The Warrior's Wedge Scene 9

Congratualtions to Varete and her partner on their new baby and to MiniMP3 on both her graduation and exciting new job!

Thank you to my wonderful flatmate for checking our translation ^^ Five more chapters and I'll shut up, I promise.

Read it on Batoto

Age of Decadence - the best CRPG in history has been released !!!

 GOG | Steam

The Age of Decadence is now available

The Age of Decadence, our first but hopefully not the last RPG, is now available. If you've been following it or playing it in Early Access, you know what to expect (if you did play an earlier version, please delete prefs.cs file from your Documents/My Games/Age of Decadence folder before starting a new game). If you've just discovered it, "stay awhile and listen".

The most commonly asked question is:
What Kind of Game Is It?

It’s a very different game than anything you’ve ever played. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the RPG genre hasn’t really been explored yet and most RPGs follow the formula that didn’t change in 20 years. While there were always games that strayed off the beaten path – Darklands, Planescape: Torment, King of Dragon Pass – such games were the exceptions that only reinforced the rule.

The Age of Decadence is an experiment, an attempt to explore a different direction, taking you back to the PnP roots of the genre. It doesn’t mean that the game is awesome. In fact, there is a good chance that you won’t like it, precisely because we took too many liberties with the established design.

So What Sets The Age of Decadence Apart From Other Games?

1. The Setup

Traditionally, many fantasy RPGs are about killing things, clearing up dungeons, and being a hero. There is nothing wrong with mindless fun and wish fulfillment, but we want to offer you something different. To quote Tom Chick (Quarter to Three's game critic):

"But Age of Decadence wants nothing to do with kobolds, just as it wants nothing to do with Doo-dads of Unimaginable Power. The overarching idea is a crumbling society divided among three noble Houses, each fumbling around in its own version of darkness to comprehend what destroyed the world. That’s the central mystery. It plays out like noir in that you are the detective, piecing together what really happened from differing accounts, all vividly written with clear voices and efficient prose. And like a detective in a noir yarn, you can’t help but become part of the central mystery, effecting an outcome you might not have intended."

The Age of Decadence is not a game about killing monsters or exploring mystical lands, but rather, surviving amid the greed and brutality of your fellow humans and carving out a name for yourself. Good and bad are purely relative. It’s a world of scheming and backstabbing in which your words and actions have the potential to forge alliances and sow discord, and your path is never certain.

You get to play with seven different factions: three Noble Houses and four 'professional' guilds: merchants, assassins, thieves, and the army, all fighting for power or influence; over 100 named characters, over 750 ‘generic’ characters with unique IDs taking part in violent take-overs, assassinations, and power grabs, and over 600,000 words of dialogue: a well-developed and thought through world, believable characters, realistic motivations, but no elves, dwarves, magic, and wizards in fashionable, pointy hats.

2. Combat’s difficulty

Another design aspect worth mentioning is combat difficulty. It’s a hard game.

Combat difficulty is integrated into the setting. You can’t say that the world is harsh and unforgiving and then let the player kill everyone who looks at him or her funny. The game has to be hard, dying should be easy, and you should have reasons to pick your fights.

You aren’t a powerful hero who can defeat anyone and save the world and it is the difficulty that reinforces this notion. Make the game easier and we’re back to the powerful hero setup. So unless you’re a natural born killer, watch what you say and think before you act or you’ll end up dead before you can blink.

3. Choices & Consequences

Choices are what the game is all about - crafting your own narrative via a variety of choices that alter the story, playing field, and your options down the road. From multiple quest solutions to branching questlines you'll have plenty decisions to make and consequences of said decisions to deal with, which is what makes the game incredibly replayable.

Starting the game as a mercenary and joining the Imperial Guards will give a completely different experience, different quests, different content and points of view than, say, playing the game as a merchant (less buying low and selling high, more scheming and plotting to gain advantages for the guild), a praetor serving a Noble House, or an assassin.

The questlines are interwoven, forming a large, overarching story, so playing the game only once will be like witnessing events from a single perspective, which is limited by default. You will have to play the game several times to better understand what’s going on, piece everything together, and see the full effect of the choices you make.

The Big Question: Should You Buy The Game?

Try before you buy. Even if everything I said sounds exactly like your kind of game, try the demo first. That’s what it’s there for. It gives you access to the first Chapter, consisting of 3 locations and about 30 quests split between mutually exclusive questlines and decisions.

What's Next?

We'll continue supporting the game and paying attention to your suggestions and concerns (as long as they fit the core of the game). During the next 3 months we'll work on extra content because why not? I dislike DLCs, so we won't charge anything for all extra content related to the game.

Our short-term project is a party-based dungeon crawler set in the AoD world. One of the characters mentions a prison-mine called The Second Chance and you'll be given an opportunity to escape it or die trying. This game will use the existing assets and systems.

Our long-term (i.e. a full scale RPG) project is a "generation ship" game, inspired by Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky. We're aiming to create a different experience with the same core ('hardcore', TB, C&C). So, combat will be turn-based but focused on ranged rather than melee (earth-made laser guns - rare but powerful, ammo even more rare, so save for special occasions - vs crude ship-manufactured firearms favoring burst rather then precision), level up to distribute skill points and unlock new feats, focus on the individual and more dynamic C&C, focus on exploring rather than working your way up in a faction; you'll be one of the 'freemen' who aren't born into a caste-like faction, more traditional open level design.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported us over the years. We wouldn't have made it this far without you.

• Next >

The Warrior's Wedge Scene 8

Yeah, so, this one was finished ages ago, but I didn't notice until now '^^ Sorry about that folks!

Much gratitude to Jojo Lii for writing the comic and clearing up some little details. hanatize and MiniMP3 for translating, and Varete for cleaning and typesetting.

Chances are there will be another long delay after this one, alas, but, for now, enjoy :)

Read it on Batoto

The Warrior's Wedge Scene 7

WE LIVE!
WE DIE!
WE LIVE AGAIN!

Big ups as usual to Poker Cards + her sister and MiniMP3 for translating, Seph for cleaning, Varete for typesetting, and my flatmate for spot translation.

Uber-gratitude to the wonderful Jojo not just for making this comic in the first place but also for providing us with spot explanations. I love being able to bug the actual author, it's the best part of translating fanwork.

Enjoy :)

Read it on Batoto

Wedge Download Links

Hey! Apparently some of you are having issues viewing files I've uploaded in posts. This is totally lame so here are all the chapters we've released so far for download :)

Also, dropbox, I am NOT using your product to distribute pirated content. Jojo Lii, the creator of The Warrior's Wedge, has given us permission to scanlate his series provided we acknowledge him as the author which he totally, 100% is. Rawr.

Anyway, here are the links ^_^ I will come back and update this post when new chapters are released. Please let me know if there are any issues, I don't seem to be able to reply to comments here but I can, and do, read them.

Scene 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlubykjd4qgmjh4/wedge_s1_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kl2fr1jvmbbql2b/wedge_s2_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oxzgtzm3im3b2kp/wedge_s3_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 4: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xxfvwb9qmpe7wdy/wedge_s4_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 5: https://www.dropbox.com/s/057w7e36j79um9w/wedge_s5_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vspeti5c9r1ntpr/wedge_s6_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/m31l43oiy7uvmd6/wedge_s7_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 8: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s46sp60rux70bok/wedge_s8_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 9: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rs1tvzga59x4puv/wedge_s9_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 10: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rlyi1vbo13pnus8/wedge_s10_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 11: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sx0xnrc2318wsub/wedge_s11_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 12: https://www.dropbox.com/s/39uu9vtivgakkvu/wedge_s12_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 13: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fm6xlwmlzlk5e8s/wedge_s13_mib.zip?dl=0
Scene 14: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oh53ikf586vudd3/wedge_s14_mib.zip?dl=0

China has Blacklisted Claymore

I don't know if y'all have heard about this or not but the Chinese givernment has decided to blacklist Claymore. I don't know about you, but my first thought when I heard this was "Oh no! Wedge!" and I immediately went and downloaded the raws of all the chapters we've not released yet so that project is safe.

Let this be a reminder to all of us that political climates change and what's there today could easily be gone tomorrow. If you know of any Chinese fanrat or fancomics that you like, secure your own copies now before they vanish for good.

As for Wedge, I know this delay is a downer, but I'm fairly sure we'll get chapter 7 out at the end of the month. After that, MiniMP3 will be finished her exams and things will almost certainly pick up again around here.

Also, if you're bored, go check out our tumblr page. It's mostly me ranting about stuff but you might find something there that's diverting. Seph's page is good fun too but y'all already know that ^^

Expect Delays

MiniMP3, our principal proofreader for Wedge, has come down with a wreched case of assignments comorbid with exams and will be unable to do anything fun, let alone work on Wedge, until July.

DON'T PANIC! This does NOT mean that we're going on hiatus for six weeks! The translator for scene 7 has contacts and we're sorting something out. I don't have an ETA for the chapter but things are definitely happening and we'll get it to you as soon as we can.

Sorry about this T.T It's always sad when Real Life gets in the way of nice things but hey, c'est la vie.

The Warrior's Wedge Scene 6

Scene 6: The Resolution to Win

A not very long time ago in a whole bunch of countries that are far, far apart. . .

It is a period of personal chaos. Finals and family emergiencies, striking from perfidious fate, have consipired to deprive everybody of their free time.

During this chaos, the members of MiB managed to translate into English Scene 6 of the Chinese doujinshi, THE WARRIOR'S WEDGE, a Teresa-focussed fancomic by Jojo Lii with enough power to slightly lessen the pang of losing Claymore.

Pursued by a vague hunger, Number A sits at her computer, and says a big thank you to theflobear, MiniMP3, Seph, and Varete for their help in producing the totally-not-stolen-because-Jojo-said-we-could scanlations that can amuse her people and restore freedom to the galaxy....

May the 4th be with you!

Read it on Batoto

Jojo Lii has Spoken!! We have permission to scanlate Wedge!!

MiniMP3 the unfailingly excellent got on Baidu and asked him and he said yes provided we author credit which we were doing anyway :D

This makes me really happy! I feel kind of awkward sometimes about the legal complexities of this hobby so a nice, clear-cut case of 'yes' is just the best thing ever ^_^

Scene 6 may be a few days late, btw. Family emergencies, assignments, and finals have befallen key members of the group. We'll get there in the end, though, fear not~!

2010 Memorabilia Interview

Huge, HUGE shout-out to ProGoddess of Mangahelpers who was so quick to translate pages 5-7 when I asked her to and to the marvellous MiniMP3 who not only translated page 2 but also went through and helped me tidy up the wording of all the other pages. You rock man, thank you so much.

By the way, if anybody happens to have a copy of this book can you get in touch? It's got another interview with Yagi in it and I think you can all guess how much I love reading those :D

Three unrelated releases in one week will never happen again, btw, unless Undeadman 3 turns out to exist after all and we get it done at the same time as the R+V interview and a chapter of Wedge.

Blessed be :)

-Number A

PS. Here's the 2shared download link - it's always wise to have a personal copy of interesting stuff especially when it violates copyright ;)

Undeadman 2 by Norihiro Yagi

Read it on Batoto | 2shared to download

Ladies, gentlemen, and persons of genders not included in stock presentation phrases, I give to you, for the first time in any language other than Japanese (we beat TSS to this one!), the sequel to Norihiro Yagi's introductory work, UNDEADMAN TWO!!!

Gratitude to Rigarudo who shredded a copy of Monthly Shonen Jump 1991/4 and Utsune who spent many hours pouring over nuances just so we could all read this chapter. Thank you also to Varete and Seph for sharing their thoughts on the FX typesetting.

Love and Peace to you all!

-Number A

The Warrior's Wedge Scene 5

This chapter is brought to you by Tumblr since that's where I met pretty much everybody who's worked hard to make it happen :)

Uber-thanks to tonari-kun for translation,  Seph (fuckyeahclaymore and f-f-fight) for cleaning and publicity, Varete (gamirt) for typesetting, and, of course, to MiniMP3 (not on tumblr but on DeviantArt) not just for her help with translation checking and proofreading but also for translating scenes 3 and 4 without which this project probably wouldn't have got off the ground. Follow all these people, they are The Best.

Enjoy ^_^

Read it on Batoto

The Warrior's Wedge Scene 2

This is also over on MH but I figured I should upload it here for, like, completeness.

I really need to work out how to do groups of photos in a tidy and coherent fashion on blogger, this post business is getting a bit ridiculous.

Enjoy :)

Read it on Batoto

The Warrior's Wedge Scene 1

This is available over on mangahelpers but I figured I'd repost it here for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know that. The fact that the first version doesn't even have anti-aliasing on the type (it was my first time typesetting! I got better, I swear!) has, of course, nothing to do with this decision.

Read it on Batoto

The Warrior's Wedge Scene 4

The superb MiniMP3 - who you should all totally follow (is that what you do on that site?) on Deviantart - is on break right now and translated scene 4. Don't get too excited, though, she's a full-time student who will be very busy over the next few months. If anyone wants to help out with translation (from Chinese) please, don't be shy.

Alternatively, beg your friends to do it! That's what I do ;)

Much thanks to Seph both for helping out with cleaning this chapter and also for publicising every single one of our Claymore-related releases since Undeadman.

Enjoy!

Read it on Batoto

Undeadman Commentary

Translators are like buses: nothing comes for AGES and then suddenly everything happens at once. On that note, here are the commentary pages from Undeadman which Utsune and I really should have done when we actually scanlated the manga! Oh well, better late than never ^_^

Enjoy!

-Number A

The Warrior's Wedge Chapter 3

Hey! I don't know how many of you know about this but there's a Chinese Claymore fancominc called The Warrior's Wedge that has gotten some attention over the years (see here).  Well, I worked with the fantastic ProGoddes of MangaHelpers to get out 1 and 2 way back when (see here) and now, praise Teresa, can bring you chapter 3~!

The thing is though, the person who translated this, MiniMP3, did this chapter as a personal favour to yours truly because she's a wonderful, generous human being who you should totally follow on deviantart. I've not got a translator lined up for chapters 4 through 14 so if any excellent soul who speaks Chinese feels like stepping forward (or who knows such a person who they can convince to step forward) please, don't be shy. Even just one chapter would be great ^_^

Read it on Batoto

Noirhiro Yagi Interview Jump SQ 2014

 Batoto | 2shared

 

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the complete extended interview in all its glory ^_^

Once again, praise be unto the munificent Kenji without whom this would not exist.

Health and happiness to you all~!

Number A

Jump SQ 2014 Interview Parts 2 and 3

For your edification and bettermet ^_^

Uber-thanks to the wonderful Kenji who translated these, parts 4 and 5 will come as soon as we're finished proofreading them.

Enjoy :)

Jump SQ 2014 Interview part 1

Yo! Number A here today :) If there are any Claymore fans out there and paying attention we've translated the first part of the long version of the interview with Yagi that appeared on the Jump SQ website :D

Translated by the wonderful Kenji, proofread and typeset by Number A.

Parts two, three, four, and five should all be along shortly :)

Enjoy ^.^

Desert Punk 81 (4/9)

Batoto | 2shared

Please read this: http://mibscanlations.blogspot.com/2015/02/desert-punk-76-77-vol-12-complete.html

Desert Punk 80 (3/9)

Batoto | 2shared

I'm glad I've rushed with typesetting DP chapters because as it turns out I have even less free time than anticipated. I'll finish volume 13 obviously but it might take a while. Unfortunately we don't have a translator and it looks like we won't have one. So spread the word, recommend this manga and maybe some other group will take over now that this manga has gained so many followers. When I've started working on this series (2 years ago, volumes 6+ are my work when it comes to typesetting/cleaning) it was a fraction of that and it's the only thing (short of paying a translator) that can get us further translation.

Please read this: http://mibscanlations.blogspot.com/2015/02/desert-punk-76-77-vol-12-complete.html

Desert Punk 78 & 79 (2/9 of vol. 13)

Chapter 78
Batoto | 2shared

Chapter 79
Batoto | 2shared

We're looking for a jp->en translator for volume 14. Details in previous post. Unless we find one you will end up with a cliffhanger like you've never seen before :P.

Desert Punk 76 & 77v2 (vol. 12 complete)

Edit: 
1 page was missing in chapter 77. Thanks hakis22. 

Chapter 76
Batoto | 2shared

Chapter 77v2
Batoto | 2shared

So as I've written before, we have translation up to volume 13. After that there will be a hiatus and most likely you'll never know what happens next. I've been trying to find a translator for years but to no avail (BDR was interested but Desert Punk is very hard to translate). This manga is too obscure, too anti-mainstream (no moe, no naked boobs, etc.) and hard to translate since it's a seinen (in shounens they have furigana which makes translating much easier).

I've posted recruitment posts on Mangafox (it has 1 view - mine), at Mangahelpers - 54 views (and even topics where money is offered aren't much more popular, although it might be that everything is handled silently), at Batoto you can see for yourself and at Baka Updates 38. The problem here is that translators rarely frequent such places and if they do, they usually have a specific manga in mind so it's a tie-in transaction. And with such an obscure manga as Desert Punk it's even more difficult.

I've tried to pitch this manga to 3 translators already (those that I know a bit, well and very well) but none of them seemed interested because they didn't find this manga appealing and they don't have that much free time.So I have no idea how to convince anyone to pick this manga up and translate it short of hiring someone to do it (but that would require a budget which we don't have).

So if you have any ideas on how to resolve this situation I'm all ears. Also, if you can spread the word and try to pitch this project to some groups I would be most grateful.. Maybe there would be one willing to continue our work. As a self-proclaimed biggest DP fan I wouldn't mind to hand over the reins as long as I would get my fill of Desert Punk :P.

Desert Punk 75

Batoto | 2shared

Edit:
Announcement moved here: http://mibscanlations.blogspot.com/2015/02/desert-punk-76-77-vol-12-complete.html

Desert Punk 74

Batoto | 2shared

 Edit:
Announcement moved to the next post.

Desert Punk chapters 72 & 73

Chapter 72
Batoto | 2shared

Chapter 73
Batoto | 2shared

Desert Punk chapter 70 & 71

Chapter 70
Batoto | 2shared

Chapter 71
Batoto | 2shared

Links to volumes 1-11 (Desert Punk download)

Vol. 1 (Mediafire)

Vol. 2 (Mediafire) 

Vol. 3 (Mediafire) 

Vol. 4 (Mediafire) 

Vol. 5 (Mediafire) 

Vol. 6 (Mediafire) 

Vol. 7 (Mediafire) 

Vol. 8 (Mediafire) 

Vol. 9 (Mediafire) 

Vol. 10 (Mediafire) 

Vol. 11 (Mediafire) 

http://www.2shared.com/file/pV6vW8yl/Desert_Punk_v01_GWR.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/zjX2woXK/Desert_Punk_v02_GWR.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/pmqXf2VG/Desert_Punk_v03_GWR.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/NGCUjfVr/Desert_Punk_v04_GWR.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/WNpE6b7D/Desert_Punk_v05_GWR.html 
http://www.2shared.com/file/vy0CeVAW/Desert_Punk_06_GWR.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/jGpy3HjD/Desert_Punk_07_GWR.html
 http://www.2shared.com/file/fDtT02ES/Desert_Punk_08_GWR.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/jwXqBUhM/Desert_Punk_v09_GWR.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/0__Xf-VG/Desert_Punk_v10_GWR.html
http://www.2shared.com/file/1psHO2BP/Desert_Punk_v11_GWR.html

Desert Punk chapters 68 & 69

Chapter 68
Batoto | 2shared

Chapter 69
Batoto | 2shared

This completes volume 11 with one of the best chapters in the whole manga IMO (that Junko scene :D and the end of the volume when shit hit the fan :/).

Desert Punk chapters 66 & 67

Chapter 66
Batoto | 2shared

Chapter 67
Batoto | 2shared

I'll add chapter 67 in 2-3 hours. BTW, what do you think about new layout?

Desert Punk chapters 64 & 65

Chapter 64
Batoto | 2shared

Chapter 65

Batoto | 2shared

Don't get used to such frequent releases though :P. I have another great news for you, benevolent Teriguu has offered to clean Desert Punk so starting from volume 12 the quality will be as good as it can get. He has just sent me cleaned chapter 70 and once I finish volume 11 I'll get straight to typesetting it. Be sure to thank him.

Desert Punk 62 and 63

Chapter 62
Batoto | 2shared

Chapter 63

Batoto | 2shared

I've got good news and bad news. The good news is obviously that DP is back. The bad news is that I'll be cutting corners and won't clean raws, straighten crooked pages, etc. but only copy/paste with some very basic typesetting. Otherwise it would take me too much time which I don't have and I would like to finish this project. Thanks to Etienne the project stayed alive when no one was willing to translate and thanks to Ikkyusan the quality of translation stayed the same. Ikkyusan especially deserves credit because he translated up to 13 volume so at worst you will get the translation and raws can be easily found on the net. I have time till February 26th and I'll try to scanlate as many chapters as I can.

Jump SQ Interview with Norihiro Yagi

Hello everybody!

Remember that interview with Norihiro Yagi that appeared in the December issue of Jump SQ? Well guess what! We now present it,  in all it's scanlated glory, for the edification and betterment of what's left of the Claymore fandom. To read or download, simply click on the relevant link below

 Link to read on Batoto

 Link to download

If you want to help with translating the long version shout in the comments below, PM me over at mangahelpers, track me down through tumblr or otherwise make your intentions known. Utsune the Great and Good is swamped with Real Life right now and isn't able to commit to it T_T

EDIT: Fourtunately Kenji, deus ex machina extraordanaire, stepped in and translated the full version :D Read it here ^^

Enjoy ^_^

-Number A

Also, here are all the pretty pictures in case you don't want to go to Batoto ^^