Suzu Fanatic

Dunno, perhaps I've grown cynical as I age - but I can see this backfiring in a rather painful and impactful fashion. I don't think any of us really needed or wanted 18+ on Steam. Though, on one hand - it would be a large boost in sales for publishers, having that extra coverage on such a well known platform (not to mention it might help bypass the bullshit MG etc have tradionally gone through with payment processors). But, this might be abit too much exposure - and no amount of age-gating on Steam will satisfy those with torches and pitchforks. All they'll need to do is exaggerate abit here - outright lie there, and the hyperbole will spur an ignorant mass media to jump in on the witch hunts~

They bit off more than they could chew - so it's not really a surprise. Though, nuking their marketing people will hurt more than help long-term. (unless they luck out and find new hires with industry experience already under their belts)

Too lazy to read through the thread, so I'll just chime in my two cents (having read the OP at least) The anti-anime thing that often rears its head is more of a general society thing, than Valve specifically (as you see it often being a scape-goat for all manner of things). I'll hesistantly call it a form of racism - or at least, "personal interpretations being misconstrued as objective truth". Someone that doesn't typically watch anime or pay attention to the styles used often make assumptions on a characters age, mistaking various characters as being younger then they actually are (and I don't just mean "legal lolis", I mean characters that DO look 17-18 to you and I - but not to an outsider). People often forget that not every group will have the same features or builds as the avrg white person. And while anime characters are obviously exaggerated and moe-blobbed a lot of the time, they typically retain the traits of the demograph it's based on~ Long story short: Baseless assumptions from outsiders - abusing their power to sate personal, arbitrary opinions.

Had to drop it, sad to say - it had promise but turned out to not be my thing.

I can agree with some cases, sure - but tone of voice can convey the meaning of something like "You...." Unless a reader has voices turned off, inflection is a universal thing - anyone can tell when someone is angry, sad, happy, etc - pair that with the actual wording, and you got the intended meaning across, without adding words that could change the context and personality. Though of course that can only really be applied to things with voices. non-voiced is a different matter - though even then things like "You..." wouldn't be that difficult to understand, if the reader understands the scenes intended mood. Besides, "rude verb form" is easy with things like "tch" - or if a writer is willing to put in a bit of extra work, elaborate with a description "so-and-so clicks there tongue in irritation" or "so-and-so growls in response" As for swears in Maitetsu specifically, they are so infrequent it's not really an issue - beyond not fitting the initial meaning. A good example is Hibiki leaving in irritation from the room, and the MC says "Shit, looks like I screwed up this time" - but really, it would have fit his tone of voice (and words) a lot better with something like "Oops, guess she's mad huh?" The MC didn't even use an explicitive verb or sound in that sentence, so having a swear thrown in changes the tone of the sentence, and alters the readers perception of his personality to a tiny extent. But like I said, it's so rare in this VN, I feel somewhat silly going into it, heh.

Setting aside the eternal debate of literal vs. reimagined, the example Hiashi provided is pretty cringy. Which is disappointing - what little I've seen of the non-h narrative so far, seemed alright (except for the odd swear shoehorned in without reason). Makes me wonder if they had someone else do the hscenes? Or someone that simply didn't really want to work on the hscenes, so said "fuck it" and just trolled the readers~

Subjective. Personally I approve of the removal of excessive swearing, along with other gratuitous liberties.

Tokemi Check-in, waaaay back around '01 - '02. Was pretty good for what it was, in hindsight.

Mostly a lurker nowadays - but keeping with my yearly tradition, have some bees.

I'm not sure if there's any major differences in the writing style between the Denpasoft release and the original fantl - but having read the fantl, I actually liked Konomi's route. It's a rare thing for incest in a VN to be treated as an actual taboo - it gave it some interesting weight. The development and plot was about coming to terms with the feelings, and facing the societal bias (and the consequences) regarding the taboo itself - pretty heavy stuff tbh. "Pure love making everything all right" Wasn't really the end message I got from it, I got "there will always be adversity." And it didn't exactly end "happily ever after" - there was no real way to know what their future holds (again, based on my experience with the fantl). And even it it did, what's so irritating about the notion of "pure love should make everything all right"? John Lennon himself said "all we need is love". People all around the globe could learn a lot from such an outlook - and as someone with "many" years and hardships under my belt, I can truly admire such a unjaded belief/desire. But what can I say? Cynicism's bitter weight tends to get heavier as the years add up on some old farts like me - it's more enjoyable to see sappy ideals like that from time to time.

NNL had made a single, combined version - though finding anyone with that version nowdays is likely going to be hard. Even moreso with a save file still tucked away.

AHahaha, paired with Steam sales my wallet hates me

That's a pretty broad claim. Well, depends what exactly your inferring to. Tbh I haven't read anything that rivals how bad Libra's TL is, FanTl or otherwise (besides IMHHW).

There's been a uncomfortable term cropping up with localizers lately (or at least Nintendo) called "cultural relevance". Personally, I don't need or want "cultural relevance" - i'm a intelligent, grown man that doesn't require spoon-feeding, I'm o.k. being taken out of my familiar comfort zone, in terms of things I know. (though, as Libra is a good example - I do still want it to be legible.) Give me a translation, not a reinvention - why reinforce "the box" when we can show the quirks and differences between cultures? I don't think I'm a weeb for wanting open eyes instead of horseblinders~ Though FTB brings up alot of intelligent points, that I can agree with to a point regardless.

Welp, I've learnt my lesson - I shouldn't buy VNs directly from Getchu/Dlsite etc, prior to an actual patch release. I'm pretty bitter I've basically been throwing money in the trash. Don't get me wrong, I congratulate the teams for having the TLs picked up - just frustrated to see it all cannibalized - esp. by companies that I sincerely question will actually see it through to conclusion. Sumega=never.

I'm secretly hoping they do fix it - as it stands right now, I can't even look at it for more than a few moments without becoming frustrated, lol. atm it's just a giant hole in my wallet. Doubt they will, but I hope~

Have lots of respect for you - there's been a lot of snark being aimed at Mikandi (not wholly undeserved, mind you) lately, has been a semi-bitter feeling to read some of the more toxic opinions on Twitter~

Yeah, gotta say I'm pretty disappointed with it. I prefer original context and meaning, true - but that doesn't mean I want it to be disorganized nonsense. There's a huge difference between three main camps: re-invention("Americanization"), legibility(my pick), and utter chaos~ They had really great/friendly PR - which is why many of us backed it (beyond the inital interest). But it almost feels worse than IMHHW... EDIT: I'm hoping they take it as a learning experience - I'm willing to give them another chance, if they decide to work on something else later (it's not like MG had a great start either). If nothing else, I like how they interact with the community, and their general behavior - but that can only take a business so far.

The whole thing. Not really an issue - more just curiosity. As I understand it, there are sopposed to be a ton of CGs, and given the length it's rumored to be, all those voiced lines should both in theory beef up the size by a healthy margin. oh well, guess I'll find out in august (what can I say? I need anime bewbz to go with a great story )

Slightly curious, it has relatively small size compared to some other VNs I've read (3gb) - figure it's just using a better form of compression or something? Obviously it doesn't really matter, just a bit surprising for something praised for having as much content as is it does.

Eh. Having played Persona 5, and plenty of NISA titles, I'd say Libra is head and shoulders above either, despite those that would like to cry foul and make noise to the contrary. I find the style Libra went with a bit tacky, true - but from the screenshots I've seen - there have been no glaring errors. (on a technical level) Honestly, I've seen worse from Jast and early Mangagamer. My only real annoyance with the whole thing as a backer, is this delay with the digital version. I may have forgotten the details - but I was under the assumption they were releasing it through Denpa and MG (adult), as well as Steam. Yet now it sounds like it's only Steam, with a 18 patch? Ah well, I'm buried in a backlog of stuff anyway. I'll be lucky if I actually start reading it by Christmas