JAST USA VS MangaGamer

[Okami]

As you all probably know MangaGamer and JAST USA are two biggest VN localization companies. So I was wondering which one is in your opinion better.

 

Here are all their works in case you want to check it once more before answering: MangaGamer, JAST USA.

 

I prefer JAST USA as in my opinion they have bigger number of decent and quality VNs, also unlike MangaGamer they focus more on storydriven VNs while MangaGamer focuses more on Nukiges (At least that's my impression).

[Funnerific]

I'd say JAST USA has better things overall.

 

MangaGamer has a fairy tale of the two but they didn't uncensor it which is kinda sad.

 

Though honestly both of them have plenty of VNs I still want to play.

[SieghartXx]

I was going to vote for Jast, then I remembered Da Capo III.

[monkeysrumble]

JAST seems to have my attention with their visual novels. My opinion may change in the future because I'm still semi-new to visual novels and I don't know the complete works of either but a quick scan through their websites tells me that JAST has more stuff that I'm interested in. Again I could change my opinion because I usually read fan translations and haven't read much licensed work before, I guess I'll learn when I get my copy of Steins;Gate.

[Zakamutt]

JAST seems to acquire a lot of fantls (school days, s;g, saya...) which is kinda meh. MG is p. cool these days, and I don't care if they release nukige for cash as long as they also get story titles out.

[Nosebleed]

MG just licensed an Utsuge so this made me rethink my opinion on them.

Also like Zaka said JAST buys a lot of fan tl and MG seems to do a lot of the tl themselves. 

Yes MG has a lot of porn, but that doesn't mean it makes them a bad company, they know their market and they are decent on what they are doing. JAST has their share of Nukiges too if you look at it. In fact they have a ton of porn in translation. MG still has their share of story VNs like Higurashi and the Da Capo series. And they seem to be focusing on some more story VNs these days instead of just Nukiges. Sure they might not be massive titles like Key works but I still think it's pretty cool of them to do this.

I'm more familiar with MG so I'd vote for them. I have no problem with JAST though I think they both are doing a decent job, more localization is always good.

[krill]

manga gamer has a better selection of available titles and generally releases content faster. jast takes forever to release any thing and when they do it still needs multiple patches later for debugging. the nukiges arent even a issue as they both release plenty of those after all they are what brings in the easy cash. and a company needs a profitable product in the market or it sinks.

[suikashoujo]

Honestly, most of what JAST has released\ has scheduled to release holds no interest for me. They aren't awful, but Mangagamer has- nukige aside- way more that interests me. Da Capo III, Innocent Grey's titles, and Bokuten are all unreleased games I want, just to name a few.

[Darklord Rooke]

MG releases a lot of rubbish. A few good titles are sprinkled in there somewhere, like EF.

 

I'm interested in most of JAST's titles. For me, it's an easy win to JAST. 

 

@Krill, JList funds JAST, that's why they don't need nearly as many nukige in their line up. 3 of the last 4 games MangaGamer have released has been nukige, with plenty more coming. In comparison, JAST just released Yumina and will release Steins Gate.

[shcboomer]

I think this question has too many factors for me to answer easily. Both are localization companies, yet their market share and overall net worth is just too different to compare. The titles they produce have less to do with what they really want to do at times and more to do with how much money they are able to generate from it.

[krill]

MG releases a lot of rubbish. A few good titles are sprinkled in there somewhere, like EF.

 

I'm interested in most of JAST's titles. For me, it's an easy win to JAST. 

 

@Krill, JList funds JAST, that's why they don't need nearly as many nukige in their line up. 3 of the last 4 games MangaGamer have released has been nukige, with plenty more coming. In comparison, JAST just released Yumina and will release Steins Gate.

 

im aware of the j-list and j-box jast connection if you go to those sites and look through the English pc games jast's are pretty much all nukige being sold as both hard copy and digital releases and hard copy's of jasts distributed mangagamer partnered titles.

[Darklord Rooke]

im aware of the j-list and j-box jast connection if you go to those sites and look through the English pc games jast's are pretty much all nukige being sold as both hard copy and digital releases and hard copy's of jasts distributed mangagamer partnered titles.

 

A significant proportion of the titles you are referring to are older titles, especially if you're flipping through their G-Collections line. JAST's modern releases are mostly story VNs, a quick glance through their recent and upcoming releases will confirm this.

 

MG's, on the other hand, are dominated by nukige. A quick glance through their recent releases will reveal mostly nukige, unlike JAST's.

 

JAST's mangagamer line up is not dominated by nukige.

[Zakamutt]

(Hey, why is this in GD and not VN talk by the way?)

 

JAST might have a higher story vn:nukige ratio, but they are preeetty slow. Look at last year (using vndb here): two releases - Yumina and Saya no Uta. This is effectively only one release useful to the VN community, as Saya already had a good fan translation. Yumina isn't really that cool either writingwise and the gameplay doesn't appeal to me. Thus, for me JAST had zero interesting releases last year.

 

On the MG side we have Tick Tack (meh, moege. Still more interesting than Yumina) and Harukoi Otome (same, though this thing having 3.5 mb of text is pretty crazy). Two meh releases, but at least they are both original tls and no gameplay.

 

Regarding future titles MG and JAST both have some really cool things coming: MG has Cartagra, KnS 2, DC III (they did C&D aaeru's project at ~30% though), perhaps BokuTen... JAST has Kikokugai (has previous fantl), Sumaga, Hanachirasu (has previous fantl), Seinarukana, Trample on Schatten, and Little Witch Romanesque. This means both MG and JAST have four story titles that will contribute to the number of translated vns slated for release. JAST is legendary for their slowness in getting shit done too, so there is that...

 

All in all, if you share my outlook and don't consider releases with previous tls important, MG and JAST are pretty much on even ground.

[Darklord Rooke]

You're weighting things here. Only people who care about getting things for free care about JAST's habit of scooping up fantls. If you care about expanding the visual novel scene, you'd buy the game and be happy that there's a legitimate way of supporting the developers in the west without expecting users to buy things from a Japanese website and be able to apply patches.

 

You forgot Django by the way. JAST has at least 7 story titles on the way, with a couple more expected.

 

And no, I really don't care what the community thinks is important. The community, in terms of VNs, are mostly made up of people trying to get the most VNs possible for free. Considering the visual novel scene has declined largely in the past 5-6 years, what's far more important is finding ways to get money back to the developers. No money means no games. So yes, JAST is tl a couple of games that have already been fantl'd, and by doing so more people will buy the game and more money will go to the developers. So I don't share your view of things. JAST has at least 7 story VNs on their schedule, and these are the developers I want to support. MG has a host of nukige titles on the books who I really don't want to support.

 

Oh, except for the creators of EF, who I think are struggling financially at the moment. Which is a shame.

 

Concerning speed, while MG is faster than JAST, they're not nearly as quick as you think. Most of their releases are short nukige stuff where a) people don't care about translation quality and b) all they're translating is 'oh, ooooohhhhhhhh' over and over again.

[Ang3lKilar]

They both seem to be pushing very different products. MangaGamer is way more in to nukige than JAST and JAST is way more in to stories with substance. That's not to say that both companies haven't dabbled in both but it seems pretty clear what type of products they more than often produce.

 

I like a good nukige as much as the next guy but nothing beats a deep story and making a connection with the characters. Thats why JAST gets my vote for this. I love many of the games on MangaGamer's list (not all of them nukige by the way) but overall as a company i'd prefer JAST. They're both excellent companies but its all with what you're interested in.

[Okami]

I think that JAST tends to work slower just because their releases tends to be longer ones so I don't hold it against them. And even if that was not the case I would still prefer to wait longer for a good VN than to wait a little for a "meh" one.

 

Zakamutt I think this topic is better suited for GD than for VNT as we are discussing companies here and not VN themselves, true if I am wrong about it then stuff can move it to VNT.

[Darkshine]

I'd say MangaGamer cause it has more stuff and is quicker with getting it's works out, I just have to push aside those nukiges is all.