Scarlet Kaleidoscope Review - Top 10 Best Rated Visual Novels Translated in 2024
Entry posted by littleshogun in Best Rated Translated Visual Novels List
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For 2024, the first half is exciting, with several releases of known classics such as Kanon and Mashiro-iro Symphony. However, it slowed down in the latter half before the pace picked up again in December 2024. Anyway, as usual, I'll list the VNs that were translated in 2024. Of course, I may be subjective when I choose the VNs, so I'm sorry if your favorite VNs are not on my list. Like my past lists, the ranking and the scores of each visual novel can change in the future. For the info, the scores and the ranking of the VNs below will be according to the VNDB scores for each VN today (May 11th, 2025).
10. Kakenuke Seishun Sparking (VNDB 7.52)
Saga Planets tried to bring the lighthearted VN in 2020, and the result of the attempt is Kakenuke Seishun Sparking, or Forward to Our Sparking Youth in English, which Nekonyan uses as the subtitle. In Kakenuke, we have a young male MC, Tono Yuu, who was left alone with his younger sister by his parents. Left with no choice, Yuu became the provider for the family while he needed to study to get a scholarship at school, leaving him very exhausted every day. On top of that, his situation left him bitter, and he could only think about money instead of having fun. Seeing Yuu's situation, his nearest people are worried about him, so two of his friends, Hibiki and Riri, relentlessly recruit him to their respective clubs, with both clubs having the mission to enjoy youth in their ways. Of course, being money-minded, Yuu was hesitant to join the club because he needed to do his part-time job. Yet, Yuu will get involved in the club's activities despite his initial hesitation. For Kakenuke, while Saga Planets successfully brings lighthearted VN focusing on daily life in an ordinary setting, they still have some knack for writing the dramatic story, as seen in some parts.
9. Karenai Sekai to Owaru Hana (VNDB 7.66)
Back in 2023, someone established a fan translation group called Shinzou Translations. At first, most of their works were short and free VNs, such as Rinkaiten no Azrael and Nagi no Koi, before they worked on translating Karenai Sekai. Karenai Sekai is the first game from the developer, Sweet & Tea, which is quite ironic given the remaining VNs from the developer (Kemono Musume and Nekogami-sama) translated by Sekai Project. For the premise of Karenai Sekai, we have a young man, Shou, who travels with the little girl, Ren. One day, they arrive at a town full of flowers. Soon after, they meet with the sisters, Kotose, Haru, and Yukina, who open a cafe, and then Shou agrees to work there in exchange for a bed to sleep in. In the middle of the night, Shou saw the middle sister, Haru, going outside, and he followed her to the hill full of flowers. There, Shou saw Haru embracing a little girl, and afterward, the little girl turned into a flower. Knowing Shou saw her, Haru says she has her circumstances, and Shou can only respond he'll keep praying for the world to end. The game tone is quite somber, which is quite a departure from the writer's previous work, with said work being the well-known Nekopara.
8. Aoi Tori (VNDB 7.68)
Aoi Tori was announced in 2021 by Nekonyan, which made Purple Software work with three publishers at that time. While the translation and editing work went without much problem, Nekonyan found troubles with the engine work. Eventually, Purple Software felt the work was too long, so they asked Nekonyan to release Aoi Tori by April 2024, or the license would revoked. Seeing no choice, Nekonyan did their best to comply with the request by canceling the engine work and releasing the game in English, with the Steam version released in June 2024 because Valve rejected the initial build for the Steam version of Aoi Tori. Aoi Tori is about Ritsu, who lives as a priest in an all-girl Catholic school in the middle of nowhere. He has the power to give positive emotions over sex, so he occasionally gets asked for sex by desperate students, making him a little more than a gigolo. One day in his plain life, after he had sex with the desperate student, he somehow got a call from the devil. After the call, Ritsu encounters the cheerful 99-year-old vampire girl, Mary, who says she's back to her former house where Ritsu resides. From there, Ritsu's life starts to get more lively.
7. Amazing Grace -What Color is Your Attribute- (VNDB 7.69)
While Cabbage Soft produces Amairo Chocolate to compete with Nekopara, they also made several plot-focused VNs, one of which is Amazing Grace (available in English thanks to Shiravune). While the heroines look cute courtesy of Korie Riko as the artist, it has more than cute character designs, especially the story. The story is about Shuu, who has amnesia and stumbled into the town in the post-apocalypse world. The place itself has some peculiar situations, with the most important thing is the people were going all out to put the focus on art. Regardless, Shuu enjoys his life. At the start of Advent, Shuu and Yune (one of the heroines) eat the strange apples, which in the long run helps them a lot, seeing the town destroyed by the explosions at Christmas, with the apples giving them time travel ability to the Advent's beginning. So, with his time travel power, Shuu makes full use of it to save the town. After using the powers and failing to prevent the explosions several times, Shuu finally finds the town's secret together with his memories. While the story may not satisfy everyone, at least Amazing Grace has interesting talk about art and how to appreciate it.
6. Mashiro-iro Symphony (VNDB 7.71)
In 2009, Palette hired Izumi Tsubasu to do the art for their newest VN, Mashiro Iro Symphony, and her art is pretty good-looking. Afterward, Palette released the PSP version, and then it received an anime adaptation in 2012 with Kawamura Toshie (one of the Precure character designers) responsible for its beautiful art. In 2023, Palette decided to remake Mashiro Iro while at the same time also remaking the route for Sana (fan favorite character) from the PSP version, and somehow selling both the remake and Sana's route separately despite almost no reason to do so. A year after that, Shiravune localized the remake along with Sana Edition, and they released it with the English version keeping the Sprite Viewer feature, which is nice because somehow that feature was omitted in the other translated Palette's VNs (Nine series, Saku Saku, Otome Domain) despite no engine change. The story is quite simple; it's about the MC Shingo, who is about to attend an all-girls school that soon faces a merger. However, his road was not smooth sailing because the female students resisted the change. Still, Shingo tried his best to have a good relationship with the female students, and eventually, he managed to get close to them.
5. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (VNDB 7.79)
Before the Muv Luv franchise, Age had Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, aka Kiminozo, which they made in 2001 before they made the anime adaptation in 2003. While the anime saw some success overseas, it took them 20 years before they finally managed to release Kiminozo VN on Steam with English language support, and even then, they cut the sex scenes. While I know the main focus is the story, I understand if people complain about the sex scenes removal. Anyway, in Kiminozo, we have a group of friends, with three of them (Takayuki, Haruka, and Mitsuki) involved in a love triangle. Things get messier when Haruka becomes in a coma after an accident, and Mitsuki, who already fell in love with Takayuki, decides to take the chance to go out with Takayuki despite Mitsuki knowing that Takayuki already has Haruka as his girlfriend. With Takayuki being the nice guy and already in love with Mitsuki (and not to mention being depressed with Haruka in a coma), he decided to accept Mitsuki, which inevitably caused a lot of drama, especially after Haruka suddenly woke from her coma with she doesn't realize some times has passed since she was in an accident.
Additional Notes - I know the English release was censored with the publisher removed the ~15% of the script which consist of the sex scenes, but I decided to add this anyway. Moreso because we have the team who worked on adding the translated lines into the original 18+ version with said team also translate the sex scenes, and of course as soon as the team finished the project I'll delete the additional notes here just like when I added Aojashin in 2022 list.
4. Tsui no Sora Remake (VNDB 7.93)
One day, SCA-JI got the inspiration after reading the works of Frederich Nietzsche to write the psychological horror VN Tsui no Sora and released it in 1999. His Tsui no Sora was very successful, so much so that it was called one of three legendary psychological horror VNs in Japan, with the other two VNs being Sayooshi and Jisatsu 101. In 2009, SCA-JI tried to remake Tsui no Sora as Subahibi, which then took its own identity. Then, 21 years after the original Tsui no Sora release (in 2020), SCA-JI decided to do another remake for Tsui no Sora and managed to be quite similar to the original. The VN storytelling is identical to the original and Subahibi, with multiple persons showing how they live with the world that is about to end on the 20th day of the month (July). For the video, since there's no opening, I'll use the ending video for Yasuko's chapter, who in Tsui no Sora Remake became a much more important character (and cuter). By that, I mean SCA-JI did flesh out her character far more and explain her background in her chapter, which is interesting given that she is just a side character in the original and bordering cameo in Subahibi.
3. Hatsuyuki Sakura (VNDB 8.12)
When Saga Planets was under Visual Arts, they'd release a series of VNs called Four Seasons Games. Each VN represented one season (Coming x Humming for Spring, Natsuyume Nagisa for Summer, Kisaragi Gold Star for Autumn, and Hatsuyuki Sakura for Winter) with Niijima Yuu directing two of its games; Natsuyume Nagisa and Hatsuyuki Sakura, with both are said to be the best VNs in the series. Time passes, and some other games from Niijima (Majo Koi Nikki and Summer Pockets) are available in English. Yet, Hatsuyuki Sakura has not been available in English until now, with Nekonyan releasing it in December 2024. In Hatsuyuki Sakura, we have the school delinquent Hatsuyuki, who is rude and likes to drink alcohol. One day, at the beginning of December, he saw a girl wearing a white dress. Hatsuyuki approached her, and the girl said she wanted to search for her rabbit. Afterward, the girl introduced herself as Sakura. Two days later, Sakura transferred into the same class as Hatsuyuki, and his life started to change even though he was initially annoyed. Hatsuyuki Sakura is far more serious and dramatic than the other translated Saga Planets VNs, and the tone is quite somber in some parts.
2. Irotoridori no Sekai (VNDB 8.13)
This VN has one intricate history of translating it into English. Long story short, someone decided to try to translate it in 2011, only to be dropped. Then, in 2015, Shinku Translation (Nekonyan's precursor) expressed their love for the main heroine, Shinku, by translating this. In 2019, a publisher ran Kickstarter to fund the license, which barely reached the goal before the publisher crashed into the ground shortly after. Then, in 2022, Nekonyan managed to get the Irotoridori no Sekai license. After years of those happenings, Nekonyan finally released Irotoridori in February 2024, as they'd been hoping for in the first place. In Irotoridori, we have the amnesiac MC Yuuma with a superpower given by Shinku, the mysterious girl only visible to Yuuma. One day, he saw a girl about to jump from the lighthouse, and Yuuma rushed to save the girl. Then, the girl said she knew Yuuma and asked Yuuma to save her. From there, Yuuma tried to find out what kind of ordeal the girl was having and find a way to fulfill her request. Irotoridori no Sekai is the first part of the trilogy, with the second part, Irotoridori no Hikari, adding more of the story. That said, the story for the first part is complete to a degree.
1. Gin'iro Haruka (VNDB 8.21)
One day in August 2019, Tsurezurescan announced they'd been working with Gin'iro Haruka (Ginharu) after finishing Hoshiori in March 2019. Obviously, with them proven to be very fast with their past projects, people expected the full translation patch would be available shortly. Unfortunately, after they released the partial patch (which translated Bethly, Hinata, and Momiji routes), the translator, Trip, decided to drop the project in 2021 after he worked a bit on the fourth heroine, Yuzuki, routes, leaving the two routes, Yuzuki and Mizuha, untranslated. Afterward, the editor, Irru, searched for a new translator, and then he worked with the new group in 2022. Initially, the group was only interested in translating the other untranslated route, Mizuha, before they decided to finish what Trip started. Afterward, we saw progress in the works, which led to the full patch release in April 2024. For Ginharu, the staff does the same formula as Hoshiori, in which we'll see the romance story of the MC, Yukito, to adulthood. They also add the middle school story, so all five heroines can be said to be Yukito's childhood friends. If you worry about the drama like in HatsuKoi, rest assured there won't be any in Ginharu.
For more info, there are some VNs with better scores that I didn't list, and it's because those VNs are re-releases. That aside, as you can see, now both Irotoridori no Sekai and Hatsuyuki Sakura are available in English, which is nice seeing both have failed translation attempts in the past. Also, I may as well mention Aniplex, which they've gotten a bit more aggressive compared to the previous years, even though they still focused on Type-Moon VN, and I hope I can see more interesting titles from them in 2025. Lastly, I look forward to seeing what Nekonyan and Shiravune can release in 2025.
PS - Since there's a Canadian in Gin'iro Haruka, I'm changing "Ginban" from Ginban Kaleidoscope anime (with it also had a Canadian) into "Scarlet" with it is the English word of Shinku (Irotoridori main heroine), so we have "Scarlet Kaleidoscope" as the title.
Edited by littleshogun
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