Wind -a breath of heart-

[Misu-chan]

Well, since no one has posted it here and its been a couple days, I'll take the honor.

As reported by VisualNews.net:

It is with profound pleasure that we report the release of the complete translation of Wind -a breath of heart- DVD (Re:gratitude). This constitutes a significant milestone in the fan translation of dating sims or visual novels in general, as it is the first fan project of greater magnitude to finish not only a truly 100% translation, but also a complete localization of the title as a whole.
While one could name Planetarian to be the first title to be fully localized to the English speaking audience by fans, we believe that the length of Wind -a breath of heart- warrants a special honouring to the former Wind Translation Project, insani, No Name Losers and all individuals connected to this localization effort.

The translation is released as an installer that patches the original installation of Wind DVD. For the moment, the patch cannot be downloaded anywhere except for the official NNL IRC channel. Directions to acquiring the patch within the IRC channel are here. Wind DVD can be bought at HimeyaShop.com.

(Links work in original article here).

There is an intricate system to prevent pirates from acquiring the patch right now, in a system that forces you to prove that you actually own a copy of the game. As of currently, we have already nailed quite a few piraters. Please, if you dont have a copy, dont bother in wasting our time.

Otherwise, for all of you who own a copy of Wind -a breath of heart- Re:Gratitude, enjoy one of the highest quality (and arguable the first) full fan translation of a visual novel out there. As gipface puts it, this version of Wind is actually superior than its original Japanese counterpart =p.

Relevant Links:
No Name Losers - Releasing group for Wind
Wind Project Page
VisualNews.net
Wind -a breath of heart- English Demo v1.2 BitTorrent Download
Wind -a breath of heart- English Demo v1.2 HTTP Download

[Shiroth]

Yep, been hearing about most of this today - gonna order my copy sometime nexted week.

The idea of having show proof that you have the game really is one hell of a idea, and hopefully many translation groups shall start doin' that from now on.

[Misu-chan]

helkin has already mentioned that he wants to implement a similar system for when he releases Shuffle, and eventually also for Tick Tack. Which reminds me, I need to post that up as a news article...

But hopefully, this will be a growing trend for groups working on localizing Visual Novels becuase it is an igenous way to hold out against piracy. True, we all know in the end, the patch will be pirated, but at least we can hold out as long as possible, and support the company who produced the game while we are at it!

[martino]

Finally, buying the Japanese game worked out fine for me in the end!

[shadowplay]

Good job about the translation patch, but can we people stop with this anti-piracy nonsense. Fansubs are piracy too you know, I don't see fansub groups asking for physical evidence whether people have R2 DVDs of the shows they sub. Oh, fans will buy R1 DVDs once they out? Sure, game pirates can say the same thing.
It's all very silly and even more hypocritical.

PS I know it's their patch and their work, but it bugs me when someone uses it for starting their own ego-filled anti-piracy crusades

[Misu-chan]

Grab you Wind copy now if you havent or else you chance may be lost forever to play Wind in english!

VisaulNews.net - The Death of Wind

[Misu-chan]

Originally Posted by shadowplay

Good job about the translation patch, but can we people stop with this anti-piracy nonsense. Fansubs are piracy too you know, I don't see fansub groups asking for physical evidence whether people have R2 DVDs of the shows they sub. Oh, fans will buy R1 DVDs once they out? Sure, game pirates can say the same thing.
It's all very silly and even more hypocritical.

PS I know it's their patch and their work, but it bugs me when someone uses it for starting their own ego-filled anti-piracy crusades

I'm not trying to start a debate here, but I will point out a couple fallacies with your statement.

The current anime market in the US is quite good. Much of new anime is being brought over to English speaking regions by large companies that are making good profit off of it (okay, so a couple companies arent, but >_>;. Another thing is that many downloaders of fansubs do indeed purchase R1 DVDs when they do come out (I know that I purchase them at least). Also, even for all those who dont purchase R1 DVDs after watching fansubs, they at least provide demographic information to Anime localizing companies which assist in deciding which titles are most profitable to localize.

The visual novel market in the US is radically different! How so? It pretty much doesnt exist. Hirameki you say? Hirameki themselves have said they were unfortunately hampered by the lack of interest in the english speaking communities for visual novels. Hirameki is still thousands of copies short of breaking EVEN on Ever17, let alone make any profit. Thus, there is no market. Since there is pretty much no market, Hirameki doesnt even get good demographic information off of piracy.

If you choose to say, "I dont know if I'll like it, I'll buy a copy of it after I play it in english", then NNL has provided you with the free demo of Wind in english. You can play through that and get a feel for the game. Isnt that the same way games are handled in the US (with an exception to renting).

Finally, with fansubs, even at the highest quality subs, there is an inherent drop of image and audio quality over a DVD. Thus a fansub is not a good carbon copy of the product you want, and if you want the full "multimedia" experiance, you would go out and purchase the DVD of that series for it. In visual novels, are patch does not degrade the quality of the game, of images, or of music. In fact, you could say it pretty much is a carbon copy of the game, sub that its in Englisn and not Japanese. There is no loss in quality (unless the translation is ass) between the pirated version and the actual purchased version, leaving pretty much no incentive to purchase a legal version after pirating has been complete.

Thats why I think it is a very poor comparison to compare fansubs against visual novel patches and thats why I support NNLs decision completely on what they have decided to do.

[relentlessflame]

All I can say at the moment is that I'm feeling sick - seriously, and honestly sick - by all this crap. There were actually people out there who were so inconsiderate as to waste GipFace's time to try to "beat the system"? What the hell is that?! This isn't some mega-corporation that deserves to be "beaten" for some "greater good" or whatever - this is a guy who spent countless endless nights at his own cost finishing a monstrous project that none of us deserve to benefit from in the slightest, and then was kind enough to offer to the community at the small price that we actually purchased the game. Does the "fan community" have no dignity?! How could not a single person have passed the test?! If only I had been home sooner... Now, the patch is going to be discontinued and those of us who do actually own the game have to destroy our support disc, take full-body photos, and rip our support cards just to prove that we're not one of them. For crying out loud! I realize this rant is probably going to be taken all sorts of various ways, but whatever. None of us are angels, but I was trying to hold out hope that that didn't make us all demons. There are things worth fighting for, and others worth fighting against. It seems some people can't tell the difference, and as someone who believes himself to be a genuine fan, I've never felt more alone.</rant>

Yes, "oh, the drama" -- get over it. Maybe I will too, some day.

[Maceart]

Well, it's his creation, and I respect his choice to do whatever he damn wishes with it. But that gives a great idea... perhaps groups should "lockbox" their .ass and .ssa files up... and then pose a little quiz in IRC before dumping them out to the public.

Nah, that'd be too much work.

60,000 lines at around 300 lines per episode is around 200 episodes of anime. That's a couple of years at least to finish, working at 5 days per episode (our current pace for Keroro Gunsou). Wow.

[Misu-chan]

Finally, at least a couple people who appreciate the work that insani, NNL, and especially GipFace did for us.

[Jinx626]

I respect the wishes of NNL team in regards to Wind and i would be willing to jump through the hoops of proving i am a legitimate owner except for the last rule in destroying a CD for a game that i bought even if its not relevant for the patch. I am a collector of things and having a "broken" product of something is not something i like.

But hey NNL is entitled whatever rules they want. If any of them are reading this and would be allow to do leniency on the last rule (cd destroying test) or set forth another alternative to the last rule at their discretion, i would ask that they contact me so i can throw in my order before the deadline. If not i simply won't purchase. Its not like i need this to live or anything but would be nice to enjoy.

[Maceart]

Yah, the destroying a CD part is quite tipsy in terms of the rules of obtaining a patch. Out of the questions, that one seems a bit strange. For a bunch of collectors like most people on this forum, breaking something that was an 80 dollar purchase seems out of the question.

[Village Idiot]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

All I can say at the moment is that I'm feeling sick - seriously, and honestly sick - by all this crap. There were actually people out there who were so inconsiderate as to waste GipFace's time to try to "beat the system"? What the hell is that?! This isn't some mega-corporation that deserves to be "beaten" for some "greater good" or whatever - this is a guy who spent countless endless nights at his own cost finishing a monstrous project that none of us deserve to benefit from in the slightest, and then was kind enough to offer to the community at the small price that we actually purchased the game. Does the "fan community" have no dignity?! How could not a single person have passed the test?! If only I had been home sooner... Now, the patch is going to be discontinued and those of us who do actually own the game have to destroy our support disc, take full-body photos, and rip our support cards just to prove that we're not one of them. For crying out loud! I realize this rant is probably going to be taken all sorts of various ways, but whatever. None of us are angels, but I was trying to hold out hope that that didn't make us all demons. There are things worth fighting for, and others worth fighting against. It seems some people can't tell the difference, and as someone who believes himself to be a genuine fan, I've never felt more alone.</rant>

Yes, "oh, the drama" -- get over it. Maybe I will too, some day.

Actually from what I heard, two of those whom took the test failed but passed through photographic evidence.

Edit: And yes, I'm wondering if there's any way out of the whole "Destroying-CD" thing.

Photograph of the bill? the box with the shipping info or something on it?

[ladholyman]

Actually, Maceart, you just gave me a very good idea.

[Village Idiot]

On the subject of breaking the CD, seeing as how I've never done it before, how tips on how to do it without the fear of it snapping in half, my hands slipping and impaling myself with them?

[Misu-chan]

Use a knife to saw it in half.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out if theres a way to avoid breaking the cd also ;-;.

[Edit] Something has come up since the original annoucement. More news will be coming as it is disclosed.

[bluemist]

I'm glad enough that they were going to reconsider.

I just hope that there is no deadline. It's hard enough to even obtain the game here in this crazily isolated country of mine (nobody's shipping here).

Anyone know where I can purchase the game aside from Himeya?

[Village Idiot]

Rinkya will help you bid on Yahoo Japan Auctions.

They also end up charging you so much money it might be cheaper buying a new one off Himeya.

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by Village Idiot

Rinkya will help you bid on Yahoo Japan Auctions.

They also end up charging you so much money it might be cheaper buying a new one off Himeya.

Catch 22 : Himeya doesn't ship to the Philiphines (( and Malaysia ))

That's my only problem from actually buying the game. And even if shipping is available here, being the Islamic country it is, I doubt it can pass the censors.

[Village Idiot]

Hmm

Got any friends outside the country then that could get the game, then bring it over to you?

That or you could always hire some specially trained Monkey in the ninja arts to Solid Snake his/her way through to your place.

And yes, I play too much Black&White.

Edit: It looks like Haeleth is also considering on "a similar kind of vertification process" for Kanon.