Moon: Remix RPG Adventure PSX Translation

[KingMike]

VWF looks good, however it appears the 'a' character is larger than the rest of the letters and looks out of place.

I was going to comment, but he did say he's still working on the font.

[yuka]

Seeing this game rapidly and surely turning into English is a dream come true... Thank you guys!!

[esperknight]

Thanks' for the comments guys!  I didn't even think of the a so appreciate that

For the letters touching the frame, all of them need to be shifted over (at least the caps) so will definitely fix those.

In the interest of finding anything else I may miss below is the font.  Please let me know of anything that needs to be fixed letter wise far as looks.  Width's definitely need to be fixed for alot of them sadly (but at least it's easy).  And I forgot to fix the widths of the rest of the punctuations that's needed but at least I got the main ones for now

Also, if you know of a different font you think look better ingame feel free to mention it.  For now I'll be using the same font for the game within the game (the screens so far) and the rest of the game although the game within the game will be fixed at 8x16 while the other portion will use the VWF.

I.S.T., I had no idea that was enabled actually   I prefer it not to look so fuzzy actually so I turned it off now.  Funny enough I hadn't noticed as I was just using it for testing mainly for now (although I have been playing Chrono Cross on it... still never noticed though )

[SteveMartin]

I dunno, if that's the original "a" that's in the font that comes with the game I say leave it. Doesn't seem like it's too out of place to me, I don't really notice it. After just testing the ISO you sent me too it didn't stick out to me or anything

[esperknight]

The original didn't have lowercase that I could find.  I ripped it from the PCE System Card 3

[Auryn]

I think the lower case look a bit strange especially the letters that go "under the line" (g j p q ...) but i think it's not really so bad either.

[Parrotshake]

I came as soon as I heard. This is awesome. I'm sure I don't need to tell you guys that what you're doing is wonderful, but it is. It looks like you're sorted for playtesters, but I'd love to lend a hand in that regard or help out in any other way I am able, short of donating my beloved copy of the official Moon guide, because I already gave it to that sgeos guy who quit translating this about 3 years ago   

Thanks for doing it.

[Rhys]

it looks pretty similar to the capital font, I guess they must've used similar fonts for these things back then

[esperknight]

Yeah, most games that use an English 16x16 do look quite the same I've noticed but that's why I chose the PCE one for Moon   Saves me quite a bit of time designing my own (and I suck at it anyways).  Course if anyone knows of a better font to use definitely let me know and we'll take a look at it.

Parrotshake, we could always take on another playtester I'm sure (no guarantees of course as I need to talk to SteveMartin first) but I know how huge a fan you are so would love your help

Auryn, what's strange about them?  Do they look too squished or?  I can't say I have a great eye for these things so definitely could use some help if I can make it better   I'm not too fond of the l's but not sure if they'd look better as just straight lines (they look odd when you see a ll).  The ! ? look odd to me too, too fat.  But I'll leave it up to you guys in case y'all think it all works.

Thanks!

[Gemini]

A font choice should always depend on the game's style and translation needs. If a game has tons of text to show at once, a thin font is recommended, but if it doesn't you can simply go for stylish solutions all the way. Personally, I've been using the very same font for a long time, changing it as necessary for each new project. Speaking of which, this is the last incarnation of said font, based on the guidelines used by DeJap to make the 8x8 font in Bahamut Lagoon:


An example of what it would look like when used for actual text:


As for the PCE font dump, I'd suggest to pretty much always ignore japanese font resources. Not only they are not really suitable in most cases, they also look ugly 4 times out of 5 because romaji sets are usually done with no actual guidelines in mind.

[SteveMartin]

I came as soon as I heard. This is awesome. I'm sure I don't need to tell you guys that what you're doing is wonderful, but it is. It looks like you're sorted for playtesters, but I'd love to lend a hand in that regard or help out in any other way I am able, short of donating my beloved copy of the official Moon guide, because I already gave it to that sgeos guy who quit translating this about 3 years ago   

Thanks for doing it.

Whoa, now that guide book I wanna see One major factor that got me into looking to get the game translated was because I randomly chose to play through the game again to find any unused stuff(which as some may know already there's a lot in there), and I only found out recently that the guide book apparently actually covered some of that, including the originally planned second female player and Dancho's circus tent. Plus it mentions other stuff that appears in unused text, like the Queen(there wasn't always just the king ). I wish we could have a scan of it somehow. I'd love to see that thing someday, with my recent respark of interest in Moon I've considered trying to obtain one myself but haven't looked into it much yet since I've been busy.

Also, looks like this game is getting some pretty receptive responses elsewhere. Glad to know even untranslated and being relatively obscure all these years there's so many people that look forward to it.

[Parrotshake]

I do recall there being a pretty big section on the circus and other leftover stuff in the book, which of course I couldn't read I always intended to get another copy, I just never got around to it.  From memory it cost around $40 including postage from a Yahoo! auction through Rinkya. Not sure what they're going for nowadays.

I do have a copy of Tsukiyo No Aho Dori: Moon Side Story, which I paid way too much for. I started scannjing pages of it aaages ago and I think Wyrdwad offered to take a crack at translating it, but I never finished and now I don't have a scanner. Not that it'd be any help, it's just pretty cool. What were you looking at using in your translation as the Guard's name? Not Fred, the other guy. Just to add to the confusion, in the Side Story book there's a scene in Wanda's bar with a bottle behind the counter clearly labeled "Ibri".

[SteveMartin]

Ah, I've always wanted that storybook too! It's interesting how much art is in that and the guide that's not available elsewhere, I really wish I had them. I've used an auction service once and man did it cost too much.  One reason why I haven't really looked into it any further recently, another being that anyone with either on Yahoo Japan usually puts them at a high price.

I wouldn't take a single English name they give the characters much credence to be honest On their official site(which you can still see an archive of) they had a characters section and several of them were nonsense. They list Ibiri as Ibiri there though, not Ibri. That's one thing when it comes to names, they can't keep it consistent when putting it to English heh. Worst example I know is they call Kris "Clis"

Edit: disregard the former wall of text, looking back I wasn't making sense when I wrote it :x

Oh, and if GhaleonQ is looking, I messaged you on Youtube but no response yet. Did you receive it OK?

[esperknight]

I'd say throw that stuff into a text file listed as translator notes that we can distribute with the patch.  Not everyone will read it but at least those who do will have a better understanding.

I would love those guides too.  I'm looking at buying a UFO guide at a fair price too.  Not sure what it is but I love having those things more than the games themselves especially if it has develpment notes and the like

For the font, I like the look of yours Gemini.  I may emulate it and tighten up the letters to look more thinner (I guess is the right word).  Any thoughts stevemartin? Anyone else?

[Parrotshake]

I like that approach. I've was reading over that vgboys thing yesterday and it's a great read, but in trying to find equivalent English names to keep the puns intact suddenly every character came off sounding like a Pokemon. Then again, what the hell do I know about it?

I can send you the pages I did manage to scan from the side story book if you wanna pm me an email address or something.

[SteveMartin]

You'll be getting a PM then

About the font, I completely forgot but I should ask vgboy. That font he has on his page looks pretty perfectly fitting as far as I'm concerned I'll let you know Esper..

[vgperson]

SteveMartin and I are sort of discussing in PMs what names should be changed and what the most appropriate changes would be. It really shouldn't be all that much, to be honest - around five out of about fifty character names are likely to be notably different, and we're trying to work out names that reflect the Japanese ones well.

But with regards to the animal names sounding like Pokemon... as a matter of fact, that's kind of the point. The animals do seem to be, at least partially, parodying Pokemon. You have a Pokedex and you gotta "catch!" 'em all. The only thing is that there are 51 of them rather than 151, and the "professor" is a mushroom instead of a tree.

(Incidentally, should I compile a list of names and whatnot so you don't have to go looking through my page for them?)

[SteveMartin]

Yeah a list would be nice

I'm not sure if that Pokemon comment Parrotshake made was specifically directed towards the animals since he said "characters," which made think of people like Ibiri and the like, not the animals. While I don't agree with all character name changes, most of the animal ones made sense I think. I had a question about one I'll save for a PM.

[GhaleonQ]

Hey, all.  I sent SteveMartin a YouTube message.  Ugh, the commute and election stuff makes me forget that I have to check in regularly.  Apologies!  (And, hey, Parrotshake!)  Definitely send me a summary of your names conversation when you're done.  Like I said, it's your prerogative to change them being the main stakeholders, but I'd at least like to read how you got to name alterations.

And I'm raring to go on text review!

[Spoon]

Oh wow, this is awesome news. 
Before I say anything else I'd like to thank the people who are making this translation happen.  You guys are awesome.

After that I'd like say hi to Parrotshake; very cool guy and I'm flattered he mentioned me in his faq...who I am isn't important but I was Xristo on gamefaqs in case he was curious.

Big thank you to GhaleonQ for his rabid dedication and hard work extolling Moon and getting it all over the internet.  Uploading and organizing all that stuff to youtube takes a HELL of a lot of time and I'm grateful for it. 
That mother of all moon threads on the neoGAF was one hell of a tribute as well.  Thank you for it. =)

And thanks finally to Wyrdwad for writing the very first review and explaining to me what this strange game was even about in the process.
My initial obsession with the game was with the trippy visuals and the warmth/charm in the games presentation...but it until Wyrdwads FAQ I really had no idea how special the game truly was/is. 


It's crazy to think that back in 2002 I wasn't sure if the game even existed or if it was just a jumbled memory of an old EGM article I read back in 1995.

DuoMaxwells old FAQ was pretty much the only thing I had to go on back then...if not for him and that first faq, I think no english speaker on the internet would even know of Moons existence. 

And as cool as I thought it was, I was pretty much resigned to the idea of MooN maintaining ZERO recognition stateside until it faded away completely and was relegated to the murky recesses of my own sketchy memory.




So excuse me for all the blabbing, I say all this only to stress how cool it is... going from feeling like the only guy on the internet who knows about it, to finding many others like myself....some you WAY bigger fans than I ever was.  Not only discussing the merits of the game out there on various forae but even translating the whole damn thing...holy hell...

I guess great gems like these can remain in obscurity for only so long.....but as long as smart people with a keen appreciation for all things cool still walk the earth, it's always a matter of time before these gems are unearthed and brought to the light.

Again, thanks for everything guys.



I hope to god Nishi can bring the rest of the guys together for MooN 2 and I will die a happy man.