Jump to content

YU-NO remake coming to Steam in October (with English translation)


adamstan

Recommended Posts

While console versions of YU-NO remake were released in 2017, Spike Chunsoft has been working on PC version and English translation. Recently they announced planned release date - 2019.10.01

YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World  (link to Steam store)

Additionally, translated version will be also released for PS4 and Switch. According to publisher both japanese and english PS4 versions have some mild censorship (in one CG lower part of naked heroine is obscured by ray of light - not unlike original Windows version from Elf ;)). While japanese Switch version doesn't have this, apparently translated Switch version will be the same as PS4.

However nothing above affects PC version, which is said to be "uncensored". Still, it has 17+ rating. If I understand correctly what @Ramaladni wrote on vndb, there are sex scenes in the story, but without explicit CGs.

Spoiler

yuno_005_cs1w1_400x.jpg

That's fine with me. Incidentally, HCGs in original PC98 version also were rather mild, as all heroines were drawn with "barbie doll anatomy" - meaning no genitals at all (so no mosaics as well, because there was nothing to hide :P)

While I'm still lamenting the change of art style and voice actors (I'll be missing especially Kikuko Inoue and Aya Hisakawa :(), I'll probably give it a go once it's released. At least there's apparently option to switch to old soundtrack. I wonder how will the translation quality turn out, and how will it compare with TLWiki's version. 

Some more screenshots from homepage:

Spoiler

Crystar-Screenshot-2019-04-09-10-33-04.j

Yu-No-Screenshot-2019-04-09-11-35-51.jpg

Yu-No-Screenshot-2019-04-09-12-21-18.jpg

Yu-No-Screenshot-2019-04-09-12-02-48.jpg

Yu-No-Screenshot-2019-04-09-12-09-11.jpg

 

Edited by adamstan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

And here I am still unsure whether I should play this or the original version. :komari:

Remake is going to be less annoying gameplay wise (greying out exhausted choices, option to show all hotspots, and two more jewel slots) - so if you're okay with new art and voices, wait for the remake. Otherwise, play the original (by "original" I of course mean TLWiki's version with voice patch, as it's most complete version ever).

Edited by adamstan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@adamstan

Oh, now I realize you're the same guy from vndb. Thanks for chiming in there, the thread was getting a bit messy. I believe that making such a ruckus over one slightly censored CG (while keeping many other suggestive CGs intact, including one with pantsu in full view) makes the people who fight the harder battles look bad in comparison. Although it's not surprising that people distrust Spike Chunsoft after the fiasco that was Zanki Zero.

I'm not sure how much they cut out from the original H-scenes - to be honest, I've been trying to stay away from this release as much as possible, so I haven't really looked much into it. Going from what other people told me, and seeing CGs such as this one, it leads me to believe that they still exist in some form. There are other highly suggestive CGs, so I think it's a very fair assumption. Frankly, the H-scenes were the worst part of YU-NO. I've been reconsidering my position on this matter and decided that we're probably better off without them - some are downright respulsive, others are demeaning/disrespectful for the characters, others are completely normal run-of-the-mill H-scene. I, however, wouldn't want to be without H-scenes/nudity for the one or two scenes that are really good and had a high emotional impact on me when I read this a few years ago.

The remake has received high ratings (currently 83 for PSV and 84 for PS4 versions on EGS) so it's probably good. Even if there are no honorifics and such, I can trust this to be a good translation, if it were only as good as 428's. The artstyle puts me off, mostly because some of the characters look five years younger than they are supposed to, or because I feel a lot of personality was lost in the change, for certain characters. The point-and-click system seems to be adapted for modern sensibilities and for those people who don't want to glance at a walkthrough every five seconds. The protagonist is fully voiced, whereas this was already a thing on the Sega Saturn release (he was partially voiced).

I'm glad to see that people are showing love for the original version. If you end up playing it, I hope you stick with it despite its annoyances or flaws. At least for me, I felt that the journey was worth it. If you decide to play the new version, that's completely fine too. Not everyone has the patience to handle such terrible gameplay (good concept, extremely annoying in practice).

Edited by Ramaladni
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Ramaladni said:

Frankly, the H-scenes were the worst part of YU-NO.

Yeah. A few, as you say, were good and meaningful, but most were just pointless fanservice. Another mood-wrecking thing, connected with this, were pantyshot CGs used in serious moments

Spoiler

Like the picture of Ayumi grieving about the loss of her husband

 

8 hours ago, Ramaladni said:

The artstyle puts me off, mostly because some of the characters look five years younger than they are supposed to, or because I feel a lot of personality was lost in the change, for certain characters.

I agree. I think that new Mizuki's look is passable, and also Ryuuzouji is practically unchanged. Eriko's design is similar too. But the rest - not too good. Something horrible happened to Mio's face :o (however, she looks a bit better in the trailer, when lip-sync is in action)

9 hours ago, Ramaladni said:

The protagonist is fully voiced, whereas this was already a thing on the Sega Saturn release (he was partially voiced).

I think he was actually fully voiced in Saturn release, but the script in Saturn version was sligthly different from PC98/Win version. Unvoiced parts in TLWiki's version would be the lines that weren't present in Saturn release.

9 hours ago, Ramaladni said:

The point-and-click system seems to be adapted for modern sensibilities and for those people who don't want to glance at a walkthrough every five seconds.

I think that walkthrough still might be neccessary, but it should be easier to use it ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well the old version is still good enough like I say several time, although it's nice though for anyone else who already getting used to the anime graphic (2019 version, not 4 H-OVA that was written by some random writer who probably only see the characters and the premise and then use his imagination to write that).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Let's bump this thread, since the remake is released on Steam.

I'll probably give it a go some day, but I'm waiting for it to go on some sale, since current price is quite steep - I think the only VN more expensive than this on Steam is Clannad.

People who already seen it say that translation is decent enough to not worry about it ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm picking this up as well at some point, but it probably won't be anytime soon since I read the original pretty recently. Other than the confusing route system, I'd say it holds up really well to this day, with great art and music. Couldn't care less about the fact that h-scenes are cut from the remake, since they didn't really add to the experience, but I hope they've removed the awkward panty shots (mentioned earlier in this thread) as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Seraphim88 said:

I hope they've removed the awkward panty shots (mentioned earlier in this thread) as well.

From what I have seen in the available screenshots, it looks like they did, by slight changes either to the "camera" angle, skirt length or character poses in redrawn CGs. And yeah, they were really awkward at times.

Also, it looks that gameplay system has been revamped a bit. It eliminates pixel hunting by option to highlight all hotspots in the scene, and apparently paths in flowchart are color-coded for routes. Also, there are two(?) more jewels than in the old version.

Edited by adamstan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those are definitely some nice gameplay improvements.
I don't really dislike the new art style, but I prefer the old one and would have loved an option to use the old art and music (although I guess that would bring back the panty shots again, since I doubt they'd alter the original art. I guess you can't have it all. :'(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Seraphim88 said:

an option to use the old art and music

If I'm not mistaken, there's an option for old music. As for old art - original version has been released as a DLC for PS4 version. It would be nice, if they released it for Steam users too.

I browsed through screenshots on Steam. I'm fine with new backgrounds - they're really nice, but I wish they kept old character design.

Edited by adamstan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I'm satisfied with the translation so far, as well as the revamped OST, but the new character artstyle really is what could have been much better. Thankfully, after having watched someone play the remake for a few hours, I can safely say that you do get used to them in the end, at least, but I would still suggest newcomers to the game to experience the classic artstyle/original game, that is if they can tolerate the h-scenes.

Mages did seem to overlook something though with the new character artstyle: 

Spoiler

In the original game, Takeda has a questionable attire code during her night shifts which is related to her character lore, whereas in the remake she looks too casual for players to make that connection to know something is up with her. At least her day-shift still shows that her fashion sense is abnormal.

 

Edited by Lexyvil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm very interested in this new remake. The art of the old one was simply too outdated for me, so I can't exactly say that I'd miss the old art. I mean, I can somehow see the point of the old designs being a bit more striking when comparing the minimized portraits on VNDB. Their lighting is more crisp, while the new ones look a bit pale in direct comparison. But if I check out the full high resoultion screenshots on Steam then it looks vastly better.

Besides that, some of the old character designs look really weird:

4348.jpg

That looks more like alien from Mars to me. :blink:

On the other hand, there are also some that look better in direct comparison like this one:

4352.jpg

In that particular case, a simple color and resolution update would have given a better result I think.

However, the new characters are more detailed in the high res screenshots than in the minimized portraits and the backgrounds are so much better, so I definitely prefer the new art.

Edited by ChaosRaven
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

So I finished the prologue of Yu-No and to be perfectly honest I've little motivation to continue. Let's just address the elephant in the room, this is NOT a visual novel! It seems a bit like an adventure game, but that would require the system to make some sense, which is not the case here.

Overall, I'd call it an InfoPointClickige. In addition to your typical location screen with a text box at the bottom, there are usually about a dozen info points highlighting some points of interest. If you click them, you get an info dump of almost immeasurable value - something like "The sky is blue" - and  the great thing about them is that you can't click them just once but several times to get even more valuable information - like "There are also clouds". And it gets even better, if you clicked the point often enough it greys out to indicate there's no more information, but often enough you just have to click another info point often enough to get it active again to get 'even more' valuable information - like "And the sun is shining".

There are also direction points which you can use to change the location. But they usually only work if you've clicked enough info points, otherwise you get the information that you didn't click enough info points yet to continue (phrased a bit differently). It's also usually predefined which direction point you have to use, otherwise you get the information that you have to use a different direction point (phrased a bit differently).

In general info points are a lot more flexible than direction points since you can click them in arbitrary order. And they also allow you to interact with characters. You have info points on their mouth to talk with them and on boobs and buttocks to sexual harass them. Which is great since our protagonist is nicknamed Libido-kun (I'm not kidding) and you may guess three times what his most favorite hobby might be. Not that the other characters would be much better...

And did I mention that you also have to click the character mouths multiple times to get more text out of them? But fortunately there's also an auto mode, which will display all sentences of one info point click without interruption - for the rare cases when an info point click gives you more that one sentence. It's very helpful indeed! Gets the cringeworthy dialogs over even if you're still stunned of shock.

Granted, the dialogs get better towards the end of the prologue and there seems to be an interesting story buried deep below all those info points. But I think this is one of the rare cases where it's better to watch the anime. No idea who's able to read that mess. Seems to be made for Starcraft pros with an APM > 300 due to all the clicking.

Edited by ChaosRaven
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The story is worth the hassle. That said, I'd really recommend you use a guide for YU-NO, so you know exactly which things to click and how many times. I'd probably go insane if I'd tried going into it blind, considering all the different paths and jumping back and forth that is required to progress.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

The story is worth the hassle. That said, I'd really recommend you use a guide for YU-NO, so you know exactly which things to click and how many times. I'd probably go insane if I'd tried going into it blind, considering all the different paths and jumping back and forth that is required to progress.

I think the only thing that could make the current experience even worse would be to have to use a guide with it. The absolute minimum a VN has to offer for me is a somewhat consistent story flow, and that's impossible with this system. I rather go for the anime instead.

Edited by ChaosRaven
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Black99 said:

The anime adaptation is decent? Though I won't play this VN because I don't like VNs with gameplay. 

I've watched the first five episodes now and so far I'm liking it more than I thought I would. They toned down the ridiculous oversexualisation and the cringeworthy dialogs to a much more bearable level, which is a huge relief. Pacing seems a bit fast though, but that's to be expected when coming directly from the VN. I'd rate art and animation quality definitely above average. Surprisingly, the character designs look a lot more pretty in the anime than in the VN, which is a bit unexpected. The anime isn't rated particular high on MyAnimeList, but overall I'm liking it so far and it feels a bit underrated. I definitely don't regret my decision to have switched to the anime. Hope it stays that way... :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

The anime isn't rated particular high on MyAnimeList, but overall I'm liking it so far and it feels a bit underrated.

Yeah I noticed that, none of my friends have watched the series but I really don't care if is popular or not on MAL or other page. I read before that this novel was the inspiration of Steins;Gate and that is enough to get my attention, I'll add the anime to Plan to watch, maybe someday I'll watch the anime. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...