Rokkenjima.org's Higanbana Bookclub is underway

Hello everyone,

It's been a long time since my last post, but in case anyone still reads this blog, you may be interested to know Rokkenjima.org has started a Higanbana Bookclub.

Rokkenjima is a community for fans of 07th Expansion's and Ryukishi07's works. Over the course of four weeks (from 21st August to 17th September), members will read Higanbana and post their thoughts on the forums. There will also be a podcast based on topics raised on the forums.

We at Spider Lily Translations are pleased to see people enjoying Higanbana for the first time, and encourage those interested to take part in the Higanbana Bookclub.

Full details of the Higanbana Bookclub are available at the Rokkenjima website.

Rokkenjima's website also provides regular updates on the latest developments in the world of 07th Expansion. You'll be able to find details of 07th Expansion's upcoming works there, as they emerge.

By the way, I'm pleased to report that the total number of downloads of our translations has exceeded 10,000 since we started counting in October 2012. Spider Lily Translations would like to thank everyone who has supported us over the years.

Until next time~

Higurashi now available on Steam

Just wanted to let you all know that the first chapter of Higurashi When They Cry, Onikakushi-hen is now available on Steam! Featuring a brand new translation, new artwork, the original soundtrack and dual Japanese/English language support, this is the definitive version of the story.

In other news, 07th Expansion have announced their upcoming visual novel, Trianthology. Details are scarce at present, but it has been described as a collaboration between Ryukishi07, Tanaka Romeo and Tonokawa Yuuto.

Ryukishi07 himself visited the USA this month and attended the Anime Central convention. There, he gave three panels where he described how he started writing visual novels and how he goes about writing stories. He also revealed some details about Trianthology. The panels were covered by the website Sea of Fragments:

• Panel 1
• Panel 2
• Panel 3

Ryukishi07 also gave a press conference, where he was interviewed by APGNation. You can find a video of the interview on their website.

Weren't able to attend Anime Central? He'll also be attending Anime Expo in July where he'll be singing autographs and also making an appearance at MangaGamer's panel.

Also, if you haven't already, be sure to check out John Szczepaniak's book The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, which features an interview with Ryukishi07 with lots of interesting details such as information on an unreleased visual novel he worked on.

Lastly, just a brief note on Higanbana. Some of you may have noticed that the Japanese version is no longer available from MangaGamer.com. This is due to contractual reasons and hopefully Higanbana will be returning soon.

We at Spider Lily Translations would like to thank the many thousands of people who have used our translations to read Higanbana. We appreciate the support hugely, and will continue to look into ways to make Higanbana more widely available for English speakers.

Hou's ready to revisit Hinamizawa?

“Welcome back!” —Rena

Terrible pun in the title aside, I'm back, Rena's back, and so are you (we hope).

It's been a while since I last posted, but there's some great Higurashi news to share!

First are new details on the upcoming release Higurashi When They Cry Hou. As most of you probably know, 07th Expansion first released Higurashi back in 2002, before moving onto Umineko When They Cry, Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni and Rose Guns Days. Now, 12 years later, you will be able to get your hands on a new instalment in the series.

Higurashi Hou combines re-releases of the previous entries in the series with new stories. Here are the full contents:

• Question arcs "Higurashi When They Cry (Onikakushi-hen, Watanagashi-hen, Tatarigoroshi-hen, Himatsubushi-hen)"
• Answer arcs "Higurashi When They Cry Kai (Meakashi-hen, Tsumihoroboshi-hen, Minagoroshi-hen, Matsuribayashi-hen)"
• Fan disc "Higurashi When They Cry Rei (Saikoroshi-hen, Hirukowashi-hen, Batsukoishi-hen)"
• All the original extras and minigames
• Sound novel version of Higurashi Outbreak, a story which was originally included with the first press limited edition version of the soundtrack to Twilight Frontier's Higurashi Daybreak.
• A brand new story: Higurashi Outbreak ~Kamikanshi-hen~
• Sound novel version of Hinamizawa Bus Stop, the original playscript prototype for Higurashi When They Cry

As you can see, that's a lot of content, which is evident by the fact that it comes on two DVDs!

Higurashi When They Cry Hou will be released on 17th August at Japan's Comiket Market. The official website is now up, and you can already preorder this release from AmiAmi. There are only limited quantities, so be quick!

(Note: Higurashi Hou is only available in Japanese. There are no plans to release a translation at this time, official or otherwise.)

Onto the second piece of news…

Yesterday (3rd July) marked the start of Anime Expo, a big… anime expo in Los Angeles. Attended by all the big players in the anime industry, I'm surely not the only one who considers it the E3 of anime, and by extension, visual novels!

Visual novel publishers JAST USA, MangaGamer and Sekai Project each held panels showcasing their upcoming releases and making exciting new announcements.

The one announcement that is relevant to this blog came from MangaGamer, and concerns their upcoming Steam release of Higurashi. A while back, it was announced that it will feature a completely new translation. Well, that's not all that's new!

MangaGamer announced that this Steam release will feature completely new sprites drawn by artist Kurosaki from visual novel studio Caramel-Box!

I'm sure a lot of you will agree with me when I say the artwork looks absolutely kaii~. Full details currently aren't confirmed, but those who wish to play Higurashi using the original sprites will also be catered for.

Higurashi will be released episodically on Steam, expected to start later this year.

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That's all the 07th Expansion news. …For now, anyway. Spider Lily Translations will have some announcements to make in the coming months, so stay tuned to our blog.

Also, do check out the other great Anime Expo announcements from JAST USA, MangaGamer and Sekai Project. There are some good ones, including a Steam release of Key's kinetic novel Planetarian (I know, we can't believe it either!).

We would also like to draw your attention to Sekai Project's Kickstarter projects for Steam releases of two awesome visual novels: WORLD END ECONOMiCA -Complete- and fault milestone one -director's cut-.

I think that's all for today. Until next time~

The unforgiving flowers have bloomed… The Second Night patch and digital downloads are out!

Over two years since Ronove made that first introductory blog post, the project has finally reached completion. Yes, that's right. It's been a long time coming, but Higanbana - The Second Night can now be enjoyed in English with our translation patch, available to download from our homepage.

Not only that, but the original Japanese versions required to play Higanbana are now available as digital downloads from MangaGamer.com! A lot of effort has been put into making these games available for you all, so please check out the product pages for The First Night and The Second Night!

I'd like to thank everyone who has been a part of this project, from the translators to the beta testers. Big thanks also go to those of you who have supported us on this long journey. We have completed our mission and are happy to be able to call it a job well done.

Even so, we are aware that although we pride ourselves on the high quality of our releases, there is still room for improvement. Therefore, if you do encounter any problems (bugs, typos, etc.), please let us know in the comments or via our email address below so that we can address these in future versions of our translation.

contact (AT) spiderlilytranslations (DOT) com

For now though, please enjoy Higanbana - The Second Night!

Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni trial

Hello again,

Spider Lily Translations are proud to announce that the free trial version of Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni is now available in English!

The trial features the first three chapters of The First Night, which will offer you a couple of hours' worth of content to help you decide whether you wish to purchase the full version.

Speaking of purchasing, we realise it's not easy for those living outside of Japan to acquire copies of Higanbana. Therefore, we are currently working on providing a simpler means to do so. We'll have more news on this in the coming weeks.

As for The Second Night, we are very nearly ready to release our translation patch and are still hoping to do so by the end of next month.

For the moment though, we hope those who haven't yet experienced Higanbana will enjoy reading the free trial version, now available from our homepage.

Happy Halloween for Marie! (Editing complete!)

「とりっくおあとりーとぉー」by「桜沢いづみ」

It's that time of year again when ghouls, zombies, vampires, skeletons and other horrid creatures roam the streets in search of sweets and chocolate. If you encounter one of these beings, your best option is to give them a treat. Otherwise you may be in for a nasty prank.

But don't fear, for these are rather lowly spirits and do not pose much harm. Indeed, the most fearsome are the youkai that inhabit the school. They come out at night, when the children have gone home. But they are hungry, and they so desperately want to meet you…

Good for them, then, that you'll be able to encounter them soon, in Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni - The Second Night. I'm pleased to announce that editing is complete! Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be making changes based on feedback from our wonderful beta testers.

Other than that, there are a few minor adjustments to the user interface to be made, and then the patch can be bundled together, installers can be created from them, and then it can finally be released!

Now as some of you may be aware, Witch Hunt have encountered a few issues that have prevented them from releasing installer versions of their Rose Guns Days Season 2 translation (more on that later), and naturally, this affects us, too. However, we will attempt to ensure the patch's release is not held up unnecessarily (even if it means releasing the patch before the installers).

Please bear with us until the release of our translation. We're nearly there!

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A few pieces of recent 07th Expansion news, just to keep you updated:

Higurashi When They Cry has been Greenlit on Steam! Meaning you'll be able to purchase the original murder mystery story in English, right from the Steam store. In fact, MangaGamer are considering using this opportunity to do a re-edit of their translation before it hits the marketplace. Either way, it looks to be an exciting new opportunity for people to discover 07th Expansion's works.

Not only that, but Umineko no Naku Koro ni is now easier to get hold of. Digital download versions of both the original Umineko and Umineko Chiru are now available to purchase from MangaGamer.com. They're the Japanese versions, so you'll still need to use the free English patches, but I think we can all say that the situation is a lot better than it was before. The French versions of Higurashi and Higurashi Kai are also available from the website.

Finally, as you may have guessed from what I said earlier, Witch Hunt have released their translation to Rose Guns Days Season 2. Only a manual patch is currently available, with Windows and Mac installers forthcoming.

That's all for now. Until next time~

Beta testers are go!

Hi everyone! I have just sent out emails to everyone who applied for the beta programme saying whether their application was accepted or not. Since we opened signups a little under a month ago, we received over 100 applications. Here's what that looks like on a graph:

Anyway, for a variety of reasons, we sadly weren't able to accept everyone who applied into the programme, but we'd like to thank you all for your support.

Those who were accepted will have received a special download link in their email to get the beta patch. While we hope you enjoy using it, if you encounter any issues while using it, please let us know via the form provided or by email, so we can fix things for the final release.

We don't yet have an estimated release date for the final release, and it depends on a variety of factors. For the time being, the editing stage is still ongoing, concurrent with the beta programme.

I'll keep you posted as things progress. …The end of this long journey is in sight! :-D

The Second Night: Translation Stage Finished

Hello everyone, I think it’s about time I introduced myself.

I am the other translator who has been working on The Second Night.  You can call me Jorwil.  I joined back in mid-June with the intention of getting a translation done for all you fans before my summer ended and my classes began again.

So, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, the translation stage has just been brought to completion, which should show on the progress bar once Yirba throws an update on it! 

It’s been a long time coming on this project.  It’s been a little over two years since Spider Lily Translations first opened our doors, and although I’m relatively new to the team, I’m very glad that Pascal and I could bring translation of The Second Night to a close.

With that, the bulk of my work is done.  I now pass things on to Yirba for the editing, followed by beta phase.
But before I sign off, I’d like to thank Ronove for starting this project,

I’d like to thank Pascal and Yirba for being great guys to work with,

And I’d like to thank all of you fans for your continued patience and support.

See you again, when the spider lilies bloom

 - Jorwil

Sign up for the Second Night beta!

Since my last blog post, our group has undergone a slight restructuring, which resulted in Ronove passing on the role of project manager to me. I am honoured to be able to lead the project, and pledge to ensure that everyone will have the best experience they can with Higanbana.

Anyway, with the translation at 94% complete, this is an exciting time for us, and we hope you're all excited too. We understand that some of you simply can't wait to read The Second Night, which is why we're happy to announce the Second Night beta programme. By participating in the programme, you will be one of the first to experience the Second Night patch. Don't worry, we'll have done some testing of ourselves beforehand, so we don't expect major problems with it. Even so, if you do find issues, you will be able to let us know about them before the patch is officially released.

Please note that only a limited number of beta applicants will be accepted, so the sooner you apply, the better.

Click here to apply for the beta programme!

By the way, we know a lot of you have been asking about how you can get hold of the original Japanese versions of Higanbana. We used to have links to websites that sold it in the sidebar, but sadly they all seem to have run out of stock by now. We would like to see Higanbana available to everyone who wants it though, so hopefully I'll be able to share exciting news with you regarding that in the not too distant future.

Whether you apply for the beta programme or wait for the official release, I hope you look forward to The Second Night. It's been a wonderful journey working on this project, and the community has made it very much worth it.

Status Update

Chapter 7 is more or less done. I might try translating the extra chapter, but I've had difficulty with it in the past. You'll see the progress when the line counts are updated. [Done. --Yirba]

Another translator has been working on Chapter 6, and it almost looks like it's finished too.

Thank you for your patience,
Pascal

New home sweet home

Hello everyone! We know that you're all excited about the upcoming English patch to The Second Night, and in preparation for that, we're proud to unveil our new homepage.

Although the blog you're reading now is a great way for us to keep you updated on our progress, we felt it's a little cluttered and confusing for those simply stumbling upon our website, or those who just want to download the patch.

Speaking of which, we've moved the patches to a new set of high-speed servers. Although we've worked hard to ensure downloads were speedy in the past, they should now be consistently fast, wherever you're located.

We will continue updating this blog, so be sure to check back here for the latest on the project. Thank you all for your support.

Translation Update

Quick update:

I just more or less finished the base translation of Chapter 5. I may try and address the few lines I left out at some point.

We also seem to have another translator who has been doing edits and working on Chapter 4, which looks like it's about 40% or so complete. Many thanks to whoever has been doing that.

Anyway, it looks like the base translation at least is finally moving along at a decent pace. We appreciate your patience greatly. You'll get a more concrete image of the progress when the line counts update. [Line counts have now been updated. --Yirba]

Thanks,
Pascal

Kickstarter: Printed interview with Ryukishi07? [updated]

British games journalist John Szczepaniak has set up a Kickstarter to publish a book featuring in-depth interviews with as many Japanese game developers as possible.

It's an ambitious project, and one we're sure many of you would be interested in. But why are we talking about it on this blog?

Well, if funded, the book will have an entire section dedicated to visual novels. What's more, we've been promised that this section will contain an interview with Ryukishi07 about his work.

The visual novel section will also likely have interviews with Kotaro Uchikoshi (Ever17, 999, Virtue's Last Reward) and someone from Key/Visual Art's, if not Jun Maeda himself.

The Kickstarter only has a few days left, so if you're interested, show your support! :-)

Update: The project has now reached its goal. Thanks to those who backed it.

Chapter 3 (More or less) translated!

Just reached the bottom of the script for Chapter 3. The line counts won't have updated (they've now been updated --Yirba), but I've translated nearly every line in that script. Some lines are beyond my comprehension, but I might try a super-liberal translation for those. Gonna read over it in the next few days for spelling errors and general edits.

Now I'm deliberating as to whether to go ahead and do the long chapter 4. I think instead I might tidy up the super-short Chapter ?, and then do chapter 5, which should make the translation about 45% complete.

--Pascal

The Second Night translation resumes!

Thanks to all of you who are waiting patiently. 

I'm sorry that progress has been as slow as it has been these past couple months--I've been swamped with exams and university applications and stuff. This is just a quick update to let everyone know that I'm going to start translating regularly again now. I'm aiming for at least 30 lines a day, but hope to manage as much as 50-100, depending on how free I am. Not making any promises though.

Also, please bear in mind that this is just the first step. Once the script is translated, I or someone else will need to edit and do a QA on it.

Regardless, please be excited. I have every intention of finishing this.

--Pascal. 

PS: We're still looking for translators. Contact info by the line counts to the right.

Higanbana - The First Night - English Patch 1.2

Apologies for the wait with the translation of The Second Night, and thanks for everyone's support despite of that. We are gradually making progress and are committed to seeing this translation through to the end. Unfortunately, as is the nature of these kinds of projects, we cannot provide an estimate as to how long it will take.

However, for people who have yet to read The First Night, today we are releasing an updated translation for it:

Release changes

• Windows and Mac installers
• Detection of incorrectly-installed patches
• Save/load system improvements
• Music room enhancements
• Minor bug fixes
• Typo/grammar fixes

Warning: Saves in-between chapters can become corrupted. If you're changing patch versions, wait until you've completed your current chapter to avoid corrupt save problems.

Download
[Windows] [Mac OS X] [Installer-free patch]

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In addition, we are currently looking for additional translators. If you have a good grasp of the Japanese language and would be willing to help us out, we'd really appreciate it. There's no obligation to translate a certain amount of text, so you can try it out and if it's not for you, you can stop whenever you want. Please contact us by sending an email to:

contact (AT) spiderlilytranslations (DOT) com

Many thanks!

07th Expansion character popularity polls now open [updated]

07th Expansion have opened their character popularity polls. Running until the end of October, a series of four polls will allow fans to vote for their favourite characters from Higurashi, Umineko, Higanbana and Rose Guns Days.

The schedule is:

• Higurashi (5 October ~ 10 October)
• Higanbana (12 October ~ 17 October)
• Rose Guns Days (19 October ~ 24 October)
• Umineko (26 October ~ 31 October)

You can place your votes at 07th Expansion's website.

For a guide on how to vote, check out our video below:

 

Higurashi is now available on Desura!

As of today, you can now purchase Higurashi When They Cry from digital download service Desura!

Hopefully this will encourage more people to experience this wonderful story.

Be sure to check it out!

(Go! Go! Nippon! is also available on the service, and Eve Burst Error will probably be available in the near future, too.)

From Witch-Hunt: Rose Guns Days demo is available in English today.

Now that 07th Expansion’s new franchise has its demo released, a lot of people are probably quite curious about what kind of story it is.

That said, what’s better than just having to rely on summaries and the likes? Do you remember the “surprise” I was mentioning during Epitanime?
Bingo: that would be reading the demo yourself, and that’s what we gonna make it happen… right here right now.

In other words: We, Witch Hunt, are proud to announce that Rose Guns Days demo is available in English today.
Please download the demo of the game (Special thanks to teus, Message and Roto for hosting the patch-compatible version of the Japanese game) and the patch can be found at our website, as usual. Installers for both Windows and Mac OSX are available.
www.witch-hunt.com/stage_rgd_demo.html


As a little reminder, Rose Guns Days is a completely new and fresh series written by 07th Expansion’s Ryukishi07. It is however drastically different compared to Naku Koro ni and Higanbana series, being defined as a hard boiled action series, with mini game to spice things up.
Therefore, you won’t have anything akin to mystery talk and whatnot.

Speaking of minigame, please note that we advise you not to use any screen resolution change, such like a cfg file. The reason is that we noticed that such change often lead to a delay for the strike zones, despite the time counter stays the same, which might makes things harder in this case, or more frustrating for high scores.
Full screen however shouldn’t affect that, so you might try it.

As usual, should you encounter any glitch, typo, etc, please let us know!
Anyway, please enjoy Ryukishi’s newest story.

From Klashikari. Post originally on AnimeSuki forums.
Post via Fuckyeah07thexpansion

Rose Guns Days Trial is out!

07th Expansion, the writing circle behind Higanbana no Saku Yoru Ni, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, have put out a demo for their latest novel, Rose Guns Days. RGD is a hard-boiled action novel expected to be released next month during the Comic Market at Tokyo Big Sight between August 10th and 12th. Witch-hunt, the group behind the English translation of Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, will handle translating RGD into English.

Check out the Japanese demo [480mb] here!
Update: Mac version (courtesy Yirba) here!