Visual Novel Translation Status (07/09/2019)

Foreword - It's nice to see that we finally have VNTS after almost a year of absence, so of course I'll give a link to VNTS here (And no you didn't read it wrong there). Also thanks to Decay for mentioning my name at his musing, and as for Mahou Shoujo VN that Zakamutt mentioned it's too bad that apparently the translation project is stopped because of some apparent real life matter.

Welcome to this week VNTS Review, and as you can see this week we swamped with 28 new announcements in which most of those are from AX, so let me comment on the announcements as well. As for my impression on the announcements, I guess it's kind of mixed seeing that there's some good announcement like Eiyuu Senki GOLD or Amatsutsumi and yet seeing the publisher behind it make me doubt about whether we can get those two quickly. At the same time we have Sol Press bring something interesting to the table, and for this year AX Mangagamer decided to bring some VNs that have a lot of passion. Overall my impression on this AX here is still quite average like back at the last year, but compared to back then it's slightly better because Sekai didn't pick any available fan translation project. Let's see what I can write for this week as well, and about the title I'll explain it in the PS.

We obviously didn't have any AX announcement from fan translation here, but of course they still have updates though. The most surprising one is Amagami in which they suddenly managed to edited halfway of the scripts (50.5% edited), and apparently they'd been busy since the last announcement so they only have the chance to update the progress now. I guess they doing good there because they finally find an editor, and hopefully they doing well until the release (The project is almost seven years there). For the rest of the update, we have Eustia was at 72.10% translated with Eustia's chapter was at 9.53% translated along with 46.78% TLC-ed, Watamasu was at 92% translated, and 4,403 lines from Pure x Connect are edited. Other than those updates, there's no other notable updates so that's all for this week fan translation.

JAST USA

From JAST we have three announcement including the aforementioned Eiyuu Senki GOLD, but before we're going to the announcements let's see what updates that they have because they gave us a lot of that. The first update from them was in regard of Majikoi in that they already open the pre-order for the physical edition, which obviously mean that the release time is getting closer and it'll be at this summer (Probably at August). The second was in regard of Katahane, in which they'll try to release it at fall later (ie between September to November). While for now we can safely ignore those two seeing that both of those are already released and therefore redundant (Even with Katahane new opening), at least we also have both of Kimikoi and Flowers Autumn release will be possibly happen at the fall as well (By the way it'll be very fitting if JAST managed to release Flowers Autumn at fall as they promised). For the last update, we have Sumaga release at winter in which it's one of the most daring updates from them seeing that it's been eight years since it was translated (I just hope that they'll be able to do it if possible, and if not I guess we can wait more).

Almost forget that we have surprise release from them that was happen around AX, and those releases are Princess X fandisc and Mamono Musume in which both of those are nukige. While those two VNs are not my interest here, at least it's good that we have two more VNs was cleared from JAST's backlog. Speaking about Mamono Musume, turned out that JAST decided to announced another of that as well and this time it'll have slime and mollusc girl as the heroines (The released Mamono Musume did only have lamia heroine). As for Mamono Musume itself, actually it's a series of short nukige that have monster girls as the heroines, so you can expect a lot of sex with the monster girls (Duh). As far as series goes, currently we have six series with on of those already released and another just announced here, so there's still four more to be licensed if JAST want to localized all of Mamono Musume VNs. We also have Saya no Uta remaster announcement, although seeing that we already have it since back at 2009 let's just say that it's like both of Majikoi and Katahane (Redundant).

About Eiyuu Senki GOLD, before JAST announced it we have a fan translation group that already released the partial patch that translate some of the sex scenes. Of course seeing that JAST finally license it, he didn't have any other choice except to stop his project and wait for the release. What I can comment is that it would be logical for JAST to license GOLD seeing that they have the license for the original version, although whether they can release GOLD quickly or not is still questionable though (Let's just hope that they already have sizable translation progress when they announced GOLD here). As for GOLD itself while at the first glance it's retelling the original story, actually GOLD here is quite different in that instead of Himiko our MC Chihaya will interact with Masamune (New heroine for GOLD) first. More importantly we have some improvement in regard of the gameplay, in which Tenco did buff some of the heroines and add some new mechanic in the gameplay. Other than that, apparently Tenco will give the heroines some more interaction so if you felt the chance to talk with the heroines was quite lacking in the original than GOLD should fix the issue. I'll look forward to the eventual release of GOLD here.

For the last announcement from JAST here, we have Yamizome Revenger in which it's Escu:de VN. As we know, Escu:de did have partnership with Sekai in regard of ReLord trilogy localization so it should be logical if we expected that Denpasoft would announce Yamizome, and yet it turned out differently because we have JAST announced it. As for Yamizome itself you'll play as a high school student who was possessed by a demon king, and the goddess sent her best five heroines from the anther world. Of course naturally our MC would be worry about his future, and then the demon king convince the MC to take a chance to make the five heroines as his harem by corrupting them using the demon king power. Like ReLord we'll engage the gameplay to fight the heroine before corrupting them, and that we'll going to have some eccentric demon king although from the spoiler that I read I think he'll be like Himegari in that the demon king will influenced by the MC to a degree. I'll look forward to the eventual release of this seeing that it's rare to see light novel like fantasy setting in the VN, even though it bordered nukige seeing that the number of sex scenes is quite a lot.

Other

For this instance I'll make a new section for Sol Press seeing that there'll be a lot to talk about, but first let's see what this section have (Minus Sol Press). As for Aksys, I admit that I mixed it up with Spike Chunsoft because turned out that the company that always release sci fi VN is Spike Chunsoft, while as for Aksys here their product is mostly otome. Speaking about otome, almost all of Aksys announcements at AX were consist of that VNs, with some of those are already released and about to be ported to the Switch. So even if I show some interest into it, too bad that I still couldn't play it seeing that I still didn't have console yet. For the last announcement, instead of otome we have a horror VN (NG) in that it'll tell a story of an older brother who search a clue in regard on who or what is responsible for his disappeared sister, and that he'll teamed up with some morally questionable characters in order to get what he pursue. Other than that, NG is the second part of 'Spirit Hunter' series that also consist Death Mark that was released several months ago by Aksys.

With Robotic Notes and it's sequel announced by Spike Chunsoft, it mean that we only need Chaos Head to be localized in order to have complete Science Adventure legally available in English. As for Robotic Note and the sequel itself, it's a part of Science Adventure (Steins Gate, Chaos Head, and Chaos Child) in that at each series we'll have some main characters fight against cadres from a very mysterious organization (Committee 300) that committed several heinous crimes, and obviously Robotic Notes here is no exception. Another thing to note that it's obviously would contain sci-fi element, and in Robotic Note case we'll going to have the main characters build a robot while at the same time find a mysterious program that might be dangerous for the world. Almost forget to note that there'll be some cameo from Steins Gate, and they'll took important role for the story here. For the release plan, they'll release the first part at 2020 later and that it'll be including Steam version as well.

In the middle of KS, we also have Nekonyan decided to announced Aokana Extra1, in which it's Sprite last work before they going bankrupt. As for the premise, it's more or less just a fandisc for Mashiro in which it's obviously targeted toward Mashiro's fan. No info in regard of the release date as of now, but it's easy to guess that they'll release it adter they managed to release Aokana later. As for the KS itself, it's already being successful with currently they already reached the 4th stretch goal (At 60,000 euro) and currently they gather 64,708 euro. We also have a new announcement from Lemnisca, in that they announced a new doujin hardcore sci fi VN with the name Dei Gratia no Rahinban in which apparently will tell a story about several people who trapped at 700 meters under the sea. Still no idea on what kind of VN is that other than the people need to figure a way to be survive before succumbed to the hidden threat, although apparently the story itself is quite well-received. We don't know when Lemnisca will give more words about this again, but at least we know that Lemnisca will do KS for Dei Gratia here.

Sekai Project

As for the first Sekai announcements, I'll just grouped Glass along with New Glass and SF in the same paragraph because those three did share the same contents in that it did have animated picture and created by the same person. While the animated picture here is a plus seeing that it's doujin VN and all, I guess we can say that Glass here would be more famous because of the controversy in that the creator of Glass (Tetsuzo) sent a mail to the fan translator, and apparently he directly say some strong word (F*ck) and ask the translator to stop the project in a rude way. Also apparently Tetsuzo at first didn't approve the translation, so I guess he changed his mind now that we have Sekai license it (Or he just quit his company and the new staffs decided to sell the license to Sekai). Well in the end it wouldn't matter seeing that Sekai already get it, so Tetsuzo himself didn't need to worry about the fan translator anymore.

Other than Glass, we also have Nekogami in which I find the premise is quite confusing because we have a little sister who somehow become the catgirl was call her older brother as 'Nee-chan', and yet the older brother (The MC) himself is didn't look like woman at all. So you better not expect some trap MC from nekogami here. There's also Koiama 2 in which it's the sequel of Koiama, and now I look at it the atmosphere along with the girls did almost bear some resemblance with Gochiusa to a degree, although obviously we didn't have rabbit in Koiama there. There's also a first part of Seiiki trilogy in which it was owned by feng, and the first part will tell a story about a MC who somehow became the butler for her childhood female friend because of some misunderstanding. As for Seiiki series itself the format did resemble Loca Love very much, in which we'll going to have three separated chapters and each part will focused on one particular heroine. There's Nine episode 3 announcement as well, in which it's just released at this year and the art is still beautiful thanks to Tsubasu. About Nine episode 3 here, it's quite obvious to see that the next part will be the last part seeing that there's a lot of reveal in episode 3 here.

Before going to a certain announcement by Sekai, let me write some updates from them. First of all we'll have them do the KS for Rewrite+ for the hardcopy in which to be said was not surprising at all, and therefore I have no much to say here other than Rewrite license here is still redundant (Especially after knowing that there's no much change in the ending of Rewrite+ after compared it to the original one). The second update is in regard of Baldr Sky, in which apparently there's no word in regard of 18+ contents so we wouldn't know whether the release will be censored for now. For now I just leaned towards that the 18+ contents will be available, and hopefully there'll a word in regard of that after it passed Steam Review (They planned to release it at Q3/Q4 of this year). For Tokeijikake, well they somehow managed to have a lot of confidence that they'll be able to release it at this year seeing that they announced that they'll release the rest of the trilogy at this year, although seeing that Sekai have a hard time on the engine work it's hard to see here (I just hope that they'll be able to do it). For the last update, we'll going to have Majokoi release in the very near future (Hopefully along with Nanairo if possible).

For the certain announcement, it's Amatsutsumi in which it's Purple Software VN. While you may know that Purple Software did have partnership with Mangagamer, turned out that they'd really flexible when it come with contact here so we'll going to wait for Sekai if we want to read Amatsutsumi here. As for the VN itself, we'll going to have our MC Makoto who more or less want to know more about world and therefore decided to run away from his secluded village. Seeing that he still didn't have much stamina, he collapsed in a nearby village and rescued by a girl. Seeing that Makoto did have superpower and he didn't have house, he decided to use his power to alter the girl memory in order to live at the village. Another thing to note is that the art still quite good like usual Purple Software VNs, and that this VN structure is like both of G-Senjou and Eustia, in that we'll have ladder structure that allow us to either pick an alternative ending or keep going until the last route. I'll look forward to the eventual release of Amatsutsumi here.

Almost forget that we also have Sekai announced Bokukotsu FD along with Photonflower, although since those two more or less just fandiscs I didn't have much word to say here. Although at least Photonflower here might be good if you still want some Muv Luv, so perhaps you may take an interest to it. That's all for Sekai Project section here.

Mangagamer

This year AX was apparently make Mangagamer think that we need some VNs with High Sexual Contents (If not nukige), and therefore they decided to bring the announcements that fit that category to a degree. Also like some people expected turned out that they bring another Waffle title, in this case is Kyonyuu Fantasy 2 Gaiden. As for Kyonyuu Gaiden 2 itself, well Arunaru did localized the title as Sideboob 2 so I'll call it with that name from now on. For the premise itself, it's the continuation of first Sideboob in which it's also the continuation of first Funbag Fantasy. So what I can say is that apparently first Funbag MC is more popular compared to the second Funbag MC, seeing that it received more sequel here. While it would be good for the fans to see the continuation of first Funbag story, to me the breast is still too big so I'll just pass on this even though the plot might be quite good (The story obviously).

About Mangagamer announcement on Rance, what I can say is that I would prefer them to bring new announcement instead of that. Although if anything else, at least they bring the remake version instead of the older version. That said 02 is still redundant though seeing that we already have it released for a while (Even with Mangagamer using the new script), and story wise both of those are redundant. As for the premise itself, it should be obvious that our Rance here is a selfish guy who want to have sex with the woman, regardless on whether the woman like it or not. As for 01 itself, we'll going to have Rance took a case about mysteriously disappearing girl. While for 02 here, we have Rance rescue a city that was taken over by four witches. While the premise is less epic compared to VI (Or even 3), we can treat both of 01 and 02 as the introduction for some of recurring characters in Rance series. Almost forget that 01 here did change the gameplay a lot, so it might be interesting to play if you already gotten use with Rance 1 (Very outdated) battle system.

I think this is the first time I took my interest on a twisted (Almost) nukige, because the MC is female and that the writer is Izumi Banya who usually managed to write a good story in his nukige. As for the VN itself, the name is Mugen Renkan and as for the detail it tell a story on about a nameless woman (The MC) who cursed to have endless life was become a slave for a very cruel man with the name King. Of course things obviously will not kind to the woman, seeing that she suffer a lot of brutal rape (Apparently including amputation) before finally managed to run away. Although her suffering is still not ending though, seeing that the King obviously want her to back to his castle and therefore sent some cadres to bring back the woman by force. From there the woman did live on through three periods (Medieval French, Wild West, and Meiji era), while at the same time did her best to escape from King's cadres. Like euphoria here (Same writer) the contents of Mugen Renkan here is obviously not appropriate for 15 years old, so I hope that some 15 years old will not try this and being disturbed in the future.

Almost forget to mention that the three out of four Mangagamer's announcements here are the secret projects, and in this case 01 would be the 4th secret project (100% translated), Sideboob 2 is the 7th secret project (Fully translated and 92% edited), and Mugen Renkan is the 6th secret project (76% translated and 36% edited). As for 1st and 8th projects, maybe we'll know more at Otakon later. I hope that Mangagamer will have story VN to announce at Otakon later.

Sol Press

What I can say about Sol Press is that they quite bold with the updates, in that they announced the exact release date for their VNs in which some of those are quite questionable if I may say. For the detail we have Kimiaogi at August 16th, Onikiss at September 27th, Shitsuaru at October 27th, Nukitashi at November 22nd, Himawari no Kioku at February 2020, and Yotsunoha as soon as possible (Hopefully in less than a month). While I can see that they'll be able to release both of Kimiaogi and Onikiss on time, obviously it's hard to see whether they can release both of Shitsuaru and Nukitashi on time so hopefully Sol Press did have a plan for the latter two (Especially Nukitashi). As for the first announcement, it's Laplacian newest release in which it's logical seeing that Sol Press have contract with Laplacian. As for the premise, we have the MC who is an office worker have a housewife as his wife. To complicate matter, turned out that his wife is very easily got horny so obviously she would ask the MC for sex if she can. For now I don't have much to say here about the VN, other than it's very obvious that the VN is a nukige.

This time Sol Press bring a new partner here, and the partner in question is Windmill along with three of their VNs. The first one that they bring is quite surprising, in that they bring Witch's Garden which as we know is used to have two fan translation projects, and it's too bad that both of the projects were dead because of the translator real life matter or something like that. If anything, at least the first project did left a prologue patch in case you want to see it. As for the premise itself it's abut our MC Yousuke who come to an unique town in order to continue his school, and from there Yousuke start his carefree life together with some of his (Female) friends. Since the previous Witch's Garden projects are already dead, Sol Press here will using the new translation for this. Almost forget that Witch's Garden here also have e-mote feature, although I didn't care much abut it though. Like both of Eiyuu Senki GOLD and Amatsutsumi, I'll look forward to the release if only for the sake of Eri Sendai and 'passionate Hitomi Nabatame-voiced love-making' scenes people who've been looking forward to this since the first translation projects was established at 2013.

For the rest of Windmill announcements, there's Hyper Highspeed Genius (HHG) and Happiness 2 Sakura Celebration (I'll just call it Sakura Celebration, and obviously it's not a part of Winged Cloud's Sakura series). As for both of the VN, both of those did have magical settings although both of those did have contrasting MC here with HHG MC did have manipulative personality while Sakura Celebration MC here is more in line with usual kindhearted MC. For the premise, HHG here is more like we have an artifact that was rumored to be able to rule the world and that there's three school that was merged into one in order to do an election between gifted human so that the winner can take control of the artifact, and obviously our MC here need to be very crafty in order to win. While for Sakura Celebration, it's premise is more down to earth with our MC was coming back to his hometown when the town celebrate the long season of sakura. For more information here, the MC is a magician and apparently he'll attend a magic school in order to allow his skill to grow. No much word here other than it would be better to expect Windmill VNs as charage, just like Sankaime.

That's all for this week VNTS Review along with my AX commentary, and see you next week.

PS - For the title, seeing that recently I realized that Nine did have Atsuhi Abe as the MC and Satomi Arai as the mascot, I decided to do a parody for Toaru series because both of them were the casts in the anime adaptation. For the parody in this case it would be Index or to be exact the translated version (A Certain Magical Index), and I change 'Index' to 'Kyouko' because we have Amatsutsumi announcement. For more info, Amatsutsumi did have the setting that some people did have superpower and seeing that there's no scientific setting the source of power is most likely magic. While for Kyouko, it's the name of one of Amatsutsumi's heroine and that she have superpower.