[Studio Frisay] H2O √ after and another Complete Story Edition Translation Project [Released]

[Tooko]

H2O √ after and another Complete Story Edition

Release

Download the patch (Google drive, Mediafire) (ver. 1.01, dated September 8, 2023)

Description

In H2O -Footprints in the Sand-, Hirose Takuma is a blind middle school student, though the cause for his blindness is undetermined. After his mother died unexpectedly, it left a deep emotional scar on him, causing him to become lonely and reserved. Due to this, Takuma moves from the city out into a rural area to live with his uncle and Takuma is enrolled into a new middle school. There, he meets several new girls, including the firm and obstinate Kohinata Hayami, the kind and obliging Kagura Hinata, and the cheerful and mysterious Otoha.

In √ after and another, there are new after stories for two of the heroines from H2O (Hayami and Hinata), plus new routes for Yui and Hamaji/Yukiji, the latter of which also unlocks Maki's route.

A version merging both games into one was later released, H2O √ after and another Complete story Edition.

H2O VNDB: https://vndb.org/v473

√ after and another VNDB: https://vndb.org/v561

Where to purchase

The game can be purchased legally from DMM (https://dlsoft.dmm.co.jp/detail/mnphs_0007/), but a Japanese proxy/VPN may be necessary to purchase it. That is where I obtained my copy. It goes on sale quite often, although it's pretty cheap even at full price, considering its age.

Project

The English localization project is being conducted by Studio Frisay, fresh off the completed Imasugu Onii-chan ni Imouto datte Iitai! project. As before I (Tooko) will be doing all of the translating and editing of the script, along with probably most of the image editing, and any engine work that needs to be done (of which is very little).

Studio Frisay discord server

Progress

Programming: The game is built on the BGI/Ethornell engine, as with Imaimo before it, so I'm already familiar with how the engine works and have all the resources necessary to apply any hacks and build the completed patch once everything is done. In fact, there's a lot less work this time around on that front because the structure is a lot simpler, being a NVL game instead of an ADV game.

Translation: The translation officially commenced on August 10, 2022 and was completed on January 28, 2023, although progress was initially very slow because of the ongoing work for the Imaimo patch at the time. However, I already translated a decent amount of the script (20%) by the time I announced the project a couple months later in October. The game has 73,547 lines across 167 scenario files split up between the common route and six character routes:

Common: 6953 / 6953: 100%
Hayami: 20620 / 20620: 100%
Hinata: 14112 / 14112: 100%
Yui: 13151 / 13151: 100%
Hamaji: 4973 / 4973: 100%
Maki: 5437 / 5437: 100%
Otoha: 8301 / 8301: 100%
Total: 73547 / 73547: 100%

Images and videos: Aside from minor tweaks, all of the in-game images in need of editing are now completed. Editing of images is shared between me and nReus, who will also be typesetting lyrics onto the 9 OP/ED videos. The images include about 110 for the UI, and about 335 for the rest of the game, although most of those are minor variations on each other, so the actual number of unique images is much less.

Editing: The editing of the game's text officially commenced on February 10, 2023, and it was completed on July 10, 2023.

QC: The quality check phase involves going through a normal playthrough to check for any problems with the patch files and their rendering. This should took about two months, completing in early September. The patch is scheduled for release on September 8, 21:00 UTC.

Progress link on Google Sheets

Edited September 8, 2023 by Tooko
Update

[HataVNI]

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! Let's gooooooooo!! 

[rimvydasm]

wow, i didn't expected to see your next update so fast, i wish you good luck and hank you for translating another vn

[Novel21]

What really thank you soooooooo much, it means a lot to me. 

I have waited long time for to play this VN in English and finally it happens thanks to you. 

You are the best .

I'm really looking forward to play this VN in English. 

[tribute509]

I've just created my account just to say "let's gooooooo"
Great job guys.

[Duckery]

Imasugu was very well done so I have high hopes for this. The quality and doing so much yourself is inspiring. Good luck and thank you for your work.

[Diener]

That's an excellent announcement!

H2O is one of the VN that I ever wanted to read (specially because I'm a big fan of the artist art style, I love it), I will look forward to it.

[keitucis]

YESSSS! Have been waiting for a translation for so long, very thankful for this!

[littleshogun]

So H2O I see. I did try to do some research, and from what I can see apparently several reviewers seems to not quite appreciate the VNs (ie found a lot of flaw within the VN). That aside, I have no much to say in regard of the project other than good luck with the project there and hopefully you'll enjoy the process when you're working on H2O.

PS - I find out several interesting thought in the reviews that I read, so naturally there'll be spoiler for obvious reasons and therefore YOU SHOULDN'T OPEN THE SPOILER IF YOU PREFER TO NOT SPOILED (Sorry need to emphasize it).

Spoiler

I see several divisive opinion in regard of Yui's route in which she's the preparator of Hayami's bullying. I suppose I should see on how it'll goes, but if anything else at least the bullying is no worse than, say, Subahibi. For the info Maki's route here is more like otome VN with Maki as the MC and Hamaji as the hero with Hamaji is looking very cute when he did the cross-dress, so I guess I'll accept it as the compensation for the lack of translated VN with trap MC (Besides Otoboku). Lastly Hamaji's route here is apparently more like Sakura no Uta pilot, so at least one can took a glimpse of Sakura no Uta in which it may took a very long time if not never to be translated.

Well that's all for what I can say in regard of the reviews.

Edited October 7, 2022 by littleshogun

[Quay]

Thank u so much

[Happiness+]

You're fucking awesome

[Nier]

OMG, I didn't think that someone would pick up this game, I have been interested in playing this game since years ago when I played trough Subarashiki Hibi (official english translation) and Sakura no Uta (unofficial spanish translation) and saw that this game was made by the same scenario writer (SCA-DI) and have been wanting to play H2O alot, but no way to do that since I can not read Japanese, thanks a ton for picking this game!

[meiri]

Actually gasped when I saw this thread. I was fascinated by this VN while I was looking up SCA-DI's works, and was hoping it would get picked up for a translation! I'm so looking forward to this omg. Good luck!

[Tooko]

It's been exactly a month since the first post announcing the project, although you may have noticed I've been updating the translation counts weekly. And so I'm here to give the first major update: Hayami's arc is now fully translated! Her total arc has over 20,000 lines and is the longest by far in the entire game, so getting over that hurdle is very gratifying and makes the rest of the project seem slightly less daunting. But only slightly, since with just under 46,000 lines left to translate, that's almost exactly the entire length of my previous fan translation project, Imaimo. Not that the two are really comparable in any way beyond that coincidental statistic. The fact is that Imaimo was generally easier to translate.

That's not to say H2O has a difficult writing style, because it really doesn't. Most of it is very straightforward, but it does tend to be very wordy. That might have something to do with how this is a NVL game and not an ADV game, so the lines can be longer without having to worry about a text box. Or maybe the writers of H2O were just generally more verbose than what I encountered in Imaimo. Either way, I've noticed that it generally takes longer to translate H2O on the whole, but I'm still going at a pretty decent pace. There's also the fact that starting the translation of any decently sized project feels slower at the start because there's so much more left to translate, but that picks up over time, especially after getting over the 50% milestone, which at least for this project is still a little bit ways away.

Now for a few other things that I feel require clarification about the nature of the game. As it says in the first post, this version of H2O combines the content from the original game and the sequel that came later, Root after and another. But Root isn't just a fan disc. It essentially doubled the size of the available content from the original game. In fact, the two are virtually the same size in terms of their line counts: H2O content covers 36,901 lines, and the new content from Root covers 36,646 lines. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but it's an interesting coincidence either way. Additionally, if you remove the roughly 7,000 lines from the common route from the original game, that means Root actually has more content in the character routes than in the original game.

The game's overall structure is also interesting in how it's laid out. There are 13 possible endings, which covers 5 normal routes (Hayami, Hinata, Otoha, Yui, Hamaji/Yukiji) and 8 after story routes (3 for Hayami, 2 for Hinata, and one each for Otoha, Yui and Hamaji/Yukiji (this last one is also Maki's route)). In the original game, you had to first play through Hayami's arc to get to Hinata, and then getting done with Hinata let you access Otoha's route. That's not exactly the case anymore in this version, although Otoha's route is still only unlocked after going through Hayami's, Hinata's, and Yui's normal routes. But you can do those in any order, or even do Hamaji's route first. As for the after stories, they're obviously only unlocked if you go through the normal routes first, in addition to 3 of the 8 after stories only being unlocked when you finish other after stories. That, in addition to the somewhat confusing choice progression, means that a full walkthrough will be provided for this game once the patch is released.

But back to the translation. Completing Hayami's arc brings the total content translated up to 37.5%. Not bad for about 3 months of work considering how long this game is. By comparison, the Imaimo translation took me just under 3 months to complete from start to finish. So yeah, I have my work cut out for me. But I've enjoyed it immensely thus far. This is a really solid story with plenty of feels, comedy and...oh yeah, H scenes. There are 26 H scenes, 9 of which are in Hayami's arc. By line count, the 24 scenario files that contain the H scenes (because 2 files contain 2 H scenes) take up 14,479 lines, 19.7% of all content. That's not to say that every line in those 24 files is part of an H scene, but the vast majority of it is. As for the other girls, 6 H scenes are in Hinata's arc, 4 are in both Otoha's and Maki's arcs, and there are 3 in Yui's arc.

Next up, I'll be translating Hinata's arc, the second longest after Hayami's, but considerably shorter at just over 14,000 lines. So for now, I'll get back to work.

Edited November 5, 2022 by Tooko

[littleshogun]

No much to say other than congratulation for reaching the first milestone for translating one route, and good luck with the rest.

[Kirashi]

Will you drop the honorifics?

[Maya]

@Kirashi Most people prefer that in VNs, to depict any kind of relationship among them. 

Some people may not liike that, but people like me like having that.

[Tooko]

6 hours ago, Kirashi said:

Will you drop the honorifics?

All the honorifics are kept (san, chan, kun, sama). Same with some familial terms (onii-chan/onee-chan) and designations (sensei/senpai).

[Kirashi]

Don't take me wrong I want the honorifics too, but more and more translators tend to drop them in order to "Americanize" the final product...

Thank you!

[Tooko]

Another month, another route, and I'm back again for another update. This time I've crossed two major milestones: I crossed over the 50% mark for the overall translation about 10 days ago, and I've now completed Hinata's arc, bringing the total amount translated to 56.7% totaling 41,685 lines. That's about 3,000 lines less than Imaimo, so I've just about matched my previous translation project in terms of line count. But there are still about 32,000 lines left to go in this one.

Thus far, it's been quite a wild ride going through both Hayami's and Hinata's arcs, since at 34,732 lines, that's slightly more than the last four arcs combined. Naturally, that also makes up the majority of the H scenes, with 15 of the 26 shared between Hayami (with 9) and Hinata (with 6). Not to mention how Hayami got 3 after stories, and Hinata got 2, whereas the others only get 1 each. Also, since how the game is divided, I'll now be spending an extended period of time finishing up the content from Root after and another (Yui's, Hamaji's and Maki's routes). I've especially been looking forward to working on Yui's route, but it'll still take months to translate the rest of the game.

Yui's route has a little over 13,000 lines, almost the same length as Hinata, but a little more compact and with less H scenes (there are only 3). So until the next update.

Also, as a small reminder, the game is once again on sale on DMM until January 10.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Tooko

[Novel21]

I'm really happy for to hear that and i'm really looking forward to it very much. I'm so happy Studio Frisay decided to translate H20 Footprints in the sand since its one of the few VN I wanted to get translated in English.

[Remomochikaeri]

Thank you so much for deciding to TL h2O! I wonder if you would be interested in doing sakura no uta next or taking it as a suggestion for a later project. Thanks a lot for your work btw!

[littleshogun]

Interestingly, according to one of the review Hamaji's route here can be said as the prototype of Sakura no Uta, so we can say that the translator will translate Sakura no Uta from a certain point of view. Although as for whether he'll take on the actual Sakura no Uta or not, well nobody know (Moreso if we know that it'll be very tasking task thanks to it having a very big number of lines).

[Remomochikaeri]

23 hours ago, littleshogun said:

Interestingly, according to one of the review Hamaji's route here can be said as the prototype of Sakura no Uta, so we can say that the translator will translate Sakura no Uta from a certain point of view. Although as for whether he'll take on the actual Sakura no Uta or not, well nobody know (Moreso if we know that it'll be very tasking task thanks to it having a very big number of lines).

Yeah, it would definitely be a big task but it would be absolutely amazing if they were able to pick it up! Imagine having both h20 (which I'm very glad they picked up) and sakura no uta Tl'ed in our lifetime xD

[Tooko]

One final update for the year that I actually managed to make in time before the end of 2022. I've now completed Yui's arc bringing the translation up to 74.6% complete at 54,836 lines with only the latter half of the arcs left to go for the final quarter of the script. Although since Maki is actually the after story from Hamaji's arc, it's really only 2 arcs; Hamaji/Maki and Otoha. Even combined, Hamaji/Maki makes up about 10,400 lines, so substantial but not as lengthy as the previous arcs up to now, although it does have 4 H scenes all in the Maki after story (about half of Maki's arc contains H scenes, if you can believe it).

So all that's left to translate is 18,711 lines, which really isn't all that bad when I take into account all that I've translated up to now over the past 4 and a half months. Yui's arc in particular I really enjoyed since she's my favorite character, so that's also part of the reason why her arc seemed to just fly by this month, although I was aiming to try to get her arc done before the end of the year anyway. I'm so glad they gave Yui an arc in Root after and another.

But anyway, Hamaji/Maki is up next, and the next major update will be once both are done (since separately they're both pretty short). If it isn't already obvious based on the pacing I've achieved thus far, the translation should be completed some time early next year, but because of everything else that has to be done (image and video editing, script editing and the final QC process), the patch won't be out any time soon. However, I can reasonably say that unless something catastrophic occurs, the patch should be complete at some point in 2023. So still a ways off, but something to look forward to in the relatively near future. So I'll see you at the next update.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Tooko