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Ultimate Mad Scientist Review - Top 10 Best Rated VNs Translated in 2013 and 2014


littleshogun

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As promised, I post both of 2013 and 2014 translated VN in one post. The reason is because it's quite hard to make the list that I usually make the exception of it, and those examples are Monster Girl Quest 3 (Nukige) and Ataraxia (Fandiscs). As for the rules, other than no fandisc and nukige I'll not list otome and BL VNs. Also I forget to remind this earlier, but I wouldn't list OELVN here because the title is 'Translated VNs' and that's why you didn't see both of Katawa Shoujo and Doki Doki Literature Club in my past lists simply because both of those are OELVNs. Anyway here's my list for both of 2013 and 2014, and keep in mind that the list here is mostly my taste.

10. Comyu - Kuroi Ryuu to Yasashii Oukoku - (VNDB 7.59)

There's a bit of drama happened back when it was before the translation begin. Namely that it's supposedly to be the ninth work for Amaterasu after Ixrec finished translated by DraKoi. Seeing that Ixrec already prepared to translated DraKoi, Moogy decided to released his DraKoi full translation after holding it back for a while and it's quite obvious that Moogy is really didn't want to lose to Ixrec. Whether you agree with Moogy action or not is up to you (It's slightly inappropriate to me), but at least it's slightly hasten Comyu translation here so we have Comyu as the eighth work for Amaterasu. As for the project itself, it goes for around more than a year before we finally have this at July 2014. For the translation itself, while I did read some not favorable opinion toward Ixrec's translation I think it's still good enough in that we can still understand it.

As for the premise we have Akihito who is always a feminist (Or if we want to said it in less controversial manner chivalrous), although in this case it's an extreme one seeing that he'll depend any women regardless on their affiliation or morality. The reason for that it's because Akihito saw his mother was murdered in front of him, and it's still traumatizing him until today so much that he always recalled red color (Thanks to Hino Wataru writing style who always repeat a certain words, and he carry his writing style to Hello Lady as well). For the story we have Akihito managed to met with the four strangers who somehow manage to summon a black dragon together, and that he and the strangers will fight as the team (Even though their bond not as tight as usual team) with the help of Akihito's childhood friend Kagome who look like Majikoi's Momoyo.

9. I/O (VNDB 7.68)

The second project of Lemnisca after Never7, and one of five best VNs for Lemnisca's founder GundamAce (The other four are Fate Stay Night, Ever17, Root Double, and Steins Gate). As for the VN itself, it's about a hard sci fi complete with some confusing terms and the plot twists in that you might scratch your head, complete with futuristic city setting that have exploration at cyber network in 2032. For the premise, we have Hinata who is still depressed over his loss of younger sister back when he was a child. One day suddenly he find a message that supposedly was from his little sister, and so Hinata decided to investigate the message which then lead him to some earth shattering events. Another thing to note is that in here we need to chose one of four MCs, and Hinata here is one of the MC. Each story will uncover a side of the setting, whether it's about an usual school setting, a lively hacker group, a woman who lost of everything, or a badass man who is always win with style and in a journey to search for something. Another interesting thing to note would be that Nakazawa here (The director of Ever17) was involved as a director for this VN, and that obviously we wouldn't find any sex scene seeing that I/O was released for PS2 first and ported to the PC later.

8. Air (VNDB 7.70)

Seeing that this VN have the most beautiful opening song back at 2011, I decided to tried some ATLAS in order to play it. The result of that is the MC's name Yukito was translated into Inin, and I decided to give up on the ATLAS. This VN was also the lesser known of KEY VNs simply because the anime was not quite as popular as Clannad, at least back at when I tried using ATLAS to play it. Fast forward to 2014 we suddenly have two AIR translation project with the first one was by Sheeta (Amaterasu's editor) and the second by Gao Gao Translation, and Sheeta here is the one who finished it first and released it back at 2014 with Gao Gao version released a year afterwards at 2015 (I know that people prefer Gao Gao Translation here). For the premise we have Yukito who is quite handsome wondering on a journey as a wondering puppetmaster who can control puppet without string, and the reason is to follow his mother last wish to find a girl in the sky. Then in a rural town at beachside he met a cheerful girl with the name Mizusu, and from there Yukito start his friendship with Mizusu in which it's slowly turned into love. As for AIR here, I heard that the ending is quite sad even for KEY VN so you may need to prepare some tissue to wipe the tears from your eyes.

7. Ayakashibito (VNDB 7.71)

No much drama that I remember with this VN other than it's temporary stopped by the translator (Ate the Moon group) before resumed back at 2013, and that we finally have full patch at 2014 April Fools. Also it's interesting to note that the writer is Higashide Yuichiro in that we know him as the one who write Tokyo Babel and some of Fate spin off, and also assistant writer for Princess Waltz (The only Pulltop VN that got some action writing), so we can say that he experienced in writing the actions. As for the premise, it's about Ryouichi who got sent to a special facility because of his superpower. At the facility, he met with a kitsune that Ryouichi named Suzu and Suzu herself quickly attached to Ryouichi. One day he decided to escape from facility, and afterwards he decided to live in a town that have the people who have similar situation in that they have superpower with the new name Sousichi along with Suzu. Almost forget to mention that the people with superpower was said to be the desendant of youkai, and that they feared by normal people so much that they got discriminated. Also since the writer is Higashide, naturally we also will have some action in Ayakashibito here.

6. Kono Oozora ni Tsubasa o Hirogete aka If My Heart Had Wings (VNDB 7.77)

Back at 2013 Pulltop suddenly have a brilliant idea to expand their market overseas, and they form MoeNovel as their subsidiary for overseas release. After that, they chose Konosora as their first localized VN which to say was not a bad idea in paper. Except it come with some problem, namely that they have badly translated it and more importantly censored the sex scenes along with the sex jokes, and the censorship here is definitely make them quite infamous. I don't see any reason on why they ask a company who usually translated console game to translate this seeing that they can at least try to ask either JAST or Mangagamer (Or both) for that matter, other than Pulltop already firm to censored their releases for overseas. Long story short, some fans obviously didn't accept it so they took upon themselves to retranslate the whole script and translated the sex scenes, and it took five years before finally we can have Konosora restoration patch back at 2018.

As for Konosora itself, it's about our MC Aoi who come back to his hometown after seven years away from it. The reason on why Aoi came back to his hometown it's because he suffer an injury, and he come there to recuperate. Near his hometown, he met with a girl in wheelchair who need help and Aoi note her as being beautiful. Obviously Aoi help her while at the same time being mesmerized by a glider with the girl and not long after that he met with the girl again and introduce herself as Kotori, and learnt that she quite blunt with her speaking. Some time after that, both of Aoi and Kotori find out that there's a club who make glider and seeing that they interested with it both of them decide to join the club. For the last word here, I'm recommend you to play this with restoration patch seeing that Pulltop only released the censored version and didn't spend a lot of effort to add some new content to make up the censorship.

5. Kichikuou Rance (VNDB 7.91)

Out of all old Rance VNs, Kichikuou here is the biggest one in which it's pretty much intentional seeing that Alicesoft intended this as the last Rance VN because they about to discontinued it. Of course thing turned out differently for Alicesoft seeing that it's become one of best selling VN, and that they managed to keep Rance going for more than 21 years before ended it with a bang (Kichikuou was released at 1996 end, while X as the last Rance VN was released at 2018 beginning). The influence of Kichikuou for the storyline of newer Rance VNs (VI to X) is very strong, so much that we can trace some plot points in the newer Rance VNs to Kichikuou. As for the premise, we have our usual selfish Rance lead a band of bandit. After a raid with his band, Rance was screwed up so much that he lost his most trusted slave (Sill), and Rance decided to ask his old acquintance who is a selfish queen (Lia) to marry him and rule Lia's kingdom as the king. From there, Rance keep his world conquest while at the same time keep searching for Sill. As for the gameplay, we can also say that this is the best one for all of older Rance VNs, although the gameplay here is basically crude version of Sengoku's gameplay like Daibanchou. Almost forget that Arunaru translated this back at 2014 as fan translation, and after that he'd translated Mamatoto before going official with VI.

4. Dangan Ronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei (VNDB 7.96)

From what I see about Danganronpa franchise, it's always about the unlucky students who somehow got stuck in the killing game with 15 participants in a school that has sadistic teddy bear robot as the principal (I'm not making up the premise). Of course being the first game, the premise it's not really much different compared to the sequel. For the first game premise, it's about Makoto Naegi who is called as Ultimate Lucky Student accepted into Hope Academy by luck with said school is prestigious school. Of course, turned out that Makoto is not as lucky as his title, because he was immediately thrown into killing game with he and the other 14 Ultimate students must obey teddy bear robot Monokuma to do the killing game, with the prize if the one who kill the other student is never caught of then said student can get off free, although if said student is caught do the deed then Monokuma will execute the culprit. Having no choice, Makoto was forced to do his best to live in the academy (Because he was pretty much trapped in the first place), while he need to investigate the murder before conducting the trial. For the first Danganronpa translation history, it was started as fan translation project for PSP version before NISA localize PSV version, and it took some years to have this available in Steam.

3. Grisaia no Kajitsu aka The Fruit of Grisaia (VNDB 8.44)

As for this VN, we can say that this is Frontwing (FW) Magnum Opus here, and perhaps it's because it was intended as their Swan Song because back at 2011 they going to be bankrupt. Of course seeing that FW managed to be survive thanks to Kajitsu's success, obviously they made two sequels (Meikyuu and Rakuen). Granted that they already intended Grisaia as the trilogy, although in this case FW forced it because they made Kajitsu as the charage and the sequels based on the unavailable route, and so to me the sequels here is more akin to fandiscs. As for the translation, we have this released by TL Wiki back at 2013 and later by Sekai back at 2015, in which the latter release is a redundant one and riddled with controversy. For the premise, we have our snarky secret agent Yuuji want to have a normal life and so he decided to enter Mihama Academy and in there he met with five girls that have different personalities. Of course nothing as normal as it looks, considering that the girls did have dark pasts with some of those might be quite traumatic for them. From there, it's up to Yuuji to fix those problem for those girls. Almost forget that in anime version of this Yuuji fix all the girls problem in one route and made the continuity to the trilogy slightly more acceptable, although it was infamous for being rushed though.

2. Rewrite (VNDB 8.58)

The seventh work for Amaterasu that was released back at 2013, and also the first KEY VN that Amaterasu translated. Also it's been officially picked up by Sekai along with the FD back at 2017, although instead of hiring Ixrec to translate the new version (Rewrite+) they chose the different translator. While one can say that it's because Ixrec's translation is quite bad (So called) so much that Sekai prefer the new translator over him, I believe that there might be another reason on why Sekai chose new translator such as no agreement in regard of price or something like that. In any case, obviously Sekai release here will be redundant seeing that Rewrite+ didn't have significant script change so I would say that you better read Ixrec's version if you want to read Rewrite quickly. Especially if we remember that the new translator is the late Conjueror, and it's obviously will take a while before Sekai find his replacement. Although if you still prefer to wait for new translation, then it's okay.

In Rewrite here we have Tennouji Kotarou who more or less have a normal life in a city that full of greenery called Kazamatsuri, such as fight with his rival in a comedic way and have his female childhood friend live next door. One day, he saw a mysterious female who turned out to be occult club president with the goal to investigate a supernatural happening and then Kotarou decided to join the club. While it's usual for KEY VN to have mood shift, the shift in Rewrite here is too extreme with battle and even horror happening in a route (The reason for horror element is because we have Ryukishi here finally have a chance to write in a company that gave his inspiration for Higurashi), and not to mention world ending theme (You can compare the two openings here to understand the contrast). In the end, when it come to Rewrite what I can say is that just be careful that the writing style between each routes is vastly very different.

1. Steins Gate (VNDB 9.01)

I remember that Blick Winkel was completely translated this VN before decided to sell the translation to JAST, and that JAST release this back at March 2014 end for PC version which is quite quick for them seeing that we still didn't get Chaos Head from them ever since back at 2009. Anyway we have Okabe Rintarou who is a chuunibyou that insist his real identity is Houhouin Kyouma who is a mad scientist, and that he like to create some gadget that supposed to have same effect as Doraemon's gadget. One day, Okabe somehow find himself in a desolate Akihabara and decided to investigate the cause. Some time after, he find out that somehow his gadget managed to have time travel power, and unfortunately some sinister organization also know it. From there, Okabe try his best to escape the organization, which not always successful seeing that we have 0 in that it show Okabe's failure that caused him to be in despair. Steins Gate here is also a part of Science Adventure series, in that it share same universe as Chaos Head and Robotic Note, and out of all anime adaptation of the series Steins Gate here is the most successful one. It also help that the anime adaptation here is also widely acclaimed as the good one like Clannad, so people most likely know Steins Gate anime first.

As for both years, it's quite hard to say but at least we still have fan translation ongoing here seeing that Sekai was still not established yet. Although at the same time both JAST and Mangagamer started to get active though, with JAST somehow managed to get Steins Gate released quickly along with Mangagamer slightly more active compared to their previous years (Their releases back at 2013 and 2014 are mostly nukige though). It's too bad though that Pulltop here decided to be stubborn with their censorship until now, because they have chance to be a good publisher if they let go their policy (I know that I listed Konosora here in which it's censored back then, but in this case at least we can play full version so I add it here). That's all for my list here and I hope you'll enjoy it, and I'm sorry if some of your favorite VNs didn't in my list here.

PS - As for the title, I'm simply combined both of Danganronpa and Steins Gate here. The 'Mad Scientist' was obviously refer to Okabe who always address himself as the mad scientist, and as for 'Ultimate' it's because Danganronpa has each students got the title 'Ultimate' before their specialty.

Edited by littleshogun

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