Visual Novel - Translations

Translations

As of 2007, all major visual novels are produced in Japan. Only a few have been licensed in the United States and other countries; a majority are eroge, with Hirameki's now-discontinued AnimePlay series as notable exceptions. In addition to official commercial translations, a vibrant fan translation scene exists, which has translated many free visual novels (such as Narcissu and True Remembrance) and a few commercial works (such as Umineko no Naku Koro ni and Policenauts) into English. Some French and Russian translations exist as well.

Commercial English translations of contemporary Japanese visual novels were uncommon, though some games with visual novel elements had been officially translated into English for release in the Western world. These included Hideo Kojima's Snatcher and Capcom's Ace Attorney series. Multiple arcs of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni have been translated by MangaGamer and ported to Apple's touch screen products. This translation has been approved by original author Ryukishi07.

In recent years, Japanese visual novels have been released in other countries more frequently, particularly on the Nintendo DS handheld following the success of mystery titles such as Capcom's Ace Attorney series (which began on the Game Boy Advance in 2001), Cing's Hotel Dusk series (beginning in 2006), and Level-5's Professor Layton series (beginning in 2007). The success of these games has sparked a resurgence in the adventure game genre outside Japan. GameSpot has credited Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in particular for revitalizing the adventure game genre. The success of the Ace Attorney series was followed soon after by the even greater success of Level-5's Professor Layton in 2007. Both have since become some of the best selling adventure game franchises, with Ace Attorney selling over 3.9 million units worldwide and Professor Layton selling over 9.5 million units worldwide. Their success has led to an increase in Japanese visual novels being localized for release outside Japan, including KID's Ever 17: The Out of Infinity (2002), Cing's Another Code series (2005 onwards), Marvelous Entertainment's Lux-Pain (2008), Chunsoft's 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (2010), and Capcom's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (2010).

Also, an American visual novel known as Cause of Death has been released for iOS mobile devices.