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Higurashi When They Cry Hou |OT| I'll play with you. Come, cleaver girl!

Ban Puncher

Member
MangaGamer will make fat bank off Higurashi on Steam and they can use Alchemist's PS3 sprites and voice acting for an Umineko Steam release.

Cannot say it in red...
 

JulianImp

Member
I reached the zombie tag chapter yesterday and it's funny how I mix all these minor events in my head, not knowing which episode they belong to at all. Umineko was really different for me in that regard, since each episode being so different from the rest made telling which minor events belonged to a particular EP a lot easier.

MangaGamer will make fat bank off Higurashi on Steam and they can use Alchemist's PS3 sprites and voice acting for an Umineko Steam release.

Cannot say it in red...

I'd like to get voice acting, but I guess having several well-known VAs in it means licencing rights wouldn't be cheap at all. We've got a while to go before Higurashi's done, though, so at least that'll probably give them some prep time to arrange things for Umineko if they end up releasing it.
 
I'd like to get voice acting, but I guess having several well-known VAs in it means licencing rights wouldn't be cheap at all. We've got a while to go before Higurashi's done, though, so at least that'll probably give them some prep time to arrange things for Umineko if they end up releasing it.

It's probably super expensive. Voice acting studios often demand 100s of thousands of dollars for the rights. It's easier to MangaGamer to make a mod friendly game and let fans patch it for them.
 

JulianImp

Member
It's probably super expensive. Voice acting studios often demand 100s of thousands of dollars for the rights. It's easier to MangaGamer to make a mod friendly game and let fans patch it for them.

Woah, that's a lot more than I expected. In any case, it's obvious that they'd rather avoid that if they can, since that'd really eat into their profits when they could just make the game for much cheaper and including mod support for whatever the fans might want to change.
 

Shizuka

Member
Alright, I just finished the game. Whew, that was quite a ride, although the anime does prepare you for it.

The most interesting bits that I got from the visual novel were:
- The conflict within Keiichi, the part that wants to believe his friends and the cynic side that trusts no one;
- Also, another conflict within him, the part that is still sane and wants to come up with a logical explanation, while there is the other side where nothing makes sense and everyone is a danger to him;
- Why no cleaver? Axes are ordinary, does that mean there will be no cleavers in MangaGamer's release?

I can't wait for chapter 2. Also, 10.7 hours of playtime, I guess I took my sweet time with it, even though I read all TIPS and
the after-party.
 

Mandelbo

Member
Alright, I just finished the game. Whew, that was quite a ride, although the anime does prepare you for it.

The most interesting bits that I got from the visual novel were:
- The conflict within Keiichi, the part that wants to believe his friends and the cynic side that trusts no one;
- Also, another conflict within him, the part that is still sane and wants to come up with a logical explanation, while there is the other side where nothing makes sense and everyone is a danger to him;
- Why no cleaver? Axes are ordinary, does that mean there will be no cleavers in MangaGamer's release?

I can't wait for chapter 2. Also, 10.7 hours of playtime, I guess I took my sweet time with it, even though I read all TIPS and
the after-party.

I didn't realise you hadn't read the VN yet, your Rika avatar threw me off - the ride continues to get better and better! The tips give you such a lot of backstory that you simply don't see in the anime, especially in the later episodes. Having only played the first five episodes (because I've given up hope of the remaining three ever getting released on the app store in english,) episodes 1-3 are my favourites because of how thick the atmosphere and mystery surrounding everything is. Chances are I'll probably pick Kai up at some point to complete the story and get some closure :p

And no, as far as I'm aware there are no
cleavers
in the Mangagamer translation.
 

JulianImp

Member
I didn't realise you hadn't read the VN yet, your Rika avatar threw me off - the ride continues to get better and better! The tips give you such a lot of backstory that you simply don't see in the anime, especially in the later episodes. Having only played the first five episodes (because I've given up hope of the remaining three ever getting released on the app store in english,) episodes 1-3 are my favourites because of how thick the atmosphere and mystery surrounding everything is. Chances are I'll probably pick Kai up at some point to complete the story and get some closure :p

And no, as far as I'm aware there are no
cleavers
in the Mangagamer translation.

That isn't Rika in Shizuka's avatar, that's Lady Bernkastel, Witch of Miracles from the Umineko series. Still, it isn't like anybody can blame you for mistaking one for the other (I won't go into detail into why they look alike because of reasons).
 

Kandrick

GAF's Ed McMahon
Finally had time to get more into this, and so far it's pretty good. Despite having played a fair share of VNs, i never tried this. But i didn't know the steam version had no voice acting though, it's not exactly a deal breaker but eh.
 

MetalDeer

Member
I just finished this last night. I had to take a break when
yandere eyes
showed up for the first time. Even though I always felt this unsettling undertone throughout the whole thing, I guess I wasn't prepared for it. Anyways, overall I enjoyed it; Very suspenseful, though it takes forever to build up.

Also,
it feels like every little thing said is foreshadowing, which explains why I thought the whole thing was unsettling.

It would've been terrifying with detailed CG and voice acting. Can't wait for the second chapter.
 

Shizuka

Member
I have one beef with the game: the localization is not very polished for such a small visual novel. There are more than a few typos, not to mention when signs skip or the sprites aren't aligned (this doesn't happen that often, though).

I feel like Q/A didn't make a good job.
 

JulianImp

Member
I just finished this last night. I had to take a break when
yandere eyes
showed up for the first time. Even though I always felt this unsettling undertone throughout the whole thing, I guess I wasn't prepared for it. Anyways, overall I enjoyed it; Very suspenseful, though it takes forever to build up.

Also,
it feels like every little thing said is foreshadowing, which explains why I thought the whole thing was unsettling.

It would've been terrifying with detailed CG and voice acting. Can't wait for the second chapter.

Yeah, you're very likely to see things in a completely different light on a reread, picking up all the lines that sounded perfectly normal (or just a bit off) the first time, but take on a whole different meaning once you know more about the setting and the character's background. That's something I really appreciated from Umineko, and which I think will be the case for Higurashi.

Even without having read the VNs, I guess the information I got from the anime will already be enough to look further into seemingly average conversations. I still haven't gotten to the creepy part, though, so I don't know exactly how much things change once the mood swings away from the peaceful slice of life "lone boy surrounded by girls" scenes. Still, I love how things become unseltting even when it's just Keiichi looking into the dam murder.
 

JulianImp

Member
So I guess odds of Ryukishi letting us release our fan translation of Ougon Musou on steam are bad, heh.

I don't think it's up to him more than it's up to Alchemist

This.

Most game patches I've seen are simply applied on top of the base install and are distributed for free, so it's way less likely for them to be hit with C&Ds (unless some publisher decides to translate the game and release it themselves). If you wanted to release the game on Steam you'd have to include the whole game, patch included, and that'd require licensing the graphics, music, script and voice recordings.

Ryukishi's approval alone isn't enough to allow you to use stuff he doesn't personally own, and doing it with just his aproval would mean opening a whole other bag of cats.
 

Shizuka

Member
It still warms my heart how excited he was to see it in English. I think Alchemist might be a little less happy about us hacking their game, though.

Maybe you can start a publisher and use the english localization you worked with.
Hire me as your PR.
 

JulianImp

Member
Maybe you can start a publisher and use the english localization you worked with.
Hire me as your PR.

The only lawyer-friendly way would be asking Ryukishi or whoever for the rights to use the character names and their designs, and making your own take on the game, or maybe work on your own fangame and ask Ryukishi for approval once the development's farther ahead. It's a gamble that relies solely on getting the IP holder's favor, though.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
The only lawyer-friendly way would be asking Ryukishi or whoever for the rights to use the character names and their designs, and making your own take on the game, or maybe work on your own fangame and ask Ryukishi for approval once the development's farther ahead. It's a gamble that relies solely on getting the IP holder's favor, though.

While it would be really cool to see Ougon Musou on Steam, especially since it has online play, the story will make no sense, since it requires playing Umineko 1-4 which aren't even officially translated, much less on Steam.
 

MetalDeer

Member
I kinda want to watch the anime, but I feel like it'll spoil the experience of reading the VN.

Waiting for new chapters is going to be brutal..
 

JulianImp

Member
I kinda want to watch the anime, but I feel like it'll spoil the experience of reading the VN.

Waiting for new chapters is going to be brutal..

I definitely recommend not watching the anime if you can, and I'd say we're still way better off than the people who had to wait half a year between each original release.

I'm spoiled on the general plot and resolution because I watched the anime adaptation, but I'd say first-time reades such as you will probably enjoy the series the most if you stick to the VN releases and use the time between each of them to discuss theses and antitheses with other readers, which is another very entertaining point where both Higurashi and Umineko get to shine.
 

Mandelbo

Member
I have one beef with the game: the localization is not very polished for such a small visual novel. There are more than a few typos, not to mention when signs skip or the sprites aren't aligned (this doesn't happen that often, though).

I feel like Q/A didn't make a good job.

These problems also seemed to get worse the further I got when I played them on my phone. Later episodes have whole pages of text that aren't translated, for example, and I think the scenario skip option in (I think) episode 3 isn't translated either. The translation is on the whole pretty awful. It feels like a machine translation at times.
 

Shizuka

Member
These problems also seemed to get worse the further I got when I played them on my phone. Later episodes have whole pages of text that aren't translated, for example, and I think the scenario skip option in (I think) episode 3 isn't translated either. The translation is on the whole pretty awful. It feels like a machine translation at times.

Oh, the phone version is a mess. This one is better, but it's still not quite there where I feel this series deserve.
 

MetalDeer

Member
I noticed the typos, too. But my issue with it was how it's kinda hard to tell who's saying what, since they don't usually note that in the text. I imagine it'd be easier to tell with voice acting, but, well...

After a while I figured out how each character talks, but there was still a few lines here and there that made me have to go back and reread it to understand who said it, and even then I'm not 100% sure.
 

Mandelbo

Member
Oh, the phone version is a mess. This one is better, but it's still not quite there where I feel this series deserve.

Ah, I didn't realise that they had script differences. I presume that the phone version uses a shoddier implementation of the mangagamer translation, which would explain why certain sections outright aren't translated.
 

TP

Member
Ran into some instance of text censorship towards the end
kill, killed, die and whatever this word is

jyxc3u7.png


bug? intentional?
I've asked MG but they haven't responded yet
 

MetalDeer

Member
Ran into some instance of text censorship towards the end
kill, killed, die and whatever this word is

jyxc3u7.png


bug? intentional?
I've asked MG but they haven't responded yet

That happens a few times, I think. Pretty sure it's intentional. Not sure what it'll mean later, but there must be a reason for it.
 

JulianImp

Member
Glad to hear it's doing well for them. I hope we can get a date for Chapter 2 soon.

I wonder when they started Watanagashi, but if they're just at 20% then it means we'll have to wait two months at the very least, I believe (for TL, TLC, editing and finally QA, and that's before even submitting it to Steam).
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I wonder when they started Watanagashi, but if they're just at 20% then it means we'll have to wait two months at the very least, I believe (for TL, TLC, editing and finally QA, and that's before even submitting it to Steam).

Maybe it'll warrant more man-power if it's doing that well.
 
I wonder when they started Watanagashi, but if they're just at 20% then it means we'll have to wait two months at the very least, I believe (for TL, TLC, editing and finally QA, and that's before even submitting it to Steam).

Watanagashi has been under translation since like mid 2014. Or at least it's been on MangaGamer's project status page since then. And that hasn't been updated since the beginning of the month. The editing and technical work for Onikakushi took forever. These chapters are too long for a company like MangaGamer to release quickly. I'd be surprised if we got more than 2 or 3 chapters the rest of the year.
 

JulianImp

Member
Watanagashi has been under translation since like mid 2014. Or at least it's been on MangaGamer's project status page since then. And that hasn't been updated since the beginning of the month. The editing and technical work for Onikakushi took forever. These chapters are too long for a company like MangaGamer to release quickly. I'd be surprised if we got more than 2 or 3 chapters the rest of the year.

That'd be a real shame, since fourteen chapters means it's going to take forever to get to the end of Higurashi, let alone start Umineko...

I wonder if they'd be willing to do Higanbana sometime later, mostly since it's way shorter and I'll probably want to check the second part out once I'm done with the first.
 
Shame. That pretty much probably means I'll never end up checking out the series, after all.
Well I could be wrong, but I don't really see any reason to expect the translation and editing to drastically change its pace. At least the engine work is done.
 
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