CyberStep has released a new visual novel titled Doki Doki Maid-Bu in Japanese and Shirogane Maid Club in English. The new title boasts support of around 40 languages. However, the company has also acknowledged the use of AI for the visual novel’s translations and illustrations.
The new visual novel is available on Nintendo Switch and the PC gaming platform Steam. The Switch version lists pretty much all languages Nintendo has formally supported; in addition to the common Western European (EFIGS) and Eastern Asian (CJK) languages, it also supports Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian.
However, it is the Steam release that garners more attention, as it lists a whopping 40 languages that include the likes of Igbo, Xhosa, and Maori. There is an obvious catch to this, though. CyberStep’s Japanese press release revealed that this game is part of the PandaShojo brand, which intends to make Japanese visual novels accessible to people worldwide by using automatic machine translations for over 50 languages.
CyberStep is originally known for releasing online titles like Onigiri and CosmicBreak Universal. However, in more recent years, the company has been more frequently releasing visual novels on Steam. Earlier in November 2024, it released Nurse Call and Me and Gamer Girl with support for 15 languages.
Translations are not the only activities CyberStep used machine programs to release these visual novels. The Steam pages also have an AI-generated content disclosure, where the company acknowledged that it used AI to produce some of the illustrations in the visual novels.
Shirogane Maid Club is now available worldwide on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
Published: Nov 21, 2024 05:00 pm