Of bad choices and bad endings...

Warning: some spoilers ahead - don't read this post if you haven't played the game through at least once.

Some clarification about the end of the game and how the choices made during the game affect things.

The proper end of the game is not the 'itadakimasu' scene in the bath. If the game ends there, you need to play again and make different choices at the branch points. Yes, the game could have made this much clearer - I thought it was the real end of the story my first time through too.

I actually went through and mapped out the entire decision tree of the game, to see how it all worked. Basically, each decision point has a 'right' and 'wrong' answer. If you make more than one 'wrong' choice, the game ends abruptly after the bath scene. However, if you get three or four 'right', the game continues for another three chapters to the 'real' end of the game.

Here's a few thought of mine about the right answers:

#1 - Yuuna's request is reasonable, so why not agree? Plus you don't want to allow her to realize how easily she can emotionally manipulate Nanami.
#2 - Yuuna's actions were out of line and was risking letting out their secret, but she honestly didn't realize. Just explain it to her gently so she'll actually understand. If things get angry, Yuuna will still agree, but only in order to calm Nanami down.
#3 - Again, Yuuna needs to be told that she's out of line here. Telling her might upset her a bit, but Nanami does need to learn how to set limits when Yuuna gets out of control.
#4 - This is for deciding Nanami's attitude I think - being impressed with Yuuna's room will make her more willing to stick around 'just in case' something bad happens later.

- CountPacula - rose-at-sonohanabira-dot-countpacula-dot-com

A preemptive FAQ: technical details

Alright, now for a few posts of relatively serious stuff:

Let's start off with a few preemptive FAQs about technical details

1. What exactly is all this about? Some sort of game?
   
   - If you really have no idea what this project is about, read my first post here which explains things pretty well.
   
   
2. Will I need to buy the full game to play this translation?
   
   - Yes, you will need to buy the full game. What will be available here is just an add-on patch that will allow the original game to be played in English.
   
   
3. How am I supposed to buy a Japanese game from a Japanese store if I don't know Japanese? And aren't imported Japanese games really expensive?
   
   - One of the major reasons for my choosing to this particular game was that it was available for purchase online quite cheaply from a completely English online store. There may be other places to get it, but I know for certain that the original game can be bought for less than $20 US from DLsite.com's English store. If you have trouble, here's a direct link to the product page. (And no, those are NOT any kind of 'affiliate' links - I have no interest in making -any- money from this project.)
   
   
4. What level of computer hardware am I going to need to run this?
   
   - Check the product page for the game on DLsite for the specifics, but basically, if you are here reading this, you probably won't have any problems.
   
   
5. What operating systems will the game run on?
   
   - According to the product page, the game is officially supported on Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP. It is possible to get the game to run the game on some other operating systems at well (I've had luck with both Linux and OSX), but not without some problems. Note that this includes Vista and Windows 7, both of which have some issues running the game properly.
   
   
6. The translated game will run fine on the default settings on an English system, right? I won't have to anything weird like install Japanese support or change my language settings, right? Right?
   
   - Um, I hate to break this to those of you that were hoping otherwise, but I'm afraid that running even the translated version of the game properly will require installing Japanese support for your computer's OS, as well as changing the default language for non-unicode programs to Japanese. Instructions on how to do this can be found on DLSite's FAQ page under "Trouble with opening files - 4. An error occurs when I click the exe file in game file." (If anyone knows of a better/clearer set of instructions, please let me know.) You -may- be able to avoid some of this by using Microsoft's "AppLocale" utility, but in my own experience at least, Applocale doesn't work properly with this game. It is possible that the game can be made to run without doing all this, but you -will- have issues with garbled text.
   

More to come as I have time to write them - next up will probably be some information on my translation and writing style - which I am certain many of you will find odd and demand explanations for - as well as some of the issues I came up against as a first-time translator.

- CountPacula - rose-at-sonohanabira-dot-countpacula-dot-com