The translation project originally started a little over a year ago, but ended with the translator leaving for personal reasons. Since then, they’ve picked up a new translator and finished the translation. There are no plans to continue with the second chapter, as there appears to be a group working on a release of a full translation of the game. Therefore, NNL’s next project is to tackle the first chapter of ef – a latter tale.

In their documentation, they provide their reasons for releasing a standalone build. One reason is that they claim that minori would not profit from a patch release, because “minori is notorious for short print runs” and that the game would become out of print by the time a lot of people would want to buy it. They claim that “ef – the first tale is effectively abandonware because it is no longer possible to obtain a legal copy that will support minori.” Currently, ef – the first tale is still in stock in many Japanese online retailers and there are even copies remaining of the limited edition copies of ef – the latter tale.

NNL then goes on to argue that what they are doing can be compared to The Underdogs, a famous abandonware site, and anime fansubbing. They note that a standalone release is no more illegal than a patch release (both are copyright infringement). However, a standalone release not only violates the derivative works aspect of copyright, but also involves wholesale distribution of unmodified content, and may have a higher chance of invoking a publisher’s ire.

One thing the documentation did not comment on were the difficulties involved in hacking the game engine to support a translation patch. From the description, it appears that they are using a slightly earlier build of the game engine used in the trial version. Therefore, there is no flashback feature to replay scenes, something that was added in the commercial release. The commercial release also added in various copy protection measures as well as a check for whether the user had his/her timezone set to Japanese time. Hence, it looks like they still had issues inserting scripts into the original game, as was stated previously with their project:

Do not purchase ef – the first tale with the intent of applying a patch to it. We are unable to circumvent the numerous copy-protection schemes for this title. Therefore, our current plan is to release a ~1.8 GB standalone. Yes, this goes against the ethics of virtually every other visual novel fansub group. However, this project is not a joint effort with insani, and we are free to do whatever we please.

UPDATE: There is now a more detailed post on No Name Losers’ webpage detailing plans for a more polished upcoming release, various features they’ve added to the current release, and plans for their work on ef – the latter tale. Oh, and according to their post, this news article you’ve just read is anti-piracy propaganda.

First off, there seems to be a translation of Soul Link in the works.

Next up, AstCd2 and team have tackled the original visual novel, Shizuku.

We’ve just received word that mirror moon has dropped all their current projects and turned all their attention onto translating Tsukihime 2.

The websites for TLWiki and GamePatch seem to be offline…

mirror moon has put up a project page for Tsukihime 2.

The GamePatch website seems to be back up now…

Agilis reports that Narcissu Side 2nd is being bootlegged and sold on craigslist. We’ll update this if we get any more information.

JAST USA states that due to popular demand of their JAST USA Memorial Trading cards, they will be printing more and extending the set to 999 cards from their original 55. You can even collect JAST staff this way!

The third and final installment of the 12RIVEN demo video has been translated and posted.

Apparently, the Soul Link translation project is by a group called KyouKiKai and they have added a link to a beta patch of the trial version of the game.

And what do we have here? A sneak peek at a translated erotic scene from ef – the first tale!

For those of you who couldn’t find a copy of Tsukihime to buy, Hen Da Ne now has Tsukibako in stock for $100$60 each!

Sekai Project has announced a joint venture with 0verflow to officially localise School Days!

The Clannad translation project by Drama Club has been shut down due to copyright infringement.