I reviewed 31 freeware visual novels which were localized from Japanese to English for the three al|together festivals in 2005, 2006, and 2008, as part of a long project here at The New Leaf Journal. With the exception of Crimsoness, all of the localizations were of Japanese novels that were written either in NScripter (al|together localizations of NScripter games are written in flavors of ONScripter) or KiriKiri 2/KAG 3. However, there are a few cases wherein the Japanese novel that served as the basis of an al|together localization was not the original version of said novel. I previously examined one such case in Tegami, which was localized as The Letter and submitted to the al|together 2008 festival. Today we will look at a similar and arguably more interesting scenario for another al|together 2008 piece: May Sky.
(Aside: I ranked May Sky as the best of the 31 al|together novels after carefully reading through each and every one. It also has a high aggregate reader rating on the Visual Novel Database. While that is not relevant to the current article, it should go without saying that I highly recommend reading it yourself for the low price of free.)
May Sky/Gogatsu no Sora Version History
(Note: I will generally refer to the original Japanese novel as Gogatsu no Sora and Insani’s English localization as May Sky.)
May Sky is the English localization of a Japanese visual novel called Gogatsu no Sora. While May Sky was released as part of al|together 2008, the original Japanese novel was first made available on August 31, 2005. However, what if I told you that this was not actually the first release of Gogatsu no Sora? For an explanation, I quote from Seung Park’s introduction to May Sky (Mr. Park is the head of Insani, which handled the May Sky localization, and he supervised and edited the localization, which was handled primarily by Irene Ying):
May Sky is a work with an unusual history. Originally written in Adobe Flash and released one chapter at a time online by Scrubbing in early 2005, it was converted into an installable NScripter-based distribution in August 2005, and has been well-regarded in the freeware novel game scene ever since. Unlike most Flash-based novel games, this one has substantial length — it takes about 2-4 hours to read through the entire piece. Independent novel game reviewer NaGIsa gives this piece a “recommended” rating, noting that while the scenario is strongly written and the music is well-chosen, for a supposedly romantic piece it doesn’t feel all that romantic.
The NScripter version of Gogatsu no Sora was released on August 2005, but the novel had originally been published online as a four-part Adobe Flash game in the preceding months.
Mr. Park added additional information in an introduction to Scrubbing, the doujin visual novel circle behind Gogatsu no Sora:
Scrubbing is a bit of an oddity in the freeware novel game development community. The vast majority of creators in this scene utilize scripting engines like NScripter, KrKr2/KAG3, or Yuuki!Novel as platforms for their stories. Scrubbing, on the other hand, favors Adobe Flash…
My understanding is that NScripter was the most popular visual novel scripting engine back in the day, and as I noted, this is reflected in the fact that the vast majority of al|together localizations were of NScripter novels. Both NScripter and KiriKiri are still used today (see recent example of the latter). I explored Yuuki!Novel, which is no longer being developed, in my article on Tegami. In the Tegami piece, I quoted from Mr. Park’s explanation that Insani would not have localized it for al|together without the creator reworking the original Yuuki!Novel piece in NScripter. Unsurprisingly given the absence of Adobe Flash localizations in al|together, it appears that Gogatsu no Sora being released as an installable NScripter game was a prerequisite to its being considered as an al|together candidate. I quote again from Mr. Park’s short introdution to circle Scrubbing:
[I]t is the only recent piece that Scrubbing has done in which the installable — rather than the Flash — version is considered definitive, and on top of that the scripting engine that the installable version uses happens to be NScripter — a far cry from the world of Flash indeed. It is certainly their longest piece, clocking in at 2-4 hours’ read time.
I for one am glad that Scrubbing made the wise decision to create a definitive and installable version of Gogatsu no Sora using NScripter. Had it not, I would have never had the opportunity to read it and review it here at The New Leaf Journal. But the fact that the original Flash version of Gogatsu no Sora was effectively superseded by the installable version did not cure me of my curiosity. What happened to this Flash version? Is it still out in the wild in the same way that the original Yuuki!Novel Tegami is? Let us investigate.
Finding the Gogatsu no Sora Website
Most of the circles behind the Japanese visual novels had websites. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly in light of the fact that the novels localized for al|together were all created somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years ago, most of those websites only “exist” today in the Internet Archive. Only a few of the developers – for example those behind Narcissu and A Dream of Summer, are still creating visual novels under the same name (noting it is possible some of the developers joined new circles or studios). Visual Novel Database only credits Scrubbing with Gogatsu no Sora (it was also released for Android and iOS in 2014) – apparently not including Adobe Flash games in its list. This seems like a recipe for a dead website. But, perhaps surprisingly, Scrubbing’s website for Gogatsu no Sora remains online despite seemingly not having been updated since 2006:
https://mukiryokukan.sakura.ne.jp/gogatsunoSora.htm
It turns out that May Sky is a subsection of a larger site run by who I presume is the original gentleman behind Scrubbing. We see that he has continued to release other novels throughout the years, and he maintains the site as what appears to me to be a portfolio and diary. But we are here to find the Flash games. To follow along, navigate to the original Gogatsu no Sora site.
I ran into an obvious issue: The whole site is in Japanese and as I always remind readers in my al|together articles, I cannot read Japanese. Fortunately we have Google Translate which, notwithstanding its limitations, usually does well enough to allow me to navigate a webpage like this and find what I am looking for.
The first thing I noticed is that Google Translate appears to translate Gogatsu no Sora as Distraction of garbage, which I imagine from having read Insani’s localization and supporting materials is probably not the best translation of the name. But we can set that aside and see that we have links to everything we are looking for on this page. Below a table of contents header, we see four banners featuring CG images from the novel under “Select the story you want to read.”
Below that we have another header which reads “-Download NScripter Edition-” with a link. I correctly ascertained that the top four banners link to the four chapters of the Flash version of the novel whereas the separate fifth banner was for downloading the NScripter release. Google Translate also reveals that below the NScripter banner is a link to the al|together 2008 page for the English May Sky release (lest anyone doubted the English version is an officially sanctioned localization). We will be able to download and play the Flash novels, but before that let us learn a bit more about them.
Gogatsu no Sora Visual Flash Novel Notes
Before we visit the individual pages for the Flash novel, the Gogatsu no Sora home page gives us some more information.
Firstly, according to the Gogatsu no Sora home page, the novel was first published online as an Adobe Flash game “weekly in May 2005.” I was curious if I could learn the exact dates in May 2005 that each chapter was published, but there were no publication dates included in the page source.
Secondly, the developer included a helpful table highlighting the differences between the Flash and NScripter versions of the novel for interested prospective players. For the Flash version, the developer noted that you can play in the web browser and, according to our Google Translate localization, it has a “mysterious karaoke mode” in the third of four Flash episodes (intriguing). Regarding the NScripter release, the site notes that the NScripter version has a bonus scenario after completing the main game (I discussed the bonus scenario in my May Sky review) and that it can be played in full screen mode.
Adobe Flash Troubles
With the introduction out of the way, let us try to play the Adobe Flash games. I opened the first chapter on the Brave web browser and, to no surprise at all, saw nothing where the embedded Flash game should be. I say “to no surprise” because modern web browsers do not support Adobe Flash, and Adobe itself discontinued Flash in 2020.
Does this mean our journey is over? I think not.
From the outset, I note that I am not too familiar with Adobe Flash. I am sure that I interacted with Flash programs back in the day, but, to the extent I did, I did not think much about Flash. I recall that there was concern about preserving Flash games and media for posterity. I figured from that there must be some Flash solutions out there that do not require me to visit the Gogatsu no Sora site in an old web browser (possibly with old extensions) to see if the Flash games still work.
I conducted a quick online search for tools to run Flash programs. For potentially new readers, note that I run Linux so I wanted to find something that would work natively on my system. A quick search led me to an open source Flash emulator called Ruffle. I saw that it could be installed on Linux. I run EndeavourOS on my workstation, which is based on Arch Linux, and the Arch User Repository has several Ruffle packages. I went with ruffle-bin and it installed without an issue.
I only noticed after the fact that there are also Ruffle browser extensions for Firefox and Chromium-based browsers – but we will review those in due course.
Using the Ruffle App
I opened the Ruffle app on my desktop.
It asks for a file or URL. Noting again that I went into this not knowing much about Flash, I saw that it wanted a file ending with .swf. I looked at the visible text on the page with what was presumably the Flash game and saw no URL ending with .swf. But I figured one ought to be there somewhere. I checked the page source (right click and select “View page source” or press ctrl+u) and then searched the page source for a URL ending in .swf. It did not take long to find the URL I was looking for:
I copied the URL, http://mukiryokukan.sakura.ne.jp/Flash/Gogatsu_no_Sora.swf, into my Ruffle desktop app…
Then I hit “Start”…
As you can see, we reached the title screen. I confirmed that everything about the game works as one would expect. See the following screenshot from part one of the the first chapter of the Flash version:
That’s the aesthetically unique Minori I learned to love in the English May Sky. I will note from my brief survey of the Flash game (brief because there is only so much I can do without reading Japanese) that the assets appear to be the same as in May Sky.
Before continuing, I will note that the exact same process works for chapters 2-4 of the Flash Gogatsu no Sora.
Simply navigate to the applicable chapter and find the .swf file in the page source (parts 2-4 have the number corresponding to their part at the end of the same base URL used for 1).
Downloading Original Flash Game and Running Locally
With that out of the way – let us move on to a more interesting use of the Ruffle app. If you recall, Ruffle requests a URL or file. The problem with URLs is that a website that is up today may be down tomorrow. Perhaps the maintainer of the broader site on which the May Sky Flash novels is hosted decides to scuttle the site for one reason or another. It may live on in the Internet Archive, but the disappearance of the original could imperil the Flash novels. One way to ensure that the novels are always available is to run them locally. So, having already found and tested the URLs, I decided to see if I could run them locally.
There is a well-known command line tool called GNU Wget that can, among many other things, download files from http sources. I have not used it for much beyond simple downloading, but that is all we need here. I opened my terminal emulator and entered the following simple command to download the first part of the Gogatsu no Sora Flash novel:
wget http://mukiryokukan.sakura.ne.jp/Flash/Gogatsu_no_Sora.swfIt worked exactly as expected. The swf was now downloaded onto my computer. Now let us try using Ruffle on the local .swf file instead of giving it an external URL for the file…
Then start…
It works again. I will submit for the record that running Ruffle on the local file led to a much quicker start-up than using a URL, although I did not note any difference after starting up (note: it was easier to capture the pre-title screen when starting from a local file). For those who are committed to preservation, downloading the .swf files protects against the possibility that the source go offline or be otherwise modified. I was able to download all four chapters, so I can confirm that this works for the whole collection.
(Note: I submit for the record that I am not recommending that people download and run random .swf files from the internet as a general matter.)
Before continuing, please know that you should not redistribute the Flash version of Gogatsu no Sora without the express consent of the creator – especially in light of the fact that he is still actively maintaining the website that includes Gogatsu no Sora and the associated .swf files. I am demonstrating how to download the files and run them locally for personal use only.
The Ruffle Web Extension
I only noticed after using the Ruffle App that there is also a web extension for Firefox and Chromium-based browsers. I decided to test the Chromium extension on Brave. Now recall that I posted a screenshot earlier showing that the Flash game window does not display by default on Brave because Brave, like all other modern browsers, does not support Flash. Let us return to that page with the Ruffle extension enabled…
The big “Play” button looks promising. I clicked it.
It works.
While I have not extensively tested the Ruffle extension, I can confirm that at a minimum it allows you to play Gogatsu no Sora in a web browser just like it is 2005.
Note that I understand Flash was discontinued in large part because it has significant vulnerabilities. While Ruffle explains in great detail how it is designed to mitigate many of the vulnerabilities associated with Flash.I am not an expert on the matter and have no opinion as to whether it is wise to use it on every extant old site with Adobe Flash media (the same can be said of the desktop app). But I can recommend it for our Gogatsu no Sora test case.
Extra Game?
I noticed two mysterious banners at the bottom of the Gogatsu no Sora website featuring references to the novel but coming after links to all four parts of the Flash novel, the NScripter download link, and a link to Insani’s May Sky. Both of these are additional Flash files.
The first is a neat Flash file with links to resources about Scrubbing and Gogatsu no Sora and some neat – dare I say surprisingly modern – effects.
Unsurprisingly, all of the materials are in Japanese, but from my cursory look it appears that most, if not all, of the links are still alive.
The second banner is of more interest to me as a fan of May Sky. The banner for it reads in English “After Summer Snow, Before Winter Firefly.” Sure enough, so does the first frame of the Flash media that banner links to:
This caught my attention because the NScripter-only epilogue (or extra) chapter in the main game is called August Snow in May Sky. I suspected that Summer Snow refers to that same epilogue – only that Insani opted to use August Snow in the localization (their choice makes sense since the epilogue does indeed take place in August). I kept clicking and was greeted with Minori in this Flash game, although not the Minori who is most often associated with May Sky.
In the main May Sky story, Minori is (almost) always wearing her miko (shrine maiden/priestess) robes. But in the Summer/August Snow episode, she is wearing casual clothes and sporting a somewhat different hairstyle. This Minori is in her August Snow outfit, which makes sense given that this Flash game/novel’s title begins with “After Summer Snow.” I clicked through the episode. We do not see Minori again, but there are two room backgrounds that do not appear in May Sky proper in what turns out to be a very short piece. I suspect that it is some sort of director’s commentary, but because I cannot actually read the textthis is just my idle speculation. I may investigate at some point to see if I can get anything out of it (unless someone who knows Japanese wants to translate it for me).
In any event, both of these Flash files can be rendered by Ruffle or even downloaded and run locally in the same way as the four chapters of the Flash version of Gogatsu no Sora.
Final Thoughts
I reviewed the al|together novels over a period of more than three years. Some of my later reviews covered issues involving the novels and their development that I overlooked in my earlier reviews. May Sky was a relatively early review (May 2022), and it came before some of my later articles on the version history of A Winter’s Tale and the early version of The Letter. Had May Sky been a later review, I may have examined the original Flash game along side my review of the al|together localization. But I suppose late is better than never. I credit the developer of May Sky for not only keeping the original website online for nearly two decades, but also for keeping it in working order. Thanks to that preservation, we can still enjoy and study the web version of Gogatsu no Sora – granting that full enjoyment requires knowing Japanese. Moreover, because of the nature of Flash files, I have demonstrated that we can preserve the original Gogatsu no Sora even if something were to happen to the original website. In the future.I may look into other extant Flash visual novels and try to figure out what the deal is with what appears to be an extra Gogatsu no Sora story.
