Castlevania II (Simon's Quest) - Multilingual enhancement

[Bisqwit]

Seems like either Ondol or Ondor could work just because of the L and R situation with Japanese. Is there a reason to prefer Ondol? I mean, "Vlad" was "Vrad."

Vlad rather obviously refers to Vlad the Impaler, one of the inspirations behind the story of Dracula. It is indisputable.
There is however no indisputable evidence of the Ondol/Ondor rationale.

Sadam could also have been Sodom (another reference to religion). Japanese has limited syllables, so sometimes they can only approximate it.

No. Japanese does have the distinction between S and Z, and they do not mix it.
And Japanese does have sufficient vowels to distinguish A and O.
Now I quietly wonder why they did not localize the forest as Zadam forest, because that would be a more accurate romanization.

Here's a couple requests. It would be useful if when buying items it would show your current amount of hearts. I believe later Metroidvania games did this.

I agree that this would be useful. I will keep it in mind, but I am not making a promise.

I don't know if you can fit this, but how about adding "next:0000" to show how much more experience you need to level up? Either show how much experience the next level is achieved at.
Or perhaps to save space you could add experience remaining until the next level. For example if you have 51 experience, and the next level is at 100, the number in the counter would be 49. That would show how much experience you need to reach the next level. You might be able to use less digits this way too.

This would also be a nice addition, but I do not see an obvious way to do it without the dialog box becoming even more confusing.

As for changing what is retained and lost when you die or gameover, I do not want to take drastic measures.
Theoretically, I could go the Battle of Olympus route and cut the number of hearts in half at every death, including gameover, though. But even then I do not think it is a justifiable change.

I always seem to finish the game at level 4, because I don't usually grind each area, and end up in the "Zero Experience" status at an inopportune time.

I believe level 4 is about the right level, too. If you are too high-leveled, the clues about laurels for example no longer apply to you, because you can cross the Joma swamp even almost without laurels.

For each distinct scene in the game (every scene that has a distinct automatic cursor location in the map), the game has a maximum player level that the game can grant you experience.  I believe they designed it so that if you go through the game in their intended order, you are always getting experience from the next place and never stuck in an e-point valley, unless you backtrack and run in circles. But I cannot confirm it, having done relatively quite little playtesting.

[MathUser2929]

Dragon Warrior halfs your GP at death. I think it would be acceptable if CV2 did the same thing. But not with death tho since there are lives. Halving the Hearts at gameover would be better. If you dont want to do that can you make a game genie code we can use in a emulator? I don't want to use a infinite hearts code. I want to earn the hearts still.

Also, halving the hearts is kinda a good idea cause when you max out your hearts then die, you can recollect them, giving you something to do still if you maxed everything else out.

Edit: I didn't ask for a Infinite lives cheat. Even metroidvania games have gameovers, but they don't remove your currency after death. I was hoping for something more like that.

[Turambar]

Vlad rather obviously refers to Vlad the Impaler, one of the inspirations behind the story of Dracula. It is indisputable.
There is however no indisputable evidence of the Ondol/Ondor rationale.

I know that Vlad refers to Vlad the Impaler, but if they spelled Vlad as Vrad then that shows that the guy in charge of writing the text didn't know what he was doing and that Ondol could have been Ondor, or any other L and R in any of the names could have been swapped.. There is no indisputable rationale to prefer Ondol over Ondor. Are you going to hold the guy at Konami who did the original English text as some kind of authority? I think that guy's work speaks for itself.

No. Japanese does have the distinction between S and Z, and they do not mix it.
And Japanese does have sufficient vowels to distinguish A and O.
Now I quietly wonder why they did not localize the forest as Zadam forest, because that would be a more accurate romanization.

they do not mix it

they mixed it

If they don't mix it then why did they mix it? Why didn't you make it Zadam then? Wasn't the whole point to retranslate?

[Rhetorical]

I believe level 4 is about the right level, too. If you are too high-leveled, the clues about laurels for example no longer apply to you, because you can cross the Joma swamp even almost without laurels.

For each distinct scene in the game (every scene that has a distinct automatic cursor location in the map), the game has a maximum player level that the game can grant you experience.  I believe they designed it so that if you go through the game in their intended order, you are always getting experience from the next place and never stuck in an e-point valley, unless you backtrack and run in circles. But I cannot confirm it, having done relatively quite little playtesting.

Ah, I see.  I was unsure how the system worked, I thought that if you gained a level in that area, you could no longer get XP there.  I couldn't find anything definitive online describing how it worked.

[Bregalad]

Edit: I didn't ask for a Infinite lives cheat.

Indirectly, you did.
When you die, your hearths are preserved. When you get a game over, your hearts go aways. So yes you were (and are still) asking an infinite lives cheat.
Those already exists and have nothing to do with re-translation nor improvement of the game, it's not up to bigswit to do this. (in fact I already thing he did too many changes but that's another story).

PS : As a better alternative you can use the already existing "double heart" patch.

[Bisqwit]

There is no indisputable rationale to prefer Ondol over Ondor. Are you going to hold the guy at Konami who did the original English text as some kind of authority? I think that guy's work speaks for itself.

In case of no preference either way, yes, I am honoring North-American Konami's official translation in the role of the tie breaker.

[Rhetorical]

Edit: I didn't ask for a Infinite lives cheat. Even metroidvania games have gameovers, but they don't remove your currency after death. I was hoping for something more like that.

What you asked for is an infinite lives cheat.  When you lose your 3 lives, you lose your hearts/xp.  That is the death penalty.  If you take that away, you essentially have infinite lives.

Are we misunderstanding your request?

[MathUser2929]

If you have a infinite lives cheat you can't get your password, should you need one. You can't quit either then load a different file if you don't get a game over. Also, the purpose of getting hearts halved is more reasonable than removing all hearts. What RPG removes all your currency when you die? Especially nowdays. I thought the point of many of these changes is to make the game more like a traditional rpg. I don't want to use a double heart code because I'd rather see how many hearts I can get on my own, legit. If I wanted to get lots of hearts without earning them I could use a infinite hearts cheat.

[Rhetorical]

If you have a infinite lives cheat you can't get your password, should you need one. You can't quit either then load a different file if you don't get a game over. Also, the purpose of getting hearts halved is more reasonable than removing all hearts. What RPG removes all your currency when you die? Especially nowdays. I thought the point of many of these changes is to make the game more like a traditional rpg. I don't want to use a double heart code because I'd rather see how many hearts I can get on my own, legit. If I wanted to get lots of hearts without earning them I could use a infinite hearts cheat.

You can turn it off if you want your password.  An infinite lives cheat goes does everything you want.  Enjoy, you don't need anyone to hack it for you

[MathUser2929]

I think you missed the part where I don't want to use a infinite lives cheat code.

[Bregalad]

You you want infinite lives, but you don't want it to be a code ? Fine, but once again that's not the purpose of this hack.

Of course you keep all your money in Aria of Sorrow or any other modern CV game when you die, but Simon's Quest is not Aria of Sorrow. It has been designed this way. The saving system is completely different too, you don't restart just where you died when you die in Aria of Sorrow

[MathUser2929]

You you want infinite lives, but you don't want it to be a code ? Fine, but once again that's not the purpose of this hack.

Of course you keep all your money in Aria of Sorrow or any other modern CV game when you die, but Simon's Quest is not Aria of Sorrow. It has been designed this way. The saving system is completely different too, you don't restart just where you died when you die in Aria of Sorrow

I don't know how many times I have to say I don't want infinite lives. I'd be fine with halving the hearts at death. Simon's Quest isn't Aria of Sorrow, but the game has been slowy evolving into a modern metroidvania. The map, the saving, whip inventory, heart max increasing on level up. Saving is different, yes. Probably cause he didn't want to redesign levels to have save points. Redesigning the levels to have save points probably wouldn't have been a good idea anyway.

[Bisqwit]

heart max increasing on level up.

ENOENT: No such file or directory

Probably cause he didn't want to redesign levels to have save points.

And save points are stupid, in my opinion*. They are a fine tool to reduce the save size, or to ensure that a save is safe to resume from, but this is no problem for Simon's Quest. Simon's Quest solves the latter in a very elegant manner.

*) Except when they're incorporated into the plot, like in Chrono Cross.

[MathUser2929]

Well, I assumed you were still gonna increase Heart max at level up in a later patch. You sounded interested in it anyway. Anyway, 255 hearts is kind of a lot of hearts to lose by dying. Imagine losing 999 of them. All that work, lost.

[Rhetorical]

I don't know how many times I have to say I don't want infinite lives. I'd be fine with halving the hearts at death. Simon's Quest isn't Aria of Sorrow, but the game has been slowy evolving into a modern metroidvania. The map, the saving, whip inventory, heart max increasing on level up. Saving is different, yes. Probably cause he didn't want to redesign levels to have save points. Redesigning the levels to have save points probably wouldn't have been a good idea anyway.

Well, what you're asking for is infinite lives.  The death penalty is losing your lives.  If you take away the penalty, you effectively have infinite lives.

I if you want to halve your hearts upon death, just change the hearts to half upon your death with FCEU.  Easy fix.

[MathUser2929]

That's not an easy fix. You'd have to calculate what your hearts are in hex. Then determine what half of it is in hex. Then alter your code each time. And then when I do that, I have to disable the code so I don't have infinite hearts. Besides that. I don't plan on playing the hack on a PC emulator. So I can't change the code every time I want.

Stop being an ass about someones request. I've said multiple times I don't want an infinite lives code yet you keep coming up to it. You've probably spent 6 of your 12 posts in here trying to be the biggest ass you can. Quit it already.

[KingMike]

I think it would be good for everyone to not get into an argument over this lives/hearts issue.

[Rhetorical]

That's not an easy fix. You'd have to calculate what your hearts are in hex. Then determine what half of it is in hex. Then alter your code each time. And then when I do that, I have to disable the code so I don't have infinite hearts. Besides that. I don't plan on playing the hack on a PC emulator. So I can't change the code every time I want.

Stop being an ass about someones request. I've said multiple times I don't want an infinite lives code yet you keep coming up to it. You've probably spent 6 of your 12 posts in here trying to be the biggest ass you can. Quit it already.

That's all very easy to do in FCEU.  You can keep windows calculator open at the same time to do the hex conversion for you.  Takes less than 10 seconds to type in and change each time you do it.  You don't have to alter the code, just type the new value into the window.  I can provide more thorough instructions if you want.  You've been asking for infinite lives the whole time (essentially) and only recently changed your wish to losing half hearts upon death.  The only one being an ass is you, although a more apt description would be obtuse.

[Vanya]

That's all very easy to do in FCEU.  You can keep windows calculator open at the same time to do the hex conversion for you.  Takes less than 10 seconds to type in and change each time you do it.  You don't have to alter the code, just type the new value into the window.  I can provide more thorough instructions if you want.  You've been asking for infinite lives the whole time (essentially) and only recently changed your wish to losing half hearts upon death.  The only one being an ass is you, although a more apt description would be obtuse.

Dude. Seriously, just drop it already. I understand exactly what he's asking for and why and it isn't infinite live, essentially or otherwise. If you want to continue the debate I suggest doing it via PM and not on here.


Now. On to the actual topic of the patch.
@Bisqwit: I'm curious about how the game handles the password/save feature since you went as far as calling it elegant.

[Rhetorical]

Dude. Seriously, just drop it already. I understand exactly what he's asking for and why and it isn't infinite live, essentially or otherwise. If you want to continue the debate I suggest doing it via PM and not on here.

Obviously, you DON'T understand what he's asking for.  I'm assuming you haven't played the game, because when you continue, you continue exactly where you left off.  If you take away the penalty (losing your hearts), then you have infinite lives.  I don't get what is so hard to understand about this concept, but I assume you aren't familiar with the game.  Cutting your hearts in half would be a slightly different take on the death penalty, and would NOT be infinite lives per se.

Since you say you understand why it isn't infinite lives, can you explain it to us?  You can do it in PM if you must.

Since he's asking for changes to the mod, I think the discussion belongs here unless he reverts to stomping his feet, sticking out his tongue, and telling everyone who corrects him "NUH UH" without anything to back up his position.