Translations: Tales of Phantasia Playstation English Patch Has Arrived

[RHDNBot]

Update By: Chpexo

A word from Cless:

I started the Tales of Phantasia PS1 project for the simple reason that I really wanted it in English. I liked it so much more than the Super Famicom original that it kind of killed me back then to see only the "inferior" version available in English, so I felt like something had to be done. Thus I did the crazy thing and announced a project for a game on a gaming platform that was basically uncharted territory for the ROM hacking/translation scene. I was pretty much on my own, and...very lost. Help fortunately arrived, and though things started to unravel and go at a nice clip for a little while, a wall was soon hit which prevented the project from really going anywhere particularly meaningful for another four to five years.

Better tools for deeper level hacking were finally being made available for PS1, and rapid progress began getting made on the technical front, but we hit another wall, this time in terms of script. Translation and localization editing. An existing partial translation was donated and the remainder was finished some months later. Localization editing definitely took much, much longer than it reasonably should have. It took three inexperienced people, a lot of time, and a lot of effort to beat the script into the shape it is now and what I hope is of an acceptable level of quality, what I hope has managed to strike an ideal balance between readability and accuracy. I won't claim it's "perfect"; in fact, I can still think of ways to improve it even more, and there are still some things I'm feeling a bit iffy over, but I definitely want to move on now. And I wouldn't doubt there are plenty of others who feel the same way.

The Tales series as a whole has evolved so much since this project began. This game is quite basic comparatively and it's a lot harder for me to go back to after being spoiled by the growth seen in later installments. I really don't put it on a pedestal like I used to, but it still has some considerable nostalgia value. Though I've had my long battles with burnout at times, I think that's one of the reasons why I continued to give this project everything I had and see it to release.

I'm not so sure I would call this the true end of the project, though. Anything more is certainly far less of a priority now that it has finally reached a stage that I think is acceptable for prime time, but there are still some things currently in the programming pipeline from Habilain. Some sophisticated tweaks to improve presentation in a few areas, but also somewhat more important things like adding subtitles for voices in tiny corners that remain unsubbed. And just coming from beta testing, it's come to my attention that some of the skits in the game are entirely unused, while several others seem misplaced, and Habilain's looking into a means of integrating the unused ones seamlessly into the game and possibly moving the seemingly misplaced ones into a more sensible place. As long as he continues to stick around, I'm sure these will materialize eventually. Besides me, he's been around the longest of anyone still actively on the team, but is unfortunately often short of time. To be sure, I've had my share of frustrations with that, especially in the last few years, but I'm very grateful he's stuck around.

Of course, I would like to thank everyone who helped make this project come to fruition over the years, as well as those who've kept the faith and waited us out patiently.

As for the future... Well, we've obviously got two more big Tales games to finish up. With the experience gained from ToP, I'm hopeful we can get these out much more quickly now that they won't be held back by another project. I've also gotten an idea for a possible translation project of a somewhat prolific game that's perhaps a bit more niche than a Tales, but I don't see myself announcing what that is anytime soon, if I even decide to go ahead with it.

That being said, here is the patch you've waited so many years for.

RHDN Project Page

Relevant Link: (http://www.tales-cless.org/?page=tales)

[Sappharad]

How does this compare to the translation that was released 5 years ago?
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/1214/

I know this one was started before that one, but are there any advantages that would make one worth playing over the other? I played about half way through the previous translation (and all of the SNES one) and never encountered anything that was obviously wrong. I never understood why Cless decided to continue this one, other than to have something to call his own. He doesn't even acknowledge that the other one existed, both here and on the linked page, as if he has some kind of grudge against it.

Edit: Never mind. The same questions were asked and answered in this thread:
http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,15554.0.html
Link posted here to save someone else the time.

[FlamePurge]

Congratulations, Phantasian Productions! Years of tears, blood, and sweat have been put into this project. I'm proud of all of you, if that means anything, and I'm extremely happy with the patch's outcome. I've been sharing with my friends and recommending it highly, and I simply love this!

[patuli]

The font in this one looks more readable, as for other changes, quietly frankly I dunno.
I will play this game for the 6Th time, including all remakes even the 2 for the psp (Hope someone tackle any of those two)
Anyway great news after nearly 11 years of waiting.
Hope everyone a great year.

[m|m]

Congratulations on finally completing such an epic undertaking. Hopefully you'll be able to release ToD Director's Cut a bit faster. >;]

[justin3009]

I can't remember the exact reasons why but Cless posted WHY he kept it going not too long ago.

There's some pretty significant differences between the two if I can recall.

[Square711]

He doesn't even acknowledge that the other one existed, both here and on the linked page, as if he has some kind of grudge against it.

Cless said plenty of times in his forum that he doesn't hold any kind of grudge against throughhim. If he did, the two wouldn't have teamed up for the ToD: Director's Cut project.

[DaMarsMan]

Congrats Cless! I've been following this thing forever now. Cheers! 

[Sinthet]

Just wanted to throw a big 'ol "Congrats!" your way. Not many people have the dedication to see a project through such a long period of time.

Very impressive 

[Nightcrawler]

I can't remember the exact reasons why but Cless posted WHY he kept it going not too long ago.

There's some pretty significant differences between the two if I can recall.

There definitely is. I played a little while into both versions yesterday. The flavor and characterization between the two is definitely different. I'd have to say throughhim's version is more proper and neutral in tone while Cless attempts to use more colorful characterization and speech slang. You might say it's the old translation vs. localization differences. Cless explained his approach on his site. I can't comment farther as I have no command over the source material.

They both did a similar job (excellent) on the menus, subtitles, and what not. So, it comes down to the flavor, font (Cless's thick font looks good in dialog, but clashes when mixed in the menu I think), and few other minor hacking differences. Both are better than the SNES original (though much of that is due to the PSX port improvements in general). It's a tough call. I'm not sure I can pick one yet without further examining some other scenes.