juliodion_12345

Alright this will be a long one, but please bear with me.
Some of you might have seen this coming (some might have not) but I cannot continue translating this anymore due to a request from NekoNyan.
Please do not hate anyone for this. This is mostly an oversight from me.

...Let's talk about a story.
This was about... over a year ago.

I had a conversation with my friend that went something like this:
"Hey this game is great you should play it"
"Okay but my Japanese is bad"
"That's fine just take your time"
"I'll play on the weekend"
On the weekend:
"Weekly reminder for you to play Sakura Moyu"
"Okay" *disappears*
The next weekend:
"Weekly reminder"
"Okay" *disappears*
...And that went on for about a year. Yes, a year. I think it was even more.

At one point, I think I lost it and said:
"You know what, if you can teach me how to edit the game files then I'll translate it for you"
"lmao ok"
And then we spent the next few nights looking up for tools to decompile the game files and edit them.
Few months pass, I get some more people to play my initial patches, I go around editing it over and... I reach here.

Do I have any regrets? Nope. None at all. I have probably spent a few hundred hours on this. After getting the initial know-how I mostly worked on it alone, that included figuring out how the script works, breaking it a couple of times and falling into despair (after which I made sure to create backups like everyday), figuring out how some of the formatting worked by looking at other games made in FVP, photoshopping the images, dealing with errors in the existing translation tools due to them using outdated libraries, practically having to learn English in Japanese, and making sure I didn't miss any references (mostly a few songs, although it's about impossible to tell in the translations).
But that's okay, as long as more people get to know about this game, that is more than enough for me. At the very least, I got some of my friends hooked to the game.

As for what I want to do next, I don't know. It likely won't be a translation project. Maybe I'll learn to draw and make a game of my own, or maybe just focus on my studies.
Some people have asked me to translate other games instead. I can understand your feelings but I honestly cannot get myself to translate anything else when this game sits untranslated. The only other game in my mind was Sakura no Uta, but it seems that someone else has already started translating that, and I'd say that's a good thing in its own.

With that, I only hope the best for the future of this game with whoever takes it into their hands.

Someone did it LOL 😂🤣

New chapter done, bit of a shorter one this time. Sisyphus edition.
Next one is a doozy because that's the mind break scene, so it'll probably be a bit longer.

I'm back once again for another update, this time the penultimate translation update with the completion of both Hamaji's arc (about 10 days ago) and now Maki's arc, bringing the total lines translated to 65,246 at 88.7% complete. That also makes it through 22 of the 26 H scenes, and all of the content that was from the sequel, Root after and another.
Hamaji's arc was especially interesting mainly because of how different it felt compared to the rest of the arcs. That's because at the time, it was a sort of preview of what would later become Sakura no Uta, which was originally in development at the same time as H2O, but because the development of that game took so long (about a decade), it basically shows the direction that Sakura no Uta was going at that time around 2006-07, and it features some of the characters from that game for that reason. It was also the densest part of the script. To put this in perspective, Hamaji's arc is 4,973 lines and 98,503 characters long. Maki's arc, despite being 464 lines longer, is only 87,214 characters, a difference of about 11,300 characters. In addition to that , Hamaji's arc has no H scenes, so there's none of those typical H scene lines where it's just spamming "Aaaaaaah" over and over. So if Hamaji's arc was the most literary, then Maki's arc is the most focused on sex and is basically the nukige arc of the game. So kind of a weird contrast between the two.
Now there's just one final arc to translate, Otoha, at only 8,301 lines. It's been challenging, but also a lot of fun reading through and translating H2O over the past 5 months, and you can imagine that I'm looking forward to finally being done with the translation. But after that comes image editing (of which there are plenty), video editing (of which there are 9), in addition to editing and QCing the text over the period of many months. But the light can be seen at the end of the translation tunnel at least, so that's something to be pleased with for now. So I'll get back to work and see you at the next update.

Hello people,
just a small thread to advertise my released PC-98 translation projects from this year, as I know some of you might be interested.
I've compiled everything into a single thread to avoid spamming the board ^^
Included is the age rating and eventual content warnings so you know what to expect.
All games are fully playable on real hardware and emulators alike.
ORIGINAL TL
Holy Girl Force Lakers II (November 2022) (Warning: Adult Content)

Sequel to the first game, and a huge step up from it. Better graphics, harder challenge, cheesier story, more variety in ennemies and available strategies. One of my personal PC-98 favorites.
Everything's translated so far. The cherry on the top is that half a chapter that was missing from the game because of an error has been restored, too!
Download 1.1 here.
Guynarock 2 (November 2022) (Warning: Nudity and body horror, not recommended under 16)

A translation project by Alpharobo I've been helping with. A short VN in a horror sci-fi setting, with awesome artstyle. The developers and artists would later become famous for the Viper series.
Download 0.99 here.
Holy Girl Force Lakers (May 2022) (Warning: Adult Content)

Cult classic T-RPG with an awesome art direction, cool music, and an awesome sentai-meets-magical-girls like atmosphere. Oh, it also has some interactive sex scenes. Replaces the menu-only version I published last year.
Download 1.1 here.
Run Run Concerto (March 2022) (Warning: Adult Content)

An early Elf action game, reminiscent of some very primitive version of Deshing Desperadoes. Except you lead a female runner team and there is a bit of strategy and resource-management involved (not to mention pathfinding for the later levels). Notable for being one of the few eroge that can actually be played in competitive 2 player mode.
Download 1.1 here
FOXY (February 2022) (Warning : Adult content)

An early strategy game by legendary eroge publisher Elf. Not their best work, but an interesting piece of history.
Download 1.0 here
SCRIPT BACKPORTS (DOS or Windows to PC-98)
Amy's Fantasies (December 2022) (Warning: really fucked up adult content)

The infamous Hiroyuki Kanno unmarketable porn VN he did to troll C's Ware, his editor at the time. It's a pretty disgusting game, but it's so (intentionally) dumb that it manages to be hilarious at the same time.

Being a script port of the Himeya Soft Windows version, and with ready-to-use powerful editing tools at my disposal, it was a pretty quick project. The longest part was editing the graphics, then there was only 6-7% of untranslated or very mangled text I had to edit.

Download 1.0 here.
Jast Memorial Collection (November 2022) (Warning: Adult Content)



The official English JAST USA translations ported from the MS-DOS to the PC-98 version. Includes a brand new title screen for Season of the Sakura and uncensored CG for Runaway City for the very first time on PC-98!
Download 1.0 here.
YU-NO: A Girl that Chants Love from the Edge of the World (December 2021) (Warning : Adult content)

One of the most influential VNs of the 90's and Elf's most famous work. Based upon TLWiki's translation of the Windows version.

Download 1.03 here
I've also published menu patches for Sei Shoujo Sentai Lakers III (adult content) and Tamashi no Mon: Dante no Shinkyoku yori (all ages)
They're not quite as polished as my later works, but at last they can help you if you want to play these games and don't know any japanese. They both come with a full walkthrough.
Sei Shoujo Sentai Lakers III
Tamashii no Mon menu patch (PC-9801 version)
Tamashii no Mon menu patch (FM Towns version)
 

https://trjr.wordpress.com/2022/11/17/the-biggest-update-in-project-history/

 
More info on our blog. We also translated a bunch of other Yosuga no Sora content, The title of this thread doesn't do it justice. We are still looking for new translators! But real progress is being made regardless.

It's been exactly a month since the first post announcing the project, although you may have noticed I've been updating the translation counts weekly. And so I'm here to give the first major update: Hayami's arc is now fully translated! Her total arc has over 20,000 lines and is the longest by far in the entire game, so getting over that hurdle is very gratifying and makes the rest of the project seem slightly less daunting. But only slightly, since with just under 46,000 lines left to translate, that's almost exactly the entire length of my previous fan translation project, Imaimo. Not that the two are really comparable in any way beyond that coincidental statistic. The fact is that Imaimo was generally easier to translate.
That's not to say H2O has a difficult writing style, because it really doesn't. Most of it is very straightforward, but it does tend to be very wordy. That might have something to do with how this is a NVL game and not an ADV game, so the lines can be longer without having to worry about a text box. Or maybe the writers of H2O were just generally more verbose than what I encountered in Imaimo. Either way, I've noticed that it generally takes longer to translate H2O on the whole, but I'm still going at a pretty decent pace. There's also the fact that starting the translation of any decently sized project feels slower at the start because there's so much more left to translate, but that picks up over time, especially after getting over the 50% milestone, which at least for this project is still a little bit ways away.
Now for a few other things that I feel require clarification about the nature of the game. As it says in the first post, this version of H2O combines the content from the original game and the sequel that came later, Root after and another. But Root isn't just a fan disc. It essentially doubled the size of the available content from the original game. In fact, the two are virtually the same size in terms of their line counts: H2O content covers 36,901 lines, and the new content from Root covers 36,646 lines. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but it's an interesting coincidence either way. Additionally, if you remove the roughly 7,000 lines from the common route from the original game, that means Root actually has more content in the character routes than in the original game.
The game's overall structure is also interesting in how it's laid out. There are 13 possible endings, which covers 5 normal routes (Hayami, Hinata, Otoha, Yui, Hamaji/Yukiji) and 8 after story routes (3 for Hayami, 2 for Hinata, and one each for Otoha, Yui and Hamaji/Yukiji (this last one is also Maki's route)). In the original game, you had to first play through Hayami's arc to get to Hinata, and then getting done with Hinata let you access Otoha's route. That's not exactly the case anymore in this version, although Otoha's route is still only unlocked after going through Hayami's, Hinata's, and Yui's normal routes. But you can do those in any order, or even do Hamaji's route first. As for the after stories, they're obviously only unlocked if you go through the normal routes first, in addition to 3 of the 8 after stories only being unlocked when you finish other after stories. That, in addition to the somewhat confusing choice progression, means that a full walkthrough will be provided for this game once the patch is released.
But back to the translation. Completing Hayami's arc brings the total content translated up to 37.5%. Not bad for about 3 months of work considering how long this game is. By comparison, the Imaimo translation took me just under 3 months to complete from start to finish. So yeah, I have my work cut out for me. But I've enjoyed it immensely thus far. This is a really solid story with plenty of feels, comedy and...oh yeah, H scenes. There are 26 H scenes, 9 of which are in Hayami's arc. By line count, the 24 scenario files that contain the H scenes (because 2 files contain 2 H scenes) take up 14,479 lines, 19.7% of all content. That's not to say that every line in those 24 files is part of an H scene, but the vast majority of it is. As for the other girls, 6 H scenes are in Hinata's arc, 4 are in both Otoha's and Maki's arcs, and there are 3 in Yui's arc.
Next up, I'll be translating Hinata's arc, the second longest after Hayami's, but considerably shorter at just over 14,000 lines. So for now, I'll get back to work.

H2O √ after and another Complete Story Edition

Release
Download the patch (Google drive, Mediafire) (ver. 1.01, dated September 8, 2023)
Description
In H2O -Footprints in the Sand-, Hirose Takuma is a blind middle school student, though the cause for his blindness is undetermined. After his mother died unexpectedly, it left a deep emotional scar on him, causing him to become lonely and reserved. Due to this, Takuma moves from the city out into a rural area to live with his uncle and Takuma is enrolled into a new middle school. There, he meets several new girls, including the firm and obstinate Kohinata Hayami, the kind and obliging Kagura Hinata, and the cheerful and mysterious Otoha.
In √ after and another, there are new after stories for two of the heroines from H2O (Hayami and Hinata), plus new routes for Yui and Hamaji/Yukiji, the latter of which also unlocks Maki's route.
A version merging both games into one was later released, H2O √ after and another Complete story Edition.
H2O VNDB: https://vndb.org/v473
√ after and another VNDB: https://vndb.org/v561
Where to purchase
The game can be purchased legally from DMM (https://dlsoft.dmm.co.jp/detail/mnphs_0007/), but a Japanese proxy/VPN may be necessary to purchase it. That is where I obtained my copy. It goes on sale quite often, although it's pretty cheap even at full price, considering its age.
Project

The English localization project is being conducted by Studio Frisay, fresh off the completed Imasugu Onii-chan ni Imouto datte Iitai! project. As before I (Tooko) will be doing all of the translating and editing of the script, along with probably most of the image editing, and any engine work that needs to be done (of which is very little).
Studio Frisay discord server
Progress
Programming: The game is built on the BGI/Ethornell engine, as with Imaimo before it, so I'm already familiar with how the engine works and have all the resources necessary to apply any hacks and build the completed patch once everything is done. In fact, there's a lot less work this time around on that front because the structure is a lot simpler, being a NVL game instead of an ADV game.
Translation: The translation officially commenced on August 10, 2022 and was completed on January 28, 2023, although progress was initially very slow because of the ongoing work for the Imaimo patch at the time. However, I already translated a decent amount of the script (20%) by the time I announced the project a couple months later in October. The game has 73,547 lines across 167 scenario files split up between the common route and six character routes:
Common: 6953 / 6953: 100%
Hayami: 20620 / 20620: 100%
Hinata: 14112 / 14112: 100%
Yui: 13151 / 13151: 100%
Hamaji: 4973 / 4973: 100%
Maki: 5437 / 5437: 100%
Otoha: 8301 / 8301: 100%
Total: 73547 / 73547: 100%
Images and videos: Aside from minor tweaks, all of the in-game images in need of editing are now completed. Editing of images is shared between me and nReus, who will also be typesetting lyrics onto the 9 OP/ED videos. The images include about 110 for the UI, and about 335 for the rest of the game, although most of those are minor variations on each other, so the actual number of unique images is much less.
Editing: The editing of the game's text officially commenced on February 10, 2023, and it was completed on July 10, 2023.
QC: The quality check phase involves going through a normal playthrough to check for any problems with the patch files and their rendering. This should took about two months, completing in early September. The patch is scheduled for release on September 8, 21:00 UTC.
Progress link on Google Sheets

Thanks all. Hope you enjoy it, it's a truly beautiful set of stories.

Congratulations on the release 🥳

And here it is.
 

Full Metal Daemon Muramasa (Soukou Akki Muramasa - 装甲悪鬼村正)
JAST Store page (uncensored)
GOG Store page (GOG version uncensor patch)
SUMMARY
This is not a story of heroes.

Since time immemorial, warriors called musha have ruled the battlefield, granted supernatural power by their enchanted suits of armor - tsurugi.

Minato Kageaki is one such musha, driven by duty to don his crimson armor and challenge the greatest evils of an age. But though madmen and tyrants fall to his blade, never will he claim that his battle is right.

For the tsurugi he wields is cursed Muramasa, which five centuries ago brought ruin to the land, and innocent blood is the price it demands in exchange for its terrible might.

"Where there are demons, I slay them. Where there are saints, I slay them."

These words are an oath, the unbreakable Law binding him to his armor. But they also tell the story of his past, and of the future to come.
ENDING GUIDELINE
By default, Full Metal Daemon Muramasa has 3 routes, 2 of them initially unlocked (Hero and Nemesis). Completing both routes allow you to access the true end route: Conqueror. 
Other than that, you can complete any of those routes by any order. However, it is recommended for you to go through your first playthrough blind, so you'll be able to get the full feel of this story. To give you some hints:
 ROUTE GUIDELINE

Hero Route [Ichijou Ayane end]

Nemesis Route [Kanae Ohtori end]

Conqueror Route [Evil Demon True End]

Conqueror Route [Demon End]

Conqueror Route [Devil End - Chachamaru]
Attribution
Guide from Otaku Lair - where this walkthrough is based and omitted
Seiya-Saga - guide in Japanese

Thank you to everyone for being patient. Here it is, the full patch, ver. 1.00: Download
If you like, swing by the Studio Frisay Discord channel during or after playing the game for discussing the game and the patch.
The first post in this thread has also been updated to include a download link.

Sorry for asking this but specifically what timezone is sept 9, 2022 on your release? 
 
So that I or we don't get confused on the timezones we are having in our own country

I'll just leave this here in case anyone is interested in seeing what that localized joke with the strawberry pun would look like in-game (which will be available as an alternative version in the patch, if you would rather want that version).
And this is what the default (non-localized) version looks like.
This post is in direct response to Alex (@FennecBabe) who responded to the Fuwanovel Twitter post. I appreciate at least someone found the humor in it. I too found it a funny localization, but I honesty thought no one else would, so I had chosen to nix it pretty early on, but if others appreciate it too, I guess it's all good.

Okay, if you vouch for it this strongly, I can safely retweet it on the Fuwanovel twitter account - good luck with your project!

Edit: done.

Hey there, I personally can vouch for quality since, as I have assisted in both image editing and lyric translation and typesetting, I have seen some of the translation for myself. (He even gave me the first 10 scripts to look through.)
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With image editing, I was given a specific script (not sharing which since it's major spoilers) which was required for changing the text of the image. He basically gave me the entire scene script, giving me the chance to go through it. Now, it doesn't say much if I say it is good, and with considering my own translation efforts didn't reach this far by a long shot.
However, he did give me the first 10 script files of their completed translation, which I have definitely reached in my own efforts. Clearly better than my own, as well as much more clearer with the idea trying to be conveyed in the original text. They were even planning on going full-on localization mode with the strawberry pun in the early parts. But ultimately they chose to take the more literal route and take advantage of the furigana text space to explain the joke. 
 
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And that connects to editing. They did most of it during or right after translating a line. That might not sound all that good, but as a manga scanlator looking to get a chapter out sooner rather than later, these actions must be done (source: trust me bro I'm also a scanlator). And with 10 years under their belt as they'd mentioned, it's probably habit. Seeing as how they said they are meticulous, especially in the translation phase, they might catch the odd wording right then and there. And for the QC work, most of it was pretty good as it was, with a majority of the changes being word wrapping issues that the tool used for script reinsertion couldn't do itself, among other things.

It is possible to get a translation done in a wildly shorter amount of time if done efficiently and with experience. It a good point to remember that a majority of translations are done by a group of people, and the event chance of one member starting to slack or going AWOL is high. (That's not to say that Tooko's work is a perfect example for ideals; many groups suffer from other issues such as engine related problems. Tooko was just lucky to get a lot of it done with little to no problems snaring progress.)
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Now with the video typesetting. Initially, I was going to be using my translations entirely, but my confidence in the translations are like a twig, mainly because lyrical writing is somewhat different than writing for conversations, especially with two of the EDs. So, I had Tooko look over the translations and correct them. The translations are much more solid now than my jumbled mess of me translating a bit too literally.
They really care about how a translation my look, as can be seen in here where they shows the corrections he made for the Grand OP lyrics:
That said, Tooko allowed me to share the Grand OP in its English typesetted glory. (<-- that's the link to a streamable page, I don't know if this forum does streamable embeds)
Think of it as a "trailer" for release.
---
I've already written a lot, and the release is just around the corner. Two people's claim on quality for this patch may not suffice, but it's ultimately up to the reader to make their claim on quality. Sorry for the wall of text.

To put it bluntly, I'm staking my reputation on this translation. I wouldn't have started such a huge project if I wasn't confident I could release a quality product, and I wouldn't release it unless I was sure of its quality. I didn't just start translating yesterday. As I mentioned in the first post above, I was a fan scanlator for manga for a little over 10 years. I am very meticulous about the translation, editing and QC process. All I can say is if you're wondering about its quality, play the game yourself once the patch is released on Friday.

Hello to everyone who's been following this project over the past several months. I'm now over halfway through the QC at 55%, having completed the common route, along with Matsuri's and Kimika's routes. So far I've fixed over 500 lines (out of around 25,000), which amounts to about 2% of the lines on average that need fixing. About half of those involve some sort of typo, grammatical error, or a word that needs to be added or removed. The other half has to do with a quirk with the engine where punctuation hangs over a line, being placed onto the line below it instead of the whole word its attached to automatically being bumped down like it normally does for long words at the ends of lines, which are easy enough to fix by just adding a line break, but those are definitely the most annoying bits of the QC.
Also, on my way through the QC, I noticed several mistakes/bugs the devs didn't catch when they released the game. Two of which were problematic when recompiling the script, but I found a solution for them. Another 2 had to do with voiced lines, and there is at least one obvious sprite that should have been something else.
Other than that, there are some stylistic decisions I've found a bit odd at times, like parts of certain scenes where I would expect there to be music but instead there's silence, or how that Rikuto isn't voiced throughout the entire game. Oh, and there's no video playback option in the extra menu, sadly. Speaking of videos, it's likely that the subtitled OP/EDs for the game won't be done by the time the patch is released, so they'll be released later as a kind of bonus extra. They'd have to be released separately from the patch anyway, since the videos make up 1.32 GB in the game folder, whereas the patch will be around 450 MB.
And so, this will probably be my last post here before the release, which I can now give a definite date: The English patch will be released on September 9. And I even managed to get it out before the game's 10th anniversary in December, so that's at least something, seeing as how I originally thought it was going to take me until next year to release it. So until then.
Edit: The subtitled videos were completed on time and will be released with the completed patch.

No, and I don't expect there to be any such offer. If Koichoco never got officially localized, the possibility of it happening to Imaimo is even less likely, just based on the niche nature of the game and that it's not even an eroge. For what it's worth, I know I'm putting out a quality translation, but I'll let it speak for itself once it gets released next month. Percentage wise, I'm currently 38% through the QC.

I created an account just to thank you and @nReus for this. I'm a waiting of this novel since 2014, so I'm really excited.

I created an account just to thank you and @nReus for this. I'm a waiting of this novel since 2014, so I'm really excited.

At long last, the editing is now done, including going over the previously mentioned short stories, so the pre-QC phase can finally begin. I'll be doing some preliminary testing and once again going over some of the images to update them from any changes done during the editing phase, in addition to applying engine hacks, translating system text for the UI, and also recompiling the scripts and images back into the engine. All told, this will probably take a week or two, and then the actual QC process will begin when I play through the game with the patch applied. All told, this process will take at least a month, which is why I've set the release date for sometime in September.
So the home stretch is finally here. I literally can't wait to finally get the patch out so more people can enjoy this game. It's been a joy to work on over the past four months.