Kyuuketsuki no Libra TL quality

[Freestyle80]

I was about to pick this up then i saw Dergonu's review, thank god it was at the top lol 

 

meh...dunno if i can sit through another Moenovel level TL

Edited July 4, 2017 by Freestyle80

[Infernoplex]

It seems the TL gets even worse later on in the routes. I am genuinely confused and bored at times while reading some lines. I thought about screen-capping these but then I found it to be bothersome and there's too much of it so I just gave up. Now I am only reading it for the porn. The plot I am just managing to get a gist of, that much I can understand from the bad TL and what's going on on the screen xD ...

[Darklord Rooke]

On 05/07/2017 at 10:07 AM, Infernoplex said:

It seems the TL gets even worse later on in the routes. I am genuinely confused and bored at times while reading some lines. I thought about screen-capping these but then I found it to be bothersome and there's too much of it so I just gave up. Now I am only reading it for the porn. The plot I am just managing to get a gist of, that much I can understand from the bad TL and what's going on on the screen xD ...

I honestly have no clue how anybody at the company who speaks even a smattering of english thought it was in an acceptable condition at release xD

[Infernoplex]

30 minutes ago, Darklord Rooke said:

I honestly have no clue how anybody at the company who speaks even a smattering of english thought it was in an acceptable condition at release xD

They probably don't speak English at all (which isn't strange by the way, I know that in Japan English language isn't a priority) so it was to be expected that they won't be able to see anything wrong with the condition in which their work was.

[Nandemonai]

I didn't see any better thread, and I didn't really want to start a new one.  So I chant my dark necromantic incantations instead.

So there was an update that went out over Halloween.  It was marked 'For Backers Only', so I'm not going to post the whole thing here.  But there are some highly relevant parts:

Quote

Hi Everyone,

It’s James and this will be a different kind of update in seriousness and tone, mainly because I’m writing it on my own as the team leader of MiKandi Japan without the help of other team members. Thank you for reading.
...
I’d like to fill in some blanks that could have been talked about earlier, and I’d like to let you know how things will be going from here on out.
...
Even though we raised an incredible amount of money on Kickstarter thanks to you all, MiKandi Japan ended up <AMOUNT REMOVED> in the hole.
...
How did we make up for it? Well… Several team members and I put in a massive amount of unpaid man-hours… To be blunt, I’m currently in the worse financial shape that I’ve ever been in, in my life. That’s not a complaint though. I’m living out my dream regardless of the ups and downs, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I only bring it up because I want you to hear more details to better understand what this project has really been like. We have not been sipping cocktails on an island somewhere as one commenter imagined.
...
Regarding the translation, we have listened to everyones feedback. I know that a good number of backers have expressed disappointment. As a player myself, I do agree that the game could be more fun to play with a new edit and QA pass on the script.

Even after considering every angle over the last few months, It hasn’t been easy to decide how to move forward as a company. It basically came down to two options…

We could try to recover some of the loss with a pass on the script that might improve sales, but it would take a lot of time and have to be a volunteer effort unless we found another way to pay for it.

Or, we could take the loss, move along, and turn a profit on our next title by doing everything better the second time around.
...
You could make a strong argument for both directions, but now that enough time has gone by and I can see things in hindsight, I’ve decided that we won’t choose one over the other.

Over the past few months, a colleague and I have been doing a new pass on Libra in our free time. Currently, we are at about 20% and I think it’s finally far enough along to announce with confidence that given enough time, we will finish…
...
I’ve already spoken with XERO and our tentative schedule is releasing the main path and Mari’s route <DATE REMOVED>. Other routes will come after that. Yes, there will be programming costs to update the script which can’t be done for free, but we’ve come this far, so we’ll find a way to pay for it.

As we release these parts, I would like to invite all of you to re-evaluate our progress and let us know if the changes are worth this extra effort.

I would also like to extend an invitation to anyone with experience editing or doing QA for visual novels. If you are willing to work on a volunteer basis, as we are, then please send us a mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>

Also, I found this: http://www.7happycreations.com/just-who-translated-libra-of-the-vampire-princess/

This description is horrifying.  3 translation teams, team changeovers, it was the particular team members' first translation job (which is just terrible - if they're a big company, haven't they got veteran people? No team should ever consist of all newbies.)  They translated "simply and cleanly" in an effort to make their style fit with the other teams' styles, even though they never saw any of their work!  Un. Believable.

Edited November 3, 2017 by Nandemonai
Screw you, Fuwa, and your terrible WYSINWYG editor

[Akshay]

I'm not convinced this game would be any good, even with perfect translation.

[Nandemonai]

To each his own.  I'm a sucker for monster girls, and I've been especially interested in Draculius for a few years now.  So I was interested in the game, but, well, not with that translation.  But the more important thing here is that the complaints were not ignored, and they're working on patching the translation.

[Dergonu]

Well, it's not surprising the game didn't sell well, considering how terrible everything was handled.

They had amazing PR in the early stages of the campaign, but once the release date approached, (and after a whopping 3 delays,) it was like their entire team was replaced with monkeys.

The TL turned out to be absolute garbage. Then there was the lack of communication after the launch of the game, the way they went back on promises that were made half a year before the launch and so on. 

They still haven't even made the 18+ available for purchase for non-backers, despite the patch having been done since launch. Breaking the promise that the patch would be free is one thing, but not even bothering releasing it for a fee when they clearly needed the money is confusing as hell.

This has been one chaotic ride.

 

If this new pass makes the game a bit more readable, that's something I guess. But them asking for volunteer help from backers for said pass is a bit concerning... Guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens from this point.

[jetpack003]

I've just read that message too.

In my opinion, it would definitely be great to get a new translation check for this game. The only thing that is concerning is that whether or not it will have good results. I mean the damage is already done so it'll be hard to regain the people's trust again. However, at the same time they are pretty committed so it could sway some of the audience back and gain better credibility from it all.

It could be like the current No Man's Sky patch where some of the customer base has started to respect if not a little for that game.

Getting volunteer help is a rare proposal too. I guess they would like to have some fan-translators who are experienced in this area to help perform some TLC.

[Zakamutt]

Getting volunteer help isn't really a rare proposal per se, it just tends to be invoked by terrible publishers of terrible translations. I've seen that more with CN->EN monstrosities than jp->en, but it's not that uncommon for small-time publishers, often the developer themselves, to ask for community help in improving their utterly terrible translations. The results tend to be as amateur as the help they're getting.

[Clephas]

To be honest... I was gravely disappointed in how this game was handled at every stage after the Kickstarter.  When I was given a chance to beta test the game, I dropped it inside the first chapter, having discovered that a whopping 85% of the lines were either outright wrong or so grammatically messed up that it was obvious someone had just put them through google translate and pasted them in. 

To be blunt, they could have easily had this translated by any of a number of talented translators in the community for less than they apparently paid, but instead they left it to amateurs?  That was just idiotic. 

Also, as an answer to those who still question whether the base material was any good, the answer is, yes, it was.  The protagonist was always a bit of a non-starter as a character in that type of game, but the rest of the story was good enough that I felt satisfied.  If there was one thing that kept driving me crazy, besides the protagonist's unwillingness to embrace any part of his nature, it was that idiotic obsession with girls wetting themselves the writers apparently had.

[Dergonu]

There is a new Kickstarter update where they respond to our questions from the last one. (Read the whole update here.)

First, it would appear they are going to make a Patreon to support the new pass that is being done to the game.

Also, in response to questions about whether native english speakers and TLers with JP knowledge being involved, their response was promising:

Quote

Yes, native English speakers are working on this new pass. We also have a native Japanese volunteer who is bilingual checking lines against the original Japanese script when we find something confusing in English.

Also, a correction to something I said when the last update came out: The 18+ patch IS available for non-backers now, and has been for a little while it seems. This wasn't mentioned in any update on their KS, and so I assumed it was never made available. So if anyone were actually waiting for the patch, you can buy it on their website.

Quote

Clearing up confusion related to the patch… Yes, originally we planned to release the patch for free to everyone, but we decided to charge $2.99 to non-backers. We thought this would help offset development costs, and a paywall adds some protection since it’s mature in nature. Hopefully the small price is reasonable. As far as availability, the patch for non-backers did have a delay after game launch, but it’s been available for quite some time. If you know someone who thinks they’re still waiting for the patch, please let them know they can get it! They just need to check the top right banner on our shop over at LvXERO. But be sure to let them know we’re doing another pass on the script too.

Overall it seems like there is hope for this project after all. This new pass will hopefully improve the TL significantly, and it would appear MiKandi wants to set things right, instead of just abandoning ship completely.

[Nandemonai]

I am very glad they decided not to just write off the project and move on.  The temptation to do that is very powerful (throwing good money after bad, and all that) but it really wouldn't have done good things for their reputation.  Look at MangaGamer's shaky reputation early on (because that's what they did with a lot of their early titles); it took them quite awhile to shrug it off.

[GoGO88]

On 6/23/2017 at 1:38 AM, Decay said:

Well, like I said, this is uncharacteristic even for a VN with "only" one pass. This should not be blamed on the lack of additional passes, because that would imply that it would be okay with those passes. This is a fundamentally bad translation, and not something you'd want to build off of. It showcases a lack of ability on the part of the translators. And the whole reason Mikandi couldn't afford additional passes in the first place is because the translators grossly overcharged them.

The way a professional VN translation usually works is:

Step 1: Translation. Simple enough. They translate the text and that's it. There is usually only one translator but occasionally there are multiple, working on different parts of the script. Most professional VN companies trust the translators they hire and do not extensively check their work the way many fan translation projects do.
Step 2: Editing. The role of editor varies company to company, script to script. In some places, they are primarily proofreaders, and in other places they work the prose more extensively. And some scripts absolutely require extensive reworking (though ideally, VN companies avoid hiring translators who would write translations that require that). Editors tend to get paid a good deal less than translators.
Step 3: Testing. Again, this varies company to company. Some use testers as proofreaders, others just want them to make sure the program runs bug-free. Testers tend to get paid peanuts. Almost literally.

That's about it. You don't have translators making multiple passes, improving the translation with every step, that just doesn't happen in most cases. In most professional VN translations, the finished script will look very similar to the raw translation, unless something went horribly wrong in the translation phase. If the raw translation reads horribly, then you have a bad translator. I'd say that the only cases where there are multiple real translation passes are cases like Flowers, where the company realizes the translation is fucked and scrambles to fix it.

The translation budget laid out by MIkandi Japan suggests a 9.5 yen per Japanese character total cost for the translation (before it was cut down to one pass). This is maybe two to three times what some of the highest-paying VN companies might pay for translation/editing/etc. That itself isn't all that bad, since VN translation pays a pittance compared to the rest of professional game translation, but when you offer quality that is dramatically lower than the competition while charging multiple times more for your work, there's a big fucking problem.

(also, for the record, around 10 yen per Japanese character translated is what a company like Square Enix or Nintendo might pay a translator for their raw translation.)

(also also, for the record, what 7 Happy Creations was charging for their third pass just might be more than what MangaGamer pays a translator for their raw translation, to give you an idea of how outside the norm these guys were charging.)

tl;dr: This translation blows. Raw translation is not supposed to look like this. 7 Happy Creations are scammers. Mikandi Japan are saps for falling for it.

Just wanted to thank you for your libelous post. Have taken a screenshot and forwarded on to our attorney. If you have a penny to your name we will soon separate you from it. This forum would serve itself well to delete your posts and ban you. You have no idea what happened with the project and you pretend to speak with some sort of authority. I will ask an attorney to sort out your assets and determine if you have anything worth taking.

[Plk_Lesiak]

21 minutes ago, GoGO88 said:

Just wanted to thank you for your libelous post. Have taken a screenshot and forwarded on to our attorney. If you have a penny to your name we will soon separate you from it. This forum would serve itself well to delete your posts and ban you. You have no idea what happened with the project and you pretend to speak with some sort of authority. I will ask an attorney to sort out your assets and determine if you have anything worth taking.

Hey, so you're a representative of that scammer company? Nice threat you have there, you piece of shit. Shame that everyone can see what kind of quality work you put out there.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[bakauchuujin]

41 minutes ago, GoGO88 said:

Just wanted to thank you for your libelous post. Have taken a screenshot and forwarded on to our attorney. If you have a penny to your name we will soon separate you from it. This forum would serve itself well to delete your posts and ban you. You have no idea what happened with the project and you pretend to speak with some sort of authority. I will ask an attorney to sort out your assets and determine if you have anything worth taking.

Awesome way to respond to critisism. Attacking people in the fanbase you aim at in a community dedicated to people in this fanbase is a really good way to promote yourselves as a company.

Hopefully you are just a troll, because it would be quite sad if your reply is actually from someone representing a translation company. PS what do you plan to use as the case to sue him, hurt feelings?

Edited November 27, 2018 by bakauchuujin

[Zakamutt]

42 minutes ago, GoGO88 said:

Just wanted to thank you for your libelous post. Have taken a screenshot and forwarded on to our attorney. If you have a penny to your name we will soon separate you from it. This forum would serve itself well to delete your posts and ban you. You have no idea what happened with the project and you pretend to speak with some sort of authority. I will ask an attorney to sort out your assets and determine if you have anything worth taking.

Did you wake up with a stomach bam today or something? This is hilarious and I wonder if someone hacked the account for the lulz at this point.