Tra$lation Compen$ation - Anearth Fantasy Stories

[SamIAm]

Well, if you're going to translate Tenshi no Uta II, you'll want to translate the first one first.  A lot of things in part 2 will make more sense and carry more weight if the player has experienced part 1.  

Full walkthroughs and lots of screens for them can be found here:

Tenshi no Uta walkthrough

Tenshi no Uta II walkthrough

That makes sense, but if only one of them ever gets done, it looks to me like it should be the second one.

Not to compplicate things, but what about Neo Metal Fantasy?  I seem to recall it being considered one of the top tier RPG's on the PCE?

I mean this affectionately, but if I asked you guys to make a list of all the "top-tier" RPGs in need of translation, I think I'd basically get a list of every single untranslated RPG on the system.

Neo Metal Fantasy looks interesting, but Japanese reviews suggest it was just "all right" and that it didn't make much of a splash. I'll give it a "maybe later".

Gotta set priorities.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I mean this affectionately, but if I asked you guys to make a list of all the "top-tier" RPGs in need of translation, I think I'd basically get a list of every single untranslated RPG on the system.

Neo Metal Fantasy looks interesting, but Japanese reviews suggest it was just "all right" and that it didn't make much of a splash. I'll give it a "maybe later".

Gotta set priorities.

Ha ha, true dat!  I haven't played the game much myself, I just seem to recall hearing fanfare for that game.  What about La Valeur or Auleria.  They're nothing special, but, maybe with them being older/more primitive games, the code might be simpler?  Or maybe it doesn't work that way.  Maybe as people got used to coding for the PCE, they learned new tricks to make it simpler?

I agree about LoX1.  Ofcoarse, anything Falcom I'll take.  I wonder, since Sorcerian was done by Victor/JVC, & not Falcom, maybe there's a chance of it being easier to hack, unless Falcom did indeed have some hand in it.  AFAIK, Falcom only did the 2 LoX's, but I suppose they could've gotten involved in Popful Mail or Brandish(which, text-wise might be fairly limited actually).

[ElSeven]

On the other hand, when it comes to priority, it's hard to say whether this one should be at the top. There's lots of demand, yes, but that's maybe the strongest reason it's got going for it. I hate to say it, but you're really not missing much by playing this via a walkthrough even if you can't read Japanese.

The two other PCE games I'd be most interested in getting scripts for are Xanadu 1 and Tenshi no Uta 2. In Xanadu 1's case, a translation would be extremely useful, because the game is next to unplayable in an unfamiliar language unless a super-detailed walkthrough holds your hand every step of the way. Not to mention, if anyone does Xanadu 1, it makes sense for it to be Esperknight and me.

I'll have to get Esperknight's input on the hacking sides of each of these, but what do you guys think?

While I know nothing of the hacking/translating side of this, I really feel that the demand for having this game translated cannot be understated.  This game has always had an air of hype around it, which I can remember back from the TurboList days of the late 90's when I first read about it.

While everyone seemed to have their own reason for holding the game in high regard, it always seemed interesting to me due to the high production values.  From the first scene outside of the church where you can see the color of the stained glass windows and the characters leaving footprints in the snow, the beauty of the details had me wide eyed.  You can't deny that it has a SFC RPG quality to it.  I'm not by any means holding that above games that have the distinct PCE quality about them, but in the 16 bit days you could not deny that the colorful sprites of the sfc rpgs was a very pleasing aesthetic that to this day has aged gracefully (imo).

Sure, there are quite a few PCE RPGs that still look great and have great gameplay.  Can I argue why this game should be chosen over Xanadu I?  Probably not,  as having either game in english would be awesome!  I just finished Ys IV today and am so impressed by the hard work volunteered to translate/dub it so nerds like me could experience it in their native language    I will, and will always, vote for an Anearth translation because it is a game that I've always wanted to understand/enjoy completely, and the experience of using a walkthrough will always be a consolation prize that I'm not ready to accept.

[SignOfZeta]

I would just like to say that as a total sponge who contributes nothing to the hacking/translating scene (not sure what I could contribute, honestly) that I will play virtually any RPG that gets translated for PCE.

[Keith Courage]

Same here. I am happy with any PC engine RPG translation. So if the coding is easier to figure out on another game then move on to that game instead.

[Tatsujin]

Are you a thief?

I once stole a bar of soap from a corner store.

Luckily, I made a clean getaway.

Lucky you, I bet the soap was a great help.

[PunkCryborg]

I've always wanted to play this

[EsperKnight]

I would just like to say that as a total sponge who contributes nothing to the hacking/translating scene (not sure what I could contribute, honestly) that I will play virtually any RPG that gets translated for PCE.

Nothing wrong with being a total sponge as you're the ones I hack these for   Nothing like seeing someone play what you've done and enjoy it

Taking a look at all three.  Anearth I've almost dumped fully as I just need to mark out some of the script commands such as color and other things related to displaying the text.

Xanadu 1 uses the same scripting system as X2, yay!  This doesn't always happen so it's quite nice   And I mean, even the way it grabs the CD sectors is in the same position which is really surprising 0_0 Now here's even the most surprising bit, the compression is different.  It's odd to me as I've worked on quite a number of Falcom games (just checking them out out curiosity and such) and this is the first that doesn't use Falcom's standard compression.  From what I'm seeing it appears to be just a regular ol' RLE algorithm which is really surprising as LZSS is the norm. But hey, can't complain right?   The only other thing I see that may be an issue is if X2 added some script commands but that'll be easy enough to tell so not a huge deal.

Tenshi no Uta II may be the worst out of the bunch.  Not a big deal getting the scripts.  More it's a big deal getting a nice clean script dump out of it as it loads a huge swath of blocks off the CD and I need to see if it's uniform in the positions of how it's getting things or what.  I do see some hard coded positions regarding this but that's related to getting the actual line positions for the town and scene dialogue.  So next up is just finding out whether the CD positions are hard coded in the code or hopefully loaded from a nice table.  We'll see though   Doesn't mean it can't be done, just want to make sure it's less work for SamIAm

[ParanoiaDragon]

I would just like to say that as a total sponge who contributes nothing to the hacking/translating scene (not sure what I could contribute, honestly) that I will play virtually any RPG that gets translated for PCE.

Nothing wrong with being a total sponge as you're the ones I hack these for   Nothing like seeing someone play what you've done and enjoy it

Taking a look at all three.  Anearth I've almost dumped fully as I just need to mark out some of the script commands such as color and other things related to displaying the text.

Xanadu 1 uses the same scripting system as X2, yay!  This doesn't always happen so it's quite nice   And I mean, even the way it grabs the CD sectors is in the same position which is really surprising 0_0 Now here's even the most surprising bit, the compression is different.  It's odd to me as I've worked on quite a number of Falcom games (just checking them out out curiosity and such) and this is the first that doesn't use Falcom's standard compression.  From what I'm seeing it appears to be just a regular ol' RLE algorithm which is really surprising as LZSS is the norm. But hey, can't complain right?   The only other thing I see that may be an issue is if X2 added some script commands but that'll be easy enough to tell so not a huge deal.

Tenshi no Uta II may be the worst out of the bunch.  Not a big deal getting the scripts.  More it's a big deal getting a nice clean script dump out of it as it loads a huge swath of blocks off the CD and I need to see if it's uniform in the positions of how it's getting things or what.  I do see some hard coded positions regarding this but that's related to getting the actual line positions for the town and scene dialogue.  So next up is just finding out whether the CD positions are hard coded in the code or hopefully loaded from a nice table.  We'll see though   Doesn't mean it can't be done, just want to make sure it's less work for SamIAm

If you ever get the chance, maybe you could look into La Valeur & Auleria.  I'm hoping/wondering if them being simpler older games, means they might be easy hacks?

[M1Savage]

Taking a look at all three.  Anearth I've almost dumped fully as I just need to mark out some of the script commands such as color and other things related to displaying the text.

Good news indeed!

[esteban]

Delicious.

[Bardoly]

I would just like to say that as a total sponge who contributes nothing to the hacking/translating scene (not sure what I could contribute, honestly) that I will play virtually any RPG that gets translated for PCE.

^This is me.  



Although, actually, I am trying to see if my English skills can be useful for proofreading translations...  We'll see...

[SamIAm]

I'm going to go ahead and give Anearth a green light for translation, as long as Esperknight is in (and I'm 99% sure he is). I can start as soon as the script gets a proper dump.

I am undeniably having fun playing this, but the clincher is that I don't think translation projects on this system will ever come any easier. The script is stored in a simple way, the dialogue is not particularly dense or complex, the game is short, and maybe best of all, it won't need a dub or custom subtitling. As far as I can remember of what I've played, literally every voiced line is accompanied by a text box. If there are any exceptions, they would be so minor that it wouldn't really matter, and maybe a footnote in the readme would suffice.

So there we go. I hope this starts soon and goes well!

[CrackTiger]

I'm going to go ahead and give Anearth a green light for translation, as long as Esperknight is in (and I'm 99% sure he is). I can start as soon as the script gets a proper dump.

I am undeniably having fun playing this, but the clincher is that I don't think translation projects on this system will ever come any easier. The script is stored in a simple way, the dialogue is not particularly dense or complex, the game is short, and maybe best of all, it won't need a dub or custom subtitling. As far as I can remember of what I've played, literally every voiced line is accompanied by a text box. If there are any exceptions, they would be so minor that it wouldn't really matter, and maybe a footnote in the readme would suffice.

So there we go. I hope this starts soon and goes well!

Awesome. This game both deserves and will greatly benefit from an English translation.

While everyone seemed to have their own reason for holding the game in high regard, it always seemed interesting to me due to the high production values.  From the first scene outside of the church where you can see the color of the stained glass windows and the characters leaving footprints in the snow, the beauty of the details had me wide eyed.  You can't deny that it has a SFC RPG quality to it.  I'm not by any means holding that above games that have the distinct PCE quality about them, but in the 16 bit days you could not deny that the colorful sprites of the sfc rpgs was a very pleasing aesthetic that to this day has aged gracefully (imo).

Sounds like you just need to play more PCE RPGs.

[esteban]

STATUS: Green light.
REACTION:        

[NightWolve]

Wait, so what just happened back here in this thread?

M1savage offered reward money to motivate somebody to translate a game that he wanted to see translated but had so far been ignored, and guys who would reject reward money outright or a guaranteed deal (agreed upon work in exchange for payment by the end of it) decided to take up the project regardless ??

That about right? Heh. Well hey, guess you lucked out m1! ;) I was gonna suggest firing off an email or PM to Bonknuts to make sure your offer got more visibility to somebody that was actually capable of the work needed, but that was a crapshoot anyway, as whatever free time he has is likely going towards Megaman stuff and what not.

[LentFilms]

Very Exciting news! Thank you Sam and EsperKnight! I wish you luck on this and your many other projects.

[HercTNT]

Well said lent I agree, this is good news.

[spenoza]

I can do spelling and grammar editing, should it be needed.

[nectarsis]

STATUS: Green light.
REACTION:        

Agreed, some of best news EVER in the PCE hacking/translation areas.

[Bernie]

Ohhh yeah.....

[Arjak]

Hooray! More PCE translation love! How many of these projects does SamIAm have, now!? At this rate, half the games still in Japanese will be on that list before long! Don't burn yourself out now, Sam!

[SamIAm]

I just reached the end of my first playthrough of AFS.

I have to say, it finished very strongly. The last quarter or so of the game is probably the best part of the whole thing.

It actually took me about 28 hours altogether, but that's because I did some grinding here and there, and spent a lot of time wandering dungeons. I think I could play it again in under 20, no problem.

I won't give it perfect marks, but my critique can wait. Basically it was good, and if the script gets extracted easily, I'm all for doing it. It gives me something to do while Esperknight gets the Xanadu II translation into the playable-beta stage.