Apathy Midnight Collection Vol. 1 – Translation Project
I haven’t taken the opportunity to tell you about my main translation project yet. I’ve been working on a translation of the visual novel Apathy – Midnight Collection Vol. 1 for a few years on and off, and have thus far completed 8 out of the 11 arcs for the main story. All three stories should be completed by November provided everything runs smoothly.
Midnight Collection Vol. 1 is an alternate retelling of the horror VN Apathy – Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi which first debuted on – wait for it – the Super Famicom in 1995! Additional scenarios and art were eventually added to the original in 2007 (that’s 15 years later) to make Apathy 1995 – Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi – VNV Version, followed by a final version S that added further scenarios the following year.
MC1 is comprised of three stories. The first of these Emi’s Murder Club Observation Diary, is a 84 ending whopper of a story, though fortunately it doesn’t take long to reach each ending. The theme is horror flavoured with copious amounts of black comedy, like icing on a cake made of human organs. The second, The Following Dog, has 36 endings and exchanges the black comedy with drama. The third, Scratches on the Pillars, rounds the collection off with a very evocative, artistic short story.
Emi’s Murder Club Observation Diary is the main story of Midnight Collection 1, which chronicles the adventures of a psychopathic schoolgirl and her attempts not to be assassinated by the school’s Murder Club. It’s dark, twisted and ever so humorous. Acquiring all the endings is nigh impossible without a walkthrough or sheer determination. But I tell you, it’s worth it.
Highlight: Trying to find ways to elude the Murder Club and at the same time loving them to bits
The Following Dog is a far more down-to-earth horror story – a much needed change from the manic pace of the Murder Club’s chaos. A plot summary would give away the mystery, but to put it simply, it revolves around the legend of a dog who will eat you if you look back on your journey. This one has 36 very well-thought out and incredibly moving endings.
Highlight: One story arc involves the adventures of a pampered pomeranian and a pug!
Scratches on the Pillars is an absolute masterpiece. The art is astounding and the atmosphere it evokes is beautiful. The downside is that it’s extremely short and is completely linear, but it’s an experience in itself.
Highlight: The beautiful art and evocative atmosphere
My current progress on the translation, for those interested, is 60% datawise for the main story, though this doesn’t reflect the actual length because there are chunks of code mixed in. I should actually be further ahead than the current percentage. We’ll see how it goes and take it from there. I’ll keep you posted!
Guardian's Paradise 
Oh how surprising to see. Good luck with your progress.
Oooh, this looks interesting! I’ll be waiting for it! Good job! 😀
Ah, you’re amazing. Thanks for taking the time to do something like this!
The project was dropped? .. A lot of time had passed and no news
Currently, the translation of the main story (the Murder Club story) is 100% complete and I’ve been working my way through an editing pass because I wasn’t satisfied with the quality yet. The editing pass of the main story is at 49% (datawise) plus a small bit of graphics to edit, like the ending titles. I’ll be more than happy to release some kind of patch when I’ve finished editing, but there’s one problem: namely, there’s an arc which is only unlockable if you play the second story Okuri Inu. They’re interlinked in a couple of ways, so I’ll have to explain which choices are required to get to that arc when the time comes.
Anyway, thanks for the question. This should kick me into writing an update post!
Wow! You so great!
I love horror novel! I hope that you’ll make patch soon.
I want to ask you where i can download this game?
There should indeed be a patch soon! I’m edging my way forward (amidst a thousand other distractions) and now the editing pass for the main story of the collection has only one arc to go. If I can get my act together and focus for a couple more weekends you should be seeing it sometime next month. As for downloading, I understand it’s a hard game to find but I’d like to promote its sales if I can. The main reason I’ve avoided updating this site is to avoid creating premature hype. Now that the translation is reaching a proper milestone, expect more info on the game and the Apathy world soon!
I’ll be waiting!
Do you translate only “Emi’s Murder Club Observation Diary”?
How about progress of translation?
why are you so dead
I’m not dead – honest! Currently on holiday till next Monday, but still working on editing sporadically. Apart from a very small pass that I have to go back to, all the major scenes of the Murder Club are basically done. If I’m to focus solely on the main story, all that remains now is basically the graphic text editing (primarily the ending text) and patching – it uses the KiriKiri engine, the same as Fate/Stay Night.
Glad to see you’re still alive.I’m looking forward to play this game in english.Good luck
I’ve been looking forward to your translation from the first day I knew it existed. I’m excited that you are so close! I hope you realize how many fans you are in the process of making when this patch finally gets released! Looking forward to it!
I just thought I’d comment to say how thrilled I am that you’re working on this. The original SFC title is an old favorite of mine. Keep up the good work!!
I can hardly wait for this to be released. Been wanting to play this game for a long time.
Between this and the original Megami Tensei finally getting translated, it looks like I’ll be able to get my fill of dark games in the days ahead! Cheers to you!
Is this project still alive?
so the project is already dead? There was no update since august
Is this project dead?
I ask too “Is this project still alive”?
Please finish Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi ive been searching all over the internet for an english patch or translation , you would be my personal hero if you finished the english patch of the game
Any news?
Is this project still alive?
I’m not sure if there’s a point in doing this but I wanted to try anyway and please respond, have you finished? I’ve waited for years and I don’t want to seem demanding but could you please release whatever you have done? Or at least confirm it’s over I don’t want to hope for nothing anyways thank you for your time if you ever read this.
Hi Echo,
Thanks for the comment. I’m pretty sure apologising for such a long hiatus won’t cut it, but still, I’m sorry for making you (and anyone else who was hoping for some sort of update) wait for such a long time. I’ll now explain the current situation progress-wise and regarding my availability, etc. I’m sure I’ll be reiterating much of this in a proper post, but I’d like to get it down in text tonight before I proceed any further.
Apathy Midnight Collection Vol. 1 is split into three separate stories: Emi’s Murder Club Observation Diary (roughly 1.3mbs of text), Okuri Inu (roughly 760kbs) and Hashira no Kizu (I haven’t calculated this as it’s in a different form from onscripter, but this third story is very short and entirely linear). Regarding main game text, the translation of the Murder Club story is complete. A portion of system text is also done, as well as a few attempts on some of the graphics, but the graphic text should ideally be done again from scratch. Also, despite having all of Murder Club translated, you actually have to reach a certain route in Okuri Inu to unlock one of the story paths in Murder Club, so it would still be kind of unreasonable to consider it “complete”.
Once I’d finished my first translation + editing pass on the Murder Club text, I attempted to contact the developer to no avail, and this was more or less the main reason the whole thing fell by the wayside. But given the continued interest in the project, I can see that I should at least follow through. On my part, too, leaving it there unfinished and looming in the background wasn’t exactly the best feeling.
From this point on, I should able to set aside enough time per week to demonstrate progress with the translation. I’ve spent a few hours today setting up the translation environment (Notepad++ and such) so that I can begin working on the project again properly from tomorrow. Expect weekly updates from now on. Should I fail to achieve this, I’ll be compelled to post what I’ve done so far and that’ll be that.
Thanks again, and I hope this at least in part makes up for the long wait.
I love you, I love you much I could die! I didn’t think you would even read my message and I’m sorry if I sounded ungrateful. Still thank you for everything I mean it!
Don’t worry – you didn’t sound ungrateful at all! If anything, I should be thanking you for kicking me back into action!
Hi 🙂 Can I ask you a question? Do you by any chance have walkthrough for the game ? Oh please say yes, as I am stuck with the first story, Okuri Inu, I cannot get to the point where I’d have *I believe in him* choice…. Grrr. Really, I gave up, but maybe you have the walkthrough for the game ? Or at least know how to get to that goddamn choice?
Hi🙂 Can I ask you a question? Do you by any chance have walkthrough for the game ? Oh please say yes, as I am stuck with the first story, Okuri Inu, I cannot get to the point where I’d have *I believe in him* choice…. Grrr. Really, I gave up, but maybe you have the walkthrough for the game ? Or at least know how to get to that goddamn choice?
Hey, I’ve been using the following site for reference – I don’t know if it’ll help, but here’s the Okuri Inu ending guide:
https://www32.atwiki.jp/allmiccore/sp/pages/18.html
I can look into this in more detail tonight though and check what triggers that event if you’re still stuck by then!
Okay, I’ve had a look and the way to unlock the “believe in ___-san” option is kind of mean. You need to have completed at least 30 endings in Murder Club before it’ll appear. There are also some parts of Murder Club that won’t unlock unless you’ve done certain things in Okuri Inu as well, so it’s best to consider them a pair!
You’re my savior. All endings in the first story – DONE 🙂 Weeeehaaa, thank you so very much !! 🙂 I wouldn’t be able to do it without your help !