Decay

Wow, who expected this thread to erupt like this? Why don't we wait for an example of the translation quality before getting out the pitchforks? This strikes me as really hasty and mean spirited.

and Kara no Shoujo Kara no Shoujo's art always interested me. That goes for the rest of Innocent Grey's work as well. It's a very grounded art style. I'm sure some people would see it as bland, but they really try to make the character designs as realistic as they can get within the bounds of traditional anime stylings. I prefer more realistic character designs to totally outlandish designs so it's good for me.

Just to be pedantic, < means "less than", so in your status page you should be using > instead to indicate that it's out of over 59 pages. Anyways, good luck with the project.

Well with the way level scaling works, you don't want one or two characters out-leveling the rest by too much.

Well the thing with Yandere, is that their lead translator TakaJun is a native Japanese speaker, so his translations are generally really accurate but really dry. Super dry, sometimes. For editors, I imagine it's quite difficult when the text you're given is like that. There's only so much you can do if you're afraid of losing the original meaning.

I thought Grisaia's art, while technically very sound, lacked variety. Just not enough CGs, not enough backgrounds. You can kind of tell the game really stretched their budget. I'm fond of Liar-Soft's unusual art styles. They change things up game to game, but they're never quite what you're used to in the VN space and they always look quite good, I feel. Sekien no Inganock and Shikkoku no Sharnoth are in English and are quite good.

I never thought someone would recommend Little Busters as a game with good art. Key's art has always been fairly mediocre. Little Busters definitely has a few funny looking sprites (in a bad way). Rewrite is a bit better in the art department, though. This represents Pulltop's transition into the current popular moege art style and while I felt the art was somewhat good, it also just kind of felt half-hearted in a way. Cocoro@Function was a better realization of that art style, I thought. If you do get it, get the restoration patch for the love of god.

Well color me excited. I just got done playing the partial patch the other day and was left with a sour taste in my mouth with how incomplete it felt (I guess I was hoping for a more firm resolution from the Fione ending). I hope you guys can do this game justice, good luck.

Yeah, gods, devils, whatever. They're elves to me. I was being flippant but really, my point is that I don't fully understand where the game's popularity came from. It's not necessarily a terrible game, but 31st most popular game on VNDB? One of MG's best selling titles? I just don't get it.

It was dropped years ago by one group and picked up by another, since. Its entry on the fuwanovel main site has a link to the current active translation project.

F/SN's plot elements were contrived just so they could have sex scenes in the first place. And they felt super contrived and it was awful. That's pretty much the WORST way to handle h-scenes. Don't make up utterly absurd and painful plot elements to justify them.

Shuffle is a mediocre moege with elves, and it's popular because.... ??? I guess it has its strengths but I really wonder where its popularity comes from. I guess maybe because it was an early MG title before there was much translated moege available?

Fun fact: nearly 9000 of VNDB's 14000 games rate between 7 and 6. Only around 550 games are 7 or more. Around 500 of those are rated 8 to 7, and you can guarantee that around 80% of those are total crap. VNDB's ratings are really limited and kind of inconsistent. The only real benchmark is that if it's 8 or more, it probably doesn't outright suck, but there are exceptions (sengoku rance, monmusu quest, among others). I think SnK is overrated as well, but it does have its merits and I didn't regret reading it.

If you aren't expecting Angelic Howl, it can be a very jarring and disorienting experience. Especially if you do Amane's route first. A 6-8 hour flashback sequence out of nowhere that's the polar opposite of the entire rest of the game you've played so far in terms of tone. I know a lot of people who disliked Amane's route because of it. I vaguely knew something like it was coming so I was able to anticipate it at least, and I actually liked it a fair amount.

Well, are they planning on adapting Meikyuu and Rakuen as well? Because you know, the harem ending isn't the conclusion at all, but the middle point of the story.

Yeah that is definitely not what they're going to do. Again, there is a canon sixth ending that wasn't in the actual game that it will probably follow.

I honestly feel that Hoshizora and Sharin no Kuni are overrated. Despite that, Hoshizora does have its good points and might be the most entertaining entry on that list.

I don't know any of the details, but the VN's lead writer created a sixth "harem ending" where Yuuji doesn't get romantically involved in any of the girls but still manages to solve most of their problems. Despite not actually appearing in Kaijitsu, this is the canon ending and is used as the basis for the two sequels, Meikyuu and Rakuen, and will also be the story that presumably the anime follows.

The main problem with Yumiko's route is that it's essentially just a less good version of Makina's. It's almost the same damn story, just with a less interesting character backstory, much less entertaining first half, very little development of Yuuji's character, and so on. It doesn't really do anything different and does everything else worse. It was especially bad for me because I did Makina's right before Yumiko's. Everyone else has a unique story but it's like they just gave up with Yumiko.

Well their biggest hint was from this blog post a couple months ago: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2014/02/26/look-forward-to-2014/#more-6713 "That says nothing about what negotiations are currently underway with a few different companies, including one big name we’re discussing title selection with. What a beautiful year to come." I find it very hard to believe that them using that turn of phrase was a coincidence. MG has gotten better over the years. Plus, it seems somewhat likely that koestle, famous from the great Grisaia translation, is leading the WAB translations, judging from his own words.

Most likely the deals have already been made and MangaGamer will be localizing them, if the hints they've dropped are any indication.

I heard the side routes were very bad and have seen some things that collaborate this. I should get around to playing the Hazouki chapter at some point, though.

I've been rereading Wakusei no Samidare (aka Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer) and it's still just as fantastic the second time as it was the first. One of my favorite manga of all time, yet not nearly popular enough. Fantastic action comedy with even a really interesting romance side to things. A shonen action that isn't endless but tells a complete and compelling story. Absolutely ludicrous when it needs to be, and can get emotional whenever it gets serious.

You should watch code geass because its good and people should watch good anime. The protagonist is the tactician type where the ends always justify the means. The show does more than just glorify that attitude and attempts to showcase the pros and cons of it and presents the moral dilemmas the characters face without making any of them seem black and white. It is that which provides much of the conflict and drama throughout the show. Basically what I'm saying is that it doesn't try to make the protagonist into a simple one dimensional anti-hero badass, and he sometimes even comes off as quite pathetic. If that sounds interesting to you, watch it.

It's a super long game so there's lot of voice work but in reality that's only a small percentage of the filesize. I don't know for sure, but maybe they just use very lightly compressed images and music files? Thing is, the game is pretty low on the CG count and it's not like those should take up much space to begin with. In short: who knows, it's a mystery. Ironically, the real reason to play the Amane route is for Sachi and Makina during the first half. I love how absurdly filthy those two's dialog get. Some of the funniest scenes in the game are during the Amane route but don't involve her much.