Well… from what I can tell, a thread on all the great fan-translated games has yet to be created. If this is simply another repeat thread, then please feel free to delete it. Well, as this is an avid English visual novel community, I thought it appropriate to formulate a thread that discusses the latest on the more unofficial translations being done around the net. Great titles such as Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime, Kanon, Wanko to Kurasou, Clannad, etc.
Last year was pretty excellent when it came to fan translation releases. We got Sharin no Kuni, Sengoku Rance, Cross Channel and Sekien no Inganock… All top-grade games. And with that project for Swan Song, I can’t even begin to think what all is going to be translated this year.
Hahaha.
Wanko to Kurasou (I thought it was a cute game) but yes, it doesn’t compare with the previous examples but I was simply placing it for various genre sake. This year, I can’t wait for F/HA which has been taken up and moving, To Heart 2, Fortune Artiel, Little Busters, etc. The closest to completion is Ef- A Tale of the Two, which looks absolutely great. I’ll have to purchase a copy soon because I believe the patch will actually come out very soon. End of January to February time.
The translator himself has said that To Heart 2’s completion is years away unless he gets some help with the project. It’s still great that he keeps going with it despite it being basically one man project right now.
Wanko to Kurasou is a pretty decent title. It’s available for DL too, now! Anyway, I’ve been a bit soured on the position of fan translation groups since NNL but it is nice to know that people are out there willing to spend an absolutely insane amount of time and effort translating a game for zero reward and little acclaim.
I’d much rather titles were licensed and localised properly rather than fan translated, though, but I know that this isn’t always possible.
Yeah. The saddest thing is that the professionals can’t make deals with some of the bigger companies. So usually, the games that fan-translators do are that of higher quality. I also wish all the games would be licensed but there are always issues. And another sad thing is that many fan-translated games are better translated and edited than that of the ones up for purchase. So I’m not entirely sure which I would prefer; I’m very pro license so that the visual novel community would grow but also enjoy much of the fan-translated quality.
For the people who didn’t know, yoake mae yori ruri iro na was picked up and also sono hanabira ni kuchizuke wo isn’t dead. From CountDracula’s most recent update, which is the first since half a year or more ago, stated that he’s in the final beta phase and a patch can be expected relatively soon.
The bigger problem of Eroge/Non-Eroge fan translation, is the amount of time they take to make it.
They’re not professional, thay dot his on their personal time, for the Fun and for the Fans… I respect them a lot.
But this part of the Fansub scene is still beyond the Anime Fansub and Manga Scanlation in term of “skills” and “speed”, mostly because they must hack the archive and often the VN Engine to do it… And they’re far more text and thing to translate than in Anime and Manga.
It’s a good thing that more and more Group arise and start project, but, how to say that, i’m not that hopefull (Mostly because, Eroge Import cost a lot for some title.Since the Rapelay incident it’s a little more harder to buy them and some Company even do IP Blocking on their Website <.< )
Ive been looking forward to the Cross Channel translation, That game looks good. I love Youko Hasekura, yandere
Well, the CC translation has been complete for a while.
Fan translation, though, and I’ve heard it has some accuracy problems. Have not personally verified, do not particularly wish to personally verify without the scripts to let me compare line by line =P
Cross Channel is a ??? (god game) so I’d encourage people who are learning Japanese or want to learn Japanese to wait until they can play it in Japanese, rather than playing a fan translation now. This is irrespective of whether the translation is good or not; the original should be played if possible. (but of course I realise for many people this isn’t possible, so by all means enjoy the translation)
I played Cross†Channel 2 or 3 month after the Japanese release and it was already an awesome game with my poor Japanese.
Well, i hope that’s someday, an official English translation of it will be made… I mean, seriously, the best price i found for it it’s 70¬Ä (99$… without Shipping Cost of course) 
It’s not a AAA PS3/360 Title ^^;
It’s an AAA eroge, though =P
I doubt I’ll ever learn proper Japanese, I’m counting on the fan patch when my ordered copy ever turns up. 
errr well yeah 
… But even so, the price is too high even for PC AAA Title ^^ (i never paid more than 49,99¬Ä for a PC Game… Errr well except for my Mink Eroge 
)
Still some companies can sell their games at 9k JPY/copy and maintain a fanbase at the same time (looking at Rapelay copy)
8880/9240 yen (pre/post tax) is the standard full price for a (full length) eroge when it first goes on sale (although in practice, it’s more around 7500 yen because of the discounts that various stores will offer). The majority of the games JAST have localised were full price games (exceptions that come to mind are Raidy and Pretty Soldier Wars, both of which are remakes of earlier games). It almost goes without saying that both the length and production quality of full price games can vary enormously, and that some of the eroges JAST + Mangagamer have localised (plus in general, some eroges that get low price re-releases/put up for dlsales) might be worth it at the prices they offer, but at their original prices are a complete ripoff.
Errr, hate to say that but, using Illusion (or Teatime) as exemple is no good… Since the Cost of a 3D Game is far greater than a classical VN.
Probably just my wild assumption, but I believe localization deals should have included pricing and release schedule of the product. That is the reason why localized version were cheaper, but made it to the market years after the originals had launched.
Well, the first part doesn’t really need to be included, as the original price is almost certainly going to be 9240 yen. They do already include the second part on their press releases when they announce the localisation of a game, however it’s also easy to get the details by looking up the original release date on Erogamescape (or vndb). (It’s also worth adding that certainly in JAST’s case, most of the time their prices are still equal to or less than the current price of a new or dl copy of the Japanese version. For example Raidy II (released in 2007) originally sold for 9240 yen, and is currently available new for 6910 on Amazon, or on various dl sales sites for 4800 yen, compared to JAST’s price of $34.95 for a hard copy, which includes translation + uncensoring.)