novurdim

Good God, finally. A mere two years after the translation being technically finished, that e-mote thing sure took long enough. Definitely one of the most promising releases this year.

I call Imouto Paradise 3 at SakuraCon and some random otome+nukige at Anime Boston.

Considering this is his fourth or fifth topic of this kind, he probably can't.

Well, I have filled it with "Releasing Baldr Sky in 2019" so they'd better be great

I can understand Sol and NekoNyan but MG? They had like one new eroge partner in two years and even that one is a dead Hermit. All the while Sekai managed to partner with major new for the western shores companies like Silky's Plus and Sumikko Soft.

Completed the first ep and, despite it feeling deliberately anti-climactic, the experience was pretty good, I'm very eager to read the future installments. All characters are highly entertaining and the general plotting is intriguing enough to curse at Sekai if they stall or don't release subsequent episodes. The chances of which are... not low enough

I often don't have the drive to finish everything so I just go with the one I somehow managed to like the most in the common route...

I'm reading 9 -nine- right now and it's definitely good and relevant despite being episodic/"short" since it's only a first episode (route?). So I'm very much looking forward to the full-length Nanairo Reincarnation from the same writer (different developer though) that's also being translated by Sekai and is *almost* done if we can believe SP... Nanairo Reincarnation can very well end up being one of the best VNs translated this year. I'm sure they'll release all of their announced localisations sooner or later, it just would be nice if they weren't as slow as JAST and could keep a consistent quality. At the same time we did hear from NekoNyan during the Senren Banka reveal that Sekai had some kind of fall out with YuzuSoft so maybe YS licenses will end up with competitors someday or the negotiations are still ongoing...? Who knows, everything in this industry is notably shaky, the only thing I'm sure of is that last year Sekai at least had actually more interesting announcements than MangaGamer or JAST for me.

True for Rance, false for others, I dont really see any difference, to be honest, like everything else these always seem random, they probably just somehow don't inspect some games on the upload, it's steam. What's even a reason for NOT APPROVING Kara no Shoujo 2 and Cartagra a few weeks back? What logically warrants not letting them in with the first game happily selling? Any clear guidelines and consistency would be good but I don't see much reason for optimism, let alone the "steam is upping its game" slogan. HGB's case was one of the most absurd but I still suspect that they have made another slightly different build and somehow bypassed the ban by making another staff member to review it, feels very much like a lucky draw. The line around the legality of 18+ games will always be blurry so yeah, it'd be nice for at least "all-ages" versions to be able to consistently avoid the ban hammer like before but I'm not ready to take this case as an indication of even that yet.

Yeah, that's why they've banned Rance and a bunch of other random VNs earlier today.

Whoa, how did that even happen. Did they spam steam with different builds until it broke down or something

I don't know, I'm ready for the tomato throwing but it's like the Ace Attorney or FE Fates discussion again. Do those read great in english? Of course. But it's often hard to even consider them a translation, more of a fanfic material made specifically for the western market. I didn't care much in their cases but I would definitely be pissed if someone translates a game/VN I'm actually interested in like this. Everything is good in moderation, in the skilled hands things can read great and not stray too far away from the source material. Treating original text with respect is most vital, mutilating it because this seems like the only way to produce a "more compelling english" is almost arrogant and only shows lack of ability.

I prefer to believe that there's still some hope for the light's western plans, for now let's just see what they reply to steiner next week. There's definitely a chance (however miniscule) that he was too hasty to call it quits.

I highly doubt we'll ever see an official localisation and this looks like a fairly straightforward SoL game so eh, might as well read it sometime.

Hey-ho, captain slowpoke strikes again! I had almost forgotten that I was reading this So, yeah, I have reached Koharu's true-ish ending... And sorry, guys, but I definitely wasn't impressed. Oh well, at least there was that one good route, I guess. Waifu Ranking: Natsume > Suguri > May > Koharu Route Ranking: Natsume >> Suguri > Koharu = May

Suprised that there doesn't look to be much interest in it.

Well, a lot of people are okay with pre-order/physical merchandise kickstarters probably because in those cases the release is already guaranteed, relying on a KS for localisation is a very unreliable and kind of exploitative method plus people are a bit exhausted at this point since they are sometimes waiting years for their basic rewards to be shipped so kickstarters do have a negative stigma around them. I would too prefer companies to abstain from using this method when possible but alas. I just got irked at Lesiak's weirdly extreme and condescending reasoning. If you mean "people" as in "publishers" then there's always merit in using KS as a simple pre-order platform: you can get a bigger than usual number of pre-orders, you can get additional publicity, you can conveniently sell merchandise, you can gauge interest, you get a lot less backlash for the fact of using KS etc. It still adds to the kickstarter fatigue though.

Tsk, so no Damekoi until late may at best. Pity.

Yes, basically exactly what I was talking about at "at least wasn't supposed to be until companies like Sekai have turned it into a preorder platform" part, wasn't I? I have written but a single sentence so it's interesting that people still managed to misread it and try to prove me wrong this way. Maybe I'm that bad at transmitting my ideas, it's a depressing thought. Making it a pre-order platform is not a bad thing either, people are right to utilize KS in any way they want, plus it gives a lot of free publicity. Though even in those KS's silly people can still spend a lot of money.

It's not, there's not a single element of gambling involved. You can't just call any financial operation a gambling. Soon you'll say that any auctions should be shut down because you know better what people should spend their money on. Yes, just like on KS which doesn't change the charitable nature of the platform. They are getting a lot of stuff for their money, check up on the tiers.

Charity in the form of financial support of your favorite artists is the whole point of crowdfunding though. It's basically in the name. Kickstarter isn't a shop, at least wasn't supposed to be until companies like Sekai have turned it into a preorder platform, it's exactly a form of charity. You really like counting other people's money and criticize their priorities, aren't you.

True, but thanks to them we now know it's theoretically possible to end up in the pit even after raising almost 200k on your KS.

Well, it's not like I don't understand how you feel but kickstarter is a very... complicated topic. Localisation is always a risk even when succesfully kickstarted, I remember hearing here how Mikandi somehow ended up with serious losses over Libra even after raising like 180k or 190k for a single game. They did fail to deliver an adequate product but the situation still shows that it's not a risk-averse approach, Sol Press are likely still self-funding the release quite a bit. At the same time it's true that it may look like they are taking advantage of the fans to safely check out the market and then pull out if something goes wrong but at least it's not like people could back all three games from the get-go. Though I agree that it's still not exactly the same as only buying the first game in the series which has since been dropped. But making huge promises now and breaking them later if the first game bombs and it becomes literally impossible to release an even bigger sequel would end up as an incomparably bigger blow to their reputation. Complicated, I say. Let's just say that I'm with you in hoping that it works out for all parties involved in the end.

And that, my friend, is not even a guarantee anymore, you are basically proving our point with your own words. Noone can guarantee a huge trilogy (unless kickstarted) when the first entry can bomb so hard that it won't be feasible anymore. That just doesn't make any sense. Sol Press is doing exactly the same thing as Neko would right now so your discontent is a bit misguided.

I don't believe them going bankrupt would improve their standing with the VN community either. It's not a lack of transparency, they simply are not able to promise such a massive undertaking without a kickstarter, like pretty much anyone in this industry, most companies don't really look stable and the western market is a very unwelcoming place right now with all the random hateful regulations. A single ban of a major game on steam may be enough to cripple the whole business and KS provides at least a little bit of insurance. I hope. So I'm afraid that with a strict stance like yours noone would even attempt to localise massive projects like Irotoridori trilogy which would be the biggest shame. Right now the most important thing is not to threaten the publishers but for people to actually buy the first game to show that there's at least enough interest in the sequels for a further gamble. If the potential customers choose the "I won't buy it until you guarantee the full trilogy" option, I have a feeling that we will definitely never see the series completed.