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English Translated Japanese Visual Novel/ADV Thread

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grim-tales

Member
Uneasy? The trailer was fucking awesome! Got that mysterious creepy feeling. Can't wait to see what's it about!

I agree but I meant uneasy in the sense of weird :D
If it's an adults only rated game theres not a snowball in hell's chance of a UK release/localisation unfortunately :(
 

LX_Theo

Banned
So I now have Never 7 and Remember 11 in my possession (Thanks to a good friend that lives off campus). I will probably start up Never 7 some time this weekend. In general, it being the first and having some lore explanations makes me want to do it first. Not to mention, I rather save the supposedly better one for later.

Here is everything I know about each of these games going in (other than having already played Ever 17). Will go ahead and spoiler it all, even the unimportant stuff.

Never 7
Has some lore explanations
More slice of life like

Remember 11
I've read vague comments saying the ending is disappointing for some
There's an airplane crash of some sort
 

PKrockin

Member
Either is a erotic game with explicit sex scenes, or has extremely gruesome murder scenes with gore flying around like bad jokes. Or both.

Given the intestines in the trailer, its at least the second one.

There's a censored titfuck in the animation right on the home page, did you miss that? lol

Unless that wasn't there before, I only just now looked at it now that I have a proper internet connection.
 

grim-tales

Member
Hmmm. So I was half right.

Kokoro is obviously switching bodies with this Satoru person.... I've just found a letter explaining this.. but right now I AM SATORU, which means the real Satoru must have written this when I was at the cabin... how come he seems so calm about this?
*Brain melts*
EDIT:
Er... eh?
Satoru left the note unfinished.
"The truth is... my body is

My body is.. what? WTF is that?
 

LX_Theo

Banned
So I started up Never 7. I just got to
Makoto seeing Haruka slip before it happens
. Yeah, not very fair, I'm sure.

I'm going to throw out a theory on what this all is...
The "Seminar" camp is a camp made to research the infinity loop. I don't think the reason for reliving the timelines will be (EVER 17 Spoiler)
Blick Winkel again, since this game was first and Blick Winkel was supposed to be a plot twist for Ever 17
. That leaves me with no theory on what is causing the loop this time. Also, Yuka and Okuhiko irk me so far. Haruka is just a big mystery with her vague statements. I also much preferred the art style in Ever 17.

And I'm imagining Makoto looking like the one from Danganronpa, so the game better not smash my dreams, lol.
 

PKrockin

Member
So I started up Never 7. I just got to
Makoto seeing Haruka slip before it happens
. Yeah, not very fair, I'm sure.

I'm going to throw out a theory on what this all is...
The "Seminar" camp is a camp made to research the infinity loop. I don't think the reason for reliving the timelines will be (EVER 17 Spoiler)
Blick Winkel again, since this game was first and Blick Winkel was supposed to be a plot twist for Ever 17
. That leaves me with no theory on what is causing the loop this time. Also, Yuka and Okuhiko irk me so far. Haruka is just a big mystery with her vague statements. I also much preferred the art style in Ever 17.

And I'm imagining Makoto looking like the one from Danganronpa, so the game better not smash my dreams, lol.
lol, yeah, I played Never7 first so in my mind the name Makoto is forever linked to Okuhiko's cheeky "Ishiharaaa...?" line.

BTW, I just found this. Seems pretty accurate.

EuvJJMT.jpg
 

Akibared

Member
Up to day 3 in Remember 11 Kokoro route
Satoru is saying the year is 2012 while everyone else says its 2011 even the radio is saying 2011!
this is going to drive me insane o_o
 

Akibared

Member
So just finished up Kokoro's route! Should have gone to bed since I have work in a few hours but it was worth it!

I don't understand whats going on why is there water around the cabin?! I'm hoping all will be explained in Satoru's route.
 
MangaGamer is releasing Bokuten – Why I Became an Angel from Overdrive. Not too surprising considering they bring over all of Overdrive's stuff.

Premise sound alright on paper but for some reason i wasn't aware of this title.

Anyway more localisations is always good. But for Overdrive stuff i'm still waiting for cho dengeki striker.
 

LX_Theo

Banned
So, for Never 7... I am currently
at the point where Yuka and Makoto are reliving the week again with memories intact.
. With that, some impressions and theories.

I'm a bit put off by the fact they've kept their memories. Why did it happen this time? They both woke up without losing a step in their awareness of what had happened. I will say, I'm still a bit suspicious of Yuka. She constantly puts off giving answers to very relevant questions. Not to mention, the whole idea about the Seminar camp being undefined and there being some big surprise in the meaning to be told at the end... I still think that ties into this somehow. Shoot, they might be related. I still can't say I've noticed anything that shows a direct reason for them keeping their memories. Rather, it may be something like that. Another plot twist concealing the reason. If it IS some sort of research project, maybe Yuka is involved. She might be lying through her teeth about a lot of things, even. With that, if it is a research project, that could explain why he kept his memories. One, they could have done something in the background to cause it, or this could even be the first time he ever went to the past. I'd need to flesh both those ideas out before I could verify their merit with the current evidence, but they are possible.

I don't really know what route I'm on, though. First playthrough, so I make all my choices with no outside information. I'll assume their is an ending for each girl and a true ending to tie it all together. I wanted to go for Haruka's ending first (she is by and far the most interesting character with both her back story and personality), but it feels like I'm getting Yuka's based off how the story has been going. I guess I'll just hope that the plot divergence is elsewhere down the road, lol.

EDIT: Finished first ending, and not too surprisingly, it ended up being the Yuka ending like I thought.
Yuka's motivations made me like her more than the annoying girl she had been up until then
. Outside of that, I don't really think I got any more answers from that ending about why its happening.
Though, I suppose Yuka's cleared of suspicion... For now.
 

Marche90

Member
MangaGamer is releasing Bokuten – Why I Became an Angel from Overdrive. Not too surprising considering they bring over all of Overdrive's stuff.

I remember that this one didn't do so hotly in Japan. Also, remember reading a critique about how Overdrive always shoehorn music themes in every single one of their recent games, like with this one, and it didn't fit the theme of the VN at all.

Anyway, not like I care about someone else's critiques. Will read to see how good it is, since it doesn't have bad ratings in VNDB at all.

Also, waiting for Chou, though not as excited for it. Vague ending semi-spoilers:
I'm still pissed at that ending, and I'm hoping for a totally different ending this time
 

LX_Theo

Banned
Finished Haruka's route... (to note, past my first playthrough I'm using a flowchart to get all the ending at a more reasonable speed)

Did not see that coming. Haruka being Kurumi's clone? How old exactly is Haruka? I know they mentioned she skipped grades... but she's younger than the high schooler? What, how? Overall, I did enjoy the ending a lot. Haruka still strikes me as the most interesting character with the ending considered. Her character development is quite endearing. I can't say if her personality/story is a trope, though (it sort of seems like it could be, but I haven't seen it all that often).

I also now don't see any further explanation for why the loop is happening. The god of time or something was mentioned in Yuka's route, but I'm going to take that with a grain of salt. I suppose I expect the writers to be more clever than that. What different happened in this route? They sure were not at the shrine. I also believe the bell came well before the jump back. He clearly remembered the alarm being the last thing he heard. Also, Makoto didn't die. Haruka did and wasn't sent back. Or, maybe she just didn't keep her memories? I'll assume she didn't go back since the game made no hint of that being the case.

How can that effect what the reasons might be? I'm still quite fond of there being some sort of research being conducted here. The new information certainly shows that the method of causing it was not location based or his death based. Maybe the bell is a trigger? Like teaching a dog to bark when they hear a bell. Makoto experiencing immense feelings while hearing it could trigger some ability he possesses for time travel. Though, beyond that idea, I'm not sure what else to consider.

Will probably do Saki's route next.
 
So I'm doing the "Puzzles" section of Umineko.

Some of these questions are just plain stupid.
Specifically Shannon's. sWeet, bItter,sPicy? That's not clever, that's dumb.

Also, I hate how a lot of exposition is just being thrown in this chapter. Why the heck couldn't some of this crap have been told to me chapters ago?
 

PKrockin

Member
Finished Haruka's route... (to note, past my first playthrough I'm using a flowchart to get all the ending at a more reasonable speed)

Will probably do Saki's route next.
I did Yuka's and Haruka's routes first and I was thinking along these exact same lines.

I agree Haruka's the most interesting character, too, which was surprising because when the first thing she said was something along the lines of "I have no... heart..." I was dreading her route.
 

Akibared

Member
I need to read Never 7 when I'm done with Remember 11! Doing this in a very weird order with reading the first one last hahahaha.
 

grim-tales

Member
I'm confused.
I'm at SPHIA and there's an earthquake/tsunami or something, but I seem to fully be Kokoro, not Satoru.. ("Satoru's personality isnt here right now") so who's at the cabin?
 

Yuuichi

Member
I remember that this one didn't do so hotly in Japan. Also, remember reading a critique about how Overdrive always shoehorn music themes in every single one of their recent games, like with this one, and it didn't fit the theme of the VN at all.

Anyway, not like I care about someone else's critiques. Will read to see how good it is, since it doesn't have bad ratings in VNDB at all.
Haven't heard this, sounds interesting. I have a copy laying around that just got thrown on the backburner because I've been busy with so many other games (JP backlog too large, send help). I guess I'll just wait 'till it gets translated to check it out.

As for the music theme, at least one of the songs that was in the Kira☆Kira 5th Anniversary live was good, so it can't be all that bad.
 

LX_Theo

Banned
Never 7 still, and finished Saki's and Kurumi's routes.

I have a hard time seeing them add much at all. Saki's story felt more about exploring her tsundere cliche personality. She has an interesting philosophy, sure, but it really didn't worth the effort. Nor did it appear to add anything to the overall story. What was even possibly relevant to the overall plot that I learned from it? Her and Haruka's events that were similar were completely different. That's all.

Kurumi's route was a bit torturous. She's so annoying in the first place. I feel sympathetic towards her situation with the scar, but you don't have to make Makoto some pedophile (yes, she's 17, but she looks much younger and any sexual attraction borders on creepy. Not to mention the whole big brother role going with it. And yes, I know its Japan). I was really hoping her route would be more along those lines. He could be like her older brother, and they could form a relationship that was like really close sibling. But dammit Japan.

Her route, though, gave quite a bit more info than Saki's. Time travel has happened before. It is not unique to Yuka and Makoto. Meaning, it's possible for people outside of the designated group from the college. It also happened a long time ago. There's a bell at the shrine, so that doesn't change. In general, this suggests that the time travel ability is not for a specific person. Rather, it is more likely to be unique to the bells. This works against my theory of a research group. What else could the super secret purpose of the seminar camp be? Well, with the one ending left, guess I'll figure out soon enough.
 

LX_Theo

Banned
*Note I originally did this as an edit, but I felt I read enough to justify bumping the thread and noting that I added my commentary for this. Sorry if that is not justified enough of a reason.

Just played up the route split for the True ending... (theory on what will happen enclosed)
If all these routes end up being delusions of Makoto, then might just blow a gasket. I'd really like it as a plot twist, but it would be frustrating in terms of feeling of wasted time. I think its quite clear at this point that Izumi is behind everything, with like Okuhiko and Yuka as helpers. It does make me wonder if (EVER 17 Spoilers)
Curé Syndrome is related to the awfully similarly named Cure Virus from Ever 17. Tsugumi did mention that she was "special" and it effected herself different than others...

Alright, as I head into the true ending. Here is my final theory. This is a research project being held by Izumi, who is a professor at Makoto's school in the Psychology department. She normally works at Lunabeach during breaks from school. She also probably owns the lodge the group is staying in. Yuka is her TA, research assistant or something else of that nature. Okuhiko is a student of Izumi's. Kurumi is exactly as the game has said she is, but has been told to nto speak about anyone's associations. Haruka... I'm less sure about her. She's either an excellent actor or just the person the game says she is. Saki is likely unrelated and is as the game says she is (I base this on the uselessness that was her route).

I can see this playing out in one of two ways. Either the research is about the time travel phenomenon or Makoto is insane. Given the series, I'm inclined to think the first is more likely.

Specifically in the first possibility, I think it will be a research initiative on Curé Syndrome that turns out to unveiled its cause as the time travel. In this situation, Yuka was instructed to be the leader of the group and push the group to specific group events to try and bring out Makoto's syndrome for research purposes. Izumi places herself into the role of an actress for the project to help guide it along how she wants. Okuhiko (and potentially Haruka) are assisting in this in depth case study to a much less extent. Makoto was only allowed to go onto junior year because he was showed an opportunity to research this rare condition. The time travel triggers, and everyone is taken by surprise by it. Yuka thinks its a dream and plays her role. The others see Makoto's premonitions as the Curé Syndrome's symptoms popping up. Izumi's end is where she experiences time travel herself (or gets exposed to the effects of it directly) to the point she realizes its the cause of the disease. Or something along those lines.

The other possibility (the less likely one) is much the same with the time travel being real taken out. Meaning everything is one big delusion by Makoto. The syndrome is very much real in Makoto in this case. The only "real" route would be the true one (which would be fitting).

(Ever 17 Spoilers)
As for whether Curé Syndrome and the Cure Virus are related? No idea. The only connecting factor at the moment is the name. If it is and they knew it was caused by time travel, the immortality of it may well mirror the Cure Virus is a way that it would make sense. Then again, if they knew it was that early enough to name what Tsugumi has the same, then the file describing Curé Syndrome should be entirely different.
With that, I'm back to having no idea.
 

grim-tales

Member
I agree about Kurumi, yeah she's 17, and kinda cute,
but the relationship did seem a bit creepy, she acts even younger like a tween (10-12 or something). Makoto is more like a bigger brother to her than a boyfriend, and (before Izumi) he says he loves her most of all! Is he saying she made him feel more carefree like a younger teen again?
 

Knurek

Member
I/O

io05jhi.png


God, it was as weird (if not weirder) than Basileus777 wrote.
Major character-are-boring as fuck issues. Major pacing issues as well.

Still, no other VN I read made me think of Stanislaw Lem's fiction. That counts for something.

If you're into VNs, and want to read something about
introns, recursive realities, inverted arrow of time, collective unconsciousness and quantum superposition
, and how they relate to standard VN gameplay mechanics, have a go.
 
io05jhi.png


God, it was as weird (if not weirder) than Basileus777 wrote.
Major character-are-boring as fuck issues. Major pacing issues as well.

Still, no other VN I read made me think of Stanislaw Lem's fiction. That counts for something.

If you're into VNs, and want to read something about
introns, recursive realities, inverted arrow of time, collective unconsciousness and quantum superposition
, and how they relate to standard VN gameplay mechanics, have a go.
What game is this?
 

PKrockin

Member
Hmm.... What's the verdict on this one? Is it worth checking out if I liked
loved
Ever17?
It's worth checking out. I've done routes A, B, and C and I just have no idea what the fuck. The art is kinda bad and it has pacing issues but I'd be lying if I wasn't interested. Others have said to imagine Evangelion made by Kojima. As monumentally stupid as it is absolutely crazy, I guess?
 

LX_Theo

Banned
Doing the true end of Never 7 right now (at least some of it), but I felt the need to say this...

Knowing one of the writers are the same as from the Zero Escape series... He really needs to learn how to not use Schridinger's Cat as a plot device. I haven't gotten to the point that its role is explained (Izumi just got interrupted talking about the third part of Cure Syndrome), but come on.
 

grim-tales

Member
Now i'm confused (R11).
In SPHIA you ask Yuni if he's a rwin (just as you did in the cabin) and he's like "You asked me that before".
Huh? Are they two Yunis with the same memories or the same person swapping back and forth?
 

upandaway

Member
Now i'm confused (R11).
In SPHIA you ask Yuni if he's a rwin (just as you did in the cabin) and he's like "You asked me that before".
Huh? Are they two Yunis with the same memories or the same person swapping back and forth?
My mind was doing loops at that sentence.
 
Hi, question here. Just stumbled across this thread in one of the few times I actually bothered to do anything other than lurk in the main "Gaming" section and felt I might have some useful information to add, but I'm not sure if it belongs here or might already be common knowledge.

A while ago I found a few programs that basically let me play untranslated VNs as well as translated ones. I'm pretty sure that most of you who play a lot of VNs already know them, but since this thread is also for people who don't I thought I might share them. Still, I don't want to waste everyones time by posting a wall of text on how to get 'em, how to use 'em, and what my personal experience with 'em has been like if that would be horribly out of place here, so could someone please tell me if that would be welcome here so I can know if I should either get started writing that?
 

Knurek

Member
A while ago I found a few programs that basically let me play untranslated VNs as well as translated ones. I'm pretty sure that most of you who play a lot of VNs already know them

Personally, I think that Japanese to English machine translation is the worst thing one can do to a story based games.
At best you will have a bad experience with the game. At worst, your head might explode from the sheer awfulness of the translation. YMMV, obviously.
 
Personally, I think that Japanese to English machine translation is the worst thing one can do to a story based games.
At best you will have a bad experience with the game. At worst, your head might explode from the sheer awfulness of the translation. YMMV, obviously.

Aww, c'mon, it's not that bad. I was able to follow one whole game to 100% completion on it and I always understood what was going on and why it was happening. Plus, the translations flubs it did make were hilarious.

Still, I know it's not the best solution ever, but it's functional and a whole lot easier than learning Japanese.
 

LX_Theo

Banned
Aww, c'mon, it's not that bad. I was able to follow one whole game to 100% completion on it and I always understood what was going on and why it was happening. Plus, the translations flubs it did make were hilarious.

Still, I know it's not the best solution ever, but it's functional and a whole lot easier than learning Japanese.

It may be worth it if you're playing the VN for comedy, but its hard to see serious stories get along well with that.
 
It may be worth it if you're playing the VN for comedy, but its hard to see serious stories get along well with that.

It honestly depends. If you use a translation aggregator one of the translations is likely to be accurate. The serious stuff actually came across pretty well in the crime VN I tried playing with it. Just thought I'd offer it up for anyone who really wants to play an untranslated VN that doesn't have much chance of being translated any time soon.
 

Knurek

Member
Aww, c'mon, it's not that bad. I was able to follow one whole game to 100% completion on it and I always understood what was going on and why it was happening. Plus, the translations flubs it did make were hilarious.

Still, I know it's not the best solution ever, but it's functional and a whole lot easier than learning Japanese.

Aww, come on, it's not so bad. I will always be able to track one the entire game 100% complete, it is always understood why it was happening. In addition, Flubs translation that I did it was fun. Still, I know it is not the best solution, but it is a whole lot of features and easy to learn than Japanese.

(English->Japanese->Polish (for fun)->English)
 

grim-tales

Member
Cruel, but funny! That did make me laugh ;) :D

How does Yuni know so much about the newspaper in R11? Why does he think it's real? Why is saying "We're going to die"? Oh my....
 
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