Yume Miru Kusuri update and Q & A

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

Greetings all! This is Shingo, the newly conscripted games goon here at J-List.

I’ve been put in charge of the bulk of post-production work on Yume Miru Kusuri: A Drug That Makes You Dream, and I can confirm that it is proceeding well. All parts (translation, interface, packaging, etc.) are firmly in beta, and barring hell or high water we’re looking at a release by early summer.

To celebrate this fact, we’re opening a thread here to take your questions on the game: if there’s anything you’d like to know about the plot, characters, or other specifics beyond what’s on the official page, feel free to ask away! Note that I can’t give out direct plot spoilers or release dates (yet).

#2

Since I’ve played through the game in its entirety (as part of the editing process), I’d like to share a few thoughts that go a bit deeper than the synopsis on the official site:

Yume Miru Kusuri is a game that explores three primary themes (as the English subtitle of the Japanese version hints at): drug use, bullying, and nihilism. Along the way it travels to the limits of human cruelty, strength and weakness, escapism, love, and trust, and the possibility of salvation and finding purpose in the jaded reality of life in modern Japan.

Those are a lot of loaded words to throw out all at once, and aren’t very meaningful without further explanation, which I can’t really give without spoiling the plot. That said, I can try to address some specific points:

There are moments of great suspense in the game, especially in Aeka’s plot line. Characters are positioned in such a way that you know certain confrontations must be inevitable, or certain events must occur, but you don’t know exactly when or how they will unfold. If you find yourself as taken with the characters as I did you’ll certainly become concerned for their well-being. That said, there’s not much suspense of the kind you’d find in slasher movies (or a Black Cyc game).

There is drug use in Yume Miru. Some of it is first-person (by the protagonist), resulting in a few very intense psychadelic moments. That said, the protagonist never views drug use as a good thing, nor does the game condone it in any way. There are surreal moments, but they are made beautiful by the otherwise heartbreaking reality that surrounds them. The game is exceptional not because it pushes the envelope in terms of sensory perception, but because it is so devastatingly human.

I should state for the record that Yume Miru isn’t a head trip of the sort you get from a good Studio 4C animated short, or the like. It’s a game that goes to the extremes of human experience, looks over the edge, and ultimately returns to the real world stronger than before.

It’s described on the official Japanese site as a “downer-kei seishun renai AVG”, or “downer-type love story of youth”, and that’s pretty much what it is - the reviews at erogamescape seem to have trouble pinning down exactly what emotion best describes it, generally agreeing that it’s not quite “melancholy”, definitely “bittersweet”, but not to the point of tragedy (though some of the “bad ends” will break your heart… at least they broke mine).

…in case you can’t tell from this, I’m really, really excited about this game. It’s one of the best written dating sims I’ve ever played, but I hope you won’t take my word for it and check it out once we hit release - this is a game that really shines.

[ 03-09-2007, 01:34 AM: Message edited by: Shingo ]

#3

On fidelity to the original Japanese version of the game, and character age:

I can state unequivocally that neither the text nor the images in Yume Miru have been altered in any way from the original Japanese release (beyond freedom taken in the translation process to explain cultural and linguistic elements that might not be evident to a casual player).

It is company policy that all characters depicted engaging in sex acts are age 18 or above, and Yume Miru Kusuri is not an exception; that said, as with most Japanese games in the genre the characters aren’t given specific ages or academic positions, so we’ve taken the liberty of supplying arbitrary ages for them.

This creates an obvious visual disjunct in the case of the younger-looking characters (Aya and Nekoko especially), but the game itself addresses this in a way that I found quite amusing… one of the things to look forward to in playing, I’d say.

To repeat: all of the characters depicted engaging in sex acts in the game are at or above the age of 18. In addition, no content has been altered or removed from the original Japanese game.

I hope this will reassure some of the purists out there. ^^

#4

Hi Shingo! Thanks for starting a Q&A thread here in the forums. I hope you’ll continue to do so with all your titles :slight_smile:

Some questions:

  1. How many hours of playtime can we expect? How about hours per path?

  2. How many endings are there?

  3. Any sort of pre-order bonuses besides free shipping?

  4. How long has the game been in production?

  5. Which character path did you enjoy most and why? Without spoilers please.

  6. Do you know of any parts that were quite tricky in translation that you’d like to share?

  7. How many people are working on this game’s localization?

  8. What sort of discussion went on with Ruf-Soft regarding this game’s localization in terms of translation issues, programming, censorship, etc.

Ah, I’m from AMN Anime by the by. So may I repost the answers from your questions on my site? (http://anime.advancedmn.com)? Thanks!

[ 03-09-2007, 04:39 AM: Message edited by: Mockingbird ]

#5

look, stop bombarding a newcomer with so many questions ok? :stuck_out_tongue:

ur gonna scare the shit out of him :stuck_out_tongue:

and shingo, please read my PMs before responding as i will give you admin status so you can sticky topics if you like to

[ 03-09-2007, 05:10 AM: Message edited by: Lamuness - BBS Admin ]

#6

Ah Lamuness, shouldn’t you be busy beta-testing this game so I can start playing it sooner?

Anyways, sorry, I was thinking about making an article so I put up quite a few questions. :slight_smile:

#7

Yay, glad to see someone else from Peter’s camp surface! Welcome Shingo. :slight_smile:

As a spelling and grammar nazi, I’m now confident from reading your messages that the game’s translation will be 99% perfect in this sense. :wink:

#8

Is there any chance of a demo release of the English translation in the days to come ? I know I personally only got really interested in the game after noticing the atmosphere and humour in the demo, so I’m curious to see if the same thing is carried over into the English translation.

#9

Ah, also can you comment on Nekoko’s last name change too?

This was originally posted in another topic:

#10

Hi Mockingbird, it’s good to be here! I’ll try to represent as best I can in regard to future titles. I’m excited to be a part of bringing these games out, and once I start going on about them it’s hard to get me to shut up…

I can’t give you an exact figure on this as I’ve been playing it nonlinearly and at faster than normal speeds for testing purposes, but I’d say we’re in the ballpark of 25-35 hours from start to completion of all major paths (provided you don’t read lines of voiced dialogue at faster than the speed they’re vocalized, and skip redundant text when appropriate).

Including all of the good and bad endings, there are seven. I’ll have to doublecheck this to be absolutely sure, but I don’t think my recollection is faulty. This is relatively few compared to some other dating sims, but the major paths are really well written - no skimping where it counts.

We’re not currently planning any other bonuses specifically tied to the preorder, though the limited edition of the Japanese release did come with the game soundtrack on CD and I’ve been thinking it would be nice to make it available for (free) download at some point. Don’t quote me on that though, I’ll need to look into the logistics first.

Let’s see… since before I started with the company. The time before that point is a great black void, a hole in the cosmos… I think it would be safe to say it’s been in production since it was announced last year, but I don’t know when that was off the top of my head.

I enjoyed Aeka’s path the most. If you’ve watched the opening movie for the game you know what the theme of her path is, and I found it to be the the one with the most direct emotional connection for me. Parts of her storyline left me feeling like I’d been physically punched in the stomach; I didn’t know I could get so worked up over a game. It gets pretty intense. I enjoyed Mizuki’s and Nekoko’s paths as well, though they didn’t have quite the same extreme personal connection; they’re all good in their own ways.

The main translator did a really great job on the game, so my subsequent passes haven’t picked up what were probably the most challenging aspects of the original translation. The main issues I’ve been concerned with have been trivial things, like when to use the word “bento” instead of “lunch box”, and trying to fix all of the little spelling, grammar and continuity errors that inevitably creep in.

I can’t give you an exact number (TRADE SEKRETS), but I can say that we’ve been collaborating with the people at ruf to make sure the software comes together as seamlessly as possible.

This all happened before I was brought on board, so I can’t really discuss it. Sorry. ;;

I don’t mind if you post this information to your site, though if you do, please source it to this thread on the forums. This goes for anyone else who would like to use the information on their site. Let me know if you’d like any clarification, or have further questions!

#11

Thanks Benoit, it’s good to be here.

I can’t promise that I’ll catch every last glitch in the Yume Miru text (the doctrine of diminishing returns kicks in pretty early), but I’ve been given enough time that I’m confident we’ll catch the vast majority of issues before heading to the presses. I’ll try to insure that what ultimately falls through the cracks (if anything) won’t be too distracting from the game experience.

#12

There aren’t any plans to release a game demo at this point. It’s a great idea, though, and while I believe we’ve been prevented from putting them out in the past due to various constraints I’ll look into the possibility of releasing demos in advance of some of our other upcoming titles.

That said, let me do what I can to allay your concerns regarding the translation of the humor in the game: it’s there, in spades. The translator did a bang-up job of carrying it over from the Japanese, so much so that I found myself laughing out loud in front of the computer (and receiving stares from my coworkers) at times during my first play-through. For a “downer-kei” game I was surprised to see how many genuinely funny moments it had, and yet they don’t feel out of place at all.

I suppose this is what you’d expect to hear from a company rep, so you can take it with the appropriate grain of salt - I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, though.

#13

Another good question. Nekoko’s association with the Celtic fairy of lore does figure loosely into the game’s storyline, so the translator decided to go with “Cat Sidhe” as an appropriate moniker over “Catseye”. The text in all official game documentation will be altered to reflect this.

Another note on naming conventions in the game: the translator consistently rendered names in Japanese order (surname first, then given name) throughout the game, so that’s how they’ll appear in official documentation as well (Shiraki Aeka, Kirimiya Mizuki, Cat Sidhe Nekoko). I need to update the site accordingly…

#14

Hey Shingo, thanks for answering the questions! I’m glad to hear that the translator chose to use surnames first. I don’t believe many manga that are released in North America even do this. The one title that comes to mind is School Rumble, but that’s because there is a note in every volume that explains the ordering of the names.

Are all the Japanese honorifics left intact too?
Also, are there any plans to provide romanji lyrics and a translation of the main theme song (I believe it’s Sekai ni Sayonara)?

I’ve also notice that TRSI has the game listed for release on April 30, 2007 and the other two new titles listed for July 31, 2007. Are those merely placeholder dates that have been given to them?

Also, will there be differing CD labels for first and later pressing of this title? For example, X-Change 1’s first pressing of the game had a full-color cd-label but the others did not.

[ 03-10-2007, 03:59 PM: Message edited by: Mockingbird ]

#15

now now now…please stop intimidating him with so many questions…your acting just like a (pesky) tabloid jouranlist now…

and before you start saying “Ah Lamuness, shouldn’t you be busy beta-testing this game so I can start playing it sooner?”…no actually a big reason shingo is hired…is to replace me; i have told peter that i am getting too old and i am going on hiatus now. however, i will still help peter out in the background with stuff that nobody else in the company can do or handle…or if there’s some sort of emergency then i will step in. but for now, i am staying off from working on any games in the near future but that may change without notice

now with that being said, i am very confident that shingo will do a good job, of not better than me, on the games. but because of this, you guys better be super nice to him from now on and not scare him off on his first day here with a shit load of questions ok?

#16

Sheesh, Lamuness, you don’t have to make such a big deal about this. He’s not a child, you know? If we ask too many questions, he will tell us.

#17

but in reality, as a newbie he will be too polite to ask you guys to stop

#18

I didn’t notice any significant absence of honorifics in the text, but I’d have to ask the main translator to see if this was an ironclad policy. His rendering is quite faithful to the original Japanese, in general.

There aren’t any plans to translate the theme song at this point, but that’s a good idea. I’ll see if I can get a translation done and up on the official site at some point before launch.

Those dates are very much placeholders.

To my knowledge the plans for disc pressing have yet to be finalized.

#19

Hi Shingo. Thanks for answering the questions! Sorry for asking more questions than a handful. Per Lamuness’ request I shall not ask anymore. I look foward to seeing you on these boards.

Ah Lamuness, to be honest I thought you were being sarcastic in your first post. It sucks to hear that you’re retiring from the world of bishoujo-gaming localization. Good luck with whatever it is you’ll be doing in its place.

[ 03-12-2007, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: Mockingbird ]

#20

Nah, it’s fine, feel free to fire away - that’s what I’m here for, after all. That said, I hope you’ll forgive me for the things I won’t be able to comment on, or flat out don’t know yet. I’m still learning the ropes after all. ^^;;