Translations: Sakura Wars (PC) Getting an English Overhaul.

[RHDNBot]

Update By: Burnt Lasagna

Someone who goes by the name ezeliyn on GameFAQs has begun work on an English patch for the PC version of the original Sakura Wars, with a group of three other people.

The project has just gotten started but they have the game displaying their new English text and have a rough translation of the first episode done, along with some cutscenes.

More screenshots can be seen in the relevant link.

Relevant Link: (http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/561890-sakura-wars-so-long-my-love/61925087)

[Burnt Lasagna]

(Yeah I know, making the first post on my own update)

My most wished for translation project has always been for anyone of the Sakura Wars games to get translated into English, so this is like a dream come true to me.
I personally feel the first game is the worst in the series though, however this is still great news none the less 

Now if only the PS2 remake would get a translation. That is something I would really like see...to say the least.

[spencer5976]

http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-Wars-Long-Premium-Playstation-2/dp/B002DC8GW2/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329794533&sr=8-2-spell This is a PS 2 Sakura Wars game, or is there another one.

[Gideon Zhi]

http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-Wars-Long-Premium-Playstation-2/dp/B002DC8GW2/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329794533&sr=8-2-spell This is a PS 2 Sakura Wars game, or is there another one.

This is actually Sakura Wars 5.

[arromdee]

Here's Sakura Wars 1 on PS2: http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-Atsuki-Chishio-Japanese-Playstation-2/dp/B003OP503K  It is Japanese only.  Only 5 was translated for America.

There was also Sakura Wars 1-2 on PSP.  http://www.amazon.com/SEGA-Sakura-Price-PSP-Japan-Sony/dp/B005BKFQM6  Also Japanese-only.

[Burnt Lasagna]

http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-Wars-Long-Premium-Playstation-2/dp/B002DC8GW2/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329794533&sr=8-2-spell This is a PS 2 Sakura Wars game, or is there another one.

Yeah that's the fifth game (which is great by the way!).

However I'm talking about "Sakura Wars: In Hot Blood", which is a remake of the first game on the PS2 and when I say remake I really mean they completely remade it. With a new battle system, new graphics/art work and more story.

It makes the worst game in the series one of the best, at least from what I've heard/seen. Haven't played it myself since there's not even a translation guide for the game.
That is one of the reasons I think the remake is most in need of a patch, since all the other games at least have a fairly nice translation guides written for them (which is how I played them). 

[KiddoCabbusses]

I'm not sure this is the best place to ask this, but...

Doesn't GameFAQs have a history of taking a hard-line, zero-tolerance stance on things like emulators, ROM hacks and fan translations, more or less treating them identically to piracy?

I would for someone who's a member there to see if he/she can get the fan translator into a more secure haven for this project, if possible.

[Burnt Lasagna]

I already suggested to the translator that he should move the conversation over to romhacking.net, just for the fact that it would be more fitting (didn't mention the zero-tolerance thing). 
He said at the moment he isn't really looking for a place to publicize the project and his thread on GameFAQ was just to casually drop mention of it until March when stuff should start materializing.

[mym]

Hiyo! I'm the translator for this project, and thought I might as well drift over here so I can keep you posted on its progress.

I personally feel the first game is the worst in the series though, however this is still great news none the less 

Worse than the fourth? Shocking! But yeah, I agree that it's not the strongest game in the series, and far prefer both 2 and 3. I figured, though, that it was better to start from the beginning. If this one goes well, maybe I'll consider moving onto the others.

However I'm talking about "Sakura Wars: In Hot Blood", which is a remake of the first game on the PS2 and when I say remake I really mean they completely remade it. With a new battle system, new graphics/art work and more story.

It makes the worst game in the series one of the best, at least from what I've heard/seen. Haven't played it myself since there's not even a translation guide for the game.
That is one of the reasons I think the remake is most in need of a patch, since all the other games at least have a fairly nice translation guides written for them (which is how I played them).

It's definitely a nice remake. It's a little... lazy in some ways, though. Most notably the animated sequences. Some of them are redone (and there are some new ones), but others are just left as they were in the original versions. Which would be fine except that they made no effort whatsoever to match the newer movies stylistically to the older ones, so it's sort of got that jarring, Star Wars special edition feel where you have shiny new content pasted over old content. They also took out all of the original's mini-games among other things, and changed up a couple of bits here and there that rubbed me up the wrong way. It's still definitely a better game than the original version, but it's a shame they didn't take quite as much care with it as they could have.

As for why we're doing the PC one rather than the PS2 remake, ah... Simplicity, I guess? :'D I have no idea where to begin with console hacking. I'd happily translate if someone was up for doing the technical side of things someday, though, as the Sakura Taisen games were some of the first I played in Japanese, and I'm really fond of the series.

I already suggested to the translator that he should move the conversation over to romhacking.net, just for the fact that it would be more fitting (didn't mention the zero-tolerance thing). 
He said at the moment he isn't really looking for a place to publicize the project and his thread on GameFAQ was just to casually drop mention of it until March when stuff should start materializing.

Um... it's "she". :'D

And yeah, I kind of figured it was maybe dodgy turf posting it on GameFAQs, but I wasn't too fussed if I was banned, so I thought I might as well chance it. Once I'm done with the pile of paperwork I have to get through this month I'll have a lot more free time, so you should see more from us then!

[Burnt Lasagna]

Worse than the fourth? Shocking!

Yeah, I kind of like the fourth game a tad better. Just for the fact that it concludes the entire series. Though I think the first game definitely had the best ending out of all the games, just because of how freakin insane it was.

Spoiler

WTF! St. Michael!!?? Where did that come from

[close]

As for why we're doing the PC one rather than the PS2 remake, ah... Simplicity, I guess? :'D

I can understand that.
I would think hacking the PS2 remake would be a nightmare in en of it self (the things a DVD9).

Um... it's "she". :'D

Oh, sorry. I always instinctively assume all video game fan translators are male until proven other wise. Since that's the case more often then not.

Once I'm done with the pile of paperwork I have to get through this month I'll have a lot more free time, so you should see more from us then!

Can't wait to see what this project turns into later down the rode! 

[ericm]

Ever since getting a Sega Saturn in the 90's this has been the game I've most wanted to play in English. I have checked the internet every few months since that time in search of a translation patch. While I am aware of a translation document, I wasn't about to sit there and play the game with 300 pages of paper in front of me. So thank you for doing this.

Eric

[menschenfracht]

I was a part of an official (kinda, we didn't get any help from Sega at all) Russian translation for Sakura Wars 2 and nearly re-translated all the Sakura Wars 3 in Russian.

Man that was intense.

Pay attention that while all the dialogues and lips are tucked away in the special 'dialogue file', HUD parts and all the menu are right in the main executable and are kinda hard to find. At least, that was the case with the 3rd.

Also, 'One day in Paris' part gonna give both you and your programmer a headache you would never-ever forget.

[androvsky]

I was a part of an official (kinda, we didn't get any help from Sega at all) Russian translation for Sakura Wars 2 and nearly re-translated all the Sakura Wars 3 in Russian.

Man that was intense.

Pay attention that while all the dialogues and lips are tucked away in the special 'dialogue file', HUD parts and all the menu are right in the main executable and are kinda hard to find. At least, that was the case with the 3rd.

Also, 'One day in Paris' part gonna give both you and your programmer a headache you would never-ever forget.

That's fascinating, what platform were you working on for Sakura Wars 3?  As I recall, there wasn't a PC release.  Also, do you know how the Japanese text was stored?  I'd heard that it was compressed in an odd way, which is why there never was a fan translation before the official Russian PC release.

[Burnt Lasagna]

As I recall, there wasn't a PC release. 

There was...
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/927250-sakura-taisen-3
http://www.gamebaz.com/?a=i&i=34144U
There was a PC version for every entry in the franchise, except 5.

[RetasuNeko]

I registered here just to say that this is AMAZING. I love Sakura Wars and look forward to the final product~!

[jmurjeff]

Is this the very first game in the series? I really hope so because I want to play them from the beginning.

[BRPXQZME]

Try reading the thread from the beginning.

[jmurjeff]

Try reading the thread from the beginning.

Now for those that have played the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast versions, how do they compare? Is there any extras in this version or is everything the same?

[Burnt Lasagna]

Now for those that have played the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast versions, how do they compare? Is there any extras in this version or is everything the same?

I've played the Dreamcast version and from what I've heard the PC version is basically just that. The Dreamcast version on your PC, only slightly higher res.

[RetasuNeko]

Okay, so can someone help me out? I managed to obtain SW for PC and it installed okay but it keeps crashing when I try to run it. I can mess with the settings and it will play the opening video, as well as the one it plays when it first starts the game, but if I try to click anything or press anything when the start-of-game video plays it will freeze--then it freezes when the start-of-game video is over...