/bl/ - General BL

>>4707
I can't find a proper source for it but it seems like the issue with Shingakkou may that the VA licensing costs would be too high. Apparently the downloadable version of the game on JP storefronts doesn't even have voice acting.

>>4777
>Apparently the downloadable version of the game on JP storefronts doesn't even have voice acting.
If that's the case, then why can't they just use the unvoiced Japanese version? Wouldn't that be cheaper to license?

>>4778
I really don't know why, they could license the unvoiced version and someone could release a voice patch. They must hate money.

>>4778
>>4779
That's where I wish I had the proper source. I have a vague memory of a person in the VN localisation industry mentioning they'd have to give the audience a choice between a voiceless localised version or nothing at all and they weren't sure if people would actually want to pay for a voiceless VN. It may have been Good haro in response to shingakkou being popular in the mangagamer polls, but it's been a while.

>>4780
I feel like they just want to give excuses. The chance of voiceless Shingakkou doing worse numbers than any of the random hentai slop they release is improbable. And I wouldn’t be surprised if some saintly fujo out there released an unofficial patch that included the voices anyway. This whole “we’ll only do it if enough people show interest” and “oh it might not sell well if it’s voiceless” despite more than enough interest having been shown is just a marketing tactic designed to get fujos to grovel and praise them highly whenever the game does get translated.

>>4780
This is so stupid; I hate this reasoning so much. If they released a voiceless version, wouldn't it be somewhat likely fans would make a patch with the voices in it? Hell, if the localization is partially so expensive BECAUSE of the voices, then wouldn't licensing and translating the voiceless version mean they'd need to sell fewer copies to make a profit, so it would compensate for the few who wouldn't buy it? Like >>4781 said, this feels like an excuse. Fujo games "don't sell," and yet, there are always MULTIPLE BL games on JAST's top charts. A ton of BL games make it on Mangagamer's surveys every year. I hate to admit it, but I do think we're a lot more lenient with the relative quality of our products because we're so neglected. That's why companies can get away with things like the garbage Slow Damage translation. I cannot believe localizers genuinely and legitimately believe it wouldn't sell because of no voice acting.
>>4781
>marketing tactic designed to get fujos to grovel and praise them highly whenever the game does get translated.
This is interesting. I haven't ever considered this, but it feels like such a slap to the face if it's true. Men boycotted Nukitashi for its Zoomer Slang, and men threw a huge fit over Hakuchuumu no Aojashin's censored English release, despite it being the author's preferred version. VN fans shit their pants over everything, and yet, fujos are somehow the more risky demographic?

>>4782
Last week Mojika was in the top spot but we're already back to Slow Damage and DMMD in the top two (as usual)
It's just typical anime fandom misogyny.
Even with their top selling item being those retarded Saya fumos the actual VN itself is rarely on the top 10 list.

>>4783
I bet saya and totono get boosted by female buyers as well since they are popular with the tiktok crowd. How have they not gotten the memo that only women read these days?

>>4784
Definitely true for totono kek. Saya's probaby more 50/50 since moids are the main demographic for fumos.

>>4783
>their top selling item being those retarded Saya fumos the actual VN itself is rarely on the top 10 list
To be fair, Saya was popular before it got an official TL because of the fan TL from a decade before that. Probably a lot of its fans read it prior to the localization. If I recall, it's the second most popular VN on VNDB.
>>4784
Saya also has the advantage of being extremely short. It has a wider audience partially because it's so accessible and beginner-friendly. I would also assume the TikTok crowd likes it so much because most other VNs are too long for their attention span.

>>4786
>Saya was popular before it got an official TL because of the fan TL from a decade before that
This is also true for DMMD, and guess what's in 1st or 2nd place on their site 99% of the time? Fujos buy games, merch and actively advertise the VNs they're into for free but we get actively ignored by all parts of the otaku industry in spite of us being more than willing to shell out the cash for them.

>>4787
AYRT and I know about the DMMD thing. I actually made a post pointing that out nearly a month ago in this very thread. I'm sorry if my point wasn't clear. I was just saying that Saya no Uta's prior popularity would explain the high sale numbers of the fumo despite the VN not being popular on the official JAST site itself. I think fujos would be just as likely, if not more, to buy merch JAST would put out of their BL games. I also think we're more likely to buy a game that has a preexisting fan TL than men are (which is why JAST's decision on Lamento still upsets me, as people would've bought it). I wasn't at all making an excuse for how neglected we are by the localization companies. In fact, the fact that men can't be bothered to buy Saya no Uta after enjoying the fan translation is kind of pathetic. It's not even an expensive VN.

>>4782
>>4787
>VN fans shit their pants over everything, and yet, fujos are somehow the more risky demographic?
>Fujos buy games, merch and actively advertise the VNs they're into for free but we get actively ignored
It’s because fujos are a captive market. We only have what? 3 visual novel translation companies that translate bl? I have no doubt they are in cahoots with one another to make sure they get the most out of fujobucks. They do this to us specifically because we are a secured demographic that has no other options except their asses. Otomefags and moids have double/triple the amount of companies translating their stuff (they also have more games, but I swear every month they release 20 new translated Otome/galge) Those companies have competition because you have a much harder time getting more than 3 companies to agree with each other about forcing an artificial scarcity among their genres to make sure there’s more than enough classics left to translate after decades.

WE ARE SO BACK MATSUGIRLS

>>4803
Wait, is this a sequel or a fandisk? I was under the impression it was a fandisk, but that description says it's a sequel. Exciting news either way! I'm still reading the first one.

>>4806
fandiscs usually have sequel stuff in them.

>>4707
Use this nona. https://github.com/HIllya51/LunaTranslator

bl media is pretty popular but i still don't get why there aren't that many bl games as opposed to all the otomeshit that's being pumped out

>>4810
I'm like 99% sure most otomate games are made for tax write offs which is why they release like 3+ a year.

>>4810
>>4774
Taking the plunge.

Oh didn't mean to reply to you >>4810 but I guess I'll say Otome games seem very cookie-cutter in that you don't actually need to create a protagonist most of the time. Like the last one I played "A Date With Death" had an in-depth character creator that was basically a dress up game included but since the protag was (you) none of that amounted to anything and it was just a chatting sim.

With a BL game the player isn't totally a self-insert, while there are elements of that you also need to establish the MC as his own person and give him a personality.

>>4810
I'm probably projecting but I think fujo tastes are more specific and therefore it's riskier to make a BL game when you could make yet another otome game. Original BL works also have to compete with a fujo's interest in fanworks, whereas otomes don't often feed themselves (and are sometimes intolerant of feeding each other).

>>4811
Isn't Otomate owned by Idea Factory? IF is known for pumping out low effort, low budget RPGs with very little variation between them, so it's not at all surprising Otomate makes the visual novel equivalent to that.
>>4810
I think it's also because we don't have a BL equivalent to Otomate. How many otome games get released per year that AREN'T made by them? I suspect the numbers might be more comparable to BL game releases.

>>4815
>Isn't Otomate owned by Idea Factory?
Yep.
>so it's not at all surprising Otomate makes the visual novel equivalent to that.
To be fair not all of their VNs are bad, but a lot of them you can tell are pretty low effort.

Ironically idea factory made a fairly new game branch https://vndb.org/p13332, that focuses on "male friendship" games, with fujo writers lmao. Judging by the reviews tho, people ain't happy and didn't like them much. They are 75% off most times kek.

BL games always used to be niche, but it's gotten worse by years. Also nitro chiral said that they'll make a gacha game, which isn't good, moving to gacha. I do like and play bl gacha like nu:c and noctilucent, velvet react…more like ntr react is ass tho, but still has it's fanbase. I can't call whb bl since it's really written from fem pov and changing pussy to dick doesn't make it bl, but still everyone gay for each other and have canon fucked mcs great grandpa..should count right lol. Anyways blvn will soon to gacha slop, and platforms like erolabs, bc switch cucks the r18 and your average fujo wants to see dick. Which really ain't good,an already niche genre moving to gachaslop.

>>4817
>Ironically idea factory made a fairly new game branch
I had no idea about this. I am losing my fucking mind over the art in Souka Tenki. Am I just imagining it, or do the characters look like they're all from different games?? Some of them look like they're in totally different art styles.
>nitro chiral said that they'll make a gacha game
Unfortunately, that seems to be the direction all VN companies are going. Nitroplus itself was purchased by the parent company of Cygames, which isn't promising. It feels like a lot of the visual novel fanbase has been transplanted over to gacha games. It's sad, but I doubt it'll be the end of the medium altogether.

>>4817
>Also nitro chiral said that they'll make a gacha game, which isn't good, moving to gacha
That's sad but I'm not surprised cause clearly gachaslop is profitable so what VN company wouldn't want to take the Type moon approach? I guess I'll just work on learning japanese and play older untranslated stuff.

>>4817
>blvn will soon to gacha slop
Well I guess at least we still have the indie scene in Japan, but those games never get officially translated. At least most blvn use tyrano builder which I'm fairly certain is easy to machine translate. Although a lot of the indie ones are much smaller and shorter than ones made by bigger teams. And I don't even know what's going on in China, but I know they're the ones that made Prince Maker so there must be some underground scene going on over there.

>>4824
Why don't fan translators ever work on BL games anymore? I remember Sweetpool getting a fan translation before its official English release and DMMD had a full translation out within the year of its release. I didn't realize how spoiled I was back then. I'm learning Japanese myself so I read in the original language, but I feel bad for those who can't.

>>4826
I don't know, but my guess is that maybe it's because the internet is more centralized and therefore it's much easier to find and see fan translations which aren't official and are considered in bad taste by developers and anti-piracy fans these fuckers are the worst istg.. Although I have heard about discords where fans will translate bl works but not post them outside of the discord and basically gatekeep the translation. And I get it, but it's annoying that you need to be in the know to get those fan translations. AFAIK it's usually manga, but who knows if there's a community of fans on discord that already translated Shingakkou because there's so many discord communities out there.

>>4826
This prompted me to check out Aarinfantasy since that's the first place that comes to mind for BL game patches and it's looking pretty inactive aside from one person trying to start a group for kichiku megane.

This one is so trash wth

>>4827
Surely a fan translation patch could be released without including the actual game along with it? I've seen Japanese fans make translation patches for games before (notably Undertale and Fear and Hunger) so it can't be that taboo. I can understand if its just a big undertaking for people to take on without getting paid.

>>4826
I think there are just too few games to translate. Nobody wants to pour effort into something that is likely to get licensed sooner or later (like N+C, Adelta games) and whatever is left is often very visibly indie or with 0 following.

>>4817
> Also nitro chiral said that they'll make a gacha game, which isn't good, moving to gacha
I hope they just want to rake in gachafag money to fund more VNs.

>>4811
Source on that???

>>4830
I mean yeah, but there are people that gatekeep to the point of requiring people to confirm that you bought a copy of the media before letting you download the patch. Which is fine, but the fact is that a decade down the line, the people to confirm you bought a copy won't be there anymore. I'm pretty sure this happened with an otome game fan translation. Also at some point English fan translators have gotten weird about distributing their translation. Like they tend to want clout but also fear the DMCA so they're shady about it.
>too few games to translate
But there are some blvns that probably won't ever get translated through official means due to numerous reasons. At least Chinese fujos do their part. I'm not sure how they're so prolific at making fan translations, but they continue to impress me.

>>4817
>Anyways blvn will soon to gacha slop
Isn't this just inevitable? VNs aren't as big as they used to be in the early 2000s. N+C had already tried the mobile approach before, with a game nobody remembers and it has no recorded history whatsoever. If it's a BL original, that seems both scary and good (positive for more bl gachas that aren't nu:c, negative because if it does good then n+c will never do a standard bl ever again) but if it's gacha for "get special illustrations of pre-existing chiral characters" then ehh

>>4826
Isn't there also a fan TL for Kintouka in the works? In addition to what other anons have said, I would also guess the fan translations are less common because there are also fewer major games left. Obviously there are exceptions like Shingakkou, but many of the big-name titles already have translations by now. It's probably harder to drum up support or excitement for something without a big company's name attached to it. There's also probably an element of what will get the most attention online. Sadly, translating VNs gives you less attention for more effort than something like manga.

Nah if there was a bl patch, even if private, people would leak it. Diabolik lovers patch leaked 2 days after it's release by a moid who didn't even know what otome are. They were asking for proof to send you the patch. Thing is ofc no piracyfags, but most just mtl now, since the translation quality has improved significantly. Many companies use mtl too, but that sucks.

>>4843
*translation companies i mean use mtl
See nie no machi.
Chinese, Korean and russians do release fan mtl patches in general.

I don't know how you guys can say all of the big BL games have been translated already when 4/5 of the top rated games in Japan remain untranslated. Companies have just been fucking retarded with their selections up until now.

>>4846
I'm one of the anons who said that, and while I agree, I more meant that there wouldn't be the level of hype on the Western side that something by a big company would generate. I agree they could become popular, but I'm thinking more from the fan translator's perspective. While I'm not a fan of Nitro+Chiral as a whole, I have to admit their games come with a preexisting fanbase just by virtue of brand recognition.
>>4843
>Diabolik lovers patch
Was this the one where the translators were demanding people email them pictures of the physical copies of games to prove people weren't pirating it kek?

>>4846
I need a Lucky Dog patched translation, why the fuck has nobody patched it it's translated and everything!

>>4848
And MangaGamer has been sitting on their fully translated and edited version of it for an entire year now. The west has failed this game.

>>4849
Wait, I just checked their Twitter and this came up. Looks like there's a glimmer of hope after all.

>>4846
Is Taisho Mebiusline actually translated or not? I've heard many things along the years, there's a demo, there's an actual full russian translation, some chapters are translated but overall it never seems to be a full thing.
Looking at the release dates of all of them makes me feel so old, damn. I still remember TM like it was yesterday, and I still don't know enough japanese to understand it 13 years later

Ooe is so good nonas, it needs to get translated fast.

>>4863
I cannot WAIT for this one. It looks like everything I love in a story. Do you have a favorite character or route so far?
>>4812
How was it??

>>4873
>How was it??
Not good, but it's also high effort so I can't call it bad. Ignoring the art for a second there are unique transitions between scenes and small animated segments so the character designs seem intentionally "bad" according to the game notes they're inspired by Sensitive Pornograph a series I've heard of but never read. Another presentation thing is there are misspellings on purpose notably "u" is used by a lot of characters, but so is "you" sometimes in the same scene so it's a bit weird. It made the story much less fun to read. The sound is great though, I'd listen to the OST on its own.

The story however, is weird and disjointed, it's not sexy and there isn't a lot of build up or or character development it's primary about how the MC alone feels. There are two acts the first one is you meeting Astra and Dei while on vacation with your mom. The second is you in the hospital after the climax of that act and is largely based around the MC coping with trauma and meeting a new boy named Belmo. The second act was way too slow and not nearly as interesting so I was skimming by the end.

I think if you enjoy character studies and vibe with the weird tone you might like it, but I am more interested in relationships and the development of them so the MC focus didn't scratch an itch for me. Another thing is that there are 4 sex scenes and only two choices. 2 of those scenes are in the main story (which is largely kinetic) and are threesome scenes between the MC and Astra and Dei. There is one choice where you choose who to hang out with and get a scene between just MC and the boy, and in the third act there is a choice to either engage in a sex scene or just cuddle with Belmo.

You never feel like you are "romancing" characters and personally I like it when MC is just with one boy for a route because otherwise he feels like a slut and I like "true love" in my stories. So again not a very romantic VN which I'm sure is fine for some people but not me.

I'd give it a 1.5/5

>>4876
Thank you for the summary, nona; you went above and beyond. It sounds interesting, but probably not my cup of tea. I like some focus on the protagonist, but his relationship with the LIs is also a priority for me. I'd probably end up with a similar opinion to you.
> Another presentation thing is there are misspellings on purpose notably "u" is used by a lot of characters, but so is "you" sometimes in the same scene so it's a bit weird
This is such a bizarre choice. It must be intentional, although I would love to know the author's reasoning.

>>4850
I'll believe it when the game is actually in my hands. They blocked an old fantranslation with their announcement and then did jack shit.