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Beato

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  1. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Khloelli in Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo   


    Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo
    Rated 18+
    In the near future. In a not so distant place. There exists a society where law is based upon deterrence and criminals are assigned "obligations" fitting for their crimes. Within this society, a man named Morita Kenichi aspires to the position of Special High Class Individual, one who holds authority over said criminals.
    For the purpose of fulfilling his ambition, Kenichi returns to the town he once called home. There he will encounter three girls bearing "obligations" and there he will encounter the past he left behind. Won't you join him in this story about how people relate to their society?
    In this story about how a society relates to its people. In this story about the girl amid the sunflowers growing in the country spinning like a wheel.
     
    ENDING GUIDE
    Sharin no Kuni doesn’t have the kind of routes you might except from a Visual Novel. Rather, after the introduction you will see the girls’ stories in the following order Sachi, Touka, Natsumi. Entering a heroine’s route doesn’t affect anything except the epilogue after the ending (and in the case of Sachi and Touka you get some extra scenes during the main story).
    After you’ve begun a relationship with Sachi or Touka you won’t be able to switch in later chapters. If you’re planning to do several routes it is definitely recommended to do Natsumi’s route first.
    ***Game Routes***
    Natsumi Hinata
     
    Sachi Mitsuhiro
     
    Touka Oone
     
    Harem End
     
    Secret Heroine
    For a spoiler-free walktrough simply follow the walktrough for Natsumi or Harem End and instead of choosing (2) Live peacefully with Natsumi and the others, choose the other choice.
    For a more detailed walktrough (but with spoilers) read this:

    This walktrough is based on info aquired from GameFaqs.com and This Walktrough with some editing and additional info by me.
    Edit: Some stylistic changes made for posting in walkthrough section. -Tay
  2. Like
    Beato got a reaction from jansonseth in Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo   


    Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo
    Rated 18+
    In the near future. In a not so distant place. There exists a society where law is based upon deterrence and criminals are assigned "obligations" fitting for their crimes. Within this society, a man named Morita Kenichi aspires to the position of Special High Class Individual, one who holds authority over said criminals.
    For the purpose of fulfilling his ambition, Kenichi returns to the town he once called home. There he will encounter three girls bearing "obligations" and there he will encounter the past he left behind. Won't you join him in this story about how people relate to their society?
    In this story about how a society relates to its people. In this story about the girl amid the sunflowers growing in the country spinning like a wheel.
     
    ENDING GUIDE
    Sharin no Kuni doesn’t have the kind of routes you might except from a Visual Novel. Rather, after the introduction you will see the girls’ stories in the following order Sachi, Touka, Natsumi. Entering a heroine’s route doesn’t affect anything except the epilogue after the ending (and in the case of Sachi and Touka you get some extra scenes during the main story).
    After you’ve begun a relationship with Sachi or Touka you won’t be able to switch in later chapters. If you’re planning to do several routes it is definitely recommended to do Natsumi’s route first.
    ***Game Routes***
    Natsumi Hinata
     
    Sachi Mitsuhiro
     
    Touka Oone
     
    Harem End
     
    Secret Heroine
    For a spoiler-free walktrough simply follow the walktrough for Natsumi or Harem End and instead of choosing (2) Live peacefully with Natsumi and the others, choose the other choice.
    For a more detailed walktrough (but with spoilers) read this:

    This walktrough is based on info aquired from GameFaqs.com and This Walktrough with some editing and additional info by me.
    Edit: Some stylistic changes made for posting in walkthrough section. -Tay
  3. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Dreamysyu in The Second Reproduction   
    The Second Reproduction
    Summary
    Christina was the third princess of Almenan, and born in the era of war against the Demons. Having the status of a “Champion”, Christina had countless battle victories upon her shoulders and was feared by the Demon race.

    Being the most successful of her three sisters, her mother the queen sent her on a secret mission to assassinate the Demon Lord Gardis in return for his ruthless annihilation of the Kingdom of Crofts.

    Obeying her mother’s orders for the sake of her kingdom, Christina set out alongside with her most loyal knight Lezette to take the Demon Lord’s head, and to bring peace to the land.
    Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order
    There isn’t any sort of forced route order in The Second Reproduction but I strongly recommend the order:
    Gardis --> Lezette --> Jin
    After you’ve finished all the five endings the After Stories will be unlocked.
    To access the After Stories, from the main menu, go to:
    Option Event Christina Valentine Plans There are no choices in the After Stories.
     
    Route Guideline  
    Gardis
      Good End   Bad End
       
     

     
    Lezette
      Good End    
    Bad End    
     
     

     
    Jin
      Good End    
    Attribution This walkthrough is based on the walkthrough included with patch by Ate The Moon Translations.
  4. Confused
    Beato got a reaction from Shaun in Quartett!   
    Summary
    On the 17th of March, there is a classical strings concert unlike any other in the world. Ninety-six young musicians, divided into twenty-four quartets perform before an audience of the world’s greatest conductors and instrumentalists. Only one group - a single quartet - is chosen form these performers. Success brings prestige beyond imagination and guaranteed entry into any orchestra on the planet. It is a once in a lifetime chance for those striving to perfect the art of music. The ultimate dream… and possibly the ultimate nightmare.
     
    Ending Guideline / Suggested Play Order
    You can play the heroines in any order you wish but I strongly recommend leaving Charlotte for last. Upon completing the three routes you'll see a final epilogue.

     Ending Guideline

     

    Charlotte Francia
     
     

     

    Juni Argiano
     

     

    Li Shuhua
     

    Attribution
    Made by me with based on information from this walkthrough.
  5. Like
    Beato got a reaction from babiker in Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People-   
    Sekien no Inganock
    -What a Beautiful People-
     
        Summary Inganock, a city isolated from the outside, a city where everything is distorted, even the sun.
    It all started ten years ago, at a day called 'Revival'. Then residents of the city slowly changed into beings partially human and partially animal.

    To this day, only a few still look fully human on the outside. One of these is Gii, a former medical student, now an illegal doctor that walks the city and cures the poor for free.
    He changed too, but only in the inside, and his change gave him a mysterious ability that he uses to heal people that keep mutating further every day.

    He has a few 'friends' if you can call them that. One of them is a black steel cat girl called Ati.
    Another one is an old friend from his medical school that he just met again after ten years, Salem.
     
    But everything truly begins when he meets a little girl with pink eyes named Kia...
      Ending Guideline While Sekien no Inganock is completely linear it does come with a minigame that can take some trial and error to get through and is sometimes quite frustrating. There is an option in the game to skip this game completely however I do not recommend doing this. Without the information provided in it several core parts of the story will be very hard to understand.   Walkthrough   Chapter 1: The Sky, There Are Two Suns
      Chapter 2: And Now, A Fairy Tale
      Chapter 3: This Sound, Surely If I play It...
      Chapter 4: A Mirror, Even If It Reflects Nothing...
      Chapter 5: Right Now, Your Tears Are Right Here
      Chapter 6: The Window, On A Night of Pouring Rain
      Chapter 7: My Voice, Even If It Doesn't Reach You Now...
      Chapter 8: A Death, A Voice from the Intermission
      Chapter 9: A Flower, One Thing Sparkling


    Chapter 10: A Flower, On That Day It Bloomed Proudly
      Chapter 11: My Heart, Where In My Chest?
      Chapter 12: Inganock of the Brightest Flame
      Attribution This walkthrough was based on the one Amaterasu Translations included with their translation.
  6. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Arcadeotic in Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People-   
    Sekien no Inganock
    -What a Beautiful People-
     
        Summary Inganock, a city isolated from the outside, a city where everything is distorted, even the sun.
    It all started ten years ago, at a day called 'Revival'. Then residents of the city slowly changed into beings partially human and partially animal.

    To this day, only a few still look fully human on the outside. One of these is Gii, a former medical student, now an illegal doctor that walks the city and cures the poor for free.
    He changed too, but only in the inside, and his change gave him a mysterious ability that he uses to heal people that keep mutating further every day.

    He has a few 'friends' if you can call them that. One of them is a black steel cat girl called Ati.
    Another one is an old friend from his medical school that he just met again after ten years, Salem.
     
    But everything truly begins when he meets a little girl with pink eyes named Kia...
      Ending Guideline While Sekien no Inganock is completely linear it does come with a minigame that can take some trial and error to get through and is sometimes quite frustrating. There is an option in the game to skip this game completely however I do not recommend doing this. Without the information provided in it several core parts of the story will be very hard to understand.   Walkthrough   Chapter 1: The Sky, There Are Two Suns
      Chapter 2: And Now, A Fairy Tale
      Chapter 3: This Sound, Surely If I play It...
      Chapter 4: A Mirror, Even If It Reflects Nothing...
      Chapter 5: Right Now, Your Tears Are Right Here
      Chapter 6: The Window, On A Night of Pouring Rain
      Chapter 7: My Voice, Even If It Doesn't Reach You Now...
      Chapter 8: A Death, A Voice from the Intermission
      Chapter 9: A Flower, One Thing Sparkling


    Chapter 10: A Flower, On That Day It Bloomed Proudly
      Chapter 11: My Heart, Where In My Chest?
      Chapter 12: Inganock of the Brightest Flame
      Attribution This walkthrough was based on the one Amaterasu Translations included with their translation.
  7. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Vorathiel in Muv Luv: A Pretty Sweet Visual Novel Series Kickstarter [MILLION DOLLAR BABY]   
    I'm really worried about the option for added content and routes honestly. I can't see adding those working well at all in Alternative. And considering how age's latest VNs have had a pretty shitty reception I'm not sure I'd even want any new content if it was written by like Kouki or something.
  8. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Canicheslayer in Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People-   
    Sekien no Inganock
    -What a Beautiful People-
     
        Summary Inganock, a city isolated from the outside, a city where everything is distorted, even the sun.
    It all started ten years ago, at a day called 'Revival'. Then residents of the city slowly changed into beings partially human and partially animal.

    To this day, only a few still look fully human on the outside. One of these is Gii, a former medical student, now an illegal doctor that walks the city and cures the poor for free.
    He changed too, but only in the inside, and his change gave him a mysterious ability that he uses to heal people that keep mutating further every day.

    He has a few 'friends' if you can call them that. One of them is a black steel cat girl called Ati.
    Another one is an old friend from his medical school that he just met again after ten years, Salem.
     
    But everything truly begins when he meets a little girl with pink eyes named Kia...
      Ending Guideline While Sekien no Inganock is completely linear it does come with a minigame that can take some trial and error to get through and is sometimes quite frustrating. There is an option in the game to skip this game completely however I do not recommend doing this. Without the information provided in it several core parts of the story will be very hard to understand.   Walkthrough   Chapter 1: The Sky, There Are Two Suns
      Chapter 2: And Now, A Fairy Tale
      Chapter 3: This Sound, Surely If I play It...
      Chapter 4: A Mirror, Even If It Reflects Nothing...
      Chapter 5: Right Now, Your Tears Are Right Here
      Chapter 6: The Window, On A Night of Pouring Rain
      Chapter 7: My Voice, Even If It Doesn't Reach You Now...
      Chapter 8: A Death, A Voice from the Intermission
      Chapter 9: A Flower, One Thing Sparkling


    Chapter 10: A Flower, On That Day It Bloomed Proudly
      Chapter 11: My Heart, Where In My Chest?
      Chapter 12: Inganock of the Brightest Flame
      Attribution This walkthrough was based on the one Amaterasu Translations included with their translation.
  9. Like
    Beato reacted to Conjueror in onomatope*'s lastest title - Kyuuketsuki no Libra - is coming to Steam   
    I must raise a question about the qualifications of your veteran translators, as after having worked for almost five years in the business of translation (one of them for MangaGamer) I have yet to see a professional circle where transliterating a completely foreign word was thought of as a good idea, with an exception when it might be a core aspect of the narrative (like sensei in Natsume Souseki's "Kokoro"). Transliterating Japanese speech quirks like desu is a practice seen exclusively in fan translations, which at best caters to a few people in the already established audience that understand weeaboo lexicon, and at worst causes confusion among average readers who just want to enjoy the work without learning another language. One thing it always tells of though is that the translation has been done by an amateur.
    If you're doing a proper translation, you translate the voice of the character, not the literal words, and once you get the hang of it, all the speech quirks you need will come naturally to you in proper English. The very fact that you're obsessing to keep a foreign and mostly redundant quirk in a sentence dislodged from context at the cost of clarity already gives me the impression that the translation wasn't done by someone experienced in the field. You should check The Fruit of Grisaia, and how masterfully all sorts of speech quirks are treated in that translation.
    In any case, I'd suggest running another background check on your veteran translators, as from the way they sound they seem anything but.
  10. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Tehoa in What's going on with Seinarukana - The Spirit of Eternity Sword 2?   
    Most fan-translations certainly aren't well done and even if they were there's still no guarantee that we'd have Seinarukana now. I get the frustration with companies picking up almost finished fan-tls (though I personally think official releases are good) but this wasn't the case with Seinarukana.
     
    Seinarukana started as a fan-tl back in 2010. The translator was a guy named nighteye. Sometime between october 2010 and april 2011 nighteye disappeared. He was replaced by a guy named Renkosuke. Later the same year, in July 2011 JAST announced that they had licensed Seinarukana, the project was currently 30% translated, far from a completed translation. However sometime during 2012 Renkosuke also disappeared.
     
    In february 2013 it was announced that a guy called Inskipp had been called in to replace him. It had also been decided that the old translation was going to be scrapped because of issues with the quality (nighteye's parts in particuliar were apparently pretty bad) and to improve the consistency. A short time afterwards Inskipp is replaced by Aroduc for some unspecified reason. Aroduc finishes his initial rough translation in august 2013. After that there was qc, editing and programming that needed to be done which would've taken a fair bit of time no matter what.
     
    This isn't to say that Jast have handled this project well, they haven't and it almost certainly would have been released by now if say, Mangagamer was doing it. But there are actually tons of fan-tls that were way more finished than Seinarukana was when Jast picked it up that still were dropped or stalled. We have no idea if Aroduc would have picked up Seinarukana if he hadn't been hired by Jast. It probably would still have been sitting there, half-finished without a translator just like dozens of other fan-tls.
  11. Like
    Beato reacted to Katatsumuri in Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning released!   
    I probably annoyed the hell out of someone when I saw how close this is to coming out. I absolutely loved both Sharnoth and Inganock (Sharnoth basically had everything I really wanted from a VN when I read it the first time), and I really, *really* hope mangagamer translate the two between Sharnoth and Gakthun. Well, now I hope the hype train doesn't derail on the way to christmas...
    I love this series
    The hype train can't go faster.
    Merry christmas, me.
  12. Like
    Beato reacted to Down in The Market of VNs Around the World - Discussion   
    I'm aware of it, sadly. But the reasons are a bit different. The eroge market in Japan is not blooming, it's dying. Therefore producers take less risk, companies crash and burn, etc... And you need to respond to the very specific needs of some fans that go unbelievably balistic if you don't - mandatory voices, mandatory school setting, date-able heroines (that are faithful and virgin), large amount of text, and so many unsaid conventions... The same thing is happened to anime.
    There's a reason why two of the best VNs released in those last few years are SubaHibi and SakuUta - for the simple reason that Sca-ji is not only a fascinating writer, but also his own boss running his own company.
    It's not a really happy state indeed. It's the disappearance of a subculture and everything it means. The thing is, I don't see the current english market picking up where the japanese one left, and I don't even see it making that legacy available over here.
    Doesn't mean we won't get good VNs. There's plenty of stuff out there still, I'm not pessimistic. As I said, that's a pretty opinionated point of view, I don't expect everyone (far from it) to agree with it. There's a reason why I learned japanese, I don't think so many people are interested in what I think is interesting in eroge.

  13. Like
    Beato got a reaction from XReaper in Sekai Project cropped G-Senjou no Maou CGs   
    Actually its pretty worrying that they are as close to finishing it as they are. It's supposed to be coming out later this month and considering the how huge Clannad is it certainly doesn't bode well for the quality of the translation. It's going to be a massive improvement over the original TL no doubt but there's pretty big risk of a rush job.
  14. Like
    Beato reacted to sanahtlig in Sekai Project cropped G-Senjou no Maou CGs   
    I finally read through the thread and it looks like this is what happened:
    People complain on the Steam forums that G-senjou's "HD" CG are cropped. Sekai Project deletes the threads. Users on Reddit and elsewhere go ballistic because *coverup*. Sekai Project makes a vague statement that they're not allowed to speak on the subject at this time, and that they'll delete all Steam discussions about it. Sekai Project (likely after consulting with Akabei Soft) makes a statement that the cropping was Akabei Soft's decision.  They sticky this in the Steam forums. Criticism mostly dies down. Sanahtlig sees this topic and reacts to 1-3 before reading up on later developments. In any case, Sekai Project handled this poorly.  They shouldn't have started deleting threads until they had a complete announcement available.  As usual, their PR leaves much to be desired.
    Moral of the story: For Christ's sake update the OP with a link to Sekai Project's official Steam sticky so these misunderstandings won't continue to be propagated.
  15. Like
    Beato reacted to Nosebleed in Sekai Project cropped G-Senjou no Maou CGs   
    W-what, you're telling me Sekai Project isn't an evil orgnization that hates visual novels?
    I-I don't believe you!
    Blasphemy!
    *throws salt*
    The hate on the G-senjou CG thing has been so blown out of proportion it's not even funny anymore.
    Seriously, a huge hate mob over cropped CGs? Grow up.
    In fact, the hate on SP in general is a bit ridiculous to say the least and, as someone who doesn't really like SP that much, even I feel the need to defend them when stupidity like this is brought up.
    I'm not a die hard fan of SP and i've criticized the way they handle their games before, mostly on their lack of communication, but I find it stupid to assume that because something happens to one of their games that some users don't like they are automatically the hitler of VNs.
    Seriously the amount of assumptions people have built around SP is insane. And while you can argue it's because they don't talk with their fanbase a lot, I can also imagine that with such a whiny fanbase most people wouldn't want to communicate with them.
    Not only that, but as soon as a tiny portion of a game is not handled as the fanbase expected, people just assume SP hates VNs and wants to ruin everything for everyone.
    What basis do most accusations towards SP have? The way I see it, a lot of them are just baseless anger because... entitlement.
    From my point of view, a lot of people seem upset that fan translations are now being made non-free and they feel like SP is just taking advantage of stuff that, according to a lot of fans, should be righteously free as it was made by fans for fans. (i.e "muh free pornz")
    This logic is absurd and shows the absolute sense of entitlement a chunk of the fanbase has.
    As someone who wants to be a translator, I would be honored if a big company came to me because of my fan translations and wanted to make them official, and I'm sure a lot of other fan translators feel the same way, that's why people like koestl and astro even work with SP.
    And before you come in with the "they just threatened them with legal action!"; well, for 1) there's no proof of this and 2) they are, for all intents and purposes, doing something illegal, however, I never once saw SP condemning fan translations, so...??
    As for the usage of Kickstarters, there's always a long debate on this, but the fact of the matter still stands: we can't make assumptions regarding SP's financial situation with no proof.
    Yeah we see big numbers in a couple of their KS, but so what? That proves literally jack shit, we don't know what's in their contract with the original game makers.
    And yes, even I think a company should strive to be independent and I think if SP's entire business model relies on KS, this could potentially bite them in the ass in the future.
    But hell, I don't go out of my way to say "don't fund this! SP is ruining the VN! this already has a fan translation!".
    Just don't fund their games if you don't want to, it's so simple. I know I haven't.
    Going back to this original "issue" in the OP.
    Why do you automatically assume SP just went "yeah you know what the fans will like? If we crop the CGs!".
    Think rationally about this, question them on their decisions instead of throwing salt at them and going on a tantrum, that solves nobody's problems.
    I do agree that the censorship of critique wasn't the best move, but it's not with pure anger that you'll get an actual answer out of them.
    Maybe if we just think calmly about it we can see that a lot of the decisions aren't in SP's hands, that Japanese devs can actually be douchebags about some things, and that SP is in a position of "we're screwed either way", yet they push things out as best as they can, and for that I wholeheartedly praise them.
    In general, a lot of the hatred towards SP just seems to stem from the fact that SP is handling things in ways that weren't done before in the industry.
    It's unusual, scary even to some, but they are showing growth and have delivered on a few of their bigger projects and don't seem to slow down. Isn't that what people wanted to begin with? (I know some don't, but for those I have nothing else to say).
    Imho, I really believe they need some time to actually build trust with their costumers and push out their releases in a more timely fashion, as well as improve their communication and the way they handled uncensored releases, but these are all ultimately things they can improve in the future, so why not just wait it out and see how the big releases like G-senjou go.
    Grisaia eventually came out after all the turmoil, so there's no reason to believe G-senjou won't follow similar patterns, so I'd really suggest people calm themselves and stop lashing out at SP for unfounded reasons, it's not doing anybody any favors.
  16. Like
    Beato got a reaction from sanahtlig in Sekai Project cropped G-Senjou no Maou CGs   
    Didn't you read anything of what I said? You simply have no proof of anything you are saying. All of Sekai's kickstarters so far have been either them translating an existing Japanese product or them acting as publishers to help out create a new one. I:E all of their kickstarters have involved another entity other than Sekai. We have no idea how they split up the money between them. Also none of their kickstarters have reached 1 million and only 2 of them have reached even 100.000 so uh... billions? Also none of Sekai's kickstarters have been based on fan translations. The Grisaia and World End Economica kickstarters both included untranslated content and the Clannad translation is entirely new.
    Also the thought that someone who wanted to scam people and make tons of money would choose visual novels of all things is simply ridiculous, there simply isn't a lot of money to be made here.
    I don't even like that Sekai is using kickstarter so much and I really respect Mangagamer for saying that they're not going to. So I don't even like Sekai project all that much yet I still end up defending them all the time since people keep making unfounded accusations. There are tons of legitimate critiques to be made about both Sekai and their use of kickstarter, do that instead of making stuff up.
  17. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Down in Sekai Project cropped G-Senjou no Maou CGs   
    Didn't you read anything of what I said? You simply have no proof of anything you are saying. All of Sekai's kickstarters so far have been either them translating an existing Japanese product or them acting as publishers to help out create a new one. I:E all of their kickstarters have involved another entity other than Sekai. We have no idea how they split up the money between them. Also none of their kickstarters have reached 1 million and only 2 of them have reached even 100.000 so uh... billions? Also none of Sekai's kickstarters have been based on fan translations. The Grisaia and World End Economica kickstarters both included untranslated content and the Clannad translation is entirely new.
    Also the thought that someone who wanted to scam people and make tons of money would choose visual novels of all things is simply ridiculous, there simply isn't a lot of money to be made here.
    I don't even like that Sekai is using kickstarter so much and I really respect Mangagamer for saying that they're not going to. So I don't even like Sekai project all that much yet I still end up defending them all the time since people keep making unfounded accusations. There are tons of legitimate critiques to be made about both Sekai and their use of kickstarter, do that instead of making stuff up.
  18. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Darklord Rooke in Muv Luv: A Pretty Sweet Visual Novel Series Kickstarter [MILLION DOLLAR BABY]   
    I haven't read Muv-Luv in Japanese but Ixrec simply isn't a very good translator. His translations are overly stiff and full of bad writing and weird phrasing. Muv-Luv isn't exactly known for its beautiful prose so it probably doesn't suffer as much in that regard as for example his translations of Comyu, Inganock or Rewrite but bad prose isn't the only issue with his work. It is often overly literal which gives me the impression that he doesn't know Japanese very well (at least not well enough to be translating), a lot of his translations basically seem like he looked up the words or kanji in a dictionary and just inserted the first definition that appeared. Like he apparently translated 紐 as shoestring in Rewrite for example which is an incredibly amateurish mistake.
    A lot of people have impressions like "Ixrec's translations might be a bit stiff but otherwise they're correct" or something like that but this isn't true. When he translated Muv-Luv there wasn't a lot criticism as the state of VN translations back then were pretty bad in general. If you've look up stuff from Rewrite and Comyu though which he did later you'll find tons of tons of examples that are just flat out wrong. Some examples from Rewrite:
    All of these are wrong. They're not just badly phrased. They are wrong. Yet without seeing the Japanese you wouldn't know as they all make sense and are grammatically correct. The first two sentences are also incredibly easy, they're on the level that someone like me who has known enough Japanese to be able to read VNs in less than a year could translate them correctly. And if his Rewrite translation is full of mistakes like these that certainly doesn't imply good things about his earlier muv-luv translation.
    He has also said that he doesn't think the prose matters and that the only thing that makes a visual novel well written is the plot and the twists and whatever, which really isn't encouraging to hear from someone who constantly picks works that are renowned for their prose to translate. If you've read some of his reviews he pretty much only cares about most works at a very superficial level which is a fine way to approach something as a reader (though you're definitly missing out) but completely unacceptable for a translator. If you have no affection for language you really don't have any business translating anything other than stuff like manuals. And yeah MLA's translation might be above avergae for a fan translation but that says more about the state of fan translations than anything else. While MLA isn't my favourite or anything it is one of the most well-regarded and influential VNs of all time it absolutely deserves the best translation possible.
    But what I'm really worried about isn't even the translation for the main trilogy but the side stories. The muv-luv team has stated several times that they are going to work with Alternative Projects on the side stories. From what I've seen their translations are so beyond the pale that they make Ixrec's look good. Their works include wonderful translations like:
    Some people from Alternative Projects have said that they have improved and if that's true I'm glad though I still have my doubts that their current level is anywhere near professional quality. But the problems in their earlier translations certainly can't be fixed with editing or proofreading, it needs a complete re-translation and that Degica doesn't seem to intend to do that is very worrying.
  19. Like
    Beato got a reaction from XReaper in Muv Luv: A Pretty Sweet Visual Novel Series Kickstarter [MILLION DOLLAR BABY]   
    I haven't read Muv-Luv in Japanese but Ixrec simply isn't a very good translator. His translations are overly stiff and full of bad writing and weird phrasing. Muv-Luv isn't exactly known for its beautiful prose so it probably doesn't suffer as much in that regard as for example his translations of Comyu, Inganock or Rewrite but bad prose isn't the only issue with his work. It is often overly literal which gives me the impression that he doesn't know Japanese very well (at least not well enough to be translating), a lot of his translations basically seem like he looked up the words or kanji in a dictionary and just inserted the first definition that appeared. Like he apparently translated 紐 as shoestring in Rewrite for example which is an incredibly amateurish mistake.
    A lot of people have impressions like "Ixrec's translations might be a bit stiff but otherwise they're correct" or something like that but this isn't true. When he translated Muv-Luv there wasn't a lot criticism as the state of VN translations back then were pretty bad in general. If you've look up stuff from Rewrite and Comyu though which he did later you'll find tons of tons of examples that are just flat out wrong. Some examples from Rewrite:
    All of these are wrong. They're not just badly phrased. They are wrong. Yet without seeing the Japanese you wouldn't know as they all make sense and are grammatically correct. The first two sentences are also incredibly easy, they're on the level that someone like me who has known enough Japanese to be able to read VNs in less than a year could translate them correctly. And if his Rewrite translation is full of mistakes like these that certainly doesn't imply good things about his earlier muv-luv translation.
    He has also said that he doesn't think the prose matters and that the only thing that makes a visual novel well written is the plot and the twists and whatever, which really isn't encouraging to hear from someone who constantly picks works that are renowned for their prose to translate. If you've read some of his reviews he pretty much only cares about most works at a very superficial level which is a fine way to approach something as a reader (though you're definitly missing out) but completely unacceptable for a translator. If you have no affection for language you really don't have any business translating anything other than stuff like manuals. And yeah MLA's translation might be above avergae for a fan translation but that says more about the state of fan translations than anything else. While MLA isn't my favourite or anything it is one of the most well-regarded and influential VNs of all time it absolutely deserves the best translation possible.
    But what I'm really worried about isn't even the translation for the main trilogy but the side stories. The muv-luv team has stated several times that they are going to work with Alternative Projects on the side stories. From what I've seen their translations are so beyond the pale that they make Ixrec's look good. Their works include wonderful translations like:
    Some people from Alternative Projects have said that they have improved and if that's true I'm glad though I still have my doubts that their current level is anywhere near professional quality. But the problems in their earlier translations certainly can't be fixed with editing or proofreading, it needs a complete re-translation and that Degica doesn't seem to intend to do that is very worrying.
  20. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Down in Muv Luv: A Pretty Sweet Visual Novel Series Kickstarter [MILLION DOLLAR BABY]   
    I haven't read Muv-Luv in Japanese but Ixrec simply isn't a very good translator. His translations are overly stiff and full of bad writing and weird phrasing. Muv-Luv isn't exactly known for its beautiful prose so it probably doesn't suffer as much in that regard as for example his translations of Comyu, Inganock or Rewrite but bad prose isn't the only issue with his work. It is often overly literal which gives me the impression that he doesn't know Japanese very well (at least not well enough to be translating), a lot of his translations basically seem like he looked up the words or kanji in a dictionary and just inserted the first definition that appeared. Like he apparently translated 紐 as shoestring in Rewrite for example which is an incredibly amateurish mistake.
    A lot of people have impressions like "Ixrec's translations might be a bit stiff but otherwise they're correct" or something like that but this isn't true. When he translated Muv-Luv there wasn't a lot criticism as the state of VN translations back then were pretty bad in general. If you've look up stuff from Rewrite and Comyu though which he did later you'll find tons of tons of examples that are just flat out wrong. Some examples from Rewrite:
    All of these are wrong. They're not just badly phrased. They are wrong. Yet without seeing the Japanese you wouldn't know as they all make sense and are grammatically correct. The first two sentences are also incredibly easy, they're on the level that someone like me who has known enough Japanese to be able to read VNs in less than a year could translate them correctly. And if his Rewrite translation is full of mistakes like these that certainly doesn't imply good things about his earlier muv-luv translation.
    He has also said that he doesn't think the prose matters and that the only thing that makes a visual novel well written is the plot and the twists and whatever, which really isn't encouraging to hear from someone who constantly picks works that are renowned for their prose to translate. If you've read some of his reviews he pretty much only cares about most works at a very superficial level which is a fine way to approach something as a reader (though you're definitly missing out) but completely unacceptable for a translator. If you have no affection for language you really don't have any business translating anything other than stuff like manuals. And yeah MLA's translation might be above avergae for a fan translation but that says more about the state of fan translations than anything else. While MLA isn't my favourite or anything it is one of the most well-regarded and influential VNs of all time it absolutely deserves the best translation possible.
    But what I'm really worried about isn't even the translation for the main trilogy but the side stories. The muv-luv team has stated several times that they are going to work with Alternative Projects on the side stories. From what I've seen their translations are so beyond the pale that they make Ixrec's look good. Their works include wonderful translations like:
    Some people from Alternative Projects have said that they have improved and if that's true I'm glad though I still have my doubts that their current level is anywhere near professional quality. But the problems in their earlier translations certainly can't be fixed with editing or proofreading, it needs a complete re-translation and that Degica doesn't seem to intend to do that is very worrying.
  21. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Bolverk in What are you reading? Untranslated edition   
    Finally finished Utawarerumono Itsuwari no Kamen and I can't really say anything but... wow. I wrote a big wall of text with my impressions here but for anyone who wants a tldr: Utaware2 turned out incredibly good and I recommend it even if you weren't super fond of the original (though it certainly adds to the experience if you were). I'd also encourage people who don't consider themselves good enough at japanese to read without a text hooker to challenge themselves and read it anyway. I had only read one japanese VN (Eustia) with the help of a text-hooker before reading Utawarerumono portable this summer and Itsuwari no Kamen is just my third VN in JP. The Utawarerumo series is probably one of the best examples to challenge oneself with as it's almost entirely voiced (even the narration). Just get an okayish phone dictionary (I use the free imiwa) and learn some basic stroke order so you can look up kanji using the SKIP method (radical search is awful for everything but very complicated kanji or kanji where you can't make out all the radicals) and you should be good to go.
    Big wall of text with impressions below.
  22. Like
    Beato got a reaction from FinalChaos in Fall 2015 Anime Discussion   
    The new Utawarerumono anime is not an alternative adaption but a sequel set between 15-20 years after the original. It is based on a VN called Utawarerumono Itsuwari no Kamen which is a sequel to the original Utawarerumono VN. It only came out a month ago so it obviously doesn't have an english translation yet.
    A lot of people are saying that it's is completely unrelated to the original but this isn't true and they're probably just assuming it based on the first few episodes. While you probably could enjoy Itsuwari no Kamen without having either read the original VN or seen the original anime I do not reccomend doing so. Itsuwari no Kamen pretty much assumes that you've experienced the original Utawarerumono and therefore doesn't always explain things you'd already understand if you've done so.
  23. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Jun Inoue in Fall 2015 Anime Discussion   
    The new Utawarerumono anime is not an alternative adaption but a sequel set between 15-20 years after the original. It is based on a VN called Utawarerumono Itsuwari no Kamen which is a sequel to the original Utawarerumono VN. It only came out a month ago so it obviously doesn't have an english translation yet.
    A lot of people are saying that it's is completely unrelated to the original but this isn't true and they're probably just assuming it based on the first few episodes. While you probably could enjoy Itsuwari no Kamen without having either read the original VN or seen the original anime I do not reccomend doing so. Itsuwari no Kamen pretty much assumes that you've experienced the original Utawarerumono and therefore doesn't always explain things you'd already understand if you've done so.
  24. Like
    Beato reacted to Chronopolis in What are you reading? Untranslated edition   
    It's great to see a great fantasy VN come out. Everyone I know from everywhere is raving about Utawarerumono 2. Hoping to get a PS4 someday to play those console games.
  25. Like
    Beato got a reaction from Chronopolis in What are you reading? Untranslated edition   
    Finally finished Utawarerumono Itsuwari no Kamen and I can't really say anything but... wow. I wrote a big wall of text with my impressions here but for anyone who wants a tldr: Utaware2 turned out incredibly good and I recommend it even if you weren't super fond of the original (though it certainly adds to the experience if you were). I'd also encourage people who don't consider themselves good enough at japanese to read without a text hooker to challenge themselves and read it anyway. I had only read one japanese VN (Eustia) with the help of a text-hooker before reading Utawarerumono portable this summer and Itsuwari no Kamen is just my third VN in JP. The Utawarerumo series is probably one of the best examples to challenge oneself with as it's almost entirely voiced (even the narration). Just get an okayish phone dictionary (I use the free imiwa) and learn some basic stroke order so you can look up kanji using the SKIP method (radical search is awful for everything but very complicated kanji or kanji where you can't make out all the radicals) and you should be good to go.
    Big wall of text with impressions below.
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