Higurashi: When They Cry May Be Retranslated for Steam

[roseofbattle]

Higurashi: When They Cry May Be Retranslated for Steam

Three years ago, MangaGamer released a translation they weren't happy with. Now they have the opportunity to redo it.

The visual novel series Higurashi: When They Cry was originally published in Japan from 2002 to 2006 with an English translation made available in 2009 to 2010 by MangaGamer. The PC games are one of many greenlit [http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93962591] by Steam recently, and MangaGamer has stated it is considering redoing the translation.

"We've been aware that the original translation for Higurashi was not the best it could've been," translator John Pickett told VNTLS. "The potential sales a Steam release means has given us an opportunity consider updating the translation. We're currently looking at our schedule to see if such a vast revision is feasible, but it is something we would strongly like to do before this new release."

Higurashi: When They Cry is a text-heavy mystery, supernatural, psychological horror game with anime and manga adaptations. The protagonist, Keiichi Maebara, moves to the countryside in time for a historic festival. Every year for the last four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing after the festival. There are multiple story arcs focusing on different characters as events change, and people in Keiichi's group of friends are murdered or become paranoid.

The original MangaGamer release of Higurashi replaced the background music in some scenes and had to remove some rooms and a mini game due to copyright, as the developer in Japan was able to use songs without permission as a doujin game. The English text had grammatical errors, something quite distracting in a game that requires a lot of reading.

"We can't wait to get this title out on Steam and show even more people the MangaGamer brand," Pickett said.

Source: VNTLS [http://www.siliconera.com/2013/09/23/higurashi-when-they-cry-may-be-retranslated-for-steam-release/]

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[josh4president]

I kind of wish they'd be able to re-do the art, but hey I'm always happy to see some more horror from Eastern shores

Hoping it will sell reasonably well on steam just remind companies that there is a market for this kind of thing

 

[The Wykydtron]

As in all five episodes in one game? Cool! I always wanted to play them but y'know shipping and translations and a perfectly good anime substitute got in the way.

I would love them to do the same with Umineko No Naku Kuro Ni, because Higurashi has a superb anime adaptation which manages to everything off well.

The Umineko anime while having better art, good voice acting and still holding up the interesting Battler/Beatrice witch/anti-witch fight concept, it all starts to fall apart after episode 11. People say they were liberal with cutting stuff out and it really shows. The Higurashi anime felt fully complete and I will be surprised if someone tells me they cut anything near major from the plot when translating it to an anime.

Really would like to see the SMALL BOMBS!!!!! scene as it appeared originally

 

[Mrkillhappy]

I kind of wish they'd be able to re-do the art, but hey I'm always happy to see some more horror from Eastern shores

Hoping it will sell reasonably well on steam just remind companies that there is a market for this kind of thing

Same here they really need to swap the sprites with the ps2 ones, that would make such a large difference for me I mean if you are going to re translate the game you should consider redoing the sprites. Any ways can't wait for this game to go on be available for purchase on steam.

Spoiler: a taste of things to come

 

[Terratina.]

The Higurashi anime felt fully complete and I will be surprised if someone tells me they cut anything near major from the plot when translating it to an anime.

I think Ryukishi07 himself requested an extra arc for the anime, just to cover up the plot-holes and shizz.

I would love them to do the same with Umineko No Naku Kuro Ni.

There's no need for that, a translation project called Witch Hunt started ages ago. It's pretty good, and the project itself has the backing of the author. Just purchase it, apply the translation patch and you're good to go.

OT: This can only be a good thing.

Edit:

I kind of wish they'd be able to re-do the art, but hey I'm always happy to see some more horror from Eastern shores

Hoping it will sell reasonably well on steam just remind companies that there is a market for this kind of thing

Same here they really need to swap the sprites with the ps2 ones, that would make such a large difference for me I mean if you are going to re translate the game you should consider redoing the sprites. Any ways can't wait for this game to go on be available for purchase on steam.

There are patches that add the PS2 sprites and backgrounds, hopefully they will work with the Steam version of the VN.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

cool, this could go interesting places. There are TONS of visual novels from Japan that deserve to be brought over and this could be a start.

 

[Kyogissun]

John's a good guy and I can understand his decision behind that retranslation. Being he's done other professional subbing work, he's probably continued to refine his adaptations for japanese scripts as time has gone on, so it's not surprising that they're doing this.

Good luck to him though, I know how much of a gigantic pain in the ass reading through that stuff is.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

This can only be a good thing, unless the re-translation somehow turns out worse. I'd hope not, that'd be lol worthy but overall disappointing.
I will be buying them when they release.

 

[l3o2828]

I don't think re-translating would help the terrible story, characters, art, music,etc.
But knock yourself out.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

cool, this could go interesting places. There are TONS of visual novels from Japan that deserve to be brought over and this could be a start.

This could be a very good start.

It's a beloved franchise for a reason.
There are lots of Visual Novels out there with a porn-y edge that I would refrain from coming to Steam soon, if ever at all. Which would lead people with only bad impressions of the genre and help enforce the stereotype of visual novels as a bunch of shallow porn games.

This, however, is a great way to get things started. I couldn't think of a much better Visual Novel for Steam to get early on than Higurashi.

 

[Micalas]

There are patches that add the PS2 sprites and backgrounds, hopefully they will work with the Steam version of the VN.

I was just coming here to say this. The game CAN be patched to have non-shit art.

 

[mistwolf]

Seems like a job for Kickstarter! I'd chip in a buck or five for a new translation, and the projhect cost wouldn't even have to be very high. A small cost, limited scope projefct is something that works well. Hell, you could even, in theory, offer steam keys for high enough donations. I'd pre order at a premium for a solid port job on this, Higurashi is insanity worth supporting.