Translations of wapanese games

[felipepepe]

He can only bring Romanesque to KS because Littlewitch is out of business, it seems

This explains a lot.

 

[Zetor]

I'm definitely up for donating some $ to shram for his efforts, even if he only translates the first game in the series. He seems pretty cool about the whole thing, and has shown a lot of enthusiasm for translating these kinds of games. Honestly I never thought the EXP thing was going to work (or Steam greenlight), and I'm a bit wary about a kickstarter's legal followups. And yea, realistically there's going to be a really tiny audience for these games. "Japanese PC blobber"... each of those words loses a significant portion of the potential playerbase. :p

As for what he'll do after this... ultimately it's his decision, and it'll probably depend a lot on how this translation is received. So I guess the thing to do is spread the word!

 

[abnaxus]

He can only bring Romanesque to KS because Littlewitch is out of business, it seems

This explains a lot.

Full story here: http://tenka.seiha.org/2013/04/of-projects-proposals-and-piracy/

However, since I have a paralyzing fear of any translation project going off without a hitch and this one had been mostly hitchless, I decided to drop the devs a line about it, link to the KS, some sample work, etc. Mostly expecting mostly to be ignored, mind you. To my surprise, I got back a response quite fast saying that they had no interest in selling their games in the west because of piracy, what I was doing would promote piracy, and that if I wanted to play their games, I should move to Japan. Somewhat daunted, I talked to a connection I have with MangaGamer to see if a full-on real release et al could persuade them to let me throw money at them, but they got the same answer as me.
So that’s a tad bit disheartening. Apparently so long as piracy exists, they’re uninterested in even discussing any kind of localization, but at the same time, a stern admonition that I’m promoting piracy of their half-decade-old game in a market they have no interest in selling their product to lacks the same kind of oomph as certain other things might. Not to mention that they’ve known about the KS for going on a few weeks now and have demonstrated little more than apathy toward it otherwise (or to most other games of theirs that have been translated). Which isn’t the same as a yea, but is delectably different from a cease and desist. If you need an analogy, it’s like asking Shatner if you can write the Official Definitive Slash Fictiontm between Kirk and Picard. You’d get laughed out, but it’s very rare that anybody raises a stink about fanfiction (ie derivitive work) distributed freely online. Patrick Stewart would likely offer to publish it himself.

Japanese devs of extreme niche games don't give a fuck about the west, news at 11.

If Aroduc is as talented as they say and as passionate as he seems, he should just join G-collections, Mangagamer of Jast. The quality of their translations needs improving, anyway.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Aroduc is the translator of Big Bang Age and Duel Savior, among others: http://vntls.tindabox.net/staff/aroduc

He can only bring Romanesque to KS because Littlewitch is out of business, it seems. And because the game is family friendly, contrary to another current project of his, Himegari.

EDIT: ninja'ed

I don't think them being out of business has much to do with it.

However, since I have a paralyzing fear of any translation project going off without a hitch and this one had been mostly hitchless, I decided to drop the devs a line about it, link to the KS, some sample work, etc. Mostly expecting mostly to be ignored, mind you. To my surprise, I got back a response quite fast saying that they had no interest in selling their games in the west because of piracy, what I was doing would promote piracy, and that if I wanted to play their games, I should move to Japan. Somewhat daunted, I talked to a connection I have with MangaGamer to see if a full-on real release et al could persuade them to let me throw money at them, but they got the same answer as me.

So he already contacted the devs, they're aware of it, don't want to see it, and he's going ahead anyways because realistically they aren't going to actually do anything and unless they do their lack of blessing doesn't mean anything. Whether or not the devs are a functioning company still making games doesn't affect whether or not trying to sue a guy in Oregon is worth their trouble.

I suppose KS might care whether or not Littlewitch is in business, but honestly I doubt they pay that much attention.

 

[felipepepe]

The XTH translator also got a big NO from the developers... I find it very daring of the guy to do the KS, not only the developers said they don't want it, but also pointed out it would promote piracy... they are aware of the project, against it and now the guy is asking for money to do it... One thing would be me in Brazil, where we don't even have laws against that and speak HUEHUE, but a guy in the US, where copyright laws are king and english is spoken... he's taking a big risk there.

 

[TigerKnee]

If Aroduc is as talented as they say and as passionate as he seems, he should just join G-collections, Mangagamer of Jast. The quality of their translations needs improving, anyway.

Why would you doom someone to a life of translating shitty nukige?

 

[abnaxus]

If Aroduc is as talented as they say and as passionate as he seems, he should just join G-collections, Mangagamer of Jast. The quality of their translations needs improving, anyway.

Why would you doom someone to a life of translating shitty nukige?

To be fair, JAST at least have been translating Steins;Gate, Saya no Uta and Hanachirasu.

 

[TigerKnee]

To be fair, JAST at least have been translating Steins;Gate, Saya no Uta and Hanachirasu.

Here's the thing: JAST DIDN'T translate those games.

They simply bought up already completed/close to completion fan-translations, touched them up (e.g making them run natively on English windows) and then do all the manufacturing/marketing work.

Any game that JAST does on their own? Shitty nukige.

 

[Haba]

If Aroduc is as talented as they say and as passionate as he seems, he should just join G-collections, Mangagamer of Jast. The quality of their translations needs improving, anyway.

Why would you doom someone to a life of translating shitty nukige?

He already works for JAST, so uh...

But those companies want to make profit, and porno is the only thing that actually sells.

 

[Haba]

Oh, in other news, Dra+Koi finally got translated.

The translation is probably the most awesome thing in this

After the soundtrack, of course.

 

[yes plz]

The Shining Force III trilogy translation project is still making progress. Looks like the translation is done for them, now they're mostly fixing bugs and unlike most other translators, they've actually been releasing beta patches for every substantial update they make. Though from what I've tried of it, Saturn emulation isn't the greatest. Panzer Dragoon Saga randomly froze up on me and I had to find a really specific version of Albert Odyssey in order to get the music to play.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

They have worked on it forever. I still have a modded Saturn should it come to that.

 

[tiagocc0]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1358146405/romanesque-translation-project
ops..

Romanesque Translation Project (Canceled) is the subject of an intellectual property dispute and is currently unavailable.

 

[felipepepe]

I knew they were underestimating the amount of fucks Japan gives... that, or a group like Carpe Fulgur bought the rights.

 

[tiagocc0]

Actually anyone can send a message to kickstarter about infringing copyrights, it could be any fan too.

 

[Stabwound]

The Shining Force III trilogy translation project is still making progress. Looks like the translation is done for them, now they're mostly fixing bugs and unlike most other translators, they've actually been releasing beta patches for every substantial update they make. Though from what I've tried of it, Saturn emulation isn't the greatest. Panzer Dragoon Saga randomly froze up on me and I had to find a really specific version of Albert Odyssey in order to get the music to play.

Is SF3 (all discs) fully playable without game-ruining bugs or moonspeak? I love SF1 and 2 but never got around to trying 3, namely because they stupidly only released the first part in English.

I'd have to emulate it, but that's not a big deal if it works. Unfortunately, those discs are hard to come by due to recent events, too.

 

[yes plz]

The Shining Force III trilogy translation project is still making progress. Looks like the translation is done for them, now they're mostly fixing bugs and unlike most other translators, they've actually been releasing beta patches for every substantial update they make. Though from what I've tried of it, Saturn emulation isn't the greatest. Panzer Dragoon Saga randomly froze up on me and I had to find a really specific version of Albert Odyssey in order to get the music to play.

Is SF3 (all discs) fully playable without game-ruining bugs or moonspeak? I love SF1 and 2 but never got around to trying 3, namely because they stupidly only released the first part in English.

I'd have to emulate it, but that's not a big deal if it works. Unfortunately, those discs are hard to come by due to recent events, too.

As far as I'm aware, they're all translated and, looking a the bug report topics on their official forum, the only problems being reported after the most recent patch are typos and other text related issues (e.g. alignment, going out of the box, etc). Like I said, though, Saturn emulation isn't stellar, so you might get random freezes; I've had it happen to me on nearly every game I've played on SSF.

 

[deuxhero]

It's a bit late, but the Valkyria Chronicles 3 team has been teasting SOMETHING from the 29th of last month

http://vc3translationproject.wordpress.com/

 

[treave]

http://danganronpa.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/release-danganronpa-english-translation-v1-0/

For anyone who's interested, the Danganronpa English translation has finally been completed. It's a fun little romp, to be sure.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

This isn't the Something Awful guy's patch, is it?

 

[treave]

I'm not sure about that actually. Is there some drama that I should know about? As far as I know the translation seems serviceable, having seen the demo and played the original game in Japanese.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Nah, I don't think there's any drama. Slowbeef interviewed the guy on his podcast, and apparently he had some minor objections to the other team's translation.

Whatever.

 

[damicore]

This is the only translation I knew of, was there some translation else in the works?
It seems I'll put Eador on hold for now, these are awesome news.

 

[TigerKnee]

In certain respect, it's not dissimilar to the downfall of RPGs: brain drain on talented people as old guard die out with no good replacements, rising costs and an "arms race" in trying to compete in terms of graphics/voice acting and other luxuries that are yet considered "required" to sell, and having to sell out on visions in order to make sales.

 

[Haba]

Not to mention the fact that you are building a career in something that your friends and family will not tolerate.

That being said, my biggest favourites didn't have voice acting or expensive CG... One million for a basic eroge is a lot of money :z