A new English fan translation has just been published for Yaku: Yūjō Dangi, a cult classic Japanese kusoge ("crap game") released for the original PlayStation.
Launched back in 1996, the same year as Resident Evil, Yaku: Yūjō Dangi (which is translated here as as Misfortune: A Story of Suspicious Friendships) is a horror-themed visual novel from Idea Factory and Axes Art Amuse.
It was directed by the Idea Factory co-founder Shingo Kuwana — an individual previously credited as a planner on the SNES versions of Data East's Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja and Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics — and follows the story of five friends who return to their old elementary school to dig up an old time capsule, but who end up getting caught in a terrifying mystery. It later received a sequel in 1997, named Yaku Tsuu: Noroi No Game, with this follow-up being supervised by the Japanese manga creator Hideshi Hino, who was known for comics like Hell Baby, Hino Horrors, and Panorama of Hell.
The gameplay in Yaku: Yūjō Dangi essentially plays out exactly how you'd expect for a visual novel, tasking players with choosing from a bunch of menu and dialogue options that appear onscreen to advance the plot and unlock different endings. What makes it stand out, however, is its generally unusual and often unsettling art style, with the title featuring some disturbing character designs for the core group of kids that add to the game's ambience.
According to the announcement on BlueSky, the new patch is the work of a core team of three that includes whowasphone404 (translation, proofreading, playtesting), Chapu (hacking/programming), and RetroPolygons (image/video editing, proofreading, playtesting).
Meanwhile, the fellow fan translators and hackers Aria, PSXCraver, blamerobots, esperknight were also responsible for offering some additional assistance and support. The team has translated all of the game's script as well as signs in its FMVs.
You can download the patch from the RomHack Plaza, if you want to give it a got! This download also includes a fully translated manual and boxart for PAL and NA versions.