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I came across this sentence while playing Hatoful Boyfriend. At first I had trouble with the 外見が鳥類では part. Would I be correct in saying that the use of では in 外見が鳥類では is an example of the　ては construction, and if not could someone please help me understand the grammar behind it?

はーとふる彼氏では外見が鳥類では脳内再生が困難という方の為に,　登場人物紹介に擬人化版のカットインも御用意しました

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  • It would be useful to have a little more context in terms of the sentence you're trying to understand here. Are we talking ては or では? There is a difference between the two...
    – ajsmart
    Jun 21, 2017 at 17:24
  • The context is when you first play the game, is asks you if you want to display human sprites when you first meet characters instead of the bird sprites. I think its using ては which becomes では with a noun, but maybe I'm wrong.
    – lee moran
    Jun 21, 2017 at 17:35
  • Could we see the complete sentence? I think that では could actually be two particles here, で and は. I'm not answering below because I'm not 100% sure how to phrase it though.
    – ajsmart
    Jun 21, 2017 at 17:39
  • That is the complete sentence, the previous sentences are about entering your name and the next is asking if you want to turn the feature on or off.
    – lee moran
    Jun 21, 2017 at 17:41
  • oh, duh, I was seeing something else. my bad
    – ajsmart
    Jun 21, 2017 at 17:42

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This では is the te-form of the copula だ, followed by the topic marker は. So it's essentially the same では in simple sentences like 私は子供ではない. Literally, ～では is "when it's ～, ..." or "if it's ～, ...".

  • 外見が鳥類では脳内再生が困難だ
    if the appearance (of the characters) is (that of) avian species, doing 脳内再生 is difficult
  • 外見が鳥類では脳内再生が困難(だ)という方
    those who have difficulty in doing 脳内再生 when the characters' appearance is that of avian species
  • 外見が鳥類では脳内再生が困難(だ)という方の為に
    for those who have difficulty in doing 脳内再生 with characters that have an avian appearance
  • はーとふる彼氏では｛外見が鳥類では脳内再生が困難という方の為に｝、登場人物紹介に擬人化版のカットインも御用意しました。
    In Hatoful Boyfriend, we have also prepared "anthropomorphized" versions of the cut-ins of the characters for those who have difficulty in doing 脳内再生 with characters that have an avian appearance.

Each character in the game is assigned a virtual seiyu, so 脳内再生 here seems to refer to imagining the characters' sweet voice without actually hearing it.

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  • Ah thank you, I'm glad I correctly guessed that it was ては being used. Thank you so much for your answer!
    – lee moran
    Jun 21, 2017 at 21:46

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