[derboo]

My next Korean-to-English RPG translation project after Romance of the Forgotten Kingdom. This time it's a Windows game from 2000, which has also been released in Taiwan, China and Japan. While the mechanics are similar to well-known JRPGs like Chrono Trigger or Grandia, the world is fairly openly explorable from the beginning, mostly sectioned by the strength of the monster encounters (compare the first Baldur's Gate in this regard).

Combat is most comparable to Grandia II, monsters are visible on the map to begin with, and it's very involved ATB where timing actually matters. It's possible to avoid enemy attacks by moving out to attack at the right moment, for example, but attacking enemies can also be missed. The party consists of up to five heroes, so later in the game there's much to do during combat.

Hi-res spritework and animation are great, with only the backgrounds falling a bit behind. I also like the music, although it's comparatively quiet and low-key. The composer, Hwang Jooeun, also did music for The War of Genesis and Rhapsody of Zephyr (and later Ez2DJ, Kingdom of the Wind, Aion and others).

I can't translate the main text body yet as I haven't figured out the pointer table and scripting (I've place a help wanted ad for the hacking in general), so I've started with character and item names and stuff. The first screenshot is a translated one (the text in graphics was English from the beginning, element affinity is still in Korean cause it needs pointers set to fit in English).

[vincent_vincent]

Looks interesting , i'll keep an eye on this one.

[Merta]

I've been interested, recently, in all of those Korean Computer RPG games that never came here in any way, shape or form. Many of them look impressive. Thank you for your service, @derboo.

[Xalphenos]

I've kind of been interested in some Korean games too lately.  I poked around in this a little today and there is no real pointer table, at least for the stuff I was looking for.  It just uses lots of calls to wsprintfa with hard coded pointers in each call.  I edited the one for the Elemental affinity one and moved it.  It worked fine but the elements themselves are all hard coded to read only one word.  So even though I had written "Water" it was only reading "Wa."  Playing around with it I got it to read more but was only able to get it to read a dword permanently.  So I was only able to get it to display "Wate affinity" permanently.  Ill play around with it some more tomorrow and see if I can get "Water" to display fully. 

[derboo]

I've kind of been interested in some Korean games too lately.  I poked around in this a little today and there is no real pointer table, at least for the stuff I was looking for.  It just uses lots of calls to wsprintfa with hard coded pointers in each call.  I edited the one for the Elemental affinity one and moved it.  It worked fine but the elements themselves are all hard coded to read only one word.  So even though I had written "Water" it was only reading "Wa."  Playing around with it I got it to read more but was only able to get it to read a dword permanently.  So I was only able to get it to display "Wate affinity" permanently.  Ill play around with it some more tomorrow and see if I can get "Water" to display fully. 

Ah, that makes sense, as the elements are all only one hangul character in the original. Cool to have someone with more knowledge poking around!

I was thinking of leaving out the "affinity" part eventually, as it makes the menu entry awfully long (not too long, but still), and I figured it would be generally understood when it just reads the element's name.

In case you're inclined to experiment some more, the item names caused some problems: In the status menu they're two lines, so I filled in spaces to avoid the words breaking up in the middle. However, in stores they're a single line, so the extra spaces show. In combat it's worse, as the window is spaced for short names only. Worst case (e.g. with my hacking skills), I would have to rename all the items to 8 characters only.

[Pennywise]

Any chance you'd be willing to translate the War of Genesis games provided someone hacked the games and you had the time?

[Xalphenos]

I had very little time to do anything today but I did manage to get the Element displaying correctly.  Here is a screen shot showing both with the word affinity and without.  I agree it isn't necessary so for now it is removed but I can add it back if you decide to keep it. 

Here is an ips patch that will make the edits.  It only changes the elements and a few code things so it shouldn't effect what you have already translated but I would make a backup before using it just in case.  Oh yeah it was done on version 1.13f, the latest update I'm aware of.

I'm going to be busy for the rest of the week, have family coming to visit, but I will start working on the items tomorrow when I get some free time. 



PS.  Oh yeah this game really has nice music.  I also really enjoy the way timing works in battle.  Overall I'm really impressed with this game, and it seems to be running fine on Win 7 x64 to boot.

Edit: Obsolete patch removed.

[derboo]

Hey, thanks a lot! That's Awesome!

Oh yeah it was done on version 1.13f, the latest update I'm aware of.

Yeah, that's the fully patched version.

I'm going to be busy for the rest of the week, have family coming to visit, but I will start working on the items tomorrow when I get some free time.

No hurry, the translations will take me some time, anyway. Magic causes the same issues as items, btw. There are also names for the monsters, but I haven't seen them displayed, yet. Maybe they need some kind of Analysis spell.

Overall I'm really impressed with this game, and it seems to be running fine on Win 7 x64 to boot.

That's good to know, I wanted to test that on a friend's computer (I'm still using XP).

Any chance you'd be willing to translate the War of Genesis games provided someone hacked the games and you had the time?

It's possible. Progress would be slow, though, as for the time being I want to spend more effort on this game, and I use to translate while playing through the game (that's why I never got through with helping on the MagnaCarta translation, cause I simply couldn't play it properly). And these games are huge. So far, I've only played a bit of the first game (which I wouldn't recommend to spend the effort to translate, as most of its story is supposed to be contained in the second). I figure interest would be the most for War of Genesis 3? I'd have to see if I can get along well in that game (the first wasn't too difficult) and if someone were to send me a cleanly readable Korean script dump, chances are I'd do work on it, however slowly.

[Talbain]

I do apologize for not being able to get a playable version to you derboo.  It seems like it just may be one of those projects, unless someone knows of a trainer that allows you to hike your stats and everything up for it.  Or has a save file with hacked stats at the beginning of the game.  It's my understanding that beating Magna Carta is mostly a matter of playing with your stats to make you powerful enough to beat enemies and bosses, etc.

And yeah, I suspect most people here would probably be interested in War of Genesis III Parts 1 & 2 (I managed to play through them without much trouble).  Personally I'm more interested in Rhapsody of Zephyr (has a very similar style of play, but is based on The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favorite books), but have never been able to find anyone willing to hack it.

[derboo]

At the center of this game's story stands a prophetic poem. I really suck at poetry, but here's my first attempt to vaguely bring it into verse:

the meaning of that name
fear to one
anger to another
sorrow to the third
joy to the fourth
love to the last

when seven kings have passed
the moon has lost its light
a joyous bard awakes
the darkness back to life
the light will lose its ray
the lion lose its head

two blades leave on the way
as four they meet again
until the very end
as four they will remain

a road held in the hands
a place held out of sight
when fear decides the fate
Elios points the way

unfold before your eyes
four oceans and four lands
four mounains and four lakes
four boulders and four trees
and spread to the four winds
four signs

[Pennywise]

Ah, I might be able to help with that. Every once and a while I like to write a bit of poetry and I've even done so for a translation. I converted a bard's song in Silva Saga to rhyming prose. Perhaps I'll try to whip something up for this.

[Validus]

WOW! this game looks BEYOND fantastic!

Is it a traditional RPG or an action RPG? Looks like chrono trigger esque battles

[Xalphenos]

Hey, Derboo.  I ended up being way busier than I thought I was going to be last week.  My family finally left last night.  So I started working on the items and got it to where it looks good in the status screen and at shops.  I was about to start working on the battle screen when I realized I didn't really know what all possibilities there are for item names.  So to make sure I don't have to just redo it later I have a few questions. 

Are there any item names with more than two words?
Do you have a need to have more than one word on one line in the status screen?
Those same questions with regards to skill names.
Anything else special regarding item/skill names?

One more thing; it seems the game isn't working perfectly in 7 x64.  When the BGM ends it doesn't start over.  It's not a game breaker, just a little annoying, but I thought I would mention it here. 

[derboo]

Are there any item names with more than two words?
Do you have a need to have more than one word on one line in the status screen?
Those same questions with regards to skill names.
Anything else special regarding item/skill names?

Well, so far I have preliminary item names like Black Pearl Necklace and Ring of Darkness, but I guess those could be eliminated if necessary (BlackPearl Necklace/Dark Ring). There are some that would look weird when there's a line break after the space, like War Mace. Would it be possible to have some kind of control character that causes a line break in the status screen but is ignored in the shops, a slash or something? Doesn't look like there's anything different for the skill names. There doesn't seem to be an analysis spell, btw., so the monster names might not even appear in the game.

I'm not sure, but the Item/Skill window in combat could be a bitmap with no alternative sizes. The data files contain enough empty space to have alternative short item names for combat about 24 bytes after the main name, if that is a possibility.

One more thing; it seems the game isn't working perfectly in 7 x64.  When the BGM ends it doesn't start over.  It's not a game breaker, just a little annoying, but I thought I would mention it here.

I have it the same way in XP and in VirtualPC with Win98 installed, so it might be a bug/design decision in the game itself.

There's one more issue aside from the main script: Pressing M, D or alt brings up Baldea's notebook where the player can type in custom text, but by default its set to Korean. Usually on a Korean computer, you'd just have to press the right alt key to switch to English, but they might have left that function out.

How much more time do you intend to sacrifice for the project in general? Would you be available for dumping and reinserting the main script? Then I'd take down the help wanted ad...

Is it a traditional RPG or an action RPG? Looks like chrono trigger esque battles

Kinda like Chrono Trigger, but more dynamic.

Ah, I might be able to help with that. Every once and a while I like to write a bit of poetry and I've even done so for a translation. I converted a bard's song in Silva Saga to rhyming prose. Perhaps I'll try to whip something up for this.

Putting it into rhymed verse sounds a bit risky, but if you can make it sound solemn, I'd be down with that. There's a variation to the first stanza that goes like this:

my name means...
fear to you
anger to you
sorrow to you
joy to you
and
love to you

[Xalphenos]

Well, so far I have preliminary item names like Black Pearl Necklace and Ring of Darkness, but I guess those could be eliminated if necessary (BlackPearl Necklace/Dark Ring). There are some that would look weird when there's a line break after the space, like War Mace. Would it be possible to have some kind of control character that causes a line break in the status screen but is ignored in the shops, a slash or something? Doesn't look like there's anything different for the skill names. There doesn't seem to be an analysis spell, btw., so the monster names might not even appear in the game.

Good to know and yes I should be able to do that.

I'm not sure, but the Item/Skill window in combat could be a bitmap with no alternative sizes. The data files contain enough empty space to have alternative short item names for combat about 24 bytes after the main name, if that is a possibility.

I'm hoping I can extend the bitmap, ill know more when I dive into it after work.  I also thought about alternate short names too and at the very least it should be doable.

I have it the same way in XP and in VirtualPC with Win98 installed, so it might be a bug/design decision in the game itself.

I did a little research on this during my lunch break.  It seems its a bug introduced with 1.13f.  1.12 repeats the music after it ends for as long as you remain in the area.  Unfortunately 1.12 runs like garbage for me on xp and 7.  Ill look into fixing the bgm for 1.13 eventually but it will be a low priority.  It would be a shame to not here the great BGM all the time.

There's one more issue aside from the main script: Pressing M, D or alt brings up Baldea's notebook where the player can type in custom text, but by default its set to Korean. Usually on a Korean computer, you'd just have to press the right alt key to switch to English, but they might have left that function out.

I saw screen shots of this but didn't know how to access it.  I can think of two ways to fix this.  One, the preferred method, should work the other I'm almost certain will work but either should be almost indistinguishable to the player.

How much more time do you intend to sacrifice for the project in general? Would you be available for dumping and reinserting the main script? Then I'd take down the help wanted ad...

Let me finish this stuff up and look at the script file and I'll get back to you.  I certainly want to see this project through to the end but I don't want to make promises I can't keep.  The main script file is seal.scp?

One more question what is the longest item/skill name that would be displayed in battle?

[derboo]

Yeah, seal.scp contains the script. Not only for the text, apparently, but also cutscene scripting, which could make the task a bit more complicated.

One more question what is the longest item/skill name that would be displayed in battle?

The longest so far is High Spirit Potion (after I've shortened the Black Pearl Necklace one) but I'm still trying to come up with something shorter for that, too (in the original, it's a portmanteau of 'spirit' and 'potion,' like 'spirotion' or something). Other than that the longest item names can be seen in the screenshot below, magic names are all much shorter:

EDIT: A later item description enforced renaming the Spirit Potions to Will Potions, so the longest item name is now just one "n" wider than the Disfolt's Sword seen in the screenshot.

Pressing M, D or alt brings up Baldea's notebook

Just for the record, a small correction for this. The third key wasn't alt, but tab.

[Xalphenos]

The fact that I did any hacking today is a miracle considering the collectors edition of Diablo III was on my door step today when I got home. 

I finished up the items display for the status screen.  To line break use 0x01.  You can have 11 characters on the first line if using two or 13 characters if only using the top line.  I have it set to space the second line over one like in your initial pics.  If you don't want that to happen it will be easy to change.

I'm not completely happy with the item display in battle.  It works but I may, probably, revisit it later.  I could move that box all over the screen and even managed to turn it into a parallelogram but still couldn't get it to expand in code.   So I made the game draw another box beside the first.

Here is a patch to make the changes.  font.ips patches the english.fnt file and seal.ips does the seal.exe file. 

As for the skill/magic names.  My lack of Hangul knowledge is preventing me from finding their names.  Could you tell me where Baldea's thieving skill is located.  I tried typing it out using a virtual keyboard but must have messed something up because I didn't find it in any of the files I was looking in.  Once armed with that knowledge it should be relatively easy to duplicate the hacks.

Edit: Obsolete links removed.

[derboo]

Cool, I'll start working in the line breaks.

The fact that I did any hacking today is a miracle considering the collectors edition of Diablo III was on my door step today when I got home.

Hehe, thanks for taking one for the team.

I've uploaded an ips patch for the /data/magic.mgl file (names only so far, but the descriptions are not an issue): http://www.derboo.de/files/seal/magic.ips

Would there be a way to extract the bitmap and replace it with another, bigger one?
In case we're stuck with the double windows, the back one is a bit too far to the left, so double digit item quantities are written over the border (also, the single digit quantities already touch the inner border, it would look better when there was 1 pixel in between, like on the left.)

[Xalphenos]

Would there be a way to extract the bitmap and replace it with another, bigger one?

I'm sure that could be done but I suck hard core at graphics.  Ill look into it though.  For now I have another patch that is a lot more acceptable than the last.
I can tweak the positions around to your liking if the spacing looks off to you.  Also the skills on the status screen now behave the same way as the items.

Alright I'm going to take a break for the rest of the day and tomorrow Ill give that script file a look.

Edit: found some bugs in it.  working them out now.
Edit 2: Bugs should now be ironed out.

Obsolete patch removed

[Validus]

hope this is easier to install/play than Romance of the Forgotten Kingdom (impossible to get to play).