Finally: iM@S Officially in English!

[ninjamitsuki]

From what I've seen, they didn't even translate the song names, not even into romaji. The song names are literally just in Japanese when you select them.

But I haven't played Shiny Festa in Japanese or otherwise so I don't know if it changes in gameplay or if it's only the selection that is in Japanese.

[idolfanaticV1]

Yes, although the highest ranked card I have is Sachiko, they have the same translation. Even the "HOOBIES" mistake.

[Chance4U]

From what I've seen, they didn't even translate the song names, not even into romaji. The song names are literally just in Japanese when you select them.

But I haven't played Shiny Festa in Japanese or otherwise so I don't know if it changes in gameplay or if it's only the selection that is in Japanese.

Yeah, I saw that online. Ugh. The menu stayed the same too, except for the blurb at the bottom and a few translations. This video shows a bit of gameplay, but the screen is a bit cut off during the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVNVE4aWato

It's the only video I could find so far...

Yes, although the highest ranked card I have is Sachiko, they have the same translation. Even the "HOOBIES" mistake.

Well, at least it's a translation! Something is definitely better than nothing!
Nice Hoobies.

[Scotty]

Translation is good.

[Naryoril]

I actually do like when some liberties are taken to spice up the English script, but that kind of approach wouldn't work very well with iDOLM@STER.

Why not? If done well i see no problem. In this regard i really like Carpe Fulgur's work (Recettear, Chantelise and Fortune Summoners). Actually i was hoping they are currently doing im@s localizations (since they are working on some secret project they aren't allowed to talk about for over a year now and several info deadlines have been missed because their partner didn't want them to tell on what they are working), but apparently i was off unfortunately

[ninjamitsuki]

Why not? If done well i see no problem. In this regard i really like Carpe Fulgur's work (Recettear, Chantelise and Fortune Summoners). Actually i was hoping they are currently doing im@s localizations (since they are working on some secret project they aren't allowed to talk about for over a year now and several info deadlines have been missed because their partner didn't want them to tell on what they are working), but apparently i was off unfortunately

As you said, this is sort of a "who knows" deal with how iDOLM@STER could be localized. I too love Carpe Fulgur, but iM@S is way out of their budget, even Nippon Ichi said they couldn't do it because it's so expensive.

The main problem with a translation that takes liberties would be that the fans would be pissed. But if you already played the game in Japanese, it would be nice to experience it in a new way.

[Daverost]

Oh, so the song titles and lyrics are all untranslated? No wonder it's not on PSP then. Hopefully they get less lazy and fix that so we can actually have it on the intended system.

[idolfanaticV1]

Has anyone bought Rhythmic Record or Melodic Disc? Trying to come up with the amount of money earned so far by this when taking the number of people on the leader boards and multiplying that by the price of the game. I'm going off of Harmonic Score and assuming leader boards are divided by country, Harmonic Score has already earned a little over 25 thousand dollars. If we assume that it's running about the same for each game, that's 75k after 4 days.

[SakuraMaxX]

It's hard to decide if it's valid or not since most likely cracked versions of the game (come on, on iOS it's inevitable) are out and about already too.

[ninjamitsuki]

I wonder which version is selling the most/least.

[ninjamitsuki]

So I caved and got Groovy Tu- er, Melodic Disc.

[Cael K.]

I too love Carpe Fulgur, but iM@S is way out of their budget

Just a thought that popped into my head - why would you try to buy the rights to a translation for an existing game, when you can convince a company that's already planning a US release that you'll do it for them?

But you know what? I remember reading a review on Ikaruga a long time ago. It went something like this:

There are probably only two sort of people reading this review. The first is the people who know nothing about this game and might not even think of buying it. The second are the people who are already fans and have imported the game already.

... 'Bout sums up my feelings.

... And is this hoobies going to become the Idolm@ster version of spoony bard?

[Naryoril]

There are probably only two sort of people reading this review. The first is the people who know nothing about this game and might not even think of buying it. The second are the people who are already fans and have imported the game already.

There is one big difference though: The amount of text. I didn't play ikaruga (i prefer Cave games), but it is a shoot'em up, so i don't think it has much text. An im@s translation would be interesting for many people even though they have already imported the game.

[ninjamitsuki]

Hopefully the next iDOLM@STER game in the series will have a planned English release. A girl can dream.

[Yodudes0]

The games are half price for a bit. I think it's for 3 more days.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idolm-ster-shiny-festa-rhythmic/id581869945?l=ja&ls=1&mt=8