Infernoplex

I see. Well, I wish you luck in finding someone who'd be interested in doing VNs.

Oh, thanks! Never played that one, so didn't know. I need to check that VN out. That character design is top notch Wait. Does that mean you have a JP -> ENG TLer after all? Or is that person only interested in TLing manga?

Ah, no thanks. I can't read Spanish, so it'd be of no use to me, sorry xD That's primarily why I asked. I was confused, wondering if I am at the right place. I don't know many fanTL groups who are trying to translate from Japanese into 2 foreign languages at the same time. Anyway, this question may be off topic, but... who's that in your avatar? I don't recognize her. Character from which VN? I assume it's a VN

This your site?

Thanks, and I hope so too I'm not as involved in that project as I should be, but I know the other folks are motivated to finish it. We talked the other day about maybe doing a patch for the second Noratoto, but that depends on TLer's motivations and other things. While I'd love for both of these to happen, I don't want to get anyone's hopes high just yet. I don't know what they are doing right now, but I pray to God they are not butchering my dear Cocoro Function

There's one other thing about them to have in mind too. They let JAST license one of their older games back in the day. Or at least, JAST's subsidiary. So they definitely knew about one of the localizers at the time they released their first butchered translation (IMHHW). We can't say they didn't know at least something about the English side of localization business. Harukaze, maybe, but PULLTOP definitely wasn't completely ignorant on the matters of localization with their first western release. Actually... scratch that. Considering in what a poor state IMHHW came out, I guess their one partnership with JAST was for nothing. Definitely true, and I wish it wasn't like this. Noratoto deserved more than a lackluster translation and a butchered all-ages release. Fair, I can agree on them partially being at fault for that. I just feel more angry at Harukaze than Fruitbat regarding all of this. I see them as the main party at fault here.

Yeah, of course, there are companies that can be convinced to mend their ways. But for every such example, there's another counterexample. To this day, nobody managed to convince PULLTOP/Moenovel to give us 18+ releases of their VNs, and it's widely speculated that Sekai didn't manage to convince Giga to give them a license for the 18+ release of Baldr Sky. There are likely more examples that I can't recall right now. What stopped Harukaze from reaching out to the fans and asking directly? Nothing. If a company like Nexton can do it, I don't see any reason why other companies can't do it too. Also, I am quite confused as to why Harukaze picked up Fruitbat of all to advise them. We clearly have more established companies than them, and yet they specifically wanted Fruitbat. It's like they were purposefully trying to avoid localizers who deal with 18+ content (and therefore seeking only companies that won't bother them about it). Oh, that's definitely true, but it doesn't make Fruitbat the most responsible party for the lack of 18+ in my eyes. There are things I'd blame them a lot for, but the lack of an 18+ release isn't one.

Not every JP dev is the same. Just because JAST managed to convince one doesn't mean anybody else can manage to convince any other JP dev. Granted, it's likely that Fruitbat doesn't have this negotiating power like JAST does (nor does Fruitbat look like they would care enough to bother that hard to get that 18+), but the final decision still lies at the JP side. If Harukaze had wanted it, they would've went a different route and got someone else to advise them. I mean... how did they even turn to Fruitbat of all in the first place :face_palm: Not necessarily true at all. While Fruitbat indeed has no real incentive to bother Harukaze about it, that doesn't necessarily mean we would have 18+ version had some other company like Sekai or JAST taken the role of the advisor. You're saying this as if it would be easy to convince Harukaze to do something they may be very reluctant to do, no matter who bothered them about it. JP devs can be both easy and difficult to deal with. Who knows what's in these people's minds over there...

Thank for the voice of sanity @Inflatable Lemon.

I've looked at this project on and off, and I have to say that I admire your persistence. I don't know if you're still active, but judging by the amount of years that went by since the start of the project, it's amazing to see your last post is still from this year. I think 3 or 4 months have passed since your last update. How are things going? You still genki?

Forgive Shogun, he's not the best when it comes to announcing new information. I didn't bother to correct him, as I am too tired to say it every time.

Didn't read it yet, but yeah, for those kinds of protagonists, it's super disappointing when they are not voiced.

Oh, I see. Yeah, I agree. Japanese developers do this for "self-insert" purposes (as well as to save costs on hiring one more VA), but I'm more fond of VNs that have all characters voiced, including protagonists. It's a shame, but the way of the industry is such that the VNs featuring voices for the whole cast are in minority.

I heard pretty bad things about Ryuusei World Actor, so I am not sure that one is worth a localization just yet. But, Iwaihime and other DiGination titles look interesting enough. As for whether we are drifting away from those possibilities... yeah, I kinda feel like that too. This model doesn't seem like a good one to me. Who knows, maybe they prove us wrong in a year or two when it comes out completely, and people buy it in droves, but I wouldn't put my bets on it. Strange you say that. If I recall correctly, you were fine with no voices in Rance and Evenicle. Or is it only something you are fine with when the title has good gameplay, lore, and story? xD

I'm not so sure about that. I think they decided to do Noratoto 2 before they were even done with Noratoto 1. They picked this one up so quickly that I don't believe it was a decision based on how well the first one sold. It was likely in the process of localization right after they released the first one or at least sometime before they even finished putting it up on Steam.