(This page is the English version. The Japanese version is here.)
(こちらの記事は英語版です。日本語版はこちらです。)

Hello!

Today, I have good news.

On Jun. 30, Visual Novel.Info-san gave us a review of our game in German. I requested the writer to translate it into English(I appreciate him!). I show it below. This article is so interesting and valuable. Please read!

Attention: This review includes spoiler a little.

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Itch.io is a strange place. Since the few years of its emergence, the store offers a variety of visual novels and other indie games that are usually only available on Japanese sites like DL-Site. The quality of the games offered there varies massively, so browsing through this storefront is not always guaranteed success. On Itch.io, every Developer, no matter how inexperienced, can post something and the buyers or players can either play the game for free or pay something on a voluntary basis - this pricing policy is similar to the Humble Bundle concept or the Groupees service.

Klast Halc is a small Japanese Doujin developer whom we got to know through a public request to translate his upcoming game. At this point Tensai shitenai Akuyaku Reijou wa mada Unmei o shiranai is the first game of his. A German translation by Yours Truly has unfortunately not been accepted yet because of budget constraints, but we’re planning to take on this task once the opportunity arises.

Synopsis:

We slip into the role of Nora, the highborn daughter of the Akuyaksky family. As usual in a political marriage, Nora meets the fiancé chosen by her parents - the 5th prince of the kingdom named Shine Norikael Karuiguy. Judging his outward appearance, the prince is a shining figure, but is there something dark hidden behind the façade?

The next day, the opening ceremony of the "Karuiguy National School of Magic" takes place and Nora notices during the turmoil that her fiancé is playing around with another girl: Juliana Ecodearl, the daughter of the Ecodearl family. Nora witnesses rumours that the prince wants to break off their marriage and instead start an affair with Juliana. Whether we accept his casanova-like behaviour is up to the player.

On the second day we have our first magic lesson, in which we learn about the six different elements of Mage. Each person's magic takes on one of these six elements. Light and Darkness are the most important attributes - Yin and Yang, good and evil. As luck would have it, Nora has the misfortune to be able to use Darkness Magic. This doesn't earn her much respect among her classmates, on the contrary - from now on she is despised because of her magical powers; even her fiancé Shine doesn't want to marry her anymore. How will her newly discovered power affect her life and her wedding?

Characters:

Trailer:

Own opinion:

The plot description seems to be very long, but actually these are only the events of the first three scenes. The game lasts 45 minutes and is very short and it is only a small bite of what Klast could write with a real budget. It is after all a spontaneous no-budget doujin game, which Klast Halc designed here. On Itch.io you can either download the game or play it directly in your browser, so it's a nice snack for in between. However, the short length doesn't offer any material for a review, which would meet the usual demand for exhaustiveness of our site.

In the end, the plot is nothing special: There is princess Nora Akuyaksky, who stands in a love triangle between her fiancé and the daughter of the Ecodearls. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no reason that we could like any of the characters, except Nora, even in the slightest. Juliana doesn't seem to be enthusiastic about Shine's control, but she also doesn't do anything to combat him. The prince himself doesn’t deserve any sympathy as he cheats on Nora, as well as blames her dark magic for things that happen to Juliana.

There are two other characters, but they only play a role in the respective Endings.

Tech:

I realized immediately that the game was made in RenPy, the UI makes it very obvious. The first thing I noticed was that the game shows a sprite of Nora in the left corner which alters depending on how she reacts to situations. Not even Game of the Year Lucy got Problems had such a feature.

This feature is certainly not common in RenPy and therefore a nice addition. It also makes Nora look more human and dynamic when she responds to every situation with an appropriate facial expression.

It's also nice that the direct integration on itch.io works so smoothly. There are no crashes, no lost memory files. After testing, however, I noticed that files remain saved on each browser, but are not transferred to other browsers.

Art:

Considering the fact that the game was only made by two people (Klast Halc & Tobiishikikaku) I have seen worse things on itch.io. The acting characters look like their tropes demand them to be: the beautiful princess, the spoiled noblewoman etc.. The drawn sprites clearly stand out from the photorealistic backgrounds. Since I know that Klast likes to travel, it could be that he even photographed some of the backgrounds himself. (According to Klast Halc himself, he took some of the background photos in Germany at a place he doesn't want to name!)

Personally, Juliana strikes me the least, while the prince looks and acts like Togami Byakuya from Dangan Ronpa. I personally like Nora best, especially her ideosyncracies when she turns a bit red or gets angry are well set.

Sound:

 The title track is repeated throughout the game. This is a violin melody with a princely touch. During the course of the game there are three other soundtracks, two of which are only unlocked after the first run.

Endings:

The game has five endings and three special endings that are unlocked once you have played through the game. All five endings have a Pop-Culture Twist or Joke at the end. The three special ends have different romantic exits, which can be classified as Bad End, Neutral End and Good End. The routes to the special ends are marked by asterisks.

Localization:

Now we come to the obvious point of criticism: Klast translated the game into English by himself and that's exactly how it reads. In contrast to a lot of Germans, usually Japanese tend to not understand English at all or not very well, so I was aware that the game will not get a good translation this way. That's a pity, of course, because the Japanese writing on the other hand is almost above average. Klast Halc himself admits that the translation is not that good, but you can still have fun with it - I can agree with that. If only we had been commissioned for it…

Anyway, it is not as if the translation is unintelligible … it is just very Engrish. By this, I mean that there are typical mistakes which happen frequently when a Japanese person can speak conversational English but does not really know how it works: missing articles, mixed up r's and l's, etc. The most obvious is that indefinite articles or prepositions are rarely or not at all used. For instance, "Oh these flowers are beautiful. I want to look them forever" or "I expected gardener, but who was behind me was stranger" - both examples remind me of verbal exchanges with other Japanese in Izakayas or at karaoke.

One might of course think that I am attacking an easy target with this, or "low-hanging fruit" like our anglo-saxon friends say, but it is not that I could not enjoy this translation. On the contrary, my understanding of the difficulties the Japanese have with English has grown considerably, and I can definitely apply this knowledge to my tutoring work at university or language school.

Even though the translation is not common English, I would like to applaud the developer for trying it. Besides, it doesn't seem to bother people at all, because the feedback on his game on itch.io is mostly positive.

Conclusion

Even if I don't understand the title, because what's the point of announcing that the game is not a reincarnation Isekai, The Villainess who did not reincarnate still doesn't know of her Fate is still a funny diversion from other more polished titles. The endings, as well as the English translation, will sometimes make you laugh and for an Otome-Game which was made by only a team of two people it’s not that bad. But it's not A-League, so you should not expect a VN on the level of Fate Stay/Night or the upcoming CrocApoca!

We wish Klast Halc all the best on his path!

Survey questionnaire

Last but not least, there is a poll on Itch.io for people who have played through the game. You can fill it out here. Klast Halc will take the answers for his next projects to heart!

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Thank you for reading!

By the way, we are preparing a few additions now. At first, the improvement of the English translation is ongoing. Second, we have a plan to translate to German. Third, our artist Tobiishikikaku is drawing a new thank you picture. I wish I can show them this autumn. Please look forward to them!

Finally, I say thank you again for the reviewer, Hata-san at Visual Novel.Info. And I appreciate your support very much!

Have a good day!