Decay

Yeah, when the translation is frequently outright wrong, editing can't fix it. You need a retranslation. We aren't just talking about bad english here. The translation is wildly inaccurate and the inaccuracy leads to confusion. A "good" editor could maybe just make shit up in order to get the script to make sense, but if it doesn't mean the same thing as the japanese script, that is still bad translation. And if you take it too far, you start to heavily contradict the actual story. You can only massage a bad translation so much. It should be obvious that the single most important part of the translation lies on the translators' shoulders. It is their job to provide not just accuracy, but something sensible an editor can work with. Moenovel failed on both counts.

To elaborate on this issue, and why it's not just a matter of removed content but the translation being inherently bad at the core, here are some excerpts from Pablo, who is attempting to fix the translation: https://vndb.org/t5268#11 Here are some more excerpts, this time in the twins route: https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/1461-kono-oozora-h-scenes-porting-project/?p=190114 It's easy to look at each individual example and say "eh, it's not a big deal", but when you realize that there's stuff that is that bad multiple times in every scene, it makes for a very confusing read overall. The script becomes contradictory, and you have to stop and try to piece things together every so often.

No, this is a different issue. Even in parts with no removed content, there are really difficult to understand segments. The most notorious badly translated part of the VN is in the Ageha route when Hotaru is hanging all over the MC. There are no removed lines here, yet it's still impossible to understand what's actually happening or why anyone is doing what they're doing. In many cases, each line seemingly has nothing to do with the last. The translation is an incredibly inaccurate hot mess that is very confusing to read. edit: I should say that the version I read was one with all of the content restored in its entirety. It did not improve understandability of the bad parts.

I disagree with this entirely. I think you're understating just how bad the translation was. Some parts weren't actually readable. Some parts were actually incomprehensible. And I definitely think it was bad enough to ruin the game. It was THAT bad.

How do you feel about non-blood-related sisters? https://vndb.org/v232 - The partial patch includes her route. https://vndb.org/v309 - although it's not particularly good

Maybe I was a little too harsh but I just cannot understand the mentality that is actually appreciative of Moenovel's work. To be honest, I'm of the opinion that they did more harm than good. I think the more people who are complacent with things like this, the worse off the industry as a whole is because they feel less pressure to improve.

There were quite a few parts I actually couldn't understand. And even if this wasn't the case, "understandable" is way too low of a bar. A story being merely understandable doesn't allow it to resonate with the reader as well than if it was properly translated. The humor isn't as funny, the emotional moments aren't as touching, and so on. Moenovel did a big disservice to Konosora and its fans. I'm actually a little annoyed that people here are excusing Moenovel's work as good enough. Are you kidding me?

I knew not to expect too much and yet somehow this is still disappointing. "Steam release official!" Glad to see their English is still top-notch.

No, it's different. Himawari!! uses the E-Mote system. I think Pulltop's animation system for 2D CGs is entirely custom. E-Mote is primarily used for 2D sprites, but Snow Present uses fully 3D character models instead of 2D sprites for ADV segments. I haven't seen the h-scene animations, I wonder how those look. *ahem* Well, how e-mote actually works is that it basically takes several 2D layers and places them in a 3D environment where they can move independently to give the illusion of being 3D. Snow Presents just uses cel-shaded polygonal graphics, like Valkyria Chronicles to give one example. Since Kotori is the only 3D object on the screen, they can give her a lot of detail. I think one of the things that makes Pulltop's use of 3D work well is that they don't over-animate it. Seems like a lot of VN companies that use animation solutions go way overboard, but SP's animations are pretty minimal, in a good way, I think. And the CGs are still fully 2D. This has gotten way off-topic, it seems.

This is Comyu's biggest problem. It doesn't really stop. In routes 3 and 4 he is at least a little different, I'd say. If there's one route for character development, I imagine it would be the Kagome route since it's the true route, but I still haven't read it. I should do so as soon as I finish what's currently on my plate.

It's only something they're doing with new games. I think the recent Konosora Kotori fandisc was the first one to use it. The C@F fandisc also uses it in some parts. None of the things MoeNovel would announce right now would use it. Here's a quick youtube video of Snow Presents, the konosora fandisc that uses their animation system (safe for work): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uWPopZ68Uk You can see the animation system in some of the CGs, it looks okay, I guess. The kotori sprite isn't a part of that, that's just regular 3D stuff. Actually, it looks really nice. I wouldn't be opposed to Pulltop's next full game having all 3D characters if it keeps that level of quality.

The biggest problem with Moenovel's slash and burn tactic is that they don't take out only the h-scenes, but everything that references them, and anything that might be construed as just slightly racy. They had to leave big gaping holes in the Ageha route and it was worse off for it. There are good ways and bad ways to do that kind of thing and Moenovel chose the worst way. Pulltop is releasing an all-ages version of Konosora for PS3 and Vita in a month and it's guaranteed to be done in a much more elegant manner. IF they are to remove h-scenes, then they better do it right. They're bound to get shit on by fans either way. And this is all assuming that they can do a decent translation job this time around. If not, then none of this matters one bit.

They were also contracted by JAST to translate Shiny Days. Sekai Project is translating the whole game, h-scenes and all, but it is JAST who is selling the title. Sekai Project themselves have yet to sell or distribute pornographic stuff. The sunrider patch is from the developers, not SP. Grisaia will probably be the first. I have a theory that is completely unsubstantiated, but sounds plausible in my head. They were contracted by Neko Works to translate Neko Para but were not given a license to sell it. This meant that Neko Works paid them to translate the whole game for them, including h-scenes, very similar to JAST's deal with them for Shiny Days. If they were paid already, it means that they won't be getting a cut from 18+ sales. Then SP decided to license an all-ages version for a steam release, probably convincing Neko Works using Sakura Spirit as an example. Since SP is paying for the license to sell the game through Steam, they're probably getting a bulk of the profits off of that, similar to any other license deal, while getting nothing from the version Neko Works is selling directly.

That's a very optimistic prediction. If you don't mind me asking, what's going to happen to the fan project if they announce a Cocoro@Function release?

At least some amount of money is. It has now been confirmed that Sekai Project were actually the ones who translated it. They wouldn't do this pro-bono. Note that this is probably from one of their amatuer translators and not the supposed professionals they're hiring for Clannad.

I'm always picky. I can kind of turn my brain off and forgive minor mistakes in simple moege, but I don't want to have to do it when I'm paying money for the product. If you're charging for a translation, it absolutely needs to be held to a very high standard.

Is there any chance that this isn't another Pulltop game? I mean, they're a Pulltop subsidiary. Maybe this means an official Cocoro@Function translation? But if they don't learn their lessons from last time, I won't even bother. Also, I just looked it up, and it seems like the If My Heart Had Wings announcement was only made a couple of months before release. Considering the long gap between its release and this announcement, it may be the same situation, where the release will just be a couple months from now.

I'd rather see him (or anyone) pick up a simpler August title first and then proceed into Eustia from there. FA could really use a complete translation.

The soft c is an anglicized way of pronouncing it, but in proper latin it's with a hard c. The german word Kaiser is pretty much how it was pronounced in the rest of the world. Off-topic facts because I'm bored: The title Caesar was adopted by many different countries, and they almost always kept the hard c. Usually it was used in an attempt to proclaim a relation to the old Roman Empire. The Russian Tsars attempted to give the image of being the successor of the Eastern Roman Empire (Russia was the "Third Rome"). The German title Kaiser you mention wasn't as a Kaiser of the Germans, but Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire, a title traditionally bestowed upon the King of Germany by the pope. Even the one of the titles the sultans of the Ottoman Empire had was Qayser-i Rûm (Emperor of Rome). Anyways, the point is, hard C followed by a long I is the way Japan and the rest of the world pronounces it, soft C followed by a long E is how us english speaking morons say it. There's no deeper meaning to the pronunciation used in Comyu.

I dunno, I really got fed up with the flashbacks in Kaoru's route, so I wasn't able to appreciate the Kuki ones. Seemed like every character had one. When the freaking teacher had one, I just threw up my arms and put the game away for a while.

Meanwhile, at Sekai Project: https://twitter.com/dobacco/status/532957128386809856 Note that this is as far away from a guarantee as it gets, just some idle musings from dovac, but it seems like he wants to go after VNs that get adaptations pretty aggressively to cash in on name recognition, and if SP does pick up Four Rhythm after all, that might be cool. That's assuming it's good, of course. Koichoco was alright, but there were some things I didn't like so much.

I don't necessarily go for "badass" characters. Nothing about Kuki really strikes me as particularly compelling. He's strong, but that's about it. Well, I never read the Suzu route. Maybe I should go back and do so to finish the VN out.

Mangagamer routinely charges $45 or $50 for digital versions of medium to long VNs. Deardrops and DC2 are $45, Harukoi Otome is $50. Deardrops isn't even very long, so that price point is pretty annoying. ef - the first tale is $30, ef - the latter tale is $35, making it $65 for the full story, which is probably half the total word count of Clannad. MG only sells limited physical copies, and when they do they're pretty expensive. Although ef's current limited edition hard copy is $60, cheaper than the sum total of both parts, that's not really common for them. VNs are pretty expensive in Japan and MG seems to be keeping to the Japanese price standards, while Sekai Project seems to be trying to cut people deals because 1) the games they're releasing are already fan translated and not new and 2) they probably realize that the games can't reach the level of success they want with the prices MG charges.

lol, the game isn't even two years old. The translation project is new and just went public a week or so ago. If the last week was anything to go by, the translator seems to be pretty fast and I look forward to the results.

Shuugen during the Tonya route is also really great. Ayakashibito should have had a Shuugen route.