A livestream, may not remain up-to-date)
- To Heart 2 – Edit: 55% > 75%
- WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.03 (Sekai Project) – TL: 58.31% > 64.24%; PC version estimated to release in Late Summer; Unity port almost finished (link).
New Releases
- Corpse Party BloodCovered – RELEASED on PC! Get it via GOG (DRM-free) or on Steam
- Eien no Aselia (JAST) – Steam version RELEASED! Get it here. Steam version contains extra content the original translated versions did not possess.
- (Otome) OZMAFIA!! (MangaGamer) – RELEASED! Buy it here.
- Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (Sekai Project) – RELEASED! Get it on Steam here. You can read our review for it here.
Removed from the list this week
- (Otome!) Destiny’s Princess: A War Story, A Love Story – RELEASED! Get it on Steam right now!
- Dracu Riot – Fan patch by Staircase subs – RELEASED! Get the game patch here. All routes but Miu’s are done.
- Immoral Little – Fan patch by Tiny Lily – Dropped for the forseeable future (link)
- Magical Eyes – Red is for Anguish – RELEASED! Get the game here!
- Tokyo Babel (MangaGamer) – RELEASED! Get the game here! Congrats to the team for their achievement!
All the Game Updates:
Fan Translation Projects
[wpdatatable id=117]MangaGamer (Updates)
[wpdatatable id=119]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=120]Other
- Here’s a handy link to sort Sekai Project’s Steam releases by release date: link
Other Projects
[wpdatatable id=121]
— Commentary Section —
Zakabox™ Commentary
「So this is how it’s maybe going to work, guys: I’ll really try to get a one-month commentary streak done each time, but on the fifth day week, the Viking Lord will consider resting. Anyway, both Tay and Deccy seem to have skimped out on today’s entertainment, so I guess it’s me to the rescue?
Corona Blossom, which Front Wing plans to release in English first, will have an 18+ patch sold separately, three installments, and… be crowdfunded, apparently. On a trail perhaps blazed by KARAKARA, it looks like they’ll be putting it on Indiegogo rather than Kickstarter, which helps when you want to do the whole porn thing. If eroge crowdfunding can successfully move to IGG that is actually not bad at all – besides the whole porn allowed thing, their platform fees actually seem a smidgen lower than Kickstarter’s (though by a maximum of 2%). It should be noted that their terms do prohibit linking to sites with sexually explicit content, which is pretty much any Japanese VN site; I wonder if anyone will get burnt by that sooner or later.
As for whether or not you should really crowdfund this sort of thing if you’re Front Wing, well, we’re probably looking at a glorified preordering system here – not that preorders aren’t problematic in and of themselves, but we’re facing an old enemy here. I feel pretty ambivalent about the whole deal, but then I’m not actually very interested in the VN to begin with. Give me ISLAND, none of this silly moe buggery that seems likely if you read between the lines – or don’t, you’ll probably mangle the translation. Damn, this is hard. Adding insult to injury, R-ne sounds way too much like a very male Swedish name – Arne – for my personal comfort. This is unlikely to be a common problem.
Disappointingly, Corpse Party’s PC release has terrible graphics to the point where even I’m bothered by it. I guess emulating the PSP or perhaps the 3DS version will be how I experience it, if I ever do.
MYTH is out of editing. How long will scripting and testing take, though? Who knows. A respected mystery VN, it’s been vaguely on my radar since the announcement, though these days my radar tends to be overloaded with targets. Not to mention my backlog crying vengeance whenever I even think about it.
We have actual progress on the Oreimo VN’s second part for the first time in a while. From what I heard the first was rather disappointing, but maybe the second will help that a bit? Project leader Dizzy Ziddy should be happy work’s done on Kuroneko, at least – she’s his waifu to entirely healthy degrees.
Speaking of waifus, Claire from One Thousand Lies actually came pretty close to the line for me – those who’ve read it may now start doubting my sanity. OTL was kind of cool and is free; do check it out if interested. The comedy, writing (mostly), and dramatic plot are nice (and damn there are a lot of lies to be unraveled), though I don’t think I really understood all of its philosophical segments. Am I just bad at this sort of thing, or were they legitimately obtuse? Can’t tell, personally. For better or worse, you might have to think about it a bit after reading to actually wrap your head around all the plot’s twists and turns.
The big news recently are the releases of OZMAFIA!! and Root Double. The first, being an otomege with not that much plot, isn’t likely to be my thing, though it does have one girl x girl route… that one’s a thing [EDIT: or not? Check the comments]. Root Double certainly does interest me, though – a mystery VN by Nakazawa is no joke, though it does seem to have a few less-than-desirable features involved. Maybe I’ll get through part of my backlog simply so I can read it? I’m close to finishing both Kindred Spirits and Tokyo Babel, after all.
Oh, and good luck on the exams, Katie (who shouldn’t be reading this).」
Decay’s Musings
Geez Zaka, of course I’ll make a commentary. I’m starting this commentary 35 minutes before the post is scheduled to go live, mayhaps I procrastinated just a wee bit too much on this one.
Anyway, there’s a pretty good Steam sale going on right now, anyone picking up anything good? I haven’t pulled the trigger on anything yet, but I have my eyes on a few items. For those of you still on the fence, I compiled a list of VNs with really good discounts that I’ve either played and enjoyed, or have been told is really good by peeps with good taste. I shall now shamelessly copy and paste it from the associated fuwa forums thread:
- Romanesque for $16.24 – A fun, simple raising sim/VN hybrid. It’s pretty long and has a LOT of variation for multiple playthroughs. The story is super laid back, generally speaking.
- Clannad for $25 – It’s Clannad, and it’s $25.
- Amnesia Memories for $4.49 – A pretty lengthy, apparently very good otome game. Rooke likes it a lot. It’s dirt cheap, too!
- Fault Milestone One and Two for $3.74 and $7.49 – Pretty decent medieval fantasy adventures for super cheap.
- The Fruit of Grisaia for $19.99 – Easily one of the best VNs ever officially released, and the best VN on this whole list, for just twenty bucks. I doubt there’s many of you who aren’t already aware of this, though.
- eden* for $8 – Fairly decent romance/tragedy.
- Cho Dengeki Stryker All Ages for $12.24 – Pretty fun shounen action story. The action is pretty ridiculous and over-the-top, and sometimes it gets a little generic, but it’s still good, mindless fun. I liked it a fair amount. I promise you that you will not miss the ero content, it’s very short, infrequent, bad, and totally shoehorned in.
- Tokyo Babel for $27.99 – I’ve been trying to keep to games that have a significant discount but Tokyo Babel is my favorite VN in quite a while and $28 is a steal for it, in my opinion.
- Higurashi Ch.1 and 2 for $9.09 – Although it’s still practically just the opening of this ridiculously long story, Higurashi is a very good VN about the powers of friendship and all that with elements of horror and mystery.
I think the sleeper hit here is Cho Dengeki Stryker. I rather liked that VN, but it has underperformed pretty dramatically and no one ever talks about it. It’s not amazing or anything, but it really is good fun, and decently long, too. $12.24 is an absolute steal. There are some good VNs that have been lightly discounted that aren’t on this list, but I suspect they may end up even cheaper in the annual Steam Summer Sale coming in a couple of months.
This is another good week for releases. If you haven’t played Aselia the Eternal yet, now’s a good time to give it a shot. I don’t think it will win any awards for its gameplay, but you can do a lot worse and the story is worthwhile. It’s the predecessor to Seinarukana, and while Aselia isn’t required to play if you want to jump right into the newer game, it doesn’t hurt. According to JAST, there is new content in the Steam version, but I have no idea what this content actually is. They’re still mum on the possible 18+ version.
Ozmafia and Root Double are probably the releases most of you are interested in. You can see my review for RD here. We plan to have an Ozmafia review, too. Anyways, Root Double is pretty decent! Well, to be honest, “pretty decent” is a bit disappointing. With the buzz it was generating, I was hoping it could be some kind of absolutely incredible experience. I believe it to fall short of that on a fairly objective level, but the degree of how far it falls short is up for debate. There are parts of the VN I really enjoyed, and parts that I really didn’t, and the whole package felt inconsistent to me. It’s the kind of experience where just one or two differences could have boosted its score by two or more whole points. The issues I perceived may not be as big of a deal for a lot of others, though, so by all means, don’t let me stop you from trying it out for yourself and forming your own opinions.
This week’s Album of the Week is Junk by M83. I remember listening to Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming five years ago and being really impressed. They fell off my radar for a good while, until just recently when I learned that they’ve finally released their next studio album. And it’s great! I’m not sure it’s as good as the last, but it has a style of its own that I’m enjoying a lot. It’s a bit jazzier and funkier, which I like.
TAYsteful™ Thoughts
Seriously, Katie? You’re still reading this? You have tests to take! Control yourself! You can do it!
[If I get a chance to write commentary later tonight, it’ll go here. If not, I suppose you’ll all just have to enjoy this self-reminder bracket sandwich]
ayyyy finally ozmafia is out, also just to clarify somethings
@Zara the girl x girl is a myth, you can’t rll date her, i think the only otomege that you can actually date a girl is gekka ryouran romance and even so is full of crap (tho its not only her routes that game itself is crap), about plot ehh i’m not so sure but i think the game has a good amount i mean it has a ‘Grand Finale Ending’ with a long ending with just plot is better than other games that has simply has plot holes are okay with that *cough*NORN9*cough*
fuck
🙁
Thanks for the well wishes, Zaka! If you ever need to know the tpr of large animals or how to properly restrain a cat/dog for venipuncture, I’m your girl. Also, if you want GxG in otome, your best bet is OELVN, though Mystic Messenger–from Cheritz, a Korean company–supposedly comes out in June has GxG, but they’re making it a mobile game, so :
wait really is that true? because from the website she seems like a side gal and she don’t have icons or banners, unless she is a very secret route character or something
Whoa! It’s now going to be VR compatible too! That’s interesting. Yeah, I’m pretty sure she is. She’s the career over love character.
Corona Blossom +18 in English, is that really happening or it’s just wrong information on vndb?
It’s real, Front Wing confirmed it on Facebook. I mentioned it in my commentary actually, lol.
Another my VNTS commentary for this week here http://forums.fuwanovel.net/blogs/entry/1190-wanko-as-firefighter-review/. Even though Root Double response here might be not the best here, I definitely hope that it’ll be get many good attention to English user here.
Labyrinth of Grisaia pl0x
I used the Steam sale to finally get Kindred Spirits On The Roof, so I’m doing my part to bring about yuritopia.
Four weeks until my Muv-Luv panel at Anime Central, and Muv-Luv Extra is still not out (not even in BETA!), so that’s going to give us a little less to talk about than I’d hoped. It is interesting seeing some of the translators post screenshots here and there on Twitter, notably @enjoievan and @sachimcbelle exchanging a shot of the Chizuru route of Extra that makes a callback to Kimi ga Nozomu Eien / Rumbling Hearts (one of several KGNE callbacks that was missed by the original fan translation): https://twitter.com/SachiMcBelle/status/721404953915318273. Even has also tweeted a few shots of his fan translation KGNE in the last few weeks: https://twitter.com/enjoievan/status/725087154913701888.
For next week: @enjoievan just announced that the Akane route of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien is now complete: https://twitter.com/enjoievan/status/726915616255275008
Lol, guilty as charged. I’ll good and read the details later, thanks Tay ;p
*be
< 3
So like, what is the deal with not adding the Tsui-Yuri project to this list?
You said it wasn’t added because you don’t add projects right away, which is fine I guess, yet several projects launched essentially the same time are on the list, ( and have been there for a while, like the Dracu-Riot! project.)
Just kind of confused as to why our project isn’t added, when others are…
Okay, so here’s the deal. I tend to dislike adding projects that get off to a slow start because there are a LOT of projects that start off, give just one or two status updates, and then disappear, never to be heard from again. To me, when a project is first announced, it’s just a “theoretical” project, not a “real” project. Reporting on these projects is something I really don’t like doing. We get peoples’ hopes up for nothing, and I end up having to remove projects that have like no progress, making me feel like a fool for even adding it and wasting everyone’s time.
Right now I sort of label your project as a “theoretical” project. It hasn’t really gotten off the ground yet, if you know what I mean. If you showed any amount of progress this week I probably would have added it, but you haven’t, so…
Anyway, I hope you understand where I’m coming from. I wish you luck with your project. If it’s any consolation, there are certainly projects older than yours still not added. Such as Fate/Extra CCC: https://iwakuraproductions.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/the-fateextra-ccc-translation-project/
Would anyone happen to know what exactly the “new content” in the Steam version of Aselia is? I haven’t been able to find any clear information regarding it and it’s really bugging me. If the game is significantly different I might actually decide to go through it again after all this time, but the time investment would be too big if it’s just a couple of scenes.
I’d like to know that too. I have the official JAST version already and I’ll be pretty annoyed if there’s a significant amount of added content that I would have to pay again to get.
What an amazing website this is and what a great job these folks do, they deserve more praise. Great job fellas.
There is an update for Koiken Otome didn’t included here which is understandable because he says “don’t quote me on that”. Well, it’s good news for anyone waiting for it. Check out their page!
http://flyingpantsu.net/our-current-status-2/
Calling Eden fairly decent is insulting, that novel is atleast Grisaia level. Would recommend for anybody.
I wasn’t a fan of the protagonist and I thought the melodrama got a little trite :p. Overall I felt it was a bit overrated, but I still included it because I know others like it a lot.