Amaterasu Blog


Project #3.2 Progress Announcement 3

Brace yourselves for this one:

We are currently negotiating an officially licensed release with âge.

Unfortunately, almost nothing is set in stone yet so I have no details to give out, other than:
-There will be no partial Sadogashima patch, or any other unofficial patches
-All ML/MLA patch download links have been disabled
-We won't be asking for any money in exchange for the translation

I'll add more once the process really gets going and I have more to say.

Comments (265) Trackbacks (1)
  1. shitcunts


  3. Bawww more pirates. Baww more.

  4. I can’t express how I feel right now.
    Thank you for all your hard work. I’ll be busy being in despair for the next few decades.

  5. Moar Fuck!

  6. Well, better than C&D +- lawsuit and a dropped project. Actually, I think this is better news than having the project complete unlicensed since it means more Japanese VN companies are willing to expand into the English-speaking market, which, in the long run, will result in more VNs for us to read.

  7. So âge finally shows some interest when you guys are about to finish the whole thing? Bullshit.

    That was low man.

  8. Since this misconception seems alarmingly common, worth mentioning:

    age did not contact me. It was my idea, and they liked it.


  10. Expect lots of outrage from all over the internet, and for good reason.

    I’m sure you talk with the TLWiki people, and have a good understanding about why Nitro+ is taking forever. But for the vast majority of people, we see official releases mean bad things towards getting a project. The deal was made 18 months ago, and yet not a single thing has come out of it, Sumaga is likely never coming, and there is no sign of Demonbane. Both of these had active projects. Kara no Shoujo and some other title from there are also translated, but it sounds like they are looking for official releases, and thus we are in the dark as we hope that someday something comes out of it.

    It is understandable that an official release is all around better, and I, along with a silent majority hope things go well. But because of not a single positive thing coming out of such agreements over the past couple years, expect the internet to be outrage. Don’t let it get you down, but for all our sakes, try to make sure this isn’t a repeat of other talks that are taking years to go anywhere, if you are doing something, get it fast, and don’t become Jast-Nitro+ act 2 (or 3). And don’t dismiss the outrage just as pirates being pirates, if this was the first time that would be understandable, but this is far from that.

  11. fucking faggot

  12. So… is this ever gonna get fully translated or not?


  14. Well duh, what was the point of completing Extra/UL and being halfway of AL if you planned to take it down in the first place? Surely you don’t think age will even give you a penny for being the one who translated this.

  15. “age did not contact me. It was my idea, and they liked it.”
    “We won’t be asking for any money in exchange for the translation”

    Yeah, I bet they did!

    You should have asked for some money, silly Ixrec.
    Anyway, if this gets the game(s?) out with uncensored CGs, edited images and support for my system locale then I’m okay with this.

    I look forward to release 2016!

    But seriously try and avoid working with MangaGamer/JAST like TLwiki/NNL did because they just delay things for years and I still want to be young enough to achieve an erection when MLA comes out.

  16. @Ixrec

    Personally, I think this is a good move – ESPECIALLY if you contacted them yourself, as you say. Obviously, you are going to have a ton of faggots complaining now, however, I can only see positive outcomes from this, provided:
    1. It does not get stuck in mid-release limbo. Reference Demonbane. Honestly, American VN publishers are fairly good at screwing things up, so as long as you get a good system going, it should be ok.
    2. Hard copy release. If Age, you, and the publisher are going to expect any sells from this, there SURE AS FUCK better be a hard copy, and any goodies are a great incentive for purchasing (I mean, after a long time of browsing /jp/, nothing irritates people more than downloadable copies and no extras).
    3. I’m sure you know this, but nothing kills a game more than DRM. Make it easy for me to buy it, and I’ll buy it.
    4.Hopefully, the translation can continue as it has. The progress thus far has been excellent, so it would please everyone if it keeps its place. Honestly, most of the raging is due to expected delayed release. In my opinion, the ragers are selfish, arrogant pricks – but unfortunately we can’t have a perfect world.
    5. (finally) Age gets a good deal out of this whole thing. Nothing could provide incentive for more official VN translations (of good VN, mind you) than money. Let’s set a precedent.

    For now, though, I would ignore most of the rage. If it doesn’t interrupt the result, the only reason to rage is piracy.

  17. That’s good to hear. The more companies releasing visual novels in the west the bigger the change big companies like Type-Moon and Key will follow.

  18. Holy…
    I actually think this is good news… as long as the whole thing is at a reasonable price…
    I was wondering why you had taken the daily progress even though you were clearly still working on it (I did the maths)…
    Still, the shit hits the fan…

  19. I think you should be payed for it though, I mean everyone who worked on it, by that (yeah I just read the whole post)

  20. Official release? Surely you jest.
    Kara no Shoujo has been completely fan translated, it was announced they would do the same thing as this and it is still in the dark. We still have no foreseeable release date for Demonbane.
    I highly doubt âge will even be interested.

  21. fuck you ixrec

  22. Great jolly fucking joy you just had to be a faggot and now muv-luv alternative is going to end up like demonbane

    thanks for yanking the dogs chain

    Fuck you ixrec, you trolling fucking faggot, fuck you.

  23. Doubt that will work out, so I’m guessing it just means your release will be delayed.

  24. Thanks for erasing any traces of trust the community still had in fan translators. Now let’s wait for Majikoi licensing so we can finally say fuck you to the whole VN thing.

  25. Oh joy another demonbane.

    at least we got extra/unlimited translated even if alt will never see the light of day.

  26. That sounds just great, but would you mind starting a new project soon? This might/will probably end up being delayed endlessly, so translating something else on the sideline won’t hurt.

  27. Seems like you just want money for doing this, which you think age will no doubt pay you for.

  28. sounds like ixrec is just trying to get credit or just trying to put the final nail on moononymous’ translation

    either way fuck you ixrec for this stupid ass move

  29. Why are people so angry? After all the C&Ds we’ve seen the last few months, just the thought of a legal release is enough to fill me at least with the warm fuzzies. This way we know no one’s work will be going to waste. As for the wait, go to a library or games store and just LOOK AROUND. There are more beautiful stories out there than any of us will ever be able to consume in a single lifetime, so it’s not as if we’re stuck with nothing to do but twiddle our thumbs until Muv Luv (officially!) releases.

  30. Considering the incredibly slow process of official releases (if it gets released at all) and the large amount of time Amaterasu has been working on this (which, for the most part I’ve felt could have been better spent on something else), I have to say I’m feeling pretty sad.

    I mean, I recently read all of Unlimited and the Alternative patch in preparation for the next patch (where things are really supposed to get awesome after a lot of tedium and build-up) and now we probably won’t see it until a year or more after translation. And that’s assuming a download-only release. I’d prefer a hard-copy but I’m sure that would delay it significantly.

    Oh, well. My personal frustrations aside, I do hope this has some kind of positive impact on the industry. No matter how small. I still really appreciate you and your team’s hard work. I don’t understand why you would go into it and choose not to accept any sort of payment, though (unless they specifically said they had absolutely no interest if they had to purchase your translation…). Really, you’d deserve something out of them using your hardwork and anyone that says otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

  31. Oh.

    Well, I’m very glad I didn’t start reading it before it was fully translated. Any other sentiments will have to wait until there’s more info on how it’s going to be released.


    If it’s any consolation, Hugh Hefner of Playboy fame is 84 years old and look at him. I’m not sure how old you are, but in my opinion, you have to be really damn old not to have a boner.

  33. @scone One word: Demonbane.

  34. Ixrec, and the rest of the team – I wish you guys the best of luck. You’re after doing an insane amount of work for this series in such a short time. It’s fantastic that your hard work is getting recognized by the big guys on top.

  35. So basically waaaaay back we had someone who was translating alternative before and he got trashed because of these faggots who’re now doing some stupid bullshit without reason or purpose just to make us wait even more for a translated muvluv?


  36. NOOO!! What I’m gonna do… I’ve bought Alternative and all, but now I gonna have to wait âges for an official release, which I’m gonna have to buy. I not gonna ever buy any other visual novel until I learn japanese…….

  37. Hmm, I sense a lot of negative energy in this blog post. Haters gotta hate, I guess. Still funny how people keep bashing the Amaterasu team, who spend their free time translating VNs for us non-Japanese speaking fellows, for ruining their fun by contributing to the market for English VNs and respecting the company responsible for creating Muv-Luv.
    I know most people on the Internet cannot be reasoned with to show some respect, but I just had to say this anyway. You’re allowed to have your own opinions, of course, but when you can’t push more productive criticism out of your brains than: “Fuck you Ixrec, fucking faggot!1?!” then you simply come off as a 12 yo spoiled brat who knows a few curse words… I’m just saying.

  38. Well, at least I can hope for a Chronicles release after all this.

  39. I look forward to the MuvLuv release right after Sumaga and Otome Function

  40. I have also bought the original version of the game and has been eagerly watching the translation status since then. I won’t mind pirating anyway because I have already showed my gratitude and support to Age with my money, but now it seems it will take at least another year to wait before the release happens. Just look at the example of NNL and Minori. And they have completed completed and released their translation much earlier than the negotiations have started.

  41. The amount of butthurt in above comments is amusing. I wonder how much of it is samefagging.

    Anyhow, Ixrec, these are good news. Thank you for allowing the work you do in your free time to bring âge to international market. Only good can come out of it.

    As for people complaining about the delay to release from JAST/MG, JAST delay of Demonbane is N+ fault (lets see how much it takes for them to release Osadai, where they are on their own, before judging how they handle finished translation), and MG hasn’t really delayed anything – ef was sent to translation improvement and editing because nnl didn’t care as much about quality to make the game officially releasable immediately. If this deal is with MG, I’d have nothing to complain about.

    And people who cry for physical releases are either pirates in denial or elitists. I, for one, like my games digital, and not as a easily degradable dust collectors.

  42. > JAST delay of Demonbane is N+ fault

    I wonder if this will not be the case here. I can’t find many examples of efficient collaboration between amateur translation groups and VN makers.

    Well, at least let’s hope that this will help the industry if the release ends up to be successful.

  43. Interesting and unexpected. I have no real problems with the idea of an official release, but I’ll hold back on making any judgements until more is known.

  44. Well, Recettear turned out rather nicely when it got released over here. The internet communities (4chan in particular) like it when a homebrew project gets work done. The idea of an official release of MLA (sorry age, already played MLE/U) is really cool. Considering how much of a fucking cliffhanger the first game ended on, I’d probably [spoiler]buy[/spoiler] it, too.

    I DO hope you guys get money or a contract out of this, though. That’s a lot of work to do pro bono.

  45. Hi, Ammy! ^.^ I have been way too busy to come on here recently, but I’m sure you have missed me.

    Anyway, this is great news. Don’t see why everyone is making such a big deal of this. Sure, there might be a delay, but I doubt it will go to Demonbane levels since age isn’t Nitro+ and may not want a “new improved system” for the English release.
    I just hope that you guys somehow release this without JAST and MangaGamer. Both companies have had problems in the past… Not sure if release format has been stated yet, but it would be awesome if you could somehow release a hard copy. Maybe not probable, but I can hope. XD;;

    Hopefully, we get other age titles released later… Like KimiNozo and KimiIta!! O_O

    BTW, this is really selfless of you to allow this to be released without any compensation. Seriously.
    I just hope the release doesn’t delay too much. XD;

  46. If it doesn’t get delayed, then yay.

    If it does, oh my lord, there will be havoc yet to come on unseen fronts.

  47. funny how people all forget about moononymous who was translating MLA way before these guys and everyone shot him down because of these guys

  48. Since a number of people have asked why I offered the tl for free, here are some reasons:

    1) I am not adding any more delays by fighting over how much money we get. No fucking way.
    2) I do not want to deal with the question of how much money goes to which staff members. Just no.
    3) Translation is a hobby for me, and I plan to keep it that way until translating officially becomes as appealing as translating for fans (in terms of getting pleasure out of working on games I like and satisfaction out of bringing great games to you guys)

  49. @guy who mentioned moononymous: because he wasn’t

  50. Dude, seriously?

    Alternative is the reason most people even put up with Extra and Unlimited… and now you are going to hold off on the better half of Alternative for this?

    Seriously? I’m still trying to digest these news.

    I guess you know better than I do but I, for one, feel trolled. Good luck on the project I guess, but consider me part of the disappointed unknown minority that instead of being angry simply had their interest killed.

  51. Put up with Extra and Unlimited? You act as if you were entitled to this, as if he was forced to do anything at all for you. Way to be grateful. If it weren’t for this man, you wouldn’t have gotten anything. Same goes for all the people calling him a faggot. You guys weren’t entitled to anything at all. If it goes through, then that’s cool. If not, then it’ll be just like nothing ever happened. The way it was originally. Be happy that he even did this at all for you guys.

  52. Its all about epeen for you isnt it.

  53. Lol I love how people are saying that you “just want money from this” when you said you aren’t asking for money from the translation. Not like you even had to do fantranslations for them in the first place.

  54. I don’t see anything wrong with this.

    In fact I think this is a good move, since they don’t have to put up with C&Ds in the future.

  55. It’s funny that licensing supporters tend to accuse people that oppose the idea of fan translations going official, saying that they’re only interested in “piracy.” Do you not realize that “pirates” will “pirate” the official release? Are you slow?

  56. @Ixrec
    That is certainly reassuring – it sounds like you are just as against delays as the rest of us (although, in all honesty, none of us have any reason to be impatient in the first place). While I know that this is certainly in the infancy of planning, do you happen to have anything to mention about the points in my previous post? Any ideas or plans to prevent/accomplish the five things I mentioned? Upon reflection, I don’t think a hard copy is necessarily a requisite: while I would love to get my hands on one, I would be satisfied with a download if it brought on the delivery faster. In addition, it was foolish of me to say “no DRM.” Obviously, you’re gonna need a bit of protection if MG or Jast end up liscensing it, and I doubt you’ll pull a Ubisoft.

    Thank you so much for your hard work (and godly translation speed. How the FUCK did you translate as much as you did that quickly?)

  57. I think this is a good move. I would do the same thing in your position. Well, almost the same – I would try to get some money out of it if possible. But if that failed I would probably just do it anyway to support the VN industry.

    This has me wondering though. Some VN companies don’t like their games coming out in the West. Had age said no, what would you have done? (Admittedly it wasn’t very likely given the deal + their appearance at that one con a while back)

  58. @Xerxes: “no” to both of your questions. I am currently thinking about exactly what my own priority list is (your changes of mind bring yours closer to what I have in mind, so yay) and given the opportunity I will send it to the others involved (maybe even post it publicly), but at the moment I just don’t know anything.

  59. Please release this on some good distributor instead of kazoku keikaku level delay like JAST or no CD shit like MG.
    >not adding any more delays
    So like instead of spring/summer 2011, we will be getting the whole thing on 2013 right?

  60. Ixrec, let me offer a tip of my hat to you for bringing age to the negotiating table and eventual congrats upon the licensing of the Muv Luv series (and with this not only do we get the main games but we also potentially get the fan discs we could even get Kiminozo). Whether JAST or MG gets this license (I’m guessing the latter because of that convention business last year), I for one will buy as soon as it comes out. With this, you’re helping the english market for the games we love to grow even if it’s only by a samll amount and for that you have my (and likely that of many others to come) thanks and support. Kudos to you man, and don’t let these sankaku/4chan trolls get you down.
    BTW, if things work out with age, lets keep our fingers crossed that Ixrec can sweet talk Liarsoft to the negotiating table.

  61. @Ixrec,

    Congrats on getting into agreement with Age, I do think most of the rager are mad because of the possible delay with this move of yours

    Just some questions though, are you negotiating with age to release MLA or both MLE/U and MLA? hopefully its just MLA, or release both at the same time or whatever. But seeing how things goes, i would say they actually wanted to release MLE/U first and then see how the sales go and then decided to release MLA too, is that right?

    and then all the fear of 2017 release will be realized, and yes that is what i am deeply concerned of, I gotta say i understand how those who were waiting with expectation were disappointed (stop being hypocrite those who said that he/she wasnt disappointed) but then again, it was your translation, it was your hardwork, so we cant really say anything, hopefully you get to talk to age and get them to release MLA without having further drama and uneeded delays, and i will be sure to purchase it from them.

    Thanks for all of your hardwork

  62. …It must be annoying putting up with all the angry people…
    Anyway, you’ve done an awesome job translating all this time, and I wanted to remind you how you’re really, really appreciated for the ridiculous amount of time you’ve spent on this.
    Hope everything goes well.

  63. @joachim: My understanding is ML and MLA will both be licensed if all goes well. We’re already planning on doing some last-minute edits to ML for when they’re ready.

    And since many people seem to be asking why I contacted age for a licensing deal: I want the English eroge market to expand by giving games as awesome as MLA (and not mere nukige) a chance to be legally purchased. Of course if there turns out to be no money in it for them or it takes far too long to release then I won’t bother trying this stunt again.

  64. Funny how you do this when you’re so close to finishing patch 2

    Unless you don’t already know why people are pissed it’s because you yanked the dogs goddamn chain by saying you’d release said patches then saying “I GOT A DEAL WITH AGE SO NO MORE UNOFFICIAL PATCHES ARE BEING RELEASED” at %60 making everyone think you just want the epeen

  65. I’m fine with this since I was waiting until the whole thing was out before starting, but if I was midway through reading MLA, I would be hella mad.

  66. Geez… I can’t believe how many people are complaining because of an OFFICIAL release, instead of a fan-translation patch. What’s the big deal, anyway, just delaying the release a bit more? butt-hurt because you have the original japanese version and YOU jumped the gun in buying it before the full patch was finished, while you don’t understand japanese? thinking “shit, the creators are evil and they will only give us a “Bad Export for you””?.
    Stop whining for a game that most of you won’t even buy (we all know how this rolls, sadly). It’s a good thing that they express interest in bringing the game to a foreing market that they don’t have the obligation to satisfy, and it will be even better if good sales figures come out of this (if the negotiations are succesful, of course).

  67. ^Do you honestly think people like me who are pissed off at this wouldn’t buy the official release?

    Theres another reason why we’re all pissed at this look at what happened to demonbane

    this is just going to keep getting delayed and an english translation is NEVER going to happen and if it does it probably won’t sell besides to people who’re already fans or it’ll just be a toned down version

    have fun waiting til 2017 for progress on this one buddy

  68. Well.. it’s certainly… unexpected. But I feel very happy. If the deal go through, it will help to expand a Western market for VNs. While I would like to get a physical if possible, I believe that the deal with MG is the most probable and I won’t scorn a download release. So kudos to you Ixrec, you did a great job and I hope this will succeed.
    P.S. I didn’t know that so many twelve year olds were following Amaterasu progress. They probably didn’t notice that these games you translate are for adults. Shame on them for not knowing how to read.

  69. “Dude, seriously?


    yes, it’s kinda hard to digest

  70. *cough* I feel as dissapointed as the announcement of duke nukem 4 ever

    And how long is “too long”?
    If “too long” comes to pass, will amaterasu step in and just finish a translation on their own and release it?

  72. Sure, waiting sucks, I’m annoyed too, but I’m sure Ixrec will pull out of the deal if it reaches Demonbane levels of delay. We should all just be patient and we’ll be able to play this sooner or later.

  73. People being somewhat miffed I can understand. Making the deal official will undoubtedly add a delay of some sort onto releasing this, but I think it’s a stretch to say it will definately end up like Demonbane. And the fact is, the more you see official translations and collaberations like this work, the greater the chance of other companies following suit and more officially translated Eroge ending up available in the Western Market. If it helps, consider it a long-term investment.

    And for the love of god, shut the fuck up with your stupid insults. Raging at someone who has spent so much of their own time translating games that you’d never get to see otherwise, for daring to try and build a relationship with the people who made the game in the first place? Just because things might get delayed a bit? Good grief, if that isn’t pathetic I don’t know what is. I mean, I get it, the whole 12 year old self-entitled little shit who thinks the world revolves around them and they deserve all of this stuff for free and NOW NOW NOW, but god damn, you guys are too much sometimes.

    Ixrec, keep up the good work and ignore the haters. I for one am extremely grateful for dedicated people like you.

  74. That would be awesome if it was officially released, we’ll have to endure if we want more VNs translated in the future, at least Age will know there is a market out there for people who will buy VNs in English speaking countries.

    Not like everybody won’t pirate them anyway though ;_;

  75. Now go translated SubaHibi or some shit. DEEP

  76. All I gotta say, Ix, is way to go bro!

    Congratulations on making an epic move as a fan TL. I’m very pleased by this news. Official releases are always a good thing, as they give us another chance to prove ourselves to be a viable market.

    All the haters are just spoiled shits with entitlement issues ^.^

  77. Great damage control, looks like Amy got the PR department covered already.
    More Ixrec suckboys please.

  78. *siiiiigh*

    there’s just too many probabilities that could happen. to name a few:

    1. the same fate as demonbane.
    2. the probability for export.
    3. the probability for DRM only.
    4. the probability for shit hits the fan.

    and those probabilities can go into another different probabilities. which means, the future isn’t decided yet. you can guess what will happen all you want, but just remember that you don’t control fate and destiny. shit happens, epic happens, mediocre happens, anything can happen.

  79. @pondrthis:

    there’s just too many unknown and unforeseen developments that those haters don’t want to happen. for example, our country has a very bad reputation with regards to smuggling. there’s a very big possibility in our country that those VNs will just get smuggled by them. the worst part is that our number 1 smuggler is none other than our Bureau of Customs.

    a car that is probably only worth 100,000 of our currency can get as bad as 5 million thanks to taxes, under the table transactions, smuggling, mafia, yakuza and many more.

    There’s also that Rapelay incident. in case you’ve forgotten.

  80. Thank you for all your hard work – I am sure this will have a positive outcome. :)

  81. @kidlat020:

    I remember RapeLay. But wouldn’t giving up now on official translations be worse than giving it a shot, shit hitting the fan, and TLs going underground afterwards?

    Fan tl’s will continue no matter what happens. Why do they want to avoid bad press when the effect of bad press is essentially zero on the outcome they want… games being translated by fans in the underground?

    I can see MangaGamer being nervous, but not 4chan whores.

    (And in any case, I was really just supporting a group I used to work with…)

  82. @kidlat
    Yes, this is an experiment. Yes, I am aware and concerned of countless potential negative developments. Yes, I still think it’s worth giving this a shot.

    With a few exceptions that honestly don’t count due to poor quality (of game or tl) or low profit, there just haven’t been any successful licensings of noteworthy VNs. The handful that stood a chance (especially Demonbane) and even some of the non-noteworthy ones are dead in the water for either legal (company doesn’t own voices/engine/etc) or technical reasons (engine sucks with English text). However, both of those excuses seem much less likely to apply to age, since we already know from our own patches that the engine handles English text perfectly fine, and I have every reason to believe age has the rights to most of what goes into their games.

    And the big reason why this particular game is worth a shot: if I can’t get you people to pay money for Muv-Luv fucking Alternative, what the hell will you pay for? (Heck, dozens of anons have already claimed they would be willing to pay) The way I see it, if this doesn’t sell well then it can be justifiably said that there is no English-speaking VN market worth the companies’ time and us fan translators can ignore licensing attempts for the forseeable future without feeling bad about it. And if this does sell well, then I’ll just do it as many times as I can get away with.

  83. I’ll be looking forward to MLA’s official release.

  84. Fact: Ixrec has never bought a visual novel, he downloads them. ;_;

  85. Interesting… I hope it goes well. The more official (and good) releases the better.

  86. @cody: Because I’ll be going to Japan someday. Why bother buying them now when I can get them all at once without shipping fees years from now?

    Of course if some kind of limited MLA edition with artbooks and other goodies comes out of this, I’d buy that myself to help.

  87. I’m glad you’re testing the waters~

    Great stuff could come from this. My stance has been pro-official with niche interests, as long as it gets proper treatment.
    If you need any advice or help from other groups who have had dealings TLwiki, Sekai, NNL, (and the people doing Kara no Shoujo?), and maybe Koryuu; surely they will be happy to offer advice.
    I think it is the greatest hope of many VN fan-translation teams; giving back not only to the fans, but to the people who created the game. And nothing would be better than an official release.

    With a game like MLA it could be the goto game for all new fans just starting out… The introductory drug for VNs xD

    Anyways I wish Amaterasu luck and hopefully this will be a year to remember.

    [veryhidden]…but if they decline your offer you must ****** it anyways….[/veryhidden]
    (*‘ω‘ *)

  88. So… all this mess… is only because… you weren’t able to find a normal hacker? Very sad to hear, cause you actually could ask Russian guys who were working on KGnE partial patch for the assistance.

    From what I saw for the last 3 years, developers are those who less interested in the translation than anybody else, so no wonder people are now screaming like crazy.

    Despite your words, you’ve made a bad move, cause your days of fan-translator were ended in the second you first contacted age, and you’ll never change that…


  89. omg i am so butthurt becuz you aren’t releasing the last part of mla for me for free out of your own hard work because the internets has to revolve around me! who cares about the people who made the games or the people who trans them! it’s my right to get stuff fast or i might get bored and find sumthing else!

  90. P.S. X-Calibar, you and all motherfuckers working for the JAST and MG are pieces of shit. Don’t call yourself a fan, you are mindless sheep.

  91. I have no idea why people are assuming we hit some major roadblock that “forced” us to go official somehow. There is no such difficultly. We could release a patch right this instant that goes all the way up to the briefing on the battle at Sadogashima (which I translated yesterday), if we wanted to.

    Once again, I got in contact with age because I wanted this game released officially. My motives for that are purely moral ones (they deserve the money, someone needs to “test the waters”, etc.), nothing technical or manipulative.

  92. @derp: Don’t call other people mindless sheep when you’re the one basing your arguments on blatantly false claims. Stick to raging over genuine issues like the possibility of delay.

  93. First, I say that this is bad news. But I hold back my Trojan Horse for now ’cause I don’t know what will happened in the future. I would like to ask you some questions though

    1. Will the release goes through JAST/MG? I beg your pardon, but please do not use their services. Even now, JAST continues to censor their games, the idea which I strongly oppose to. I don’t want to see my game being modified. The method of releasing through DLSite or whatever izmos suggested on VNDB is more than plausible. I could pay 20 pounds for the game in Japanese version, then apply your patch. That is what I want, and I think there are many fans who think like me. In the end, we just don’t want to have our game modified. In addition, with the release plans of both JAST and MG, it’s unlikely that they will make MLA/ MLU-E appearance anytime soon. It is basic knowledge that releasing a high-profile game will make the sells in their lower-profile games (such as SIN or MGIP, etc…) decrease, and that is something they do not want. So I think that they will deliberate hold back MLs to make profit. Seeing as you have finished half the game for a long times, I believe that you need only 2-3 months to make a whole patch for the game. If MG or JAST release it on May, then I’m sold. If not, then maybe we must wait 1 more year to be able to play MLA ( if they will not decide to localize MLU-E first, that is)

    2. I don’t want to say this, but I think the market for Vns in Western countries is hardly enough to cover the cost right now. If the company want to make profit, they must have patience to wait and suffer deficit for 2-3 years, until they have the strong root/basic in the Western market regard their fame and products. Material incentives, be it physical or digital are a must, for instance: soundtrack, artworks, or whatever they are. I could predict the sale for MLA will not pass 1500-2000. Piracy is just one reason ( btw, if one person decide not to buy, he will not anyway). There are more, such as the different in culture in Western countries compare to Japan. And they also need a strong advertisement campaign to draw people into playing VNs. Can they make some thing like that? Skeptical. Long story short, if they don’t have the will to suffer some loss during the first 1-2 years, they can not make profit. Can they wait that long?

    3. Admit it, Vns are books with visual arts. They could be considered as short stories/ novels ( some of them could be long). Not many people like reading. And with the number of games/ books in their language, attract people to read Vns is hard, and not as easy as some want to believe. Think about it, if you & age fail, will any company continue to see the Western Market as plausible? I don’t way that your idea is wrong, but is this such a good time for experiment? This could affect the whole Vn community. I do not put pressure on you for this, but they are things that you must explain to the community. What happened if you fall to make things work? ( honestly, i don’t want to ask that question because I, for once, appreciate all the works that you’ve done until now, so I don’t want to put you on difficult position, but, if things could not worked out, the community will fall to see the days Vns be localized)

    4. Er, will I have physical copy? Please, I want to collect all the stuff and I feel more secure with disks rather than digital. Why? Because my hard drive is not that free, so if I but something digital, where do I store that? In the server of the website, of course (like STEAM). But what will happened if the owner company of the site goes bankrupt? No access possible ( this is basic of DRM, before anyone make some stupid assumptions, please do some homework)

    Apart from the 4 point, which is merely my hope. It could do good if you can answer those questions. Tis what the fans want to hear anyway.

  94. I’ll be waiting for a leak

  95. “if I can’t get you people to pay money for Muv-Luv fucking Alternative, what the hell will you pay for?”

    Regardless of its already established reputation, VNs need to build a new one over here. You can’t say “here’s the VN everyone says is great, now buy it!” and expect sales to skyrocket.

  96. Profit = Price * Consumers – Cost
    Consumers = Niche * Demand
    Demand = Fans * Funds
    Funds = 0
    Cost > 0
    Profit < 0

    Instead of expanding their market at the expense of their own budget and fans that were already happy, they should release their product where it is profitable. If they're trying to expand their audience, they would have more success by allowing unofficial translations which end up in the hands of more people. What do JAST or MangaGamer offer? They have no advertising resources. Honestly, they're only relevant due to possible liability issues. Another example of someone trying to step in and make cash as the middle man in a process that did not need one. This is good for no one.

    Even beyond the shit storm regarding digital copyright, as long as the original (Japanese) product is available, there is no need for this.


  97. As long as I can afford the official release, I’ll buy it. I really hope this doesn’t come out as download-only, I’d much rather have a hard copy to hold onto.

  98. Is it going to be released only in the US or is it also worldwide?

  99. I really dont care if I have to pay or have to wait a year for it, I am more worry about if things dont go the right way with age what will you do?
    Will you still release it unofficial?
    Anyway, you guys gived me hours of joy will all your releases and for that I thank you all.

  100. @Anon7: I believe I said this before in other ways but yes, if things go horribly wrong (or get delayed forever) we’ll just release anyway.

    @dc1293: No idea, but thanks for reminding me about that issue.

  101. Btw all you haters, you are not helping by shouting names to the guys that are working for free to give us the things we like.
    Thats just ungratefull of you all.


  103. (And quit samefagging. We can tell.)

  104. @ a
    Then we bother people. Leigh Alexander, of Sexy Videogame Land and Kotaku, has already posted about Kana and Katawa Shoujo in the past, and multiple high-traffic sites like Rock Paper Shotgun watch her. Getting them past Extra is going to be a problem though…

  105. @dc1293: Had to go ask, hence the delay, but yeah, it should be available worldwide if all goes well.

  106. Congrats to Ixrec and staff. I personally don’t care for ML/MLA, but I really want this to succeed. Only then might âge consider bringing some of their other games to the English market.

  107. awesome thanks for the reply, now we just need to play the waiting game and see cracks first.

  108. sorry crappy english, its ‘…and see who cracks first.’

  109. Hmm, this is a good new. Though it will take some more time, I really appreciate the length you guys go through into releasing this game officially. It is ultimately your work, and in the end, you people are the one who decide what to do with it. However, I do have some questions about this partnership, and I really appreciate it if you can clarify some part of it.

    1. Will you still continue to translate the game during the time of all the negotiation is going on? And if the negotiation fails, will you release a patch of the game later on?

    2. What channels of distribution are the most appealing to you right now? Is it going to be through JAST or Mangagamer, and is it going to be in physical copy or download form?

    3. Concerning future projects such as Forest and Sharnoth, will there be attempts to release them officially? and will you start working on them after you take a rest when the translation for Muv-luv is done or when Muv-luv alternative is released officially?

  110. 1) Yes, and yes.
    2) Technically I’m not allowed to say who if anyone we’re working with other than age yet. I don’t know about physical vs download yet either but I’ll push for a physical option and that’ll be one of the issues I post more on as soon as I have any meaningful detail.
    3) If it goes well with MLA, yes I’ll try with those too. I’ll most likely start exactly when I would have otherwise (should finish MLA in March as originally expected, so start Sharnoth in April and finish in June?), though given the licensing delays I might be more inclined to take longer breaks.

  111. If it works great but heh your not even with some licensing company with know how like MG or Jast let’s face it if it was that easy to get those things done it would have been done before it’s not like games like Muv luv aren’t popular.
    If no one did it’s very unlikely that it was because they had no one to translate it for free more like because people who actually work in the English visual novel business know how ridicules the idea of such an attempt succeeding is.
    And Ixerc for your previous post let’s be honest here there is no way that now that the company is indirect contact with you and you are very, very noticeable to them unofficial release of any kind will ever became an option again.

  112. I believe its worth a shot what Ixrec is doing, since this game is undeniably awesome. Why not share it’s awesomeness to the world?

    Either way there’s always a way to get the english translation released, so I think we can wait and see what age decides on the matter. Worry about one matter at time.

  113. Muv Luv has a same exact problem with licensing as it had with translating, but this time there is no way around it. For Alternative to do well your first have to publish Muv Luv which is not only not that good], but you have already released the path for it. That means ,let’s face it , that sales will be very low, those who wanted it in English already have it . You can pull the path from the site but someone will put it up somewhere else so it won’t change anything.

  114. After translating Sharnoth are you going to translate Forest?

  115. keep deleting posts
    cool gestapo amy

  116. If this goes well are you planning to translate Kimi ga nozomu eien?

  117. If this goes well, MangaGamer or some other group would probably pick it up even if he doesn’t. MG was already talking about possibly licensing with age before this, so I can’t imagine they wouldn’t move on it if this became successful.

  118. @yourmom

    Go yell at the spam filter then. We haven’t deleted any ourselves.

  119. @Anon: I wanted to work on KGNE someday anyway, so if this goes well that may also get an official translation, and if not it’ll get an unofficial one someday. As far as you’re concerned MLA succeeding means I might get to KGNE sooner.

  120. Good luck! Hope this all turns out well, and if not, oh well. Ignore all those whiners here since they do not realize how positive this could be!

  121. Well I’ll Just state my congratulations to you on being able to proceed in a positive direction with your translations, and I will be hoping for your best.
    Also since this has more or less turned into a Q & A geared towards Ixrec i just wanted to pop in a question of my own also, that is if you even planing on also doing Kagayaku Toki ga Kienumani after MLA.

  122. @Saxon: Oh, the thing in Altered Fable. No, when I say I might do other age stuff in the future including MLA fandiscs (KGNE will happen someday no matter what), I mean if ML/MLA are successful enough that age wants me to do more. Until such success is observed, I won’t bother even playing them. Far too much else I need to read as it is >_>

  123. In your review of Forest you said you where planning to translate it at some point, are you still planning to do that?

  124. @everyone asking about Sharnoth and Forest: Yes, I’m doing them. Just because they might be released officially doesn’t mean my plans for when I translate them have changed in the slightest (they haven’t). But the question of when you’ll see those translations is now up in the air, so maybe you don’t care what my personal schedule is.

  125. I don’t mind waiting a few years, there are enough other visual novels to read.

  126. ^ I mean this in a positive way.

  127. I probably am not entitled to say anything but oh well
    I don’t really know why people are trying to make visual novels more mainstream in the west. I like where things are now, and the thought of something like fate or muvluv becoming the next naruto makes me cringe(which probably won’t happen anyway, because as you know AO games might as well not exist in the U.S)
    Also something like this will most likely not affect pirating
    We pirate everything from music to games, so just because it has an “official” tag slapped onto it won’t really do much in terms of that.
    That’s just the majority though, I for one bought both Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative, which is why this came as such a shock.
    Instead of manufacturing purely english copies of the game, I also think it’s better for age to just include a copy of the patch or something in their official releases.
    Sorry for being such a bitch.
    I gotta say thanks for all the translations up till now and all those that will most likely happen in the future.
    Out of all the translations out there, I think yours have definitely been top-tier.
    Thanks/Good Luck

  128. Come on, how delusional can one be to actually think this will work out in any shape or form.

  129. Visual novels do really belong to be just in Japan, I prefer having vn’s stay where there are since japanese culture is way different to western culture and society.

    I seriously doubt that many people from the western world would like eroges since its seen as indecent, but its ok in Japan.

    Though it’s interesting to see if this works out or not.

  130. “I seriously doubt that many people from the western world would like eroges since its seen as indecent, but its ok in Japan.”

    Then try saying to a normal japanese person that you play eroge and observe the reaction…

    Anyway, I’m interested in how this entire negotiation will end though.

  131. There eroge community just happens to be large so its ok if you say it to one of those guys.

    Ixrec will tell us eventually how the negotiations are going, it takes time.


    the nips hates you ixrec
    why are you sucking their cock

  133. Hm… I was very concerned at the news at first and yes I raged about it… but then I calemd down and thought about it…

    So basically it means for me:

    1. The game I am waiting for will likely take more time to be released then I thought. I can bear with that as long it will not take years.

    2. I hope it will not be too modified from the original (And if it will, I hope for some fan patch that “tweaks” it a little).

    I totaly can live with that, I’ll buy your copy as soon it is released.

  134. What little information/guesswork I have regarding 2 is that no one but Amaterasu has any interest in changing the scripts, other than looking at them just to make sure we don’t suck. And at least one of us will start kicking and screaming if they do make changes.

    Images probably should change since age knows their own fonts and we kinda don’t. Whether they’ll follow our images when making theirs I have no idea.

    And thanks, we need every purchase we can get.

  135. I have no problem with a fan project becoming official, other than the fact that the release of the final product will be significantly delayed.

    I understand people being upset over this. A commenter earlier stated the following: “don’t dismiss the outrage just as pirates being pirates.” Fans are very uneasy about fan projects becoming official releases because of what is going on with Demonbane. Now that you are speaking directly with age, fans are concerned that a full translation will never see the light of day. I hope this is not the case.

    I know this question has already been asked, but will JAST or MangaGamer become involved with this if negotiations are successful? Is there a third option?

    For what it’s worth, I hope this works out, I’d be more than happy to buy I copy if it ever gets released.

  136. probably, no. Ixrec said himself that if “shit hits the fan” between age and ammy, then he’ll just release it anyway. though no one could ever know how long will it take before “the fan starts rofl-ing”.

    and unless MG or jast doesn’t move according to their own will, then, no.

  137. I just finished the Coup d’etat Arc and am looking forward to the official release, Muv-Luv is awesome I see why you are trying to make this official.

    One question for you, Ixrec: Who do you prefer Takeru to go with Sumika or Meiya?
    I vote for Meiya all the way, was kinda disappointed that age didn’t do that for Alternative.

  138. If you’re just asking about my personal taste in 2D women, Sumika is among my all-time favorites while Meiya’s pretty average (at least, by the absurdly high standards moege force us to use).

    If you meant something about narrative quality, as you’ll see when you read the rest of MLA it basically had to be Sumika because she’s the osananajimi and that means they know each other better than anyone else.

    I will now go shield my apartment from the Meiya fans.

  139. Lol, guess there would be a shitload of Meiya fans XD

  140. NOOOOOO for kinda spoiler on how MLA ends????

  141. Lol, lots of butthurts here.

    Ixrec, you should translate Forest first. I want to know how good it is, mainly because of Girl’s Work xD

  142. This will definitely be a day one purchase for me, so I hope things go well for you guys.

    Thanks for all of the hard work.

  143. I don’t think I can say anything that already hasn’t been said. It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t annoyed about it. After all this just means to me that I need to wait much longer to play alternative. But we don’t have the right to complain. You guys where working on this for free in your spare time. You could have told everyone to screw off at any moment, dump the project and get back to your busy life. But you didn’t. And god knows I thank you for that.

    I am skeptical about this. Still I wish you the best of luck.

  144. Personally I don’t think the US has a market for Japanese-style VNs yet, and I suspect that those first companies going in are going to be losing money. Still, it has to start somewhere, and eventually you’ll get enough people interested that companies can make a profit in the US. I’d like for that time to come, but I’m not holding my breath.

    Those of you who don’t like what Ixrec has done, I recommend learning Japanese. Then not only can you play ML/E/A/whatever, but any other game without waiting at all. All it would take is for you to actually invest some of your own time and since you’re posting in here so much I’m guessing you have a lot of it.

  145. Personally I love this move as it represents a big “fuck you” to all the leechers who have pirated this game. Personally I don’t care if an English translation ever sees the light of day, in fact, I would prefer if an English translation is never released just for the sake of taking it out of the hands of the pirates.

    Those who are complaining about this move are little more than entitled leechers and pirates who do not respect the rights of the original creators. If they tell you otherwise they are lying.

  146. I would have to disagree with that interpretation as I am also a pirate and it would make me a hypocrite.

    My personal view on piracy is that it’s an “acceptable evil” (where a “necessary evil” is one committed to fulfill a need that cannot be satisfied any other way, an acceptable evil is committed to fulfill a want that cannot be satisfied any other way). Most of us simply cannot buy the vast majority of the music/art/games/shows that we want to consume, partly because of insane shipping fees, partly because some products literally cannot be purchased outside the country of origin, partly because the official translations for them are rare and/or subpar, and most importantly, because the desired quantity of entertainment is absurdly huge compared to the cost of its production. Since we cannot determine which products are most worth buying without first consuming them, I am very in favor of any model where people consume lots and pay for their favorites afterward (hopefully someone will eventually manage to implement such a model commercially), as the alternative of requiring everyone buy everything results in very little ever getting consumed.

    The real goal of a license like this is to establish a direct connection between a translated version of a game and an easy/affordable means of purchasing it, which vastly increases the likelihood that those who are able to purchase it will in fact do so, and more importantly starts a relationship between the English-speaking fans and the Japanese company.

    In my personal case, I’m waiting until I go to Japan to study abroad to buy all the VNs and related merchandise I want. Either that or for Liar-soft’s ddl site to start working outside Japan. >_>

  147. they hate you
    isn’t that obvious enough

    buying their shit is like letting them fuck you up in the ass.

    remember when people have self respect?

  148. I already own the original versions of ML and MLA and thus I am a bit disappointed. I will have to pay again after all…

    Good luck nontheless

  149. Сранные педрилы.

  150. Russians :O

  151. this was probably the most stupid move! I cant be more thankful for doing this absolutely unselfish job of using your time for translating games which you dont need. However, let’s face it. This companies never achieve their own goals. They won’t achieve our goal of having a good (MLE and MLU were greatly done) translation of the game. Things are just gonna get stalled forever and before we know it, Age will be broken so there will never be an official release and we only lose time.
    What troubles me the most, however, are your motives. I completely think your job and time has to be paid off. You understand japanese so you dont gain anything in doing this for us. Yet you do it, that’s why we love you. But now you talk to Age. If you were going to get paid for it I would understand your actions. But giving the company the control of your job is almost stupid. They are not investing in the english market so why should they get money for it? We should pay for this english copies to you, and you should pay a comission of the copies you sold to Age.
    Your way to do the things, you know, giving them “rights” over your work pays you nothing, make us free-riders have to wait longer (probably forever cause there wont be an official release) and actually dont make incentives for companies to actually invest in english translation. They only have to wait for somebody to start the work, finish it and then take posession over.
    Please, reconsider. They are not paying you anything. If you are going to go for it, at least get paid. That would have some logic. Doing it for free is fucking the hole VN community for just the glory

  152. Hope thing will turn out well. I can wait for 1-2 years but after that my Japanese should be good enough to play VN XD
    But even you able to get the licensed then what? will Age directly sell the English version or hand it to some western company…then they gonna remove here and there(Tama)..arr let not think about that. :|

    Any way, good luck..

  153. This move by Ixrec scares me. Once translation groups start striking deals with the actual eroge companies, they become bound to them in a way.

    Look at NNL. Now that they’ve struck a deal with Minori and Mangagamer, they’ve turned into a “subordinate” of Minori. From reading their front page, now it seems that they’re only interested in translating because they can make money off of it, killing the appeal and point of a fan translation (people who do it for fun). In addition, now they’ve brought the attention of the entire Japanese eroge industry upon themselves for making this move, greatly limiting what they can translate and whether they will be able to distribute it for free without any objections and legal actions from eroge companies who are monitoring them.

  154. This idea is doomed to fail.

    Nobody is going to buy Extra&Unlimited, and Alternative won’t make it here due to the abysmal sales of Extra&Unlimited.

  155. Oh… to be honets, I’m sad, but well, oh well. Thanks for letting us enjoy your translations up until now, hope everything goes as planned. Good luck!

  156. Well, I can almost see how this is going to end. Either as mentioned Extra & Unlimited will bomb and Alternative will never get released because of it or age will pass on it entirely and drop a few C&D letters to try and make sure no more unofficial translations are released.

    Good job guys, thumbs up. I already bought Extra/Unlimited and Alternative from an import shop. I will pirate the shit out of an ‘officially’ released english version because I’ll be damned if I buy them twice because someone had an attack of conscience.

  157. I should probably mention that I am extremely okay with people who already bought the game not buying it twice. If anything I’d encourage it (getting MG to offer free dls for those guys might be nice, but it might also be an excuse for more delays).

  158. Does your comment about “getting MG to offer free dls for those guys might be nice, but it might also be an excuse for more delays” mean that the game will be licensed via MangaGamer?

    I would be a little bit concerned if that were the case. MangaGamer, of course, means three things: No hard copy, DRM, a high price tag and no hard copy. It also means porting the game to their proprietary BGI engine (I think that’s what it’s called).

    Another thing to consider is that EVERY MangaGamer game has been pirated, many within a day or two of the initial release.

    For what it’s worth, I do hope it works out.

  159. I was taken aback by the possibility of delay, but I hope this experiment will buck the trend set by the likes of Demonbane.

    Ixrec, I hope that the official release (if it ever comes) will no longer require me to change Windows’ locale to Japanese.


  161. @Cicero

    Though the issue of them porting the thing to BGI does seem a bit annoying.

  162. Most (recent) BGI-related complaints are pure misinformation. KiraKira/Deardrops were on BGI to begin with (it’s not MangaGamer’s engine), and they do release games that aren’t on/haven’t been ported to BGI, such as Koihime.

    So in the event MG licenses MLA, they won’t do anything as stupid as trying to port rUGP to BGI. If they did try, I would probably leak a patch within the hour.

  163. Ixrec, have you played Alternative before you started these translation?

    If not, since your done with the translations for the second Arc, was it awesome?

  164. Hmm, I guess it’s your choice what to do with the project, and if it doesn’t delay the realease of the translation I don’t have anything to say against this. Well, good luck with everything.

  165. Well. In order for the fans to get this as quickly as possible:

    1) Create a plan for them or get a plan from them with project deadlines and implementation details.
    2) “Money Talks”. If they start putting in significant time and money, beyond mere correspondence costs through email (time is money), and they can prove it to you, then it shows they are serious.
    3) If there is no project release date announced within the year, then I think it will not happen. There is no reason to wait, to PLAN to release a product. Remember, multiple steps can be finished at once. If they say they are waiting for you to finish translation, then I seriously doubt it will ever go through, because it shows a massive lack of interest.

  166. On another note, I am exceedingly unhappy with the delay in the release of the translation for Muv-Luv Alternative. I have been regularly checking the site for translation updates, and have been extremely hyped for release of the Sadogashima Arc. And then today I find that the long awaited release was Finished! Then to fall into despair over finding that I may never get to read it once I found this post instead of another partial patch.

    Was this entire plan of the release of Muv-Luv Extra and Unlimited and then the first chapter of Alternative all a tease for this? It is so cruel…

    If the English version never gets out, I may wish I never read it in the first place. My Japanese is not good enough to read VNs, to really understand the naunces or unusual grammer or references. *sigh*

  167. Ixrec… >_> you shouldn’t be threatening to leak a patch, they might try to sue you using your posts as evidence. Well… they don’t have the money for that, but still…

  168. @dc1293: Read the fucking blog. I reviewed it months ago.

    @Uberzaki: No companies have the resources to waste suing anyone, and if we do leak (this was actually mentioned in public places before) it’s because they work so slowly or start doing something so stupid the official release is never going to show up for years, so they’d have no reason to care.

  169. Lol international lawsuits they always seem to fail

  170. this “licensed release with âge” relly suck after all.

  171. so tsundere
    I don’t know whether to laugh or cry

  172. Excuse my clueless-ness, but have there been any download links released prior to to your deal with age? If so, it’s probably already spread like wildfire making the idea of an official release null, unless you go hunting down all of the torrents/download links and reporting them.

    Then again, I’m pretty sure people will find some way to pirate the official release as well…

  173. Yes, everything ever made has been pirated. This is not new, and the companies making software are still alive despite this.

    Just because everyone can get it illegally doesn’t necessarily mean none of them are willing to pay. And think about it: who’d be willing to pay if those of us who read Japanese (or played the partial) hadn’t been able to pirate and play MLA ourselves?

  174. Logically I’m always happy when VNs get official releases.

    Emotionally I’m bummed I got super excited seeing arc 2 was finished on the progress page THEN noticed this announcement. Then again i suppose that’s my fault, so kudos to yall for supporting age for their great product. (Although part of me really hopes they let you release partial patches as you finish anyway since I’m super impatient and keep replaying extra and unlimited)

  175. Thank you for noticing the announcement before asking in the forums where the dl links are.

  176. I’m just kind of wondering if the trend of fan translators working with developers for official releases continues do you think it would be realistic to hope for translators to get prerelease access to VNs to start translation ahead of time for a shorter Japanese to English release gap?

    Although any answer given would be pretty much pure speculation I felt like throwing the question out there

    p.s. it was no problem taking 15 seconds to find the blog post before storming the forums. seems like some people need to learn to open their eyes before crying for help :/

  177. “seems like some people need to learn to open their eyes before crying for help :/”

    This is the internet. Post first read later. There are already a few posts in the forums asking where the dl links are.

  178. This sounds good. I’m in support of official releases. Ixrec do you have any idea what kind of price range age is looking at?

  179. If I haven’t officially announced a detail like that, it’s pretty safe to assume we don’t know yet. Because we know almost nothing yet.

  180. Congrats Ixrec, even though it might take longer for us to get MLA, I fully support what you are attempting. Although it might be grim since there is not much of a market for VNs, the attempt will establish what type of market there is for other companies to license other VNs. Although as much as it pains me that we don’t get the translated part of Arc 2, I am sure at some point we will get our hands on the game. I would not mind paying for a hard copy as I really dislike having my computer on Japanese locale. Good luck in the future, and I wish for future success.

  181. As a cautionary warning, they might not take you seriously if you are not asking a requirement. They’re basically in a situation of “too good to be true” condition. They’re looking for the risk and if they look too hard and can’t find it, they’ll start slowing things down just because.

    For some reason, humans tend to attach a high value to things that are highly priced. Not just cheaply priced, but highly priced.

    In this scenario, the price isn’t necessarily monetary. But distribution rights, licensing, access, etc.

  182. If you already know you won’t need any money. You can still put it on the table, then trade it up for something else.

    If you go in saying “we don’t need money”, then that’s solidifying their negotiation position rather than yours.

  183. Lots of people have thrown out random negotiating tips like this by now, but I honestly don’t think any of them apply to this situation.

  184. Well, be sure, that I’d have never done that (I just simply hate the idea of others profiting from my work), but if its fine with you guys, then go for it.

    I really hope that they do an official release, within a reasonable time, but i don’t think that they can do it (even if the translation already done, they have to do the marketing from almost nothing).

    In my opinion small, fan groups with no legal or marketing worries are the best translators (no real translator would back off just from a C&D), and I’m really worried, that if amaterasu becomes a somewhat legal group, your work may suffer it.

    P.S. If they they ever decide to work with MG please leak the translation immediately! MG should just die painfully for what they did to some VN!


    care to elaborate on that? i have bought several games from MG and not counting one or two of their first titles they are fine. Easy to purchase, easy to download, easy to install, works and has decent to good quality from my experience so what are these terrible thing they have done which should make any co-opertation whith them unthinkable?

    (there is ofc that voice thing with Koihime but that was pretty much outside their control, not like they can force the company to licence them and they did reach a compromise to add them in later assuming decent sales)

  186. @E.D.: Most accusations sent at either MG or JAST are uninformed to the point of being utterly meaningless, and since you didn’t even present a reason logros is right.

    As for the rest of what you said, I see essentially no point whatsoever in “marketing.”

  187. Lol too bad there is no status bar on any kind of negotation.

  188. I’m glad to hear it’s getting an official release. I’ll be sure to support this if it gets released.

    Good luck with negotiations Ixrec.

  189. hmmmm,great job if it gonna release with official….
    so hope it’s not gonna take to long,
    because all fans MLA here is grown tired for waiting………


  190. Oo…i almost forgot…..
    did muv luv altered fable will be the next project after muv luv alternative???


  191. @jack

    Ixrec already said that he wasn’t interested in translating any more Muv-Luv after he’s done with Alternative. Unless the negotiations with âge made him change his plan, the next two games he’s going to translate are Sharnoth and Forest.

  192. @Orophin
    ooo…..i see….
    let’s hope it’s getting better …..
    :D :D :D

    and maybe anyone know how to get muv luv altered fable script…..
    just script…..for private use,and learn translate it….

  193. And so a month has passed… no word from age yet?

  194. I laugh at the thought that this would be worked out in only a single month.

    So, no.

    What we should expect is a very, very long (3 months? maybe???) startup time while they work out all the international copyright nonsense, which as we should all know are the only real reason for the worst of the official licensing delays (technical problems are just excuses since that’s the company’s engine failing), and after that things should start moving very quickly.

  195. There’s also the fact that the translation has to be finished first, as well :P

  196. I have a feeling the translation is going to be finished well before this licensing business is wrapped up.

  197. That was a given from the moment it started.

  198. Interesting move.

    My recommended model would be to go with the R07 / Witch-Hunt Approach. I would also like to see some support for people who really did go out and buy the original hard-copy. Pirates are going to pirate, regardless of whether the release is official or not.

    I think your model of not negotiating for money this time around makes sense. It shows them free margin gain and would create the foundation for something positive.

    I’m disappointed that the most likely release date has been pushed back, but whatever, it’s ML:A– it’s supposedly worth the wait.

    The benefit towards legitimizing the US VN Market and showing our actual support for the creators of these stories, particularly the ones that aren’t Sex Romps could be good. You have basically taken all of the risk out of their project and in return we won’t have to alt-tab the experience. Which is pleasant.

    Hopefully this goes well and sets a different tone towards collaboration / global releases.

  199. Well I am going to buy it. I hope the release is this year but I think that is not really

  200. Well though i´m note entirely happy about the release date being pushed back, it ceirtainly “could” do more good than harm, well time will tell… Oh, since it´s already like this, why don´t you use the Partial patch of the Coup Arc as a free trial, i mean it´s already out on the net so it´s not like they lose too much and it could work as advertisement…well whatever you decide GL , i´ll be waiting to get my hands on it,xD.

  201. now if we can just talk them into re-dubbing the opening scene. Even if they did an outright terrible job it would still be an improvement. XD

  202. I really don’t understand how they could of thought the language in the opening scene was correct. It almost seemed like they tried to translate based what they remembered from a 9th grade foreign language class. But then again maybe they just didn’t care, I mean there’s no way a half-fluent english speaker could have listened to that and not have said something.

  203. Yeah, whenever I see stuff like that I always kind of wonder why they didn’t just grab some random English speaker off the street, and give them $20 to listen to it once.

  204. I hope that when it does come out, it’s still censored. This might sound a little bit odd…but after looking at censored stuff for so long, I kinda like it.

  205. Don’t even think about taking out the engrish, it’s one of the best parts. I’d be pissed if the next iteration’s opening doesn’t have my good friend “Rabareader” staring at “HUMEN BURAINSH”.

  206. Wow, I just realized this is something useful Ixrec can put on his resume when he goes to Japan.

  207. Hmm.. i guess translation is no easy thing to do..
    just ignore the shit crap and keep moving forward.
    although it means a lot more waiting (damn i have 4 VNs stalled just because the translation), make it worth the wait.
    well good luck for everyone doing it!

  208. If you guys are working officially with age, does this mean we can get the All Ages versions of ML and MLA so we can get the extra stuff they put into those versions?

  209. We don’t know yet. There isn’t anything of interest in the all ages versions anyway so I wouldn’t bother hoping for it.

  210. Well, the only thing I can say to this is I am glad I didn’t bother importing a copy of MLA. Hope it works out okay for you guys.

  211. Hey Ixrec, I’ve been hearing a lot about all this evidence coming forth that the world is going to end on May 21st. Do you plan on continuing your translation efforts even if the world ends? I’d be pretty sad if I never got to play MLA because of something stupid like Judgment Day.

  212. I wouldn’t worry about it.

  213. Does anyone who already has the english patch for ML/MLA mind uploading it so that I can download it? I just got the game a week ago and can’t understand a word of Japanese…

    Please someone upload a download link or even email me the patch so that I can actually play the game

  214. pass me your mail address

  215. So ixrec when would you say is ok to check the site for updates about this?

    Late April?
    December 16?
    December 24?


  216. what’s the progress?
    are there already plans?

  217. No one knows anything except age and they just got earthquake’d. When there is something to tell you it will be announced to everyone. We have no way of knowing when this will happen.

  218. To dc1293

    My email is [email protected].

    Thank You soo much for doing this

  219. My heart goes out to the people of Japan and all those who were hit by the earthquakes and the tsunami….however, this might sound arrogant or pigheaded but I’ve just finished Extra and Unlimited and my friend has Alternative while waiting for the english translation to be completed….it seems like we came too late to get the partial patch, so if anyone is willing can you send the partial to my email? I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, but after finishing the first two I was hoping to get right into Alternative and see as much as I could. I was just lucky that my friend had the translations for Extra and Unlimited, but those are really just the beginning right? *sigh* I’ll be glad to add my support to Age and Amaterasu if a final english release or patch is made, but a partial would be great. My email is [email protected], thanks in advance =)

  220. To Jace_117 no problems with sharing the love.

  221. To Drakuzad I’ve sent you an e-mail

  222. Just finished the first arc, and I love the story so far. There was no translation made for the second arc before they took the download down, was there? *sigh* Sucks that I can’t understand any more than this unless I want to put up with Atlas’ “Engrish”. Oh well, just gonna wait patiently if and when the patch is released.

  223. To dc1293
    do you also have the patch for arc 2??
    if you have it, can you share it with me??
    this is my email
    [email protected]
    thank you (^_^)

  224. You’re asking underneath the blog post that explicitly states there was never a release of arc 2. No one outside Amaterasu has a patch for that.

  225. ouh
    thank for the notice
    so, there is a chance for you to share that patch with me??

  226. Congrats on finishing the rough translation of Alternative, guys!

  227. Support JAST USA’s official localizations of Nitro+ games! Oops! I meant to say support official localizations of âge games!

  228. Yoh dc1293 mind sending me the MLA patch?

    [email protected]

  229. I can’t help but wonder why people aren’t just emailing dc1293 (or one of the people who pasted an email for him) instead of posting another comment.

  230. I know my bad. I just did that, but yeah can’t delete posts here… Sorry.

    Just a question, but in all honesty do you actually expect this to be successful? Or is it more of a you’ll never know until you try.

  231. Those are sort of the same thing in my mind. If I thought it had no hope whatsoever, I wouldn’t be doing it. I definitely expect it to succeed in *some* sense (i.e. released someday), but whether it’s one we can all be happy about I honestly don’t know.

  232. Well I won’t agree with your decision, I must say that honestly it was a respectable decision. Not much people would do something just to try and expand the VN market, but you honestly have my respect for it. Thanks for your hard work and I hope that it goes off without too many problems. Best of luck in this and whatever projects you take on in the future.

  233. Thanks a lot for all your work. Its really nice that you communicate to such an extent with the people who read your translations.

  234. @… mailed you if anyone wants the patch just mail me:[email protected]

  235. Oh hey! congrats on finishing the scripts

    dont mind me, just repeating muv luv alt ost over and over again here.

    ps: someone putting teaser picture of the latest translation ver of muv luv alt in /jp/ doesnt help at all


  236. can someone send me the patch of MLA here’s my email [email protected]

  237. You know, you guys are gonna get an absolute shitload of spam >.> At least write it out as name [at] or something.

  238. Excuse me Amaterasu but can you please give us an update with your current negotiations with AGE cause we have all been waiting for so long and as much as we appreciate what all of you guys in the team has been doing so far I just feel that this path which you have taken towards legality and copyrights is just going to end in a very very long stand off for us Muv Luv Fans, and truth be told I too was disappointed, and trust me I do not get disappointed that easily.

    No offence because we really do love what you guys are doing for us, plus I understand that you just want to respect the owners rights and feelings towards this project but it would not hurt to give us a weekly update in this kinds of things.

    If you are reading this comment now then please contact me for your reply.

    Facebook: [email protected] screen name: Lelouch Lamperouge

    Youtube account : ZeroRequiemGX
    I prefer my Youtube account please, and thank you for your time. : )

  239. By the way I’m new to this Thread and as far as I know it seems Ixrec is the one answering for the whole Team so I’m really looking forward to a reply please.

  240. There are no updates to give. Literally, there’s nothing. Only age knows what age is doing right now.

    I’ve said repeatedly that I’d make a new announcement as soon as there was concrete information (or we gave up) so all of you stop fucking asking already.

  241. Ixrec is the team leader and the translator.

    Anyway, AGE got shaken quite a bit by a 9.0 and the full patch for MLA was leaked from some effing backstabber a couple of days ago.

    So, for an update, shit ain’t so good. The game won’t be on the shelves next week as you are probably wishing for.

    PD: Ixrec, the leak was really disappointing for many of us. You did an amazing job and should be proud of yourself.

  242. Needless to say, I’ll buy the official release.

  243. Now that the full translation has been leaked to /jp/, I’m curious if plans are going to remain unchanged. Since most people will be content using this translation over a more polished version that may take months or even years to be released, will amaterasu just go ahead and release an “official” version as a matter of pride? Or will they hold onto hope that âge will license their translation (assuming enough people will be interested in replaying the game when the more official version is released in the future)?

  244. Oops…. looks like my question was mostly answered while I was typing it.

  245. Admittedly, we may very well release a slightly more polished patch if the deal does indeed die. However, the difference in quality between the leaked patch and our final one would be rather small, and since everyone’s already played the leak, it’s going to be a very long time (longer than we originally would’ve “released” it) before the official deal becomes so unlikely that it’s worth releasing a better patch.

  246. So there was already a leaked full patch out there!, what a shocking revelation!
    So whose the Nice man I mean whose the backstabber? did he get fired or something.

  247. He’s gone, yeah. We’re not going to say who it was publicly (though anyone who cares will probably be able to work it out if they dig a little) because that wouldn’t really accomplish anything besides directing a bunch of dorama at him and forcing him to get a new alias. Frankly we’re just glad we could identify him and get rid of him so it won’t happen again.

    Another reason for not roasting him on a spit in front of Lord Anonymous is that the staff member involved was not being malicious: he just shared it with a friend who them promptly betrayed him and by transitive property all of us.

  248. That anon guy is a hero who saved me from years of waiting, he has my eternal gratitude. You should hire more good people like him Ixrec. ;)

  249. LOL! anon Guy? is that the guy who back!..Um I mean got owned by his friend and got fired for it?

    By the way I just tried playing your leaked patch but it seems that it does not work in my game, and I got my Alternative in a Torrent download, is there a certain version for it to work cause i’m really looking forward to Takeru’s grand comeback!

    Hehe! now that I think about it Takeru kinda reminds me of that guy in (Back To The Future) I think his last name was MacFly.

  250. There is soooooooooooooooooo much hate and negetive energy from this thread, it is amazing. And you are totally right zero. McFly and tekaru are both goofy time travalers with large amounts of luck trying to fix somthing awful.

  251. @ZeroRequiemGX Hey. Where did you get that patch from? Please tell me or give me a link at my youtube account.


    Sorry for the inconvenience caused though this (if any)

  252. Learn to google. The patch is not hard to find.

  253. I seriously dont know why you guys are scared of being sued. Nobody gets sued for “Translating japanese fiction”.

    There are for example, dozens of online manga reader sites, sub/translation groups, and not a single one has been sued before. Licensed manga like one piece, naruto and bleach sell thousands of volumes and the companies involved have expressed zero desire in sueing the half dozen or more translation groups that regularly scan and upload translated comics straight from weekly magazines like shounen jump. They certaintly have the money to sue what is probably a bunch of NEETs with a public website in the US, they choose not to because its a waste of time and money.

    And im confused how a japanese company even knows about english patches, considering that almost nobody in japan is capable of reading english. As anyone whom has tried asking directions in Japan can tell you, most japanese simply stare at you in a mix of bewilderment when you speak to them, mumble something like “no speak english” and wander off when you try.

    Its not like one day they decide to go “hey lets find a english literate guy to search the net for english patches of our games!”. What, did a 2channer get pissed and go “BAKA GAIJIN! YOU NO CAN TRANSLATE SUPERIOR NIHONJIN GAME!” and complain to age or something?

    At any rate theres no point in taking down the patches…as Ixrec has admitted, its everywhere by now, this is only a gesture to make some clueless executives at age happy, whom think that once patches are taken down off a site, it dissapears from everywhere else on the internet at the same time.

    A licensed version isnt going to sell well either. I have noticed one thing in the west…most people cant seem to wrap their heads around the idea of reading stories on the computer. They can understand reading the newspaper or even a book(even though less and less people buy books and read them these days…), but mention a book that you can read on the computer and you generally get confused looks, or some poorly informed soul decides to go “Oh! Like those porn games?”. The closest i got to understanding was “Uhhh like a PDF copy of harry potter or something? Isnt that illegal?”.

    The only reason why age is even considering releasing a licensed version is probably because gee, its a free translation, why not? Get some fans to do free work for you, make money off it! Even a few dozen copies would generate a profit due to the next to zero costs involved.

    Essentially the whole deal reeks of amaterasu getting fucked over in exchange for no possible benefit, or in the best case scenario, being used like a convenient tool, also in exchange for no possible benefit.

  254. @Anonymous
    Since you took the time to write out that massive post, I’ll try and answer some of your points.

    1) We’re not worried about being sued by age, since they probably don’t have the money for an international lawsuit. We removed the patches because we want people to buy the official versions when/if they come out, and although this is rather useless at stopping people just grabbing it off hongfire, the gesture is still there. If the deal falls through or we become convinced MuvLuv will never be published, we’ll pop them back on.

    2) Your point that no-one speaks English in Japan is… well, rather stupid. By that logic, no-one speaks Japanese in the English fandom either, and we get all our eroge news by just making stuff up. One of the most plausible theories at the moment as to why groups get C&Ds is because English speaking eroge fans in Japan contact the companies and badger them to send one over. For the record, we didn’t get a C&D. Ixrec decided to do this himself.

    3) I don’t think eroge’s going to become super popular in the mass market anytime soon, so I wouldn’t worry about reactions like that. Whether or not people would be willing to pay for something that’s already been leaked remains to be seen, but who knows.

    4) Even with a free translation (which we’re doing voluntarily, there’s no sneaky business about it. Most fan tlers who go legit do get paid) there’s still costs involved, such as licensing the product and whatnot. Age do have to invest some money into it themselves, so they’re not getting a nice free deal here. They’re still taking a risk.

    That’s about all I can say on the matter without giving away some stuff atm, but hopefully that’s enough to set some of your worries at ease.

  255. Sucks that the patch got leaked… my condolences.

  256. Its been 8 months. How are you still negotiating this? Seems more like AGE is just stalling you.

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