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English Translated Japanese Visual Novel/ADV Thread
- Thread starter InfiniteNine
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atomicstrawberry said:Haven't seen this one mentioned in this thread so far, and thought I should point it out since I enjoyed it quite a bit when I played it through with a translation patch last year.
Aoishiro
All-ages (15+) PC port of a PS2 Shoujo-Ai (i.e. romance between girls) VN by Success. The main character, Syouko, is one of the better written female characters I've come across. She's a reasonably strong and confident character, but at the same time is still written with a feminine perspective. By contrast, many female leads end up being written effectively as if they were male, or are the weak and needy type that you often see as the heroines of standard VNs.
The plot revolves around the Kendo team, which Syouko is the captain of, who are attending training camp at an isolated Bhuddist temple by the sea in remote Japan. Just off the coast is an island which only the locals are permitted to visit, cut off from the mainland by a landbridge that only appears at low tide once a year. The island has a long history and folklore, especially the story of a bull demon which was exterminated there and is said to haunt the island still, bellowing whenever the wind blows and conjuring up storms. Every year, the people of the island have a festival celebrating the extermination of the demon, culminating with a sacrifice. And (of course) Syouko herself has a history with the place, though she doesn't know it yet.
The game is fully voiced, to the point that there's a different line of spoken dialogue when you start up the game depending on what time of day it is. The character sprites are partially animated as well, with eye blinks and lip flaps synchronised to said dialogue (except in the CG scenes), which gives it a more anime feel. I honestly don't know if this is remarkable or not. I've seen a few console / handheld games do it but this is the only PC VN I've encountered with that feature, however I haven't played that many. It has a highly branching plot with a lot of endings (56 total, most of them bad). The routes are gated, so you need to finish a few of them before certain choices are unlocked which will let you gain access to others. The controlled release means that playing through each route reveals more about the whole story of the island, its history and so on, so by the end everything has lined up. It's not a Higurashi/Umineko-style multi-part mystery or anything, but it's only the final route where the final pieces fall in place.
English patch is here. The original PC game is available in a few spots still I think, though it might be getting rarer given its age (late 2008). Pretty sure it's still available on DLSite.
I need more shoujo-ai in my life~
I really want to see a well-done shoujo-ai harem game one day. That'd be rad.
Also, do tell me what Kara no Shoujo is about
Lain said:
Here's my save data folder:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0Z88ZN89
If you could back yours up and replace it with that and see if you can load the newest save game, that would be really helpful.
New otome game translation in the works now.
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/07/02/hakuoki-demon-of-the-fleeting-blossom-will-be-north-americas-first-otome-game/
http://www.siliconera.com/2011/07/02/hakuoki-demon-of-the-fleeting-blossom-will-be-north-americas-first-otome-game/
Femmeworth
Banned
Thanks for this, I will check it out. I've been meaning to come into this thread and see if there were any good Shoujo-Ai games. :3atomicstrawberry said:Haven't seen this one mentioned in this thread so far, and thought I should point it out since I enjoyed it quite a bit when I played it through with a translation patch last year.
Aoishiro
All-ages (15+) PC port of a PS2 Shoujo-Ai (i.e. romance between girls) VN by Success. The main character, Syouko, is one of the better written female characters I've come across. She's a reasonably strong and confident character, but at the same time is still written with a feminine perspective. By contrast, many female leads end up being written effectively as if they were male, or are the weak and needy type that you often see as the heroines of standard VNs.
The plot revolves around the Kendo team, which Syouko is the captain of, who are attending training camp at an isolated Bhuddist temple by the sea in remote Japan. Just off the coast is an island which only the locals are permitted to visit, cut off from the mainland by a landbridge that only appears at low tide once a year. The island has a long history and folklore, especially the story of a bull demon which was exterminated there and is said to haunt the island still, bellowing whenever the wind blows and conjuring up storms. Every year, the people of the island have a festival celebrating the extermination of the demon, culminating with a sacrifice. And (of course) Syouko herself has a history with the place, though she doesn't know it yet.
The game is fully voiced, to the point that there's a different line of spoken dialogue when you start up the game depending on what time of day it is. The character sprites are partially animated as well, with eye blinks and lip flaps synchronised to said dialogue (except in the CG scenes), which gives it a more anime feel. I honestly don't know if this is remarkable or not. I've seen a few console / handheld games do it but this is the only PC VN I've encountered with that feature, however I haven't played that many. It has a highly branching plot with a lot of endings (56 total, most of them bad). The routes are gated, so you need to finish a few of them before certain choices are unlocked which will let you gain access to others. The controlled release means that playing through each route reveals more about the whole story of the island, its history and so on, so by the end everything has lined up. It's not a Higurashi/Umineko-style multi-part mystery or anything, but it's only the final route where the final pieces fall in place.
English patch is here. The original PC game is available in a few spots still I think, though it might be getting rarer given its age (late 2008). Pretty sure it's still available on DLSite.
AtomskEater
Member
Daichi said:
I'm pretty excited about this, although the anime was so-so. Now do I get DD to play when I upgrade to Vita, or UMD because I love physical copies so much?
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Sorry, but I've heard so much about Steins Gate on Warning A Huge Podcast that I have to ask...are there any English translation faqs or guides worth importing the game for available?
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Wow, both good and bad timing for me, I guess.weeaboo said:
hosannainexcelsis
Member
weeaboo said:
Nooooooo!
Maybe I will read the partial version...
Hot Coldman
Banned
ULTROS! said:
oh my god so ugly
I'm expecting the Lynch in your avatar to pop up and murder the woman
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
I'm not that far into Kara no Shoujo right now, but I really like what I've played so far.
And yeah, that music is amazing.
And yeah, that music is amazing.
atomicstrawberry said:Haven't seen this one mentioned in this thread so far, and thought I should point it out since I enjoyed it quite a bit when I played it through with a translation patch last year.
Aoishiro
All-ages (15+) PC port of a PS2 Shoujo-Ai (i.e. romance between girls) VN by Success. The main character, Syouko, is one of the better written female characters I've come across. She's a reasonably strong and confident character, but at the same time is still written with a feminine perspective. By contrast, many female leads end up being written effectively as if they were male, or are the weak and needy type that you often see as the heroines of standard VNs.
The plot revolves around the Kendo team, which Syouko is the captain of, who are attending training camp at an isolated Bhuddist temple by the sea in remote Japan. Just off the coast is an island which only the locals are permitted to visit, cut off from the mainland by a landbridge that only appears at low tide once a year. The island has a long history and folklore, especially the story of a bull demon which was exterminated there and is said to haunt the island still, bellowing whenever the wind blows and conjuring up storms. Every year, the people of the island have a festival celebrating the extermination of the demon, culminating with a sacrifice. And (of course) Syouko herself has a history with the place, though she doesn't know it yet.
The game is fully voiced, to the point that there's a different line of spoken dialogue when you start up the game depending on what time of day it is. The character sprites are partially animated as well, with eye blinks and lip flaps synchronised to said dialogue (except in the CG scenes), which gives it a more anime feel. I honestly don't know if this is remarkable or not. I've seen a few console / handheld games do it but this is the only PC VN I've encountered with that feature, however I haven't played that many. It has a highly branching plot with a lot of endings (56 total, most of them bad). The routes are gated, so you need to finish a few of them before certain choices are unlocked which will let you gain access to others. The controlled release means that playing through each route reveals more about the whole story of the island, its history and so on, so by the end everything has lined up. It's not a Higurashi/Umineko-style multi-part mystery or anything, but it's only the final route where the final pieces fall in place.
English patch is here. The original PC game is available in a few spots still I think, though it might be getting rarer given its age (late 2008). Pretty sure it's still available on DLSite.
Thanks for the write-up. I picked this up from a bargain bin for like 200 yen some time ago. Guess I should finally give it a try.
Erigu said:
I played a bit of the first one on SFC a long time ago but it didn't grasp my attention. To be fair, I was only interested in RPG at the time. Is it worth playing?
hosannainexcelsis said:
Well... I stopped before reaching the true ending
I was tired of the game after two play-through, one with the boy and one with the college student (Takashi?), and almost nothing happening between the prologue and the ending. So when I read on a walktrough it's necessary to unlock every ending for the true one I just gave up.
RadioHeadAche
Member
I absolutely hate how expensive used copies of Snatcher are these days. I really want to play it, but I'm not spending over $150 on a used Sega CD game. Also, Kojima's tweets about Snatcher only make not being able to play it worse.
Preview of the Steins;Gate English Translation -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl4UN-C2Zw0
Great job so far.
Great job so far.
Phoenix_Apollo
Member
Get the UMD because Aksys is actually putting a game to UMD in 2012.AtomskEater said:
So, can you guys recommend me some good VNs?
Preferably something that's not ecchi, moe or harem focused. Dating sims or anything of the kind are a no-no. Basically what I want are the best of the best the genre has to offer.
I already played 999 and the first Hotel Dusk based on GAF recommendations. Both were pretty good.
Preferably something that's not ecchi, moe or harem focused. Dating sims or anything of the kind are a no-no. Basically what I want are the best of the best the genre has to offer.
I already played 999 and the first Hotel Dusk based on GAF recommendations. Both were pretty good.
Phoenix_Apollo
Member
Despera said:
Ace Attorney is really good. There's also the Jake Hunter series, but I haven't heard much about it, beyond that it's a bit dry. All of the localized ones are for the DS, and AA is on Wiiware and iphone as well.
I did try out AA on my friend's DS a while back and it was pretty fun. I'm not sure if I want to go back into it though. Looking for something new.Phoenix_Apollo said:
hmm... you mean the first game in the OP? Would appreciate it if you could tell me why exactly I should pick it up instead of all the other ones.weeaboo said:
Despera said:
Is something like 999. First of all the director of 999 is the same scenerio writer of Ever17, Kotaro Uchikoshi, so the feel is very similar.
Seven people trapped in an amusement park, multiple paths with multiple endings, science, an awesome mystery and even more plot twist than 999.
Im not going to lie, it's a little bit dating sim-ish (nothing ecchi) but ey, it's really good in this novel.
AtomskEater
Member
Don't see it mentioned yet, JAST announced Starry Sky at their panel. The first game already has a translation patch floating around out there, but there are 4 games in the series (+4 fandiscs).
The liveblogger mistakenly called it a yaoi game, but it is indeed an all-ages otome game.
The liveblogger mistakenly called it a yaoi game, but it is indeed an all-ages otome game.
Finally broke down and bought Kara no Shoujo, I figure that even though I'll have to replay the first part, it'll be worthwhile because of having the unofficial voice patch. Also on the same site I actually came across a voice patch for Demonbane - apparently the PS2 version had the voice segments that seemed like they were missing from the PC version, and someone compiled that into a patch. I can't link the site here because of the other stuff they have on there, but I don't think it'll be hard to find with google.
Sorry, I haven't read all of the thread and the distinction of VN and ADV has already been discussed here but can we maybe try and state which are VNs and which are other ADVs in the OPs? Would be helpful since many people aren't aware that VN doesn't refer to Japanese adventures per se.
Visual Novels are really just a subgenre of ADVs and are purely multiple choice based multipath novels with electronically aided presentation (illusts and bgm). No inventory, no standard commands.
VNs strive to be full novels, with a text narration that can compete in quality with printed novels. This is where they go beyond the usual Choose Your Own Adventure books.
ADVs with lots of dialog aren't automatically VNs. If the dialog is presented on its own, not as a part of narration, then it's more like a drama, a comic or non-novel games, e.g. standard ADVs/RPGs.
VN: "You're creeping me out!", Kasumi said, her face looking terrified.
Other ADV: (picture of terrified girl) Kasumi: "You're creeping me out!"
ADVs other than VNs can have inner monologue and they can be narrated at times but then it's usually given as dialog by the main character. Examples would be Jake Hunter and Phoenix Wright which are graphic adventures, not VNs.
So the Cinq ones aren't VNs. Neither is Snatcher (much too old too, first VN was Shizuku in 1996). 999 isn't a VN. Chunsofts own VNs are called Sound Novels but 999 isn't one of that either.
Going by the screenshots I'd say the following games shown in the OPs are VNs:
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/Higurashi When They Cry
Umineko no Naku Koro ni
Tsukihime
Saya no Uta
Also going by screenshots these aren't:
999
Desire
Exodus Guilty
My Girlfiend is the President!
Snatcher
Policenauts
Hotel Dusk
Remember 11
Not going by screenshots, but the Type-Moon ones should all be VNs I guess. To really know it helps to have actually seen the game in motion.
Visual Novels are really just a subgenre of ADVs and are purely multiple choice based multipath novels with electronically aided presentation (illusts and bgm). No inventory, no standard commands.
VNs strive to be full novels, with a text narration that can compete in quality with printed novels. This is where they go beyond the usual Choose Your Own Adventure books.
ADVs with lots of dialog aren't automatically VNs. If the dialog is presented on its own, not as a part of narration, then it's more like a drama, a comic or non-novel games, e.g. standard ADVs/RPGs.
VN: "You're creeping me out!", Kasumi said, her face looking terrified.
Other ADV: (picture of terrified girl) Kasumi: "You're creeping me out!"
ADVs other than VNs can have inner monologue and they can be narrated at times but then it's usually given as dialog by the main character. Examples would be Jake Hunter and Phoenix Wright which are graphic adventures, not VNs.
So the Cinq ones aren't VNs. Neither is Snatcher (much too old too, first VN was Shizuku in 1996). 999 isn't a VN. Chunsofts own VNs are called Sound Novels but 999 isn't one of that either.
Going by the screenshots I'd say the following games shown in the OPs are VNs:
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/Higurashi When They Cry
Umineko no Naku Koro ni
Tsukihime
Saya no Uta
Also going by screenshots these aren't:
999
Desire
Exodus Guilty
My Girlfiend is the President!
Snatcher
Policenauts
Hotel Dusk
Remember 11
Not going by screenshots, but the Type-Moon ones should all be VNs I guess. To really know it helps to have actually seen the game in motion.
radiantdreamer
Member
extralite said:
I don't think many people really care. As long as it's got dialogue and a good story, and has anime characters, that's all that really matters.
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
Steins;Gate PC/360 > Steins;Gate TV so wait if you are patient.Clevinger said:
Tribes of Trusty
Member
Has anybody here played Sengoku Rance ? The game is quite addicting
and Rance is such a douche, it's a nice change from the usual heroes
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
Pretty funny game with some fun gameplay! Although that falls into the Conquest SLG territory.Tribes of Trusty said:
Tribes of Trusty
Member
Yeah it's long. It even plays a Disc One Dungeon trick on you at turn 40...I'm at turn 98 and far from finished...
radiantdreamer
Member
extralite said:
Sorry, I don't want to feed you anymore.
atomicstrawberry
Neo Member
Some more info on the JAST Nitro+ releases. Not sure if they mentioned these details at AX or not.
http://www.nitroplususa.com/new-nitro-titles-announced-preorders/
Looks like to get them out faster they're doing bundled releases. Saya no Uta and Hanachirasu as a single bundle in Fall 2011, Kikokugai and Django as a second bundle some time in 2012, and Sumaga getting a non-bundled release some time after that.
Saya/Hanachirasu bundle is also up for preorder on J-List.
http://www.nitroplususa.com/new-nitro-titles-announced-preorders/
Looks like to get them out faster they're doing bundled releases. Saya no Uta and Hanachirasu as a single bundle in Fall 2011, Kikokugai and Django as a second bundle some time in 2012, and Sumaga getting a non-bundled release some time after that.
Saya/Hanachirasu bundle is also up for preorder on J-List.
So I just got my first ending with Ever17 (not a very happy one, lol). Such a mindblowing experience. I see there are another 10 to get. I REALLLLLY don't want to be spoiled on any plot points though, so I am hesitant to check a guide.
Does anybody know of any good spoiler free guides to help me get the other endings, and scenes etc? Or perhaps some advice on how to go about playing on subsequent playthroughs? I want to see everything. I presume what everybody does is use the "skip" function to zoom to key points, and change their decisions?
Does anybody know of any good spoiler free guides to help me get the other endings, and scenes etc? Or perhaps some advice on how to go about playing on subsequent playthroughs? I want to see everything. I presume what everybody does is use the "skip" function to zoom to key points, and change their decisions?
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