In April 2021, I commenced a project to review nearly all of the al|together visual novel translations (they all remain free to download and run). You can read my project introduction here. In this collection, you will find links to all of my al|together visual novel reviews and related articles after a brief re-introduction to the 2005, 2006, and 2008 freeware Japanese visual novel translation festivals.

(This collection will be regularly updated with new links.)

al|together Re-Introduction

Back to index

The al|together visual novel festivals were events for translating freeware doujin (think indie) Japanese visual novels into English, usually with the cooperation of the original creator. The three al|together festivals took place in 2005, 2006, and 2008. The idea was started and originally organized by Insani, a prolific visual novel translation circle, and Insani contributed the bulk of the contributions to al|together 2005 and 2008 and a good number to al|together 2006. Insani provided the following introduction to the first festival in 2005:

al|together is a festival of short doujin visual/sound novels, translated into English by members of the English-speaking eroge localization community. It is a celebration of many things — the vitality of our small but growing community, the joy of a collaborative production process, the artistry of the original works, the craft of translation. Perhaps most importantly, it is an opportunity for both translation teams — old legends and new favorites — and readers alike to discover material that they might have otherwise passed by.

Insani’s al|together 2005 introduction

You can learn more in my project introduction. Below, you will find all of our al|together articles (the list will be updated as new articles are published).

Project Introduction and general articles

Back to index

al|together novel review and analysis

Back to index

Below, I will list all of our al|together reviews and analysis pieces separated by festival year (2005, 2006, and 2008). I will include the “precursor phase” submissions to the 2005 and 2006 festivals with the regular festival submissions for the purpose of this list. I have written analysis pieces for several of the games. The analysis pieces examine the game in detail with spoilers, and are generally intended for people who read the novel. I will include analysis article links under review links, where applicable. Some games have had other types of articles written about them. In those cases, I will include a link with the game to the relevant section header.

Note that all of my reviews contain links to the original al|together pages and download notes and instructions.

al|together 2005 reviews and analysis pieces

al|together 2006 reviews and analysis pieces

al|together 2008 reviews and analysis pieces

al|together Visual Novel Rankings

Back to index

After reviewing 29 out of 31 al|together visual novels, I ranked all of the translations from 31 to 1 in three separate articles.

I write about each novel in the ranking and include links to my full individual novel reviews.

Misc al|together articles

Back to index

Below are articles and Leaflets which reference al|together visual novels but exist outside of my main series of reviews and analysis pieces. The articles are listed alphabetically.

External resources

Back to index

Finally, you will find links to external resources with specific reference to al|together. Note that all of my reviews contain links to the relevant al|together pages and novel resource pages.