English translation of Narcissu 2nd Side gets a tiny update « 2D

The English translation of Stage Nana’s sequel to their heart-warming and unresovably tragic doujin (amateur) visual novel Narcissu gets a small update in the form of subtitled OP sequence and translator notes. I’ll embed the untranslated version below if you’re too busy to download it, but of course the quality will be much lower:

The OP song is sang by eufonius, the people behind both Clannad and True Tears’ OPs (Mag Mell and Reflectia respectively, which you can view on YouTube here and here), as well as all the Clannad image songs. I’m a huge Eufonius fanboy, and have spent quite sometime listening to their songs on the CDs I purchased. Thus, I am extremely pleased in coming closer to understanding yet another one of their magnificent works.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating Narcissu’s sequel ever since I finished playing it about a year ago, and wish Haeleth and the team godspeed in their project.

Narcissu tells the story of a young 15-year-old girl that has caught a terminal disease. One day, she meets another boy who has suffered a similar fate. The visual novel chronicles their escape from the hospital in a stolen car, and their attempts at living life to the absolute fullest before facing their ultimate fate.

It is probably the best fully translated doujin visual novel out there, although arguebly the horror/mystery VN Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is slightly better. But Higurashi isn’t exactly translated fully. I strongly urge those who have not experienced this visual novel to download it and give it a try over here.

Source: Visual Novels

6 comments

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May 19, 2008 at 7:04 pm

bakavic

Heh, I was hoping for something like the first chapter or something to come out, guess we’ll just have to make do with this for now

Although you could say it’s a doujin work, they do have a lot of big names contributing to it, like eufonius for the theme song, Goto P. (http://www.mirai.ne.jp/~gotop/) for the art work, among others.

Was looking through the insani.org site a while back, and seems like they translated another doujin VN – True Remembrance (http://trueremembrance.insani.org/) A little something to keep you occupied till Narci finally comes out.

May 19, 2008 at 7:18 pm

dKiWi

Played that already lawlz. I jump on VN related news really quickly. Of all the aspects of Japanese visual culture, I rank my preference in the following manner:

1. Visual Novels
2. Eroge/Bishoujo games (different from VNs as they rely on character design and voice acting more than story)
3. Seinen Manga
4. Light Novels
5. Renai Anime
6. Other anime

Which is a big reason why I’m trying to get my JLPT 1 asap. You don’t need JLPT 1 to watch anime/read manga. Perhaps JLPT 2 or 3 would be enough. But you need it to understand huge blocks of words found in VNs.

May 21, 2008 at 2:04 am

Choux

Great news! I’ve already read this in Chinese but the updates on the progress of the English groups are always good.

@dwiki: I don’t seperate my preferences like yours, so I’m a bit confused, if visual novels and bishoujo games are to be seperated, where would that leave games like toheart2?

May 21, 2008 at 8:01 am

To Heart 2 has not been translated so I don’t know how complex it is but it certainly looks like a freaking Bishoujo game or eroge. Like I said, Bishoujo games do not rely on an excellent storyline to be fun. They rely on good character designs and cute and/or moe voices. Yes, cute voices are considered erotic when executed well. Same with real-life when you meet a girl with a cute voice you will definitely be turned on, which is actually a core part of eroges and bishoujo games.

Like for example even though Kanon features erotic content, it would be more of a Visual Novel than an eroge because of the complex story. Similarly, even though Clannad is filled with Bishoujos (no erotic content though), it should also be considered more of a VN than a Bishoujo game.

You can use the Visual Novel to Yaruge spectrum developed by Heisei Democracy (blog in my blogroll) to determine how to classify a text-based Japanese game:

Visual Novel – Bishoujo Game – Eroge – Yaruge

Where:

Storyline/plot strength is high on the left side of the spectrum and decreases as we move towards the right side of the spectrum.

Moe strength is medium on the left side of the spectrum, peaks when it reaches the middle left of the spectrum and decreases steadily as we move towards the right side of the spectrum

Erotic content is low or non-existant on the left side of the spectrum, and increases steadily as we move to the right side of the spectrum.

Consequently, Bishoujo games are the most popular in Japan since they contain a good mix of storyline and moe, and are available to most audiences (15+ content).

May 21, 2008 at 11:54 pm

sz3