Flowers - Printemps Discussion Thread

JAST Games Game Discussions
#1

![](upload://aWACiyfAL0zE5JOoqH4ijlTrAJS.jpeg)

Just posting a preliminary discussion thread about Flowers - Printemps...


As most who follow JAST regularly probably know, this game was one of the announcements made at Anime Expo 2015 with a tentative release date of late this fall (or much more likely early 2016, since we're already into early November). It's a title by Innocent Grey, most famous in English-speaking circles for Kara no Shoujo and Cartagra, and it's being billed as a gentle friendship / yuri romance tale mixed with a mystery story. The announcement and official site can be found below:


ANNOUNCEMENT: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-07-03/jast-usa-adds-sonicomi-flowers-pc-games/.90017

OFFICIAL SITE: http://flowersgame.com/

Anyway, I thought I'd kick this off with one observation and one question. The observation is likely one shared by most who give this game a cursory look, which is that the artwork is gorgeous! The thin, fine outlines combined with the pastel colors could have had an unfortunate "faded" look, but these don't at all and seem rather warm. While art styles are always a subject of personal taste, I think this has potential to be the most artistically pretty visual novel JAST has ever released.

My question is kind of a general but important one -- When it comes to the plot, what kind of game is Flowers, primarily? On the one hand, Innocent Grey is sort of known for grim mysteries, and the game description mentions the disappearance of a student as a major plot point. On the other hand, every piece of artwork I've seen so far, especially on the web site, seems to shout, "gentle, whimsical coming of age story with yuri overtones." Of course, these aren't mutually exclusive, but I get the feeling that one or the other element will predominate. Are we looking at 60%-70% gentleness, 30%-40% suspense? 90% gentleness, 10% suspense? Vice-versa? Just wondering if anyone more familiar with this title than I am can shed some light.

Go forth and discuss!
#2

Flowers is out for preorder the demo on the flowers website doesn't work BTW. Might wanna fix that :/

#3

Oh my bad demo is 'available soon' must have missed that part earlier when I saw it.

#4

I compiled a list of some of the text errors I found playing through the demo

![](upload://azKHzLQ1cZ7lWezU17HgZyptBl2.jpeg)

![](upload://qiYZPydMdHfefFAdOc1WrLjE2CF.jpeg)

![](upload://wGUUZfokaJk6ly0ZwvKc6pkuA4A.jpeg)

![](upload://l80X2QdsvXe2v1CWZ7VTexf6wlA.jpeg)

![](upload://4GV451Nqs8PUsir9BC0BIMksWl1.png)

![](upload://1mUvleDgAhYzwLTY7aNhPXUcvgQ.jpeg)

![](upload://ceqS3ynt5uOEBW2SWoJn52oCsqM.jpeg)

![](upload://t6qV13w7BDIvcZmyAMrZAcp8VJj.jpeg)


#5

It's not just the grammar errors, of which there are many that you didn't capture on top of those ones, but the whole thing reads really poorly. Not to mention a ton of mistranslations, even for some really basic lines: https://twitter.com/KurosakaRyuuko/with_replies


Not to mention technical issues. It seems you guys abandoned the port? Why? I also find the March 20th release date suspicious, considering they've been editing at a pace of about 5% a week for a while now and they're only 60% edited. But it has to be finalized in a week or so for printing, right? Just how rushed is this?

#6

Jesus… If what Chuee posted and Decay discussed is indicative of the quality of the translation / writing in the actual slated-to-be-released game and not just the demo, I really wish you guys would consider delaying that release to do some quality assurance. Round up a few interns at a nearby college who would like a video game credit and have them speed-read through it for you… something. JAST has been doing great about releasing games at a steady clip in the past year, but I would much rather see a delay that led to a beautiful reading experience than a botched product rushed out to meet an arbitrary self-set deadline.

#7

Just a reminder of recent history:

  1. Starless: Riddled with typos (also lingering mosaics, but that was sort of the developer's fault)†
  2. Lightning Warrior Raidy: Had some technical issues (I forget what)†
  3. Shiny Days: Riddled with bugs including save corruption, some translation inaccuracies also†
  4. Flowers: Demo is filled with technical issues, inaccurate translations, typos, and poor writing†


This is becoming a pattern. †JAST, do something about this. †You can't skimp on quality control like this and expect to be taken seriously as a professional company.

#8

![](upload://d3kE6K9hwF79aIipW82D9auueNM.jpeg)

The end of the trial suggests it will release on the 20th of next month. JAST I really hope you're listening to us. Please don't release the game in this state... I don't care if you have to delay it (which I'm sure you will) just fix the issues... Fix the translation. Please just listen to us and our feedback...
#9

Thanks, everyone, for giving feedback on the game. We're going to fix any issues before releasing the game. Some thing, like the missing first ', are a technical issue that will be fixed.

#10

If what I've read in the @jlist2 tweets is correct, the demo is not representative of the current state of the rest of the game. Isn't that a problem? The demo is marketing material. It's supposed to be representative of the rest of the game. It's great that you're trying to get marketing materials out in advance of the game release, but people will get the wrong idea if the demo doesn't get the same amount of polish as the game itself.


I just hope that the game itself actually is in much better shape than the demo, or we could be looking at another very long delay to clean up these issues. Some users have suggested that the issues identified would require a complete retranslation due to the sheer number and severity of mistranslations.

#11

I took a look at the criticisms leveled by Black Dragon Hunt (translator of the Danganronpa fan translation and Fata Morgana) against the Flowers demo.


Flowers Demo Translation Critique by @KurosakaRyuuko


The translation accuracy issues with Flowers look serious. The translator may not have even been fluent in JP. The translation accuracy at first glance appears subpar even by fan translation standards. A full retranslation may be the only option.


JAST should vet its contractors more thoroughly upfront, as such QC failures are a massive waste of resources. You can't polish an inaccurate translation. All you can do is redo it.

#12

"please toss this entire TL into a garbage can and hire tulipgoddess (Bad End)" :) You know, the person who actually WANTS to translate it? And will do the most amazing job out there? May as well get Doddler too since he did all the other IG ports.

#13

@Peter: Thank you very much for the response. The fact that you’re acknowledging it is reassuring, though, as Sanahtlig said, I can’t help but wonder why a rough demo was put out there in the first place if its net effect is to scare people away from ordering the game. Take a look at that Steam page – the demo doesn’t have a single positive written English-language review. Not. One. I’m afraid that every day it’s available for download and play, you’ll be losing buyers who otherwise would gladly give it a shot.

For whatever it’s worth, my recommendation is to take down the demo effective immediately, announce a small delay (even if the finished game is in much better shape, and you might not factually need one) saying something to the effect of “We’ve heard your concerns and will be delaying Flowers a little to make it a better game,” then do exactly that. Your fanbase will feel validated that you listened to them, the game itself will be better, and JAST will be building a PR narrative that you take the time to do things right. Anyway, my two cents.

#14

"You can't polish an inaccurate translation. All you can do is redo it."


That's an interesting conversation point in itself. I'm not positive that I agree, as I've read some localization for various manga and anime over the years that were terribly untrue to the Japanese original yet still managed to be very coherent and entertaining. I guess it goes back to how much of a purist you are about such things, but as long as it's a well-told story and everything makes sense in context, I'm pretty easy on small inaccuracies.

#15

I'm not talking about taking creative license with the translation. I'm talking about mistranslating lines because you misunderstood them. Innocent Grey makes mystery games. If you can't get information across clearly and accurately, that spoils the game.

#16

Jast Devlog Update!


I, for one, appreciate that Jast is taking this seriously and is determined to fix it. Not all companies are willing to admit mistakes. I think it says a lot about Jast.

Good on you guys!
#17

I'm glad that JAST finally committed to fixing the rest of the script and not just the demo, and recognized that further editing alone wasn't going to fix the underlying problems in the base translation.

#18

Personally, I was interested in this game, until Kara no Shoujo 2 destroyed any interest I had in anything IG touches. So all I can say is what I'd heard when I still cared, which is that Flowers is still in the mystery genre, it just doesn't involve horrific murders like ... well ... the rest of Innocent Grey's output.


Good for Jast on delaying the game. "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."

#19

"until Kara no Shoujo 2 destroyed any interest I had in anything IG touches"

Wait, is Kara no Shoujo 2 worse than the other games in the series (Kara no Shoujo 1, Cartagra) or something?

#20

Kara no Shoujo 1 ended on a giant cliffhanger. Kara no Shoujo 2 barely touches on this before going into an extended flashback, featuring a bunch of boring people doing boring things that went on forever. For me, this fell afoul of the Eight Deadly Words problem.

But I liked KnS 1, so I was willing to try to get through this abysmally-paced opening. I changed my mind when I learned that the giant cliffhanger I mentioned in KnS1 is only briefly touched on in KnS2 at all.

If you set up a giant cliffhanger like that, and then just drop it, then you’re just trolling me. And I’m not interested in that. So I’m done with them.