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DharmaFreedom

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  1. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to MaggieROBOT for a blog entry, Oscars Mood   
    I know no one cares about the Oscars anymore (or ever) but now came the time to prove how The Shape of the Water is the best otomemu ever.
     

     
    # FAQ
    Q) What da hell is an otomemu?
    A) It's a short for 乙女ムーヴィ (otomemuvi). It's like a ge, but not really. (This bullshit is copyrighted by Maggie not really)
    Q) Why the FAQ is at the start of the post?
    A) You wouldn't be able to handle the suspense of not knowing what a otomemu is.
    Q) This is unfunny.
    A) And that's not a question. The Q stand for question, smartass, ask something and leave your stupid comments in your pocket!
     

     
    Okay, back in the ge. Oh, I mean the mu. So, the Oscars made me realize how much of a otomege The Shape of Water can be. Don't believe? Just follow me!
     

     
    It have a silent female MC that was just doing her mundane job when suddenly she found love in the least expected place; It stars a mysterious aloof guy and only route option and everybody loves the sexy and mysterious trope, right? We have a totally random sex scene shove in for the same reasons as a lot eroge, whatever they are. It's with side character, so you don't need to fear that any kind of NTR is coming; It have the token glasses guy that all otomege seems to have but this time he didn't had a route because that's what all animes do, cut routes (in this particular case, I didn't wanted a route with him anyway); It have a incredibly short gay subplot for the yays because BL is also for girls; It's a pure love story as the meaning of otome would suggest; If you watch it with subs, the experience will be kinda like a OELVN with non anime art emulating School Days style so it can totally be considered a ge along with being a mu.  
    So, with this post I hope to clean the slate of the otomemus because Twilight is such a bakamu and 50 Shades a kusomu,  it's refreshing to see a kamige once in a while. Murica also proved that The Shape of the Water was the best VN of 2017 and now I can finally say that Guillermo del Toro is a better VN writer than SCA-Ji. Deal with that, weebs. Cheers!
     

  2. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Kaguya for a blog entry, Fabulous on Fuwa - February!   
    Introduction

     
    Welcome, fellow Fuwamembers, to the FuwaRecognition thread. Starting this March, we’ll be highlighting some of the best contributions made by our members each month. From snazzy blog articles to delicious forum threads, and perhaps even a few things more on the shitpost part of the spectrum, we'll keep an eye out for the cream of the crop. And then we'll gather them here. Just for you.
     
    *holds up giant APPLAUSE sign*

     
    A-hem, so this is the first time we're doing this and it might be a bit rough; next time will be at the end of March. Anyways; without further ado, let's get to our highlights. 
     
    By @Zakamutt.
     
    Threads
     
    Our first highlight on threads comes from two Ask Me Anything topics posted in the span of this month: from our dear provisional Tay, @Kaguya, and from the anti-moege task force founder himself, the saltlord himself @VirginSmasher.
     
    It’s now Kags’ fifth year on these dear forums, and members of new ’n old had a lot of questions, climbing over to 50 comments, almost unheard of in this day and age of lacklustre forum interaction. Even after the glory days of lolis long passed, Kaguya still swears close to his heart how they indeed are the master-race that rule over this weeb-dom, mostly in nukige form. Charming.
     
    @VirginSmasher’s AMA, on the other hand, is mostly an appreciation of past glory and his good friends, met before he died out, but he also remembered some newer members who are already becoming an integral part of these forums of today. Quite a lot of internal banter and jokes flew here and there, but it is quite touching to see even older members returning from long breaks of apparent irremovable death.
     

     
    As you might have seen, we have a new EVN on the horizon, or rather, KickStarter: One Last Crane, developed by @Blissful-Works This visual novel is being developed by an Indonesian team with some members over at Tokyo, Japan, and it has a an odd goal amount of 10,052 dollars, though this is due the publicization of the project being handled from Japan, which also makes the whole project page ask all money in yens. A risky play, let’s see if it pays out for them.
    The novel is planned on being released for four languages: English, Japanese, Chinese, and Indonesian. Quite the amount for still quite a small goal, but we’ll have to see how it pans out in the end, at least they are in no shortage of ambition.
    While the art-style itself is quite generic, it does look modern and does its job as presentation well enough, not to mention that the KickStarter page itself is quite stylish, but only time will tell how it’ll go over. All we can do is wait.
     
    @EastCoastDrifter has done something unique on the forums that no one would even think of. He loves space, and he has extended his love to the members of the Fuwanovel community by creating a Fuwanovel Solar System. Using a program called Space Engine, Drifter has taken the liberty to name all planets in this system after very prominent Fuwamembers. It’s a great tribute to the community and you should really check it out. Furthermore, Drifter says he’s not done, and has plans to create more Fuwa solar systems to feature more members in the future. If you want a planet named after you, feel free to post in the linked thread or contact Drifter personally.
     
    By @Arcadeotic and @EastCoastDrifter.
     
    Blogs
    Hi I'm Zaka and I'm the only one that cares about blogs on the team. Maybe. I didn't actually ask the other guys. Shit. So uhh, here's my recs...
     
    @Clephas writes accessibly about (for the most part) untranslated Japanese visual novels. This time, we have some posts about the recently released third VN in the Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru series, of which the first actually has a translation by MangaGamer. Unfortunately, the second is where people think it actually got good. We start with a more general note on the series, then move on to a review of Otoboku 3 itself.
     
    While Clephas has been writing for quite a while, @MaggieROBOT is a bit newer to the scene. She focuses on Otome and BL VNs, and for this post we'd like to show you her post on an upcoming BL visual novel (fresh from the pot, baby. That thing is probably the first blog post to come right after this one. Oh yeah. That's how we roll. - Kaguya) as well as her review of the robot-romance Otome VN Sakuya. Go ahead and look for her post complaining about a trap in a moege not having a route if you like things on the more humorous side of the spectrum

     
    Just For Fun!
     
    During the process of writing this post.
     

     
    Well you know I’m all about that nepotism baby. That's right, this is just for you. Rising 1.8% female readership (thanks Maggie) local GM and blog post connoisseur Kaguya here. To close the blog review section up, we’ll be highlighting the post where I wonderfully delve into the mind of writer Setoguchi Ren’ya, explaining his past and his involvements with the little-known work The Shawshank Redemption as well as how that work affected the VN industry, finishing things with a bang as I explain his history and the hidden messages within Swan Song.
    And finishing things off in a suitable grand scale, much like a writer who traps himself into writing continuously larger powerlevels until his shounen manga gets to a point where it doesn't even resemble the original, we will be looking at two posts made by Fuwanovel's current closest figure to Jesus, @Kiriririri (Who unlike our creator, did revive. How about that?)
    He died for our sins as he bravely made two deep posts about the current state of the VN community that were completely hidden by the evil staff... Until now. Gaze upon them and marvel, this is the true work of a genius!!

    February is over. We bled. We sweat. Friendships were broken and renewed, and old members revived from their graves and mingled with the new pringles to take us where we are now. And the community persists, as glorious as ever. 
    March is here. And in this rewind, I declare FebruaryFuwa absolutely Fabulous! 
  3. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Releasing VNs in pieces   
    First, I should say that I disapprove of releasing visual novels in pieces.  I'm perfectly willing to wait three or four years for a good story, but I hate nothing more than being interrupted in the middle and having to wait another year for the next one. 
    The habit of releasing VNs in chapters was a vice mostly restricted to doujin VNs in the past.  The more obvious reasons are people like me who hate having their stories interrupted, the previous dominance of physical media, and other issues.  However, as digital releases have become more common, companies have begun to try to find ways to suck more blood out of their readers without investing as much money.  The result has been a rash of fragmentary game releases, like Corona Blossom, Grisaia Phantom Trigger, and the Uso series by Campus.
    Now, while I used them as an example, those are mostly positive examples.  All three constructed their 'pieces' so they could stand on their own.  Phantom Trigger takes an episodic approach, making each entry feel like an anime episode in a series or a novel in a series that does a good job of concluding the events of each entry, so that you don't become desperate waiting for the next.  The Uso series by Campus made each entry so that it stood on its own without needing previous knowledge of the other entries, despite their interlinked setting and characters.  These are probably the two best ways to approach micro-releasing VN stories... but in both cases, I would actually much prefer to read all the chapters at once, lol.
    I say I hate micro-releases, but that is because I see VNs as game hybrids.  For me, I only want to invest money in a game once.  I hate subscriptions, I hate microtransactions, and I absolutely despise random additional (paying) content.  I can justify buying a season pass along with the game itself, but that is because it is a one-time transaction that gets me everything without having to concern myself with continuous pushing of bits and pieces of essentially worthless digital merchandise.
    In other words, I hate that this has become more common because I instinctively fear the day when some 'brilliant genius' manages to incorporate true microtransactions into a pure VN.
     
  4. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Happy Birthday to Me   
    Well, as of thirty-nine minutes ago, it is officially my birthday (as of the time I checked at the beginning of making this post).  I have a lot of things to reflect on this year. 
    I am now thirty-six, settling into the beginnings of middle-age, knowing my lifestyle will probably kill me before I hit fifty. 
    I'm a sugar addict, I love fatty foods, I make my own alcoholic drinks (this year, a mixed fruit wine that actually turned out well and was much easier than the rum and hard root beer I did last year). 
    I sit on my ass eighty percent of the time, I am hugely fat...
    ... and I'm surprisingly happy.  I won't say I don't have my down moments.  Looking back, I regret not going for more athletic pursuits while my knees and back could still stand them.  I regret not trying for a more regular and less... frustrating line of work.  However, I can honestly say that, for all its frustrations, I actually seem to like being a fat, balding otaku who has pretensions at being  some kind of VN guru (lol).
    I do wish that I could fit into a plane seat, lol.  If I ever go to Japan, it is going to have to be a sea trip, since buying two plane tickets for one person is both embarrassing and more than a little expensive.
    I hate my work, but I'm good at it and, in good times, it pays well, so I keep doing it.
    So what would I change? 
    Honestly, it is hard to say.  I won't pretend I'm all love and joy when it comes to life.  I have too much toxic waste going through my brain for that (I just happened to have gained just enough maturity not to feed the trolls constantly *smiles dryly*).  I'm fundamentally a passive person once I set foot outside my hobbies, preferring not to do anything I don't absolutely have to do.  I'm also negative and misanthropic... but is that stuff I actually want to change?
    *shrugs*
    I've never been any other way, so it is impossible to say.  However, every year I hit this day and wonder what could have been, which probably says everything that needs to be said about my experiences with life, for all my proclamations of relative happiness.
     
  5. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to MaggieROBOT for a blog entry, Voice acting is serious business   
    Hey there! Today let's talk a bit about drama CDs, a kinda add-on to the stories of some visual novels that's super popular in otome and BL fandoms. I'm talking about these two particular fanbases, but it's not uncommon for light novels, manga and anime series, or video games from all kinds of genres to have side stories released in this format. And we even have original stories released like this.
    Drama CDs, or audio dramas, are exactly what it says on the tin. An audiobook of sorts with dialogues, inner thoughts of characters and narrations, read aloud by the voice actors of the media in question. Visual Novels without the visual aspect. The perspective can shift from character to character from time to time, and you'll know when it happened when other person starts narrating. If the main character is unvoiced in the main game, common in otome for self insertion reasons and such, these drama CDs are our chance to finally hear their voices.
    The big otomege japanese companies, like Otomate and Rejet, release drama CDs for most of it's popular series. And they are frequently announced in their big events, with the presence of the voice actors in question, to the fangirls' delight. I must admit that, since I started following these things, I learned quite a few names of voice actors and even when they use alias (more common in BL than otome, whyyyy is thaaaat), they don't fool me anymore.
     

    Related links given to me by CDJapan when I was looking for drama CDs. Not only I recognize four of these names, but I also know a bunch of previous roles of three of them.
     
    There's some different types of drama CD as well. Some features interactions between characters with a short and simple storyline. They are usually called talk CDs. Some otome games that have this type of drama cds are Amnesia (CD's name is "Meido no Kuni no Amnesia"), Hakuouki ("Chizuru Yuukai Jikenchou") and Arcana Famiglia ("Il dolce Regalo").
     

    Cover of "Chizuru Yuukai Jikenchou". The harem is strong with this girl...
     
    We also have the otome CDs that, unlike the talk CDs, have only one guy speaking with you or his inner thoughts about you. I mean, the main character. So yeah, an entire CD of your favorite guy whispering in your ear, I can see the appeal. You can usually recognize one by their name pattern: "Series name Vol. X - Character name". So just pick your favorite character and press play to enjoy! Series that have this type of CD are Diabolik Lovers (for masochist girls) and Norn9 (this game have three MCs, so the drama CDs are divided by girl, a track for each one of their love interests)
    Together with the otome CDs, we also have the character CDs, that features one of the guys singing instead of talking. Sometimes we have duets, but it really depends on the series. The naming pattern is similar to otome CDs, but it usually have "character CD" specified. As examples, we have Collar X Malice and Code Realize.
     

    Cover of Norn9 Trio Drama CD Vol. 1. Guys of all ages to please everyone!
     
    Now if you want something more... spicy, they also got you covered, with the R18 otome CDs. If you didn't press ctrl in all h-scenes you came across, you know what to expect here. Moaning, kissing and all those other background sounds. I never came across any game that had an extra CD like this, maybe they didn't wanted to ruin the pure maiden image, it's more common for these CDs to contain original stories. But I did saw the opposite happen actually, an original R18 CD turned into an otomege. Meet Jooubachi no Oubou!
    For BL... we have pretty much the same things except the otome variation. The biggest BL company, Nitro+CHIRAL, sure love to make comedic and ecchi ones, but Karin Chatnoir Omega released even the singing variation for their series Omerta.
    As one can guess, all of them are in japanese only. It's a fun way to practice your hearing, but never fear! We also have fantranslations for some of these titles, so don't let it discourage you!
     

    Just don't do like fujoshi Kotone Fujisaki from Keijo!! and listen to your precious BL drama CDs in public. Unless you control very well your reactions...
     
    Now that I informed you about this world of voice actor fangirling, let me share my opinion about this. Yes, eargasm is really important in my games. I play lots of unvoiced stuff, but damn, a good voice acting can really make some okay scenes be a lot better (looking at you, Togainu no Chi). And I can count two times when it was a great deal for me...
    First time: I usually research a lot about my game before buying because I hate to waste my time and money in things I know I'll dislike halfway through it. The one and only thing I didn't look about too much was Code Realize, and I even paid almost 40 USD for it, because a) I love steampunk; b) art is gorgeous (art is a big deal for me); and c) Suwabe Jun'ichi was in the cast. Yeeeeeep...... And it was worth every cent in the end, thanks nihon gods.
    Second time: I just started playing Omerta, the game was casually showing us the boys and stuff, that usual prologue stuff. Then this blond god appeared before my eyes...
     

    My nose sustained major damage by excessive bleeding
     
    Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn, he seems like a good candidate for best guy of the game. It was already good, but then he started to speak (voice sample)...
    Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit, the flood, I didn't even need a h-scene, take meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
    *Cahan*, forgive me. And what about you guys? Do you have any voice actor you like a lot? Share with me while I hear this cover of a Vocaloid song by DMMD Ren's voice actor nonstop!
  6. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Shinsou Noise ~Jushin Tantei no Jikenbo~   
    Shinsou Noise is the first game by a new collaboration company called Azurite, which was founded as a joint effort by Silky's Plus and Liar Soft.  In this case, Liar Soft provided the writing staff and Silky's provided the art and programming staff.  It is also fairly obvious that the planning wasn't done by the Liar Soft team, given the general style of the story, which is more in line with my experiences with Silky's Plus (and thus lacks the annoying conventions Liar Soft usually indulges in).
    Anyway, this VN is a mystery VN, with the added element of a 'deduction game' that is part of the story.  The deduction game fits into the story, where the protagonist, a reception-only telepath who can't control his abilities to any significant extent, figures out who committed a crime at a specific time and place.  This game mechanic is... to be honest... not something I really enjoyed.  I mean, it was fairly easy to figure out all but the sixth-chapter stuff without the walkthrough (I had to resort to the walkthrough for the sixth chapter, where things aren't multiple-choice and you actually have to type in the answer).  However, to me the deduction game mechanic felt like it broke up the pacing of the game... perhaps it is because I prefer being a watcher over an active participant in mysteries, lol.
    There was one other element, which people will inevitably remark upon, that annoyed me.... it was yet another release that utilized the ladder-style story structure.  What made it worse in this case was that you could feel the writers trying to make you hate that you picked anything other than the main path, and at the same time, they created a requirement for you to see the other endings before you could view the true one.  I'm not going to rave this time, because I'm pretty emotionally exhausted right now.
    The story of this game is full of tragedies... including the big one that forms the basis for all the protagonist's actions in the main story.  What's more, regardless which of the two final endings you choose on the main path, it still feels like you betrayed someone.  There is no real sense of satisfaction that comes from completing this VN, at least for me...  perhaps it is because I so quickly became fond of Sakura.  Momo, the true heroine, is a true innocent... an absolutely-trusting mind who I found pretty much impossible to see as a heroine. 
    Overall, this game will probably split people who read it wildly between those left feeling like I am right now and those who love it for the Japanese-style mystery...
    EDIT: As an addendum, I'm going to put in my two cents about this game's theme...
    ... to be honest, both teams were obviously taking waaaaay too much pleasure in hurting the characters from start to finish, without the salvation of this being an utsuge or a nakige.  The actual heroine endings were all short and pathetic (literally pathetic) both in scope and in design.  I felt actively insulted with the final two endings, which felt like an anticlimax after all that had come before.  I don't know why they chose to finish things that way, but it left me feeling like I'd gone through all that vicarious suffering and striving for nothing.
  7. Thanks
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Sorcery Jokers: It surprised Clephas, will it surprise you?   
    First, I'll give you a quick run-down on this game... it is a game by 3rd Eye, a company known mostly for producing chuunige that are more moe-influenced than is the norm. This game is actually more of a mystery/chuuni/action/conspiracy type than a 'pure' chuunige. The world in which it is based is a future where, ten years before the story began, magic appeared on the scene. Large numbers of people became capable of using magic, and a new branch of science was built up solely for the purpose of utilizing magic as new energy source. The result of this is a society that is somewhat divided between the magical 'haves' and 'have-nots', though that isn't the focus of the story, despite what you might otherwise anticipate.

    The protagonists

    Senri


    Senri is your classic 'bad-ass antihero protagonist'. He is clever, intelligent, and overall highly capable, with a razor-sharp mind and battle instincts that would put a Navy Seal to shame and make Golgo 13 look incompetent. His cold-blooded pursuit of his own interests, which are very opaque through most of the VN, is his primary defining feature... Oh, and he lies... a lot. He makes the protagonist of Sharin no Kuni seem honest.

    Haruto

    Haruto is a somewhat less beloved type of protagonist in chuunige... basically a 'justice freak' combined with being 'a young man driven against his will by the tides of fate'. He is a natural optimist and a believer in fairness above all. Unfortunately, he also has that bad habit a lot of similar chuunige protagonists have... of sticking his nose into situations he doesn't really need to get involved in. He grows a great deal during the course of the VN (as is typical of this type, if the writers don't suck), and by the end his viewpoint on the world has... been sharpened a great deal by experience. He is more likeable than a lot of similar protagonists, but it still isn't a type I prefer.

    The Heroines

    Fiona


    Fiona, at first glance, seems to be your classic clutzy/innocent nun-type heroine. She works as a nun at a run-down church in the city's... less reputable area and is well-loved by the delinquents who frequent the church. However, she, like most of the characters in this game, is hiding a lot of secrets... She is one of Senri's two heroines.

    Noa

    An innocent, pure-hearted girl who is seen mostly as a ghost throughout the first part of the game. She has a really unique way of speaking, born partially from Senri's half-hearted efforts at education (mostly through handing her magazines and letting her watch AVs). To be honest, in the reading of this VN, interpreting her weird speech patterns was a bit difficult at first (she cuts apart words and puts them together in weird ways). She is the second of Senri's two heroines.

    Asahi

    Asahi is... a bit weird. Her personality itself is quite straightforward and honest, and she hates lies and general dishonesty with a passion. However, she is also compassionate to a fault and unwavering in the pursuit of her goals. Unfortunately - at least so it seems at first - there are a few loose screws rolling around in that head of hers. Even more so than Haruto, she is an eternal an unrepentant optimist and probably the single most trustworthy individual in the entire VN.

    Riku


    Riku is, throughout the VN, perhaps the least expressive individual other than Senri himself. She almost never displays her emotions on her face, and she has an almost unnatural tendency to think objectively about anything and everything, including herself. That the writer managed to grant her so much depth without making her a protagonist was an impressive feat in and of itself... and one of the reasons why her interactions with Haruto and Asahi are so amusing. She really is almost as detached as she seems most of the time, which is one of the reasons it hits so hard when she does become emotional.

    The VN

    Sorcery Jokers is definitely VN of the Month material. I'll say that right off the bat. The depth of the story and characters is incomparable with previous games by this company, and while it falls slightly short of a kamige, it is nonetheless something worth taking note of. Normally, I can't stand dual protagonists, as many have heard me mention. I hated Subahibi for that, amongst a number of other sins, and one of the biggest reasons it took me so long to play I/O was because I don't like going into VNs with multiple protags.

    Fortunately, I managed to get past that, simply because the differing approaches to the story were the only thing that made it possible to grasp something even approaching the whole of the story as it happened. A single perspective wouldn't have done a bit of good as an approach to this VN's story, simply because there are too many things happening at too many different points for a single perspective to handle.

    The VN's structure is basically that of a kinetic novel, with the illusion of choice through a flow chart (for the first chapter, at least) where you pick and choose which events you want to see next (though you have to see them all anyway). To be honest, I could have done without the flow chart entirely... flow charts in general are an irritation more than a help, especially if they are made a central part of progressing the story. That said, as the actual switching around mostly ends after the first chapter, it isn't really a big deal (though it does make me wonder why they had a flow chart at all).

    The story's mystery and conspiracy elements feel a lot like peeling an onion, as there are layers within layers within layers. What you thought was the root of things turns out to be just another layer, more than once. As things come together near the end, the knowledge you've gained through the character perspectives deepens the experience nicely, making this one of the few part-mystery VNs I've played in recent years that I didn't immediately have 'read' relatively early on.

    That isn't to say there aren't points where the VN stumbles. Haruto, because of his role as the 'kid chuunige protag', is the game's Achilles Heel, as all protagonists of the type with his kind of temperament tend to be. However, his growth is enough to offset the cookie-cutter aspects of his character enough that I approved of his role... in the end. Asahi also threatens to tilt the balance of the VN into the realm of the silly a lot early on, simply because of her 'weirdness'. However, because that silliness is a vital ingredient in her growth as a character, it can't really said to be a true weakness, though it can be irritating at times.

    The endings are all branches off of the true end, one for each heroine (Noa or Fiona with Senri, and Asahi or Riku with Haruto). I had no problems with the epilogues for Noa or Fiona... but I thought that Haruto had devolved a lot in his heroine epilogues, which kind of brought me back to why I didn't like him in the first place.

    Overall, I felt that this VN is one of the more solid chuunige made in the last few years, especially in the sense of 'balance'. Silverio Vendetta, while it is a lot more exhilarating, also had the difficulty of disproportionately focusing the writer's attention on Vendetta, which weakened the other two paths greatly. Bansenjin suffers from reusing an uninspiring cast and being relatively boring throughout most of its length. In terms of a constant sense of tension and in terms of pacing of events, this VN definitely is the winner of Chuunige VN of the Year so far, though it isn't chuuni-crack in the sense that Silverio was. I'm actually quite proud of the fact that this company has evolved so much since its somewhat... unimpressive beginnings (Bloody Rondo), and I'm glad I stuck with the company. It is always nice to be surprised pleasantly by a VN.
  8. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Narcosis for a blog entry, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN   
    Lucia confirmed best girl <3
  9. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou TL Update 33: 50% Edited and proofreading started   
    Another update.
    Firstly, we decided to get a filler editor for ocdc, who has been really busy with his real life, and that editor is Einstein9029 like you can see from the Staff page. Anyways, there hasn't been any major editing progress, but a little bit and we have reached the halfway point of editing, which is great news. QC's been going at a steady pace too, pretty much parallel to editing.
    Secondly, we've begun proofreading. Now if you're wondering about the leap of progress in a single week, proofreading is just a final check and cleanup, and thus doesn't take as much as QC'ing or nearly as much as editing, so fear not.
    Next, I more or less have finished up the look of the website, and that pesky front page slider really did give me a headache, but it was worth it. There still is some things I want to do with the design of the website, but those can wait for a better day.
    Finally, you probably saw me tweeting about the new "announcement" I made. Sure enough, there's something big coming up early October, and that specific date happens to be my birthday too. Well, I can't give that many hints as of now, but I can tell some things if you want answers, just don't expect too much at this point out of me. You can check it out in here.
    That is all, progress time:

    Until next week
  10. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou TL Update 32: New Domain, New Site   
    It’s here.
    I’ve always felt that the WordPress site felt a little lacking, so now Euphemic Translation has moved to a new domain with a brand-spanking new, shiny design. I spent many hours getting everything nicely together without anything suddenly exploding, and I’d say I’ve done a good enough job with it. More or less everything’s been imported and greatly updated, including the theme. Tell me what you think of it.
    As you probably could already guess, the old site is going to be abandoned, to put it bluntly. If this site goes under, I’ll of course revert back to the old site, but I don’t see that happening.
    Anyways, onwards to the actual update.
    We almost got 50% on editing with 48 percent, and whole 10% more on QC. Things are going smoothly, and they don’t seem to be slowing down, but nothing special has happened this week aside from the new website.
    Progress:

    See ya next week, on this new address.
    http://euphemictl.vntls.com/2016/08/26/update-32-new-domain-new-website/
  11. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Aizen-Sama for a blog entry, Second August Update   
    Second bi-weekly update, and oh boy things happened since the last one. There's a lot to talk about, so buckle up your seatbelts.
    MAJO KOI NIKKI
    Progress is steady, we made a new table to display it in our website, so goodbye the shitty one I did at the beggining, now it will show exact numbers and specific routes. You can check it out here:  https://lunatranslationstestsite.wordpress.com/projects-2/projects/progress/ . One of our translators is having some issues right now but he'll be back next week, so yeah, no problem about that.
    Apart from that, here are the numbers:
    13700 / 40208 (34.1%) Translated
    7356 / 40208 (18.3%) Edited
    4160 / 40208 (10.3%) TLC'ed 
    5640 / 40208 (14.0%) Proofread
    4298 / 40208 (10.7%) QC'ed (just the prologue; we probably won't be spinning up QC again for a while)
    If you guys want  a more detailed summary of the progress in this project check out Fred's report here.
    Witch's Garden
    We decided to focus entirely on the common route as of now instead of dividing our forces in the existing routes. The common route has advanced a lot and it's now over the 50% mark and we will hopefully finish it soon, but yeah, until that happens that has been the only notable advancement in the project. All the other numbers have stayed relatively equal comparing the to last week's because we decided not to put much editing work yet. Sorry about it, but this is how it goes.
    Kanojo to Ore to Koibito to.

    (Raw, unedited sneak peek.)
    This has been one of our newest projects, the team has been gathered and everyone is very active as of now. You can check out more detailed info about the entire team that is working on it in our website, but I'll still make a list of them here. Progress is going very quickly but steadily at the same time, members are motivated and things are going well regarding this front. Now I'll list the completion of scripts as of now (we're still building a way to get the progress in a % instead of script completion) and the members list:
    Team Roster (This team is not final and is subjected to change)
    Mitch (Leader/Translator) Status:Mitch's PC died like a week ago or so, so while he's out of the game, @Dergonu will cover his leadership. Mitch personally asked for him to do the task. Octamatron (Translator) Nohara (Translator) Takeshira (Editor) Archonoffail (Proofreader Aizen-Sama (Coordinator)  
    Now, for the completion of the scripts as of now:
    Translation - 45/146 scripts finished.
    TLC - 18/146 completed (Prologue is almost finished!)
    Editing - 1/146
    Proofreading  - 0/146
     I'll complete the table in our website whenever I'm able to, because I don't really have that much time to do it right now. Expect bi-weekly news of this project as well from now on.
    Tsui Yuri
    For some of you this may come out as a surprise, for others not. That's right, Dergonu's team decided to join us yesterday after several talks we had over these past few weeks. If you want to know more about this just check Derg's post here, but for those who are lazy I'll just quote him here:
    "So first of all, me and my team will be joining Luna Translations. Progress wise, this shouldn't mean much, (in fact it might pick up a bit, as we got some help from them to fill a few missing staff positions.)
    For those wondering why, I just really like the way they do things over there, and after having spoken with their leader for quite some time, I decided to join forces with their group. So yeah, not much will change really, but we are now officially a part of Luna Translations! (Hey, this means we'll finally have a progress page outside of Fuwa!)"
    I'll briefly disect this statements. First of all, we filled the positions of QC, Beta Testing and TLC as Dergonu asked for us to do. And yes, very soon we'll insert his project as one of ours in our website, just like the other three that we have right now. Personally, it's a pleasure to have him on our team and he'll be a great addition to our ranks.
    The Team
    Dergonu (Leader/Translator) Meatbun (Editor) Shiruve (TLC) Archonoffail (QC) TamakiSakura (Beta Testing) Aizen-Sama (Coordinator) The progress as of now (copy-pasted from Derg's thread of the project):
    Opening
    Translated: 100% (26/26)
    Edited: 100% (26/26)
    QCed: 0% (0/26)
    Common
    Translated: 100% (1662/1662)
    Edited: 100% (1662/1662)
    QCed: 0% (0/1662)
    Ichika
    Translated: 14% (306/2183)
    Edited: 13% (277/2183)
    QCed: 0% (0/2183)
    Futaba
    Translated: 100% (2001/2001)
    Edited: 100% (2001/2001)
    QCed: 0% (0/2001)
    Total
    Translated: 68% (3995/5872)
    Edited: 68% (3966/5872)
    QCed: 0% (0/5872)
    Last but not least, I want to briefly talk about Hanasaki Work Spring. Long story short, we got a very serious warning saying that if we didn't stop we could get into legal trouble. Basically, we got a Cease and Desist (C&D) so sadly all efforts regarding this project have been stopped as of now. Sorry to everyone who followed us because of Hanasaki.
    Anyways, that's all for this update, as always if you have any questions just post them either in our website or here.
    Have a nice week everybody, and until next time.
     
  12. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou TL Update 31: New QC, New Horizons   
    Hey, another update.
    First up, let's welcome our new QC, Nanon. He seems to know what he's doing, so that's nice. QC should be coming much more swimmingly.
    Some nice progress was made this week, both in editing and in QC'ing, and progress overall is speeding up decently, which I'm overjoyed about.
    Anyways, that's all that's happened this week, so onto progress:
    Translation: 100%
    Editing: 46,5%
    QC: 25,5%
    Proofreading: 0%
     
    Farewell.
  13. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou TL Update 30: Server's Faring and Same Old   
    Another week, another update.
    Just last week we launched the Discord server, and it's gotten quite a good reception, and I've had fun talking with you guys on there. So if you have questions, want to talk with me for some reason, or just pester me about the progress -- although there are weekly updates -- go on ahead.
    To this week's progress. We got a bit of QC done and a decent chunk of editing done, and I personally am happy with the progress this week. Things are going rather swimmingly, and the pace isn't slowing down drastically, either. Until next time!
    Progress:
    Translation: 100%
    Editing: 40%
    QC: 22,3%
    Proofreading: 0%
     
  14. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou TL Update 29: New server, new beginnings   
    What an eventful week this was.
    First up, some progress on both the editing and QC was made. Now, it isn't the most, but progress is always progress, and I'm happy about it. We'll try to make some amount of progress every week.
    Second up, I had my hands full polishing some things and making our very own Discord server, now open for public. So, if you have some questions, want to chat with the staff, or just bitch me about how much of a fuckboy I am, go on ahead.
    Now without further ado, here's the link to the server.
    You can also get the link from the main page, in Recruitment, and in Contact Us.
    Progress thus far:
    Translation: 100%
    Editing: 33,9%
    QC: 20,1%
    Proofreading: 0%
     
    Until next week.
  15. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Aizen-Sama for a blog entry, A rant about the translation scene and the community revolving it.   
    Hello everyone, Aizen-Sama here. I’ve been only around this community and forums for around 6 months by now, and even though I may not be the most knowledgeable when it comes to VN’s in general, I think that I possess enough knowledge about the translation scene. That’s right, today I’m not writing a post about Luna Translations, but one about my opinion on the translation scene, translation groups, and the community revolving them.

    Let us establish how this community and market actually exist in the first place. Piracy and fan translating, they are both mutually exclusive to each other and they are the foundations of what we consider as the “western visual novel community”.
    After some years where piracy slowly started to decrease and official releases started to be a thing I can safely assume that there are three types of people now, one who will support every single game localization and buy the Visual Novels instead of pirating them, one who will pirate everything and anything, or one that will mix between these two because either there is no other access to the game in Japanese to apply the English patch (in other words, you can’t buy the game legally because the Japanese market is already a very difficult place to access with Western VPN’s, mostly because Japanese publishers block them to not let people outside Japan buy these games online, which is usually the only way to get them in the first place) or the individual simply doesn’t support some releases or companies that release VN’s in particular (I’ll set people that want to buy legally a game with a fan-translated patch but can’t do it, so they have to pirate the VN even if they don’t want to as an example).
    This last example leads to another concerning issue, the relationship between translation groups and the community itself. It’s partly human nature; when a group establishes itself and releases a patch (no matter whether it’s full or partial) we automatically create what is called a “power level” between these two types of people, the users that translate and work on translating games in one way or another (editing, QC’ing, etc…) and the users that simply play the releases made by the first ones.
    This so called “power level” is what should be avoided at all costs, sometimes the community must remember that the people that belong to translation groups (whether they are official or not) are part of the community as well, and have their own stances and way of doing things.
    Those “power levels” are automatically made, and they are the primary reason of this community’s fragmentation into several “sub-communities”, which is a problem mainly for the translation groups. What I’m trying to say here is that what is constantly happening right now is that what this “power division” has made is to categorize groups by number of patches released (the more they have released the more praised they are) and that has ultimately lead to two things; groups distancing themselves from the community, which is a very bad thing for both of the parties involved, and groups distancing from each other.
    What I mean by this last statement is that there is no communication between teams, which leads to what is happening in the actual society that we live in: the individualization of people (Tl-teams in this case). But regarding that aspect, some groups have managed to find a solution to this matter. Let’s put @Arcadeotic's (Euphemic Translation) and @oystein's (Elevator TL) groups for example; both of them have found a way to make the community feel closer to their groups thanks to their “Public Discord Server Policy” (that’s how I call it) and both of them are in the TL Leaders Discord Server (basically a group to try to unite translation teams more, an initiative from Arcadeotic and I). That group has opened my eyes in many aspects regarding team stances towards piracy as well as opinions about the community and it's relation with the Tl teams. This group has also helped me in getting to know people that otherwise I would have never met even if we were active members of this forum and interacted with each other sometimes, like for example Dergonu, Oystein, Kardororororo, and many more.
    What I’m ultimately trying to say is that banding together is a rare thing for groups now, and this is the first step to create a community feel again, something that, in my opinion, is being lost little by little and needs to be stopped.
    I’ll mention another issue that many people find itchy, and that is the topic of “the sense of entitlement of a loud minority”.
    I’d like to make myself very clear about this; I know that there is a silent positive majority, and that compared to the amount of people that complain about things about projects and English patches this majority vastly overcomes the “minority”, but the matter of fact is that this “loud minority” is what gives people that are new to the community a bad impression about it from the start.
    I’ll set two examples to demonstrate the last point I mentioned: firstly, I’d like to address the Koiken Otome Project, one that took approximately three years to finish. It’s a topic full of controversy, firstly because people firstly speculated that Flying Pantsu was going to “definitely sell out to the localization companies” and they made a ruckus about it.

    First of all, what if they really “sold out” to one of them? That is, in my opinion, a good thing (primarily because I belong to the “buy everything” type of guy instead of pirating unless it can’t be avoided and tend to support official releases), but mostly because, the fact of the matter is that they spent working on an English patch of a game that contains more than 40K lines three years, and the entire effort is theirs, that means that even if they decided to not release the patch for whatever reason, I would have been totally in favor. Why? Because it’s THEIR work and THEY did it, not the people that feel entitled to have the English patch.
    Same goes with the problem that revolved around the time of release. Again, I’ll repeat, the matter of fact is that they could’ve released that patch whenever they wanted because since THEY did the patch, they decide when to release it, simple.

    The second example I’ll highlight in this post talks about Shinku Translations and the controversy that revolved around the SakuSaku patch. If you don’t know what happened regarding this project I’ll quickly sum it up: Shinku Translations made a deal with Sekai Project to release the game officially, what ultimately made people who were waiting for a fan-patch very pissed. The comments on their website were mostly full of “sellouts” and “I already bought the game in Japanese, now I’ll have to buy it again, gg boys” and many more that blew my mind. That was the perfect demonstration of the entitlement that people slowly begin to have when a project is close to being finished.
     I’ll repeat myself once again, just like Koiken Otome and Flying Pantsu, it was THEIR work, so they had the right to make a deal with Sekai Project and do whatever they wanted to the patch. And, as Akerou explained in one of the comments, it could lead to more titles being localized, which, in my opinion, are good news!
     People have to start realizing that sooner or later, the entire scope if not most of the translation scope will shift towards official releases instead of fan-patches.
    As a last argument regarding this matter, I’ll mention a couple of YouTube comments that I found in the official OP video of SakuSaku published by Sekai Project’s YouTube channel, they basically said this:
    “That's a low punch SP. That's just low. The guy translating it is almost done. If you buy the translation from him and release it in the next 2 months I might forgive you. If you do it less than a month you are forgiven.”
    “Well just pirate the release when it comes out. This is one of the cases when piracy is completely justified.”
    These two comments are part of the “entitlement problem” that I’ve addressed before, and I hope they highlight what I’ve been trying to tackle (take into account that these comments are just the surface, just look at the ones in Shinku’s page and you’ll get a grasp of what this community broods sometimes).

    Last but not least, I’d like to address Fuwanovel as a platform for translation projects and my opinion about it as a Leader of a translation group (in this case, Luna Translations).
    Don’t get me wrong when I say that. I love Fuwanovel as a site. It’s one of the principal, if not the main responsible for the appearance of a community that revolves around Visual Novels in general. I love this site, and I appreciate the people that back this site paying monthly (I hope I can do it as well when I get the chance) and the mods for doing their jobs correctly and every other person that supports this site. But, I’d like to tackle the issue of trying to host translation projects in a forum-based website.
     I’d like to point out that the system created in Fuwa worked very VERY well at the beginning stages of the creation of this community. Basically, the “Fan Translator Skills” thread and the “Translation Projects” thread were probably very useful and effective back when the community was niche and not a lot of projects and teams crowded the scene (I’m not directing this towards the “Fan TL Discussion” thread, by the way).
    But, as a leader of a translation team (and I’m sure that many people will agree with me on this) I just think that Fuwa’s way of hosting projects is not as effective as it was probably two or three years ago.
    What I’m trying to say here is that, just like VNDB exists, a platform that focuses solely on helping teams and individuals to work on projects will certainly appear at some point, or at least needs to appear at some point. Summing up, Fuwanovel as a forum focused on the discussion of Visual Novels and the fan translation scene is a very good and positive website, and it’s totally needed for the community to keep growing, but! Fuwanovel (the forums) used as a platform to support projects and teams may have been very effective in the past but not anymore, since now the scope is very broad and more complex compared to when all of this started.
    Finally, to close this rant, I’d like to say that if I had to sum up things probably the most important issue would be that the community is losing the sense of being together, and groups, as well as individuals, are distancing themselves from each other, which is something that has to be avoided at all costs. I’ll personally try to do whatever I can about this matter and little by little this problem will hopefully be solved in the future, because together we can do great things.
    Let’s try to make the translation world great again, as Trump as it sounds.
     
     
     
  16. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou TL Update 28: Oh QC, Where Art Thou?   
    Another week, another update.
    Nothing much this week, editing had a nice bump of progress is moving along nicely.
    Also, one of our two QCs gone MIA came back, so I'll be updating the staff now. He had some issues with his computer breaking down and thus he went MIA after one or two weeks after starting this project, but I'm glad he's back.
    Progress:
    Translation: 100%
    Editing: 32%
    QC: 18,2%
    Proofreading: 0%
  17. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to sanahtlig for a blog entry, In-Depth Review: Seinarukana + Info Hub   
    Seinarukana is an ambitious visual novel / SRPG hybrid that should appeal to fans of anime-style JRPGs like Ar tonelico and Agarest War.
    In-Depth Review: Seinarukana + Info Hub
    Review highlights:
    Pros:
    Classic JRPG storyline mixing comedy and high fantasy Streamlined battle system with decent depth and no grind Good value even at full price New game + adds replayability  Choose the heroine Nozomu ends up with All major characters except protagonist fully-voiced in Japanese, some good BGMs
    Cons:
    The game is less impressive in 2016 than it was in 2007 Like many JRPGs, the characters and writing lack maturity Stereotypical harem protagonist The gameplay doesn't have the depth, especially in customization, of some mainstream JRPGs Route branches aren't sufficiently different to justify a second playthrough Combat becomes monotonous after a while, especially on subsequent playthroughs
  18. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou TL Update 27   
    Quite a sluggish week this was.
    Aside from prologue patch 2.0, I nor the whole team didn't get that much done due to being busy, but nonetheless, getting the updated patch out was a huge accomplishment in and of itself, so I'm not really disappointed.
    Got some QC and editing done and that's about it; we're still fixing the remaining errors that the kicked editor manages to cause, but it's more or less done by this point, so no worries.
    Progress:
    Translation: 100%
    Editing: 25,7%
    QC: 16%
    Proofreading: 0%
  19. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Aizen-Sama for a blog entry, Luna Translations Weekly Update 10   
    Okay, here we go again. This is our 10th blog update, but it will be our last weekly update. Why's that? Giving weekly updates has been a hassle lately, because preogress is made every week but I'm left with no things to talk about, so after a debate in our group we ultimately decided to go for Bi-Weekly Updates (Except when important announcements have to be made).
    I'll start the rundown of things, this'll be a short one:
    Majo Koi Nikki
    So, the progress (as I said in the last update) has recuperated both in Translation and Editing. We recruited a stable TLC to check the text for us now (thanks by the way, @Shiru) aaand yeah, that's pretty much it.
     
    TL: 28% (11185/40208)
    Edit: 15% (6166/40208)
    Witch's Garden
    Same news around here. Steady progress in Translation (although it's pretty slow considering we're focusing on TLC), Editing will finally start for real in a week or so and TLC progresses, nothing else to say tbh. We maybe start translating the interface soon, but we'll see.
    Translation: 63%(42627/67197)
     TLC: 9%(5933/67197)
    Editing: 4%(2951/67197)
     
  20. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou - Mistakes were made and Prologue patch 2.0   
    Well, as most of you know by now, I completely obliterated all the links concerning BiMan1's prologue patch. This was because of two reasons:
    Because it was terrible in every possible way to put it frankly. In order to make room for this post. The prologue patch was bad, really bad. The sentences were akward, spacing was weird, translations at some points didn't even make sense, etc, etc. That's why I've been fixing the first quarter of the script; retranslating, modifying and editing the script along with perfecting the engine this starting and last week. Doing UTF-8, some hex editing, final image editing and resource editing.
    It was quite rough, but I finally got everything according to my wishes, and the price for my naivety has been paid back. Anyways! I present to you my hard work and labor:
    Prologue Patch 2.0
    Probably another 10~ hours down to drain, but it was worth it. The new and improved prologue patch (or well, partial patch at this point, but whatever)!
    Features:
    - Completely polished and finished engine, fully translated by me. Includes all buttons, menus, extras and other minor things.
    - Music track names are translated, although I didn't intend on ever translating them.
    - Translates the dialogue all the way to the end of the first H-scene.
    - The two internal menus:
    Are translated to these:
    Things to note:
    - The dialogue text is not in its final version that it will be in the final release, so keep that in mind. The patch, however, shouldn't have any typos.
    - The amount of text ranslated in this improved patch is quite a bit more, because I wanted something more grand and of course, to make up to you for the travesty that was the original prologue patch.
    - The text after the first H-scene will continue as Japanese, unlike the gibberish it was in the original patch. Sorry about that.
    - All of the previous prologue patch download links are now going to be replaced with this version's link.
    Download Link:
    https://mega.nz/#!C8FDiagC!xeW7-MPcjsZWm5ebycEnEXJ66y-Ld7H6ojTa0yYF4b0
    Install instructions:
    Download the patch from the link above and open the .zip file. Drag & drop the new .exe into -呪われし伝説の少女-1, and data8.pack into -呪われし伝説の少女-1/GameData.  Launch the game through the new .exe file and have fun.
  21. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou TL Update 26   
    (Still a Work In Progress)
    This week I was busier than in a long time with the project.
    First, I must apologise. When I released the prologue patch I was sure that everything from the engine to the buttons would've been translated, and according all common sense it was the case... until I revisited it this week.
    Let me give you a short version. I resumed my work on the engine since there were a few quirks I wanted straightened out. So I finished my work and gave the interface patch to my proofreaders, assuming that it would more or less go fine. Well, I was gravely mistaken. Hex editing, UTF-8, resource editing and much more. All of these were used in the engine, making some buttons, text, menus and some features to remain untranslated. Since then I've busted my ass ironing out everything and soon I can say that it will truly be completed. Allow me to say it again: I'm deeply sorry for my errors. I thought that just editing the files would be enough, but I was naive, too naive. I intend on finishing it in these following days, but the full interface patch won't be released. Instead, once the full patch comes out, that'll replace everything, and I'll destroy the prologue patch, since it's unfinished in every possible aspect. I hope you understand.
    One other thing, One of our editor's work was severely lacking and after some serious contemplating, I've decided to kick him out of the team, recruit another QC and move the team roles around according to everyone's wishes. You can see those in the Staff page in the upmost part of the site.
    As I just stated, because of this unfortunate outcome, editors and QC'ers have had their hands full with fixing the aftermath the one editor left behind, so I once again apologise for the lack of progress this week. But on the bright side, our team is now solid and the progress should be more solid and smooth.
    Progress:
    Translation: 100%
    Editing: 24,3%
    QC: 14%
    Proofreading: 0%
     
    Until next week, everyone!
  22. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Aizen-Sama for a blog entry, Luna Translations Weekly Update 9   
    What up people. I'm here again with the spicy weekly news as always. 
    Majo Koi Nikki

    Translation progress has recuperated now, since @Hasa is back again with full force. Alice's route is progressing as well as Mii's and the second part of the prologue after the OP. Regarding the partial patch, it's basically finished at this point (just some buttons left to translate and we're good to go). We decided to delay its release date. Sorry about that, but shit happens. Editing progress has been slow, but now that I'm back from vacation in Portugal (nice country btw) I'll start editing as well.
    Progress
    Translation 24% - (9857/40394)
    Editing 13% - (5234/40394)
    Witch's Garden
    Translation keeps progressing and we added a new TLC to the team, making it 4 people checking the translation text at the moment. Editing is progressing slowly at the moment because we want to TLC a big batch of text before letting them work. The most probable thing is that our 50% game patch release will come out by the end of the year or so, and it will contain interface, prologue, common, Ririko and Misumi routes.
    Progress
    Translation (yes, there has been a slight progress here) - 63% (42410/67197)
    TLC - 8% (5354/67197)
    That's all. Cya next week peeps and have a nice day.
     
     
  23. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Aizen-Sama for a blog entry, Luna Translations Weekly Update 8   
    What up, everyone. Here we go with the 8th weekly update. Welp, two months may have passed but the progress done until now has been pretty nice if I say so myself. This week has been rather slow, so I apologize for that. We have recruited our twentieth member, @Torky who will help us in the Majo Koi Team as a Translator to fill our current MIA (but that will definitely be back, work issues don't let them be with us atm) translators, which are @Hasa and @RaurosFalls. On a side and personal note, I'll be working as a QC for Bishoujo Mangekyou in Euphemic Translations, so that's that. ANyways, let's get straight into the update, shall we?
    Witch's Garden
    The prologue has been completely TLC'd. The common route is already completed by 30% in that aspect and Misumi's and Ririko's routes have started to receive TLC as well. Ayari's route has had some TLC completed as well, but it will be stalled and Misumi + Ririko will have priority, since they belong to our future 50% game patch. The editing has been progressing rather slowly, but it will resume this week to complete the prologue. Currently the route being translated is Eclairs. We have an updated progress board in our website and... well... I think that's it for the news. I'll just post the numbers below:

    Majo Koi Nikki
    Progress has advanced rather slowly in terms of translation. Editing has been resumed and we've moved on from the prologue to the common route of the game. We'll post an updated progress board as well as soon as we completely figure the route's numbers out, since they are pretty bad divided and it's pretty difficult to tell them apart. Regarding the partial patch, the only thing left is to repack the translated interface images and we'll be pretty much done with it and be ready for releasing it. We're sorry for the delay, hehe. The numbers are below:

    DISCLAIMER: THESE AREN'T THE EXACT NUMBERS, WE'RE STILL FIGURING OUT ROUTES AND OTHER STUFF.
    DISCLAIMER 2: THOSE 99% ON BOTH EDITING AND TL OF THE PROLOGUE ARE BECAUSE THE TRIAL PATCH HAS EXTRA LINES. WE'LL TAKE CARE OF THAT ASAP, THE FULL GAME'S PROLOGUE LINES HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY TRANSLATED.
    Anyways, I think that's all for this week. Thanks for reading, as always, and have a nice week everyone.
  24. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Arcadeotic for a blog entry, Bishoujo Mangekyou TL Update 24 (lol IPB repost)   
    strikes again, so I'm reposting this, more or less for my self-gratification and to sate my inner perfectionist
    Well, now that my part is mostly done, these posts are most likely getting much smaller.
    I also got asked to join the revived Witch’s Garden TL project as a Proofreader/QC’er over at Luna Translations now that I’m free and personally, I really like the game, so I’m happy of being asked to do it. If you want, I’ll leave a link to their translation blog here and you can find them on the bottom of the front page too.
    The editing’s progressing at a steady page and QC’s still perpetually frozen in place, but that isn’t a big deal at this point yet. I’ll also finish the image editing and minor tweaking soonish.
     
    Translation: 100%
    Editing: 22,9%
    QC: 3,1%
    Proofreading: 0% 
     
  25. Like
    DharmaFreedom reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Maggot Baits (Yes, I played this)   
    I’m going to be frank with you about this VN.  Maggot Baits is in no way, shape, or form a story with good guys.  Everyone in this VN is a monster or scum.  This VN has way too much guro, even for a VN focused on the grotesque, and it is actually made worse by the high-quality writing, lol.
    That said… story-wise, if you skip through 90% of the H-scenes, this VN is actually pretty good.  Unfortunately, if you don’t skip those h-scenes, it is very hard not to see this as one big snuff-film turned VN.  Horror… it is that.  It is definitely horror.  Unfortunately, it is pretty obvious that the writers were just being self-indulgent with the sheer number of such h-scenes (was it really necessary to have multiple mind-break scenes for every single Witch introduced, even the ones who weren’t really significant to the main story?)
    The writing in this VN, ironically, is first-class.  The problem is, there is so much torture – sexual and otherwise – that it was pretty hard to maintain my interest through large parts of the early VN, where they kept digressing to look at h-scenes of witches that the protagonist never encounters.  To be blunt, this is a failure of scenario design, despite the VN as a whole being very well-written. 
    Visually… the VN is about as high-quality as it gets.  Unfortunately, that high-quality just means that those with weak stomachs will spend a lot of time vomiting. 
    The audio in this VN (I’m ignoring the voices, since way too many of them are h-related) is fairly high-quality, with a focus on death metal tunes and dark techno. 
    What’s most ironic about this VN is Ending 2, which is the closest thing you can get to a ‘good’ ending.  Ending 1 isn’t a bad ending… but it is very much an Akiha from Tsukihime-style ‘normal’ ending.  Well, in the sense that there really isn’t any sweetness and a lot of loss.  There is a bad ending early on, but it is more like an ‘oops, you screwed up, time to die’ ending, and it feels kind of tacked on, considering you can only access Ending 2 after completing 1.  On the bright side, Ending 2 is actually pretty touching, leaving a definite impression and a sense of salvation Ending 1 didn't have.
    The protagonist... think of someone who has gone completely over the edge due to his desire for revenge and reduced himself to being a killing machine, willing to use anyone and anything for the sake of his goals, and you will have a decent picture of the guy.  In Ending 2, he shows off a softer side, but throughout the path leading to Ending 1, he is a cold-blooded bastard.
    Overall… what can I say about this VN?  It is a party for those who like extreme guro, but for anyone else, this is going to be a high-stress VN that they probably won’t even get halfway through before dropping.  This VN is tailor-made for a niche within a niche in the VN community that generally doesn’t see much high-quality work (that isn’t a remake of old stuff) anymore.  That said, it didn’t appeal to me, except once I basically excised the h-scenes and thought about it that way.  This VN is a major failure though, from a scenario design perspective, simply because too much effort was put into inserting extra gratuitous sexual violence scenes that just made the entire thing seem monotonous after a while.
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