VN Ren'Py Imperial Chronicles [v0.8] [Lazy Monkey]

[n00bPanda]

The translation is sadly something that can be improved a lot in this game. But if you pay less attention to the grammar and let you brain fill in the gaps, the plot and branching is very complex. Characters are fleshed out and behave like people would in that kind of a setting (they have questionable loyalties). It may even be called the Game of Thrones of AVNs.

Regarding the sex scenes, if you stopped there you're missing out on a LOT. Most of the important LIs haven't even been introduced at that point. Elis is definitely a horn dog to an extent, but most scenes are believable.

I believe the translation doesn't disturb us non-native english speakers like myself compare to native speakers that said have you guys ever played early JRPGs? If you guys ever played one you would be fuckin' grateful to Lazy_Monkey for translation that is completely understandable and clear. Also, given how Russians are pretty infamous for their English skill, he is doing a pretty good job in my eyes. Though, ofcourse as I have said, I am non-Native speaker.

 

[icedogg]

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[can't_relate]

I believe the translation doesn't disturb us non-native english speakers like myself compare to native speakers that said have you guys ever played early JRPGs? If you guys ever played one you would be fuckin' grateful to Lazy_Monkey for translation that is completely understandable and clear. Also, given how Russians are pretty infamous for their English skill, he is doing a pretty good job in my eyes. Though, ofcourse as I have said, I am non-Native speaker.

I mean, I'm a non-native english speaker myself and I can fill the gaps in pretty easily. I never said that the translations were better in other games, there is no shortage of shitty games on this site. I'm just saying that Lazy Monkey could benefit from having a native english speaker to proof read the translations, or to come up with english counterparts of russian phrases. That would make the game even more enjoyable than it is right now. Again, IMO Lazy Monkey is making the best games on this site right now (Monkey Business is my favorite of all time).

 

[Krepax]

I'm still undecided on this one. Sure there're many branching storylines, but sometimes the game has a habit of railroading the player on a set path without agency. One such example is the relationship with mom. After the initial look/don't look, there are no more opportunities to prevent descending into an incestuous path with her (either via love or corruption - it doesn't matter).

I can't say I also liked how the current 'coup' plot is handled. Considering that some interesting and powerful figures like Sona or Isis entered the picture, it should have been possible to 'improvise' other solutions than the with me/against me hard choice (although with Isil a "betrayal path" opens up) . Sona claims she's become the most powerful vampire and she lurks in the castle observing. She could have easily killed the 3-4 key figures of the plot in time to prevent the situation to spiral out of control. She's vowed to protect the prince and to be his ally, after all.

Also the whole king poisoning event is handled in a strange way, if the MC refuses to cooperate at first. I don't know if it's due to the translation but, it's not clear if Cass knew all the details beforehand or if she has been manipulated as well; also how Priscilla has been discovered as the real culprit is not clear, nor why she claims to have done it alone, not implicating the others plotters, even in the scenario where the loyalists take back the castle by force (so, there's no reason to cover the accomplices anymore, as they're all dead or imprisoned).

 

[Walter Victor]

I'm still undecided on this one. Sure there're many branching storylines, but sometimes the game has a habit of railroading the player on a set path without agency. One such example is the relationship with mom. After the initial look/don't look, there are no more opportunities to prevent descending into an incestuous path with her (either via love or corruption - it doesn't matter).

I can't say I also liked how the current 'coup' plot is handled. Considering that some interesting and powerful figures like Sona or Isis entered the picture, it should have been possible to 'improvise' other solutions than the with me/against me hard choice (although with Isil a "betrayal path" opens up) . Sona claims she's become the most powerful vampire and she lurks in the castle observing. She could have easily killed the 3-4 key figures of the plot in time to prevent the situation to spiral out of control. She's vowed to protect the prince and to be his ally, after all.

Also the whole king poisoning event is handled in a strange way, if the MC refuses to cooperate at first. I don't know if it's due to the translation but, it's not clear if Cass knew all the details beforehand or if she has been manipulated as well; also how Priscilla has been discovered as the real culprit is not clear, nor why she claims to have done it alone, not implicating the others plotters, even in the scenario where the loyalists take back the castle by force (so, there's no reason to cover the accomplices anymore, as they're all dead or imprisoned).

Well, it doesn't bother me one little bit that Mom is unavoidable, but that's just me.

As for the rest of your post, the choices must matter, because I didn't experience ANY of what you wrote... just didn't happen in my playthrough in the way you described it.

 

[Krepax]

Well, it doesn't bother me one little bit that Mom is unavoidable, but that's just me.

As for the rest of your post, the choices must matter, because I didn't experience ANY of what you wrote... just didn't happen in my playthrough in the way you described it.

Yes, choices do matter. Looking at the game code, >90% of choices affect some variable state and this is imho quite rare and commendable in a AVN. But I feel some parts of the plot are not well explained or it would be logical to expect some other opportunities / consequences for certain actions.

 

[justheretopirate]

The fact is you can kill main character LI in this game and the game acknowledges it and the story diverges (red emperor path) is enough to put this above 95% of other VNs in here.

 

[Filipis]

The fact is you can kill main character LI in this game and the game acknowledges it and the story diverges (red emperor path) is enough to put this above 95% of other VNs in here.

The game acknowledges it by making you lose out on an entire content patch, though, let's be honest now. A content patch where the MC goes down on the Queen Mother. Something that wasn't even acknowledged by the Queen in the 0.7 update, so not perfect by any means.

 

[can't_relate]

Something that wasn't even acknowledged by the Queen in the 0.7 update, so not perfect by any means.

The dev really should have dealt with this better. I know the mom scene got erased or something, but it would have been so much better to not have anything instead. Hope that in 0.8 Queen Mother talks about what happened with Elis.

 

[SARBASST]

I'm still undecided on this one. Sure there're many branching storylines, but sometimes the game has a habit of railroading the player on a set path without agency. One such example is the relationship with mom. After the initial look/don't look, there are no more opportunities to prevent descending into an incestuous path with her (either via love or corruption - it doesn't matter).

I can't say I also liked how the current 'coup' plot is handled. Considering that some interesting and powerful figures like Sona or Isis entered the picture, it should have been possible to 'improvise' other solutions than the with me/against me hard choice (although with Isil a "betrayal path" opens up) . Sona claims she's become the most powerful vampire and she lurks in the castle observing. She could have easily killed the 3-4 key figures of the plot in time to prevent the situation to spiral out of control. She's vowed to protect the prince and to be his ally, after all.

Also the whole king poisoning event is handled in a strange way, if the MC refuses to cooperate at first. I don't know if it's due to the translation but, it's not clear if Cass knew all the details beforehand or if she has been manipulated as well; also how Priscilla has been discovered as the real culprit is not clear, nor why she claims to have done it alone, not implicating the others plotters, even in the scenario where the loyalists take back the castle by force (so, there's no reason to cover the accomplices anymore, as they're all dead or imprisoned).

Don't forget it's 1 dev, and he gives new update every 1,5 to 2 months.

 

[destroyerofassholes]

I believe the translation doesn't disturb us non-native english speakers like myself compare to native speakers that said have you guys ever played early JRPGs? If you guys ever played one you would be fuckin' grateful to Lazy_Monkey for translation that is completely understandable and clear. Also, given how Russians are pretty infamous for their English skill, he is doing a pretty good job in my eyes. Though, ofcourse as I have said, I am non-Native speaker.

This is cope. "My English is bad, so bad English doesn't bug me" isn't really a justification, no offense. I'm an ESL too fwiw.

It's pretty obvious that the dev thinks and writes in Russian and translates somewhat literally to English rather than actually bothering to localize the dialogue. Sayings, idioms, sentence structure and such do not properly translate across langauges when you take everything literally, you need to write from scratch to get a similar meaning which is why localization is not the same thing as a translation. I assume the dev himself is just not that proficient in the language because he'd notice this consciously or not while writing the English version. I don't see what I should be "fuckin' grateful" for.. what relevance do 90's JRPGs even have in this conversation lol.

It just feels unnatural to read, though I can sort of ignore it and "fill in the gaps".

 

[n00bPanda]

This is cope. "My English is bad, so bad English doesn't bug me" isn't really a justification, no offense. I'm an ESL too fwiw.

It's pretty obvious that the dev thinks and writes in Russian and translates somewhat literally to English rather than actually bothering to localize the dialogue. Sayings, idioms, sentence structure and such do not properly translate across langauges when you take everything literally, you need to write from scratch to get a similar meaning which is why localization is not the same thing as a translation. I assume the dev himself is just not that proficient in the language because he'd notice this consciously or not while writing the English version. I don't see what I should be "fuckin' grateful" for.. what relevance do 90's JRPGs even have in this conversation lol.

It just feels unnatural to read, though I can sort of ignore it and "fill in the gaps".

Well, first of I won't accept translation is bad, I didn't say nor saying it is good either, I said it is clear, understandable. You don't need to ponder on sentences if it has second meanings and all, like in most JRPG translations back then. Even to this day DS and Elden Ring loremasters making lots of mistakes because translated text doesn't give the intended meaning of devs.
Second; seems to me you forgot this is a free game. If you played the game, loved it you should be grateful in a way. He could just use the AI or net translator(s) and be done with it in a day. Most ppl wouldn't care, most ppl is here to jerk off. I know localization and translation are diffrent things but 'localization' itself had never been a top demand let alone I suspect it is even in top ten of demands.

 

[justheretopirate]

The game acknowledges it by making you lose out on an entire content patch, though, let's be honest now. A content patch where the MC goes down on the Queen Mother. Something that wasn't even acknowledged by the Queen in the 0.7 update, so not perfect by any means.

Not at all. There are entire scenes with Isis that are missing if you go the Cass route (and married to ISIS)

 

[Filipis]

Not at all. There are entire scenes with Isis that are missing if you go the Cass route (and married to ISIS)

What are you talking about?

If you kill Cass at the end of 0.5 (when she's in your room, late at night, and offers the "ultimatum"), 0.6 has a grand total of 10 renders for that path - you get the coronation, and that's it.

Whereas if you spare Cass at the end of 0.5, the infamous Coup (0.6) happens, and you get a shit ton of unique story bits depending on your previous choices.

I'd say there is no fair comparison. You want more story? Spare Cass.

 

[Youtiy]

I'm not sure why this needs to be said but apparently it does, all the content that people are complaining about. Specifically a certain choice to do with Cass, is still WIP, let's not forget this game is still in active development and these are the newest parts, part's that are getting expanded upon actively, neither of the routes are fully complete yet from what I understand so naturally your either going to see a lack of content or not see certain things since they're either not adapted for whichever path you took yet or were never intended to occur during that path to begin with.

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[Youtiy]

Oh and to do with the localization, it's really not that bad in comparison to a lot of translations I've seen, obviously it's not great and could be way better. BUT at the end of the day from what I've seen this isn't a team project, this is a solo dev working on their own, a non-native speaker at that, it's all well and good to throw around the "He should just hire someone to do it for him" but at the end of the day this is nothing but a passion project from what I'm seeing, it's wholly unreasonable to expect a solo dev to hire someone else to assist them with something they're doing for fun on the side. That's not to say it wouldn't be great if they did do so nor that it wouldn't improve the game by quite a bit, but I at least feel it's not really fair to expect it. It's not as though it's unreadable either, I found it to be perfectly understandable, rough around the edges sure but at no point did I not understand what was happening nor misunderstand what was being said.

 

[Filipis]

I'm not sure why this needs to be said but apparently it does, all the content that people are complaining about. Specifically a certain choice to do with Cass, is still WIP, let's not forget this game is still in active development and these are the newest parts, part's that are getting expanded upon actively, neither of the routes are fully complete yet from what I understand so naturally your either going to see a lack of content or not see certain things since they're either not adapted for whichever path you took yet or were never intended to occur during that path to begin with.

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That is hardly a justification for such "sacrificing" of paths, especially during development.

And don't forget, a lot of important relationship building between MC and some LIs only happens on that route, so it also feels like a mandatory choice a player has to make to get more content with them (other than Cass).

LM knowingly made this sacrifice, and something tells me there won't ever be a content update that focuses on the "No Coup" path.

 

[Youtiy]

That is hardly a justification for such "sacrificing" of paths, especially during development.

And don't forget, a lot of important relationship building between MC and some LIs only happens on that route, so it also feels like a mandatory choice a player has to make to get more content with them (other than Cass).

LM knowingly made this sacrifice, and something tells me there won't ever be a content update that focuses on the "No Coup" path.

You could be right, there may not be an update for that route. However, it's not sacrificing anything, there's only so much someone can do at once. It's better to completely finish one path and then move onto the other than to drip feed both, there's way to much content to produce for both path's to be done at once, it's simply not feasible. Unless of course you'd rather a much longer wait before the update.

 

[Filipis]

You could be right, there may not be an update for that route. However, it's not sacrificing anything, there's only so much someone can do at once. It's better to completely finish one path and then move onto the other than to drip feed both, there's way to much content to produce for both path's to be done at once, it's simply not feasible. Unless of course you'd rather a much longer wait before the update.

Except... why wasn't 0.7 more about the no-coup path then? LM justifies it by saying that 0.6 was about the Coup, so if you avoided that (by killing Cass), it's only natural that you would lose out on significant content - which makes sense.

But, when can we expect an update focused around the consequences of killing Cass? Unless there was never a plan to have one...

And furthermore, LM has always updated ALL the routes simultaneously so far, so he wrote the Coup storyline knowing that the other path would get nothing in return for their choice - at least not for the time being. And as I said, given LM's history with updating paths, this was very unusual for him, and most likely means no "unique" content for those that killed Cass on the spot. And that's what bothers me. LM was always about meaningful choices, and now, concerning the biggest offender, one side gets all the candy, the other nothing...

 

[Youtiy]

Except... why wasn't 0.7 more about the no-coup path then? LM justifies it by saying that 0.6 was about the Coup, so if you avoided that (by killing Cass), it's only natural that you would lose out on significant content - which makes sense.

But, when can we expect an update focused around the consequences of killing Cass? Unless there was never a plan to have one...

And furthermore, LM has always updated ALL the routes simultaneously so far, so he wrote the Coup storyline knowing that the other path would get nothing in return for their choice - at least not for the time being. And as I said, given LM's history with updating paths, this was very unusual for him, and most likely means no "unique" content for those that killed Cass on the spot. And that's what bothers me. LM was always about meaningful choices, and now, concerning the biggest offender, one side gets all the candy, the other nothing...

Like I said you could be right, but I feel it's to early to start thinking like that. After another update or two sure.