Title: SeaBed
Platform: PC, Switch
Places you can buy it from: SteamSwitch
Vndb Link: Here
Language difficulty: Intermediate jpdb.io
Game Length: 18-19 hours, 406.000 characters
Hookable: Yes
Voiced Audio: No (??)
Trigger Warnings: Don’t know
SeaBed is a yuri-themed mystery visual novel told through the perspectives of three separate characters: Mizuno Sachiko, a designer plagued by hallucinations of her past lover; Narasaki Hibiki, Sachiko’s friend and a psychiatrist researching the workings of human memories; and Takako, Sachiko’s former lover who has been rapidly forgetting her past, including how or why the two women drifted apart despite being together since childhood.
All three live in different worlds, but seek the same goal. To separate truth from illusion. To make sense of their own lives.
This is an informal Visual Novel club, with no set schedule. Please read at your own pace. There will be no weekly threads - we’ll keep the conversation in this thread.
SeaBed is hookable with Luna translator, I don’t know how it works with other text hookers. Your antivirus software will probably complain about Luna translator, so you have to make an exception in your anti virus software if you want to use it.
Another very useful tool is JL. It pulls the text from your clipboad and presents it in a window over the visual novel. You can hover over the text in JL’s window and look up words with JMdict.
In my screenshot, the second line of text is the original text from the VN (it’s the very first line of text, so not really a spoiler!). The first line of text, above the VN’s text, comes from JL via Luna Translator. As you can see, I hover over a word and get the translation from JMDict. That’s my favorite way to read VNs right now.
Having trouble deciding whether to buy on Switch or Steam. It looks like the epilogue chapters are already included on Switch, whereas you have to buy them separately on Steam? Can anyone confirm?
I’m not planning on doing the text extractor stuff, so that’s not a factor
In case anyone else joins along, I found a demo version here, if you wanna get an idea of the language level before buying: 【50%OFF】SeaBed [paleontology] | DLsite 同人
The language level is intermediate plus I would say. I have tried and failed to read it on my own a few times! This time I decided to buy it on both Steam and Switch, and read it first in Japanese on PC (with a text hooker) and then re-read in English on Switch. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish that way! It’s certainly harder than other VNs that I have read - mainly because it’s not voiced. It feels more like reading a book than playing a game.
The switch version has a few (fairly short) optional extra scenes you can read after finishing the game, so I’m assuming those were the extra content added to the switch version. According to the update history on the steam store page it seems like those have been patched into the steam version too though
(the audio novels are just a completely separate thing as far as I’m aware)
Not quite sure what intermediate plus means, but that’s a good strategy. You could also read them side by side (like read JP, try to understand, then check switch translation), but that could get tedious.
I’m finding just a few lookups, and certainly much easier than either マリア様がみてる or flowers… so I’d guess it so far around like L24-26 range? Which increases the likelihood I’ll buy it for Switch
Do you have furigana for the names by any chance? I think I’ve worked out Sachiko, but the other character in the prologue I’m lost on - and at least the demo version doesn’t have it. Also I’m loving that the characters are adults - I didn’t realize that
Ahhh ok, so the bundle should be the 3 audio novels then - which I don’t see mentioned anywhere for Switch… so I guess it doesn’t matter either way.
That’s definitely doable for me, even not texthooked… I’m much more likely to get through it on the Switch than my PC, although if it’s on sale on one vs the other that’d probably be the deciding factor.
How come, portability? It says 330円 on the DLsite link I posted… So actually I’m probably gonna get it there, bc of how over budget I’ve gone this month. Their payment process is more of a headache than saving $17 USD is worth for me. Otoh the Steam version has some good discounts here
Portability, plus I can play it docked from my couch. (Although I can technically play steam over the wifi on the tv and that’s pretty good, but not quite as frictionless as the Switch).
Ugh, ¥330 is so cheap that it might just be worth the hassle…
A little further in (ぐるりと囲む山のある町 section), I’d say more like 26-28 now - at least as vocab goes. Most sentences I have zero lookups, but some I have 1-2, and very occasionally 3-4. Definitely stand by what I said earlier about it being easier than マリみて or flowers - particularly in terms of grammar and writing style.
I caved and got the Switch version, bc easiest to play from bed (or wherever), and it will remind me to play Fire Emblem 3 Houses as well (I’m borrowing from a friend). It’s very nice, and the text is super easy to see.
I’m not hooked yet, but like it’s just the beginning. I do definitely see the appeal of the text hooking, but I already grabbed it on switch, so shrugs
It’s the old version tho, so the quality is much poorer - at least on the demo version
What I did yesterday was read as much as could for the day in Japanese, and then re-read the same scene in English. That’s also what I’m doing as I read Honzuki, and it works well for me.
Honzuki is level 30 right now, and I think this VN feels harder than the first chapters of Honzuki. Maybe Honzuki is marked as more difficult than it really is. What’s difficult for one person may be easy for another person.
All in all, it’s not too difficult. I don’t understand everything, but since I can check the English translation, it doesn’t matter too much. I’m really glad that we could read this together as a club!
Tbh I trust your perception of this more than mine, tho 本好きの下剋上 | L32 is L32 now (which does seem high to me - but the last time I tried reading it was a year ago).
Indeed, and levels can’t tell you why something is hard
Note for anyone considering Switch version: you can change the language on the fly, but doing so will automatically advance you to the next line, and previous lines won’t be in your history anymore
I am kinda thinking of trying out the text hooking thing on PC now tho. The lookup frequency is high enough that it feels disruptive - and the small text size on switch makes it less convenient for playing in bed than I was hoping.
This is making me realize that part of why I find visual novels more exhausting than book novels is b/c you pause at literally every sentence. So you can’t get into the flow the same way.
Same! Looking forward to posting some story thoughts once I’m through ch 1
You CAN auto-play though. Of course, that doesn’t solve the problem with needing to look up words. Maybe auto-play for a while and read what you can, and then go back in the history to read again?
The Steam version is exactly the same. Which is why I got it both on Steam (to read on PC, with text hooker) and on Switch (to re-read in English).
Even still, it’s hard to match up, and you never know when it’s going to change screens or background images - which kinda defeats the point of it being visual for me.
Anyway I tried the text hooker thing, and found it a bit too annoying to use… it was almost great with the JL thing, except I could never get that window to clear/go away, nor could I seem to lower the font size. So what I’ve done instead is: put text hooker on → fast forward through large portion → copy whole text into custom jpdb deck… which has netted me about 125 new vocab words - some of which I’ve come across a long time ago, and some are brand new, and nice vocabulary expansions.
Anyway, I’m a bit further in now - first day of the 旅行, on the beach, and am enjoying it well enough. For this section there’s been less lookups than last - at least for now. Not sure how long it will take to get through ch 1, but I’ll probly hold off on more thoughts till then. Tho small surprise when Takako excitedly mentioned that there’s a shooting range in their vacation town/city
Did you by chance save that text? I’d love to make a custom deck for myself (which I could do when I get home Sunday , but I’d love to start reviewing now ).
I will not be joining this book club (bad timing, mostly) but I wanted to suggest yomininja
I also never found texthookers intuitive/easy to use, and worse for most vns I tried them they constantly crashed. Reading with yomininja, which is an ocr tool feels much better.
Of course this is an ocr so it has it’s own pitfalls. How good it works depends a bit on font/background a bit. It worked with everything I tried so far but if not you might need to fiddle with the settings a bit depending on the vn.
In my experience it works well 95% of the time. Actually when it has issues it’s mostly with katakana, which I’m fine with.
).