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NEWS: Bento Books Adds Shin Megami Tensei Spinoff Novel Series

So it's an alternate version of Digital Devil Saga? Those character designs sure look different.

Couldn't agree more. I can't even find unofficial translations for those.

Wait.. July 31? That's like... three days from now.

I'm somewhat shocked at the really short notice, but also pretty hyped (because MegaTen). Definitely gonna check this out.

I wonder if the translation will be consistent with the Avatar Tuner games. Y'know, "Assignment"->"Vanguard," "Merrybell"->"Maribel," stuff like that.

Betting...no.

Did you play the Digital Devil Saga games while translating this, or did you avoid them?

I haven’t actually played them yet, but I’m certainly quite familiar with them at this point (a shout-out and big thank you to all the folks out there who keep such comprehensive wikis and fan sites, and post such thorough “Let’s Play” videos to YouTube). Seeing as how Digital Devil Saga was recently rereleased on PSN though, I’m hoping to give it a whirl sometime soon.

Actually, my initial plan was to intentionally go through and translate the book ‘game-unseen,’ in order to ensure that I treated the novel as its own entity and wouldn’t be influenced by previous localization choices, since the books aren’t a simple retelling of the games. That plan went out the window very early on though, because the setting was so bizarre that I needed some additional context to wrap my head around it, especially when I was just getting started.

In the end though, I’m glad I reversed my initial decision. Over the course of the project I saw just how passionate and devoted the fans of Shin Megami Tensei and Digital Devil Saga are, and I think it’s really crucial to respect the audience for a project as unique as this one. While the novel will certainly shatter fan expectations in many ways (due to inherent differences between the books and the games), I think it’s important to make sure that the aspects of the original, Japanese books that were familiar to fans of the game remain that way in the English translation.

I wonder if the translation will be consistent with the Avatar Tuner games. Y'know, "Assignment"->"Vanguard," "Merrybell"->"Maribel," stuff like that.

Betting...no.

- Character names are basically the same. Some of the names of the actual Atma Avatars were changed, as they were originally mistranslated from the original Sanskrit language. For example, "Varna" from the games is now properly named "Varuna"

- Volume 1 roughly equates to the first half of the first game.

- Terminology specific to Atlus games is not used (such as spell names), however, this is ALSO the case of the original Japanese novels. Atlus is pretty much NOT involved with the project, and Quantum Devil Saga could be considered a separate IP entirely.

- Bento Books intends to release the other four volumes, and possibly even other Megami Tensei novels (those are a bit harder to get out in English however, as MegaTen novels come from many different publishers) but the main factor is how successful Quantum Devil Saga Vol. 1 is, so PLEASE SUPPORT IT.