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adamstan

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  1. Like
    adamstan reacted to Shaun in A Sky Full of Stars - +18 Restoration [DROPPED]   
    I've already read the entire thing, it's way better than If My Heart Has Wings, nowhere near as bad (although I never read IMHHW without a restoration patch as in vanilla MoeNovel version), it is worth reading the way it is now.
  2. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Dreamysyu in What are you playing?   
    You got me interested in that Root Double. However I'll wait for next Steam sale
    Today I started reading AIR. The very beginning was somewhat slow and tiring (but then, it conveyed MCs feelings and situation perfectly that way, so I guess it's good). As soon as we meet Misuzu, it kicks into action. And then there's one of my favorite VAs - Aya Hisakawa  - as Misuzu's mom. Looks promising.
    BTW the heatwave we're currently experiencing seems perfect setting for reading this VN
  3. Like
    adamstan reacted to cro-mag in What are you playing?   
    In continuation to previous 2 posts – the last VN I finished.

    Root Double.

    This is really an awesome VN. I consider it a masterpiece. Reminded me somewhat of Muv-Luv Alternative, maybe primarily because of thorough explanation of every little detail
    you encounter, thus creating a world you can believe in.
    It was really a long ride for me (a week to be precise, because no matter how you look at it, it’s always quicker to read in your native language which was not the case this time, only for previous two VNs), but it was definitely worth reading. Sorry for the number of spoiler tags below, tried to do not spell even the names when unnecessary, just in case.

    About Root After part. Actually, don’t have much to say here. I read it firsthand (and think that’s how everyone should read it) and liked it all very much. Maybe there were some moments to argue about – don’t sure honestly. Even doubt they actually were. Moreover, it was also about
    kind of thing, like Remember11, so another good point for me. After Good Ending, couldn’t wait for continuation.

    About Root Before part. It sure took a long time for that route to catch up with events in Root After, that’s for sure. What’s more, it wasn’t only
    At first (especially if you’re reading that part first, before Root After) you may think that’s just too cliche sometimes. And that’s actually true. Childhood friend again, even 2 of them! Of course both are girls. Transfer student, from overboard to say the least! Again she’s a girl and of course she’s blonde. And at the end of first school day – “I’m gonna protect you and will be staying in your house”. Seriously, could it be even more cliche here? lol Well, later it becomes not so funny and you forget about all that. Btw, it was quite surprising to hear such VA of Salyu. Usually transfer girl has a different personality and way more cheerful voice so i was glad with that change. And overall i’m glad Salyu turned out to be
    I have some complaints about this route though. One of them is how
    Also i have to say that among all characters in all routes the one i’m fond of the least is
    It’s just i feel i have less connection with her than with anyone else, and she’s not exactly my type. In route Double we see
    stays as the most cliche person till the very end. Albeit, one more time, she’s better than she could be and i’m grateful for that. But she loses to
    Also Natsuhiko, despite being also your average cliche boy in the beginning of Root Before, later he naturally develops as a character. Actually there is absolute no one person i could say that i hate or dislike him/her. And that’s awesome, all characters are different, all of them have their own motivation as well as back story and background, upon seeing which we better understand them. And how viewing their background was creatively written into story – that’s another point of praise. And not only main cast is great, i also like
    But my favorite ones are
    among male (duh, not many persons to choose from here… But he’s really good, despite all certain things) and of course
    among female – she’s just super awesome, loved her since first glance. I guess
    are also good, not sure, they are just different, but all are great.
    And considering characters and their background – Xtend episodes do another fine job to better understanding the cast. Albeit they’re available only after you finish the story, it’s still definitely worth reading (despite many of them you’ve already read during main game, they still sometimes bring some interesting little details to the story, like
    And when you figure out
    you understand one more time how creatively that was done and how much work had been made by devs to surprise you and keep your interest.
    Also,
    What a useful doll lol

    About Root Double.
    At first i want to say that during that route i couldn’t help but smirk to myself about
    Jokes aside, all of Root Double route was a great conclusion to the story. Well, if you can call a “conclusion” several hours of reading, with duration maybe equal to After/Before/Current routes combined… Anyway, it was really, really great, kinda hard to express with words. And the scene’s name
    i thing it’s so befitting to events happening at the end. They’re really grand, for the lack of better word. And the way they made that grand ending route is another demonstration of creativity from devs’ side. It was very enjoyable reading for me. It was always hard to stop myself from continuation, only 4 am on the clock did its thing. And it’s not because i “wanted” to sleep, but because i “should” go to sleep, cuz “come on, man, don’t do this to your body!”))
    And the only thing i don’t quite like in the ending –
    Wasn’t necessary at all imo.

    Also some words about music. OST is also very great, befitting the whole VN. Especially i loved these tracks:
    (main menu OST, and that’s so good i never tired to listen to it), “Words of Healing” plus some of personal characters’ OST like

    Overall, i enjoyed the story very much, liked all characters very much
    even more i liked them the more i’d been reading. But i guess it was to be expected. And i’m really glad that such VNs continue to appear, and hope they’ll continue to appear in the future. I guess everyone who like great stories and thoroughly created worlds should try this VN. And its ending is how it should be,
    This ending truly warms my heart. And at the true end of story i literally didn’t want to say goodbye to all of the characters after struggling with them all these
    I wanted to read a bit more, to know for instance if
    But oh well, all good things come to an end eventually. Anyway, such an awesome story and touching ending. 10/10
    Well, that's all for now. Sorry for such a sheet of text)) Next i really want to read "Cou- Kuroi Ryuu To Yasashii Oukoku", but dunno when it happens. I still have some video games to play.
     
  4. Like
    adamstan reacted to Dreamysyu in What are you playing?   
    It didn't. There have been no updates on Kickstarter for months. I recommend to wait at least until the end of the year to see if anything changes.
  5. Like
    adamstan reacted to Dreamysyu in What are you playing?   
    Now it's time to read One.
  6. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Dreamysyu in What are you playing?   
    I just finished Kanon.
    It was beautiful. Can be seen as sort of prototype for later Key games, but still holds up on its own. I think my favourite girls and routes were Nayuki and Ayu (first and last played). Probably because we spend most time with one or both of them, whichever route we're on. Nayuki's route felt natural for first one to read, it makes nice introduction into the world.
    Shiori, Makoto and Mai were good too. Makoto's story was really sad, but with many heartwarming moments near the end. Shiori's route was nice romance story. Mai's route was interesting, also with right amount of feels included. The setup for this route was very similar to Saya's route from LB!. The ending - in some ways - too. The nicest thing about this route was observing how Mai slowly opened up before Yuuichi as their relationship progressed. Then the ending hits somewhat unexpectedly, and whole epilogue sequence is vague enough that I wasn't sure if KeyMagic finally did it's work, or it was bittersweet one. Still, good route.
    Ayu is main heroine of the game and her route is closest to "True Route" we can get here, that's why I read it last. It was really good, classic Key - but it started it all. Some of the most heartwarming CGs from these route for me were
    Music and voices were good. Backgrounds were beautiful, and character's look didn't bother me at all - I guess I got used to this drawing style by going gradually LB! -> Clannad -> Kanon. I actually liked them.
    I played with All-ages patch. I briefly checked some of the h-scenes, and they feel so out of place and out of character, that it's best to go MoeNovel on them and pretend they never were there. Really, they feel like the result of applying Rule34 to the characters. Avoid at all cost. KEY stories don't work as eroge at all, period.
    Translation was okay. It was smooth read most of the time. However it's slightly inconsistent. On one hand, it replaces some more obscure cultural references with Western ones (with clickable pop-up TL notes explaining what whas there originally for those who are curious), and that's good.
    OTOH later in Ayu's route they left ”ごちそうさまでした。” untranslated (with TL-note), which makes no sense at all. But apart from that, it's okay.
    Overally - great experience, not as epic as Clannad or LB!, but for a first attempt - really good. 8.5/10
  7. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Plk_Lesiak in What are you playing?   
    I just finished Kanon.
    It was beautiful. Can be seen as sort of prototype for later Key games, but still holds up on its own. I think my favourite girls and routes were Nayuki and Ayu (first and last played). Probably because we spend most time with one or both of them, whichever route we're on. Nayuki's route felt natural for first one to read, it makes nice introduction into the world.
    Shiori, Makoto and Mai were good too. Makoto's story was really sad, but with many heartwarming moments near the end. Shiori's route was nice romance story. Mai's route was interesting, also with right amount of feels included. The setup for this route was very similar to Saya's route from LB!. The ending - in some ways - too. The nicest thing about this route was observing how Mai slowly opened up before Yuuichi as their relationship progressed. Then the ending hits somewhat unexpectedly, and whole epilogue sequence is vague enough that I wasn't sure if KeyMagic finally did it's work, or it was bittersweet one. Still, good route.
    Ayu is main heroine of the game and her route is closest to "True Route" we can get here, that's why I read it last. It was really good, classic Key - but it started it all. Some of the most heartwarming CGs from these route for me were
    Music and voices were good. Backgrounds were beautiful, and character's look didn't bother me at all - I guess I got used to this drawing style by going gradually LB! -> Clannad -> Kanon. I actually liked them.
    I played with All-ages patch. I briefly checked some of the h-scenes, and they feel so out of place and out of character, that it's best to go MoeNovel on them and pretend they never were there. Really, they feel like the result of applying Rule34 to the characters. Avoid at all cost. KEY stories don't work as eroge at all, period.
    Translation was okay. It was smooth read most of the time. However it's slightly inconsistent. On one hand, it replaces some more obscure cultural references with Western ones (with clickable pop-up TL notes explaining what whas there originally for those who are curious), and that's good.
    OTOH later in Ayu's route they left ”ごちそうさまでした。” untranslated (with TL-note), which makes no sense at all. But apart from that, it's okay.
    Overally - great experience, not as epic as Clannad or LB!, but for a first attempt - really good. 8.5/10
  8. Like
    adamstan reacted to tymmur in (8/1 update) Results of the honorifics survey   
    I wasn't worried like that at all. After all I have known the result for a few years already
     
  9. Like
    adamstan reacted to Plk_Lesiak in It's Official, Almost 1 Year After it's Release Subarashiki Hibi One of the Best VN Ever Made Didn't Sell   
    SubaHibi is a complicated, demanding game that is extremely foreign to Western sensibilities in its formula. It's not that hard to explain Clannad, Dies Irae or even Muv-Luv to a Western gamer, but after a year of reading about SubaHibi every other day, I still only have a very vague idea what it is about. It might be popular in Japan, where Eroge is already a major industry and people are used to extreme mixes of themes and drastic content it offers, but it's pretty much one of the hardest things to sell in the West. It could dissuade JP companies from investing in the localization of other large plotge, but I think it's a very peculiar case and we shouldn't read too deep into it - SubaHibi might be a masterpiece, but it's also a particularly quirky and hermetic one and as there was no real idea on how to sell it to anyone but hardcore VN geeks that already wanted it, it'd be strange if it didn't flop.
  10. Like
    adamstan reacted to Decay in "Your Diary" is coming out   
    This translation definitely seems quite a bit worse than If My Heart Had Wings.
  11. Like
    adamstan reacted to Plk_Lesiak in How can we make visual novels more popular in the west?   
    I have to say I'm a bit with @bakauchuujin on this, the way you lump Moege and Nukige together and put them against "quality VNs" is going at least slightly overboard. Most moege that get translated are actually rather high-quality and while some people might see them as mindless waifu games, they can easily think the same about Little Busters or Clannad if they aren't familiar with them. 
    Games like Fureraba or Princess Evangile don't need porn to work IMO, but the publishers, more often than not, see the all-ages versions as ways to sneak into platforms that don't sell porn rather than as legitimate products. For example, after the Steam release of SonoHana 11 was removed, I'm simply unable to buy the all-ages version I was looking for - MG doesn't sell it, because why would they, as a dedicated eroge publisher?
    There's a lot of quality, story driven VNs being released, definitely enough to satisfy an average player, who'll read them from time to time. The problem is much more on the marketing side of things and the philosophy companies like MG and JAST seem to follow, porn being their main commodity and everything else being more or less a bonus for even more niche audience. 
  12. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from ittaku in Would appreciate some recommendations   
    For once I'll be quicker than @ittaku and recommend To Heart 2
    If you liked Majikoi, then give Tsujidou-san No Jun'ai Road a try. Then, for fans of Konosora there's also Miagete (A Sky Full Of Stars) - if you're OK with all-ages version (I liked it).
    I also second recommendations of Clannad, SakuSaku and Fureraba.
  13. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Silvz in LB extra routes   
    Sasami and Saya are standalone stories, Kanata's route is connected with Haruka's. I enjoyed all three of them, totally worth reading. Dungeons in Saya's route might be little tiring, but Saya herself makes it worth suffering a bit
    As for the length - from what I remember they are normal.
  14. Like
    adamstan reacted to r0xm2n in Happy birthday to Kotori Kanbe, my favorite visual novel character and possibly favorite fictional character   
    For a second, I thought this thread was about Kotori Habane. Who is best girl from Kono Oozora, and one of my favorite heroines ever.
    I'll have to read Rewrite at some point....
  15. Like
    adamstan reacted to tymmur in Maitetsu VN Discussion (Released at June 29th)   
    I finally decided to give Maitetsu a go. I'm still not happy with the way the release is officially handled, but at least we have the fan made patches now and it sounds interesting based on what other people have said so far. I'm mid scene 5 (as in still early) and so far I have to say I really like the story and characters.
    However what's up with the info dumping? It sounds a bit like an Amerian otaku explaining Japanese high schools based purely on anime and VNs, but with trains instead of schools. To make matters worse, the translation is clearly done by people who had no prior knowledge of railroad operation or words related to it as a number of the concepts seems to be analogue translations (word by word translation) rather than using the existing English word for the same item/concept. Apparently whoever edited this didn't get the idea to google the concepts because they are easy to find online and well explained.
     
    The intro makes little technical sense, but it works well for the storyline, so whatever.
    Dripping steam exhaust. Steam exhaust is steam, which is blasted out of the chimney (actually called "funnel" on steam ships and locomotives), which is what causes the well known puffing sound. The water is unintended condensed steam, which has to be drained from the lowest points, usually cylinders. Those two are mixed up in the translation.
    Hachiroku explains that an engineer drives a locomotive while a driver drives a railcar where the driver and passengers are in the same chassis. Attempts were made to call those two different names, but they never caught on. Engineer(US English) and driver(UK English) are 100% the same thing. Apparently they have different names in Japanese and for the sake of a translation we could have accepted this if used consistently. However the Kiha has an engineer (should be a driver according to the explanation) meaning the translation itself doesn't even use this explanation, which really makes the entire explanation pointless.
    Steam engine vs steam locomotive: in US English engine and locomotive can be used interchangeably. However steam locomotive and steam engine can't. Steam engine is used for both steam locomotive and steam engine despite those two being different things. It's like an "all dogs are animals, but not all animals are dogs" kind of case.
    Sidetrack: should be passing loop. Another note about this is the passing loop is being observed according to multiple lines in the text, yet there is clearly none in the CG, making it even more confusing.
    Diagram, emergency diagram: while technically correct, it's horribly explained and I would suspect nobody understands it without having seen a diagram prior to reading what they wrote. Trains crossing at passing loops is a name, which makes no sense in the text because it doesn't mention that each train has a line on the diagram and the trains meet when the lines crosses each other on the diagram. You can read more about diagrams here. I assume emergency diagrams are new plans made up to recover from unexpected events (broken train blocking a track or whatever).
    Driving plan: sounds like schedule/timetable to me.
    Engineer room, driver stand: actually called cab (US English) or footplate (UK English).
    It's mentioned a Kiha 07 is stronger than it looks and can be used for freight. I looked it up and I pity whoever tries to use it for freight. It weights 27 tons, yet delivers just 150 hp of continuous power. If that wasn't bad enough, it's diesel mechanic (transmission/clutch like a car). Railroads always tries to avoid clutches because they doesn't work with the torque needed for starting multi car trains. A Kiha 07 has room for 125 passengers and that's it. It looks like a decent budget passenger transport when it was new in 1934, but freight is completely out of the question.
    The station sign is made of wood, yet it's unreadable due to rust?
     
    The list will likely be longer the more I read, but the actual length is kind of besides the point. Somehow I feel like this is a missed opportunity for teaching VN readers about railroads. Ironically I learn more from online studying/crosschecking than I did reading the VN itself, which is obviously not good considering the VN actually does a serious attempt in teaching something. While it's popular to bash Sekai for Maitetsu, I really do get the feeling that at least some of the issues exist in the Japanese version as well, particularly the mismatch between CG and text and explaining a diagram without graphics. There is also the issue of picking specific concepts to explain rather than starting with the overall picture, which is clearly an issue from the Japanese version.
     
    I wonder who the target audience is for Maitetsu. Somehow it seems better suited at getting train otakus into VNs than it is getting regular VN readers into the world of the train otaku. Just think about it. If the reader is a train otaku already, the overall picture doesn't matter and the info dumping will explain stuff where the reader goes "oh I know that. Feels familiar" and suddenly the step into VNs is not as big as it would be with other VNs. The story about preserving heritage trains (or imperial railroad if you like) also sounds like an epic tale for train otakus. I have no idea if it has worked in Japan, but at least it's a nice attempt. The English version will however not be able to really attract railfans because the translation quality of railroad specific words is way too amateurish.
     
    Despite my harsh words here I do like the VN and none of those issues will make me stop reading. The main question regarding a VN is "do you enjoy the time you spend reading it?" and from that perspective it's actually one of the best I have encountered in years. Despite the flaws it's actually still a decent VN, both in story and visuals. I just wish it had a better quality translation.
     
    Note: I intentionally skipped mentioning raillords or aircra because they do not aim to be realistic. The railroad infodump however tries to be accurate, hence should be evaluated for the quality of such an attempt.
     
    EDIT: found a math problem. It says 500/2=277. More specifically 500 kg of coal weights the same as 277 two liter bottles. Apparently whoever wrote that has little insights in the metric system because 1 liter = 1 kg (for water) is one of the cornerstones in understanding why the metric system is vastly superior to any other measuring system ever used.
  16. Thanks
    adamstan got a reaction from Templarseeker in What are you playing?   
    ...and done with San Shimai. That was quick
    It's probably because it is closer to typical adventure game than VNs, as there are no multiple routes. There's basically one story, with one good ending, and several bad ends. There are also some optional scenes which you can skip.
    It was much darker than Sakura no Kisetsu. The plot was actually not bad, even if following some cliches. But not anime/moe cliches, rather b-movies It is also more h-heavy, although some scenes lead to bad end. The number of scenes is probably similar, but since there are no routes, it all happens in single story, so one may get the feeling that the protag fucks around too much, like he was some James Bond or whatever   . But there were some emotional moments here and there too.
    In true adventure games fashion, bad ends aren't instant - they just change the epilogue you get. So you can trigger one, and then still play thru whole story until it shows.
    "Adventure gameplay" aspect was executed better here, with less pointless choices.
    Art is similar to Sakura no Kisetsu, it actually shares some assets with it (school backgrounds). I like the character design, following that 90's anime look. As I said when reviewing Sakura no Kisetsu, I'd really like to see some of that style in newer games.



    Music was really good. Translation is on similar level - ther are some typos, missing words and few mismatched names, but overally it's readable.
    Nice hybrid - or transitional work - between VN and text adventure. If you aren't put off by ancient technical limitations - try it. 7/10.
    Works well with DOSBox. Unfortunately version that is downloadable from abandonware sites has one h-CG broken - lower half of image is messed up.
    Also, web version can be played at Asenheim Project.
  17. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from PiggiesGoMoo in What are you playing?   
    ...and done with San Shimai. That was quick
    It's probably because it is closer to typical adventure game than VNs, as there are no multiple routes. There's basically one story, with one good ending, and several bad ends. There are also some optional scenes which you can skip.
    It was much darker than Sakura no Kisetsu. The plot was actually not bad, even if following some cliches. But not anime/moe cliches, rather b-movies It is also more h-heavy, although some scenes lead to bad end. The number of scenes is probably similar, but since there are no routes, it all happens in single story, so one may get the feeling that the protag fucks around too much, like he was some James Bond or whatever   . But there were some emotional moments here and there too.
    In true adventure games fashion, bad ends aren't instant - they just change the epilogue you get. So you can trigger one, and then still play thru whole story until it shows.
    "Adventure gameplay" aspect was executed better here, with less pointless choices.
    Art is similar to Sakura no Kisetsu, it actually shares some assets with it (school backgrounds). I like the character design, following that 90's anime look. As I said when reviewing Sakura no Kisetsu, I'd really like to see some of that style in newer games.



    Music was really good. Translation is on similar level - ther are some typos, missing words and few mismatched names, but overally it's readable.
    Nice hybrid - or transitional work - between VN and text adventure. If you aren't put off by ancient technical limitations - try it. 7/10.
    Works well with DOSBox. Unfortunately version that is downloadable from abandonware sites has one h-CG broken - lower half of image is messed up.
    Also, web version can be played at Asenheim Project.
  18. Like
    adamstan reacted to VirginSmasher in Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi No Translation Project (Completed)   
    Hello again. It's time for another progress update and there are a couple big pieces of news to report. Let's get into them
    Translation
    Prologue - 100% (1791/1791)
    Main School - 100% (2691/2691)
    Tonoko Route -  1% (123/8709)
    Branch School - 10% (572/5846)
    Total - 8% (5177/68206)
    TLC
    Prologue - 100% (1791/1791)
    Main School - 6% (157/2691)
    Branch School - 3% (187/5846)
    Total - 3% (2135/68206)
    Edit
    Prologue - 95% (1704/1791)
    My first piece of news has already been reported by Ittaku. The main school common route's translation has been completed. Also, since Ittaku doesn't know how to take a break, he has started on Tonoko's route. Finally, editing is almost finished for the prologue, which means the prologue patch is close.
    My second piece of news is that I'm looking for an extra editor for the project. Since this VN is quite large, having one editor working on it by themselves is a pretty insane task to ask of somebody. So I'm looking for an editor who feels qualified enough to take on a task like this project. If you want to apply for the position, then contact me here on Fuwanovel in the PMs.
    We are also still looking for a permanent TLC to work on this project. Please PM me if you're interested in working as a TLC for this project.
    I'll see you guys next week.
  19. Like
    adamstan reacted to Nandemonai in Nocturnal Illusion Renewal Translation Project   
    It's been four months since I updated this last?  Huh.  That's no good.  Editing is now at 71.0%
  20. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from Ramaladni in Kazoku Keikaku (Family Project) re-edit project (Ikura GDL engine script extraction and editing)   
    I don't see in which way would it be easier. The amount of the operations needed stays the same.  In the meantime (thanks to the power of HEX search in Total Commander  ), I determined which character appears in which script, and made nice chart for it Total amount of extraction operations that have to be manually invoked from ArcTool is 355 (dialogues) + 28 (narration) + 12 (choices) = 395

    EDIT make that 384 (344+28+12) - I set bad ranges for "X" counting
  21. Like
    adamstan reacted to ittaku in Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi No Translation Project (Completed)   
    I've finished translating the common parts of the main school. Now onto the heroine routes. Ruu \o/
  22. Like
    adamstan reacted to tymmur in (8/1 update) Results of the honorifics survey   
    Here we go again. Whenever anybody mentions this topic, it will produce a lot of replies, but not consensus. The reason seems to be there is no single definitive answer. It depends on a number of factors:
    The VN itself: some VNs makes heavy use of honorifics to tell about interpersonal relationships or personalities. Others just add -san to everybody.
    Target audience: are you translating for a steam VN where it's the first VN people will read or is it a fan translation for people who read 30+ VNs already.
    Personal taste: we will never agree on acceptable loss of accuracy vs natural sounding English. Going to the extreme of either is bad, but where is the right balance?
     
    We spent a while considering this issue for Musumaker, or in broader terms: what to do about hard to translate contents. We ended up deciding to keep honorifics because they play a role and would result in a severe loss of insights in heroine personalities if they are cut. If honorifics are translated to English in a way to preserve the meaning, the result would be that most of the meaning would be lost anyway and it would sound much worse than keeping honorifics.
    It does come with a problem though, which is we can't except the reader to know all of them. The answer is a list where each honorific is written and explained. There is a twist to this though. Because the VN engine is fairly diverse, it allows displaying a png in the corner and if you move the mouse to it, it will pop up with another png. This allows adding the explanations ingame the first time a word is used and remove the need to jump in and out of the VN. This system can also be used for other hard to translate words like Tanabata.
     
    The goal of a translation is to give the same reading experience to the English speaking VN readers as Japanese get by reading the Japanese version. Diverting too much from the original contents in order to make "natural English" will lose the story while being too literal might keep all the story elements, but results in a written English, which isn't a pleasure to read. It's a question about finding the right balance between those two. Spamming words the reader needs to look up (even in the popup approach) will hurts reading pleasure, but never explaining anything hurts the understanding when some common knowledge about cultural references is needed to figure out what goes on.
     
    My conclusion is the same as every thread about a topic like this one: there is no single right answer, which universally applies to every single VN ever released. It is a topic to consider for every single translation project and even for a specific translation we will likely never get everybody to agree on honorifics.
  23. Like
    adamstan got a reaction from BookwormOtaku in What are you playing?   
    Yesterday I finished Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai Road. 楽しかったです
    Comedy was great in this - I laughed often and loudly . As for heroines - if you hate tsunderes, don't touch this game Of course most tsundere-ish is Renna, but Ai and Maki are too to some extent. Nevertheless, they're quite likeable
    If I had to rank routes/endings, it would probably be Ai's True End > Maki = Ai's Normal End > Renna = Saeko - but they're close.
    Azusa is also listed as side heroine in walkthrough, but her ending is more like another bad ending for Renna's route - she doesn't have any scenes/CGs or epilogue.
    Similarly to Majikoi - if the choice is meaningless, it's worth to explore all options to read all funny bits. Game's system makes it easy with "skip to previous/next choice" buttons.
    Art, music and voices are great. Also translation is pretty smooth - there were some typos / bad words here and there, but nothing major. Overally I like Tsurezure Scans' writing style - I liked their work in Hatsukoi 1/1 too.
    I had great fun with it - 8/10.
  24. Like
    adamstan reacted to Clephas in (8/1 update) Results of the honorifics survey   
    In the end, if you aren't the one translating it, you should just shut up about this issue... because, after all, it is a matter of style and opinion, not morality or an absolute standard.  Complaining about a poor translation (easy mistakes, literalism taken to extremes, etc) is one thing, but complaining about a style issue is both pointless and causes unnecessary annoyance to all sides. 
    Personally, this is my chart of standards:
    Based in old (pre-WWII) Japan= Keeping honorifics is necessary
    Situation is layered with meaning reliant on honorifics- case-by-case (honestly, consistency is important, but Japanese high society and politics place a lot of importance on interplay involving specific manners of speech and honorifics.  However, even most ojousama-ge don't actually need the honorifics)
    Modern Japan, not involved with complex high society issues- Doesn't need honorifics/loss of meaning in eliminating them is minimal
    Based outside of Japan or in another world- No point in honorifics (usually Western ones are fine for ones like this)
    What that comes down to is that categorically ignoring/eliminating honorifics is not always a good idea.  That said, the Japanese tag them on even in Western settings and fantasy settings, and modern Japanese society is a lot more flat-planed when it comes to this kind of thing than old Japan was.  As such, outside of a few odd/unique situations or settings, there is no real need to keep the honorifics in most modern Japanese settings (meaning 90% of all VNs). 
    I will however, bash gladly anyone who eliminates honorifics and titles in something like Miburo or Sengoku Koihime, because it actively harms the storytelling.  That particular situation I mentioned is an annoying one, but it is just one common scene, so screwing around with it won't cause any real problems with most VNs. 
  25. Like
    adamstan reacted to ittaku in (8/1 update) Results of the honorifics survey   
    What needs to be accepted is that translation is a lossy process and will never be a 100% faithful reproduction since it's impossible to convey all nuances, cultural references etc in another language. On that I'm sure most of us agree. What isn't understood well enough, unless you've been a translator yourself, is something that Clephas has said - the honorifics themselves may serve a purpose in the story and often do. To that end, what matters more - to weigh in with my opinion - is how much localisation the original text can "tolerate". Given translation's "lossy" nature, if honorifics are a huge part of the story - and they often are in charage where characters alter their speech according to familiarity and over time - then there will be far more loss in the story should the honorifics not have an English equivalent (and they usually don't.) That still doesn't make it wrong to remove honorifics if that's the style one wishes to go with; it's just much harder to convey the nuance in the original text without them. I've done it both ways now, and leaving honorifics in makes it extremely easy while removing them when they're a big part of the story itself is many many times trickier to get right without losing a significant part of the story. So in my case, I'd say it depends entirely on how important they are to the story as to whether I'd prefer to leave them in. I'm currently working on a translation without them and most of the team discussion is spent trying to nut out what would otherwise be a simple part of the translation as they actually play a big part in this charage. This one doesn't "tolerate" the loss as well as other ones might, so we have to work much harder to try and fill that loss.
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