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LiquidShu

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  1. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Pragmatic VN gaming: Some common sense   
    For better or worse, the VN localization industry in America and other Western nations is expanding rapidly, primarily due to the efforts of aggressive localization companies such as Mangagamer and Sekai Project, but also due to the increased interest on the part of at least some Japanese VN companies in making a few extra bucks through localization. 
    I say 'for better or worse' because the increase in localizations has actually begun to outline what some of the biggest problems with VNs are, for those living in the West.  What I've put down below is basic guidance... not all of which I follow myself, but which is mostly common sense (which a surprising number of new Fuwans seem to be ignorant of).
     
    Ethical/Legal problems
    1. Piracy- To be blunt, prosecuting consumers of pirated games is a waste of time, and most companies are quite well aware of this.  So, most of the fallout for this kind of thing is going to keep hitting the websites and individuals who promote the distribution end of things.  A few examples will most likely be made of outspoken pirate consumers (the idiots, in other words), but the problem here is almost entirely ethical for most.  Tell me, do you think it is right not to pay for content if you happen to have the money needed to pay for it?
    2. Lolicon content- Seriously guys?  When I saw that Maitetsu was getting a localization, even though it was an all-ages one, alarm bells went off in my head.  Someone is inevitably going to put up an h-patch for the game, and that is going to cause a huge amount of controversy later on that could be a huge blow to the industry, in the short run.  Loli content is one of the two nuclear bombs of Japanese eroge, and it is the one that honestly bothers me the most personally (not so much morally, as in a pragmatic sense).
    3. Rapegames- I'm going to be blunt... considering the degree to which Western culture has come to consider rape a mortal sin, do you really think games focused around rape and extreme sexual situations (ie the entire Maggot Baits game) are safe for the industry to localize, if you consider their potential to backfire?  There is no conceivable way that these games could be considered anything other than obscene by any reasonable critic (not a community one, in other words), and in the long run, games like these have an enormous potential to castrate the localization industry.
    4. School-based games- Sadly, the excuse that 'all the heroines are over eighteen' is only going to take you so far in some countries... to be blunt, a judge is unlikely to listen to that kind of protestation if, for whatever insane reason, you end up dragged into court.
    Common sense issues
    1. I don't think anyone has any business telling us we can't import Japanese games, including VNs.  However, as a matter of common sense, you should probably avoid importing anything with a lot of content linked to the numbers 2 and 3 in the section above.  I don't mean to piss on your bonfire, but if you are going to buy something with that kind of material, at least have the sense to use digital download purchases and/or don't display the packages for that type of eroge where casual visitors can see them.
    2. Figurines and other side-junk- Within reason, there is no reason why a fan of a particular bit of otaku media shouldn't order figurines, statuettes, oppai mousepads, etc to decorate their room or gaming space.  However, keep it within reason... I've seen otaku friends of mine go insane and overpurchase, even going into debt, over buying swag.  If you aren't rich, have the sense to focus on the main material first, then expand at a reasonable pace into the swag.  To an extent, the same can be said of the games themselves, considering the costs of the actual purchases plus import costs.
    3.  Anonymity is your best friend.  Don't pull stupid crap like linking your Facebook profile to your dlsite or getchu account... for that matter, don't link them to your Fuwanovel account, if you are a fan of 'deep' eroge content.  Leaving that kind of data around for casual skimmers to find is just plain stupid.
    4.  If you are a fantranslator, number 3 applies emphatically unless you are about to go 'legit' by handing your translation to a localization company.
    5.  During scandal times (like when the media is making a big deal over an eroge-related issue such as during the infamous Rapelay incident) have the sense to take cover and avoid conversing on rapegames and lolige publicly. 
    6.  Know the difference between being open about your libido and being excessive *remembers Steve*
     
    A final comment
    Needless to say, almost all the issues above revolve around controversial sexual content.  Part of that is that many people, both inside and outside the VN fanbase, have trouble marking the difference between fiction and reality when it comes to otaku media (an insanity that I can understand but am long past).  As a legal argument, it (as in the argument that figments of an artist's or writer's imagination, as opposed to real women, cannot be considered underaged and cannot be considered victims in any way, form, or fashion) actually has a lot of merit... but that doesn't mean that they'll rule in your favor, in the end, lol.  The West is prudish, to the extreme.  There is no telling when religious interests will slip a noose around our necks, and general moralists are just as bad.  I'm not perfect about taking my own advice.  I'm a VN junkie, and I really don't have any morals when it comes to my search for good VN stories.  I might be disgusted by some content, but that won't prevent me from experiencing the story, lol.  However, a lot of the people around me seem to be utterly unaware of the risks of being an eroge reader... and I felt I had to put this out there, for the 'public' good, even though I'm certain I've already pissed off the anti-censorship and pro-piracy parts of the community, lol. 
  2. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Fred the Barber for a blog entry, What Is Editing? (baby don't hurt me)   
    My blog posts so far have mostly been about how to edit. That holds true for most every other VN editing blog I've ever seen as well. But I'm a really big believer in approaching any significant task from a "Why, What, How" perspective. So now, let's try to answer those first two questions.
    Even "What Is Editing" would be starting in too far (it made for a better title, so sue me). Let's start with this: why do translation projects, or even original fiction projects like novels, have editors?
     
    The goal of editing is to help the author achieve their goals.
    An author brings a whole lot of goals to the table: a story, characters with personalities and motivations, a setting, overarching motifs, style, ... probably a lot of other stuff I forgot. Anyway, you get the idea; there's a lot there which they're just trying to get out on paper (or bits, or whatever) and then into your brain.
    An editor doesn't bring any of that stuff. An editor instead strives to understand all of these things the author wants to communicate, finds the points where they can be better achieved, and refines the text to better achieve the author's goals. Although there's obviously some overlap, there are quite different skill sets involved in the raw writing and the editing, and thus the two roles are often fulfilled by two people.
    How about for a translated VN, rather than for, say, writing a novel? The story is roughly the same, actually. Although the translator has essentially the same goals as the editor in this case, the skill sets required are quite different, and thus differentiating the two roles is not uncommon and frequently beneficial to the project, for the same reasons as it is with original writing and editing.
    I'll also add that an original writer is usually considered "too close" to the original text to make a good editor. Even a writer who is also a great editor will benefit from having someone else edit their manuscript. I haven't heard the same thing said of translators, though, so that might not be relevant to this special case. But the skill set differentiation point still stands in the case of translation.
    Assuming you're satisfied with that explanation for Why, let's move on to What.
    Professional manuscript editing typically distinguishes four kinds of editing: developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, and proofreading. Those are ordered based on both the scope of changes they make, and also the chronological order in which you should do them: developmental editing is very macroscopic and happens first, while proofreading is very microscopic and happens last. Let's drill into each:
     
    Developmental Editing
    Developmental editing is, first, the act of identifying all of those authorial goals I mentioned, and second the act of cutting, rearranging, and adding large chunks (think: add this whole new scene, cut that whole character) in order to advance the author's goals.
    Obviously, that second half isn't applicable to VN translation. You're not going to cut whole scenes or change how characters behave. Those decisions have already long since been made by the original writers, hopefully with the help of an editor of their own ;).
    But the first half is essential, and is quite a bit harder in VN translation, since you generally can't actually talk to the writer. Read it all, understand the authorial goals, and build a strong, consistent interpretation of the plot, the characters, the motifs, the setting, the tone, everything you can think of. If you don't form an interpretation while translating/editing, you're liable to thwart the author's goals as part of your translation, and as a result accidentally obscure or entirely lose key points of the original intent. Of course, you'll occasionally make mistakes in your interpretation, resulting in mistakes in translation. But if you don't even form an interpretation, the result will actually be worse: you'll still make mistakes in the translation, and the resulting translation will certainly be internally inconsistent, but you won't notice those internal inconsistencies because you have no guiding interpretation. If you form a consistent interpretation and let it guide your translation, when the text goes against your interpretation, the resulting inconsistency means you'll notice it, correct your interpretation, and then go back and modify your translation to fit the corrected interpretation.
     
    Line Editing
    Line editing is about assessing and fixing the flow of a scene and the flow of a line. It's about logic, language, word choice, rhythm, the mechanics of a sentence, and the sound of human speech. It is not concerned with grammatical errors, punctuation, and spelling, but more with higher-level ideas like tone, emotion, and atmosphere. A line editor worries whether a sentence ought to be punchy or loquacious, not whether it has all the commas in all the right places.
    "Logic" probably seemed a bit out of place there, so let me give an example for that one in particular, since it's essential. For example, unless you're editing the VN equivalent of a Beckett play (and if you are, please point me to that VN, because I'm interested), one dialog line should generally be a logical response to the previous one. A canny line editor will ensure the logical flow from event to event, line to line, and even scene to scene, ensuring consistency of the narration.
    This is also where all that authorial intent mentioned above comes into play: an editor in this capacity should also be ensuring consistency of a line with those overarching goals. A good line editor will help ensure that characterization is consistent, for instance, or that a motif is not buried inappropriately. An editor, in their avatar as the keeper of consistency, is crucial to achieving those authorial goals.
    The prose side of line editing is also key simply because stilted speech, unnatural utterances, redundant repetition, awkward alliteration, and their ilk all kick you out of the immersion. Your brain wants to keep reading something when it flows well. And nothing hits softer than shitty prose.
    Line editing is the meat of VN editing. It's what most existing VN editing blogs are about, not coincidentally. If you're an editor for a VN, line editing is what you should be thinking about constantly.
    In addition to recommending other VN editing blogs, notably Darbury's blog (mostly about line editing, though all the punctuation ones are more about copy editing) and Moogy's now-ancient blog post (basically all about line editing), I'll also suggest you go read up on line editing in a general setting. A quick search for "what is line editing" will lead you to mountains of useful links. As a random example, this is one such useful link, and it's hilarious, well-written, and edifying: http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/short-course-line-editing. There is a veritable sea of such articles on the internet. Read them.
     
    Copy Editing
    Copy editing is about the nuts and bolts of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. It's not the same as proofreading, but it's getting close. The copy editor typically should select and enforce an appropriate style manual (AP, Chicago, MLA, take your pick). The copy editor is the person who gets mad when you write "I baked 7 blackbirds into that pie." instead of "I baked seven blackbirds into that pie.", and who calmly, patiently replaces all your misused hyphens in the middle of sentences with em-dashes.
    You're unlikely to have a dedicated copy editor on a VN project; if you've got the "editor" role, you're probably it. I think this is along the lines of what most people think of already when they hear "editing" anyway, but really the line editing is the most important to the enjoyment of the text. Still, the picky people among us can get awfully uppity if you start putting in stuff like ellipses with four dots and inconsistent use of the Oxford comma (sidebar for the attentive: I'm for it, as you've already noticed). Copy editing is a particularly thankless job, since it's not like you can do an exceptional job of copy editing and really salvage a bad manuscript, but poor copy editing can certainly hurt an otherwise-good manuscript. So it's worth investing the time in doing it carefully.
    One important recommendation for copy editing: take notes and build up a style document and glossary for your VN as you go. Are honorifics being used? What about name order? If you're going to romanize some words, is your romanization consistent? Do you 1) always write "senpai", 2) always write "sempai", or 3) mix and match? I don't care if it's 1 or 2, but it better not be 3. Write conventions like this in a shared document and make sure everybody knows about the conventions and the document.
     
    Proofreading
    Proofreading is the final stage of this pipeline. The role includes checking for grammatical errors, spelling errors, punctuation errors, typos, and perhaps some more exotic things like incorrect English dialect. It's straightforward and mechanical. Like copy editing, it is essentially thankless. It is, nonetheless, important. While you're making big sweeping edits doing all the stuff above, you're going to create tons of errors at this level. They need to be fixed. Make sure you have someone (preferably not the "editor", because they're too close to the text) do a proofreading sweep. You can lump it into QC if you like, but make sure that whoever is assigned to do this is looking at it carefully. Check. Every. Single. Word. There are errors in there, I guarantee you, and they're embarrassing. Getting the number of errors down to near-zero before you release your translation is going to make both you and your audience happier.
     
     
    In Summary
    There's not one editor; there are four. In an ideal world, with original fiction, you'd actually have someone separate filling each role. For a translation you don't need a developmental editor, leaving you needing three editors. In the non-ideal world you live in, you've probably got at least two of those roles to yourself. Push for someone else to handle proofreading, at least (call it "QC" if you have to), and make sure said person has the necessary ability and attention to detail. If you're the "editor", then you're almost certainly doing both line editing and copy editing. When that happens, make sure you keep a balance amongst all the things you need to do: for instance, spend 10% of your effort trying to understand what the author is trying to achieve, 88% of your effort on line editing (it's the meat, after all), and 2% on copy editing the little details like punctuation, romanization, etc.
     
    And If You Can Only Remember One Thing
    Focus on line editing.
  3. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Romanticization of War in Fiction   
    First, let me say this outright... I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with the romanticization of war in fiction.  I love bloody epic war stories even more than I love sushi and ice cream.  However, one thing I've noticed as I've read various historical fiction and fantasy is that the bloodier and more horrid a war is, the more it gets romanticized. 
    Western Examples
    The Hundred Years War- The Hundred Years War is perhaps the most obvious example of a war being romanticized in the Christian West.  Joan of Arc, the Black Prince... and dozens of other villains and heroes who have made their way from history into fiction and legend from that era.  However, the introduction of massive mercenary armies of this era scarred the continent for centuries to come, and millions died during this era from the war and diseases that spread as a result of the war.  It was also a period of the rise of French and English nationalism and the creation of professional standing armies, both of which are mixed blessings at best. 
    The Revolutionary War (US)- Now, I'm American... so naturally I instinctively take pride in our nation's war for independence... but as an amateur student of history, I am quite well-aware that the Revolutionary War was not a clear-cut conflict of freedom-seekers versus monarchists.  To be honest, just reading the original, pre-US constitution tells me everything I need to know about the motivations behind the delegates at the convention.  The self-interest, prejudice, and greed inscribed between the lines is fairly disgusting, considering the bluster that ended up in the papers at the time. 
    The Trojan War- This is a genocidal war that started because a married princess took a liking to a foreign prince, had sex with him, then ran away with him.  An entire civilization vanished because of this... a fact that I find unbelievably disgusting, looking at it from an objective point of view.
    World War II- I'm frequently fascinated by the degree to which this era is romanticized, despite the fact that there are still living witnesses to it.  It is the deadliest war in recorded history, but memories of the reality are already fading in some parts of the world less than a hundred years later. 
    Eastern Examples
    The Fall of the Han and the Three Kingdoms Era- This era is frequently portrayed as an era of military and civic heroes that eventually led to the rise of a great dynasty... but it was also a period that killed countless millions from famine, bandit raids, military plundering, and battles as massive as any seen in WWII.  In the last census taken before the fall of the Later Han Dynasty, there were over fifty-six million citizens of the empire... and in the first census after the rise of the Jin Dynasty, there were only slightly more than sixteen million.  This is perhaps the most romanticized conflict in history, and yet it is also the second-deadliest recorded war in human history as well (WWII being the deadliest). 
    The Sengoku Jidai- I've mentioned that this period of civil war in Japan is highly romanticized over there... and that is actually an understatement, when it comes down to it.  It was a period where power and influence were in a constant state of flux, with the Ashikaga Shogunate proven incompetent to rule and various warlords seeking to carve out their own pieces of the pie both for Clan and individual gain.  However, very few of the 'heroes' of the age are seen as 'evil'.  Nobunaga, while he was a social progressive, was also known for his ruthlessness and cruelty, as well as disregard for traditions and religion.  Tokugawa, while he was a repressive social conservative, was also a builder of cities and a brilliant administrator.  Hideyoshi, while he was a brutal conqueror, was also an example of a man clawing his way up from the cesspool to the heavens.  Similar contradictions defined most of the great warlords of the era, with the Imagawa being both military expansionists and great cultural patrons, and the Hojo being great architects and engineers as well as highly ambitious nepotists.  This is an era that has so many highly colorful characters whose actions were recorded in detail that it couldn't help but be romanticized... but the reality of it was that it was an era of starvation, desperate poverty, and immense uncertainty. 
    The Bakumatsu/Meiji Restoration- I don't think I need to go into the degree to which this era romanticized the samurai culture and fed Japanese nationalism, because its result was Japan's policies leading up to and during WWII.  This was essentially a large and brutal civil war between two factions (further split into many smaller factions) within Japan that disagreed violently over how to deal with foreign influence in the face of Ming China's rape-by-colonization on the mainland.  Assassinations, political terrorism, and brutal oppression defined this period.  In the end, what you got was a country who presented a strong face to the world but was still unable to come to terms with what it wanted to do at home. 
    As a conclusion
    Human beings have a fascination with war that leads to its romanticization, and I honestly am no exception to that rule.  I enjoy war period historical fiction immensely, and I have absolutely no objection to fantastical speculation on the capabilities and personality of individuals living in those eras.  However, the immense cost - both economic and human - of war is almost always forgotten afterwards... and I intensely dislike it when someone chooses to forget just what those costs are.  Fiction is harmless, but ignoring the lessons of history isn't.
  4. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, How Adorable Heroines are now just Generic   
    How many of you started reading VNs, manga, or watching anime solely because the girls were so adorable?  I wasn't one of those (I began with Record of Lodoss War, lol), but Ai Yori Aoshi and Love Hina introduced me to the concept of the 'moe-heroine'.  Whether it was their way of speaking, their looks, or their attitude, moe heroines became an integral part of the otaku experience at some point (well, the male-oriented one anyway), and I actually don't have any problems with that.  I have lots of fond memories of moe-heroines (since almost all VN heroines and anime heroines nowadays are done like this, to one degree or another).
    However, as I've dug deeper and deeper into the VN universe (I realized this with anime long ago) I came to realize... all the heroines were beginning to melt together into one big moe blob inside my back-brain.  This is because very few heroines stand out enough to remain distinct in my mind from all the other, similar heroines inside my brain. 
    Understand, I never really experienced the 'blob of moe heroines' phenomenon until the last five years or so... first with anime, then (two years ago) with VNs.  As a result, it is harder and harder to find 'standard' heroines interesting in and of themselves... their situation and setting have to be interesting enough to keep me from abandoning them emotionally. 
    Do you want to know how many heroines remain distinct in my brain from the last three years of playing VNs?  Just thirty-three... and that is from well over seven hundred heroines whose routes I've completed in that time.  Frankly, even if I find an archetypical heroine interesting for a single playthrough, it is a rare heroine who makes an impression strong enough to retain her individuality in the collective VN memory of my under-psyche. 
    I once mentioned this to a newbie VN-player (naturally a moe-gamer) and he essentially blasted me about how I was a blasphemer against the pure love of 2D... 
    My response was, quite naturally, explosive laughter which I didn't bother to put into text. 
    How many people do you actually remember in real life as a distinct human being without meeting them every day (or at least with some frequency)?  Even if you see 2D as a real world, do you seriously think someone who has gone so far down the road of the VN otaku as I and some others in the community have to remember every single heroine they've encountered? 
    I'm fortunate.  I have a natural gift for storing episode memory, so if I start replaying a VN, I generally remember the heroines and their paths almost immediately.  However, expecting me to remember yet another tsundere osananajimi amongst hundreds of others off the top of my head after a year is fundamentally ridiculous, in my opinion (real example... also one of the two most common archetypes, along with the deredere osananajimi). 
    This doesn't necessarily mean the VN in question is bad... it just means the heroine is one I've seen dozens of times before, placed in different situations with a different appearance.  Some of the heroines I forget until I'm reminded about are from truly wonderful VNs... but that has absolutely no effect on whether I can remember them without some serious effort, lol.
    For my fellow vets... are you any different?
  5. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Signs of a saturated market: Charage/moege   
    Now... I know you've heard me bash charage/moege before.  That isn't the purpose here, though.  I've played plenty of VNs of the type over the years, and a decent number of them have actually managed to make it pretty high on my list of recommendations, despite the genres' flaws.  I've also mentioned before that VN quality has fallen drastically in the past two years... and I still think that, despite a few seriously stand-out works this year in general and this month in particular.
    The reason why I'm focusing on charage/moege right now is because I just played one great one, one average-quality one, and now I'm playing a mediocre (but pretty-looking) one.  Having seen, just in the last few weeks, the variance in the genre in detail... I've had it thrust in my face that my conclusions, which were previously just instinctive (thus I thought it was at least in part because I was tired of the genre/s in general) and thus had the possibility of not being entirely justified, were not entirely off the mark. 
    To be specific, I'm somewhat bemused at the degree to which people have been pushing/hyping the one I'm playing right now, considering how pathetic this writer is at using the tools available to him. 
    It isn't the first time where I've encountered a mediocre VN with great visuals that gets pushed by the Western community (mostly by people who haven't played it but voted on it anyway... or ones who just extracted the CGs or used a save file to read the h-scenes) like crazy.  However, it is the most egregious example of this particular social pattern I've seen recently. 
    Now, leaving aside my outrage at completely unjustified hype and recommendations...  I have to ask, why is this VN, which probably never would have made it to production three years ago, is still somewhat better than the baseline of what I've experienced in the last two years?
    Thinking about it, the answer came to me startlingly quickly... it is because it satisfies people's nether-regions and their desire for idealized slice-of-life with a few quirks without actually having a personality.  The very reason I hate it is the reason it has caught the interest of some in our community, and I find myself smiling wryly as I realize that most of the people who play it are only interested in fapping to archetypical moe-heroines. 
    Understand, I actually don't have any objections to non-extreme fap material or moe fap material.  I don't have problems with others' sexuality in general (as long as they don't inflict it on me or create victims along the way).  However, I do have to wonder why these same people don't hit up one of the dozens of moe-nukige that get released every year instead, lol. 
    Obliterating all twists and scent of personality from a VN story is reemerging as a habit in VN makers, after a very very brief hiatus, and it is coming back even worse than before.  On the bright side, it makes the gems stand out more... but it also means that I have to listen to people fawning over mindless drivel that isn't even good by genre standards.
    I actually should have seen the signs long ago... considering Sougeki no Jaeger (Propeller's last VN) and the sudden reappearance of the previously endangered beast known as the 'pure moege' in the last two years (though only a few of them, thank god).  The problem now, as it was thirteen years ago, is that the market is saturated with VNs in general and charage/moege in particular.  Because of this - the Japanese being the most conservative businessmen on the planet - the various VN companies have started to 'go back to basics', trying again the sort of tactics that succeeded before.  The fact that the average otaku ero-gamer in Japan is perfectly willing to shell out $120 for a crappy game that happens to have a cute (and preferably half-nude) dakimakura attached actually makes this trend worse, as it is creating an artificial (and very temporary) inflation of a stagnant market (and not for the first, second, or even third time).  It is almost like the real estate market here in 2007... everybody knew the bottom was going to fall out eventually, but people kept putting their bets on making a few more bucks before it did.
    Worse, even if the market does collapse, it is unlikely to result in better VNs, lol.
  6. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Darbury for a blog entry, Killing the ellipsis (“...”) in VN translations   
    Let’s not mince words here. The ellipsis is a blight upon English translations of visual novels. It must be uprooted and killed with fire.
    Before the slaughter begins, however, let’s review some basics. As the name suggests, the ellipsis represents an elision — that is to say, omitted content. It functions as the “yadda yadda” of the English language. It is the “Step 2: ???” before the all-important “Step 3: Profit!” A writer deploys those three little dots to indicate either the intentional removal of something that once was there, or the pointed absence of something that should have been there.
    That’s it. That’s what the ellipsis is supposed to do. You wouldn’t know this, however, by reading nearly any English translation of a Japanese visual novel. Ellipses are scattered across the text like so many rhinestones on the sweatshirt of a Midwestern mom. They’re at the beginning of sentences, the ends, stuck randomly in the middle — sometimes even chained end to end like a writhing Human Centipede of punctuation, each little dot in the chain crying, “Kill me now!” into the anus of the next.
    It’s an absolute abattoir in there.
    This particular road to hell is paved with good intentions, however. You see, all those ellipses are also present in the original Japanese and, in an attempt at faithful translation, the TL teams have left them all sitting there for you to enjoy. The original writer had a reason for putting them in, the reasoning goes, and it’s our job to offer the purest translation of his/her vision possible.
    This, of course, is bollocks. Punctuation operates differently in different languages. Japanese ellipses are used much more liberally than their Western forbearers, particularly in popular culture (e.g., manga. light novels, etc.) Want to indicate a pause? Ellipsis. Silence? Ellipsis. Passage of time? Ellipsis. Need to fill some empty space? Ellipsis. Is it Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday? Ellipsis, ellipsis, ellipsis. When ported over to English, most of these usages look less like carefully crafted sentences and more like a transcript of a particularly drunken Snapchat session.
    Put simply, what works in one language doesn’t always work in another. When I’m translating a Line of Text from German, for Example, I don’t capitalize all the Nouns because that’s how it was in the Original. I normalize it for English. The same needs to be done in any VN translation.
    My current rule of thumb while editing — I’ll bold it for you in red here — is as follows: Remove/replace all ellipses in a line of Japanese text unless doing so irreparably breaks the sentence or significantly changes its meaning.
    Luckily for us, English has a toolbox full of punctuation to get the job done. Commas, semicolons, periods, dashes — they’re all your friends. So let’s discuss some common situations in VNs and how we might handle them.

    The trailing ellipsis
    You’ll see lots of these littering the ends of sentences and lines, mostly to little effect. More often than not, they indicate a thought closing on anything other than a 100% full and decisive stop. Since they don’t hold the place of omitted text, we can almost always replace these ellipses with periods.
    There are a handful of situations, however, where keeping a trailing ellipsis makes sense. These include:
    The Pregnant Pause: 
    When something’s strongly implied at the end of a sentence/line, but left unsaid for dramatic effect.
    The ellipsis fills the place of the implied content, so it gets to stay. (Fun bonus fact: pauses are the only things that can get pregnant in VNs.)
    The “And So On”:
    When a statement is implied to continue for an unspecified length beyond the end of the sentence/line.
    The ellipsis here indicates there may have been a few more beers after Michelob, but the writer has decided to spare us and jump straight to Bob’s objection. Had this been more interruptive in nature, with Bob cutting Joe off immediately after “Michelob,” the ellipses would have replaced with an em-dash (—).
    The Trail-Off: 
    Similar to the “And So On,” but with the character choosing to let a statement taper off into nothingness, rather than the author.
    The opening ellipsis
    You’ll see these slightly less often, but they’re by no means infrequent. Typically, they indicate some slight hesitation at the beginning of a line of dialogue. But again, the nuance ends up being so slight and the impact so watered down through overuse that you’re almost always better off removing these ungainly beasts. An exception can be made for:
    The Reverse Pregnant Pause: 
    Just like the original Pregnant Pause, but it appears at the beginning of a sentence. Often holds the place of something a character doesn’t want to say.
    Rather than just pausing in passing, Joe is actively not admitting he thinks Joe is a jackass. That makes this line a strong candidate for an ellipsis.
    The mid-sentence ellipsis
    So, so many of these. You’ll close your eyes at night and they’ll haunt you. They’re almost always meant to indicate a slight pause in speech or thought, but trying to the read the resulting text is an exercise in frustration. There are... just so... many unnecessary... gaps. (Full disclosure: When writing scripts for TV, I’ll use ellipses like this a lot. But that’s for a very specific purpose: helping to communicate the particular rhythm of a line to the actor(s). I always avoid this in audience-facing text.)
    In almost all cases, unless there’s a marked pivot in thought, a comma will suffice.
    If the ellipsis is holding together two complete yet interwoven thoughts, a semicolon will do nicely.
    If the ellipsis is holding together two complete and independent thoughts, a period should be used.
    If ellipses are used to indicate an interruptive thought, one that breaks the main flow of the sentence, em-dashes can be used.
    Again, there are a couple situations where these mid-sentence ellipses can remain:
    The Ta-Da:
    When a pause is used for obvious dramatic effect, the ellipsis should be kept.
    The Shatner:
    When halting or stilted speech is intended for dramatic/comedic effect, ellipses may be retained.

    The empty line ellipsis
    You’ll see a lot of these. Holdovers from manga and light novels, they are explicit indicators of silence, being at a loss for words, holding one’s tongue, etc.
    In English prose, these silences would normally be held with narration — e.g., “Baconator just sat there, dripping ketchup.” You’d never see a sentence such as: ‘Harry Potter said, “...” and continued looking out the window.’ That’s because, unlike most VNs, traditional novels don’t have the crutch of character sprites and name cards appearing alongside dialogue. Due to such VN conventions, along with the technical limitations of translation — it’s frequently impossible to replace character dialogue with unvoiced narration — you should almost always leave these ellipses in place. Based on your best judgement, you can also choose to leave such variants as the questioning silence ("...?") and the excited/alarmed silence ("...!").
    It should be noted that such empty line ellipses can also be used outside of dialogue. Often, these will just indicate time passing. There’s also a long tradition in Japanese art of the “pillow” — a held moment of contemplative emptiness. It’s the bit of formal textual throat-clearing at the start of a poem. It’s the 10-second cutaway to a babbling brook that connects two scenes in a movie. In a VN, this pillow can evidence itself as a single line of narration, empty save for an ellipsis. There’s no good English alternative for this, so it should be kept wherever you encounter it.
    Extra credit: The multi-line ellipsis
    I saved this one for last, because it’s a bit of a special case. Against all my better instincts, it involves adding ellipses in places where the original text has none. It’s painful but it’s for a good cause.
    Sometimes, when editing or translating a VN, you’ll run across sentences that spill over onto two or more lines.
    Unlike in poetry, which uses line breaks to very deliberate effect, these multi-line monsters are almost always the result of the VN writer just running out of highway and choosing to keep on driving. Whenever possible, you should attempt to restructure such sentences so they don’t break across lines. Often, splitting an overly long sentence into two smaller ones will do the trick. If it resists your best efforts, however, maintain the break and indicate it with ellipses — one at the end of the first line, the other at the beginning of the second.
    How many dots? ALL THE DOTS!
    Another peculiarity of ellipses in Japanese VNs is that they don’t always have three dots. Depending on context and the arbitrary whims of the writer, you’ll typically see anywhere from two to six dots at a time. I’ve even seen 27 in a row once. I think it was a sex scene. Or a fight scene. Maybe both.
    Don’t let this worry you. If you’ve been following my advice, you’ve already purged most of the ellipses from the text. Of those that remain, almost all can be reduced down to familiar three-dot English ellipses. But as always, there’s at least one exception.
    Content-bearing pauses: In most cases, it’s of little concern to us whether an ellipsis consists of three, four, five, or even six dots. They’re all slight variations on the standard pause, but since English punctuation doesn’t make any such distinction, neither will we. An exception comes when the length of a pause not only adds flavor, but provides content. Consider the case of an ever-lengthening silence:
    The lengthening of the line suggests the passing of increasing amounts of time; the scene isn’t the same without it. Or consider an explosive outburst after a deafening silence:
    If you opt to stretch out an ellipsis like this, only do so in increments of three. If you’re musically inclined, think of three dots as a quarter note, six dots as a half note, etc., each one holding the silence just a bit longer than the last. Following the rule of threes keeps the text visually streamlined and helps if you ever need to convert a bunch of soft ellipses ( “...”) to hard ellipses (“…”) late in the translation process.
    A quick note about spacing
    I opt to keep things simple. If an ellipsis is at the start of a sentence or line, put one space between it and the first word. If it’s anywhere else, use no space before the ellipsis and one space after. If it’s a string of ellipses, it should be an uninterrupted series of dots with no spaces in between.
    There are also differing schools of thought as to whether an ellipsis at the end of a sentence should also be followed by a period, resulting in four dots total. Again, I opt for simplicity here and advise three dots in all cases.
    The mark of the beast
    It’s easy to tell professional translations from fan projects, it’s said; just count the number of dots. While not always true – plenty of slapdash commercial releases exist in the wild — there’s definitely something to this. More often than not, fewer ellipses are a sign that someone has taken the time to not just translate a text word for word, but thoughtfully localize it.
    Seriously, just dump the dots, folks. Your readers will thank you for it.
  7. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, The Feminized Historical Fantasy   
    I'm sure you are wondering what the hell I'm talking about with the title of this post, but the concept is pretty simple...  You take a period of history or a series of famous/infamous events, turn all or most of the male personages into females, and then plop your main character into their midst, evolving a story from there. 
    A few examples of this...
    The Koihime Musou, Sengoku Koihime series by Baseson
    Chuushingura
    Sengoku and Sangoku Hime series by Gesen
    Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier
    Koihime Musou is the one most of you will probably be familiar with, and it is the basic model for most of the type.  It is based in the era of the fall of the later Han dynasty in China, portrayed in the ancient story Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  This is one of the two eras most favored by those making games, VNs, anime, and manga in this particular little niche, and it is also one of the easiest ones to use, as the story has made at least some headway in most of the countries of the world (it was translated into English first over a century ago) to one degree or another.  In a way, Koihime Musou (the original) is a classic example of the genre, as the events portrayed generally only vaguely resemble the ones that existed in the original story, even when you set aside the issues of all the characters being female except the protagonist.  Shin Koihime Musou, which follows each of the three factions in separate story arcs (rather than a single arc with Liu Bei's side unifying China like in the original) is generally better written and actually uses historical events in most of the paths, up to a point (where it inevitably diverges radically). 
    The Sangoku Hime series is a strategy-VN series based in the same era as Koihime Musou, with the big difference that the protagonist is both fairly irrelevant to the story and the events are fairly close to the original material, up to a point (in fact, this is the biggest draw of the series, other than the surprisingly well-done story sequences in some of the cases).  This series suffers from definite 'strategy fatigue', though... as fighting your way across China tends to rapidly become monotonous, with actual plot tending to only come up at the beginning and end of each prefecture's invasion, meaning you can go five or six hours without seeing anything in the way of story except sex scenes (of which there are generally a ridiculous number...). 
    Chuushingura follows the story of the 47 Ronin, a famous story of Edo-era samurai that was the inspiration for most foreigners' impressions of the samurai caste.  In this case, while the events in each 'arc' generally follow the basic outline of the original story, there are divergences in perspective based on where the protagonist chooses to go, and the final story diverges immensely from the original.  This VN doesn't have any gameplay, and it was originally a doujin VN series that went commercial a few years ago in the form of a rewritten, partially redesigned omnibus VN. 
    The Sengoku Hime series by Gesen is based in the Sengoku Jidai (Japan's Warring States period).  In this one, you generally take on the role of a strategist (whose actual level of influence varies from path to path) who serves with one of the major clans of Japan as they set out to conquer the country.  Generally speaking, the balance of story to gameplay in this series is better than in the Sangoku series by the same company, but the pacing is still fairly shitty due to the intervention of the gameplay.  Depending on which faction you choose (generally if you choose the Tokugawa or Toyotomi) you can get a fairly accurate replay of past events, with a lot of differing details.  However, if you pick certain factions (the Oda, the Date, the Ashikaga or the Shimazu) you tend to get stories that radically diverge from history even if you ignore the issues with female clan lords and the like.  This is inevitable, considering the sheer chaos of that era (the concept of the 'honorable' samurai as foreigners like to see it portrayed is a product of the Edo era that followed after Tokugawa's unification of Japan), with the betrayals, massacres, religious rebellions, and the like...
    Koihime Sengoku (the new version of which I am playing right now) is also based in the same era, but, similar to the original Koihime Musou, diverges radically from history relatively early on.  In particular, it should be noted that while certain famous events and relationships were deliberately reproduced for the pleasure of historical romantics (the Takedo-Uesugi rivalry, Oda Nobunaga's relationship with Mino's deceased leader, the Viper, etc), a lot more of it is different.  This VN is significantly different from Koihime Musou in that it has a far darker, more violent atmosphere (lots of killing, and some of the heroines are... not good people, lol), and the protagonist is far more active as part of the story (in fact, he is the nephew of the protagonist from Shin Koihime Musou). 
    Kikan Bakumatsu is based in the highly-romanticized period of the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate after Perry's 'black ships' opened Japan.  It covers a lot of the political and ideological conflicts wracking Japan at the time fairly accurately, while focusing on the infamous Shinsengumi (who are often thought of as the last samurai).  This period is also covered in the otomege series, Hakuoki, though the only common element between them beside that is the existence of a fantasy element.  Depending on the path you choose in this one, you can radically alter history and the life and death of certain characters, but if you choose one of the Shinsengumi heroines, the basic path in life of the protagonist, Okita Soujirou, goes pretty much as history portrays (it is pretty sad). 
    Generally speaking, due to the depth that can be added to the setting for these stories, they tend to be good more often than most... and that is generally why I tend to look forward to them, lol.  However, if you aren't a history buff, some of it will just go over your head, and the language in a VN based in these eras will frequently be incomprehensible for the inexperienced.  To be blunt, anyone who reads one of these should have a degree of pre-existing knowledge if they want to really enjoy them... otherwise, it isn't nearly as fun to see how the writers choose to twist things out of shape, hahaha.
  8. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Zalor for a blog entry, Deemo: A Genuine *Visual* Novel   
    To provide some context, Deemo is a Taiwanese rhythm game developed for the iOS and Android by Rayark Games. For the most part, I think this game has escaped the notice from most western otaku. Which honestly would make sense, since it isn't marketed towards Otaku like other rhythm games (notably Love Live and Osu). In fact, the game play is arguably not even the primary purpose of the game. Rather, the songs serve the broader purpose of telling a story together with the visuals.
    The word "visual novel", by its name suggests a story that emphasizes the visual aspect to express the story. Taking this loose understanding of the term (and not the conventional definition), Deemo certainly qualifies as an interesting example. In fact, Deemo mostly relies on its visuals and audio to convey its story, hardly using much text at all. This aids the experience excellently as the story is quite simple, and most of the experience is emotional. And nothing conveys emotions as well as music.
    The game begins in a cut scene showing falling sheet music, and a mysterious figure that resembles a walking shadow (Deemo). The next thing we see is Deemo peacefully playing a piano, when he is suddenly interrupted when a girl falls from the sky into his house. Catching her, they then ponder on the best way to return her where she came from (in the sky). It is then that they discover a little sapling growing on the ground, and they realize that when it grows into a large tree, she could climb it up. Thankfully, the tree grows through the power of music, and that is where the game play becomes relevant.
    The tree grows by playing music, but in order to keep it growing you need to keep discovering new music. This is where the other key game mechanic becomes important. For the most part, you unlock new songs when the tree reaches certain heights. But usually you can only get the music by finding it. So you have to search through Deemo's house to find new songs. In doing so, you discover all sort of other clues that provide hints about Deemo's true identity. As you search through Deemo's house, you are not only discovering new music to progress the game, but also learning about the weird world you are in. Deemo's house, is essentially the whole world in this universe. By exploring, you will inevitably ask yourself 3 questions. Who is Deemo, who is the masked lady, and what is this world? 

    Visual Novels typically use choice structures as a means to direct the story. Similarly, but also quite differently, you guide the story and its progression in Deemo through exploration of the limited areas. There is not much to explore, just like how VNs usually only provide a few branching choices, which provides the same sense of confinement that VNs give. You are given some room to explore and deviate, but you are mostly restricted to a few places. 
    The art cover for each song also adds a level of storytelling as each picture captures an image of Deemo's and the girl's relationship developing. The song itself provides the mood to interpret the picture. In other words, the song is essentially the words. Or another way of thinking about it is that each song could be broken down into musical notes and transcribed on paper as sheet music. Well that sheet music, is the script to this story. The game focuses all the comprehensive aspects of the story to imagery and exploration (with minimal use of text), allowing for character development and all things emotional to be expressed by the music as opposed to text. And while narrative can always communicate plot points more efficiently than music, music trumps narrative in terms of emotional expression. And ultimately Deemo's story is more focused on mood, than it is on plot.   
    The game wants the player to use their imagination to string the plot together by using images and the music as the core tools to do so. In much the same way that novelists want the reader to use their imagination when visualizing descriptions. In this way, I think this music game, captures the true heart of music; emotional expression.
    The title of this article suggests that I think that Deemo is in some way a visual novel, and using the term loosely, that is true. As I briefly mentioned before, the term “visual novel” implies a story that is primarily expressed through visuals (this is of course ignoring the historical context to how the term was coined in the first place). And I have seldom seen any story that has relied on the visual aspect as much as Deemo. The game almost solely relies on images to express what is going on, and music to infuse emotional meaning to those images. And it is truly impressive how effective a story can be told in this limited way. To the extent where by the end of this journey, I was in tears. And when I return back to replay certain songs, or to view certain cut scenes, the feelings I initially felt are still there.
  9. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, VN of the Year 2015: A statement in Compromises   
    First, let me state that 2015 is the flat-out worst year for VNs I've seen out of the last six.  There was a lot of upward and downward flow hovering around the line known as 'mediocre' or 'average', but there were - saying it straight out - no kamige and few titles that really stood out from the crowd.  It is definitely the worst year since I started VN of the Month, just two years and five months (or so) ago. 
    Unlike in 2013 or 2014, there are not a lot of titles I really even seriously considered to be in the running for this spot, even in a vague sort of way.  While there were a few titles that jumped out at me toward the end of the year, I wouldn't have even seriously considered them in either of the two previous years.  Heck, my top three titles this year wouldn't have even made it into the top twelve last year or the year before.  That is how bad it was.
    In 2013, the winner was Hapymaher by Purple Soft, its unbelievably high-quality soundtrack, art, presentation, and storytelling barely edging past Komorebi no Nostalgica for the win.  While both games could pull both my emotions and intellect into play, Hapymaher's musical presentation gave it an overwhelming edge on that front, making it the winner.
    2014 was also a hard choice... but in the end, it came down to Nanairo Reincarnation, the only VN that year that I honestly had no reservations about.  Semiramis no Tenbin, Hello Lady, and a few others were runners-up that year (in fact, 2014 was an amazingly good year), but in terms of complete overall quality and appeal, they couldn't match Nanairo.
    Unfortunately, 2015 just doesn't have any candidates that match those.  Silverio Vendetta was immensely fun for me, but it has flaws in its structure that disqualify it, in addition to having way too niche  an appeal.  While I did praise it, Kyuuketsu Hime no Libra (which - as most of us know - has been Kickstarted for translation) just doesn't make it to the level I demand from VN of the Year Candidates.  Sakura no Uta, for all that it does have its moments, has a deeply flawed overall flow and a lot of technical issues with the story presentation.  Soreyori no Prologue was an interesting experience, despite being typically Minori (meaning sincerely annoying at several major points), but it wasn't a game I could seriously consider for VN of the Year.  Natsuiro Recipe is probably the best 'iyashikei' product made in the last three years, but it isn't something I could honestly consider for raw quality.  Koko Kara Natsu no Innocence had the typically high levels of overall quality I associate with Clochette (despite the boob fetish), but again, it wasn't quite there.  Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori was an immensely fun ride, but - like Silverio Vendetta - was both deeply flawed and too niche in appeal to seriously be considered.
    So what was I left to consider, really?
    Basically it came down to Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier, a surprise entry in the last part of the year that tries to replicate, at least in part, the magic of Chuushingura (the VN, not the movie or the various books), except with a lot more bloodshed and in a steampunk version of the political and military conflict surrounding what led up to the Meiji Restoration.  Now, at first I was tempted to think that I was jumping to conclusions, because it was so fresh in my mind... so I let almost two months pass before I made my decision, while I went about the task of reviving my memories of various VNs I played during the year.
    It really was odd what came back to me during that time... Sakura Nikagetsu was one of the more memorable ones (definitely not VN of the Year material, but it was immensely amusing), as was Rakuen no Shugosha (a cheap kinetic utsuge in a total anti/non-anime style), and Sorcery Jokers (the most technically sound of the straight-out chuunige that came out during the year).  I honestly had to reject the former two outright, simply because their visuals make them a no-go for ninety percent of the people I know, no matter how much fun or how high quality a psychological experience they might be.  Sorcery Jokers was actually a lot harder to dismiss, when it came down to it.  In terms of scale, I was really tempted to say it could compete with Kikan Bakumatsu... but if asked which left a better impression, I would have instantly said Kikan Bakumatsu.
    To be honest, either title would have been a compromise.  Neither is as good as any of the best VNs from the last four or five years.  They are definitely good, as in being worthy of being listed as VNs to remember.  However, I definitely wouldn't have put them up as candidates in another year.
    For the idiots who kept asking me if I'd say yes to Bansenjin *spits on the floor*  even Masada pisses on his own feet sometimes (too much of an attempt to recreate the success of the Shinza series).
     
  10. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Random VN: Majikoi S and A-1 through A-4   
    To be honest, it is really hard to comment on this series of sequels/fandiscs... 
    S
    For better or worse, S really is a sequel, starting from just before the events in the true route of the original.  It adds a massive number of characters (seriously, the number added is ridiculous), extended after-stories for the original game, a what-if scenario for Yuki, and five new heroine paths...  unfortunately, those heroine paths are hit and miss. 
    I'm going to say it outright... Tsubame's path was boring.  Oh, there were some good fights, but I honestly never got to like her as a character, so there was no sense of tension in any of what happened for me.  I really could have done without this path existing at all.
    Monshiro's path, on the other hand... is first-class (as long as you are a lolicon or don't watch the h-scenes - which I didn't).  Combined with the complete after-story in A, it is one of my favorite paths.  Part of that is because Yamato grows more in this path and its related Majikoi A paths than he does on any of the others, and the other part is because it is just all-around the best constructed of the heroine paths.
    Tatsuko's 'path' is basically just an after-story for the true path of the original where you choose the Itagaki sisters.  There isn't much there but h-scenes and ichaicha, so it is hard to comment on it.
    Kokoro's path is... less than memorable.  Honestly, it felt like they didn't put much effort into it at all. 
    Margrit's path is pretty good, if you like the side of himself that Yamato showed in Chris's path.  If you hated it, you'll hate this path.
    A
    First, I'll say that all but one of my favorite paths from 1-4 are Kuki-related (split-offs from Monshiro's path).  Asumi, Stacey, and Ri all get paths in this one, and I liked all of them, though Asumi's was the best of the three.  I also liked the Monshiro after story, Rin's story, and Homura's story.  Each one is about equivalent in length and content to a full heroine route in the original Majikoi, so there is no reason to complain about the amount or depth of content.  Seiso's and Benkei's paths were good, but not as interesting as the paths above.  Other than that... there isn't much to say.  I didn't really like Yukie's sister's path (mostly because I hate the 'pretend lovers' trope like the plague). 
    One thing I noticed is that, throughout Majikoi A, they were setting up for a potential fourth Majikoi game... and I honestly don't know how I feel about them wanting to continue to milk this series and cast of characters.
  11. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Ryechu for a blog entry, Welcome to FuwaReviews!   
    Hello everybody!  Ryechu here~
    I decided to go ahead and do a monthly recap of all the FuwaReviews released by our in-house team.  October's Recap will be up in the next day or so.
     I am interested in feedback in regard to how everybody would like to see this formatted.  Should I use images with the Pros/Cons and the score and make the image clickable (which is mostly just a bunch of image copy/pasting on Paint.net for me), or would you prefer just an image of the game cover/title screen (In other words, the "Featured Image") with a link to the review without the spoilers?  Let me know below!
    Anyway, I wanted to take a little time to talk about what we do, and who our members are (at time of writing).
    What is the Goal of FuwaReviews?
    Our goal is the same as the motto you see on the forums:  "Making Visual Novels Popular in the West." We do this by presenting honest, thoughtful reviews on all sorts of visual novels, from the latest and greatest OELVNs, to the latest fan-translation releases, to the major releases from Mangagamer/Sekai Project/JAST.  We want to be that one-stop shop for all things Visual Novels, and reviews are our way of doing that.  Translated, untranslated, we don't care.  If it fits the requirement of a Visual Novel, it's something that is on our list to review.

    We using a scoring system when it comes to our reviews, and our scale is on a 1-10.  Some of our reviewers break that number down a bit further and translate their score from a 1-100 scale, so you may see a number like 7.8 or the like, but that's all the more specific we intend to get.  This is how the reviewer rated the game.  This number is based on their opinion, and their scores may very well differ from yours.  Are your tastes different from the reviewer's?  Quite possibly.  Are you going to read the review anyway if you're genuinely interested in the game and regardless of whether or not you've played it?  Quite possibly.  Will fans of certain franchises/fetishes/characters get incredibly angry and locate their nearest pitchforks if we don't give their favorite game a 10/10?  Quite possibly.  Here's my answer to that:  We are not going to please everybody.  Honest reviews will never please everybody - that is the unfortunate truth about this business.  For me, my review has the same score that I put on my VNDB profile, and if it doesn't follow the bandwagon average, then there will always be justification in my reviews.  Well, there's always going to be a justification for my score in my review, but you get the point.
    Some of our reviews will tell you "If you like x or y, then you'll probably like this," but it's not required.  If I play a game filled to the brim with gore or the like, it'll be the first one I play.  I won't (and don't, to be perfectly honest) know other titles in the genre, and I can't provide suggestions, so I'm not going to.  Many reviewing sites don't do that, because there's a chance that mentioning other titles may detract from the publicity of the game we are reviewing, though that is an arguable statement from either side of the coin.  The information in the review should be more than enough to help you make a decision on whether or not you may be interested in the title being reviewed.
    We have two styles of reviews:  Featured (which are full-length, 800+ words, multiple pictures, "complete" reviews), and Minute reviews (300-500 words, one-two images, "Overview" reviews).  Most nukige and short OELVN reviews will end up being Minute reviews, while basically everything else is Featured.  Virtually all of my nukige reviews are Minute reviews.
    We know we're gong to get the same flak as every other reviewing site, and that's fine.  We appreciate any and all feedback about the site, even if we don't immediately acknowledge it.  That much I can assure you.
     
    Who Are We?

    Ryechu - I'm the PR guy for FuwaReviews.  I do most of the talking with companies to get review keys for the team, I run the nukige corner, and I handle Community submissions.  I'm also the author of this blog! Flutterz - He's our editor.  He's also a god.  You will bow down to him. Full-Time Reviewers
    solidbatman - This guy was the one that started it all.  He's also my bae.  He handles a lot of newer, popular releases, and is often abused for his honesty. Palas - The OELVN god.  He normally snags all of the OELVN keys, and puts out excellent reviews for them. Tyrael - The fresh meat.  We just picked Tyrael up as a full-time reviewer.  Can't wait to see what he has in store! Part-Time Reviewers
    Down - He had a soul once, then Batman ate it.  Down still hasn't recovered since that day. Exenorate - He's hiding most of the time, but he's still shiny. Community-Submitters (that I would pick up in a heartbeat)
    OriginalRen - He needs to write more reviews.  Straight up.  C'mon Ren, you know you wanna~ Zakamutt - #blamezaka There are also other reviewers that I've spoken with, and they'll be mentioned once I get some reviews published by them!
     
    I hope you enjoyed this little post, and I look forward to hearing some feedback about how you'd like to see our Monthly Wrapup posts!
     
  12. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to sanahtlig for a blog entry, Ask sanahtlig: Answers to Common Issues and Concerns in the VN community   
    I see many frequently encountered issues in the visual novel community.  I've taken some time to address them, with a focus on pragmatic solutions rather than long-winded explanations.
    Issue: I really like <insert type of VN>, but I can't find others like it, or I've already played through all the suggested titles.
    Answer: There's over 17k VNs in VNDB's database.  2356 are available in English.  The sorts of VNs you're looking for are almost certainly there.  Time to learn Japanese.
    Issue: JAST USA is really slow, and it licenses nearly finished fan translations and sits on them for years before releasing them.
    Answer: Time to learn Japanese.  You'll probably finish before JAST does.
    Issue: Companies keep licensing eroge and releasing them censored on Steam.
    Answer: They're doing this because few people buy eroge, whereas Steam users are more than happy to overpay for softcore porn.  Time to learn Japanese.
    Issue: JAST/Nukaku is censoring my lolis / guro / scat / all the content I'm interested in.  It's really ticking me off.
    Answer: Distribution of offensive pornographic content is restricted in much of the English-speaking world.  Time to learn Japanese.  Also, best not to import the stuff, or you could end up like this guy.
    Issue: Original English VNs are terrible.  Help!
    Answer: Yes, the English VN market has thus far failed to attract professional game developers, especially when it comes to sexual content.  Time to learn Japanese.
    Issue: The game I'm interested in has a fan translation or a fan translation in progress, but the translation is terrible or the project is stalled.
    Answer: Fan translators cannot be relied upon to provide high-quality translations quickly and reliably.  They have real jobs / studies that take precedence.  Time to learn Japanese.
    Issue: Localization companies pick mediocre or short titles I have no interest in.  Why can't they release something I want like <insert title from Type-Moon, Eushully, or other famous developer here>?
    Answer: Japanese companies don't care what you want, and neither do localization companies.  They want profits, and releasing titles people want is often unfeasible or unprofitable.  Time to learn Japanese.
    Issue: I tried text hooking with machine translation so I could play Japanese VNs, but I can't understand it or it's too frustrating to use.
    Answer: Understanding machine translation requires practice and exposure.  It's a bit like learning a new language.  If you'd rather not learn machine translation, you could learn Japanese instead.
    Issue: Learning Japanese is hard.  Like, really hard.
    Answer: Yes, it's one of the most difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn.  The US government estimates that 2200 hours of intensive study is required to gain basic proficiency in Japanese.  To add insult to injury, Japanese has a special asterisk next to it reading, "Languages preceded by asterisks are usually more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category".  That means they lied; it actually takes significantly more than 2200 hours to learn the language.  Good luck.
    So there you go: practical solutions to frequently encountered issues.  I hope everyone finds this guide helpful.
  13. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to sanahtlig for a blog entry, Crowdfunding visual novel localization: The perspective of an eroge enthusiast   
    Crowdfunding visual novel localization: The perspective of an eroge enthusiast

  14. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Clephas for a blog entry, Japanese Ghosts, spirits, oni, etc: A bit of a crash course   
    First, the simple basis for understanding the way Japanese think about the supernatural. Simply put, Shinto, which was the country's official religion and is the religion that originated there, is an animistic faith, with a strong tendency toward the personification of nature and objects. Second, Buddhism was the dominant faith in Japan for centuries, when the various shogunates tried to weaken the Emperor's power by strengthening the influence of Buddhism as a rival faith.

    Why is this relevant? Shintoism personifies the dead and believes in the concept of living gods. The Buddhist tributaries in Japan generally believe in reincarnation. Both faiths create a belief that there are things in the world that exist alongside us that cannot be seen by 'normal' people. Both have a belief in life after death, and both have a concept of 'lingering' and 'ascension'.

    Generally speaking, Japanese spiritualists hold to a belief (or so they say) that if you can see a spirit, you can effect it and it can effect you. It is vital to understand this before anything else when dealing with Japanese spiritualism in general. While the idea of ghosts harming or possessing those who can't see them isn't denied by Japanese spiritualists, those who can 'see' them are thought to be more vulnerable, if left untrained ('training' generally resembling Buddhist asceticism and meditation).

    Now, the word 'oni' is perhaps the most overused name for spirits in Japan. This is because it can be taken to be any spirit that can and does cause harm, refer to humans whose souls have fallen into evil, and/or the legendary giant ogre-type creatures like Shuten-doji that litter Japanese legend. Because of this, it isn't uncommon for ghosts, youkai, and even some 'kami' (the animistic idea of gods in the Shinto faith) to be considered 'oni'. This should give you an idea of how useless any attempt to define what an oni is can be, and why it is so conveniently used in VNs, anime, and manga.

    A lot of this lack of discrimination comes from the fact that Shinto attributes souls to all things, whether they are humans, animals, natural disasters, or even inanimate objects.

    Now, the two attitudes 'traditional' people in Japan take toward ghosts tend to be: 'seal them up' or 'banish them'. While Shinto can be said to be nature-worshiping, it is at its heart a pragmatist's faith. 'Cleanse people's souls so they don't do bad things'. 'Cleanse a place to prevent possible disaster'. 'Worship a god so it doesn't squish you'. Simple, isn't it? Of course, there are a lot of deeper details, but that is what you should keep in mind as a core reality of the faith and its view on spiritualism.

    In otaku-media, it is extremely rare for fantasy anime that deal with ghosts, spirits, or demons to take a single-faith approach to it. You'll almost always see a multi-faith approach, with one or more being dominant (including Christian ones at times). Shinto is dominant the most often, though Buddhism tends to dominate when you get into stuff based a few centuries in the past. Onmyoudou, one of the original types of 'spiritualism' in Japan is very much a fusion of Buddhist and Shinto ideas, if you want an example, since it is extensively used in various anime.

    What does this all come down to? Basically, traditional Japanese viewpoints on ghosts and spirits tend to be ones of rejection, and this is something to keep in mind when reading a VN or watching an anime that deals with ghosts, youkai, or other supernatural beings.

    A few bits of vocab:

    kami- While it is a term that is also used for the Christian god, it is a universal term for all supernatural beings that have worshipers or need to be be/have been worshiped. By Japanese standards, angels and demons would be considered to be kami under the right circumstances, as the Japanese consider 'enshrining' a harmful existence to be a way to keep it from harming them.

    akuma- Simply, demon. This is a relatively modern term made of the kanji for evil and the kanji for 'that which is outside/heretical'.

    oni- both a name for a specific type of ogre-type youkai and a generalized umbrella term for evil spirits, humans who have fallen into evil ways to an extreme degree, and aspects of certain kami.

    youkai- spirits of Japanese legend. The most common are nature spirits, animal spirits, dragons, and 'object spirits' (Tsukumogami). It isn't uncommon for beneficial or powerful ones to be raised up as 'kami' and enshrined to gain the benefit of their blessing and prevent them from doing harm. Whether they are seen as having physical form varies based upon the individual viewpoint.

    Reibaishi- An almost identical concept to the Western 'medium'... basically someone who can see spirits and/or communicate with them and makes a living off of it.

    Jorei- Exorcism, though it is usually of spirits rather than demons.



    PS: This isn't complete... I'll be adding to it later, lol.
  15. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to sanahtlig for a blog entry, "For sale in Japan only": A Japanese developer's perspective on the eroge embargo   
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------





    I wrote previously about a display bug in Dual Tail's strategy eroge Venus Blood -Hypno- that prevented interface text from displaying correctly in non-Japanese Windows. Fan hacker binaryfail generously donated a patch that fixes the issue. I sent this patch to Ninetail (parent company of Dual Tail) via Twitter, requesting that they include the fix on their official support page. Project manager and game designer Keimaru responded to me in broken English. His response, edited by me, is as follows.

    Original:




    I thanked him and went my way. A commentator on Reddit later informed me that Keimaru had posted a much longer comment in Japanese. This comment showed such sincere and thoughtful consideration of the issue, from a Japanese developer's standpoint, that I decided it needed to be relayed to the English audience.

    Japanese eroge developers are well known for their reluctance to get involved with the Western market. Packaging and splash screens prominently declare "For sale in Japan only". Westerners tend to dismiss this policy as apathy for foreign fans, even regarding the practice with contempt as just another manifestation of Japanese isolationism and xenophobia. When eroge companies block foreign IPs, they automatically assume that the company has closed its doors to Western release (despite abundant evidence to the contrary). "The companies are just being xenophobic," they say with bitter contempt. "Might as well just fan translate their titles, since they'll never officially release their games in English. They don't want dirty gaijin playing their games."

    It's about time that we get the other side of this story. And who better to deliver it than a prominent and well-loved Japanese developer--one puzzling over how to respond to a bug that prevents foreign fans from playing his games? I provide my translation of Keimaru's Twitter comments below. I regret that my translation skills could not fully convey the honest simplicity of the original message, but I did my best to at least get across the ideas and intent.
    I don't know about you, but Ninetail just earned one new (very loud) fan. For an example of one of Ninetail's outstanding games, see my Venus Blood -Gaia- review! (NSFW version, SFW mirror)

    Special thanks to those of the Fuwanovel community who provided feedback on the translation, especially Majikoi fan translator dowolf.
  16. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Rose for a blog entry, Majikoi complete patch is live!   
    Hello everyone, quick post and no time for introductions this time, for if you didn't received the news, then there you have it: After four years in development, the Majikoi translation project is finally complete! So if you plan to read this game or was waiting for the complete patch to finish it, then go thank the team in the discussion thread, you can find their profile links in the translation thread if you feel like PMing then as well. Thanks a lot everyone on the team, you guys are amazing and our deepest gratitude!
  17. Like
    LiquidShu reacted to Rose for a blog entry, FuwaChanges   
    Hello everyone, Rose here bringing you a post relevant to all Fuwa users. As we all know, the site went through a lot of changes lately and lots of people are still a bit lost about things, so to make everything clear, Tay made a really big post explaining his plans for the future, a summary of some new features planned and much more, so be sure to read it even if you're not confused, for you might actually learn about more stuff to come. Together with that, Eclipsed made a comprehensive list of the recent changes, and it brings you all the links you might possibly need to check if you're late for the party. Huge thanks to Tay for making a really clear and enlightening statement, and to Eclipsed for his great list of changes. Those two are surely going to help a lot of members understand the current situation.
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