Is Moenovel planning an original title for the West?

[Barzini]

Came across this interview today - Looks like Moenovel is planning on creating an original title for the West as well as translating Snow Presents and Flight Diary eventually.

I actually really enjoyed If My Heart Had Wings - How about you guys?

[Mad Harlequin]

I've never heard of Moenovel, but thanks for linking your article! It was an interesting read.

[Cith]

Heh, the last time a Japanese company created a game for the Western audience we got "Go! Go! Nippon!" For those unfamiliar with the title, it's a VN whose sole purpose is to help tourists when they decide to visit Japan.

Also Moenovel SAY they are targeting western audiences, but the translation they dished out was widely panned and didn't sound the least bit natural. You can tell it was translated by a person not comfortable with the english language, AND translation duties were outsourced.

So... yeah, not getting hopes up. To be honest I'm far more excited about the cool OELVN projects currently in development :3

[gekiganwing]

For what it's worth, I bought Go Go Nippon, and thought it was okay.

...the translation they dished out was widely panned and didn't sound the least bit natural. You can tell it was translated by a person not comfortable with the english language, AND translation duties were outsourced.

I thought about purchasing If My Heart Had Wings, but after hearing so much negativity about its censorship and localization, I decided not to.

*If* the people at Moenovel create a story or a video game in English, then I will give it a chance.

During the mid 2000s, Hirameki International did not have a good reputation. It took several adult VNs that did not already have worksafe console ports, and created censored English versions. Its translation quality slowly improved over time, but not many fans cared enough to purchase its products.

[papillon]

Heh, the last time a Japanese company created a game for the Western audience we got "Go! Go! Nippon!"

(nerd mode engaged) Actually, I think the most recent example would be Tokyo School Life... which has a lot in common with GGN, as it's again about a sort of "OH WOW I LOVE JAPAN" western character and has some learning-japanese elements.

[gekiganwing]

It looks like Moenovel's next project is LoveKami: Divinity Stage. According to what I saw on its VNDB entry, it's being developed by the Japanese company Pulltop. However, it will be first released in English. Because of these circumstances, I'm not sure if it can be described as an OJLVN (original Japanese language visual novel). I'd rather just call it a story and move on.

In 2010, Pulltop created an adult VN simply called LoveKami. It has never been officially translated in any language, and only has a Chinese fan translation.

Looking at the promotional art and Steam page images for Divinity Stage, it seems to have more emphasis on full-figured characters compared to the original LoveKami. Though this is just my first impression.

[Mammon]

The link isn't working for me, it sends me to a strange gray page that's apparently for sale. I have played 'If my heart had wings' though and think it's wonderful that they'll translate more in the future. I'm personally not really a fan of japanese VN because they're soooooo long and tend to overexplain and repeat everything in a way that makes me feel like I'm reading a book for children, (the only reason this isn't as present in anime is probably because they'd actually need to animate their constant explanations and flashbacks), but I can see others enjoying these sort of things.

I thought about purchasing If My Heart Had Wings, but after hearing so much negativity about its censorship and localization, I decided not to.

While you'll have to pay for it on Steam, there is an official version of the game on Google play that's free. You'll need to buy the other romance routes, but you are able to play the first half and the first ending you'll get for free. Too bad I failed to get Asaha this way, but it's still way more than you'll get in most demos. It's a very good and abundant sample of determining if MoeNovel games, and professional japanese VN in general, peak your interest and are worth your money/time.

Alternatively there is a popular Japanese VN called 'ChuSingura46+1' that's free on Steam under equal conditions (although the romance routes except for one aren't translated yet) in case you don't have google play or a phone with enough memory for a large VN. And there's a developing team called 'fallen snow studios' on Lemmasoft that produced 'Lucid9', a OELVN who in terms of writing style and length can be compared to Japanese VN without the massive amount of unneccesary flashbacks.