Umihara Kawase Fresh getting a Steam release in late May

[KawaseFan]

https://www.gematsu.com/2020/04/umihara-kawase-fresh-coming-to-pc-on-may-28

I'm kind of surprised that this is happening at this point, but I suppose if they can get a few more sales (especially with the less than stellar sales of the Switch and PS4 versions), then why not.

[Alc]

I'd be tempted by this solely on the possibility of a patch to get rid of the hunger bar.

[Tofu]

Not sure if releasing Fresh and Bazooka on the same day is a good idea but I'll probably get the former.
Also, didn't the Steam page mention an English release a few hours ago? Looks like they removed it, that's a bummer.

[KawaseFan]

Also, didn't the Steam page mention an English release a few hours ago? Looks like they removed it, that's a bummer.

Not sure why the English description got removed, but it's back now.  English is still listed as not supported, but the end of the description states "English Version:Coming 2020".  So it will be available in English at some point this year, but I guess not this month.

I had speculated in a discussion on Discord about whether there were any rights issues with Nicalis that would prevent Success from releasing an English version outside of Japan.  I could be totally wrong about that, but I can't think of any other reason for the delay of the PC version including English, since the Japanese Switch release included English.

[KawaseFan]

So the PC version's out now on Steam, and I can't really recommend it.  Besides the current lack of English language option (which we knew about), the game is still surprisingly expensive, even with a 20% launch discount, for a year-old Switch game that it's clear has had minimal effort put into the port.  All of the button prompts appear to have been left unchanged from the Switch version; e.g., if your PC controller uses an Xbox layout like mine does, then all references to A actually mean B and vice versa, and the 'goal' of a stage would actually be activated with Y, rather than the X that the game displays.

I can't recommend the PC version unless it gets a serious, permanent discount (hopefully this happens when the game is updated to support English) or at least a 50% off sale, and has the button displays fixed.

[KawaseFan]

As of December 22, the Steam version still doesn't support English, and the Steam store page still says "English Version:Coming 2020".  That seems unlikely to happen at this point.

[KawaseFan]

Fresh is 50% off in the Steam sale, and the store page does now list the game as being available in English.  I haven't played it to check whether it's the same English text as the Switch version, but I'm glad I've been proven wrong about it being unlikely to happen this year.

[Alc]

Even reduced it's £23, which is about £15 more than I'd be interested in paying.

With only 10 reviews on Steam I have to wonder how many sales that translates into. 100? 1000? Surely not more than that. Depressing all around, really.

Anyway, happy holidays, folks!

[KawaseFan]

Even reduced it's £23, which is about £15 more than I'd be interested in paying.

With only 10 reviews on Steam I have to wonder how many sales that translates into. 100? 1000? Surely not more than that. Depressing all around, really.

Anyway, happy holidays, folks!

It gets worse: though I still haven't played it since the update, reports from the Steam Community board are that the PC version does not have the same English translation as the Switch version, and the new translation isn't particularly good.  One commenter even went as far as suggesting it was a machine translation.

(And happy holidays to you!)

[Alc]

It gets worse: though I still haven't played it since the update, reports from the Steam Community board are that the PC version does not have the same English translation as the Switch version, and the new translation isn't particularly good.  One commenter even went as far as suggesting it was a machine translation.

Good grief.

A little digging and it turns out that you're right, and in fact it's even crazier than that - the original Switch script is present (in the PC executable) but has been swapped out for this new, obviously inferior machine translation. I get that this is "licencing weirdness" issue rather than direct incompetence, but even so, yikes...

[KawaseFan]

I get that this is "licencing weirdness" issue rather than direct incompetence, but even so, yikes...

Yeah, it's an unfortunate situation for them, but they really would've been better off not bothering with the English release.