Leaderboard

First, I should define what I consider to be 'old' VNs. I essentially define 'old' VNs by the 'ten year rule'. When ten years have passed, generally the cultural references, the artwork, and even the sound styles have changed enough to be almost completely distinct from the most modern VNs. At present, that means VNs made before 2007. Now, next I need to make a statement... I am not an art bigot. One of the most negative issues I've run across in dealing with newer VN readers is art bigotry. To be blunt, there are lots of people who won't read anything made before 2010 simply because the art style is so different. To those people I say... 'every era has its own taste'. While VN art has indeed gotten more refined in the ten years, to the point where it has gotten to where you hardly even notice the characters are drawn in the first place, I can straight-out say that quality art is quality art, regardless of the era. Now for sound... setting aside music, which really hasn't been refined at all in the last ten years (if anything, it has regressed, especially usage), voice-acting and sound effects have actually evolved a great deal in the last ten years... at least to the point that you are less likely run across the 'comical' sound effects common in a large portion of VNs ten years ago. Voice acting has mostly evolved in the sense that people that once would have become pros don't make it anymore, so the industry has become higher cost (for the developers) and higher quality (for the consumers). In that sense, I can understand some degree of prejudice. However, when it comes down to it... I'm a story addict. Yes, I became an otaku because of the way the Japanese treated animation art. However, it is the stories that have kept me going. Now, in my less than copious spare time, I've been re-reading some old VNs... and I've noticed a few things I probably would have missed a few years ago. 1. Slice-of-life was less oppressive ten years ago- I don't think I would have realized this if I hadn't taken this little trip to the past, but the excessively long slice-of-life scenes that define modern charage have been getting longer and longer per scene with every year. Part of this is probably because of the nostalgia quotient rising for the long-time otakus in comparison with how it was previously. However, it is a poisonous trend that is actually making the experience less pleasant and more tedious as time passes, unfortunately. 2. A well-drawn line can be as pretty as any hyper-quality modern artwork if done right- This is something I always asserted in private conversations, but I wasn't sure if it was pure nostalgia until I went back and actually re-experienced a few old VNs. Yes, the styles were somewhat cruder back then... but the aesthetics were, if anything, more distinct and beautiful in and of themselves. 3. Ero was weaker... except when it wasn't - To be blunt, the emphasis placed on erotic content and the effort put into it was far lower in non-nukige VNs ten years ago. Less interest went into making heroines more erotic and more was put into making situations erotic, probably to let the libido-poisoned brains of the average male actually look at the characters before they saw them naked, rather than focusing on projection oppai. That isn't to say the erotic situations weren't erotic... but there was a far stronger emotional element involved because of the way they handled the character designs outside of h-scenes. 4. A good story might age badly, but the ones that don't, don't- Some VNs lose all their attraction as they age and more modern VNs exceed them in every possible way. However, there are still gems out there that are as awesome now as they were the day they were made. Rejecting VNs simply because they are old is a short-sighted approach that makes me feel nothing but contempt, after my experiences of the last few months.

I'll tell you what I'm NOT playing - To Heart 2. After translating it and playing it endlessly and QC'ing it for a decade, I'm never touching it again unless some company wants to do an official localisation.

Personally i've read the Steam version. And while there are some not that great censor moments and the translation has its faults its became one of my most favorite visual novel reads ever. I was reluctant to play it at first to, due to all the comments but by the meeting in Chapter 1 near the beginning i was entranced and glued to my seat till i finished it all. Speaking of the translation while it certainly has a few issues its still miles better then the one for Chrono Clock, there are mistakes but at least it manages to pass the original feeling. That said i will probably try going for the JP vn's at one point i definitely want to try out the Shinsegumi fandisk. To be on topic so far my favorites this year where: Chusingura 46+1 (i read the steam one) Majikoi A series (from A1 to A5) Koihime Otome. I'm not really that much into nukige but so far Yokouso Sukebe Elf no Mori might be a strong canditate as well, if it keeps up this momentum.

Ha, that's true. I just want something good to read that I can get absorbed into. I'm enjoying Subahibi alright, and I've wanted to read ToHeart 2 since I was 13 (10 years ago). I saw the anime trailer on an old OnDemand type service, and when I looked into it I discovered visual novels for the first time. Might not be worth a 10 year wait, but hey, it's about time. As for Dies Irae, I've hear great things before the translation, and I'm excited to read something in a genre I don't have much experience with.

To Heart 2 and Dies Irae couldn't be more different in genre...

Nothing I've heard of so far... and it isn't that people don't like it. It is more like everyone nitpicks or has their favorite axe to grind. Also, over-hyping. I love Dies Irae... but I never named it my favorite VN. In Japanese, it was an exhilarating read that stretched my knowledge of grammar and vocab when I originally read it (before the Amantes version came out). In English... it kind of feels like they tried too hard to keep every aspect of Masada's style when they translated it at times, though it is still a fairly good translation (edit: as translations go, that is). Anyway, I'm more or less resigned to waiting until December or later for my physical copy, and the 18+ definitely won't release on time, based on my experiences with vndb dating where there isn't a solid day set. Edit: I honestly am not in a hurry... but then, I played the ero-version before I played the later, non-ero ones, so I know what to expect. Light's h-scenes tend to be hit or miss... some are really good, some are funny, and some are outright boring. Dies Irae's h-scenes tend to be vanilla outside of the fact that it is sex under stress. The exceptions are Kei's h-scenes, which I thought were hilarious... and Rusalka's, of course.

Reminiscing on that time. What a game. I can't believe it's been 10 years. Soundtrack is still a masterpiece. also some rtj

No problem... I avoided fantasy settings because I got the impression you wanted to keep away from the 'impossible' and improbable here, lol.

Nobody does romance like Tone Works does it, so I'm going to come out straight and say that I can't give you another game that handles it the same way. However, I can give you some games with excellent romance stories that touch the heart without going flying off into fantasy. Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no (nakige) Komorebi no Nostalgica (science-fiction, very emotional) Natsuiro Recipe Hikoukigumo no Mukougawa Lovesick Puppies

I knew this had to be more than a coincidence you posting from that game so I went back and checked reddit and sure enough you were the one attempting to translate it. Welcome

The history of visual novels in Japan is sort of irrelevant if your project will be translating an original English VN. Japanese and English VNs are almost two completely different genres: the former are primarily eroge, while the latter are not. English VNs also tend to be more focused on interactive elements and choices. To contextualize your topic, I would start with the introduction of visual novels on Steam, which was relatively recent: 2012 or so? If you want to discuss Japanese VNs, you can narrow your scope to something doable by focusing on the ones that have been released on Steam. For extra credit, discuss the censorship that occurs when media crosses cultural boundaries, and how that's impacted the genre.

Scripting comes before testing. Testing and beta testing are the same thing. Beta testers play on an actual build of the game and their duties involve proofreading and testing for stuff involved in script implementation, like lines that display incorrectly, are cut off, that kind of stuff. They also test the program itself, making sure that there are no bugs or crashes. You need the script in the game to do this or else there's not much point. The main effort involved in "scripting" is making sure the game works with English text on a English locale computers without any issue. Sometimes, this actually involves rewriting the entire game engine from scratch. This is often what's happening when a game is stuck in "scripting" for a long time. Another reason for it to be stuck there is sometimes the Japanese developers actually handle all the technical work and the process of requesting features/changes and waiting for Japan to implement them can take a very long time depending on the company. MG not wanting to rely on this process is one of the reasons they started reprogramming many games with their own engines in Unity. Once the programming groundwork is laid, updating the actual game script into a live build of the game tends to be not much effort at all, so there's no real reason for them to wait until after proofreading to do that tech work. This is true sometimes even with amateur projects. On Dracu-Riot, it takes us no more than a minute to get the game running on the latest version of our scripts.

Looks like you'd stuck at Emelita's route there, considering that Quest 11 was only available at Emelita's route. Anyway, to finish that quest just get 1 Ripe Apple from the Yuidora Woodland lvl 2 map, 1 Undine Tear from the Undine (The monster at lvl 4 map Lake Shisetika) drop, and 1 Qualite Branch from Dijenel Bordeland lvl 22 map - which all of those were random drop, but I think it shouldn't take much time to gather those three. After you got those three, then you could make the wine and finish quest 11. As for the rest, it'll be clear if you advance through the chapters although to complete quest 52 you must level Melodiana to level 35 before Chapter 8. As for Yuela sword quest, it will be finished at Chapter 7 later automatically.

Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashino