Release: Flood of Tears

[gp32]

Our English localization of the 2001 doujin short ADV by TMS, Flood of Tears, is now COMPLETE.

This is insani's al|together 2006 Precursor Phase 2. Translation of this piece was completed in a total of 21 hours; however, the rest of release engineering took somewhat longer than that.

(And before you ask: yes, this piece has replay value. A good deal of it, in fact. Yes, that's a first for insani.)

(And before the, oh, two Mac OS X users out there in our target audience ask: yes, of course there are custom icons. Who would release without one?)

[l|ammamama]

Ooh...

[Billhead]

Well then, there goes tonights sleep...

[Carl]

*Starts a Mexican wave*

[l|ammamama]

I've played it for a few hours so far, buckets of fun. Another excellent localization, dude!

another game to add to the "yet to play" folder. even though this folder still have some al|together 2005 games in there :(

Just wondering, could anyone give a mini review for Flood of Tears? Like how good the plot is and everything? That'd be great. Thanks in advance ;)

[l|ammamama]

I feel that the synopsis on the Insani site is a pretty good representation of the game's quality.

Originally Posted by Insani

An annoying protagonist, an ordinary school life, a few friends here and there. This is the story of a young man who falls in love willingly, and perhaps of a couple young women who fall in love somewhat less willingly. With plot structure and progression very similar to -- and some might even say in homage to -- works like Kanon and SNOW, this piece will most likely feel immediately familiar to most readers.

But it also possesses immense heart, which is why at the end of the day we, the translators, could only say a warm "thank you" and turn a blind eye to what flaws it had.

The plot isn't going to win any international awards, but the game as a whole is very enjoyable and worth the few hours of your time that it takes to play through.

yeah it was a good play ^^ thx gp32+team.

and now my question:

jul qvq ur qvr?

v zrna, uvf zrzbevrf jrerag fb "qnatrebhf"....

jul qvq hzv renvfrq uvf zrzbevrf jura ur jnf lbhat?

v qba'g haqrefgnaq gung.

[gp32]

Originally Posted by mr.aufziehvogel

jul qvq ur qvr?

Erzrzore jung V fnvq nobhg abiry-glcr tnzrf gung unir checbfryl-nzovthbhf raqvatf orsber. Qvq ur qvr? Lbh frrz gb unir qrpvqrq gung ur qvq. Gura nfx lbhefrys guvf dhrfgvba: jul?

Originally Posted by mr.aufziehvogel

jv zrna, uvf zrzbevrf jrerag fb "qnatrebhf"....?

Best I let another do the talking for me here:

Originally Posted by Tennessee Williams

I didn't go to the moon, I went much further -- for time is the longest distance between two places -- Not long after that I was fired for writing a poem on the lid of a shoe-box. I left Saint Louis. I descended the steps of this fire-escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father's footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space -- I traveled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly colored but torn away from the branches.

The rest is up to you.

Originally Posted by mr.aufziehvogel

jul qvq hzv renvfrq uvf zrzbevrf jura ur jnf lbhat?

Abj tb cynl gur bgure unys bs gur fgbel naq lbh jvyy haqrefgnaq.

other half? i just finished it.

i runned into 4 bad endings (when ur unf gb qrpvqr jurer gb tb...snfg sbbq fubc be erfgrenag....)

can you tell me how i can get to the 2nd half? ;)

that may sound stupid but i really doesn't know.

[gp32]

Originally Posted by mr.aufziehvogel

can you tell me how i can get to the 2nd half? ;)

Obgu Uvan naq Hzv unir raqtnzr cnguf, qrcraqvat ba gur pubvprf gung lbh unir znqr rneyvre. Lbh tbg Hzv'f raqvat. Abj tb onpx, qba'g or fb avpr gb Hzv, naq or avpr gb Uvan vfagrnq.

[Shii]

You could have warned me or something...

[vampiresaru]

This was quite a wonderful release you have done. I have come to truly look forward to everything you translate and would like to thank all those involved with insani.

I would further comment about the endings (va zl snagnfl jbeyq ur qvqa'g qvr va gur Hzv raqvat) but I find myself going into zombie mode and can't muster much more than the previous rot13..... Work will be fuuuuuuuun tomorrow (^_^)

[gp32]

Originally Posted by vampiresaru

This was quite a wonderful release you have done. I have come to truly look forward to everything you translate and would like to thank all those involved with insani.

Glad you liked it. As you can well see, this was very much a labor of love on the part of the original authors from start to finish, and I hope that shines through in my translation. Furthermore, while it does not by any means qualify as "great literature", it was cleanly written with exceedingly few typographical errors (in comparison to other pieces in its class, that is), making it a pleasure to translate. For my part, I can say that the Shark has become one of the most memorable "annoying best friend" characters that I've had the pleasure of reading; that alone has to be worth something ...

The most interesting thing about this piece is that in most reviews I've read, it garners somewhere between a 5-6 out of 10; the general consensus seems to be that the piece was well-written and well-scripted, but it was just too short to succeed given the plot structure and progression that it set out to use. And this is a valid criticism: the authors were essentially trying to reproduce the dramatic structure of pieces like Kanon and SNOW, in which you have a lot of "slice of life" skits front-loaded in order for the reader to develop a rapport with the characters, and then during the individual characters' endgames the drama is turned up to 11. In order for this kind of structure to succeed, that rapport needs to be quite strong going into the endgame -- and it is here that Flood of Tears stumbles.

That said, it was a pleasure to read and a pleasure to translate, and if anyone is going to rip into it because of its flaws, he'll have to answer to me.