Translations: Kaze No Densetsu Xanadu II (PCE-CD) - Announced!

[elmer]

Just a couple of screenshots of the current progress with Xanadu 1 ...

[Burnt Lasagna]

Those screens look ding dong amazing.
I like the last screenshot's tub of lard font. It makes the game look of its time.

[elmer]

Those screens look ding dong amazing.
I like the last screenshot's tub of lard font. It makes the game look of its time.

Thanks for the kind words!

[elmer]

The Xanadu 1 translation toolchain is done, and has been passed on to SamIAm.

He's is over half way through translating the script, which contains approximately 235,000 Japanese glyphs.

The first 2 levels of the game have had their 1st playtest.

Meanwhile, the Xanadu 2 translation toolchain is nearly done, and the next step is to merge the 2012/2013 script translation, which was done in Atlas, into the new script compiler format.

The Xanadu 2 scripts contain approximately 96,000 Japanese glyphs.

Here are some of the recent updates from Xanadu 2 ...

[Burnt Lasagna]

Here are some of the recent updates from Xanadu 2 ...

[KingMike]

Ewwww... that donkey's gonna have orange teeth!

[SunGodPortal]

Ewwww... that donkey's gonna have orange teeth!

I can't tell if it's translated or not.

[elmer]

Here's another update on the current state of the translation ...

The Xanadu 2 toolchain is finished, and the old 2012/2103 English translation has now been merged into the new script format, and are working in the game.

Now that all the old translations are actually inserted into the game, I'm confident enough with the results that I can afford to use some of the small amount of free-memory that I've found to implement a variable-width-font.

Here's how that looks, and I hope that you'll all agree that it has turned out pretty nice ...

Xanadu 1 - New VWF




Since I've now got a VWF, I have also implemented kerning in the font drawing ...


Xanadu 1 - VWF without kerning




Xanadu 1 - VWF with kerning




Xanadu 2 - VWF without kerning




Xanadu 2 - VWF with kerning




I've also fixed a bug in Falcom's bold-and-outline code where it missed some pixels in the outline.


Here's the original (look at the very top and bottom line of each character's outline) ...




And here's the fixed version ...

[varikares]

Looks really cool man. I love seeing Falcom stuff getting translated

[elmer]

Looks really cool man. I love seeing Falcom stuff getting translated

Thanks!

These games are definitely a piece of almost-lost Falcom history to us Westerners.

They are the last 2 games in the Dragon Slayer series, and the first 2 totally-original console games that Falcom ever developed internally, together with being the first and third CD games that Falcom ever developed (with real CD music and voice acting).

I'm counting Popful Mail on the Sega CD as being Falcom's second CD game, even though it was a co-production with Sega.

Some people seem to think that Popful Mail on the SNES was Falcom's first (internally developed) console game, but Legend of Xanadu came out nearly 4 months earlier ... and I find it hard to consider Popful Mail on the SNES as an "original" game when it was really just an enhanced remake of their original PC98 game.

[mrrichard999]

Nice work! 

[dejan07]

I am amazed at the progress you and Sam are making but i have to ask are you planning to release both games at the same time?

[SamIAm]

I am amazed at the progress you and Sam are making but i have to ask are you planning to release both games at the same time?

Affirmative. 

-Both games have complete first draft translations of all in-game text with no missing strings.
-Both games have complete draft scripts for an English dub project* .
-Both games have fully working print routines with a variable width, kerned font, including a black outline in the first game and drop-shadow in the second.
-Both games have working English menus.

In addition to polishing the scripts and casting/recording/mixing a dub, there is only to replace graphical text, insert ADPCM clips, and make sure the weapon shops in Xanadu 2 are working.

*Yes, we will release a text version of the script in case you want to hear the original Japanese voices. No, we cannot get subtitles to work, because the games don't leave enough resources open to do this. 

[dejan07]

I wish you guys success with it, this is crazy! I am shocked because translation of a single game can take years especially with a CD game with dubs but two at the same time? Wow! 

[elmer]

-Both games have complete first draft translations of all in-game text with no missing strings.

And both translations are running in the game, and approximately 50%-tested (maybe-more-maybe-less).

and make sure the weapon shops in Xanadu 2 are working.

Oh no, did I break something in the last build? 


Xanadu 2 Weapon Shop with drop-shadow and condensed description font ...




Xanadu 2 Message Box - with drop-shadow and high-contrast palette mod ...

I wish you guys success with it, this is crazy! I am shocked because translation of a single game can take years especially with a CD game with dubs but two at the same time? Wow! 

Hahaha ... "yes" it is one heck-of-a-lot of work! 

But we got "lucky" in that Falcom used an improved version of the Xanadu 1 game engine in Xanadu 2. So even though there are some really significant changes, the basic core-design-logic and the way that the programmers were thinking was the same, and so hacking the 2nd game was a lot easier after the 1st game was cracked-open, and I'd written the custom toolchain and the compiler for Falcom's script-language.

[elmer]

Update ...

Major milestone reached: The first pass of Xanadu 2 is done.

Both games are now essentially playable in English. It's all about polish from here out. That, and the dubbing project.

Woohoo! Congratulations, Sam! 

Now, perhaps, you'll actually let me play the game and see all your hard work! 

We've definitely come a long way from ...



... to ...



*********

There are still some text-in-graphics that need to be replaced, and there's the "dub" project to do ... but basically, we're over the hump.

BTW ... I still have absolutely no idea why this thread is in the "Front Page News" section instead of the "Personal Projects" section???

[Pennywise]

Well, you can use the contact staff form and request that this thread be closed and you can start a new thread in the personal projects section.

[VicVergil]

*Yes, we will release a text version of the script in case you want to hear the original Japanese voices. No, we cannot get subtitles to work, because the games don't leave enough resources open to do this. 

What happened to that special mednafen version that would supposedly support soft-subs, just for this kind of situation?

[elmer]

What happened to that special mednafen version that would supposedly support soft-subs, just for this kind of situation?

I don't know ... I've heard mention of this capability, but I haven't seen any detailed docs anywhere.

Even if I do ever find them ... we're trying to run on original hardware, so I'd be more likely to try implementing SuperGrafx subtitles first before I'd try to implement emulator-specific subtitles.

May 05, 2016, 10:58:42 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)

Well, you can use the contact staff form and request that this thread be closed and you can start a new thread in the personal projects section.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I really wouldn't want to lose the history of the project's development by starting a new thread ... it's a bit too late for that.

It is more a question of how did this thread ever get started in the "Front Page News" section ... normal users can't create threads here.

So I guess that at some point in the site's history, announcements of new projects used to go on the Front Page ... and then posts just kept on getting added here.

[elmer]

I've been play-testing the translation (I've never actually played the game before), and it's really, really fun.

Falcom's writing and characters are wonderful. 

We're trying hard to see if we can get a taller logo working in the game that looks more like the box-art, but in the meantime, here's the (probably final) revision of the current English logo artwork. There have been a lot of changes to it since the last screenshot that I posted of it, many months ago.



If you're really observant, you might also notice that the menu text now has a bottom added to its drop-shadow to make it more readable. That's still under debate, but I rather like it myself.