Super Robot Wars A Portable (PSP) English translation project (complete)

[BlackDog61]

Hi there!

This is the project page for the English translation of Super Robot Wars A Portable on the PSP. This turn-based strategy game boasts well-known anime mecha series

Spoiler

- Getter Robo, G's Benkei, Shin Getter Robo
- Gundams-a-plenty! MS Gundam, Char's Counter attack, The 08th MS Team, 0083: Stardust Memory, Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, Mobile Fighter G Gundam
- Metal Armor Dragonar
- Martian Successor Nadesico
- Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, UFO Robo Grendizer
- Combattler V, Voltes V, Tosho Daimos
- Daitarn 3, Zambot 3
- and some of the Banpresto Original characters from SRW OG (no Excellen, though, but enough beauties, don't worry  ).

[close]

The game has really fully been translated - that covers everything except audio speech (and stylistic Japanese characters in the battle animations, for martial arts for instance - Japanese writing rocks there!)

The PATCH is available on the translation's page. Please read the readme before reporting any problem.

Here are some videos we shot earlier to wet your appetite:
- Battle animations videos from the demo carousel - and others
- Let's play the first episode of the Super Robot, Male hero route
- The translated title screen:

- Intermission screen:

(Here is the original one for comparison)


The team: Steel Soul Translations
- Translation of battle quotes, items, names, titles, spirits, weapons, bonuses, skills & abilities: TheMajinZenki
- Edition of battle quotes & story: JeftahX, SSJCyberSonic, Sporky McForkinspoon, KyrilSolin
- Texan accent editing: Blaine_Kodos
- Programming, various reviews: BlackDog61
- Early testing: Lord Oddeye (and other team members)
- With expert consulting from Kingcom, Dashman, JamRules & furrykef
- Wildly based on the story translation guide from Ikusagami, re-translated by TheMajinZenki
- Using Klarth's (great!) TableLib and also sjisdump
- Thanks to AGundam, MrWorm, MarsRaven, cj_iwakura and others for their interest.

Known bugs and limitations: (Please check the readme.)
- Renaming heroes and their robots is more restricted than it would be in modern entries in the SRW series, and you can "get a bad display of text" if you enter too long a name. The game will assume the name is less than 80 pixels, and you are limited in number of characters, but doesn't check the pixels at the time you rename heroes/robots, so it's up to you to be reasonable.
- The "Gundam Deathscythe Hell" has the hell of a long name. We couldn't get ourselves to use an abbreviation for it, so it does "overflow" out of the small status box at the bottom of the screen when the cursor hovers over it.
- "Hyper Mega Particle Cannon" just doesn't fit either. We know abbreviated versions are imperfect, but that's just the way it is.
- Puru 2 decided she'd appear before Puru in the pilots pedia. That's just it. We couldn't find how to change that, though that shouldn't prevent anyone from enjoying the game.
- A unit that is underground will be offered to surface with a menu item that reads "Land" (like it would for a flying unit). While this isn't elegant, there are few units that go underground and we wanted to keep a verb here (rather than going with "on surface" or things like this). It's still fairly understandable.
- The combo attack "Darkness God Finger" has Domon's line incorrect (as it is the same line in Japanese for another attack). It still sounds cool, though. If you have a fix for this, we're interested!
- This translation has been tested on PSP "fat" with 6.60 ME-1.8, PSP-2000 with 6.60 PRO-B10, PSP 3000, and the ppsspp emulator. Other setups may or may not work.

Limitations from the original game:
- Like the original game, the Counter skill item doesn't really grant the pilot who uses it the Counter skill (although the Pilot will list it in his/her skills). Couldn't find a fix for this - do let us know if you have one!
- The battle animation for the Stoner Sunshine has hin Getter Robo split into Getter Robo machines instead of their newer counterpart.
- The battle animation for the Dendronium's large beam saber uses red, instead of pink.
- The battle animation for one of Light's attacks cuts the audio for his attack a bit short. But who understands Japanese, anyway, right?

- Things we've improved upon the original game:
   . Fixed Prof. Yotsuya speaking out of turn in mission 2 (likely copy paste between routes)
   . Making characters disappear from screen when they walk away and people "talk in their back" after that.
   . Adding humor here and there. Because why not?
   . Extra Trivia in the Pilot pedia, thanks to TheMajinZenki being a true fan, and because Bright deserved it, too.

FAQ: And for the usual questions - and a little trivia:
- "How big is the game?" Here are some "fun facts" figures: 58 missions, 26k lines of story text, 13k lines of battle quotes, 7k short lines of other text, 490+ weapons, 428 mechs, 88 playable characters among a cast of 199, 61 musics.
- "Why this game?" First because the story translation guide was available, pushing BlackDog61 towards this SRW entry over others. Even if we gave up on using it a bit later down the road. Also, please thank Kingcom and Lakmir for influencing us in choosing the PSP version rather than the GBA one. Then of course, once TheMajinZenki joined, a virtuous circle of emulation was created, so that's what got us going!

Tested on PSP "fat" with 6.60 ME-1.8, PSP-2000 with 6.60 PRO-B10, PSP 3000, and ppsspp emulator.

Have a nice time with the game!

[Dashman]

Great to see this going public! I hope some more help comes your way and those little issues get eventually solved.

I feel that my "expert consulting" is a bit exaggerated, specially considering that GC turned into a real hacking project because of you *points finger accusingly*

In any case, I'm very glad I could help a bit and wish the best for this project

[a1999a]

I am really glad to see there is some progress. Good luck.

[Deets]

This is looking great! Glad to hear you were able to push through some of the technical hurdles. Definitely looking forward to the final release~

[pablitox]

Glad to see your work is showing, hope you guys have good luck in this project!

cheers!!   

[BlackDog61]

Thank you all for your good words.
I know you each have your own on-going endeavours, so... GOOD LUCK to each of you!!

[TheMajinZenki]

Hello guys,

I wanted to showcase the original characters, so I recorded a video with each original robot (Vaisaga appears twice to balance out the pilots).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWcCIz2ktDk

Please let me know what do you think (mostly for Axel's "kore ga", which I localized as "y'know" and for Lamia's speech impediment).
By the way, you probably will notice that I used Atlus translation of the weapons, let me know your opinion on that, too.

[Dashman]

With all due respect to Atlus, I like Vysaga much better. I'd personally use Halberd Launcher instead of Halberd Shooter, seeing how Axel names the weapon pretty clearly.

I'm no expert translator, but I *think* the "kore ga" at the end of his lines is a bit like putting the subject at the end of the line, and doesn't really change the meaning of the line (that much). Take this two, for example:

これがまずいぜ!

まずいぜ、これが!

You'd get to translate both as "this is bad". I don't know if the last one would count as an accent or what exactly denotes that manner of speech in a character, so hopefully someone more experienced will help you on that. Personally I like the "y'know", but I feel it's not correct.

[Scio]

During the first part of the game, Axel is still amnesiac, so he acts more jovial and cocky than usual (even his tone is less serious), so I think "y'know" can indicate that.

[SunGodPortal]

You'd get to translate both as "this is bad". I don't know if the last one would count as an accent or what exactly denotes that manner of speech in a character, so hopefully someone more experienced will help you on that. Personally I like the "y'know", but I feel it's not correct.

I don't know if it's necessary to mention this but if that sort of thing reoccurs again and again in that specific character's speech it's considered a speech "tic". Like if a cat-themed character ended nearly every sentence with "nyā". I've noticed that sort of thing a lot in Japanese fictional characters. Like how Ika Musume ends many of her sentences with "geso" or how Bibidevi from Megaranger says "bi" a lot.

It's usually an indication that a character has a quirky sort of personality. I don't know if that applies here or not but if it does you may want to keep it in mind.

[Bonesy]

Pretty excited for this! I need to finish A Portable at least once in Japanese first, though.

[TheMajinZenki]

As it was stated, those "kore ga" at the end of the lines are amnesiac Axel's verbal tic. There's 7 instances in his battle quotes only (for a comparable number, there's 8 instances of Lamia having her grammatical nightmare lines in her battle quotes). I thought that localizing that tic as "y'know" is something that is easily repeatable when we get to editing his intermission dialogues, and in SRW AP is probably unique to him. I'm accepting suggestions though.

About naming, until now I've been using Atlus translations; it's really been "all-or-nothing" for now, that's why you can see "Black Warrior" and "Halberd Shooter"; my reasoning for using those is that the players of OG2 (GBA) would recognize those names and terms, but as usual I'm accepting feedback.

[Scio]

The only rule I use is, if the character says the name of the attack, I leave it as it is, even if it was known as something else in other media, or even if the attack is known by another name in the menu. You know that in SRW some pilots nickname their attacks, there's probably an example with the Nadesico people in this game.

By the way, don't get too hung up on details. They can be cleaned up later.

[BlackDog61]

The only rule I use is, if the character says the name of the attack, I leave it as it is, even if it was known as something else in other media, or even if the attack is known by another name in the menu. You know that in SRW some pilots nickname their attacks, there's probably an example with the Nadesico people in this game.

Actually, I'm not in favour of a generic rule to support potential Engrish when there's some, just because the character shouts something and we have that from the voice acting.
So I think it's a case-by-case matter.
EDIT: I do agree with you that battle quotes are more of "subtitles" than disconnected dialogue.

Here: Halberd Shooter vs. Halberd Launcher? We barely hear the "launcher" word. I mean - if you are not familiar enough with Japanese, good luck catching it. The weapon does not shoot any physical ammo, so I kinda like shooter better than launcher. But shooter's not perfect either, so I'd be ok with launcher if you massively guys vote for it.
Still, Zenki's the one to be convinced.

By the way, don't get too hung up on details. They can be cleaned up later.

It's good to nail the ones we can, so we can keep posting demos that don't look like crap. And to start some discussions on subjects like Axel & Lamia's speech styles, so we don't get to re-do everything at the end. But I agree we have to move forward.

Thanks for your questioning! It's good to have people with whom to exchange on these topics.

[Noelemahc]

As I've just started playing the game recently, I can get you all the save games you want, provided you tell me where to send them? I'm assuming you need them from after each chapter to test stuffs?

I'm playing Axel on Real Robot mode for the first playthrough, if that matters (is there much dialogue variation for Super vs Real? I've mostly played the DS ones before this one, and none of them let you choose).

[SonRyo]

I definitely support Launcher over Shooter, since that's what I know it as from hearing it in the PS2 version of OGs, OG Gaiden and 2nd OGs-- personally I'd favor familiarity for the people who have played all the newer games in the series than one old English-translated game. Black Warrior I could take or leave since it's in kanji anyway, but Halberd Launcher seems like something that Atlus changed for no good reason.

[TheMajinZenki]

Thanks for the feedback, the current version now features "Halberd Launcher" 

[BlackDog61]

As I've just started playing the game recently, I can get you all the save games you want, provided you tell me where to send them? I'm assuming you need them from after each chapter to test stuffs?

You can just post on any file-posting server you like (even google drive if that's your thing) and PM us the link. We are lucky enough to have another person also doing this - so let's split routes indeed. Axel Real is all yours!

I'm playing Axel on Real Robot mode for the first playthrough, if that matters (is there much dialogue variation for Super vs Real? I've mostly played the DS ones before this one, and none of them let you choose).

The first missions are just not the same at all between Real and Super. I haven't checked far enough into the game to confirm the rest of the differences, though, but from the titles I'd say episodes 1-3 are different, whereas 4-end are different for Axel vs Lamia (not Super vs Real). And there are route splits too.
Enjoy your playthrough!!


PS: We are on the look out for Editors again!

[Noelemahc]

Question: I'm approaching the first route split. Perhaps we should agree on which paths I should take and the other Axel contributor you have should take so that we have full coverage of his routes?
I think I'll send you the first batch of saves after the first post-split chapter, but I need to know which way to turn =)

Second question: I'm of the "barely reads Japanese with a dictionary and a kanji lookup app" variety. How can I contribute to the text process?
The translation guide you are referring to seems to have been written by a non-native speaker of English and is a nightmare to navigate (and comprehend, since I'm also a non-native speaker), but if we take its text translation as gospel, then I assume it needs to be rewritten to be stylistically... better?

Third question: How did the writers decide whether characters using English loanwords would spell them phonetically in kana or literally in English? How do you deal with those?
(f.e. a lot of Jack King's lines alternate between the two, some of his battle quotes are spelled in English, and some of his dialogue is chock full of loanwords in kana)

[BlackDog61]

Hi Noelemahc!

Question: I'm approaching the first route split. Perhaps we should agree on which paths I should take and the other Axel contributor you have should take so that we have full coverage of his routes?
I think I'll send you the first batch of saves after the first post-split chapter, but I need to know which way to turn =)

Actually, you're first on this route so pick your favourite turn!! Keep us posted here so we know which way others should go.

Second question: I'm of the "barely reads Japanese with a dictionary and a kanji lookup app" variety. How can I contribute to the text process?
The translation guide you are referring to seems to have been written by a non-native speaker of English and is a nightmare to navigate (and comprehend, since I'm also a non-native speaker), but if we take its text translation as gospel, then I assume it needs to be rewritten to be stylistically... better?

We don't necessarily take that translation as gospel, but for those of us who don't have any Japanese abilities, we do our best on the English side of the "understanding" border. Indeed, rewriting is a possibility we consider, though again we'll see how we go with our editors. We're still looking for some more - let me mention now that we are happy to now have JeftahX with us!
As for your contributions, I would recommend you check here for questions / polls we might post here.

Third question: How did the writers decide whether characters using English loanwords would spell them phonetically in kana or literally in English? How do you deal with those?
(f.e. a lot of Jack King's lines alternate between the two, some of his battle quotes are spelled in English, and some of his dialogue is chock full of loanwords in kana)

As far as Jack King goes, we're planning to push his Texan-ness far.
As for other words and names, we try to look for what the most commonly agreed convention is... if we like it, of course. I think the Halberd Launcher / Shooter discussion above illustrates this somewhat.