Forum - View topicNEWS: Muv-Luv Visual Novels to Be Localized in English With Kickstarter
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AksaraKishou
Posts: 1414 Location: End of the World |
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This takes me back a couple of years when i was getting into VN... o was a bit crazy for the franchise... now it's official:3
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Jakerams
Posts: 85 |
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Okay that is good news and very unexpected.
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2487 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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I am going crazy over this news. After the catastrophic failure of previous overtures for the Muv-Luv series, I thought the bridges were well and truly burnt.
This story has a lot of really good background information, so thanks to the news staff for that. BTW, one other interesting nugget: if you sort vndb.org by user rating, Muv-Luv Alternative comes up as the highest-ranked visual novel of all time. Last time I checked ErogameScape (for a history of âge panel at Anime Central), it was #2 over there. |
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nhat
Posts: 922 |
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O nice, glad some of Keys VN are getting other studios attention.... the ultimate KS is type moon with Tsukihime with a physical release... o how I would love that! lol
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13242 |
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Well, I've played both games in english already but I might throw some money into the Kickstarter so more people have a chance to experience it.
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#840423
Posts: 8 |
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Steam doesnt allow sex content... so they doing the PS3/All Age versions?
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Vaisaga
Posts: 13242 |
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Probably still the most recent PC version with the sexual content removed. Steam has sold h-games before but some other retailer will carry the adult version. |
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Selipse
Posts: 216 |
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Does Type-Moon not want their VNs to be licensed or what? It really surprises me with all the recent localizations that none of them have even gotten a campaign. I'm sure a Fate Kickstarter would break records, so the license being expensive shouldn't be that big of a problem. Unless they really are ridiculously expensive, but they should at least give it try anyways, shouldn't they?
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2487 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Me too, but I see it as a chance to get legal (well, I bought an import of Alternative already, but still). Also, the @muvluvseries twitter account already addressed the issue of those who've played the fan translation. In response to a tweet saying "Man, the fan translation of Muvluv came out four years ago. I'm all for official releases but they'd better have something more planned," they wrote "We definitely do :)" It'll be interesting to see how well Muv-Luv withstands the effect of its most interested fans having already played the fan translation. That didn't keep Clannad from raising over a half-million on Kickstarter despite having a fan translation out there, but Clannad was well known from its anime, while the core story of Muv-Luv (Extra, Unlimited, and Alternative) has never been adapted as anime. That makes it really hard for English-speakers to get into âge's stuff, and explains why this is one of the bigger Japanese cross-media franchises that is nearly unknown in America. (shameless plug: for anyone who wants a 90-minute overview of the Rumbling Hearts / Muv-Luv universe, I made a video of my Anime Central presentation and put it on Vimeo).
At this point, Fate/Stay Night has to be considered the Great White Whale of VN licensing, now that the once-impossible Clannad and Muv-Luv are on their way to official translations. The only one that could possibly be a bigger deal would be Angel Beats!, as that would signal a willingness and ability to bring over top-drawer VNs that aren't already 10 years old. |
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threepwood007
Posts: 5 |
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What a happy occasion. I really, really hope everything works out with this. Easily my favorite games of all time in the VN world.
I also hope they use as much of the fan translation as they can. The combined text of these games is bloody enormous. Also IIRC Type-Moon doesn't want to do anything that might hurt domestic sales. Not sure how an English localization would do that (and if I'm misquoting something here, let me know). |
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doubleO7
 Posts: 1074 |
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Wow, I'm kind of surprised this happened without Rumbling Hearts also happening. I once heard some rumors that that there was a translation group that attempted to license Muv-Luv, but the JP publisher was insistent they release Rumbling Hearts first. They butted heads for awhile but couldn't come to an agreement and the deal fell through.
I'm not sure what changed, but this is great news none-the-less. |
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Lynx Amali
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Kinda hoping that means they're considering bringing over the console editions or doing physical releases even if it's an on-demand thing. I'd totally buy one of each because I'd really like a set to lend out to friends. I already have the Japanese PC re-releases and the PS3 editions but those are in complete Japanese. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I don't know squat about Muv-Luv, but isn't Kiminozo as a base pretty important for some of the cast of Muv-Luv? Or is it just completely separate stories that just happen to use some of the same Kiminozo characters?
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Vaisaga
Posts: 13242 |
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The latter. Muv Luv Extra takes place in the same universe as Kiminozo and at the same school, but only Akane appears as a side character in 2 routes. Some of her comments are more meaningful if you're aware of what happened in Kiminozo but it's not essential. Haruka, Mitsuki, and Akane all show up in Muv Luv Alternative, but that's a different universe. Again, some things have more meaning if you're familiar with their background but it's not required. |
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2487 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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It's somewhat better-sourced than a rumor, although the best write was on Encubed, which has been mothballed and no longer has the story (I have local copy), so the next best source is neechin.net. Basically the story is this: Amaterasu Translations started working on a fan translation of Muv-Luv, and reached out to MangaGamer about making it official. This kicked off a years-long courtship of âge, which saw MangaGamer bring some âge guests to Anime Expo, including Minami Kuribayashi, who sings most of the OPs and EDs for Rumbling Hearts and Muv-Luv (she's also the voice of Haruka in Rumbling Hearts). You can easily find a YouTube video of her singing the Rumbling Hearts OP (in cosplay) in MangaGamer's booth at AX 2010, and the photo on her Wikipedia page is clearly from the MangaGamer booth as well (in a different cosplay). So what happened? After a long silence, and with Amaterasu's translation work on Muv-Luv completed, âge returned to MangaGamer saying they were unable/unwilling to license Muv-Luv, and offered them Rumbling Hearts instead. Amaterasu was furious, feeling they'd been dealt with in bad faith, and retaliated by releasing both of their translations as fan patches. This put an end to MangaGamer's talks with âge, and it was clear as late as January of this year that the wounds had not yet healed. This was a ruinous result for all involved. We're talking Alternative V ruinous. Muv-Luv was lost to rampant piracy (aggravated by the fact that the Amaterasu patch only worked on the older XP version of the game, which couldn't be easily imported after an upgraded Windows 7 version was released), fans had to make do with this old version and no tech support, Amaterasu made nothing off their work, MangaGamer's efforts were all for naught, and oh by the way… Rumbling Hearts was left untranslated (it was left on the table after the collapse of the MangaGamer/âge talks, and no fan group has ever finished the translation, though several have tried).
Pretty much the latter. Muv-Luv Extra reuses locations from Rumbling Hearts / Kiminozo and one semi-major RH character (Akane) is a minor character in Extra, along with a handful of other relationships (crazy teacher Yuuko is the younger sister of Haruka's neurosurgeon from RH, for example). Akane returns in Muv-Luv Alternative along with Rumbling Hearts leads Haruka and Mitsuki. But since this is an alternate universe, the backstory of Rumbling Hearts is largely irrelevant. Basically, having experienced Rumbling Hearts is at most just a bonus: you think after the angst and misery of Rumbling Hearts that the silliness of Muv-Luv Extra is rewarding you with a little break, only to find out in Unlimited and (especially) Alternative, that you've been on a train ride to Hell all along. There's a VN called Akane Maniax with a 3-episode anime adaptation that bridges the two titles, and it's pretty weird: most of it is dumb-on-purpose, in the vein of Extra, but there are a few scenes with the Rumbling Hearts characters that are serious as a heart attack. It's a train-wreck, but really useful for connecting the two. |
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