[justin3009]

I'm not entirely sure where to post this but I guess here might be a good choice since it's just a general bit.

How did any of the others figure out exactly how the script works in TOP? Was the original game a lot easier to dump and edit compared to DeJap or any of the other various translations? How difficult was it to do this?

I'm working on TOP right now and the script is something I'd 'hope' to edit way into the future mainly because of adding Brambard/Brambert/Brambald/Rambard as a playable character. Using DeJap's as a base is good for an English translation off the bat, but how the text is handled is confusing the heck out of me. It looks like it may use two tables. One is for the general data and one is for 'after' a capital letter or something. The second table is #$1A less than the first one exactly but still has the same data inside of it.  I'd even work off the JP version if I'm able to properly dump and/or edit the script truthfully. Looks like the JP's data is still pretty complicated to understand as well so this is making it really difficult to work with.


As for DeJap's script:
------------------------------
I'll look at say: 'No'
N = 37
o = 52

So 37 52 would be 'No' in a general table.

But when it's a capital letter first it then looks like this:
N = 37
o = 38

So 37 38 would be 'No' with the 'other' table. It seems after there's a capital letter, it ends up subtract #$1A to get other values or possible even another table.

Any tips on this? I'm pretty baffled at how to even begin modifying or dumping this script.

[KingMike]

I'm guessing the script is compressed.
Supposedly there were several people who tried to fan-translate it back in the day (one such person/group "Cybergoth", with some odd capitalization, was at a point a meme for menu-only translations as a result), but DeJap was the one group with the expertise to decompress text. (at a time when ASM hacking was pretty rare)

[mziab]

Yes, the script is compressed, but the actual compression scheme is DeJap's doing. It's actually comprised of multiple layers of compression. The only thing you will find using relative search is just the substring table used in the dictionary compression part.

[justin3009]

Yep, I figured. That's about all I saw was the substring table. Kind of figured it was a no-go for the most part.

[Midna]

I really think someone ought to take a crack at retranslating the SNES Tales of Phantasia from scratch. The DeJap script isn't that bad I guess, but as far as accuracy goes, it's very much a product of the early 2000s. "tee-hee he said 'fuck' in a Nintendo game wow there's so much cursing they took out of these games back in the day! whee!"

[KingMike]

I remember when I first saw the boat scene in Nintendo's GBA translation, I realized my mind was still influenced by the DeJap translation.
One of the most infamous lines I think was at a point when I think Mint was talking in her sleep, DeJap's line was like "GIVE IT TO ME HARD!" vs. Nintendo's was like "No, Cress, we shouldn't...".

If looking at it without knowledge of DeJap's line, then Nintendo's leaves a lot more to the imagination. Might be interesting to know what the original text was.

[mziab]

I remember when I first saw the boat scene in Nintendo's GBA translation, I realized my mind was still influenced by the DeJap translation.
One of the most infamous lines I think was at a point when I think Mint was talking in her sleep, DeJap's line was like "GIVE IT TO ME HARD!" vs. Nintendo's was like "No, Cress, we shouldn't...".

If looking at it without knowledge of DeJap's line, then Nintendo's leaves a lot more to the imagination. Might be interesting to know what the original text was.

It's actually Arche, not Mint. The Nintendo translation is actually pretty much word-for-word what the Japanese script says:

Code: [Select]

Arche:
「あいーーー！！！
だめだったら、
Cless‥‥‥‥
Basically some scenes got punched up a lot in DeJap's patch and the tone comes across as much different as a result. The original only hints at things and only has some slight innuendo.

Now, DeJap's script is enjoyable from a player's perspective, but once you start digging into it, you start noticing some other odd decisions, not all of them obvious at a glance. I mean things like changing the names of most shops and inns to reference real-life franchises (e.g. Alvanista Hilton, Albertson's Market etc.), renaming some characters (Prince Reard becomes Prince Charles, the king of Alvanista is called King Louis IV, Mars is called Malice etc.) or changing "Derris-Kharlan" to "Father Chronos, Mother Gaia" in Dhaos' speech, just to name a few off the top of my head. Some plot points and conversations make less sense than they should due to the liberties taken when rewriting the dialogue. So while for the most part it's an enjoyable localization, at least some of it should be taken with a grain of salt. Personally, it was one of the first fan translations I've ever played and it blew my mind at the time, so I have very fond memories of it, but nowadays I prefer the PSX patch from Phantasian Productions, which strikes a good balance between accuracy and natural dialogue, I think.