It’s quite iffy if saying “there is a fan translation available” is enough to get you in legal hot water. The creation of unauthorized translations is itself a copyright infringement, but just saying that one exists may or may not be infringing by itself.
But aside from that is the question of whether it’s morally OK to do that. I’m inclined to say yes, this should be fine. The arguments against unauthorized translations are twofold; one, it encourages piracy, and two, it undermines the ability of the legitimate rightsholder to translate the game into English themselves later on. In this case, the original game maker almost certainly does not now, and will not ever, have plans to release the game officially in English. And using the existence of a patch to sell legitimate import copies of the game is a far cry from promoting piracy.
I think it would be quite sad if Alcot were completely disinterested in other markets, especially since they’re the ones with most of Orugouru’s modern works.
No source. It was purely based off the statistics. 99+% of all h-games are untranslated, and this is a game by a company without existing ties to Jast or MangaGamer. So maybe “almost certainly” was a bit of exaggeration … but my money’s on “not much of an exaggeration”.
Unless Alcot is affiliated with of one of the companies either MangaGamer or Jast has relations with. In which case, I stand corrected.
I appreciate your calm response, Nandemonai. It’s the sort of statement that discourages flamewars, and encourages reasonable discussion.
I decided to purchase several visual novels not long after their fan translations reached completion. These include Gadget Trial, Da Capo Plus Communication, the first translated Sono Hanabira VN, and the Hatsune Miku doujin visual novel (Mirai no Kimi to, Subete no Uta ni). Also, even though only three routes in To Heart 2 X-Rated have been translated, I purchased the game from Hendane during Anime Central 2010 for only $75.
A few years ago, I had too much money, and not much common sense. So I imported several titles before their fan translations were finished. I was glad that the translations of Kanon, Welcome to Pia Carrot PCFX (an eBay find), and Wind -A Breath of Heart- Re:Gratitude were released to the public. But I was dismayed when the To Heart 2 PS2 translation turned out to be a hoax, and annoyed when the Shuffle fan translation was quietly cancelled. So I have those original discs sitting around and gathering dust…
I’ve been managing my money rather poorly lately. So it’s a bit tough at the moment to justify spending $100+ on individual games. And it’s easier to justify purchasing inexpensive games, such as indie games, and quite a few iOS titles. But I will strive to purchase at least one import game soon. And I’m hoping that before long, it will be easy to import some elusive games (namely Canvas 2 DVD-ROM, Eien no Aselia ¬ñ Kono Daichi no Hate de, and Galaxy Angel for Windows).
Complete pain. You need to get Seinarukana. Specifically, you need to get SPECIAL PACKAGE. Not even I have that.
Plus, the original Eien no Aselia is not exactlyhard to get, you can even buy it online.
Why is Seinarukana Special Package so expensive? Well, because it’s out of print, and it’s also because you’re buying two games, one of which you won’t be able to play because it’s not translated and will probably not get translated any time soon because it’s not as good. Put bluntly, the translation group translated the wrong game.
One of the reasons eroge gets pirated more than it should might just come down to antics like these. I know it’s certainly not the responsibility of a fan translator to ensure that people purchase legitimate copies; that’s not exactly feasible anyway. But I would like to see a little more effort go into encouraging their purchase, part of which involves making your fan translation patch compatible with the version of the game that’s actually easy to get.
Also, there’s already an existing text-only partial translation (one route, I believe) that was floating around the web at one point, done by Nighteye. They nabbed him to work as the translator on this project.
One route. So yes, most of the game. Unfortunately, this is just from memory–he pulled the scripts from his webpage in anticipation of an actual patch release.
Yes, and no. The lore of the game is only very loosely connected to the first game’s (it seems to replace it moreso than build on it). But I’d recommend playing the first game simply because it’s really good. The first game was 18+ as well, but the fan translation translates a subsequent all-ages edition. For Seinarukana, an all-ages edition doesn’t exist to my knowledge.
If someone’s bored enough to create some tools for the original Eien no Aselia (I don’t want to work with that mess of an engine), I could be willing to translate the difference. I don’t really consider myself a translator but if this causes more people to actually buy the game (e.g. from dlsite) I think it would be worthwhile to patch the original.
yea i know the first game is translated already but i avoid it because of the “all age” edition. I prefer the 18+ edition, its just that i want to play something in its original form. The h-scenes is also something i enjoy as its a relationship development tool. :roll:
i have a question. Say a game was translated in english and have a patch. I go and buy a hardcopy of a japanese game, install it and want to use this patch (because i do not know japanese). Will this patch work on the japanese game?
You’ll have to rephrase that so that I understand it… are you asking if a patch would be targeted to the DL sales version only? Most likely not. I, for one, don’t have the DL sales version anyway.
oh sorry let me rephrase. If i buy a eroge in either hardcopy / digital format that is in japanese language, would i be able to use those fans translations? i.e: use the fan-made english patch, which will translate the game that i buy into english?
I am just wondering if this is always the case where english patch would work on japanese eroge games.
This question came up to me because of koihime musou. I have heard people making voice patch for it and it might not work because there is a difference between the japanese and the english version? something to do with the game engine i believe, i forgot where i read it.
You have to match the patch to the version of the game it was intended for. For example, you can’t apply the Eien no Aselia translation to the original PC game, because it was intended for the PC port of the PS2 version (that comes with Seinarukana). Likewise, if the fan patch was made for a specific update version of the game (e.g., 1.04), you’d have to apply the 1.04 patch to the game before patching the game with the English patch.
In general, just read the readme file that comes with the patch. They generally explain technical details like that. And of course, if you don’t want to get burned, don’t buy a game before the translation patch comes out.
Well, the reason they chose the PS2 port is because the port has the voice acting, the inclusion of Tokimi and Kyouko’s routes (orig. PC game only had the the Spirits and Princess route) unique sprites and VA’s for the sub-spirits [in-battle and during the story mode]) Frankly, the I didn’t really care for the H-Scenes, the only time where it felt out of place would be for Tokimi and Kyouko’s routes.
