Alka Translations Monthly Status Report: March 2020

Hello hello! It has been some time. We’ve had quite the month of February, haven’t we? As the title suggests, it’s time for another Monthly Status Report, so let’s get right to it, shall we?

So, for the final time for at least a few months, let’s talk Summer Pockets. As most, if not all of you know, Summer Pockets got its official release on Steam in February. I’ll say this one more time, right here, for posterity’s sake and as a final statement. Our translation is unavailable, and we are honoring our word of keeping it that way since the official release is out. I know some of you definitely prefer ours, and we appreciate the high praise. Should we decide to translate Reflection Blue, it will be our translation accompanying it, as we’d prefer consistency above all. But for this version of Summer Pockets, please support the official release. Whether you like ours better or not, it’s still really good.

However! If you check the Downloads section of the site, you WILL find a small patch we developed that adds subtitles to the OP Alka Tale, the ED Lasting Moment and Pocket ED Pocket wo Fukuramasete. It works with the Steam version and shouldn’t cause any problems, so if you’d like subs to your songs, go ahead and download it and apply it to your Steam installation directory for Summer Pockets! For filetype reasons, we were unable to apply subs to the Alka ED Hane no Yurikago. Gomenasai.

Now onto the main focus, Angel Beats. Right now we’re just shy of 40% completion for the VN as a whole. The Common route & side content are what we’re focusing on first, as they’re all more or less tied together. And boy, what a NIGHTMARE it’s turning out to be. It hasn’t been “difficult” per se, aside from the occasional impossible-to-translate joke. Just very time consuming, as our translators are constantly having to cross-reference and double-check pretty much every single file to make sure the constant references and throwbacks to very specific jokes, names & gameplay choices remain consistent. There’s part of an enormously long file where Otonashi gets hit in the mouth and it’s literally the ENTIRE first part of the file all over again (we’re talking hundreds and hundreds of lines) WORD FOR WORD, except we have to make it sound silly because he’s talking with a mouth injury. Yes, the Common route is THAT convoluted. I feel genuine pity for the testers. This is gonna be a month-long descent into translation hell for them because of how many various ways scenes can be executed. Honestly, once we do the full release for you guys, I expect to release a follow-up patch or two just because you guys will probably find stuff we missed. But all in all, it’s coming along much faster than I think anybody expected, and we’re all having a very fun time with the project as well as with each other. I cannot say enough good things about these guys. I think the reason we’ve stayed together this long and work at this pace is because we all just genuinely enjoy each other on top of the VNs themselves.

The last bit of news I have to report is that once our other translator Log is done with all of 1st Beat’s side content, he might start working on a non-Key project that I’m gonna keep a secret for now. Those of you who enjoy slice of life romance eroges, this may interest you! It won’t be something that will take terribly long to do and we’ll likely release it long before 1st Beat is done, it’s just a fun little thing that will come as a surprise for many, and a welcome one for a few of you, I hope! What could it be? You won’t get that answer out of me. Perhaps try looking up and asking the stars for guidance?

Anyways, that’s all I’ve got for you with this monthly report! I know the waiting game that we’re all stuck in right now is a bit of a pain, and we appreciate you all sticking with us. As always, give us a follow on Twitter @alkatranslation if you want to see snippets of translation development or smaller, more concise updates. March is gonna be a month full of work for us. I look forward to sharing the latest with you all in April! Until then, have a pleasant rest of the day, wherever in the world you may be.