Decay

The rest are googleable, but this is not so. A line or two before it, they made a Three Stooges reference, basically calling a silly display between three characters (including him) a Three Stooges routine. The Three Stooges being an extremely popular, internationally recognizable slapstick comedy trio in the '30s to '50s, consisting of Moe, Larry,, and Curly. The protagonist was calling himself Larry in this situation. I actually wouldn't be surprised if this is in the original script, the three stooges were famous worldwide. And if not, then there was probably some Japanese comedy reference they replaced that you would be even more unlikely to get.

This is a different project from the one you're thinking of. They even released a partial patch with a route completed: https://tsurezurescans.wordpress.com/ I have read the first hour or so of the prologue patch they released. I posted some very brief thoughts on it in the VNTS comments a few weeks ago, in response to someone wondering about the speed: After that, they said they would go back and spend a bit of time to polish up what they already did, but I don't know to what extent, or if that polishing has already been done. All that said, if they round off some of the rough edges, it could be a pretty good fan translation overall.

Most VN translation companies don't do TLC unless they're buying a fan translation, because they trust their TLs to get it right the first time. edit: Most VN companies won't hire translators who require another translator to double check them in the first place, is what I'm saying.

I hope you know how ridiculously snobbish this post sounds. You're talking about premium products and saying anything less isn't worth it. With 1080p, you can definitely get a totally solid display for ordinary gaming and such stuff for less than $300. That monitor you posted seems fine, and I'm sure it's better than the cheaper stuff, but I doubt it's worth it if you aren't already spending shitloads of money on your rig.

I do not claim to be an expert, but there are huge number of 1440p monitors in that range, including plenty of seemingly very popular and well-reviewed ones.

1440p isn't UHD/4K. 1440p is 2560 x 1440, or WQHD, while UHD is 3840 x 2160 1440p has been around for a while and you can get some decent monitors at that resolution in the $200-$300 range.

@niichan, @EdwardWongHPTIV: Read the side-stories, available in one of the main menu options. They won't actually explain things, but they do push things in that direction and add more hints and foreshadowing, which is to be resolved in Aqua After, the fandisc we will never get.

How many games promise an english version without providing one? Keep in mind that you're allowed to have games that aren't in English on Steam, yet bizarrely, it's Steam policy that all games must have an English description. So if you're releasing a foreign-language-only game on Steam, it still must have an English description. It's pretty clear when they don't have English versions, though.

If by "borderline fraud," you mean "selling a product of poor quality," then that is not against Steam's publishing terms. Valve won't take action against anyone just because the quality of their game is poor, unless it actually doesn't work as advertised, and even then the times they step in are extremely far and few between. A game simply having a poor translation would be allowed to stay on Steam no matter how many people report it.

I'm still in the denial phase myself, after being in the game for the last 16 or so years.

It sounds strange because it's being translated by a Chinese company who doesn't actually understand English.

Dovac just popped in on the SP discord, so I asked him and he confirmed it, the Feb 28th release date is real.

That's because in moege, h-scenes are actually used for relationship development, often very lazily. Amid all the moans and squelches, you'll hear a sudden barrage of "I love you"s and then the protagonist has an emotional epiphany over a few lines, before the moans and squelches start up again. This may happen for both characters, often in the first h-scene of the route. They also may develop the dynamic of who's in control of the relationship here and that kind of thing. It's lazy because they often forgo relationship development outside the h-scenes. They use the sex as a crutch so they don't have to build up a romantic and/or emotional mood outside of sex and probably the confession scene or whatever. The problem is that when you remove h-scenes from games that use them as a crutch, they end up predictably falling apart. The routes have that empty feeling to them because the relationships feel underdeveloped. That's completely valid to criticise when it happens, too. This leads to people saying that sex scenes in general are necessary for proper relationship development, but on the contrary, I feel like stories that don't use sex as a crutch often have stronger relationship development overall. Himawari is a good, recent example of this, in my opinion. The all-ages version doesn't have the h-scenes, obviously, but it barely matters because the way the characters and relationships develop still feels fairly natural. They also left in anything important in the lead-up and aftermath of the sex scenes. Because indeed, it's often the stuff that leads to sex and happens as a result of sex that's far more important to relationships than the sex itself. Himawari was written with that in mind, is much better for it, and loses nothing when you remove the actual sex. Going back to the original question posed, I do prefer to read the uncensored original version whenever possible. But I'm not gonna hand-wring over it if I can't. It's often just not that big of a deal.

The translation seems iffy and from a technical side it seems like a mess, what's with that shitty word wrapping? To be honest, I'm not sure I want to support such a low-effort cashgrab.

I'm just echoing the common sentiment, to be honest. edit: Specifically, the most hate I've heard has been for the Neko route, which is seemingly everyone's new waifu here.

I hope ya'll are ready for the crushingly disappointing side routes.

I don't think any Denpasoft releases have had DRM, but I could be wrong. That will have to be up to Unison Shift, ultimately. Kohaku, the fan group that did the first game's translation, has one translator. The first game was translated entirely by him. We don't have confirmation with the other two, but I imagine the situation is the same. The eta is listed on the reward tiers, the full trilogy is expected to ship by January 2018, but you should take any kickstarter release estimate with a large grain of salt.

Based on what they've said before, they want Ley-Line 1 out in q1 2017. I could be misremembering that, though.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/a-clockwork-ley-line-a-visual-novel-trilogy This is similar to how the Chrono Clock KS was set up, with them saying that the localizations are already funded and being released no matter what, the crowdfunding is just so they can do a special limited box set for all three games. So you shouldn't feel a strong impetus to fund this for the sake of seeing these games in English, though they do seem to be offering a pretty good discount over what the final retail price will be for the digital copies. The Ley-Line games are magical mysteries with plenty of comedy and some romance. They seem to be pretty well-liked, with good ratings in EGS and VNDB and generally good reviews, although people disliked the second game a little (a huge cliffhanger ending being one of the biggest complaints). In any case, I've had them on my VNDB wishlist for years now, so I'm glad the entire trilogy has been confirmed. Here's a review from Conjueror, for those who want to know more: https://vnrw.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/vn-tokeijikake-no-ley-line/ edit: I forgot to mention, yes, 18+ versions are confirmed.

"More is planned" does not necessarily mean an incomplete story. There are many ways to do multi-part series where the individual stories feel complete, though I admit Japan doesn't seem great at that.

This project died years ago, no one is translating it, it will never be completed.

I know MangaGamer probably loves the fact that there are no voices. Voices increase the cost of licensing games by an absurd amount.

Yes. But Patreon isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. It's specifically poorly suited to game development, due to the lengthy development cycles.

An indie platform is almost never better because nobody uses them. Even games ill-suited for Steam will sell far better there than on perfectly matched indie platforms. I mean, just look at the entire VN industry. Or how about we try to find a way so these people can ply their craft while also making a decent living? Just because this has historically been infeasible doesn't mean it has to be forever. We finally have the tools to make this possible in the modern era, and so attempts to make artists' lives easier should be celebrated, not condemned. Are you really going to be the troglodyte complaining about how artists aren't starving anymore? Seriously? How miserable can you be?

Nothing on VNDB says Aoi is the main heroine, though? At least, not from what I'm seeing. Just because a route is unlockable doesn't make it the main route. This is like when people insist the Agave route is the one true route in Majikoi.