I finally, finally, finally got around to completing this game.
Between issues with my Switch storage, and other games piling up, and Lostbelt 7 coming out, I had a plethora of issues finding a suitably long stretch of days for me to just sit down and (re)play this game to its very end, Extra chapter included.
I guess I should start with that Extra chapter, being the big new addition of this rerelease. It reminded me a bit of that gag story in KT where you play hide-and-seek in Tohno Mansion with every freaking character that got their own sprite in Tsuki. This quickly proved to be a different beast, though it still carried a lot of the same humorous tone throughout. I can say I liked it, being in Kojika's shoes was cool, we got to find out a good amount about her and the mystery novel aspect was entertaining, to a point. The game doesn't lie when it tells you this thing is long, but I wasn't expecting over 3 hours. It rly got grating towards the end. And I can't quite be sure it was worth that much time. I didn't dislike it, but I don't think I'll replay it ever again.
Next, the translation is another big thing here. We have a TYPE-MOON visual novel officially translated into English. It still doesn't feel real to say something like that. To live in an era where the hard work to bring the Good-Nasu-Shit™ to the west was done by a localization team, rather than fans painstakingly modding the game. That, by itself, is worthy of praise, and I can only hope this spawns in a new era where it becomes the norm.
As for the translation itself, it was about what I expected. The fact the english text was formatted to the widescreen while the "dark window" stayed in the "4:3 zone" did fuck with me a bit, but after adjusting the opacity in the settings it was easy to get used to. The use of imperial units was distracting at points, seeing as I'm not used to them, so I had to convert from the imperial units back to metric in my head. Though it's an understandable choice, I'm just nitpicking. While I don't agree with the "FGO NA terminology" they went with ("Mytics" *pffft*), I can at least praise the attempt to make a consistent english glossary across multiple works. For a fan that isn't in the loop about the many many many translation talks in the fandom, it's definitely easier for them to grasp terms they've seen before. Other than that, a few typos and errors here and there, but nothing that made it disruptive. Finally, I'm a guy that likes honorifics and Japanese name orders in his translations, and those are an increasing rarity nowadays. This TL doesn't change that trend, and does away with those things. This isn't a negative point, I just like weebshit.
Finally, the voice work. I think everyone did a splendid job. Everyone had a voice I was expecting them to have after having played the original version of the game. The only one different would be Beo, who I believed changed his voice when he changed forms. However, keeping his kid voice works for the character and it was easy to get used to. The other performance I wanted to point out was Aoki as Touko. She did a great job and fit the character, but it wasn't an imitation of Honda's performance from KnK. There is a distinct difference in the pitch. This isn't a knock on either VA, but I do wonder what'll happen from now on when the character shows up in the future and what criteria will be used to decide which actress will portray her in that specific project. Honda reprised the role as recently as 2021 with Grace Note after all, so she's still got it.
Those are my rambling thoughts as I type this at 2AM before a Monday. Playing that Extra chapter at night rly wasn't my brightest idea. Oh well...
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Originally Posted by DaNike
