kilicool64

Keep in mind that Gahkthun supposedly has a much better translation than Sharnoth. It's possible the issues you had with the writing in the latter were Ixrec's fault.

I'll tell you what I'm NOT playing - To Heart 2. After translating it and playing it endlessly and QC'ing it for a decade, I'm never touching it again unless some company wants to do an official localisation.

Kasumi's route is pretty much universally agreed to be the worst part of Dies irae. I wouldn't drop the whole VN at this point unless its general tone doesn't appeal to you. I've only read Kasumi's and and Kei's routes so far, but the latter was already a significant improvement in that it had a much stronger finale (except for the ending).

Kei's h-scenes are worth it for the laughs (her h-scenes are funny in a weird way, especially the last one), but the others don't really add anything to the game. 
I do recommend you follow the route order.  When he made the Acta est Fabula version that is the base for Amantes, Masada designed it so that Kasumi's route serves as an intro, Kei introduces you to the main antagonist, Marie's route serves as the 'golden road' route, and Rea's route finishes things up by revealing every last aspect of the main story.  I suggest doing the Beatrice/Kai side-story after you finish Kei's route.

Dies irae, long-held to be the holy grail of chuuni VNs, is finally upon us! Often praised for its complex and wordy prose, its philosophical themes, its extensive and gloriously nerdy fight sequences, and the manner in which it deconstructs the chuuni action genre, it's a grand battle opera that has become a seminal work in Japan, and we finally have the chance to experience it for ourselves! Whether we're blown away or we're completely let down by the hype, it will be an interesting experience either way. It's currently only available on Steam. If you were a kickstarter backer, go to your Backerkit dashboard, the codes should be there.

First things first, the recommended route order: Kasumi -> Kei -> Marie -> Rea. The game's two parts represent the order in which the routes were initially released, but that is NOT the order in which you should read the VNs. The route order is unlocked, yet can ruin the experience if you go out of order. Stick to the recommended route order if you want to have the best experience, no matter who your favored waifu is. Furthermore, there are specific choices you have to make in the Rea route if you want the best, most complete ending in the game. Follow this walkthrough, composed by one of the game's translators, if you want an easier time with that.
The second issue: Bueehhh!? Two parts? DLC?? Freemium!?!? Ever since the prefundia launched last year, light has said that there would be two parts. Dies irae is an absolutely huge work, and would typically necessitate a $50+ price tag, yet Steam is a platform that is extremely unfriendly towards high-priced VNs. The split game setup was conceived as a way to combat the hostile environment for high-priced VNs on Steam. And just yesterday, light revealed that they will be offering the common route for free. So, it will be free common route + Act I and Act II purchasable separately, all in one storefront. 
Third issue: All-ages? Waitaminute! This was an adult game! Dies irae has a long and complex history of releases. To be frank, the initial release of the game was a mess that not many people actually liked very much. They then released a free patch that rewrote large parts of the scenario and added a good chunk of content, but it still wasn't enough. The second release of the game, Acta Est Fabula, added two new routes that further explored the universe of Dies irae and provided a new final route that was far more satisfying than the last, making it actually feel like a complete story. And then, a few years later, the all-ages-only Amantes amantes was released. It didn't add any new routes, but it did add a boatload of content to the existing routes, including an expanded final ending that is considered a must-read, as well as all-ages h-scene replacements that people have said do a better job with character bonding and development. Amantes amantes has ever since been considered the definitive version of the game by its fanbase, and is the version that was Kickstarted. However, light recognizes the weeaboo's love for porn, and is going to offer an 18+ patch that will add those h-scenes back in (and remove the replacement scenes). Unfortunately, this patch will take a little while to come out—it's currently scheduled for late July. Be aware of this if you insist on playing the 18+ version of the game. It's happening, just not right away. Also be aware that the version of the game on Steam now has long been considered THE version of the game to play.
Misc issues:
The menus for some are in Japanese unless you use Japanese system locale! If you're experiencing Japanese menus, switch your system locale. This is not a consistent issue, and the team is aware of it and looking for a fix.  (fixed)
 
So let us see what all the hype is (or isn't) about! Use this thread to share your experiences. Remember to use spoiler tags and to properly label them for anything spoilery.

this goddamn-ish mentality of yours is exactly what´s keeping companies such as mikandi jp to appear on stage, ultimately fucking up people´s hopes and expectations. you seriously don´t want to get it, do you? like if this (libra etc) was an unofficial translation of sorts, like if some retards suddenly decided on doing stuff they had no single clue about, like them stubbornly ignoring all goodwill-ish feedback in the process of creating an abomination you could either read(?), or refuse doing so, because well, it´d be an unoffical one, so fuck it. but in the case of libra it´s fundamentically different

- licensing costs & whatnot probably at a minimum due to them being all lovey-dovey with xero

- still got an impressive sum of little over 180k out of the kickstarter campaign of theirs

- having put quite some reccources into propaganda and avertisement

- unless all funds were spend on drinking finest shochu and whoring around with schoolgirls, there should´ve definitely been enough left for hiring themselves some competent staff

- & lastly let´s please not forget one of the claims they did make:
 "XERO has partnered with MiKandi Japan to complete this giant task. Together we are working with the original writers, and programmers to deliver a superbly translated game"



so yo, from a customers point of view this sure is sth to feel angry about, even more so if he/she happened to back the aforementioned campaign, which as things stand now was build on lies and utterly false assurances. 
not even remotely wanting to mention the bad turn they´ve done to each and every smaller-ish publisher who´s trying to somehow get by when doing kickstarters. 

edit: and just to be clear, this has so fuckingly nothing to do with being able to read moonrunes or not, because if you´re calling yourself a professional, yet keep on delivering one hell of a garbled mess, getting condemned should be expected. simple as that.

TLnote: Pantsu means panties.

"It doesn't matter that this restaurant sells literal shit on a plate. It takes a long time to make food, so we should be happy we could spend our money to enjoy the atmosphere of the restaurant, even if the food is shit on a plate."
This mentality is why the Libra translation happened in the first place, because instead of demanding quality people are fine with spending forty bucks only to be served shit on a plate. Doesn't matter if it doesn't hamper your enjoyment, it's still shit on a plate.
Saying we should appreciate it happened at all is excusing bad translations and bad translation practices.
And Libra isn't just "ten bad lines" with thousands of good ones. Nearly the entire game is a pile of shit heaped up on more shit. 

Persona 5 is being judged harshly because Persona 3 and Persona 4's translations were masterpieces.  Persona 5's is very far from being a masterpiece.  In fact, not insignificant parts of it are not even acceptable.
When Atlus released Persona 3 and Persona 4, it created expectations.  If Persona 5 had not followed these two games, I would expect less of it.  But it did.  Persona 5 gets flak from me for not being perfect because it is a Persona game, and Atlus already knows how to do perfect.  I would react the same way to a subpar Trails of Cold Steel 3 translation.  I expect crappy work from NISA; that's why I don't often buy their titles.  They don't do the games they work on justice.  I don't expect crappy work from Atlus.
But okay, it seems like comparing this to P5 isn't fair to P5.  The only thing these games have in common is that they disappoint me

Now, in spite of what I said above, I completely disagree with this. Every person I've seen complaining about the P5 translation (including notably Connor and Verde) has done so for the excellent reason that, if an official localization is weak (especially a high-profile one like P5), you should call out how and why it is, out of a very legitimate fear that we're going to regress back to what JP video game translations were like in years gone past, if the fan base isn't vigilant and vocal about problems. They also did an excellent job of clearly explaining the problems and their scope, and the claim that it was an attempt at "promotion of their ideas of an 'ideal' translation" is, IMO, a huge overstatement: the P5 translation stinks at times, and it isn't asking for too much to ask for a P5 translation that doesn't stink at times.
Getting far afield from the topic, though, at this point... I seriously wonder when Libra will release something other than physicals, even though I guess I'm unlikely to play it at this point... It sure is a weird English release for a VN, though, where the physical release is the first thing available.

Sorry, but they aren't entitled to my gratitude, and I'm not going to suck them off for presenting us with a pile of garbage I would not enjoy reading. 
>When you look at VNs that have tens of thousands of lines of text, and you pick maybe 10 out that are bad, isn't that a bit much?
What do you want out of me? I told you the entire VN is like that, and it is. How am I supposed to criticize their work? Do I have to comb over their entire translation and present you with 10,000 reasons it's bad? I COULD do that, but I don't feel like wasting the several hundred hours of my life it would take.
If you enjoy bad translations, then more power to you I guess. But they have done nothing to deserve any sort of appreciation from those of us who do not enjoy bad translations.

This may be passable for a fan translation (it's free, after all, and free has by definition no warranty), but not for a TL that has been kickstarted, or paid with dear money like in the case of IMHHW.
If you pay for something you're pretty much expecting a professional outcome. If you don't get it, your confidence in that company from that point on sinks. And with all reason.

Well, seeing those sample sentences has turned me off from even playing the VN, to be honest. I supported the Kickstarter because the team seemed passionate about bringing their first visual novel over, not because I thought Libra looked all that interesting. But it seems like they didn't care/weren't competent enough to handle the task. 
The end product is all that matters to me. All the PR speak leading up to it is pointless if I can't enjoy what I'm paying for (and at the end of the day, I couldn't care less about the people involved. I'd throw out the nicest translator in the world in a heartbeat if he was trash at his job).
I've read poorly translated VNs before but Libra looks like it might be the worst (I purposefully avoid the infamously bad ones), which is pretty disappointing. I'll accept plain, overly literal translations as a last resort at times, but I don't know if I want to read dozens of hours of translated English from people who can't even construct a proper sentence.

As someone who is learning Japanese, and intends on becoming a professional translator, I don't like this mentality. It is the job of the translator to produce a good translation that pleases the readers, and not a poor translation that is hard to understand, (or worse, one that is straight up incorrect.) People being okay with bad translations means the people who translated said work gets away with it, and more bad translations could surface in the future. If no one speaks up about someone's work being bad, then the translator and the localization company won't learn.
It's okay to criticise translators if their work is sub-par. I know for a fact that my first work wasn't the best, and I use the feedback I got from that as motivation to get better in the future. This should be what all translators tries to do.
So, I think it's important that the community speaks up about something if there is actual issues in a localization. Based on the lines Decay has posted in this thread so far, the translation looks very awkward. I hope the lines are at the very least accurate, (I'll be checking this later when the game comes out,) but even if they are, we should definitely let Mikandi Japan know that their work is in need of some serious editing. If they aren't made aware of the fact that their work isn't that good, they could just keep making sub-par translations for the foreseeable future, which would suck for them and their fans.
With the amount of good localizations that has been released in the past few years, this community should be allowed to have high standards when it comes to translations.

Some samples to tide ya'll over:
"She grips in her hand something that looks like a leash and it's connected to the thing tied around my body."
Because who needs commas? Or grammar in general? There are quite a few lines where it seems like they straight up forgot to use commas. Of course, that's almost the least of this line's problems. It has the prose of a twelve year old's Spongebob Squarepants fanfic. From pointless repetition ("grips in her hand"), to frustrating vagueness ("the thing tied around my body"), to word usage that's uncommon in English ("my body" when "me" also works). It's the kind of line you have to read two or three times to figure out what it's saying.
"Stream with reduced force runs along her thighs like water trickling from rocks and flows onto the washing area of the bathroom."
Bwueahhh!? First of all, welcome to the first of many pissing incidents in Libra of the Vampire Princess! I hope you like pee, because boy does this VN have a lot of it. 
Aside from the aforementioned lack of commas, this line also introduces another common issue: the lack of articles. One of their many translators seems to have frequently left them out, and their editor(s) didn't catch a it very often. I'm guessing that their staff had very few people whose first language is English, and it shows.
Just like the first line, even if this line had proper punctuation, it could be worded much better. Like, "down rocks" instead of "from rocks," though that metaphor is super clunky anyway. "A weak stream" instead of "stream with reduced force." I mean, really, trying to slap some band-aids on this line is idiotic. It needs to be thrown out and rewritten completely.
"It is simply impossible to stop mindlessly flowing pee with a thin cloth."
I want to mindlessly flow this line into the fucking garbage can. "The thin cloth of her panties is no match for the uncontrollable flow of urine." I spent ten seconds thinking up that alternative. It's still quite bad, yet somehow a hundred times better than what they had. The two chief problems being 1) the way their version is phrased makes it sound like stopping the flow is an active effort, when it is not, and 2) maybe I missed this in biology, but I'm pretty sure urine doesn't have a consciousness, and so the piss can't be "mindlessly flowing."
"But so many weird things happened recently like, a random attacker and cosplay girl. And close to me, two transfer students from a small country I never heard of before called Racronia."
I'm sorry, but I'm still not fully sure what the fuck this line is saying. What happened with the attacker and cosplay girl? What did the two transfer students do??? This is what happens when you throw grammar out the window. That second sentence is one very long sentence fragment. At least this line has commas. One of them isn't in the right spot, but hey, it's progress! Oh, also, it's Lacronia. They can't even get their own proper nouns right.
"Well, I'm your fiancee. As the two people who promised each other the future, it is proper to live together."
And in this case, an article showed up where it wasn't needed! C'mon! And what the hell does "promised each other the future" even mean? It sounds really poetic and meaningful, but I'm pretty sure it's not actually supposed to be. An overall incredibly awkward line. 
"Hooray, Master's got a lawful wife! After this, suck as much blood as possible and keep your favorite mistresses! Yay, harem, successful man!"
Boo, Libra, terrible fucking translation! Mari is a ditz, but she's at least be able to form complete, comprehensible sentences. Also, Shuma doesn't have any mistresses to keep currently, that line is about acquiring new ones. This maid is obsessed with encouraging the protagonist to create as big of a harem as possible. It would be funny if it was actually translated halfway competently.
 
This is basically the entire translation. Some routes will likely be better than others since there were multiple translators, but I wouldn't get your hopes up for anything being especially good.

Both sides are, really. IIRC, Satoru's side of it (which must be triggered first) happens on the third day, but I'm not quite sure about that. If you get an ending around the halfway point of Satoru's route that's basically a sequence of really weird and surreal events, that's the one I'm talking about. Trust me, you'll know what I mean when you get it.

Doesn't look like anyone will figure out the rest, so I'm spilling the beans:
#1: It's OMGWTFOTL.
#2: Already answered. I/O's characters have extremely wrinkled clothes.
#3: Already answered. The premise of Go Go, Nippon! is that the protagonist decides to spend a week in Japan living with two internet acquaintances without knowing that they're female.
#4: It's VLR. During Clover's route, Clover talks about purifying the unclean for a moment, then the word "unclean" somehow reminds her of the antidote neostigmine.
#5: Already answered. It's Rewrite, a wonderful example of how horribly disjointed a story can end up becoming when nobody steps in to make sure it maintains a consistent direction.
#6: Already explained. Just as MGSV:TPP was a heavily unfinished game whose third chapter got cut entirely safe for a single image dataminers discovered, so too was Remember11 clearly released in an incomplete state, with only a few references to a cut third route in the executable.
#7: It's 999. For some reason, its translators don't know how to spell "dammit".
#8: Already answered. Root Double features an article in a French newspaper about an arson. However, some of the text is actually related to Hello Kitty.
#9: It's Never7. Don't remember the exact details, but several incidents in the VN never would've happened if it wasn't for a puppy.

Doesn't look like anyone will figure out the rest, so I'm spilling the beans:
#1: It's OMGWTFOTL.
#2: Already answered. I/O's characters have extremely wrinkled clothes.
#3: Already answered. The premise of Go Go, Nippon! is that the protagonist decides to spend a week in Japan living with two internet acquaintances without knowing that they're female.
#4: It's VLR. During Clover's route, Clover talks about purifying the unclean for a moment, then the word "unclean" somehow reminds her of the antidote neostigmine.
#5: Already answered. It's Rewrite, a wonderful example of how horribly disjointed a story can end up becoming when nobody steps in to make sure it maintains a consistent direction.
#6: Already explained. Just as MGSV:TPP was a heavily unfinished game whose third chapter got cut entirely safe for a single image dataminers discovered, so too was Remember11 clearly released in an incomplete state, with only a few references to a cut third route in the executable.
#7: It's 999. For some reason, its translators don't know how to spell "dammit".
#8: Already answered. Root Double features an article in a French newspaper about an arson. However, some of the text is actually related to Hello Kitty.
#9: It's Never7. Don't remember the exact details, but several incidents in the VN never would've happened if it wasn't for a puppy.

I just finished MYTH, and I liked it, though it definitely isn't for everyone to say the least. MYTH is very, very confusing, which is either a selling point or a huge turn off. I found it to be a selling point- I had a lot of fun thinking about and trying to understand the numerous interwoven plotlines (something that I can't say I've succeeded at, even now). The music is also excellent. But the thing about MYTH is that if those things don't matter to you, or you outright dislike them, you're going to dislike MYTH too, because those two things are really the only reasons you'd read it. Sadly, I found the characters to be subpar and there was a lot of slice of life in the beginning where there didn't need to be, which kept me from liking it a lot more. It also very much feels like a doujin game. There is very little voice acting (a few segments towards the very end have partial), photographic backgrounds are used, and the sprite artwork can be a bit unpleasant to look at at times *cough*. With all that said, I found it to be a very charming and even cathartic, if also flawed, experience as a whole and I sure won't forget it anytime soon. Now that my brain is fried, I'm probably going to read a few lighthearted things to recover, ahaha. Maybe I'll pick up the new Sonohana, it looks really cute even if that isn't necessarily my thing most of the time.

You can instantly jump to the next SSS or RAM prompt or unread line in Root Double by pressing R. Should make getting content you missed a lot easier. If you want to know what you need to do to avoid the three normal endings in Root D,
It's a shame if you didn't get all the character scenes in Root A and B though. They have plenty of additional characterization. Also, not getting them will make Root D's epilogue a lot shorter. As long as you use Answer Mode to directly select the branches you want and jump past read lines with R, getting them is very easy.

Admittedly, it's been years since I read Ever17, but I don't remember it having all that much in common with Root Double. Whereas E17's main focus arguably lies in screwing with your mind through really elaborate plot twists, RD starts off as a mystery thriller in Root A, but then prioritizes characterization and world-building above all else during the rest of the story. There are still some occasional twists and Root B has plenty of slice-of-life, but they're not really the focus and don't feel very E17-esque in their approach. So IMO, how much you like E17 doesn't really affect how likely you are to enjoy RD.

This VN uses Steam's cloud saving feature, so if you delete the save data, it'll assume it got lost and restore it from the cloud. The easiest way to get rid of it for good is probably this:
Step 1: Go to the VN's properties in Steam and disable cloud saving.
Step 2: Delete your save file.
Step 3: Run the VN. It'll notice there's no save file and create a blank one.
Step 4 (Optional): Enable cloud saving again. Now that the save file has been replaced, this feature will no longer interfere.

Found a third one. That one sounds Italian.

You are pretty severely mistaken about various plot points. There are very good reasons why they occurred. Unfortunately, I can't go into details without massive spoilers. Also, a lot of Root A's events are more important than they seem. There's a ton of subtle foreshadowing in particular.
Root A is fairly different from the rest of the VN, so how much you enjoyed it isn't terribly representative of how much you'll like the remaining parts of the story. They strongly prioritize characterization and world-building over suspense. That said, I would recommend getting all of Root A's heroine scenes before moving on. They have some valuable information and contribute a bit to characterization (though all three characters get much more development later on). The normal ending is also a must-read.

You are pretty severely mistaken about various plot points. There are very good reasons why they occurred. Unfortunately, I can't go into details without massive spoilers. Also, a lot of Root A's events are more important than they seem. There's a ton of subtle foreshadowing in particular.
Root A is fairly different from the rest of the VN, so how much you enjoyed it isn't terribly representative of how much you'll like the remaining parts of the story. They strongly prioritize characterization and world-building over suspense. That said, I would recommend getting all of Root A's heroine scenes before moving on. They have some valuable information and contribute a bit to characterization (though all three characters get much more development later on). The normal ending is also a must-read.