[Project Announcement] Sword Art Online Alternative: Clover's Regret


Clover's Regret (officially known as Sword Art Online Alternative: Clover's Regret (ソードアート・オンライン オルタナティブ クローバーズリグレット)) is a novel-format SAO spin-off by Watase Sōichirō that is serialised in Dengeki Bunko MAGAZINE as part of the Dengeki Bunko Resurrection Series project. According to the synopsis released with the announcement, the story is about a certain SAO survivor who is a "detective". The first chapter was released on the 10th of June, with the second chapter to be released in August. The first chapter is actually kinda long - about 1/4-1/5 of the size of a regular light novel or about 3 regular SAOAGGO chapters.

Since I had some free time, I decided to give this latest SAO spin-off a try. And so, I'll be doing a translation of the first chapter as a teaser project. As it would be hard to manage both SAOAGGO and Clover's Regret concurrently, I'll use the first chapter to gauge interest in the series to see if it's worth it. If I see enough interest, I may take up more chapters in the future. I have already finished translating the chapter and it will probably be released in one go as soon as editing is done.

For those interested, I'll include some info about the characters and plot. Some spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk. :P

Credits to the SAO scans project for the raws and illustrations, including the cover.

-Gsimenas


Setting

The story is set in Asuka Empire (a Japanese-style game introduced in Sisters' Prayer). Specifically, a newly implemented area in the game that comes with a Halloween-ish town.

Characters


Nayuta (the girl in the middle of the cover). Seems to be the protagonist. A Battle Miko (an advanced version of the Miko class, I suppose) who focuses on agility, despite most Battle Mikos usually choosing to be more of a tank class. She's a level-headed, shy and modest character. In real life, she's a high-school student named Kushiida Yurina. Possibly a former SAO player.

Koyomi (the girl in the front of the cover). Nayuta's friend who she met when an NPC waiter mixed up Nayuta and Koyomi's orders (that's apparently a pre-programmed character trait for the NPC) at a bakeneko (mythical cat monster) restaurant, and have frequently partied since then. She's a Ninja. Usually rather blunt, outgoing and comical (e.g. she keeps pestering Nayuta to marry her and comments about her huge boobs; maybe she's related to Lisbeth?), but can't handle scary stuff. Loves Nayuta for her manly bravery, but has no problem falling for handsome NPCs for their looks. In real life, she's a working adult, which is kinda ironic since she looks more like a kid in the game.

Clevel (the guy in the background of the cover). Supposedly a detective, but he apparently handles anything from in-game tourism and helping people with quests to in-game market scouting. For a price (in real money) of course. Although he's a high-levelled player, he has allotted most of his skill points to Luck. He is confirmed to be a former SAO player.

Yanagi. An old man Monk who has just started the game. Desperately wants to complete a certain quest in the game within a week for unknown reasons.

More detailed synopsis


Nayuta and Koyomi are in the aforementioned restaurant, preparing to take on a quest, when an old man suddenly enters the bar and asks whether they know the way to Mitsuba's Detective Agency. As the old man is a new player and doesn't know the way around, the two girls decide to guide them to the detective agency he's seeking. There, they find out that the old man is desperate to complete a certain quest within a week and decide to help him.

19 comments:

  1. It looks good, please do work on it. And thank you very much for all the translations so far!

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  2. Ooh, sounds pretty cool! I'd definitely be interested. If you need some extra help to manage two projects, I'd be happy to volunteer as an editor.

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    1. An extra hand would always be useful, if you have the spare time for it. My working doc is on Google Docs, so I will need your google account to add you. Send me a message through Google + or gmail. My Google + account should be linked through my posts.

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    2. Hey, sorry for the late reply ^^' I can't seem to find your gmail address. I'm at lclockmancapulet@gmail.com ! (if you'd rather talk through Google Plus let me know, I just haven't used it before!)

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    3. We use Hangout for discussing the project. I've added you to the chat. You should be able to see it even on gmail, so you shouldn't really need to use G+. Though I'm not sure if you need to have activated G+ to see the Hangout or not.

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  3. You know my stance on more SAO stuff :)

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  4. I mainly want u to work on ggo but if u can work on multiple projects witjout slowing down its no problem but the choice its urs and always thanx for the good work

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    1. Seeing as editing usually takes up much more time than the translating, I could probably juggle more than one project and not slow down work on any of them. I'm always a few chapters ahead of the editing team, so they will have something to keep them busy while I'm busy on another project. Thus, translation releases will probably be mostly unaffected, unless someone decides to start marathon-editing.

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    2. then go for it dude, i have been a fan for sao for a long time and more novels never hurts

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  5. I have cleaned the color illustrations, if perhaphs, you want them, I can share them with you.

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    1. Sure, if you don't mind. Would save Mttblue2 some work maybe :)
      Did you clean the scanned images or the HD one's on the wiki?

      Thanks in advance!

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  6. Well, they're not full HD (1 mb every image). I am working with the spanish translation (all credits for the english translation will be yours). I only cleaned, they're not translated. If you have the english translation of every illustration, I'd like you share with me. Thanks in advance.

    Sorry for my english. It's not perfect.

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  7. Translations can be found on the wiki too (credits go to Gsimenas). Easiest way would be to provide me a Dropbox/GDrive/Mega/etc. link.

    Thanks!

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  8. https://mega.nz/#!GY5XzToD!dcd0cSan0UGEWVvj8uSUjLEHtoM1El4TJF8JWqX26dI

    Credits go to Obelisk (is my nickname)

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  9. Ah, and I am from Traduccion TSA (thats the name of my translation group) Link: traducciontsa.wordpress.com

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  10. Excuse me, will you use the pics?

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    1. In all honesty? I don't know. Mttblue2's images will be of much higher quality, but he is currently busy with other projects and IRL stuff. That said, I'm quite busy too. It depends on when I can get around to compile it, and if Mttblue2 has finished his versions or not.

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  11. Well, I can clean the HD pics, if you still need them. I have more free-time to work on them (maybe one day or two). And, if you want, I can put the text (I use the font called 'VOX', don't know if you want other font).

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    1. You're free to do it, but don't expect it as given that I will use your pictures. I won't get to that in the next few weeks, unfortunately

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