Leaderboard

Chapter 2: Death In The City Members in this chapter: “Tch. Where did that little worm go?” VirginSmasher came to a halt as he scanned the area. The blazing sun made the asphalt below his feet feel like liquid magma, and the light from the sun reflected in the countless windows around him, making it even harder to spot his target. VirginSmasher had been one of the Fuwanovel members picked for the second week of the death game, and he had already been caught in a fight with another user. But, after a few minutes of battle, his opponent had fled, and VirginSmasher lost sight of him. “I was this close, too…” Kicking the ground in frustration, VirginSmasher made the asphalt below his feet explode into a million pieces, sending rubble and dust flying around the area. His powers were quite simple. His strength and agility had been increased tenfold, essentially making him a human wrecking ball. Problem was, the person he had been chasing had some kind of teleportation ability, making it impossible for VirginSmasher to land a hit. “Ugh… What’s with this arena though?” VirginSmasher looked up at the sky. He was standing in the centre of a massive city, in the middle of summer. It had to be at least thirty degrees in the sun, so all the moving around made him feel like he was melting. “Last week they got a nice and cool forest, yet we’re stuck in this hellhole. What a jok— Huh?!” Sensing something approaching from above, VirginSmasher sidestepped and turned to face whatever it was. Two arrows graced his throat, and slammed into the ground behind him, producing two large holes in the concrete. A thin trail of blood ran down VirginSmasher’s neck. Had he moved just a fraction of a second later, he’d be dead. “Heh. Looks like I got some new pray.” VirginSmasher said with a smile, as he looked up at his new opponent. “...” Sitting on the top of a nearby telephone pole was Alden_0023, pointing a strung bow at VirginSmasher. Alden wore a grey cloak, with a quiver on his back and a range of different throwing knives stuck to his belt. “I won’t miss a second time.” Alden stated in an indifferent tone, and before VirginSmasher could even move an inch, Alden sent another arrow towards his target. The arrow soared through the air with incredible velocity. VirginSmasher barely managed to react in time, slamming the arrow out of the air with his palm. The arrowtip dug into his hand, ripping through the flesh like it was butter. “Hmph!” Not bothered by the pain one bit, VirginSmasher slammed his right hand into the ground, and a large crack in the concrete moved towards the telephone pole, which started to collapse moments later. Alden leapt in the air, and after a graceful backlip, he reached for another two arrows, and fired them both at his target, before landing on another telephone pole about ten meters away from the previous one. This time VirginSmasher managed to dodge the arrows completely, and jumped towards his opponent. It was an impossible leap for a normal human. The ground below his foot cracked, and VirginSmasher’s body shot forward. In the air, he thrust his healthy hand towards Alden’s chest, then, before hitting his opponent, he twisted his arm sideways and opened his palm, producing a shockwave which pushed Alden off the telephone pole. “Kuh…” Alden groaned in pain, but still managed to fire another arrow at VirginSmasher before he landed on the ground. While the arrow did not hit VirginSmasher, it distracted him for long enough to keep him off Alden’s tail for another second. That second was all Alden needed. With incredible speed, he sprinted towards a nearby building, and jumped up on the wall. As if his feet were layered with glue, Alden ran straight up the wall, firing several arrows at VirginSmasher in the process. “Tch, the hell is with this guy?!” Dodging the arrows by a hair's breadth every time, VirginSmasher danced around on the ground below as the barrage of arrows rained down from above. “Guess I’m switching to long range attacks as well. Hmph!” Grabbing a nearby piece of rubble, VirginSmasher threw it up at Alden as hard as he could. The concrete block split up into several smaller pieces as it moved towards its target, smashing into the building with a loud bang. Broken glass and rubble fell towards the street below, as a large chunk of the building was torn apart from the impact. “Did I get him?” VirginSmasher squinted, trying to find Alden in the middle of the chaos. He soon spotted the shadow of a person rushing out from the rubble, and right after, several small objects flew towards him at great speeds. “Tch, more arrows?!” VirginSmasher prepared for another volley of arrows, but what was thrown at him was in fact just some rubble from the building. “Shit!” Realizing the attack was just a distraction, VirginSmasher spun around. “Got you.” Alden released the bowstring, and sent an arrow flying towards VirginSmasher’s exposed back. Although he did notice Alden’s trick in time for him to turn around, he did not manage to dodge the arrow, which dug into VirginSmasher’s chest. “Guaah!” VirginSmasher reached for the arrow, and snapped it in half. Then, he grabbed the arrowhead which was sticking out of his back, and ripped the arrow out of his torso. Meanwhile, Alden landed on the ground about twenty meters away. Although his physical abilities were heightened, he had still fallen about ten meters, so he needed a second to collect himself after the landing. “You little bastard!” VirginSmasher rushed towards Alden, filled with rage. The pain from the wound in his chest only fueled his anger. Putting all of his remaining strength into one last attack, VirginSmasher charged his enemy. “You don’t… give up, do you?” Scrambling to his feet, Alden reached for another arrow. While he had not been injured from the fall, it had knocked the air out of him, making it difficult for him to avoid VirginSmasher’s sudden charge. “Haah!” VirginSmasher lunged at Alden with everything he had. Alden barely managed to throw himself to the side, dropping his bow in the process. VirginSmasher’s hand collided with the wooden bow, smashing it into a million pieces. “Heh, what are you going to do now?” VirginSmasher spat out, as he watched the pieces of Alden’s weapon fall to the ground before him. “This.” A sharp pain spread through VirginSmasher’s body, as Alden seemingly threw something in his direction. “Huh…?” Looking down at his own body, he saw three throwing knives buried into his chest. “Well, fuck…” The world around VirginSmasher grew cloudy, but he did not collapse right away. “I’ll at least… take you with me…” Raising his trembling arm into the air, VirginSmasher tried to charge at Alden one last time, but before he could move, another set of throwing knives dug into his torso. “...” As the life left VirginSmasher’s body, he managed to flip off Alden before his dead body collided with the ground below. Meanwhile, on the top of the tallest building in the city: Two figures stood face to face on the roof of a skyscraper, located in the centre of town. They were too high up to see or hear the commotion happening below. “Heh, so you finally caught up to me, huh? I was hoping I could avoid fighting...” Mr Poltroon paused and eyed his opponent, adjusting one of his white gloves. “I’d especially like to avoid fighting you of all people.” With a wry smile, Mr Poltroon took a step back, moving towards the ledge of the skyscraper. “... Sorry.” Snapping his fingers, Kaguya created a force field around the roof, trapping the two of them inside. “*Sigh*... That’s what I thought. Well, I guess only one of us gets out of this thing.” Mr Poltroon tilted his head to the side, and smiled wryly once again. “I don’t suppose I could talk you out of this?” Kaguya didn’t respond, and instead brought his hands together. His entire figure was drowned in a bright white light, and the outline of a moon appeared above his head. "<蓬莱の薬>" <Hourai elixir> A small flask appeared in Kaguya’s hands, and he quickly brought it to his mouth, emptying the bottle in a second. Hourai elixir, also known as the elixir of life. Those who drinks from it are, in short, immortal for a set period of time. Even if Poltroon destroyed Kaguya’s body while he was under the effect of the potion, he would just regenerate. In other words, Poltroon had to stall until the potion wore off if he wanted to win. Summoning his trusty cane into his hands, Poltroon struck a cool pose and prepared for battle. “I suppose it would be rude to attack first, so I’ll wait for you, kind sir.” “You’re fighting with that?” Kaguya looked at Poltroon’s cane. “What, is it not to your liking? I find it quite dashing, personally.” Kaguya shook his head, and jumped towards Poltroon, and unleashed a flurry of punches at an impossible speed. Poltroon blocked each punch with the back of his cane, deflecting the attacks with ease. “Not bad. I expected nothing less from one of my underlings.” A smile spread across Kaguya’s face. It would not be such a short battle after all. Kaguya attacked again, but this time he conjured two blades of pure moonlight in his hands, slashing at Poltroon’s body. Still, Poltroon deflected the attacks with his cane. The blades did not leave a single scratch in the wood. Needless to say, it was no ordinary stick. With each attack Poltroon stopped, Kaguya unleashed another. Realizing he would eventually get hit if he didn’t do something, Poltroon leapt backwards, distancing himself from Kaguya. As Kaguya was about to give chase, Poltroon thrust the tip of his cane into the ground, creating four large circles before him. Kaguya was not sure what they were, but did not really care, because of his immortality. Even if it did end up hurting him, he’d just heal right back anyways. Ignoring the suspicious circles, Kaguya rushed towards Poltroon. The moment Kaguya’s foot grazed one of the circles, a powerful force puashed Kaguya’s body to the ground, pinning him down. A gravity trap. “Kuh… You think this will hold me?” Kaguya’s body started shaking, as he used everything he had to force himself onto his feet. With sluggish movements, he moved off the circle, and was released from the magic infused in the trap. “Guess it won’t be that simple.” Poltroon raised his cane, and prepared for another one of Kaguya’s onslaughts. The two moderators were caught in an intense fight for over twenty minutes. Kaguya was on the offensive the entire time, while Poltroon deflected most of the attacks coming his way. He did get a few hits in himself, too. But, each attack that hit Kaguya was useless as long as the elixir was in effect. The roof they were standing on had been all but destroyed, and the barrier kaguya had raised was long gone. “Haah, haah, haah…” “Haah… Haah…” The two were catching their breath, taking a short break from the intense fight. “It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to finish you like this.” Kaguya raised his arm above his head, and the sky above grew cloudy. Thick clouds moved in front of the sun, leaving the city covered in darkness. “I have to praise you for pushing me this far. But, this is where it ends.” “<満月>” <Full Moon> Kaguya started hovering above the ground, and slowly floated up into the sky. Above him, the clouds began to disperse, but the sun was nowhere in sight. In its place was the moon, dyed in an ominous shade of red. Large spheres of moon energy formed around Kaguya’s body, and with a snap of his fingers, Kaguya sent the spheres raining down onto Poltroon. “Hmph!” Poltroon knocked the first two out of the air, sending them crashing into the adjacent buildings. But, he could not stop them all. Eventually, one of the spheres hit Poltroon’s body, knocking him through the roof, hurling him down into the floor below. “Ouch…” Lifting his body up from the rubble, Poltroon tried to come up with a plan. If he didn’t do something, Kaguya would turn him into dust within a few minutes. Poltroon made his way towards a nearby window, where he had a clear view of Kaguya, who was sending more spheres into the building. Explosions erupted all around Poltroon. It was only a matter of time before one of them hit him. Looking up at Kaguya, then down towards the street below, Poltroon made up his mind. He had no choice but to flee. “Well, here goes nothing.” Poltroon brushed some rubble off his shoulder, then jumped forward, crashing through the window before him. Tumbling towards the asphalt below, Poltroon knocked down another sphere, which Kaguya shot after him. “Running, are we?” Kaguya gave chase, flying after Poltroon, sending several spheres towards him. Poltroon kept knocking them out of the air, as he approached the ground below. “I won’t let you get away.” Kaguya kept on firing sphere after sphere towards Poltroon. Meanwhile, the street below was growing closer and closer. The situation was dire. Even if Poltroon slowed his fall and landed safely, he would simply not be able to run away from Kaguya. In a desperate attempt to slow him down, Poltroon conjured several magic circles along the wall of the skyscraper beside them. Kaguya saw Poltroon’s trick coming, and easily avoided the traps by simply stopping his fall before he reached them, hovering about thirty meters above the ground. But what Kaguya did not expect was that the spheres he fired towards Poltroon were also affected by the traps. They were pulled in by the magical circle, and large explosions erupted all over the bottom part of the building, making the already damaged skyscraper collapse completely. Hundreds of tons of rubble, steel and glass tumbled towards the two moderators. Poltroon, who had somehow managed to brace his fall with a spell, just barely managed to move away from the rubble before it crashed into the ground. But, since Kaguya was thirty meters above, he did not have as much time, and the rubble pulled him down with it, pinning him below the massive pile of debris. Kaguya's immortality potion was still in effect, but even someone as strong as him would not be able to lift the hundreds of tons that rested on top of his body. Once the elixir’s effect ran out, he would be crushed to death by the rubble. “... Phew.” Mr Poltroon let out a sigh, and started to walk along the street, his entire body aching from the exhausting battle. As Kaguya’s power began to vanish, the clouds he had conjured dispersed completely, and the sun once again began to shine down on the city. A few minutes later, across town: Weiterfechten was walking through a back alley, lifting up his top hat as he wiped som sweat from his brow with the cuff of his victorian tuxedo. His attire did not exactly help against the scorching heat. He had seen a battle unfold a few blocks away some minutes ago, and chose to get away from them as quickly as he could, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. While a battle between two members could mean a possible easy kill for him if he snuck up on them, it was apparent from a mile away that the two fighting were not normal members. Weiterfechten had fled as soon as the giant balls of energy began raining from the sky. “Hm?” Noticing something stir in the darkness a few meters in front of him, Weiterfechten came to a stop, and reached for his fencing sword, which was resting in a hilt over his left hip. “Who’s there?” A small girl walked out from the shadows of the dark alley, gazing at Weiterfechten with an emotionless expression. Had he not watched last week’s game, Weiterfechten might have thought of the little girl as a defenseless bystander. But, he knew better. He had seen the little girl stab her “ally” in the back in cold blood, laughing. “Funny I should run into you here, little girl. The person you killed last week happened to be a good friend of mine. I shall take this opportunity to avenge him.” Kiriririri opened her small hand, and a beautiful sword with a silver blade and a golden hilt appeared out of thin air. She then brought the blade behind her head, and took a swing at Weiterfechten, who quickly drew his own sword and blocked the attack. Despite being a little girl, she was strong. The impact of her attack made Weiterfechten take a step back, and a dull pain ran down his arm. She was no ordinary girl, that much was obvious. “初ノ型〈紫電〉” <First strike: Purple Lightning> Kiriririri whispered and closed her eyes. Then, her blade glowed in a purple light, and she cut at the place Weiterfechten had been standing. Being a skilled fencer, Weiterfechten jumped out of the way on instinct, which was smart of him, as a deep cut ran through the ground where he had been standing just moments before. The light that erupted from the girl’s sword looked like lava melting its way through steel, as steam rose from the cut in the ground. While the girl seemed to lack technical skills with her sword, she made up for it in brute strength. If Weiterfechten was going to win, he had to wait for the right opportunity, preferably right after the girl used one of her attacks. Testing her out a bit, Weiterfechten thrust his blade at the girl. Like he thought, she moved awkwardly, and barely managed to deflect his attack. But, as he tried to move in for another thrust, the girl’s blade began to glow once again, and she unleashed another purple ray of light from her sword. The light grazed Weiterfechten’s jacket, setting it on fire. He ripped off the jacket in a fluster, and threw it onto the ground. “Careful with that thing. You’ll poke someone’s eye out.” Weiterfechten pointed at Kiriririri’s sword. “You know, I really liked that jacket. Now I’m even more angrier.” Weiterfechten sent several precise attacks Kiriririri’s way, trying to prevent her from unleashing more of her pesky attacks. He focused on stabbing at her right side, forcing her to keep her dominant arm back, which in turn, meant she couldn’t raise her sword. “二ノ型〈流星〉” <Second strike - Meteor> Pushed back by Weiterfechten’s onslaught, Kiriririri whispered the name of a different attack. Thinking he’d be fine as long as she couldn’t use her sword, Weiterfechten kept pushing forward. Then… “Whoa!” Barely managing to notice before it was to late, Weiterfechten jumped awkwardly to the side, as a purple circle started forming around his legs. Right as he jumped out of the circle, a rock dyed in the same color as the circle crashed into the ground, digging about a meter into the dirt before it came to a stop. Thick smoke rose from the small crater, making Weiterfechten cover his mouth with his arm. “What the hell… Hm?” Looking at the girl again, Weiterfechten noticed that she was breathing heavier than before. While that could just have been because she was dodging his attacks, another idea popped into his mind. Could it be that the special attacks she was using tired her out? If that was the case, all he had to do was keep avoiding her strikes, and he should be able to land a killing blow. “Phew… Hmph!” After catching calming his own breathing, Weiterfechten stepped forward, once again resuming his attacks. Kiriririri did not even try to deflect his attacks with her sword, and dodged them the best she could instead. Although her movements were awkward, they were really fast, so landing a hit became quite challenging, even for someone as skilled as Weiterfechten. Her small build made the task even harder, as his target was much smaller than he was used to. Kiriririri suddenly took a step back, and her blade began to glow again. “Here it comes.” Weiterfechten thought to himself, and prepared for another one of Kiriririri’s attacks. Kiriririri brought her blade above her head, and sent the biggest ray of light yet flying towards Weiterfechten. It moved faster than the previous attacks, too, making it even harder to dodge. Moving out of its way by a hair’s breadth, Weiterfechten felt the heat of the purple light searing his skin as it rushed past him. “Guh…” Staggering for a second due to the incredible heat, Weiterfechten took a moment to regain his balance, then moved in for a counterattack while Kiriririri herself was recovering from the powerful attack. “Hmph!” Weiterfechten thrust his fencing sword towards the little girl’s chest. The blade moved towards Kiriririri at high speed, and for the first time in the entire fight, Kiriririri’s expression was filled with emotion, as her eyes shot open in fear. The sudden resistance of human flesh made Weiterfechten’s arm come to a halt. But, he had not hit the target he expected. Kiriririri had moved her left arm in front of the blade in the last second, and the tip of Weiterfechten’s sword had been stopped a few inches from Kiriririri’s body. Fresh blood ran down her arm, and her expression twisted in pain. Nevertheless, she raised her right arm high above her head, gripping the hilt of her sword firmly. 終ノ型〈天絶閃衝(ラスト・ パフェ)〉 <Final strike - The last Parfait > After she stated the attack’s ludicrous name, her blade lit up in a brilliant purple light, and Kiriririri cut at Weiterfechten’s body. Weiterfechten jumped back, letting go of his own sword, to at least avoid the attack, but it was no use. The glowing blade grew longer, like it was chasing him, and even though he jumped a good meter and a half back, the blade reached his body with ease, carving into his flesh, making fresh blood sprout from his chest. “Graaagh!” Letting out a primal scream, Weiterfechten collapsed. "Hehe." Kiriririri looked down at Weiterfechten's corpse, and chuckled. Wildcards This Week? Yes (A user has recieved a second life. Read details about wildcards here.) Dead This Week: Still Alive: Hope you enjoyed! See you again next week! (Let me know if you find any issues/ inconsistencies!)

Chapter 2 is done! Read it here:

1: I mean, you will be losing out on the original intent of the writer, and great aspects of the work. This is pretty self explanitory, really. 2: A great translation is both accurate, and reads nice and fluently in the language it was translated into. When you're reading a good translation, you should feel like what you're reading could just as well have been written natively in the language it was translated into. You should not "feel" the source language lingering in the line. (Something you will see lots of when the translation is very literal.) 3: In terms of textual accuracy, it becomes impossible for people without Japanese knowledge to know when a translation is bad. You can't gauge the accuracy of a translation if you don't understand the source material, after all. In cases where there are big issues with accuracy, (like If my heart had wings,) you'll generally see a big outrage on any kind of VN related forum/ website, so just scanning Fuwanovel or similar sites will be enough to find out if TLs are "bad" in that regard. As for translations that are technically accurate, but are just bad in terms of English writing/ have incredibly literal translations that create a hot mess of crap, (Libra,) you should be able to tell yourself, really. Like, just read some of these examples from Libra. It should be fairly obvious that this is a bad translation. Example 1, example 2, example 3.

Confession: I think I spend way too much time in these forums that, if someone ever screams "Maggie!" irl, I'll probably turn my head and look around thinking someone's calling me.

I tried playing fault - milestone one and jesus, it was SO BORING. The art was fine, but all the explanation about the magic system was dumped in the beginning of the game and it drove me bonkers. I couldn't even make out of the prologue. (and i have the sequel too, ffs) All that info dump would've never been allowed if I sent it off to my editor =_=;;;;

Hello, everyone! I'm Fin and I'm a writer by trade, but currently stepping away from writing for the foreseeable future, to work on my childhood dream, which is working on video games I live near Shanghai, but I'm moving to Ho Chi Minh at the end of June and then I'm off to Taipei in December, hopefully for a while. (My SO is an international school teacher, so we kind of wander around the world like pirates) I'm a big fan of otome games, my first one being Angelique on the GBA...(haha, I can't believe how old I am). I used to be a console player, but have recently gotten into computer VNs and otome games. Anyways, I'm really glad to be here and I hope to get along with everyone!

SOMEONE STOP THAT LOLI!!! Since Shikomizue died and I'm not that narcissistic, I'm rooting for Poltroon! I can't wait for Zaka, Fiddle, Lesiak and me to appear, what if we even appear in the same week?

We have surprise update, and yes they finally release Renna's patch. Congratulation for the release, and if you want to get the patch, here's the link at Tsurezure's site. You can also read Trip's thought in regard of translating this here, and not surprisingly he still bitter about Maki's route. Well have fun in regard of Tsujidou, and once again don't expect too much of Majikoi here. PS - For the next plan, they'll take a bit of hiatus before going on HatsuKoi append disk.

They all do. They don't just employ someone without knowing if what they translate is accurate or not. Even with our fan translations we test the translators and editors to make sure they're doing a job up to our standard. That doesn't translate (pardon the pun) into them always creating good works in the real world. Translation is an art form, not a science, and there are two main ways to get a good translation - either the translator themselves knows the language itself well and is a writer in their own right and can produce something that is polished from their first pass and only really needs proofreading, OR the translator knows the language itself well and produces something relatively literal and stilted but has a superb editor who is a writer in their own right and is masterful at massaging a stilted translation into a polished written work. Either way, the translator MUST know the language they're translating from very well, AND the last person to put stylistic touches to the work is a writer themselves. The finest novels always get this treatment, and some of the most popular novels have had multiple translations that people debate about which version is the best. The movie world is mixed, with high profile film getting good translators but kids movies, animation etc. getting wildly variable treatment. In the low budget world of VNs there may well be people who know the language well through study, experience, and exposure, but it's unlikely these translators are writers. It's even less likely the localisation companies will find and employ a high quality editor who's also a writer. However the VNs were clearly written by people with writing skills (at least the better ones.) I'm currently working on a new fan project that I happily subjected myself to a translation test for since it's a high profile work and even I wasn't sure if my translation was good enough to do the work justice. To answer the OP's question - in short the quality of work you're reading simply doesn't match what was written. Translation is a lossy process and the worse the translation and editing is, the more is lost. If it starts out a masterpiece in its native language, you want the localisation to be one, but a masterpiece may end up coming across as a mediocre read. A decent work could end up being substandard, and an average work could end up being unreadable trash. In the worst case scenario, with the most lossy translation process, a masterpiece ends up being unreadable trash.

I picked muv luv alternative up in the sale a couple of weeks ago, and omg why have I put off reading this vn for so long!?? Actual spoilers: The story is getting dark, real dark and I'm typing this as I wait for my kids to sleep, eagerly waiting to continue this journey. That image though, and that sound...

Also Bible Black (both anime and VN.) An oldie, but if outlandish themes is what is wanted, then it's hard to pass over it.

Majo Koi Nikki has been a real eye opener for me regarding quality translation and the fact that translation is a lot more than just "write the same words in a different language". I read a section after it had been translated and it was ok. The story was certainly there and for the most part better than those labeled as "bad translations". However the next time I read the very same section, it had been edited and now the contents happens to be the very same thing. The same events, the same dialogue, the same descriptions. While it may sound like it changed very little, it actually changed everything. The wording had become different, the flow of text feels a lot better, the flow between lines feels more fluently. This makes the flow of reading completely different and you will end up wanting to know what happens next on a whole different level. Usually the first time you read something will be the best reading experience because you are spoiled the next time. It wasn't in this case. How the story is told matters a whole lot more than first meets the eyes. I'm not qualified to tell if a VN is translated properly from Japanese unless it's downright horrible, such as mixing up names of characters or use Engrish. I have seen one case where one word was left in romaji and when I looked it up, it had a proper translation, which was spot on in the context. However I did something else at some point, which is interesting in this context. At some point the movie Frozen was the big thing and I got talked into watching it. I did so in English. Later I ended up watching it as a group activity and it was translated. Despite being claimed to be a good translation, it sucked and killed the movie. I then looked around to figure out translation quality in as many languages as possible and it turns out that from what I can tell, most if not all translations seems to be of questionable quality. They seem rushed. When word by word translation isn't possible, you have to make decisions and it feels like whoever made those decisions didn't know the movie well enough. This killed all the minor details in the dialogue as well as consistency. As a result, I would go as far as to say which movie you watched depend on which language you used when watching it and English is significantly better. It's still not a movie I would recommend though. It's just a decent platform for translation accuracy observations because they at least tried to do a better job with the localizations than movies usually get. As for translations of VNs: the quality varies greatly and there is no question that a good translation is a much better reading experience than a poor one. Identifying poor ones can be an issue because the only way to tell for sure is to be able to read the untranslated version, which defeats the purpose of a translation. You can rely on what other people write online, but then you have to remember that there are people who studied Japanese and proclaim that the lazy people who didn't deserve poor translations and they basically troll the talks about translation quality. I have seen claims going as far as claiming translations should change the story to punish people for not reading Japanese and group X should be banned from releasing anything because they use UK English. There is also the gem that all translated VNs should be rewritten to fit US culture and if you don't live in the US you have no business reading VNs. What worries me the most is that the trolls delivering those statements were at least the time professional translators. It doesn't sound good that it is apparently possible to buy an official translation done by somebody who believes readers should be punished with poor translation quality because they can't read the sacred language of VNs.

If you think that's bad, I'm currently investing $100 a month into the research of genetically engineered catgirls for domestic ownership .

The majority of Japanese-made otome games seem to have heroines in high school...I mean, okay, high school is kind of seen through rose-lenses there, but ffs, the majority of otome game players in JP (and here now) are older now. I want older heroines. College is acceptable, but workspace otome romances are also very much welcome. (this is why I'm designing my own game) Voltage has some pretty good ones, as well as Solmare, but those haven't really made the transition from mobile to CPU yet. (then again, the majority of casual gamers don't really play on computer...)

They’re not 4kids until they replace Cross Channel’s OP with a rap

For the last few months, I’ve published reviews and top lists, presenting worthwhile or interesting OELVNs that usually have little presence on Fuwa and don’t get discussed as much as they deserve. From the very beginning, however, my goal was to focus not only on the games themselves, but also the people behind them – the independent creators and small studios that make the core of the Western VN market. Today, I present you with the first “Developer Spotlight” post, where I’ll be talking to Jackie M., the founder of Reine Works, authors of multiple yuri and otome VNs and the studio behind the recently-published otome title Seven Districts of Sin: The Tail The Makes the Fox, about the game’s somewhat-turbulent release and the realities of today’s OELVN market. Be sure to check out my review of the game first, where I also touch on its unusual appearance on Steam. ------------------------------------------------- Plk Lesiak: Hello and thank you for agreeing to this interview! Let’s start with your latest VN. It’s pretty rare for me to be the first person to rate a game on VNDB, especially four months after its release. What happened to The Tail Makes the Fox that it went so much below the radar of the VN community? Jackie M.: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are nearly as many users on VNDB who rate otome games, as compared to anything that could be construed as aimed at men. I took a quick look at some other developers' titles out of curiosity, and it seems that female-aimed titles in general tend to have very few votes. Funnily enough, I can confirm that we do get sales referrals from VNDB. We've had a few of them. PL: For a few months, your VN was only available on Itch.io, a platform usually associated with free games. Regardless of other plans, what was your experience of trying to sell your title there? JM: Itch.io isn't really a storefront where a developer can make a profit unless the game in question is very low budget, nor should they particularly expect to, what with the smaller userbase. From when pre-orders opened before release till today, itch.io sales have only amounted to roughly 1/4 of the game's development cost. That said, we do like it, because it isn't subject to a lot of the restrictions that similar shops are, and transferring earned funds out is also much quicker than anywhere else that I'm aware of. We just wouldn't recommend that anyone only ever sell their games there. Blossoms Bloom Brightest Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

Fate Stay Night wrong yet again.

Finally a portrayal of myself I can actually enjoy. Terrifically done. You are deserving of all the praise. Also, I have cause to doubt I am both dead and alive. Good job, survivors. Please continue to endeavour in living. All others, my condolences.

Oh well. Hatsukoi was a terrible VN anyways so I don't really care about what they do with those. Then they're doing Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai, which I'm avoiding like the plague because over 50 hours of SoL sounds like a goddamn nightmare.

Wonderful read! :3 Congrats to the winners and I hope I'll go down just as gloriously as this week's losers when my time comes.

Oh, yeah... I literally couldn't sleep at night after I got to that scene.

Welp, we are on the same boat, kinda I'm still reading unlimited, though I hope to catch up soon. For now I can say that it's at least a nice change of pace. Let's see if I can get to Alternative ASAP, now that here where I live holidays are drawing near.

Inb4 I get revived by my good friend @Mr Poltroon, right? My legacy must continue!

So nice to meet you. Welcome! I'm sure I'll read a review by @Plk_Lesiak about one your VNs soon enough. I can't keep up with him at all! This is a great community. Have fun. <3

When there are untranslated lines. Ahem Hoshimemo. Ahem Sekai

Imo, with some particularly bad exceptions, it's pretty impossible to distinguish between a bad translation and a bad source material. Though of course obvious grammar mistakes and sentences that don't make any sense should raise some flags. As for the harm, you are basically spoiling the story without getting the full message it supposed to bring. I don't see any particular harm in it if you are still enjoying the story, but if some day a better translation appears, or you learn the original language, your experience with it will still be different.

Well, at least there's no danger of hearing my nick on the streets. Although those rare times when someone's referring to the political scandal with Colonel Lesiak feel slightly weird, especially because I'm using this nick for more than a decade now. What really feels weird though is watching Kaminomi after using this Keima avatar everywhere for the last 10 months. The association from seeing it next to my posts everyday just messes with my mind when I see the character in its original context.

Thanks everyone In the end I'll probably go with Chrono Clock or Kindred Spirits, I think.

Welcome! Since you like otomes, I've filtered a list of otomes for you which should catch your interest. My personal recommendations are Code Realize if you have money to spare and Mystic Messenger if you don't. It isn't often that we get new female users but nevertheless, I hope you enjoy your stay here!

Welcome to Fuwanovel, and I find it interesting that you like moving between country. If you need otome VN recommendation, you may ask the forum although unfortunately I can't help you in regard of that though (Sorry). I hope you'll enjoy yourself. PS - By the way, did both of you and your SO ever came to Hong Kong? Just curious and sorry if my question is too personal.

Flashbacks, done in such a way, effectively kill the story for me. Why don't the writers pepper in backstory so it weaves naturally with the story? It seems like people are way more forgiving of writing faux pas (god, what's the plural form of faux pas?) in VNs/games than an actual novel.

Completely agree And the info-dumping doesn't stop there. The mystery of a character in part 1 was completely destroyed by a big-arse flashback sequence which pretty much tells the reader her entire backstory, which had the added bonus of bringing the plot to a grounding halt to accommodate this. I honestly don't get why it's so popular.

Check out this video if you want a feel of the anime community's angst with 4kids:

A little off topic, but as awful as 4kids is, has anyone seen what Bandai did to Escaflowne? *dies* (Now that I think about, I think 4kids also did a dub of One Piece...which I have rather conveniently scrubbed from my mind...) Honestly, though, I'll all for a company that attempts to broaden the audience. Growing up in Asia, I knew a lot of 12 year old girls played VNs and otome games (myself included).

I know I'm super late to this, but I'm just now getting into Re: Alistair (it's market research, swear to God). I'm also playing Date Warp and Long Live the Queen. As you can tell, I'm super interested in how Western indie companies are making their games, to compare them to their Japanese counterparts.

Hi! Thanks for the welcome :3 Thanks! Actually, it was your thread on Lemma that made me remember this forum. I used to be a fuwa waaaaayyy a while ago. Honestly, I'm surprised but happy the forum is still up. And yes, that's why I decided to make the lateral move from writing books to visual novels and otome games. I think there's a severe lack of games for older ladies who don't want to play as a high school girl and want their stories a little spicier. Voltage makes some adult-oriented games, but the translations are a little too simplistic for my tastes and quite frankly, a lot of times the heroine still acts like she's in high school :/ I remember reading a VN on the Play Store called "The Man with the Pearl Earring" and it really got to me. There was next to no player input, but the story was fascinating enough and I'd love to present something like that for human consumption/enjoyment. Hi Thanks for the idea *_*

Holy shit they actually did it and fast too

Welcome! Now I have an image stuck in my mind of your avatar with a eyepatch.

Welcome.

Thanks for the interview! As a fledgling game designer, this was quite illuminating, especially the section regarding Steam

Welcome to Fuwanovel! Good luck working on your childhood dream!

Welcome to Fuwanovel! Have you started working on a game, or are you still in the process of finishing up the writing and moving to games?

If you think life sucks, it's likely because you are looking for @Happiness+ in all the wrong places.

Welcome to Fuwa! Nice to see another creator coming to the forums, I'll try to take a look at your projects when I have the opportunity.

I've just finished Hand Shakers, intrigued by @ittaku's anti-recommendation. And boy, it did deliver in so many ways! Barfy animations with weird, motion-sickness-inducing perspective, horrible CGI, over-the-top, tropy characters, nonsense motivations, etc, etc. The wannabe idol character was one the most horrifying things I've seen in anime recently, especially when the animators tried to show her "dancing". Oh, and random BDSM in the first episode. And the main characters having to hold hands all the time during the first few episodes, even on the toilet. Brilliant. If anyone can't tell by this point, I really like over-the-top, horrible anime. Most bad anime are just extremely boring harem/ecchi stuff though. But I'll always remember Hand Shakers as one of those rare, genuinely amusing disasters. <3 EDIT: Oh, and the opening song has a bit of charm to it.

That's why the original True Love '95 was such a legendary game - on a perfect playthrough you got to date every girl, save the idol from being kidnapped, discovered the catgirl, helped her ascend to heaven, fucked them all and still ended up with the best girl.

Visual novel developers and companies across Japan saw this Fuwa thread and, inexplicably, decided the wishes in this thread absolutely must be granted. And thus it came to be that Fuwanovel eliminated the entire medium of visual novels.

Warning: Heavy spoilers ahead! If you want to play this VN yourself, stop reading now. I don’t really recommend playing it though… As much as I’m a fan of independent VNs and appreciate the possibilities that crowdfunding opened for the western visual novel market, it’s not completely rare for these projects to end with spectacular disappointment, for various reasons. Carpe Diem: Reboot is an especially interesting example of a visual novel that ultimately failed to live up to the expectations, but not because of lack of effort or poor production values, but through the sheer “virtue” of horrible writing. As I’ll be treating this as a case study of how to screw up a good concept and waste a lot of work, unlike my normal reviews, I’ll be revealing many major plot-points, including some details of the games’ endings. As Reboot mostly relies on its plot twists and mystery elements to keep the player interested, if you want to play it yourself, ignore this review or read it after you’ve completed the game. While the title we’re talking about was released on Steam in September 2017, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, its history starts a bit earlier, with a free VN from late 2015 simply titled Carpe Diem. This very short, but nicely written visual novel served both as a prologue of sorts and an advertisement for the crowdfunding effort which later spawned Reboot. In it, a simple story about two friends (lovers?), Jung and Ai, deciding how to use a rare opportunity to spend a full afternoon together, ended with a twist – the girl was actually a computer program, an object of delusional love of a shut-in trying to escape from his real life. The Steam achievement for reaching the end of the game, “What are you doing with your life?”, served as a somewhat ironic punchline, making clear the main themes the author tried to tackle. Good dialogues and decent execution of Carpe Diem, while in no way breath-taking, definitely showed promise and made many people (including me, although I've discovered it after the Kickstarter campaign was already over) somewhat enthusiastic about its continuation. So, what went wrong? Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com