Eternal Filena

[sa♥tsu]

HELLO

I had the intention of doing a release around new year, but circumstances prevented it from happening. Instead, I've decided to do a release some time this month, no matter what.

THE HORRIBLE HISTORY OF ETERNAL FILENA

I WAS A FAILED HIGH SCHOOL ROM HACKER

Let me tell you about this project some more. I started working on it as a high school student in 2002. In 2002, I did not really speak Japanese. I could read kana and a handful of kanji, and I had a very small bit of grammar. Back in those days, I was experimenting with ROM hacking, but I was never particularly good at it and never really got much done. (A couple years later I gave up on it.)

At any rate, Eternal Filena piqued my interest. It was quirky, and was unsual for having a female lead. I set about making a non-dialogue patch for it, and I ended up needing a lot of help for it.

I have a soft spot for Eternal Filena. See, the thing is, it's not a very good game. The writing is pretty awful, the graphics are subpar, and the music...the music is shit. Its main selling point is that it's a SNES RPG about lesbians with a decent battle system, which makes it quirky enough for me. But the part that I like about Eternal Filena the best is the translation, because it represents everything good about the ROM hacking scene.

A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

When I started the first non-dialogue patch, my Japanese was basic and my ROM hacking skills subpar. So I posted threads calling for translation help on MO's board, and got help from the likes of Tomato, D and Eien no Hen. Akujin gave me his kanji table. I got help from Gideon Zhi to deal with a compressed font, which became the basis for a tutorial on DMA transfers. More skilled hackers such as Bongo, LordTech and Nightcrawler took a look at the awful compression/scripting system for the dialogue.

WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO AND LEARN JAPANESE IF YOU LOVE IT SO MUCH

By the time I released the non-dialogue patch, I was in university studying Japanese. While studying abroad in Japan, I volunteered to help with the translation for Disnesquick's Energy Breaker project. By this point, I was becoming quite confident as a translator, and it was around this time that I did the translation for AGTP's Star Fox 2 project. While working on Energy Breaker, I made an informal offer to Disnesquick that I would agree to translate Lady Stalker in exchange for a dump of the Filena script and an inserter. The Filena files and inserter came back pretty quickly (it turned out to have a lot in common with Energy Breaker); I only translated Lady Stalker this year (got it done in the end)!

THINGS GET DONE

I released a couple of patches featuring some initial blocks of dialogue around the time I graduated from university. Things were going pretty slow because my focus was still Energy Breaker, and it was also difficult to align my windows of enthusiasm and free time. The Let's Play thread trend erupted on Something Awful a few months later, and I decided to do something original by doing a Let's Play thread for Filena, with the gimmick being that I would translate and insert the script as I played.

Despite a couple of technical hiccups, all the dialogue was translated by the beginning of 2007. byuu and Bongo stepped in to help again, this time to deal with some stubborn text not covered by Disnesquick's inserter and to replace the Japanese title screen with Maegra's English title screen.

Things got pretty busy around then. I started doing professional work as a translator, and most of my time went towards official work. Those who took part in the failed beta test will probably remember me being very stressed out and not being able to take the time to do much of anything.

As you can see, this project ended up having a fairly long history, and quite a large number of collaborators as well. It also lasted the length of my growth from failed ROM hacker to professional translator.

WHERE WE ARE TODAY

Currently, the Eternal Filena project has:
- 99% complete English translation
There are a couple of non-essential things in English that I haven't been able to track down yet, and a few dialogue-related bits of text that exist outside the main dialogue script structure. I plan to deal with the latter in a fairly hacky way.
- Title screen replacement
- All necessary font adaptations

What is planned for this month:
- Finishing dialogue edit
I'm about halfway through this now -- implementing corrections from the beta test, checking formatting and spelling, making sure the translations are all correct and also making sure that nothing sounds too ropey. I won't be doing a rewrite, so you'll be getting the same cheesy experience the Japanese did. While taking screenshots for this post I discovered I made some brand-new errors. Fuck.
- 8x8 text check
The non-dialogue text has been pretty much untouched since the first patch. I need to double-check it, make sure it's consistent, fix bad abbreviations and see if I can fix abbreviated character names (eg "Huntr" -> "Hunter"). I might even change the font; it seems strangely chunky compared to the dialogue font.
- Organising work and documentation
The translation has been done in bits and pieces over several years, and there is a small suite of programs by byuu, Bongo and Disnesquick to handle various tasks. I need to organise all this and write some documentation on how to roll your own Eternal Filena translation in XY easy steps.

Probably the last item on this list will end up getting put on hold.

SCREENSHOTS





THE RELEASE

What I release this month will probably not be "complete", strictly speaking. I may have to waive a task or two, and there are a couple of existing, non-essential, VERY minor things that I can't do myself but don't want to trouble others with. There'll probably be the odd mistake, and I'd love it if you could tell me about them. I guess you could post problems/mistakes in this thread if Nightcrawler is OK with that; otherwise, I'll sort out something else.
At any rate, the patch I plan to release will be a 99% complete translation.

IN CLOSING

Throughout the entirety of Eternal Filena, you are expected to believe that everyone is convinced that this is a man.

[Next gen Cowboy]

This is badass, I mean downright fucking grade A badass. On the primary level that a project nearly 7 years in the making will be released. Just as important as the release is the help you got, and the evident jump in skill you took. (Not to mention that minor task of learning the Japanese language)

I really see this as an instance of what I love about what we have going here, with the great deal of talk about a community, that is not necessarily a community, this is what I truly like to see.

Then we get to the game itself, for some odd reason I have never heard of this, that alone piques my interest the game, and although it does not really fit into my typical rpg fare, it looks pretty awesome (in that quirky kind of way, that you just cannot help but love).

I am looking forwards to this, and allow me to say congrats on completing a massive undertaking. 

You win!

[Maegra]

I wish I'd not have used my Vista PC, or made SRAM backups when doing the beta testing  :'(.

I really can't wait for this, I really liked the game, so many weapons and skills to choose from, It also had a story I could really get behind.
It even did things completely unique, when the lead character in your part is hit with the 'Blind' status affect, your whole screen starts spazzing out, so that it is actually a detriment to gameplay that you really want to get rid of, instead of just playing through and dealing with missing in battles (Final Fantasy's) ignoring the status affect.

[Gohanks]

Ah, good to see you nearing release for this.  I enjoyed the LP back then and I hope the game will be fun to play through myself when you release the patch!

[Pennywise]

I noticed that the technique/skills could use a hack like dynamically sizing and centering the strings, but I guess that I guess that would be one of the minor thing. Although it would look pretty neat.

[Lleu]

I have a soft spot for Eternal Filena. See, the thing is, it's not a very good game. The writing is pretty awful, the graphics are subpar, and the music...the music is shit. Its main selling point is that it's a SNES RPG about lesbians with a decent battle system, which makes it quirky enough for me.

I love how you pander to our interests.

Seriously, though, I've been wondering about this game for forever, even though I didn't know much about it. The project has been around for so long that the anticipation just keeps building, regardless of the content.

[DarknessSavior]

Dude, I almost forgot that we beta-tested this. Were we still supposed to be playing it? I'd imagine you'd have contacted us if so, but you never know. >.>

Anyway, if you need help with stuff, I've probably got my old saves around backed up, and if not, I certainly wouldn't mind playing it again in my free time.

~DS

[Gideon Zhi]

I know this is kind of late in the day for this sort of suggestion, but have you considered calling it "Forever, Filena" or perhaps "Forever Filena" instead? The name occurred to me when I was on the can the other day. (Don't all great ideas come from either can-cogitation or shower thinking?) It rolls off the tongue a bit better, but I haven't played enough of the game to know whether it would be more appropriate to the plot.

Just a thought!

[KungFuFurby]

Recently went through the game myself. The music, composed by Hideaki Kumagai, is definitely not-so-good, I'll admit. Although the music is bad, the SFX is probably average. Yes, I got to the staff roll myself as well. 

I've had RPGs where there were even fewer than 30 tracks. The lowest track count I've encountered so far for an RPG is Kero Kero Keroppi no Bouken Nikki: Nemureru Mori no Keroriinu, for 15 tracks,  composed by Takeaki Sugimoto and Shigeru Koizumi. Yes, I do RPGs as well as other SFC games... but they're for the purpouse of dumping SPC sets. ^_^

[sa♥tsu]

Thank you all for the support!

I noticed that the technique/skills could use a hack like dynamically sizing and centering the strings, but I guess that I guess that would be one of the minor thing. Although it would look pretty neat.

Yeah, it's a pretty minor thing that I'm not too worried about at the moment. It does actually dynamically size the window already, but it's based on the old 12 pixel-per-character Japanese font.

I know this is kind of late in the day for this sort of suggestion, but have you considered calling it "Forever, Filena" or perhaps "Forever Filena" instead? The name occurred to me when I was on the can the other day. (Don't all great ideas come from either can-cogitation or shower thinking?) It rolls off the tongue a bit better, but I haven't played enough of the game to know whether it would be more appropriate to the plot.

Just a thought!

It's occurred to me before, but I personally prefer "Eternal Filena".

Recently went through the game myself. The music, composed by Hideaki Kumagai, is definitely not-so-good, I'll admit. Although the music is bad, the SFX is probably average. Yes, I got to the staff roll myself as well. 

I've had RPGs where there were even fewer than 30 tracks. The lowest track count I've encountered so far for an RPG is Kero Kero Keroppi no Bouken Nikki: Nemureru Mori no Keroriinu, for 15 tracks,  composed by Takeaki Sugimoto and Shigeru Koizumi. Yes, I do RPGs as well as other SFC games... but they're for the purpouse of dumping SPC sets. ^_^

I can't think of more than five tracks in the game off the top of my head. I should play the game in bsnes some time -- I know the sound glitches like crazy in zsnes, so maybe it might sound better in another emulator.

[Talbain]

I like Forever Filena as well, for whatever it's worth.

[noneother]

I like how the battle graphics are all Mystic Quest-ish.
I actually mean it.
I'll definitely play it.

[Maegra]

I like Forever Filena as well, for whatever it's worth.

:'(
I guess a year and a half worth of more sprite experience might be able to make a better title screen than what is has now.
  But then again Sa-tsu is lord god of the project.
this post brought to you by smirnoff vodka and Cpt. Morgan rum
I've been looking for an excuse to get back into spriting 

[Draken]

Looking forward to this one Satsu!  I'm getting super tired of script formatting and beta testing!  I need something polished and pretty to play! 

I second the Mystic Quest-ish graphics love!

[Nightcrawler]

I like Forever Filena as well, for whatever it's worth.

I like this one. It sounds more natural to have to F beginning words. However.. we'd have to refer to it as 'FF' for short!