Decay

I thought you were talking about Koisuru having engrossing gameplay and I got very confused for a second.

Nah. It may be a mega-huge announcement, but it will still just happen out of the blue one day, or with a minimal amount of fanfare attached. It was previously going to be announced on twitter via a countdown from some random translators most people don't actually follow, lol. There's a very real fear from the team that the announcement and marketing will be mishandled and they don't seem to have much confidence in the japanese company that hired them. One part of that tweet is talking about SukiSuki, the other part is talking about his second, unannounced gameplay project. He's basically saying "While sukisuki won a gameplay award for some reason [despite having only barebones interactivity], I'm also working on a REAL gameplay title."

At this point whether they announce Evenicle or Rance, there will probably be an equal amount of backlash from whiney babies not getting what they want. So if any of you were planning on being one of those babies, please don't. If MG happens to announce a cool game that isn't the cool game you want, just be happy that the AS/MG relationship is working and hope for something more up your alley next time! (I'd rather have Evenicle)

I was comparing it to whatever con they were apparently at a week or two ago and didn't announce anything at.

I would not put money on that actually being announced at Otakon. It will most probably be announced abruptly with no fanfare in the middle of some random week, and not anywhere interesting like an actual convention.

I do wonder what's holding up ley line. The translation has basically been finalized for many months now, so it's just tech work and red tape holding it back. That, or SP is making major changes to the translation, which seems unlikely. edit: I will say that SP has been hyping up Otakon a little. Pretty much right after AX, they switched the AX discussion channel on their discord to Otakon, indicating that would be the next con where they will actually have something interesting to talk about.

Seems too soon for a DC3 release date, the tech work still isn't done for it and then they have to do plenty of testing. Release date announcements wouldn't take up an actual announcement slot anyway.

I wouldn't get your hopes up for any further Favorite game announcements until Hoshimemo is finished.

It's almost convention time again! This month's big convention is Otakon, being held between August 12th to the 14th. Expect this to be another big event for VN news and announcements. MangaGamer and Sekai Project are confirmed to be there, each with a booth and a panel. It appears that JAST is once again a no-show, unfortunately. Still, the others are hoping to make up for their absence. MangaGamer MG's panel will be held at 10:30pm EDT Saturday evening. They currently have five announcements planned, two from new partners. There have been some hints dropped various places so we know a little about what to expect from them. Alicesoft translator Arunaru has teased his other project, a gameplay title that is "what you assume it is or relatively similar." Basically: more Alicesoft. Arunaru's fellow Alicesoft-translating cohort has also been teasing something related to that company. Unless there have been some last minute delays, it is likely that the next English Alicesoft release will be announced on Friday. Grisaia and Gahkthun translator Koestl has also been teasing his next project at MangaGamer. Whatever hints he could drop would be "too obvious." It is probable that another Steampunk game will be announced, but that one seems a bit shakier than my Alicesoft prediction. As for the rest, who knows! While most of us had a good idea that a Chuablesoft announcement would be made at AX, I haven't seen any plausible speculation on their new partners this time around. Sekai Project SP's panel will be held at 12:45 PM EDT Saturday afternoon. As usual, I don't have a good idea as to what SP is actually up to. I think we can once again expect a mix of everything, doujin stuff, indie games, bigger commercial VNs, etc. They said they ran out of time in their AX panel for their 18+ stuff, will they finally have the time for it at Otakon? Or will there be another inexplicably long informational video on one of their OELVNs taking up most of their time? Ohh, the excitement! The personnel shake up at SP might make things a little dodgy, or it might not have any real effect at all. I suppose this will be a test to see whether SP is truly falling apart or not (hint: they're almost certainly not, sorry haters). So, what are you guys expecting?

For some reason you move the slider to the left to speed up the text, not right. Note that they didn't bother adapting the text speed for english text so the second fastest setting still moves very slowly and the fastest is instant.

I'd feel okay living in a number of different countries but I would not want to live in Japan. From everything I've read, foreigners really get the short end of the stick there more than many other countries, and I actually pretty strongly dislike most of their cultural and moral values. I have nothing to gain by moving there.

Hey, you can do whatever you want, it's a free world. But that doesn't mean there aren't things you shouldn't do, or things you'd be a dick for doing. I actually agree, for the most part. But like you said, that's a discussion for another time. We should probably just end this whole derail here and now.

Because there's a difference between a trans character being the butt of a joke, and the trans character's identity itself being the joke.

You don't think that this in itself is a problem? That a transgendered character is turned into a mere gag? And that this is the fate for the vast majority of transgendered characters in anime and VNs? That their sexuality is nothing more than a joke?

Like I said it's really not that bad in ML. But you also have to realize that people will come at this thing from different perspective and your perspective alone isn't the only one that makes sense. As for Steins;Gate, I'd really rather not like to open that can of worms here but the problems run deeper than what you're thinking, it's not just about Okabe's reaction.

I would have to fully replay this to properly remember all the details, but I remember a degree of insensitivity surrounding the handling of Mikoto's femininity. It's also not nearly as bad as the worst of the VN world has to offer, it was pretty tame all-told. I can still imagine someone who's not used to that kind of thing being weirded out by it, because it's handled fundamentally differently in Japanese media from how it's typically handled in western media.

Otome fans are numerous yet have been neglected for ages. Now that some of the localization companies have wizened up and realized that there's a market there, it's like blood has been spilled in a pool full of very, very hungry sharks. You better not get in their way if you know what's good for you. I joke, but for real, this really does show that if you ignore a fanbase for a while, they don't go away but grow even hungrier and more ravenous as time goes on. Spike Chunsoft is making them fight for their dinner scraps and fight they will.

Steins;Gate is also transphobic at points, and I say that with S;G being my favorite VN. The vast majority of all takes on homosexuals or transgender characters in Japanese media is heavily regressive, especially when you look at them through the lens of someone used to american media. Muv Luv might not be too bad about that compared to other VNs or anime, but that doesn't mean that doesn't mean there's no room for criticism there. Japanese media as a whole could use a lot of improvement in that department and someone who isn't used to it could easily find Mikoto to be shocking or even offensive.

Shiren's nowhere close to winning right now after 1800 votes, you have a strange definition of "probably." 428 was is generally very well regarded, don't let its use of live actors fool you into thinking it's some weird, niche thing. I guess it was pretty successful in Japan? Kenka Bancho Otome looks like a pretty unique otome game starring a girl martial arts expert crossdressing in a school full of delinquent boys, with a rhythm-based fighting system thrown in. A lot of otome fans are really pushing for it.

Voted Shiren the Wanderer. Hey, I liked the DS version when I played that a decade ago...

SP has absolutely no LN ambitions right now, actually. Every time they're asked about it they immediately shoot down the idea and seem to think very poorly of the LN market in general.

Yeah, sorry, I just cannot agree with you on any level here. Literal translations should be eradicated. If you prefer them, just learn Japanese to get the most literal translation of them all! I'm not exaggerating.

Try starting a new game from the beginning otherwise some flags might not be set. I'm not sure at what point exactly you have to do this, but it's necessary at some point. The prologue should be a little bit different, indicating you're on the right track.

Then you aren't expecting enough, sorry.

Maybe this is true in a fan translation where truly great talent is very hard to come by, but it is not at all acceptable in a professional translation.