Infernoplex

I'm not sure how MangaGamer went around the issue (well, they are based in Japan from what I know, so I am not sure which laws and how are they following them), but Fakku can do it because they are based in Oregon and are using some special law there which protects them from any potential issues that may arise. For JAST/FrontWing/AnyoneElse they would have to move their companies, and I don't know how viable that would be for them. I doubt they would move just because fans want them to do it. There's probably a whole stew of issues with that, and I seriously doubt any of these companies will move to Oregon just for this reason. Anyway, censored or not censored, I think most eroge sell like trash in the West. Aside from some which sold well, most "barely made it", or didn't sell at all. And I consider that a shame... most plotges don't sell well. Based on what I am seeing on MG's store for weeks now... their best sellers are those 3rd party H-RPG games. This "Treasure Hunter Claire" and that earlier H-RPG by Kagura Games... they sold pretty well. I remember seeing it so many times in top 5 on MG's store.

I can understand those people too, but with that kind of mindset I am even more convinced VNs (or at least eroge with problematic content) shouldn't be officially localized. With fans pushing in one way and companies pushing in another, there will never be an agreement between the two. I can understand JP companies (and for that matter, official VN localizers) who worry about legal issues more than the fans' backlash. So yeah, RIP VNs in the West.

There was a patch for it on day 1. Anyone who wanted to decensor it could have done it in matter of 5 minutes. I am guessing most people who wanted to buy SubaHibi backed it on KS, so the Steam sales were expectedly low because of that. However, that doesn't explain poor sales of other titles like LB (yeah, it had a fanpatch for a while, but still...). Generally, VNs sell like trash in the West (aside from few cash cows).

We don't deserve translations of good VNs. When I look at these numbers, it kinda makes me believe that all these MTLs lately are just a punishment for this.

RIP for one of the VNs I was interested the most. Another one bites the dust. Shame.

RIP Your Diary. RIIIIIIP

JAST's response

Yes, no voices certainly gives you more free space to do much more with the world building and it allows for huge scripts with lots of characters to show for. Still, I prefer titles with voice acting more. One of the reasons I find it hard to enjoy EVNs is because they are unvoiced. It bothers my immersion. It's not a deal breaker, but still... Yeah, it has its advantages, no doubt about it. But between a more limited world with voices and an almost unlimited world without voices... I'd be more interested in a title with voices and a limited world Yeah, I know, Rance certainly has its own charm that can make it work better without voices and I am not disputing that. It's just a matter of preference to me xD

Kek... Now that really sucks. I thought it was partially voiced. Don't remember who told me now, but I really thought it was partially voiced.

Haven't played Rance yet but from what I've heard, it is in fact partially voiced (just like Evenicle and Beat Blades Haruka) xD

Yeah, I know, it's subjective after all. I may have been paying attention to too much bickering about it on random corners of the net, so it could be that most people who care about it aren't too vocal at the moment, hence I haven't registered their voiced yet But truth be told, more than a few want some other Alicesoft titles, not just Rance, so yeah, I understand their sentiment too. But at the end, I understand MG as well. I didn't think even for a moment that MG is making a mistake here. Rance outsells everything else, that's 100% true, no matter what people are talking on the net.

Maybe I overestimated popularity of Rance? Seems like many people aren't happy with it xD Back in 2015/2016, I remember people screaming "Give us more Rance!"... and now that Rance is coming, most of the reactions I saw so far were "meh" (granted, there's quite a few people still excited about it, but still... I was expecting more people to be hyped).

I see lots of people complaining here about MG's announcements, but to be quite honest, I think they won this AX, with Denpasoft coming as a close second. I didn't expect them to annonounce two more Rance titles so soon (and one of these is so long I am genuinely surprised they aren't scared of doing it... my guess is they may split it in 3 parts due to its insane length). That, and LuckyDog1 is popular from what I have seen so all in all, their announcements seem to be the best. And will probably sell the best in the end due to Rance fandom. JAST and Denpa also had some good announcements, but I think MG won with two very good gameplay titles.

Meru and Verdelish are working on Totono, so I am expecting it to see the light of day before the end of 2020/2021.

That's why I said SP first. If they want to go the KS route, it's their safest bet. What I also overlooked earlier is the possibility of sprite going the SakuraGame way... which is the worst option that can happen. But you never know xD ... They could get a Chinese release with them, and just throw us a poor machine translation in English. And they are also known to overpay for licenses, so sprite might find a savior there. Hopefully, that won't happen. It would be a pretty sad development for Aokana.

Yeah, as I said, I don't like SP. And their recent record on translation quality isn't all that good (looking at Chrono Clock and Hoshizora no Memoria here). Luckily, there are at least 3 other options available for sprite if they are willing enough to sell the license to either of these other localizers.

I said that the first day the news about suspending operations broke out: "Just wait until they start a KS for Aokana, I see it coming." And we didn't wait long for "overseas transplants" post on twitter xD (the Japanese word for port is the same as transplant - 移植). That's exactly what I am worried about too. I'm hoping they don't go the self-publish way. That's a recipe for a bad translation unless they perhaps hire proper people for it. I'd rather see them sell the license to a proper localizer (maybe even Sekai... even though I dislike them, I believe they would be able to do a better job on it than if sprite were to self-publish).

I wholesomely agree with Dergonu on this one - you need a good editor, otherwise your work will read like a rough TL (with TLer as a proofreader of his own work). As for those numbers mentioned... yeah, that sounds like a scam to me too. From people I talked with, editors are never paid that well over here in the West (even if the title at hand is super-long like that).

It means you should get your wallet ready for another Kickstarter xD

I see. Yeah, I understand you. It's hard when you want to see a particular VN translated and no one willing to translate it. If my skills at Japanese weren't shit, I would have even helped you perhaps. I'm still at Genki-tier studying so I can't help you even though I am interested in SQUEEZE nukiges as well.

Didn't you say Quof will do maybe one of those titles? Also, I vaguely remember you intended to MTL one of the titles? xD

Huh? xD

It's getting MTLed at the moment by some fellow here on Fuwa, but official localization, no, I don't see it happening. Maybe if people request it enough, MG might see about doing it.

I heard many horror stories of people who went to Japan and got disillusioned after living there for a couple of years. I know I would never want to live there. All I'd do perhaps would be to go there as a tourist. It's fun to give it a month and just enjoy Japan as a tourist.

Hello, and welcome to Fuwa. Hope you enjoy your time here Let me adress some of your points: 1. I share this particular feeling with you. I wish Moenovel didn't exist, but sadly, we have to deal with their crap; 2. I wondered about the same thing, but ultimately, didn't come up with any useful ideas. They are too stubborn to care about any reception from this community, and they will always find a part of their audience on Steam who will never care about quality or censorship of their releases. 3. I'd say yes, but not the kind of native Japanese fluency. If you aren't planning on ever living in Japan, and so on, you don't really need native Japanese fluency. But I'm all for learning it if you like to consume Japanese media. It depends on what your goals really are after all. 3. 1. I wouldn't recommend learning Japanese if you are in it for the money. I don't know many people who made money just by TLing Japanese. It's not as profitable as other, better careers, which have a much better pay. Yeah, some people manage to live off of it, but when you look at what they could have been doing instead... it gives an impression of a wasted opportunity. So learning Japanese to live off of it doesn't sound like a good idea to me. But as a hobby, yeah, that sounds fun (if you survive the journey of learning it, then I salute you, Sir!) 4. You didn't say what kind of a genre interests you the most, so from the top of my head, here are some VNs I particularly liked: Dies irae, Bible Black, I/O, SubaHibi.