RikiSanic

Funny how they're able to afford these exceptions for themselves now that they want to use crowdfunding but never gave anyone else this benefit. No localization companies are relying on crowdfunding as a default funding method. The two big users (SP and Frontwing) have been using crowdfunding primarily for physical goods recently. Nekonyan using crowdfunding at this time suggests that the Japanese developers they spoke of don't even have a correct impression of the western localization industry. No one is using crowdfunding out of lack of confidence or because they don't care; it's the reality of this volatile market. Nekonyan wanted to position themselves as "above it all" and capable of operating more appropriately and in line with Japanese devs' preferences. It was a PR move to shape the narrative and make themselves more favorable with fans. 
Fans gave SP and Frontwing the same go-ahead by backing their projects every single time even with their issues. Nekonyan is asking for fans' approval so they don't come across as hypocrites. I don't even have a problem with crowdfunding, but I do agree that Nekonyan deserves flak for trying to capitalize on people's dislike for Kickstarter and certain companies by finger-wagging and making it seem like crowdfunding is off the table for any reasonable company because the Japanese side has wised up on the issue. Sol Press proved that this isn't the case; the success of Newton's KS apparently opened up many devs' doors to them and they managed to license the highly sought-after Irotoridori no Sekai even though they need to crowdfund for it (and the sequels are even behind stretch goals). Crowdfunding absolutely still has a place in this industry and Nekonyan shouldn't have implied otherwise. This market is still full of risks and that doesn't go away by pretending crowdfunding's only done because of improper business practices.

Sorry that I hurt your Kittycat feelings bruh but this isn't about if they are new company or not. This is all about them first basically shitting on other companies doing this and that and how they will be so great and better. In the end they will do just the same thing as the other companies did and this just shows they had no idea how to do this business. If it was doable the other companies would have done it too first.

Nekonyan deserves to take flak for this.  In January when they first launched, they sure talked big about Japanese companies disliking localizers 'relying on Kickstarters', even though only two VN companies have a history of that.  They went on about it at some length.  Then it turns out that running a company is harder than talking trash, so before they've even released all their initial announcements they're turning to Kickstarter.
I'm glad they're around and releasing games. Even with them and Sol Press new on the scene, there's still far too many good games to ever have all of them released.  But the least they could do is acknowledge they publicly and disdainfully denounced a practice they're now considering embracing not even a year later.  Just pretending the first statement never happened isn't fooling anybody.

Funny how they're able to afford these exceptions for themselves now that they want to use crowdfunding but never gave anyone else this benefit. No localization companies are relying on crowdfunding as a default funding method. The two big users (SP and Frontwing) have been using crowdfunding primarily for physical goods recently. Nekonyan using crowdfunding at this time suggests that the Japanese developers they spoke of don't even have a correct impression of the western localization industry. No one is using crowdfunding out of lack of confidence or because they don't care; it's the reality of this volatile market. Nekonyan wanted to position themselves as "above it all" and capable of operating more appropriately and in line with Japanese devs' preferences. It was a PR move to shape the narrative and make themselves more favorable with fans. 
Fans gave SP and Frontwing the same go-ahead by backing their projects every single time even with their issues. Nekonyan is asking for fans' approval so they don't come across as hypocrites. I don't even have a problem with crowdfunding, but I do agree that Nekonyan deserves flak for trying to capitalize on people's dislike for Kickstarter and certain companies by finger-wagging and making it seem like crowdfunding is off the table for any reasonable company because the Japanese side has wised up on the issue. Sol Press proved that this isn't the case; the success of Newton's KS apparently opened up many devs' doors to them and they managed to license the highly sought-after Irotoridori no Sekai even though they need to crowdfund for it (and the sequels are even behind stretch goals). Crowdfunding absolutely still has a place in this industry and Nekonyan shouldn't have implied otherwise. This market is still full of risks and that doesn't go away by pretending crowdfunding's only done because of improper business practices.

Funny how they're able to afford these exceptions for themselves now that they want to use crowdfunding but never gave anyone else this benefit. No localization companies are relying on crowdfunding as a default funding method. The two big users (SP and Frontwing) have been using crowdfunding primarily for physical goods recently. Nekonyan using crowdfunding at this time suggests that the Japanese developers they spoke of don't even have a correct impression of the western localization industry. No one is using crowdfunding out of lack of confidence or because they don't care; it's the reality of this volatile market. Nekonyan wanted to position themselves as "above it all" and capable of operating more appropriately and in line with Japanese devs' preferences. It was a PR move to shape the narrative and make themselves more favorable with fans. 
Fans gave SP and Frontwing the same go-ahead by backing their projects every single time even with their issues. Nekonyan is asking for fans' approval so they don't come across as hypocrites. I don't even have a problem with crowdfunding, but I do agree that Nekonyan deserves flak for trying to capitalize on people's dislike for Kickstarter and certain companies by finger-wagging and making it seem like crowdfunding is off the table for any reasonable company because the Japanese side has wised up on the issue. Sol Press proved that this isn't the case; the success of Newton's KS apparently opened up many devs' doors to them and they managed to license the highly sought-after Irotoridori no Sekai even though they need to crowdfund for it (and the sequels are even behind stretch goals). Crowdfunding absolutely still has a place in this industry and Nekonyan shouldn't have implied otherwise. This market is still full of risks and that doesn't go away by pretending crowdfunding's only done because of improper business practices.

I actually don't mind Itaru's artwork (except maybe pre-Clannad) but I'd agree that in this case it doesn't look great. The coloring in particular doesn't look well done.
As for the project, I'll probably at least go for the digital game tier even though the artwork isn't a selling point and I don't have much confidence in the writer. Unlike others I don't see a problem with MangaGamer doing crowdfunding for an original project and I might as well support their first outing—it's not like they can be that much worse than some of the other projects I've supported in the past.

Yeah, according to VNDB the official 18+ patch released at the same time as the main game on June 27th, so there's no way Imouto Works could've distributed the patch before Sekai Project did.
This isn't true, either. In fact, it's impossible. Corona Blossom Vol. 1 was released by Frontwing in July 2016 and its Indiegogo campaign was launched before Karakara even came out. Considering that Corona Blossom was localized by an in-house team and months of preparation would've been needed, that means that their going independent had already been decided long before this happened. Also, going independent isn't reason to believe that they "cut ties" with Sekai Project. SP licensed Grisaia, which means they never had an exclusive partnership with Frontwing (unless explicity stated), and they never made any indication that they were planning on licensing more Frontwing titles. Their relationship with Frontwing started and ended with the Grisaia trilogy. If you want a real example of a Japanese developer cutting ties with a localization company, look at what happened with Muv Luv and Degica.
Ironically, Frontwing adopted the same pricing scheme for Corona Blossom ($10 for the base game; $10 for the patch) and have only recently changed their tune.

It's being developed by code:jp, a brand of Sekai Project's. The creative staff in their last game were all Japanese. This new one seems to share the same artist so it should be considered as a regular Japanese VN, just funded by an English publisher.

Really disappointed at MG's choice of a Moonstone game and, ugh, Space Live looks like something straight out of Sakura series. But on the other hand Evenicle and Damekoi are both really great and much anticipated announcements so I'd say MG easily beat their last year's AX licenses.

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.

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.

I'm a backer of the Clockwork Ley-Line campaign, and the physical standalone add-on caught my attention in the backerkit as well. However, there's some context here that's needed.
First, people asked during the Chrono Clock campaign if there'd be a standalone physical option, and Sekai Project said that they would consider it (by the way, I've never seen SP dismiss anyone's request for this option like you suggest), but they didn't end up adding one, so anyone who wanted that option was out of luck. 
As for Clockwork's campaign, the limited items will definitely be limited. Suggesting that the backerkit will be some infinite store is ridiculous. It's going to be locked down eventually, they're going to produce a specific number of goods, and then ship those goods out. If there are reprints, they won't be anytime soon since Sekai Project has yet to reprint any of their limited edition items from their Kickstarters, and they have never made any plans to.
In terms of cost, the Physical Limited Edition tier includes the physical games + physical OST and digital copies of the games, the OST, the artbook, and the light novel. In order to match that price with add-ons alone, that'd cost $175, or $40 more than the price of the Physical Limited Edition tier on the Kickstarter (and after experimenting with the add-ons, if you got the Physical Limited Edition + Physical Artbook tier during the Kickstarter, it costs more shipping to recreate that tier with add-ons in the backerkit, so that tier was a better deal for Kickstarter backers).
I think the one complaint you can make is that we didn't know exactly what add-ons would be made available after the campaign other than the physical artbook. If you are interested in digital items, you saved a good bit of money by backing the Physical Limited Edition tier during the Kickstarter. If you're not interested, you could try to get a refund or change your pledge in backerkit to the $0 tier and only go for physical add-ons and possibly get more physical items with your money than you could before.
As for Clannad being less expensive than later physical releases, Sekai Project has said in livestreams that they lost money producing the physical versions and that it was something special for that campaign. Given that they've never had a more successful visual novel Kickstarter since Clannad, it's understandable that physical editions aren't as cheap anymore.
The SP vs Frontwing Grisaia physicals situation is an interesting discussion to have, though. Clearly both companies are working at different paces in order to reach different objectives with the Grisaia property. The one thing I will say is that while Frontwing's complete box is better in quality, it's also quite a bit more expensive than Sekai's. It is a bit of an awkward position to put backers in, though, since Sekai won't be shipping the last of the physical items until possibly the middle of this year.
Can't believe I wrote this giant response but hopefully it's more concise than OP's, at least.

I'm a backer of the Clockwork Ley-Line campaign, and the physical standalone add-on caught my attention in the backerkit as well. However, there's some context here that's needed.
First, people asked during the Chrono Clock campaign if there'd be a standalone physical option, and Sekai Project said that they would consider it (by the way, I've never seen SP dismiss anyone's request for this option like you suggest), but they didn't end up adding one, so anyone who wanted that option was out of luck. 
As for Clockwork's campaign, the limited items will definitely be limited. Suggesting that the backerkit will be some infinite store is ridiculous. It's going to be locked down eventually, they're going to produce a specific number of goods, and then ship those goods out. If there are reprints, they won't be anytime soon since Sekai Project has yet to reprint any of their limited edition items from their Kickstarters, and they have never made any plans to.
In terms of cost, the Physical Limited Edition tier includes the physical games + physical OST and digital copies of the games, the OST, the artbook, and the light novel. In order to match that price with add-ons alone, that'd cost $175, or $40 more than the price of the Physical Limited Edition tier on the Kickstarter (and after experimenting with the add-ons, if you got the Physical Limited Edition + Physical Artbook tier during the Kickstarter, it costs more shipping to recreate that tier with add-ons in the backerkit, so that tier was a better deal for Kickstarter backers).
I think the one complaint you can make is that we didn't know exactly what add-ons would be made available after the campaign other than the physical artbook. If you are interested in digital items, you saved a good bit of money by backing the Physical Limited Edition tier during the Kickstarter. If you're not interested, you could try to get a refund or change your pledge in backerkit to the $0 tier and only go for physical add-ons and possibly get more physical items with your money than you could before.
As for Clannad being less expensive than later physical releases, Sekai Project has said in livestreams that they lost money producing the physical versions and that it was something special for that campaign. Given that they've never had a more successful visual novel Kickstarter since Clannad, it's understandable that physical editions aren't as cheap anymore.
The SP vs Frontwing Grisaia physicals situation is an interesting discussion to have, though. Clearly both companies are working at different paces in order to reach different objectives with the Grisaia property. The one thing I will say is that while Frontwing's complete box is better in quality, it's also quite a bit more expensive than Sekai's. It is a bit of an awkward position to put backers in, though, since Sekai won't be shipping the last of the physical items until possibly the middle of this year.
Can't believe I wrote this giant response but hopefully it's more concise than OP's, at least.

Looks like it's 20% off on Nutaku now, as well as on Steam. Not a bad price for those who don't want to wait until the release on Denpasoft.

Looks like it's 20% off on Nutaku now, as well as on Steam. Not a bad price for those who don't want to wait until the release on Denpasoft.

Hey, that's me!
I remember thinking of ChuSinGura 46+1 when I wrote that post because of the travesty of a localization that received. It really does hurt to know that some Japanese developers license their titles to questionable companies and we as consumers suffer the consequences. Of course, even experienced publishers are capable of producing a bad translation here and there, so there's always risk on our end, unfortunately.
But does inre, the developer of ChuSinGura 46+1, even know that I can't bring myself to play their VN in English because the translation was so abysmal? Are they aware that there's practically no discussion of their VN in the communities I frequent because the awful release (and a train wreck of a Kickstarter campaign) turned off so many? Does Lump of Sugar care that they're allowing a Chinese company to localize their VN into English even though there are more qualified options? Do they care that the title of their VN has been bastardized into some dumb shit about elves being smart?
Does none of this matter because there's still the chance people will buy these VNs anyway? (Probably.)
TL;DR: Sometimes official localizations are my greatest motivation to continue learning Japanese.

I was the same. Tried CSG because of the hype, but man was the prose awkward 0.0 I gave up about a half hour in  

Hey, that's me!
I remember thinking of ChuSinGura 46+1 when I wrote that post because of the travesty of a localization that received. It really does hurt to know that some Japanese developers license their titles to questionable companies and we as consumers suffer the consequences. Of course, even experienced publishers are capable of producing a bad translation here and there, so there's always risk on our end, unfortunately.
But does inre, the developer of ChuSinGura 46+1, even know that I can't bring myself to play their VN in English because the translation was so abysmal? Are they aware that there's practically no discussion of their VN in the communities I frequent because the awful release (and a train wreck of a Kickstarter campaign) turned off so many? Does Lump of Sugar care that they're allowing a Chinese company to localize their VN into English even though there are more qualified options? Do they care that the title of their VN has been bastardized into some dumb shit about elves being smart?
Does none of this matter because there's still the chance people will buy these VNs anyway? (Probably.)
TL;DR: Sometimes official localizations are my greatest motivation to continue learning Japanese.

Posting below image because it deserves to be reposted across forums.
And also time and space, but that's a bit more difficult:
 

http://prefundia.com/projects/view/project-to-lead-dies-irae-to-the-atziluth/11416/

Some bullet points:
$160,000 initial goal. $500,000 for a new story. A split release, with both parts releasing May 2017.  18+ patch confirmed, will release 3 months later. Non-sexual content censored in the JP version of Amantes amantes will be restored. Both 16:9 and 4:3 versions will be available for people who dislike cropping. 16:9 version will have CG panning. Will be uprezzed to 720p/768p Translation team includes Conjueror, Garejei (the Tokyo Babel/Himawari duo), ReadingSteiner (Steins;Gate, Nympho Sensei Ryoko fame), and GundamAce (Root Double and I thought also Steins;Gate but it's not mentioned on the prefundia). It seems like they're addressing pretty much all of the major concerns right out of the gate. I'm sure some people will be disappointed by the delayed 18+ patch, but well, that seems to be how things are these days.

Of course, they themselves even admit they've made mistakes, and they do address a lot of things, just that a lot of times when they reach out to websites like here and reddit they're met with hostility and people just being plain rude, so they stop seeing as how their's not much point in it. Most of people's "complaints" about them nowadays are just vestiges from around their starting, and people looking for excuses to keep up that hatred. That's why you had people make up the whole thing with Shiny Days, why you had people misinterpret that tweet from a Giga rep to go around and complain that Baldr for sure isn't getting an uncensored version. Also funnily enough you mention that they somehow broke a promise that they'd give information about 18+ versions at Otakon, which they never said. All the said was at a later convention after there wasn't enough time at AX, and surprise, it looks like they're planning to give this information at AWA. The only real complaint I can see is that they don't pursue mosaics and their lack of communication. In the case of mosaics it's more than likely they don't see it as a wise enough investment to spend money on decensoring CGs (remember, it isn't as simple as just receiving the CGs from the JP dev and putting them in the game). As far as communication goes, most of the things they remain silent on are things the community starts to run wild speculating about regarding games that are still far off from release, so chances are they don't really care, because the concerns will be addressed closer to when the game is ready for release. Kickstarter rewards aren't released on time, because surprise, Kickstarters for anything almost never get released on time. So, no, I don't see a problem with that as long as they keep people reasonably informed. By backing a Kickstarter, you should know full well what you're getting yourself into, and the fact that the date in which you'll get what you payed for is basically anyone's guess. All in all, you can still have complaints against them without having to hate them. See, that's the difference between Sekai and other publishers. When JAST or MG slip up, you don't have people calling for their heads, spewing awful remarks, calling for boycotts of all of their products. Except in Shiny Day's case, though. People bitch and complain that Sekai is too slow translating their stuff, yet people somehow are able to wait patiently for MG or JAST titles that take even longer to get to release (Da Capo III, Sumaga, etc).
Regarding the whole nutaku, 18+ thing, that's because dissenters have deluded themselves into thinking they're somehow anti-18+. I know I've been told personally that they pursue 18+ version for every title, and that the only instances in which they release a title without one is when it's a request from the developer. 
Almost every Japanese VN includes rape scenes with middle school girls? Wow, I must be missing something. 
Also, it really pisses me off when people use wording like they "took it" away. Nobody "took" anything from anyone. This had been discussed for well over a year before the announcement, and both parties were perfectly happy with how things turned out. If anything, I would want them to release my fan projects officially. The translation just for your information wasn't "finished" in April, it still has to be QCed (which is going on right now) and then another TLC pass on it. 

This.  Nutaku can't even keep track of their own games, much less someone else's.  Nutaku's PR is basically Peter Payne's worst impulses given free reign with no dedicated following to call him on it.
I asked Nutaku yesterday whether putative Baldr Sky or Maitetsu adult releases would be welcome in their store, despite their objectionable content.  Their PR person's response was something along the lines of "What about these titles is objectionable?"  We tend to forget that the rank-and-file employees of English localization companies aren't necessarily hardcore eroge fans like us.  They know as much about the genre and the wider scene as your typical fan knows about their business: i.e., not much.  That's why hardcore fans are a valuable asset to any company: they provide a wide and deep knowledge base that the company itself might lack.

Eh, you're right. It's been ten days since anyone's posted in this thread so I forgot to see what kyrt might've been responding to. My point still stands that Sekai Project themselves have never called the Denpasoft version "uncensored" and that the Kickstarter page has been pretty clear as to what they're bringing over. It's best to refer to Sekai Project's marketing material for the most accurate information. Nutaku did call Baldr Sky "Baldr's Sky" in their blog post, after all.

To be fair, they never once used the word "uncensored." The exact quote on the issue is: "The Nutaku/Denpasoft digital and physical versions are the same version as sold in Japan just in English." I think they're pretty clear on what they mean.
I will admit I'm somewhat interested about what they have to say regarding mosaics, though. Not because it's a big deal for me, but because the only thing we have to go on is a comment on the Kickstarter saying Sekai Project responded to their question and said that the original assets were lost. Maybe they talked about it somewhere else and I didn't notice, but I don't think we have an official statement to go off of right now.
I do know that for the Ne no Kami campaign they got the artist to redraw the H-scenes, so it's not like it's impossible for Sekai Project to localize something without mosaics. It's probably unique for every partner. Who knows, though, maybe when they finally announce stretch goals one of them will be redrawn H-scenes (big maybe).

Even if Sekai Project doesn't license any more nukige than they do now, this is still a very valuable partnership for them. All of the major titles they announced this year have adult content; this is par for the course in the visual novel industry, obviously. Sekai Project knows this, and they know people want the adult content. Being able to sell the adult version on a potentially lucrative platform is a necessary negotiating tool if they want to secure the adult version for future releases.
In all likelihood, if they didn't make a partnership like this, then we'd be stuck waiting for Denpasoft to become a viable platform before adult versions for every release would become a reality.
I also don't think this is the death of Denpasoft, though. Like Chrono Clock, many future titles could be timed exclusives, and Denpasoft would be the go-to place for people who don't want to buy from Nutaku.
Regardless of how things turn out, this is still a better direction for the 18+ side of Sekai Project. If it becomes a success, I don't see any reason why SP wouldn't focus more on adult VNs. Money is money, and they are a business, after all.