Key announced their new title - Summer Pockets

[Yuuko]

no sex no buy  

[Narcosis]

All these years and still the same exact formula.

What happened, Key.

[Silvz]

There's room for one more girl in the main image. Probably a secret route

[onorub]

I don't know why, but the artwork just doesn't feel like Key to me. I guess i got too used to the utterly gigantic eyes.

[Ranzo]

Oh good I will look forward to playing it about five years from now when it's finally translated into english

 

[Dreamysyu]

7 minutes ago, onorub said:

I don't know why, but the artwork just doesn't feel like Key to me. I guess i got too used to the utterly gigantic eyes.

Well, if I'm not mistaken it's only the second major Key VN fully drawn by Na-Ga, and this is pretty much his style.

[Yuuko]

1 hour ago, Dreamysyu said:

fully drawn

half of it is Tsubasu-sensei

[Dreamysyu]

21 minutes ago, Kiriririri said:

half of it is Tsubasu-sensei

Ah, sorry, I should've checked that. But still, it looks somewhat similar to Na-Ga's usual style.

[Tamaki Sakura]

7 hours ago, onorub said:

I don't know why, but the artwork just doesn't feel like Key to me. I guess i got too used to the utterly gigantic eyes.

I was thinking that too. It got me wondering if, perhaps, since Itaru is gone and Maeda has stepped down from writing, it might be time to turn Key into a legacy brand. Old games could continue to be adapted and merchandised under the Key name, but start a new brand for new era. With that said, there have been different artists before on planetarian and Tomoyo After. For me, it all depends on whether Summer Pockets reads like a Key game.

[Veshurik]

By the way, what the exactly same formula?

[Fred the Barber]

On 12/26/2017 at 11:06 AM, Ranzo said:

Oh good I will look forward to playing it about five years from now when it's finally translated into english

 

Yeah, I hear you. I'm still waiting on a Little Busters! English translation.

[Silvz]

31 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

Yeah, I hear you. I'm still waiting on a Little Busters! English translation.

What? It was released some weeks ago o.o

[littleshogun]

On 28/12/2017 at 9:06 AM, Silvz said:

What? It was released some weeks ago o.o

Just let Fred waiting for eternity there if I may say something, because I'm certain that he didn't like Little Busters current translation.

Anyway, as for Summer Pocket here I did some check on VNDB and find out that other than Nijima Yuu, there's tone works staff that was listed as the writer. So if I may guess here perhaps they'll just combined lengthy slice of life with some tearjerker plus magic element, which pretty much what made KEY famous in the past (Jun Maeda as the staff certainly help though). It's definitely would look interesting if you're want to see more KEY work, although too bad though that we probably won't see the translated version in near future (Or perhaps never). As for Nijima Yuu, from what I see in regard of the spoiler from his works I think he was more in line with KEY style and Jun Maeda as well.

PS - Quite surprising though that KEY still not have their autumn VN yet for their season VNs series (Kanon, AIR, and Clannad), and for that matter I didn't count Rewrite as one even though it was set at autumn because the weather in Rewrite didn't have too much focus. Speaking of autumn, I guess the 4th work for tone works would likely have elaborate motive on that because they already released HatsuKoi (Spring), Hoshiori (Summer), and Gin'iro Haruka (Winter) although it might be not the case though.

Edited December 29, 2017 by littleshogun

[Tamaki Sakura]

2 hours ago, littleshogun said:

PS - Quite surprising though that KEY still not have their autumn VN yet for their season VNs series (Kanon, AIR, and Clannad), and for that matter I didn't count Rewrite as one even though it was set at autumn because the weather in Rewrite didn't have too much focus.

Most of ONE takes place in Autumn, so a lot of people count that.

[Fred the Barber]

23 hours ago, Silvz said:

What? It was released some weeks ago o.o

I tried reading that release, but I'm afraid it wasn't written in English. I suspect, like the shogun said, I'm going to be waiting forever.

Judging by the Kazamatsuri-"translated" PV for Summer Pockets, I guess we can look forward to another dumpster fire of an English translation for Summer Pockets too. Oh well.

 

[RedK]

WOW can't wait for kamige. It has Nijima Yuu, and it's gonna be awesome .

[MayoeruHitori]

2 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Judging by the Kazamatsuri-"translated" PV for Summer Pockets, I guess we can look forward to another dumpster fire of an English translation for Summer Pockets too. Oh well

At least they got the gist of it. I would personally only use the word translation in quotes to refer to a machine translation or an unapologetic bastardization.

Speaking of Kazamatsuri, they also posted TLs of the heroine scene transcripts, along with the raws if anyone hasn't seen those yet and wants to see what the writing will be like. The protagonist Hairi feels to me like maybe a cross between Yuuichi from Kanon, and Nagisa from Natsuyume Nagisa. It makes sense to me that Niijima would end up there when trying to emulate Key's style.

Rewrite's protagonist was a little too "Romeo" for me (which I love in a Romeo VN, but not a Key VN) and Angel Beats obviously is a completely different character dynamic, so I'm happy to see a return to a more classic Key where the protagonist is a bum wandering around a seasonal landscape having inexplicable conversations with oddball heroines.

I also feel like Key has finally modernized itself. Maybe it's because they got rid of Itaru and recruited the naturally lewd Niijima? The art is sexy without feeling forced, and the heroines' character designs and personalities are interesting without feeling gimmicky. Tsumugi in particular strongly reminds me of Shirokuma, though I won't get my hopes up for Suzumiya Sui.

[Fred the Barber]

30 minutes ago, MayoeruHitori said:

At least they got the gist of it.

Honestly, something of an overstatement. Here's what an actually somewhat competent person I ran this by put for the first few lines: "Just thinking of it fills me with nostalgia / the first summer I spent on that island / and the people I met there", versus the borderline nonsense in the Kazamatsuri video (what the hell does this second line even mean, you may have wondered? Well, nothing: it's a mistranslation.): "I had a nostalgic summer / I learned of a new summer / I encountered that on this island."

Still, I'll backpedal a bit: although Key tweeted out a link to the Kazamatsuri video, that's more an indication that they don't know a bad translation from a decent one than it is that they are necessarily hiring shit people to do this work (as they have tended to do in the past). So, while I'm not holding my breath, and while I'm a little salty given they have an actually good writer on Summer Pockets, there is theoretically still some hope.

[MayoeruHitori]

1 hour ago, Fred the Barber said:

Honestly, something of an overstatement. Here's what an actually somewhat competent person I ran this by put for the first few lines: "Just thinking of it fills me with nostalgia / the first summer I spent on that island / and the people I met there", versus the borderline nonsense in the Kazamatsuri video (what the hell does this second line even mean, you may have wondered? Well, nothing: it's a mistranslation.): "I had a nostalgic summer / I learned of a new summer / I encountered that on this island."

Yeah, that translation certainly sounds better. It's worth pointing out that the JP (natsukashii natsu ga atta / atarashii natsu o shitta / kono shima de deatta) could be translated literally word-by-word to something like, "There was a nostalgic summer. [ I ] came to know a new summer. [ I ] met [?] on this island." But it flows much better in Japanese. So the Kazamatsuri TL is fairly accurate in a sense, just really stiff and literal. It's also possible to have a more middle-of-the-road TL that approximates the original style but flows fairly well like, "That summer was nostalgic. That summer was fresh. That summer, on that island, I had a fateful encounter." But my experience with most respected VN translators is that they'll prefer to restructure, like the one you talked to did, and they'd probably say that a so-called middle-of-the-road TL is still inexcusably awkward. Preferences are infinite, and it's also not as easy to TL non-literally with little context.

But it's just a PV in the end; as you say, the translation of the VN itself is what matters most. We'll have to see what happens with that.

Edited December 29, 2017 by MayoeruHitori

[Veshurik]

Oh, Niijima... I still remember Koikake (so bombed reviews) and Majo Koi Nikki. Looking for that.

 

So, I'd want "tone works" on the West officially... Ugh... Their works are so long, but looks so charming...

[RedK]

3 hours ago, Veshurik said:

Oh, Niijima... I still remember Koikake (so bombed reviews) and Majo Koi Nikki. Looking for that.

 

So, I'd want "tone works" on the West officially... Ugh... Their works are so long, but looks so charming...

Don't blame Nijima Yuu, blame the sheeple that can't understand his genius.

[Stormwolf]

Sounds like he wrote a truly horrible ending for koikake.. Not sure whats to enjoy with endings such as that.

I have no problem understanding the readers frustration. Without the "true ending" tag, that vn would do a lot better.

[Tamaki Sakura]

 

[Anonymous113]

On 08.12.2016 at 3:10 PM, ratboi said:

i wonder will it be officialy translated like harmonia?

In Harmonia they made English version before Japanese, so I don’t think that it’s translation...

[Stormwolf]

So a few japanese people were writing in english? Yeah, i don't think so