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Do people really only have the mental capacity to think and talk about one game? If SubaHibi had a month to blow up and didn't, nothing less than a half year of radio silence would help it get noticed much more. Blaming DDLC on it is such a weird thing to do. Would YouTube let's players or Twitch streamers pick it up? Would it produce a meme and modding culture around it, getting the attention of non-niche players? Would it have a major success on Steam, with the shitty marketing it got? And even beyond your thesis being delusional, what's the point of frustration here? We received a high-quality Western release of SubaHibi, can share it with others and appreciate it within the community. It was never going to be as popular in the West as it was in Japan, just because of how alien its formula is for the Western audience. It probably flopped much harder than it ever had to and might possibly discourage some companies from pursuing similar localisation projects... But as we can't really prove any of that, there's nothing to mourn here. Often good things don't get fully appreciated, while crap gets elevated to the Heavens (I still disagree on your assessment of DDLC BTW), but good things still get made and find their audience. Can't we just appreciate the good things, instead of obsessing over mass culture and how shitty it is?

Reminder:

I wonder, it's hard to get reliable data at this point, with Steam Spy being dead, but I was under the impression that Dies Irae did better than Little Busters. Are sales on the level of 5-6k copies on Steam enough to justify a translation project of this scale? I guess barely, but it's not like most of these project were just attempted in a "traditional" way, just being dumped on the market with the hope they sell decently enough. They were Kickstarted, guaranteeing at minimum a return on investment (if the campaigns are handled competently). It's hard to say those companies made a huge gamble, considering they already dumped most of the investment risk on the fans (Key being a major exception I guess) and did dogshit to promote their games. Although, maybe nothing less than the Western market being a goldmine would motivate some of them to expand. I can't say I ever got anywhere close to understanding the logic behind how some of these companies operate. For every 9tail and Key we seem to find 20 that see the West as the land of fire-breathing dragons, and only like 20% of it seems to be connected to loli and rape porn. I would love to see someone try to quantify that (ex. by the influx of people into r/visualnovels or VN groups and curator accounts on Steam). I've noticed that the problem is at least a double-edged one - that is, people trying to get into the VN fandom after being intrigued by DDLC were treated like lepers by the community and the burning hatred for the game is just as alive in the more obnoxious parts of it to this day. Can't say I'd be encouraged by it if DDLC was my point of entry. Even more, as someone who was introduced to the niche by an EVN, it was mostly my peculiar state of mind at the time (I was unreasonably motivated to explore the niche and write about it) that made me not run for the hills after seeing how most people treat those non-JP games. Katawa Shoujo, on the other hand, was such a crystallized piece of JP VN appreciation that I've seen some people being weirded out by the realization that it's "technically an EVN". In the end, I find it quite predictable that games which rely on community marketing alone, with a community that is too good to even fraternize with the lesser breeds of weeb, won't get very far. :>

First of all I do think that the attention span of public consciousness is pretty low. Just look at how fast people forget the scandals of politicians for instance. Its surely not limited to VN fans, but just a general truth. In that sense, I think my point has some validity. However, I will not disagree that I am perhaps a bit too optimistic about the could-have-been scenario of a delayed release of DDLC, and how that scenario could have effected Suba Hibi. It is quite possible that it wouldn't have gathered much more attention regardless of an absence of competition with DDLC. There was a lot of hope riding on Suba Hibi being the VN to convince a broader mass of people that VNs are much more than their stereotype. Certainly I held this hope, and I think many other fans of Suba Hibi who read it in Japanese prior to the Eng-release had similar hopes. Back when my Japanese wasn't as advance, I spent a good 6-months reading Suba Hibi when I had free time. I spent a long time with it. At the end of the journey after many twists and turns, it was overwhelming how satisfying the experience was. A lot of criticisms that people give Suba Hibi were thoughts I had my self (I almost dropped the VN twice), and yet despite these flaws, by the end of the journey the story came together perfectly. Every single problem I had with the VN at one point or another, were actually all there for a much grander purpose. I even wrote a whole article/blog post defending the first chapter of Suba Hibi for the incoming English readers that were soon to arrive. Part of that article was simply to organize my own thoughts, but there was also the motivation to convince people that the seemingly irrelevant first chapter does have a purpose to it. That the first impression the first chapter offers is extremely deceptive. I desperately wanted to see this VN succeed in the west. And the fact that DDLC's release date did potentially steal attention as well as the fact that I don't think its nearly as good of a VN, is expressed in my resentment towards it. But yes, attachments such as mine aren't exactly rational. And thank God for that, as there is no beauty in cold rationality. The natural response to profound beauty is irrational love. And like how a mother will defend her flawed children and desperately hope to see them succeed, I have similar sentiments about Suba Hibi.

Im surprised not more of this type of vns are translated. Screwing the hot teacher is not exactly an uncommon fantasy. Instead we get these vn's with the exact same girl designs again and again.

Please help! I'm trying to branch out and find more NTR content in English, but it seems like only that developer Atelier Sakura has any! Games I've played include Marina's Cuckolding Report Mayumi's Cuckolding Report Please Bang My Wife And a bunch of other DLsite RPG Maker titles. WHERE ARE ALL THE NTR VISUAL NOVELS??? Keep me posted if you find any! Love, Rastafoo

You highligted wrong part "All-ages" isn't end of the world, if done skillfully, but when translation is horrible, even h-scenes won't save it Or does it have so high amount of H that there's almost nothing left without it?

A few recommendations based on the writing style... the narration portion is voiced to an extent, and it is presented in a way similar to a fairy tale would be. To me, this was an irritant, but if you are fine with that kind of thing, there isn't much to recommend against the game.

The way you put your words made me want to read Suba Hibi, gonna start right away, thanks.

It's been a while, but if I remember correctly,

Anyone else got a Bond 11 yet?

I'm going to necro this thread and this post since I've been reminiscing about Suba Hibi recently, and your comment address exactly what I want to talk about. It was very very unfortunate that DDLC was released only a month after Suba Hibi. It completely drowned out much of the attention that Suba Hibi should have received. DDLC was nothing more than a gimmick, and that made it easy to hog the spot light. A month is about the time it would have taken for enough people to have read Suba Hibi and for English speaking fans to promote it through discussions, fan-art, blogs, reviews, etc. Instead, the moment that the second wave of would-be fans could have come, they were instantly distracted by the piece of trash DDLC that everyone has already forgotten about. God, have I mentioned how much I hate DDLC for simply existing, it is nearly proportional to the amount that I Love Suba Hibi. Suba Hibi is one of those few stories (in any medium), where if you give it a chance and read through the giant, it will leave a permanently good impression on you. Not just that, but it imparts with you a positive and hopeful outlook on life. I've had several deep conversations with people about how Suba Hibi helped them through depression. Its just that powerful of a work.

Chapter 8 is one of the longest. I'm slowly going through it, and in the meantime I prepared animated sakura petals for opening and endings.

I would rather buy it like this then have it "americanized", at least that's my two cents.

Well, bad news for your wallet. Judging by the site and the fliers they handed out when they originally announced the English translation, the translation is gonna be top notch! Such gems as, "Once upon a time, mother passing away," and "Some people think she’s kind of a plastic" inspire such confidence in the TL staff, and give the reader a taste of the stunning prose that's sure to follow. One can clearly see that this VN is in the most capable of hands