Samurai Shodown RPG translation revived

[midget35]

#1! Lovely work

[xenophile]

Both look great. Will this affect in game dialog? Could we get a sample of something other than the title screen?

[reyvgm]

Both look great. Will this affect in game dialog? Could we get a sample of something other than the title screen?

There are multiple images showing the dialog already. Check the previous pages.

[xenophile]

There are multiple images showing the dialog already. Check the previous pages.

Fine. It was a somewhat rhetorical question because the dialog shots show a much larger font. Let me restate:

Looks like this font is probably used a lot for numbers in battle. How readable is it for that? Could we get a comparison shot of that? Is there anywhere else it's used heavily where readability is important? I really want it to be possible to use the stylized font for extra character, so lets see some shots of text where reading comprehension is more important.

Speaking of which, I checked out how the font is used in Samurai Shodown III (one doesn't pay much attention when actually playing a fighting game) and it looks like they mixed the two fonts. Not expecting that from a hack, but it was interesting none the less to see them both on the same screen.

[Red Soul]

This looks good beyond belief. It may be the most high profile RPG on the Neo (not that there were many, I'm sure - the console would have benefited massively from widening up the portfolio with all that power).

Seeing Genjuro on the menu makes me very happy. It was my understanding that he was planned but cut from the game; am I wrong or was his content restored?

[noneother]

This looks good beyond belief. It may be the most high profile RPG on the Neo (not that there were many, I'm sure - the console would have benefited massively from widening up the portfolio with all that power).

Seeing Genjuro on the menu makes me very happy. It was my understanding that he was planned but cut from the game; am I wrong or was his content restored?

It's the only RPG on the Neo Geo CD. The regular Neo Geo didn't have any RPGs at all because it was an arcade board that happened to get spun-off into a niche market console. It was not conceived as a console. All the games were arcade games. Its competition was the CPS2, not the SNES. I think Samurai Shodown RPG is the only real Neo Geo CD game that was made for the home market, and even then, it released for the PSX and Saturn the same day because it wouldn't have made sense economically to make it an exclusive.

[Magma MK-II]

I think Samurai Shodown RPG is the only real Neo Geo CD game that was made for the home market, and even then, it released for the PSX and Saturn the same day because it wouldn't have made sense economically to make it an exclusive.

The NGCD had four exclusive titles: this game, Crossed Swords II, Ironclad and Mahjong Final Romance 2. There was also a quiz game by Success which never got released.

[Red Soul]

The NGCD had four exclusive titles: this game, Crossed Swords II, Ironclad and Mahjong Final Romance 2. There was also a quiz game by Success which never got released.

Ah, I didn't know the NGCD had exclusives; that's some interesting information!

[MoriyaMug]

Ah, I didn't know the NGCD had exclusives; that's some interesting information!

It's noteworthy that AES/MVS versions of Crossed Sword II and Ironclad DO exist... so far as I'm aware, CS2 is a bootleg conversion, but the Ironclad ROM floating out there was extracted from the Wii Virtual Console release.

[Magma MK-II]

Yes, those two were originally intended to be released on the AES/MVS but were made into CD exclusives, probably so that the system could have some differential.

[Nintenja]

Who needs AI when the hacking community can do stuff like this.

[Red Soul]

It's noteworthy that AES/MVS versions of Crossed Sword II and Ironclad DO exist... so far as I'm aware, CS2 is a bootleg conversion, but the Ironclad ROM floating out there was extracted from the Wii Virtual Console release.

I think Zintrick also had a similar situation.

[MoriyaMug]

Current status:

1. I've completed a full playthrough of both chapters with one character each.

2. Thanks to Pennywise, I've also been put in touch with a reliable tester who will be working on playing through the game with the other characters, primarily for the sake of viewing the various special voiced scenes and confirm they are also working properly.

3. ASM hacks are being worked on to clean up the opening text crawl, some blacksmith screen weirdness, and (hopefully) force text to display over some voice-only segments. I found that the workaround I'd been using at spots is not reliable.

4. A debug mode has been found and enabled, which I was hoping would expedite testing, but it's completely undocumented and tends to lead to a lot of crashes and restarts. I will continue to tinker and see if I can put it to effective use. It does turn on a noclip setting and also seems to disable encounters, so it'd be useful for making maps, at least. But that won't get us across the finish line.

[reyvgm]

Current status:

1. I've completed a full playthrough of both chapters with one character each.

2. Thanks to Pennywise, I've also been put in touch with a reliable tester who will be working on playing through the game with the other characters, primarily for the sake of viewing the various special voiced scenes and confirm they are also working properly.

3. ASM hacks are being worked on to clean up the opening text crawl, some blacksmith screen weirdness, and (hopefully) force text to display over some voice-only segments. I found that the workaround I'd been using at spots is not reliable.

4. A debug mode has been found and enabled, which I was hoping would expedite testing, but it's completely undocumented and tends to lead to a lot of crashes and restarts. I will continue to tinker and see if I can put it to effective use. It does turn on a noclip setting and also seems to disable encounters, so it'd be useful for making maps, at least. But that won't get us across the finish line.

Do you mind sharing save files (internal memory or states) of the different playthroughs?

I would like to capture all the relevant ending dialogue each character has and I would preferably like to avoid having to play the game 10 times to do so

[MoriyaMug]

Do you mind sharing save files (internal memory or states) of the different playthroughs?

I would like to capture all the relevant ending dialogue each character has and I would preferably like to avoid having to play the game 10 times to do so

Might not even be necessary. The debug has a thing to go to the ending, but I haven't picked apart how to make it work yet. Either way, it'd be easy enough to just pull the dialogue from the insert file with the endings, if that's what you're after.

[Grillkick]

It's noteworthy that AES/MVS versions of Crossed Sword II and Ironclad DO exist... so far as I'm aware, CS2 is a bootleg conversion, but the Ironclad ROM floating out there was extracted from the Wii Virtual Console release.

I own both of those MVS carts for my Neo Candy 29 arcade cab. My Ironclad cart is exactly what you described; I got it from some guy in China who made it from the Wii VC rom. The Crossed Swords II release was really something; it was put together by the infamous Razoola and he went all-out with it. He gave it a better translation and notable bug fixes, although he did have to replace the soundtrack with the soundtrack of the first game. It even came in a sweet custom box

About four years ago, a product called the NeoSD was released in small quantities by Terra Onion. It wasn't just the usual SD loader, it enabled you to play NeoCD games on your MVS or AES! It would translate the CD audio to chip audio on the fly.

Unfortunately, you will have to spend a bonkers $2000.00 on Ebay to get ahold of one now. Shame, because I would kill to be able to play SamSho RPG on my arcade cabinet with real hardware.

Therefore, I really hope that someone manages a conversion cart.

[MoriyaMug]

Therefore, I really hope that someone manages a conversion cart.

I know it's inevitable, but I wish they wouldn't. Repros and conversions are just bootlegs, made by people who profit off the work of fan translators and enthusiasts. Fuck every last one in the ear.

[reyvgm]

Might not even be necessary. The debug has a thing to go to the ending, but I haven't picked apart how to make it work yet. Either way, it'd be easy enough to just pull the dialogue from the insert file with the endings, if that's what you're after.

The dialogue files would be helpful so I at least know how many different dialogue options are there. But I would still need a way to play the actual ending so I can visually capture all the variations. A debug mode would be most helpful to achieve that, yeah!

Thanks!

[sagatwarrior]

Might not even be necessary. The debug has a thing to go to the ending, but I haven't picked apart how to make it work yet. Either way, it'd be easy enough to just pull the dialogue from the insert file with the endings, if that's what you're after.

Wow. Thank you for the update and appreciate all the hard work that you do.

[Grillkick]

I know it's inevitable, but I wish they wouldn't. Repros and conversions are just bootlegs, made by people who profit off the work of fan translators and enthusiasts. Fuck every last one in the ear.

Usually, I would agree with you 100%. I'm just referring to a fringe NeoGeo CD -> cart service for those who want to experience it on their arcade hardware. If there is another way to do that, I'm all for it.