Legend of Xanadu II Translation Patch announced!

[TurboXray]

Regarding doing anything for translations; I'm completely swamped with trying to handle/manage my time for this semester. I'm still trying to schedule it all efficiently. I have some immediate life needs that have to be managed in as well (major motorcycle maintenance, find an apartment/studio to rent, etc). This accelerated spanish class is consuming a lot of my time (4 hours class, 16+ hours study), but it ends earlier in the semester. So I should have that free time come end of October.

 Djangoo2: What side of the fence do you fall on for translations? Hacking or translating?

 My immediate list for PCE; the mini game I'm working on, SPM2 finish up, and the LOX2 font routine.

 SamIam: I did retrieve my PC from storage, so when I get a little down time - I'll look at SPM2 stage 4(?) insertion issue.

[Djangoo2]

I'm a hacker that goes by Pennywise at RHDN. Doing PCE translations was one of my goals when I decided to learn how to hack games, but since I didn't have any sort of previous experience or background in programming, I started with the NES. Which is why most of my translations are for the NES, but I've been branching out the past few years.

As a hacker, I would always want to do a VWF or bust, but since most of my projects are/were NES games, it wasn't possible due to most NES games not having VRAM. I always want my translations to be the highest possible. Anyway, I'd love to see a VWF in X2. I think a game like that deserves the best.

[TurboXray]

Ahh, we know each other than (tomaitheous) I honestly haven't had a good look at what Esper implemented for the VWF routine, but if it's a minor issue and he found enough space for his new routines, then it might be a simple enough fix (..or not - hehe). 'Works in mednafen' is a good starting point.

[SamIAm]

SamIam: I did retrieve my PC from storage, so when I get a little down time - I'll look at SPM2 stage 4(?) insertion issue.

Yeah, it was stage four (the one where they reenter Earth's atmosphere). Any modifications I make to the script don't appear in the game. This isn't a problem caused by my use of savestates or anything - that one file just isn't inserting.

I totally understand about your schedule. Please do have a look at Xanadu II and see how you can help Esperknight. Unless of course I bug him so much that he takes care of it by himself. 

[spenoza]

Dave Shadoff and I worked on the PCE version of Emerald Dragon. He extracted the script, and I translated about 60% of it. See this post for details

I could be persuaded to finish the translation on two conditions: One, a hacker would have to show some serious interest, including actual work done, and two, somebody else would have to take care of playtest editing. That's one game I really don't feel like playing again.

I have a legit copy I picked up recently, but my Japanese is SO damn rusty that I don't know that I want to attack it. But I certainly wouldn't feel bad about running a patched ISO since I own an original. So I'd be happy to take a crack at in-game testing and editing, so long as you don't mind that I am unlikely to be a fast player.

Why are you disinterested in another play-through? Is the game play a bit repetitive or bland in places?

[CrackTiger]

Is the game play a bit repetitive or bland in places?

The gameplay never gets old and is always fun for me. It's basically "super Ys".

[SamIAm]

Why are you disinterested in another play-through? Is the game play a bit repetitive or bland in places?

I posted about this before, but in my opinion, the last 1/3 of the game is awful.

- Graphic and music recycling is ridiculously high.
- The story stalls and loses focus.
- The dungeons become too big and maze-like for the high random battle rate.

But by far the worst thing was...

- The battle system. By the last 1/3, your party has grown to...was it six or seven members? And there are usually several enemies to fight per battle, too. Every single character and every single enemy takes a turn, but you have zero input other than for your one main character. The rest of your party is controlled by AI. What this means is that you will input commands for your character, which takes maybe 5-10 seconds, and then you will spend literally between one and two minutes doing absolutely nothing but watching the AI. When that's over, you get another 5-10 second turn, and then guess what? It's another one or two minutes of drooling in your lap.

It is by far the least involved battle system in any RPG I have ever played. The AI periods are so long that you could get up and make a sandwich. I played it in an emulator with a fast-forward option that shortened the AI periods down to 15-20 seconds, and it still felt boring. And don't forget, the dungeons are long mazes and the random encounter rate is high.

I did learn an important lesson from this, though: never start a translation project for a game you don't know for certain that you like. I had only played the first 1/3 when I started the project, and the first 1/3 is much better because none of the problems I wrote about were really prevalent during that time. The graphics and music are fresh, the story is just picking up, the dungeons are shorter and simpler, and there are fewer party members and enemies to wait for.

I know some people like this game, but I think it doesn't hold up well at all. The original version came out for Japanese PCs in 1989, and while it might have been OK at the time, I think it's disappointing that they made no attempts to evolve it beyond adding CD music and the oh-so-occasional cutscene. Needless to say, there was plenty of room for improvement.

[Djangoo2]

Have you tried playing any of the PC versions (X68000, FM-Towns etc.)?

I know for a fact that the SFC port of Emerald Dragon is really bad and that D considers the FM-Towns version to be the best version of the game. It could also be that the PC Engine port of EM is also bad.

[spenoza]

I have seen a lot of people speak very highly of ED. Can you do AI presets, or do the characters just do whatever they want and you have no input whatsoever?

[esteban]

Why are you disinterested in another play-through? Is the game play a bit repetitive or bland in places?

I posted about this before, but in my opinion, the last 1/3 of the game is awful.

- Graphic and music recycling is ridiculously high.
- The story stalls and loses focus.
- The dungeons become too big and maze-like for the high random battle rate.

But by far the worst thing was...

- The battle system. By the last 1/3, your party has grown to...was it six or seven members? And there are usually several enemies to fight per battle, too. Every single character and every single enemy takes a turn, but you have zero input other than for your one main character. The rest of your party is controlled by AI. What this means is that you will input commands for your character, which takes maybe 5-10 seconds, and then you will spend literally between one and two minutes doing absolutely nothing but watching the AI. When that's over, you get another 5-10 second turn, and then guess what? It's another one or two minutes of drooling in your lap.

It is by far the least involved battle system in any RPG I have ever played. The AI periods are so long that you could get up and make a sandwich. I played it in an emulator with a fast-forward option that shortened the AI periods down to 15-20 seconds, and it still felt boring. And don't forget, the dungeons are long mazes and the random encounter rate is high.

I did learn an important lesson from this, though: never start a translation project for a game you don't know for certain that you like. I had only played the first 1/3 when I started the project, and the first 1/3 is much better because none of the problems I wrote about were really prevalent during that time. The graphics and music are fresh, the story is just picking up, the dungeons are shorter and simpler, and there are fewer party members and enemies to wait for.

I know some people like this game, but I think it doesn't hold up well at all. The original version came out for Japanese PCs in 1989, and while it might have been OK at the time, I think it's disappointing that they made no attempts to evolve it beyond adding CD music and the oh-so-occasional cutscene. Needless to say, there was plenty of room for improvement.

I never made it this far in the game, so, damn, what a disappointing thing to read. I had high hopes it was going to maintain goodness.

That doesn't mean I'm not gonna finish it. 

I will.

Eventually.

[SamIAm]

I think the Duomazov review of it is pretty fair.

And I suppose it's worth mentioning that, thanks to a cool and unique battle system that lets you run around crashing into creatures like "hell caterpillars" while the computer manages your allies (competently enough), ED is a lot of fun to play. Unfortunately, even the fun of fighting doesn't last the whole way through. Towards the end of the quest, there are some large locations where the frequent battles become very time consuming and nearly unbearable. Enduring the drawn-out fights and exploring said locations will typically earn you little reward aside from superfluous healing items. So while many great PCE CD RPGs really hit their strides with incredible cinematic moments during their last few hours, ED kind of sputters out and degenerates into a mess of irritating battles.

To be fair, there are only five party members, and usually the wait-for-the-AI period won't cross the minute barrier until the last couple of dungeons. On the other hand, basically the entire second half of the game is going to make you wait at least 20 seconds per round, usually 30 or 40, and to me, that's just nuts.

[SamIAm]

Have you tried playing any of the PC versions (X68000, FM-Towns etc.)?

I know for a fact that the SFC port of Emerald Dragon is really bad and that D considers the FM-Towns version to be the best version of the game. It could also be that the PC Engine port of EM is also bad.

I have seen a lot of people speak very highly of ED. Can you do AI presets, or do the characters just do whatever they want and you have no input whatsoever?

I don't know how I missed these two posts.

I'm pretty sure that all versions of ED have the same basic battle engine, which means no input for any of the secondary characters. I'm pretty sure there was some kind of AI preset, but IIRC it wasn't something that you would change frequently. I can't remember, though. It's been about 8 years.

The X68000 version and the FM Towns version are similar, and they share the same art style for the cutscenes. The FM Towns version has CD music, narrated cutscenes and touched up graphics, so it wins out. Beyond that, I don't know what the differences are. One of these days, I just might check. Even the FM Towns version is ripped and emulate-able, after all. 

[SamIAm]

Esperknight is on the case again. He cleaned the scripts of a lot of redundancy to make them ready for insertion. We might go with a FWF after all. I'm not sure what his next move is, but stuff is happening.

[A Black Falcon]

What good 2.0 RPGs are there?

Efera & Jiliora?  I know it's an action-RPG, but it is good and a regular CD title.  Most of the better RPGs are Super CDs, though, that is true... some of the regular CD RPGs are not very interesting, like Astralius or La Valeur.  Regular CD RPGs that are a bit better than that, along with Efera & Jiliora... hmm.  Auleria, Tengai Makyou Ziria, Last Armageddon, Redord of Lodoss War I, a few more.  I at least think that it'd be pretty cool to play the Record of Lodoss War games translated!  The second game is the second half of the story and is a Super CD game, though.  I like them, I think, but playing the games without knowing much of the language is hard (they're not simple, linear games with obvious places to go without being able to read what you're being told...), and there aren't even guides for them... ah well.  It would be nice if I wasn't so hopelessly terrible at learning foreign languages.

[esteban]

Esperknight is on the case again. He cleaned the scripts of a lot of redundancy to make them ready for insertion. We might go with a FWF after all. I'm not sure what his next move is, but stuff is happening.

Should I finish making the English-language instruction manual? I must have those files on my harddrive.

Damn. 

[Arjak]

Esperknight is on the case again. He cleaned the scripts of a lot of redundancy to make them ready for insertion. We might go with a FWF after all. I'm not sure what his next move is, but stuff is happening.

Great news! Let's hope for smooth sailing from here on out.

[TurboXray]

Esperknight is on the case again. He cleaned the scripts of a lot of redundancy to make them ready for insertion. We might go with a FWF after all. I'm not sure what his next move is, but stuff is happening.

Does he still hang out on IRC?

[SamIAm]

You know, I'm not sure, as I've never hung out on IRC myself. I've asked him, though, and I'll let you know. He and I are in frequent contact these days.

[Arjak]

Sam, how is the audio quality of my voice acting? The reason I ask is because I just got a new higher quality microphone, and I know that the recording quality on my old one was crap, so I'm a little concerned about how good my old recordings sound.

If it's not too much of a hassle, I could probably re-record my dialogue with the new mic if you want. Please let me know if you would want me to do this.

EDIT: Yowza! I just listened to my old recordings of my performance of Nuse and the audio quality is horrible! Sam, could I please re-record my dialogue? I don't want it to sound like it's raining whenever Nuse speaks, especially after all of the hard work you've put into this project!

[clackattack]

Ya know, ive been told before that I have a good "voice-for-radio", Id be game to do some voice acting if you guyz need any other speech to finish up the tranlation. And honestly, if anyone at any point wants/needs recorded speech for anything, I would be willing to volunteer my vocal chords

[Nighttrate]

Hi guy I'm British so my voice would work well for a hero or villain (just putting it out there) Id be up for doing some voice acting as I actully do have my own radio show

[NightWolve]

Ya know, ive been told before that I have a good "voice-for-radio"

I don't think you can beat synbiosfan on that!

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=17268.0

Check out the first youtube video. Now THAT'S a helluva radio voice right there!!

[Nighttrate]

Ya know, ive been told before that I have a good "voice-for-radio"

I don't think you can beat synbiosfan on that!

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=17268.0

Check out the first youtube video. Now THAT'S a helluva radio voice right there!!

He does sound like your typical US radio jock / discovery channel host, ill give you that.

[Nighttrate]

Hi guys, How's the progress coming on this ?

also will there be a Legend of Xanadu I Translation Patch ?

[whisper2053]

also will there be a Legend of Xanadu I Translation Patch ?

This part was what I was wondering about as well. It'd be nice to be able to start from the beginning eventually

[True Puffer]

Hey, SamIAm how much motivation will it take for you to finish the game? The same goes for Anearth fantasy?

[CrackTiger]

Hey, SamIAm how much motivation will it take for you to finish the game? The same goes for Anearth fantasy?

He's already finished his work. If you're volunteering your services as a capable hacker/programmer for these passion projects, then that is all the motivation he needs.

[elmer]

Here's a little tease for you all ... thanks to CrackTiger's generous help, there's a new English logo for the title screen. 



If you've got a Xanadu 2 rip that runs in Mednafen, here's a savestate so that you can actually see the title sequence working with the new logo. 

dropbox.com/s/mqvx8dm23hnq8zy/Kaze%20no%20Densetsu%20Xanadu%20II

This savestate's name is right for a Xanadu 2 rip made with NightWolve's wonderful TurboRip.

You may need to rename it if your rip comes from somewhere else.

[Gredler]

Looks great!

Here's a little tease for you all ...

Here's a little tease for you all ... thanks to CrackTiger's generous help, there's a new English logo for the title screen. 

[esteban]

Magnificent.

[Dicer]

Here's a little tease for you all ... thanks to CrackTiger's generous help, there's a new English logo for the title screen. 



If you've got a Xanadu 2 rip that runs in Mednafen, here's a savestate so that you can actually see the title sequence working with the new logo. 

dropbox.com/s/mqvx8dm23hnq8zy/Kaze%20no%20Densetsu%20Xanadu%20II

This savestate's name is right for a Xanadu 2 rip made with Night Wolve's wonderful TurboRip.

You may need to rename it if your rip comes from somewhere else.

OMG OMG OMG, awesome...

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Very nice!  Not to put the cart before the horse, but I hope you guys do part I as well. 

[jtucci31]

Very nice!  Not to put the cart before the horse, but I hope you guys do part I as well. 

Agreed. I'll give you money if you do both at the same time. Not joking!

Title screen looks great so far!

[esteban]

Very nice!  Not to put the cart before the horse, but I hope you guys do part I as well. 

Agreed. I'll give you money if you do both at the same time. Not joking!

Title screen looks great so far!

I'll give money for either one, in any order. WORD UP.

[TurboXray]

Here's a little tease for you all ... thanks to CrackTiger's generous help, there's a new English logo for the title screen. 



If you've got a Xanadu 2 rip that runs in Mednafen, here's a savestate so that you can actually see the title sequence working with the new logo. 

dropbox.com/s/mqvx8dm23hnq8zy/Kaze%20no%20Densetsu%20Xanadu%20II

This savestate's name is right for a Xanadu 2 rip made with NightWolve's wonderful TurboRip.

You may need to rename it if your rip comes from somewhere else.

You have officially taken this over!? Woot!

[elmer]

You have officially taken this over!? Woot!

Yep, might as well make it "official".

I think that EsperKnight probably got discouraged years ago when he got as far as reinserting some of Sam's translations into the game and things started breaking.

He kindly passed on his stuff to me, and it did help save a lot of time in identifying where the data files were on the CD.

But since there aren't any "notes", I've just gone back and started everything again from scratch.

Very nice!  Not to put the cart before the horse, but I hope you guys do part I as well.

As I mentioned in the "blog" thread ... Xanadu 1 uses basically-the-same game engine and data formats as Xanadu 2. If we can get Xanadu 2 done, then Xanadu 1 should follow on soon-ish after.

Agreed. I'll give you money if you do both at the same time. Not joking!

I'll give money for either one, in any order. WORD UP.

The offer is appreciated, and to-be-honest I'm on a fixed-income now and still trying to get used to it and to figure out where in the "budget" is the cash for getting someone here to recap my slightly excessive collection of PCE "development" hardware 

  1 Turbo Express
  1 Turbo Duo
  1 Briefcase
  1 Duo-R
  2 Core Grafx II with SuperCDROM
  3 Super Grafx

But ... the reality is that I'm doing this for the love of the system, not for money, and I know that SamIAm feels the same way.

Any translation like this is a "team" effort anyway. It wouldn't be possible without SamIAm's original hard work, and now Black Tiger's, too.

Probably best to save up your "donations" for a KickStarter to raise funds to buy a license from Falcom to actually make some real CDs and cut Tobias out of any profits. 

Falcom have a "licensing" page on their website, so they're open to offers, but gawd knows how much money they'd want. 

[jtucci31]

Agreed. I'll give you money if you do both at the same time. Not joking!

I'll give money for either one, in any order. WORD UP.

The offer is appreciated, and to-be-honest I'm on a fixed-income now and still trying to get used to it and to figure out where in the "budget" is the cash for getting someone here to recap my slightly excessive collection of PCE "development" hardware 

  1 Turbo Express
  1 Turbo Duo
  1 Briefcase
  1 Duo-R
  2 Core Grafx II with SuperCDROM
  3 Super Grafx

But ... the reality is that I'm doing this for the love of the system, not for money, and I know that SamIAm feels the same way.

Any translation like this is a "team" effort anyway. It wouldn't be possible without SamIAm's original hard work, and now Black Tiger's, too.

Probably best to save up your "donations" for a KickStarter to raise funds to buy a license from Falcom to actually make some real CDs and cut Tobias out of any profits. 

Falcom have a "licensing" page on their website, so they're open to offers, but gawd knows how much money they'd want. 

All of your hardware is currently broken and/or needs a recap? While I don't know how to recap that kind of stuff, I could always let you borrow an extra Duo/R that I have. Just let me know, I'd be more than willing for such an awesome project.

This actually came at a real good time. I had just been pushed over the edge to finally just say "fuck it" and start Xanadu anyway.

[elmer]

All of your hardware is currently broken and/or needs a recap? While I don't know how to recap that kind of stuff, I could always let you borrow an extra Duo/R that I have. Just let me know, I'd be more than willing for such an awesome project.

Haha ... no, thanks for the generous offer, but it's only my Turbo Express that doesn't work anymore.

Everything else only gets minimal use so that they remain fine until they're recapped ... but then, too many people here have scared me with stories of Turbo Duo caps leaking and damaging the motherboard, even when they're not plugged in, so I still worry.

As it is ... none of that effects the translation, because as the programmer, I spend all my time in Mednafen and not running on real hardware.

For future development, though ... I'm definitely going to have to get 2 of the Super Grafx and both SuperCDROMs checked out, and perhaps the Duo-R, too.

The other systems are all classified as "really should do to avoid damage", rather than "must do now or can't work".

[TurboXray]

Falcom have a "licensing" page on their website, so they're open to offers, but gawd knows how much money they'd want. 

They might be interested in a trade? You get distribution rights for the console, they get distribution rights of the translated product which they can wrap into an emulator and sell on steam? Though that probably wouldn't be Falcom, but some other publisher. Or.. you get the rights for both, PC and PCECD, and distribute both yourself (though you'll need to find an emulation author willing to contribute). Kickstarter would be the way to go on that route.

[elmer]

They might be interested in a trade? You get distribution rights for the console, they get distribution rights of the translated product which they can wrap into an emulator and sell on steam? Though that probably wouldn't be Falcom, but some other publisher. Or.. you get the rights for both, PC and PCECD, and distribute both yourself (though you'll need to find an emulation author willing to contribute). Kickstarter would be the way to go on that route. 

I was literally just thinking of trying to buy the rights to burn 400-500 Japanese/English sets of PCE CDs for fans (like one of Tobias's special sets), and using the earnings to pay for the license and the costs.

It's hard to imagine what a real "business" deal for a game like this would look like.

Sure, I'm a registered developer ... I could technically do it as a PlayStation Mini on the PSVita/PS3/PS4 or on the Xbox One, or Steam ... but the costs would be pretty steep.

Would there be enough people out there that wanted to play PCE graphics on a modern 64-bit console?

If they wanted to "trade" and start selling the translation, then that would potentially open up a can of worms with the legal state of everyone contributions to the project.

[johnnykonami]

Looking forward to this!   I just got a copy of Xanadu I a couple weeks back, but I've wanted Xanadu II forever and never got around to getting one.  Gotta pick one up before the rest of the world hears of your efforts and prices skyrocket.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Falcom is still a small company.  I wonder how much they would want for the licensing compared to someone like Square or Capcom, etc.?

[esteban]

Falcom is still a small company.  I wonder how much they would want for the licensing compared to someone like Square or Capcom, etc.?

Even though they are small, they know their brand is strong.

They are like a boutique, premium brand.

Also, I wonder if the bigger obstacle is not money, but convincing Falcom that the the quality of work would match (or exceed) Falcom's expectations.

Protecting the legacy/integrity of an IP might be Falcom's priority.

Of course, you may laugh at what I just wrote since you played some (most) of the console/handheld Ys games (with have not been of the highest quality.

[elmer]

Also, I wonder if the bigger obstacle is not money, but convincing Falcom that the the quality of work would match (or exceed) Falcom's expectations.

Protecting the legacy/integrity of an IP might be Falcom's priority.

It's always the easiest and safest option for anyone in a company, at any level, to "just-say-no".

Especially when dealing with an "unknown" licensor with no history and with little money.

IMHO, there's absolutely no point in talking to them until the translation is 100% done, and the potential packaging is 100% done, so they can quickly see exactly what they'd be agreeing to. There wouldn't be enough money on the line to waste their time with uncertainties.

If they get interested they may want changes ... but you can't go in expecting them to spend dozens of hours of their valuable time shepherding a "fan" translation for a dead platform.

And remember ... you only have to hit one person along the way that wants to "protect" their brand in order to get a "cease-and-desist" ... and if that happens, then SamIAm and I just "obey" and the translation disappears and nobody gets it.

Does anyone here really want to risk that happening just to get a pretty package?

[esteban]

Q: Take the risk?
A: Hell no.

[Gredler]

Doesnt sound like the good OBEY to me, an oxymoronic obey that ceases obeying... No, please keep it as above board and far away from the idea of marketing as possible. Packaging is worthless, its whats on the inside that counts

I completely agree that mentioning anything to the rights owners would open a can of worms and possible c&d the project, so unless its done it may get halted, and without a cpmplete product to present, any mention will get lawyer deflected.

Also, mednafan? Is that the pro emulator of choice for testing homebrew efforts?

...then SamIAm and I just "obey"...

Does anyone here really want to risk that happening just to get a pretty package?

[seieienbu]

If you could actually get licensing I'd gladly throw down money to buy real/legit copies.  That'd be the best thing to happen on this system in years.

[NightWolve]

Great to see progress here! Good thing I bought an original Legend of Xanadu recently. I'll have to look for the sequel some time as well.

Elmer, we'll need your help to hack the title screen of Emerald Dragon down the road, might as well ask now while you're in a hacking mood. I think I got everything else covered, except for such a graphics hack. I'm guessing the graphics blocks are LZSS compressed the same as the text, but I dunno for sure. But yeah, would love to get your help for that down the road.



Just would want to make that English and I think that's all. I don't care about credits rolls but I am curious, did you guys translate graphical credits rolls in any past projects you've done ?

[dshadoff]

Elmer, we'll need your help to hack the title screen of Emerald Dragon down the road, might as well ask now while you're in a hacking mood. I think I got everything else covered, except for such a graphics hack. I'm guessing the graphics blocks are LZSS compressed the same as the text, but I dunno for sure. But yeah, would love to get your help for that down the road.

I'm not so sure about that - I think it might have been stored as uncompressed graphics (although jumbled).  If I get a chance, I'll take a look....

-Dave

[elmer]

Elmer, we'll need your help to hack the title screen of Emerald Dragon down the road, might as well ask now while you're in a hacking mood. I think I got everything else covered, except for such a graphics hack. I'm guessing the graphics blocks are LZSS compressed the same as the text, but I dunno for sure. But yeah, would love to get your help for that down the road.

Haha ... I hope that SamIAm isn't going to get spoiled with all this programmer-attention these days! 

Looks like the community could have a good year with all the translations. 

I don't care about credits rolls but I am curious, did you guys translate graphical credits rolls in any past projects you've done ?

The Zeroigar credits roll is fully translated ... but I don't know if you'd call it "graphical", it's just a scrolling text layer on top of bitmaps that fade in/out.

I'm not so sure about that - I think it might have been stored as uncompressed graphics (although jumbled).  If I get a chance, I'll take a look....

Looks like you've already got the perfect person to take a look at it.

I'll be here in the unlikely event that there's any need for my help.