One of the most significant visual novels to launch on Steam has been The Rainy Port Keelung from Erotes Studio. The novel covers the controversial time of 1945, following the close of World War II and the Japanese occupation of Keelung in Taiwan. Despite heavy praise and lots of critically positive feedback, the game has one major drawback: it’s not in English.

While the interface supports English options the actual subtitles are not in English, therefore there’s a bit of a language barrier preventing some gamers from enjoying one of the more highly anticipated visual novels to launch on Steam.

In one of the recent updates noting that the cards are almost done for The Rainy Port Keelung, Wizkid writes…

“i am waiting for the english version dude, from what i see the art and sound is awesome. but yeah i can’t read chinese! lol”

Erotes Studio recently mentioned in a thread where someone asked about whether or not they could play the game in English that an English patch was inbound but it takes a lot of time due to the amount of dialogue and options present in the game. The studio stated…

“We are still making English version, but our game has more then 600000 words, it takes much time.”

It’s one of those projects where a lot of people may want to see what all the fuss is about and are wondering if it really covers the adult and taboo subject matter between the turbulent relationship shared between Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese that the description claims. As mentioned on the official store page, The Rainy Port Keelung pulls no punches…

“It is a story about what Japan have left for Taiwan. It is also story about the very land of Formosa. It is also a story about the relationship between the Taiwanese residents, and those who have come from China. “The story will develop into the year of 1947, where the players would face one of the most traumatic historical events in the history of Taiwan.”

The visual novel has been widely praised for its high quality art and CG scenery, but some have mentioned that it is very wordy and extremely dialogue heavy. If you’re looking for a visual novel where the story takes center stage and the cultural relationships and tensions that come with cross-region intermingling, then you’re likely going to want to check this one out… when the English patch goes live. According to Erotes Studio, the update will be free once it’s made available.

You can learn more about the game by paying a visit to the official Erotes Studios website or check out more info over on the Steam store page.