A Cultish Devlog: What's In A Name?

Hi! This is Meru, the project lead for Cult Of The Serpent: Cuck Or Be Cucked.

FAKKU has been working with Orcsoft for many years now so we have a pretty good process to ensure that the localization process goes smoothly from pre-production all the way to release. Today I thought I'd talk about one of the earliest parts of the process: deciding on a title.

For me, one of the most fun aspects of this project (and other Orcsoft projects) was coming up with the English title. The Japanese titles for Orcsoft games tend to be long and raunchy and often contain some wordplay, making them difficult to translate literally. So, rather than direct translations, we tend to come up with fun titles in English that convey the same overall vibe.

The original title for this game is かがち様お慰め奉ります廻　～寝取られ村淫夜噺～ (Kagachi-sama Onagusame Tatematsurimasu Kai ~Netorare Mura In'yabanashi~).

It literally translates as something along the lines of "Allow me to comfort you, Kagachi-sama Reboot: Tales of lustful nights in a netorare (NTR) village". This is obviously a bit of a mouthful, and we wanted to make sure the title was something snappy that would grab people's attention.

The setting of the game centers around a cult in a rural Japanese village that worships the deity Kagachi-sama, who is said to be a giant white serpent that descends once a year to inhabit the local men's trouser snakes. Kagachi-sama is mostly an excuse for the action and doesn't feature heavily in the game, so I thought that using it in the English title might cause some confusion when no character called Kagachi shows up. While the snake isn't mentioned in the Japanese, the logo does feature one, so I also wanted to play on that aspect. And so, bringing these aspects together, I came up with "Cult Of The Serpent".

For the subtitle, I initially considered going with "NTR", but decided that the term "cuck" is more widely understood in English. (It's also close to f*ck, so that's fun.) The main theme of the game is choosing whether to watch your lovely wife be seduced by the men of the village, or to take your father's own new wife for your own. And so: "Cuck Or Be Cucked".

The "reboot" part of the original title refers to this being a remake of a game from over 10 years ago. The reboot version has the exact same story with updated artwork and some additional new content, including a side story. The original game was never translated, so I figured it would just cause confusion if we left "reboot" in the title.

And there you have it! You can see the whole thought process that goes into choosing 8 words! 

I hope this little insight was interesting, and that you're looking forward to the release on Friday. Who are you most looking forward to getting to know—sweetly sensual Manami or the maturely ravishing Ayaka? And which will you choose—to cuck or be cucked?