Chocolatemilkgod

Magikoi S patch released! That was pretty fast considering. Total props to those guys, looking forward to playing it and Magikoi A as well.

I'm going to chime in slightly belatedly.

 

For me personally, I quite liked the anime. In fact, I watched the anime first before I read the VN. My biggest gripe with the anime, and this is especially glaring in the first season, is that it's a horror mystery as opposed to a mystery horror. In other words, the anime goes out of its way to try to creep you out in a horror type of way as opposed to relying on Higurashi's interesting mystery story telling. There was also a number of scenes removed in the anime that are in the VN (to be expected), although rather unexpectedly there were a couple of 'extra' scenes added... which add little to nothing to the story except to make it a bit more bloated, so that's less cool.

 

Overall the second season is stronger than the first as the second season relies more on mystery over horror (like the VN). I'm going to disagree with Harle and say that at least some of the emotional scenes were actually good in the anime (not all of them per se, but a number). So I'd recommend the anime (particularly the second season) as long as you realise it won't be as good as the VN, but still good.

 

As Harle said, don't forget about Rei since it's only a few episodes long and worth watching for a bit of fun. Oh and don't forget about everyone's favourite Higurashi anime Kira*!

 

*Nota bene: I am being completely sarcastic. I am not responsible for any damages incurred, both mentally and/or physically, whilst watching this god forsaken piece of human filth.

 

And the manga, again as Harle said, are supposed to be reasonably good as well... I just can't read manga very well, so I wouldn't really know. As for Umineko... well, some people really love it, so you might be able to. I... wasn't, but hey that's just me. Give it a shot.

I am legitimately impressed by the 'big three'; all of them had at least one good story VN that was announced, and the announcement of an official Muv Luv translation not only introduces another player into VN localisation, but also rewards ixrec for all his hard work at Amaterasu Translations. So all in all, really really impressive. Plus also there's talk of translations of other Age titles, including more Muv Luv and possibly Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (although it appears that both KimiNozo and other Muv Luv titles, including eclipse, might get fan translations anyway; see here). It's worth mentioning that Innocent Grey jumped the ship a little bit by localising Flowers with JAST as opposed to Mangagamer (who localised their previous titles Catagra, Kara no Shoujo and Kara no Shoujo 2). I'm not entirely sure why this is the case, but more competition is almost always a good thing.

 

Oh, and for those interested in Muv Luv, the same guys working on the fan translations of Muv Luv stuff are also translating the light novel Schwarzesmarken (which is being adapted into a VN), and you can read the newly released third chapter of volume 1 here. More source material translation, whether it be VN or LN is always nice to see.

 

[*]Little Busters ME/EX - 29712/30163 new lines translated, TLC 100% for Kanata and Saya

My question is what this actually means in terms of the big picture since their google doc doesn't appear to have been updated in quite a while... well, whatever the case, any update for LB EX/ME makes my day.

I have a feeling Grisaia bombed - at least in terms of short-term sales. Despite the huge amounts of backing through Kickstarter, one has to remember kickstarter funds do not equal total profit, unlike actual sales. If they're lucky, they might be breaking even.

 

Which is too bad, I wanted it to do better - but Steam is just too full of plebs wanting cheap fanservice. If Clannad's launch ends up with a lukewarm response the way Grisaia did, I think it'll be safe to say crowdfunding is a pipe dream.

 

This is the one major reason kickstarting VNs is a good idea; if you have most or all the upfront costs shown on the KS, then even if you don't sell a lot you won't be losing money. You won't be gaining much money either, but it's a lot better than the alternative.

Finally an official Muv Luv translation, eh? If they're using the pre-existing translation (which it sounds like they are), they'd be able to get a release relatively quickly. I suppose the real kicker is if they're able to get all the licensing fees on kickstarter. I imagine they have a good shot, but muv luv is less well known outside the VN community (unlike Clannad which has a very popular anime). Anywho, it'll be interesting and I'm excited to see another player enter the VN translation ring. There's certainly been an increasing interesting in bringing more VN and VN-like games to the west. It could be that Sekai project's explosive success in the past six months has convinced both Japanese companies and western localisation groups that VNs are worth officially translating.

i'm

 

a

 

lolicon

 

On a more serious note, Astral Air has been consistently getting 2.27% translation on average per week for six weeks; that's pretty good progress. Looking forward to that one . It'll still be a while before it's out, but they've been pretty good so far.

 

It'll probably come out before little busters EX at this rate...

The majority of eroges/visual novels have what is called a route structure. These 'routes' are essentially like multiple endings based on the decisions you make, and they can vary drastically in size from a few minutes to many many hours of reading time. The name given to the unbranched portion of these games is called the common route, and the routes that branch off this main story are usually given the name of the character that they focus on. What this also means is that trying to get through a visual novel or eroge without saving is going to mean you have to play through the entire game up to that point again in order to get a different 'branch' to play.

 

The impact choices make is entirely dependent on the VN. In some, like Grisaia, a single choice will determine which character's route you will enter. In others the choices you make will be tallied up and, depending on who you've spent the most time with, that's whose route you'll enter. Others still will have different choice systems, and some (like Higurashi) have no choices to speak of at all. So... to answer your question, it can really depend on the VN/eroge you're playing. For me personally, I often find the choice system tedious and annoying because I treat VNs like a book. Consequently, I usually just use choice guides/walkthroughs to play; this removes the gameplay aspect entirely so I can just focus on the story.

 

G-Senjou no Maou (and Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo, a game made by the same company) has a particularly odd choice system. I'll include a brief description of it in the spoiler box below (there are no story spoilers, but you don't have to read if you're set on playing the game through without any advice on the choices). In addition, I would really recommend a walkthrough for the game unless you're really certain you want to just stick with guessing which choices might lead to certain endings/routes.

 

[spoiler=Advice on choices in G-Senjou no Maou]The first chapter is all common route, so the couple of choices you get have no bearing on the story IIRC. The second, third and fourth chapters focus on different girls, and you'll be able to enter their routes depending on your particular choices. There are no more choices after chapter four. In addition, most routes in the VN have a 'good' and 'bad' end depending on the choices. Obviously good ends usually result in a happy ending or conclusion of some sort, whilst bad endings can result in no closure or even death of the protagonist (depending on how bad said bad ending is).

 

 

To summarise and revisit your question, the choices you make can have a wide variety of impacts depending on the game (some are non-essential, some are very much essential). I don't bother with choices since that's not the reason I read VNs, but other people are different (unless you're playing a game like Yu-No, in which case a walkthrough is almost a necessity so you won't lose your mind). If I were to chose one, I usually go with b) as long as the choice is non-essential. However, I would highly suggest you use saves before important route choices to avoid replaying the game again. If this does happen, or if it's a game with a choice structure that means you have to play through the common again anyway to get to the story, there is usually a skip function somewhere in the options that allows you to skip already-read text. I always read 100% of a VN (ie all the routes) unless I a) drop it or b) really really REALLY hate a character... and even then I'll usually use the cntrl (skip) function to get the gist of what's going on... I think that's what most people do anyway, so saving makes this much much easier. If you want to play the game blind, you could make saves at the choices but just play through to the game's end anyway; then you have the simplicity of reloading the save(s) once you've completed a certain route but still have the fun of sticking with your decisions.

I'll be brief since both Harle and desi explained most things in detail. I suppose the point I wanted to clarify is what an 'eroge' actually is.

 

An eroge literally means 'erotic game', ie it will probably have some combination of sex, nudity etc. Now rather confusingly, despite this site being called 'erogegames.com' (or its sister site where you can pirate these types of games for free, erogedownload), what you'll actually find here are visual novels (VNs for short). The mix up in terms probably arises because A) many (but certainly not all) VNs are also eroges and B) because VNs without erotic content (so-called 'all-ages' VNs) were rarer when the industry was younger. Thus the two terms are closely related, but distinct. Anyway, enough of the semantics. What is a visual novel?

 

A visual novel is a game with a significant written portion (the novel aspect) accompanied by art (the visual aspect). Most VNs will also have some kind of sound with them, usually some music (aka background music, or BGM), and some of the higher fidelity ones may also have voice acting for what is written and other SFX. Now to make another distinction; not all VNs are eroge, but those which are eroge can have a lot of story to them. Think of them a bit like Game of Thrones (or whatever movie/TV show you want that has nudity or sex scenes in it); they might have sex, but that doesn't mean the story isn't good. In fact, if done well, it can make the game more mature (mind you this isn't often the case, but anyway...). On the other hand, eroge that is almost entirely about the sex/nudity/hentai is called nukige.

 

I suppose what my rambling is trying to get across is that VNs/eroges are varied, and many of them can have really good stories with or without sex scenes. As I read VNs for the story, I don't touch nukige with a 10-foot barge pole for example. In any case, VNs are predominately Japanese in origin, but they have started to gain a bit more traction in the west. Games like Phoenix Wright (which admittedly is Japanese in origin) are VNs which are pretty popular in the west, for example*. In addition, VNs written in English are becoming increasingly common, and they're called 'original English language visual novels', or OELVNs (because someone couldn't just call them EVNs...).

 

 

The majority of VNs/eroges are from Japan and written in Japanese; HOWEVER, thanks to the efforts of both fan and official translation projects, there are a great many that are available to read in English! The three main 'official' translation groups are:

JAST

Mangagamer

Sekai Project (Steam)

 

These guys officially licence the VNs (most of which are from Japan) and sell them. JAST and Mangagamer often focus on eroge/nukige as that's what the market for these types of games has been up to now (although it looks like the wind might be changing). Sekai project is a much newer company that is translating a variety of VNs, some with a larger focus on story (which earns my vote). They also published a number of other VNs including some OELVNs, some of which are free to play.

 

There are a multitude of unofficial groups (of varying quality of translation) that have translated a variety of VNs/eroges. You can't easily buy these things officially (since you'd have to ship the Japanese version of the game to wherever you live... which is quite expensive), so most of the time people just pirate these. Check out the VN database (I sorted everything according to highest rating) for ideas for what to read. Anything with a Union Jack next to it either has a translation project for it or is already translated. You can click on each visual novel for more information about it, ratings, the state of the translation etc. As mentioned by desi and harle, I'd probably recommend Katawa Shoujo as a good starting point. It is an OELVN and is COMPLETELY FREE to play, download etc. No ad revenue bullshit or anything either. It's an eroge so has sex scenes, but they're pretty lite (and can be turned off if you want... or alternatively you can skip through them with the power of the cntrl button). Its main focus is the story, and although not perfect, is a really good introduction to how many VNs play. If you wanted to play a VN-strategy hybrid, you could try something like Sunrider, which is also completely free to play although the third and final part of the game isn't released yet (and it's a bit lighter on the story front).

 

If you have any questions you can go ahead and ask, we're pretty patient around here

 

* Some 'purists' might disagree that Phoenix Wright is a VN, which is BS. To me, VNs are anything with a large written aspect often with background art and music. Phoenix Wright is a VN-adventure hybrid, pure and simple.

Does anyone know if there's a major difference in quality between the two Air translations? Either way congratulations to this project for finishing.

Not sure if it's old news (and it's not really TL news, but hey close enough), but it looks like angel beats was pushed back another month to the 24th of June for its JP release if their

is anything to go by.

 

I'm not particularly concerned considering it'll be bloody ages before we get an English translation anyway, but having the JP game as polished as possible before its release is probably a good thing.

A possible LB tease this upcoming summer by one of the translators

 

Could mean a few things... all speculation of course. Sekai announces the license at AX or near(most likely) or Doki just straight up releases the patch. Doki did an april fools thing where they said they aquired Sekai project and the author of the prank later said in the comments that this post has more meaning than most people realize.. *cue conspiracy tinfoil hats*. Though it wouldn't be anything too unpredictable if Sekai licenses it, but nice that there are hints that it might just happen this summer.

 

Well, some news is better than no news... even if said news is conspiracy-filled guessing.

It doesn't really belong into the translation status thread but I didn't want to create a new thread for this so here you go:

 

Here's a higher quality version on the Visual Arts youtube. Since it'll take ages for any English translation, I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad D:

You have to have completed 4 of the main heroine routes and then you can select her in the choose-character screens after the prologue (I believe she first appears on the 14th of May). Keep in mind the first two times you click on her she'll say she's too busy, so you have to click on her a total of 6 times despite her only having 4 pips below her chibi sprite.

 

I'm amazed that I know this.

As desi said, Key games tend to have long common routes that have lots of SoL-y bits. I've been on both sides of the fence since I enjoyed Little Busters', Kanon's and Rewrite's common routes whilst really disliking Clannad's. I would recommend you stick with it though since the drama-y bits that come later are definitely definitely worth it. I remember I wanted to completely skip Muv Luv Extra because it was so bloody boring, but I'm glad I didn't... same story here.

 

So take home message is some people like the SoL-y bits some people don't (and it can vary from Key game to Key game too)... even if you don't, you probably don't want to drop the VN since you'll be missing out on some of the best VN content later when things get more serious. This is especially true for Rewrite and Little Busters since refrain (Little Busters) is NOTHING like the previous common bits and neither is the Rewrite true route (or its character routes for that matter).

Finished Yu-No... that was a ride! First of all, let me just preface this by saying this walkthrough was the thing that kept my sanity intact. I respect people who enjoy these adventure games and are good at them... but I am not one of those people.

 

Barring the sometimes arcane and cryptic gameplay (that's thankfully greatly lessened by that guide), the game was very good. It managed to convey a lot of things: emotional scenes, mystery, action... so I applaud it for that. Also, the music is GREAT (eg

), in a really cool retro style. I particularly liked the fact each of the girls had their own music that perfectly encapsulated their character: upbeat and fun, silly and quirky, mysterious and aloof, etc, and there's at least 60 or 70 tracks in the game (I think it's actually a lot more than this, but I didn't count). Also when the gameplay isn't annoying, it can be really fun once you get used to it, and the way the game map diverges and branches is interesting; forcing the player to use the jewel save system is also somewhat unique. I also might want to mention that the UI and graphics are dated, but I didn't find it that big of a deal.

 

As for the story itself, they did a cracking job of presenting different aspects of the world and setting in each route. I think the largest dividing factor was the true route, since I'd imagine it's a bit like marmite in that either you'll like it or hate it. I... liked it, actually. A lot. Bar one scene* and a few silly bits here and there, I thought it was a fascinating otherworldly experience**.

 

[spoiler=Don't read if you haven't finished the game]*THAT scene. You know, the one where he sleeps with... well... yu no. That's one way to make me feel incredibly uncomfortable, pervert the father-daughter relationship and throw the true route's character development of Takuya out the window.

 

**You see what I did there?

 

 

As for bits I didn't like... well, first there were some of the characters. Some of them felt interesting and had a sense of 'realness' to them, but others didn't quite get that far. There was also some video game logic with some of the story elements, plus the main story-line sometimes felt like it was being over explained. My biggest gripe (as oft is) is the over sexualisation of everything and the kitchen sink. It's funny on occasion, and we know Takuya is an irredeemable pervert, but can we have SOME serious parts without having to throw tits and ass around all the time*? And the H scenes often felt like they were thrown in to tick a box as per usual... although, surprisingly, there were a couple that felt more realistic in their placement (most weren't, but still).

 

[spoiler=Don't read if you haven't finished the game]*Like when Mitsuki kicks the bucket, you have to see her bra, or when there's a confrontation that involves a woman, you have to see up her skirt. I mean, come on. I like this stuff as much as the next guy, but during my story-heavy scenes, looking at her knickers takes me out of the game.

 

 

So, in summary, Yu-No is a really fun, if complicated, mystery Adventure game-meets-VN with an interesting, if at times unbelievable, sci-fi story. If you can get over some of the older graphics, and the fact Takuya basically tries to screw anything that moves, then you'll probably enjoy the game a lot. The true route is extremely divisive in terms of enjoyability, but odds are you'll find some aspects to like even if you're not the biggest fan. Yu-no ranks fairly highly on my list of VNs, and it definitely makes you feel like you're part of a grand adventure.

...I forgot how horribly annoying Chinami was. ...

 

You were able to forget? I'm jealous.

 

Also, I'm reading Yu-No. I'll post my thoughts as per usual later, but I can definitely see why this game has 'survived the test of time', as it were. By no means perfect, but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Is LB Ecstasy still happening?

 

I hope it's still happening.

 

If we believe hard enough, yes. It will happen.

 

That said, despite there being no updates in ~3 months, I find it very unlikely the translation would stop at 98.5%. My guess is they don't want to update until signficant progress has been made on the editing/proofreading, or they are foregoing updating entirely, and are instead waiting for the full release instead... but that's just a guess.

Choco, I didn't expect you to read moege like DC at this point. Go get some Innocent Gray or 07th Expansion stuff : D

 

Well, it was partially because it was recommended to me by a certain someone (can you guess who? ), but I had also wanted to compare it to the previous VN that I read, Hoshizora... and as I said in my post, it took less than a year to read, so I think DCII won that little competition. I was planning on reading Kara Shoujo either next or soon, which is especially topical because the second game should hopefully be TL'd soon-ish (citation needed). I was also contemplating reading some like Yu-No, which is supposed to be really amazing and a classic. That said, I legitimately got lost the previous time I attempted to play Yu-No (well done me) because there were too many branches and then my guide ceased to make sense -.- . Still, I definitely want to go back to it, I just have to be more careful when playing it since it is pretty complex. But those are the VNs I was sort of thinking about reading next.

 

And, of course, whenever the hell Little Busters EX is bloody well finished I'll drop everything and read that, but who knows when that'll be.

Well, I just finished Da Capo II (DCII). Not exactly something I thought I'd enjoy be really into, but surprisingly enjoyable. Probably better than Hoshizora... and it definitely didn't take me a year to read this one, so already a major improvement.

 

I think the thing that struck me the most was DCII's consistency; there were no routes that I actually disliked. Sure, a couple of them were only average and, at times, outstayed their welcome a bit, but they all had redeeming qualities that I could enjoy. Quite honestly, I can't think of one VN that I've played that's been as consistent as DCII. The slice-of-life elements were pretty amusing the whole way through, and even the common route (which you have to play through multiple times to get the different routes) changes enough to keep it interesting and fun... so well done to them. I didn't think I'd actually enjoy SoL that much. My favourite route order is shown below.

 

Minatsu > Yume > Anzu > Otome > Koko/Nanaka^‡

 

^‡I can't decide which one I preferred, they had similar themes which I didn't like as much.

 

Despite being fairly solid, there were things I didn't like. Two of the routes, namely Nanaka's and Koko's, were just... plain. As I said, they still have bits that were enjoyable and I didn't dislike them, but... I feel that more emphasis could have been put onto certain themes that would have greatly have improved them. In addition, the endings of many of the routes were... very saccharine, and I didn't always get that 'payoff' you sometimes get in VNs when conflict in a route is solved. Half the time it just felt like the conflict was brushed under the carpet instead of actually being tackled. I suppose there was an element of 'acceptance' in there, but sometimes it just felt like they avoided giving the reader a full conclusion for some reason, which I didn't appreciate.

 

[spoiler=Don't read unless you've completed the game]Quite frankly, I think it would have been more interesting to have 'magic' play other roles in the story. What are Otome's powers? We don't really get told the extent of them, and they're only briefly hinted out. What about Yume, does she harbour any other powers? What about Anzu, how did her memory operate? Etc. etc., I just thought it was a bit of a waste to have a genuinely interesting magic-y topics and not expand on them. Sakura's route also felt more like a mandatory explanation rather than an emotional segment, so I was a little disappointed (although it was quite short and covered the main themes, so I can't be too annoyed).

 

 

My other bone to pick was with the H-scenes... you probably know my position on these now. If they're added haphazardly and gratuitously for the sake of having H-scenes, I don't like them. And they were here. You could of course skip past them, but it annoyed me that they were there in the first place. There were also a few other gripes, the world itself being one of them (it was a bit unbelievable on occasion...), the protagonist's stupidity when it came to anything involving romance and the fact the characters seemed inexplicably to get sick for plot convenience at the drop of a hat... but I won't go into depth here.

 

Despite sounding a bit critical, I did enjoy DCII quite a bit (on my harsh-rato-meter, it'd probably be about a 7.8-8.1), and it was pretty consistent. I suppose I just felt it could have been even better, that's why I sounded a bit harsh... but if you're wanting something fairly light to play with comedy, SoL, romance and a little bit of drama sprinkled in (not a huge amount mind you), then I'd recommend this. It worked pretty well for me as a destresser (since I just read ~1-2 hours a day before I slept for about a week), although I am quite a fast reader so most people would probably be spending a little bit more time on it than I did.

 

Not entirely sure what to read next... could read a light novel or a sci-fi book, but I'll see. Also, as always, I could do a proper review if anyone was interested (but I doubt that ). Plus time.

After a bit of break from VNs, starting Hoshizora no Memoria to ease me back in.

 

For context, that post was on the 17th of December... last year. Yeah... it took me over a year to read mainly because I got really busy and sort of forgot about it. Good job me.

 

Hoshizora itself is mixed for me -- I might do a proper review later* -- but there were some parts I really enjoyed. Komomo's was my favourite overall, followed probably by Asuho's'; I liked Kosame's too. Problem is that the other two main routes, as well as bits of the common, I found arduous to the point of not making me want to play it (hence the reason it took a whole year). I might also add that, as a scientist, their 'explanations' for half of what goes on is misguided to the point of being painful, but I suppose that's beside the point.

 

[spoiler=Don't read if you haven't completed the game]The two 'true routes' were also a bit of a disappointment... there were definitely bits of Yume's that I liked, but I found it a little bit slow. Mare's felt more like a brief bit of fanservice than an actual route, but anyways... maybe I'll mellow out once I have time to digest everything.

 

 

Overall, I had a lot of fun with certain parts, despite others being distinctly unpleasant (like Chinami's entire character). Still, I think I'm ready to play more visual novels now that this one is finally done, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. Hell, I might even be more active here! Hahaha...

 

Maybe

 

*If there was anyone who'd actually read them...

It feels like Little Busters has stalled again

 

Don't say that My guess is they just have a lot of stuff to do before final release, which is probably why it's taking a while. They're at ~98.5% TL'n, so they'd be crazy if they properly stalled that close to release. Editing and proofreading will probably take time, but I'd imagine they're probably working pretty hard on it considering how close they are to being finished.

CLANNAD Official English Release | Prefundia Looks like Sekai's at it again. Considering they're already running this and will be running Grisaia 'sometime in November' (ie this month), I hope they don't burn themselves out. The VN market is only so large (currently at least), and having too many projects too soon might make it so there's not enough money to go around. Also, the fact they're retranslating the entire clannad game means it'll be months before it's out even once they run the project.

Obligatory little busters comment.

Which basically means that ME is an improved version of EX.

 

What do you mean? Everyone loved Kanon's H-scenes.

 

...

 

Sort of.

 

Also, for the record, the LB EX spreadsheet was updated to 98.5% translation on the LB/EX new stuff. Looks like the translation guys at least are throwing everything and the kitchen sink to get the lines TL'ed.

Why the LB ME hype all of a sudden? Maybe I missed something but I thought ME was just the all ages version of EX with no additional content...?

 

Because it's not LB ME hype, it's LB EX/ME hype. Neither LB EX or LB ME have actually been released yet (and that's what the spreadsheet keeps track of), so we're excited for both to come out. ME essentially is just an all ages version of EX, yes, but both EX/ME versions have way more content than the original version, which is the only version right now that's been translated. 3 new routes, 1 entirely new character, more detail and polish in existing routes as well as more common route content.... definitely looking forward to the EX/ME release