Touko does not actually look too bad in this picture, which is odd in itself because most of her CGs in the game give her only average or below average physical beauty.
I always thought she looked pretty cool... then later someone told me that her character in the game is not supposed to be pretty...or at least very self conscious of her lack of beauty...
No. It's a pretty dramatic plot. I've never played it or read much about it, but I remember a friend mentioning one of the happiest endings being a failed suicide attempt.
The failed suicide? That's definitely *not* Touko's ending. Isn't the best ending for Touko something like her rushing out of the subway station to meet up with you or something?
comment #16989 It is. Translators HATE translating sex. If you're really well acclimated to it, the Japanese doesn't always sound incredibly retarded, but by the time you get it into English, you just want to shoot yourself.
I take it that's why the PC versions of games like "Snow" by Studio Mebius and "Utawarerumono" from Leaf had no voiceovers--I guess there is a threshold of stupid dialogue the voice actors don't want to cross.
Didn't To Heart 2 XRATED have pseudonyms for its voice actors, so as to protect their resumes?
I still think this game deserves a shot at translation, since (according to the reviews I read) the sex actually plays a good role in the character development.
comment #17013 No the bad writing in H-scenes leading to a lack of talent isn't related to keeping voice overs away from a game. There's a lot of REALLY seriously awful H-games with voice actors. Off the top of my head, I'd give Succubus Soon, Lovers, and Majokko a la Mode. (I played 'em all quite a bit) The plot is pretty awful in all of them, the H-scenes are awful, especially in Succubus soon. The voice talent in Majokko a la Mode is actually quite good though. The plot is still god awful though (in all of them).
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised by pseudonyms at all in a porno industry. :P
Voice overs being present or absent is more a function of how much art, text, music, and budget they have in the game. Doing voiceovers for something like Tsukihime would necessitate (at least) a double-layer DVD; and there's no way Type-Moon could have afforded anyone with enough talent to convey the story when they first published. Similarly, F&C which has a lot of games under their belt dumped a ton of money into Majokko and they have a bunch of really nice actors that did an admirable job of trying to save the poor shipwreck.
I don't have a KB count I could pull out for Utawarerumono, but it certainly seems to be a text-heavy game, and even WITHOUT voice it weighs in at 1.17 gigs. Leaf has found it difficult to get out of small-time, despite the cult following of Utawarerumono, and Tenshi no Inai, and their artist's skill. I can't really think of any other Leaf games, and my friend has said that Utawarerumono really wasn't well received at all. (It was first out in... '02 I think?)
Odd, I've read in numerous places and heard from numerous people that Utawarerumono was considered one of the best games of 2003/2004 (cant remember exactly which year, lolz).
Isn't Touko this character's first name? Then why does it go first name, then last in her name tag? I thought the policy here on danbooru was to write the names of Japanese characters last name first.
How exactly is Leaf small-time? "Small-time" compared to what? Key? Type-Moon? F&C? Giga? Project Navel? Studio E'go?
But yes, I would agree, this game DEMANDS to be translated.
Putting out a really good game doesn't necessarily correlate to it doing well. Nor does a few good games make a company large. Type-Moon has put out two games and licensed MB, ReACT, and Act Cadenza.
So no, I don't really think Leaf or Type-Moon are as big as Key or F&C. I can go to F&C's website and they have more games under their New Releases side bar than Type-Moon has ever published, and as many as Leaf has published since '04.
This seems mostly unrelated to my main point that the more important factors in voicing a game is the amount of text that needs to be read, and the available budget. Picking on Majokko again, it has a good bit of text, a lot of graphics, and is 1.83 gigs. Despite being a horribly received game, and having a horrible scenario and writing, it got a lot of money, just because F&C has so much to throw around. I think it must have been a pet project of a big wig at F&C because 90% of the game is just listening to the teacher lecture about the history of magical land. They even made a Majokko II, which did almost as badly as the first.
Hmmm . . . Didn't the PS2 version of Utawarerumono have voiced dialogue? Was it because PC DVD-ROM drives aren't yet common, but are standard equipment on PS2s, which can also support games spread across multiple DVDs?
By the way, is there another reason (other than the ease of storage space and the removal of 18-kin material) why console versions of b-games often have more voice acting than their PC originals, such as "Snow," "Comic Party," and "Baldr Force EXE"?