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So, Seinarukana was just released, extra fully. (Steam version now available)


Decay

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Wait really? Yeah, really: https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/4fnyu7/seinarukana_spirit_of_eternity_sword_2_has_shipped/

Seinarukana is the semi-sequel to Aselia the Eternal, an RPG/VN hybrid that received a fan translation and a subsequent official release years ago. Here's a description courtesy of Sanahtlig:

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Seinarukana follows the dimension-traveling adventures of Nozomu and his band of friends. The story opens in a typical high school in Japan. Nozomu's everyday life is shattered when the school is suddenly attacked by strange invaders from another world wielding medieval weapons and fantastic magics. Amidst the chaos he and others awake to supernatural powers that had long lied dormant--powers inherited from a previous life. When the dust settles the entire campus has dimension shifted, and the students find themselves stranded in an alien world. While at first they simply seek to return to their own world, they gradually become entangled in a dimension-spanning intrigue that threatens the entire multiverse. In the process, Nozomu and friends discover the nature of their powers, and memories of their former lives begin to awaken.

You do not need to have played Aselia first, the stories are mostly unrelated and I believe that if any of its characters make an appearance, it's pretty much just cameos. The gameplay is somewhat akin to a turn-based Ogre Battle if you've ever played those. The basis of the battles isn't a group of adventurers going on a journey and encountering monsters, but instead you control an armed force who does battle with other militarized entities, sort of like an SRPG. You move multiple parties of characters along a series of interconnected pathways and when they meet an enemy, they carry out actions in a mostly hands-off manner in accordance to the party's formation. To be perfectly honest, I did prefer the Ogre Battle games to Aselia, but I still had some fun with it.

It's been in the works for ages, has been the subject of derisive jokes due to its many, many delays, but it's finally here. Kind of. I have confirmation from JAST that they're shipping out copies. We got notification a couple weeks ago that it went golden master, and just last week they said it was duplicating, but it still sort of feels like they just stealthily slipped this one out to us. It seems like they didn't want to miss a release date, so they simply never publicly set one. You can order a physical version on J-List (referral link is fuwanovel's, not mine) and get your copy shipped out now or very soon. The download version will also be made available very soon according to my JAST contact. He didn't give me an exact date but it sounds like within the next day or two.

So, yeah. Surprise! It's here!

edit: Download version is now available! https://www.jastusa.com/seinarukana-the-spirit-of-eternity-sword-2.html

Edited by Decay
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Officially, Aselia's ending is canon, incidentally.  This was around the fifteenth game I played after starting my trip through untranslated VNs, and, to be blunt, the gameplay is greatly improved.  However, in terms of the story, it is somewhat less compelling, if more complex.

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Somehow this April we had many exciting release of VN and in here we managed to had the exciting VN discussion opened by 4 different people (Dangan Ronpa 2 by me, Tokyo Babel by Rooke, Dracu Riot by Arcadeotic, and now Seinarukana by Decay). Actually I want to open Seinarukana discussion here, but I still didn't knew if the timing was off or not. Sorry, just want to express my opinion a little bit here.

Anyway, Seinarukana translation was surely had many history here from back at 2012. I'll give some detail about this game later in term of seiyuu and the history of the translation. Anyway, had fun and use this thread as Seinarukana discussion page here. Oh, I already want to post aroduc's thought in regard of translation from the moment he wrote it, but here's his thought for anyone who want to know in regard of translation for Seinarukana. As for me, hopefully by end of April I'll got this game.

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Based on Aroduc's blog post linked above, the text looks like it was translated by Aroduc and edited by Makoto.  Expect VERY good things, much better than JAST's quality in its last few releases (Starless, Shiny Days, Flowers).

Route notes: Avoid Ruptuna and Naya's routes.  The side-characters' routes just aren't very well fleshed out.  Stick to the main heroines (Satsuki, Nozomi, Narukana) if you care about story.  Narukana's route unlocks after the game has been completed once.

4 hours ago, Decay said:

You do not need to have played Aselia first, the stories are mostly unrelated and I believe that if any of its characters make an appearance, it's pretty much just cameos. 

While it's true that you don't need to play Aselia to enjoy this game, Aselia's ending is canon and one of the side characters in Seinarukana is related to that route.  There's really no good reason not to play both games if you're interested in this one.  They're both good games.

I also previewed the game on my blog (skip down to the preview portion).  The gameplay is better than both Aselia's and Yumina the Ethereal's.  It's more complex and refined than Aselia's, but doesn't get bogged down in mid-battle skill switching like Yumina's.  Managing usage of your best skills so you have reserves for bosses is important as it was in both of those games.

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Anyone else get Seinarukan here other than me? If yes, I think we could started the discussion here, and I'll try to write my first impression here later.

For sure this game had very long history in translation, but I'll try to make it brief here. According to VNTL, the translation was began back at 2010 when it was handled by Dakkodango, also the team who translated the prequel Eien no Aselia. And after a year or so, at 2011 the translation was picked up by JAST and around that time until February 2013, the progress not updated much, until the last percentage seen was at 44% ie 2 years it was quite slowly working. At February 2013, they got Aroduc to translate Seinarukana, and he decided to retranslated it from very beginning. After that, well not much update except like 'mostly translated' or something like that. Oh, by the way before Aroduc took over the project, if we follow VNTL between August 2012 and February 2013 there's many months and look like the former translators decided to disappear around that time (Real life problem or not I don't know). Also looking back at TL Wiki history, the 2 old translators was leave when they about to translated Chapter 10. And I think that's all I could said in regard of the translation history. I'm sorry if I couldn't tell much, but what I remember is that when I saw the VNDB date that it'll be released on 2013, I'm waiting in vain until December, while back at 2013 JAST managed to release Yumina. Oh, back at 2015, somehow JAST managed to delay it more until April (Although guess I shouldn't be surprised here though).

About the premise, we had our usual clueless MC (Setoki Nozomu), his childhood friend and the student council president who somehow love MC (And befriended MC) trapped in the other world along with some students from MC's school. And by the way, after facing some enemy MC and his friend discovered their ability to fighting the enemy, and from there they begin to searching a way to back to their own world. Oh, by the way, if you interested with the red-haired girl, she was the student council president herself (Ikaruga Satsuki).

For the cast, I think I'll just give the list to some main character (According to VNDB) the picture link, since I figured including picture here would make this post very long. So, for the girls in this game, we had:

  1. Ikaruga Satsuki - The student council president that I talked earlier, and actually she was already knew her power from before the school trapped in another world. Oh, and she was kind of aggressive to get the attention from MC. As for the seiyuu, she was Shirai Ayano who voiced Olivia back in Romanesque and Nitta Cocoa in big breast nukige Bazooka Cafe. Other than that, I think mostly the VN that had her mostly untranslated
  2. Nagamine Nozomi - MC childhood friend and @CeruleanGamer waifu by the way according to her. I think she was easily angered that MC was quite oblivious to her feeling in regard of love. Also she was form some sort of rivalry with Satsuki (What's with Satsuki try to get attention from MC), and actually didn't realize that she had power like Satsuki until the school was trapped in another world. For the seiyuu, she was Aoyama Yukari (aka Akane Tomonaga) who voiced Kazami Kazuki in Grisaia franchise, Kawakami Kazuko aka Wanko in Majikoi, Oda Nobunaga in Eiyuu Senki, and Soejima Hisoka in Comyu (For non eroge she was Moribe Jun in Root Double and Inubushi Keiko in Remember11). And my comment regarding seiyuu, Aoyama was definitely more well-known to English speaking VN compared to Satsuki's seiyuu.
  3. Katima Agaias - The princess knight that MC meet in the other world, and actually want to reclaim her kingdom because her kingdom was taken over by the people who want to rule the world ruthlessly (And by the way, I'll predict that the man who took over Katima's kingdom will be That One Boss candidate to some user here). For the seiyuu, she was Sakuragawa Miku who voiced some character from old VN (ie not translated and quite old one).
  4. Euphoria - Some sort of interesting character, and had nickname Euphy. According to VNDB, she had some kind of amnesia. For the seiyuu, she was Agumi Oto (aka Gotou Mai) who voiced Angelina in Katahane, Hayama Mizuki in ef, and Takekawa Benio in Comyu. I couldn't said much about Euphy here, since it would be major spoiler from the prequel
  5. Narukana - The mysterious girl who apparently appear in MC's dream. Narukana's seiyuu was Isshiki Hikaru (aka Tanaka Ryouko) who voiced Kurugaya Yuiko in Little Busters, Sakaki Yumiko in Grisaia franchise, Neon in Gahktun, and Hinaori Kagome in Comyu. Can't said much about her either, but what I knew her route was available on 2nd playthrough.

I think that's all of the info I could give for now. Anyway, had fun and once again all of the user here could using this thread as Seinarukana discussion thread.

PS - Anyone else willing to translate the guide from here? If yes it would be helpful for some people who want to SS all the mission for each chapter.

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According to Aroduc's notes, the English version dialed back the requirements to get high battle ratings (since the original requirements didn't seem to be logically consistent).  I didn't have much trouble clearing most maps with S-rank in the JP version, so I don't think a guide should be required.  In most cases, maximizing battle rank means dividing your forces into teams and attacking simultaneously along multiple paths.  Use attacker stance for normal battles.  Include at least one red spirit in every team, as they can do massive AoE damage and also counter defending green spirits.  A basic blue-green-red spirit combo is a very versatile formation that can handle most situations.  The most frustrating enemy formation contains multiple green spirits with high HP and physical defense coupled simultaneously with support healing.  The best counter to that is two red spirits (attacker, supporter) or red spirit as attacker and blue spirit as supporter to banish the heals.

For route divergence, enemy forces with a heart mark will give an affection bonus with any heroines in the same formation as Nozomu.  Just keep Nozomu and your target heroine in the same formation and favor the heroine in dialogue choices.  Route divergence occurs after Ch. 8.  There is no "bad end" where you don't end up with a heroine, so the only way to mess up is to somehow have higher affection with a different heroine.

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I have been waiting a long, long time for this release!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I plan to buy the download asap for me.  My only question is how much content, and enjoyability am i missing out on by not playing eien no aselia? is is it as bad as trying to play MLA before the other two? I was waiting for the 18+ patch, but sucks it will probably not be until at least 2017, if they do decide to go that route.  I do not mind reading aselia first but it is a long game and since the english version is watered down as an all ages game, is it really worth it to read before playing seina?

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From my post on VNDB:

Quote

 

You can jump right into Seinarukana as there's only a loose connection to Aselia the Eternal. One of the characters that joins later on will be familiar if you cleared Aselia's route. The settings between the two games are only loosely connected.

You should play Aselia the Eternal not because of its connection to Seinarukana, but because it's as good as or better than Seinarukana. And if you're going to play Aselia the Eternal, you might as well play it first.

Then again, an adult version of Aselia might "appear" one day, so maybe there's a reason to hold off...

 

One person I talked to at JAST said he was looking into the possibility of an adult release of Aselia.  He's not part of the team involved in the project so he has no actual authority, however.

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1 hour ago, sanahtlig said:

From my post on VNDB:

One person I talked to at JAST said he was looking into the possibility of an adult release of Aselia.  He's not part of the team involved in the project so he has no actual authority, however.

Do you mean this post left by Jast on steam?

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To spademan, I think for this you should not worry too much about the removal of H-Content like back in Konosora case. And for a little history, I guess the complete version of Eien no Aselia (18+ version with content from PS2) was in development while back at time Dakkodango want to translate it as soon as possible, so they choose PS2 port that came with Seinarukana (And if you wonder why there is no H-Content in the first place for PS2 port, ask Xuse instead about that for their decision).

For your answer regarding reading Aselia, I would suggest you to just read Aselia route alone if you relly want to play it (Although you could also jump directly to Seinarukana as well too). Well, in the end it's your choice, although I agree with sanathlig that both Aselia and Seinarukna were good games in their own merit.

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3 hours ago, littleshogun said:

(And if you wonder why there is no H-Content in the first place for PS2 port, ask Xuse instead about that for their decision).

It is not Xuse decision, it is Sony decision. All VNs, released on consoles, must be all-ages, no exceptions. For example we got chopped to death Cartagra for PS2 without any blood/gore/obscenic language, even mention about protag living in brothel was cutted out. Believe me, if producers were able to sell 18+ versions on consoles - they would do it immediately, because it is MUCH cheaper, than redoing 15-20% of game, doing text changes, multiple tests, new CGs and stuff like that.

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I`m in chapter 6 atm but damn...everything is easy except Berbalzerd. The rest of the bosses except him were pretty much easy.

And Ruputna is so cute, but i`m in Satsuki route atm. Gonna say for now i still prefer Aselia, maybe because Aselia is more serious.

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Somehow I can't get past the final fight of the 1st mission -.-

The red supporter uses this flame spell to which my blue supporter casts an interrupt spell but I still take full aoe damage and insta-lose.

Am I missing something? :/

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@Scorp Looks like my statement was incomplete. What I want to said was in regard of PC port from PS2 version. About censored in PS2 version, of course I'd already know about that for very long time also in regard of Sony policy. And what I want to suggest for the people who complained about no 18+ version translated would be why not asking Xuse that they not made it directly as soon as back in 2007, instead they just choose to port PS2 Version to PC without reapply H-Scene back from 18+ version (The time between PS2 port (2005) and PS2 port to PC (2007) was 2 years according to VNDB). Instead they choose to release complete version back at 2010, when the translation project was already finished and well, will you choose to re-translate the game or just use complete translation if the latter choice would be saving time (In regard of JAST released censored Eien no Aselia). Once again sorry if I couldn't word it well.

@Monmon To be honest I'd found that Seinarukana atmosphere here was more light compared to the prequel (And if you want more nitpicking our Shun alike (Zetsu) was quite friendly and likeable even though any people will get the impression he was bad guy though (Well, he will though) from the face alone). Although I think it's not too bad though. Well to each of our own.

@Rin If you talk about the first mission, using Satsuki in support while you set up her new skill will do wonder to made that fight no more than usual battle. Well, I did the same mistake as you and did got the game over.

And I think for now I should add 2 more main character and the seiyuu, but before that let me said that they actually need to travel more than one world in order to find the way back to their home world. So, obviously as anime about journey teach us that we will pick some new ally. For the info, we'll had 14 party member in the endgame if you curious. Here I'll give the last 2 heroines info below.

  1. Naya Tactca Nanafe - Acted as some sort of the president from the another world that looks like the future, and also had cat ears (And tail, so guess she would be cat girl here) and quite skilled at engineering. The seiyuu for Naya was Motoyama Nina who voiced Leica Crusade in Demonbane, Merret in Romanesque, and Kan'u bin Koihime Musou if you apply the voice patch.
  2. Ruputna - The girl from the world where spirit life, and according to VNDB shw was quite distrustful at human, although her heart was very pure and innocent. And for the seiyuu, she was also voiced Orpha back in the prequel Eien no Aselia.

I think that's all that I could give the info. And I think the gameplay was like Yumina here in regard of status (Strength and Force), except here we also need to managed mana to level up instead of killing random encounter at the dungeon. Well, have fun playing this game and maybe if I get some gameplay tips I could post it here later.

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1 hour ago, littleshogun said:

@Monmon To be honest I'd found that Seinarukana atmosphere here was more light compared to the prequel (And if you want more nitpicking our Shun alike (Zetsu) was quite friendly and likeable even though any people will get the impression he was bad guy though (Well, he will though) from the face alone). Although I think it's not too bad though. Well to each of our own.

 

I like both and i i dont think Seina is bad and Akatsuki is more likeable than Shun.I really hope they will bring back the story about Order of chaos vs Law, we dont need more space travelling secret groups lol.

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20 hours ago, Rin said:

Somehow I can't get past the final fight of the 1st mission -.-

The red supporter uses this flame spell to which my blue supporter casts an interrupt spell but I still take full aoe damage and insta-lose.

Am I missing something? :/

Alright, since I'm pioneering ahead on this game, I might as well do what I can to help out around here. For now, this page features enough guides to get you through the early game without too much trouble. Hopefully, I can come up with some strats of my own for the chapters not covered later. (I do enjoy how much better this game looks compared to Aselia, but dropping the language barrier and social status issues of the first game has really made this too generic plot-wise. Really? Everyone speaks Japanese and eats mochi in alternate universes? You had to bring the school with you?!)

 

But I digress. If it's just generic enemies you're dealing with, keep in mind that yes, your banish skills can be banished. Make sure the enemy isn't tripping your banish prematurely with some other spell, or canceling it with Ice Arrow Alpha. Delay effect spells are very hard to get the hang of, because the rules for banishing them are weird. Select the option to have your party play 'defensively' if you run into opponents with Flame Shower; it can and will one shot your party. Playing defensively means you can put your Blue into the support role in time without having to keep her there just in case. Anyway, keep experimenting with different setups until you find the one that works. In chapter one, you should have pretty much all the skills handed to you, so you don't need to worry about needing a skill you haven't learned until the end of chapter 2.

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But while I'm here, I might as well vent just a bit: I think the most disappointing thing about this game is that it's really a step back in maturity. Aselia dealt with the inherent gray morality that comes with war, the helplessness of the soldiers who fight them, and featured a cast of 'expendable' characters who you valued all the more for being just part of your little war-orphaned family. Seinarukana goes back to Tried and True High School, and features the usual cast of childhood friends and magical royalty. The villains are over-the-top omnicidal maniacs, and once again we have that forced style of 'I don't have to tell you anything about my motives, Main Character', which is something people just don't do in real life. "Why are you killing billions of people! What possible reason could there be for that?!" "I have one, but I don't feel like telling you until you're strong enough to stop me." That is infuriating, because it's the cheapest trick in the book for creating pointless misunderstandings. It's not even a trick! It's a cop-out! It would take 2 minutes to resolve this conflict with a simple explanation, but noooo, you're going to gleefully attempt genocide and laugh about it, and try to play the 'greater good' card later and expect it to hold weight, as though you weren't a sociopath in chapters 2-8.

 

That being said, I'm quite enjoying Seinarukana.

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4 hours ago, Blank Mage said:

I think the most disappointing thing about this game is that it's really a step back in maturity. Aselia dealt with the inherent gray morality that comes with war, the helplessness of the soldiers who fight them, and featured a cast of 'expendable' characters who you valued all the more for being just part of your little war-orphaned family. Seinarukana goes back to Tried and True High School, and features the usual cast of childhood friends and magical royalty. The villains are over-the-top omnicidal maniacs, and once again we have that forced style of 'I don't have to tell you anything about my motives, Main Character', which is something people just don't do in real life. "Why are you killing billions of people! What possible reason could there be for that?!" "I have one, but I don't feel like telling you until you're strong enough to stop me." That is infuriating, because it's the cheapest trick in the book for creating pointless misunderstandings

Oh man...totally agree with this!! And i`m kinda disappointed when they use Japanese in different world. Well i think i can understand because there r lots of worlds but still.

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