Tengai Makyou Zero translation project

[khalismur]

The manual looks great so far, and I really hope people out there print themselves up a copy.

Yes, I tought the same a few days ago.. Will print for sure!

[patuli]

what kind of papper is recommended to look authentic and professional? also I don't know if I will get in to trouble going to a printer center;
and ask them to print some of this.

[Tom]

From the research I've done, thin paper with gloss is best for the manual. Thicker paper with gloss for the map/chart. Thick paper with no gloss for the survey card. Thin paper with no gloss for the CD promotional flyer and the survey questions. Not sure how the box would be done, though. You'd probably have to ask someone who's actually made a custom box.

[Ishkabibble]

Just joining in to say that I have been waiting for this game to get translated for years and the talk of doing the same for the PC Engine games is very, very encouraging.

I know it's too much to hope for the Saturn game to get the same treatment, but hopefully someday.

Outstanding work so far

[Tom]

The work is nearly done, Ishkabibble. The wait for Zero will be over soon. Maybe the Saturn game is more popular with Americans due to its western setting, but I am sure that Zero will find a special place in people's hearts once they've played it.

I have given the script a very down-to-earth, easy to understand English translation that emphasizes clear, natural expressions and readability... So, no sans/chans, no Japanese terminology left in (aside from some food names). I wanted to make sure that everything would be perfectly understood by anyone, even people with no prior knowledge of Japanese culture or traditions.

I've also not inserted any of my own jokes or changed the content of the lines. Any jokes you see were jokes to begin with, though some were slightly altered due to the usual puns... Nothing to be concerned about. There were some superfluous changes made for formatting reasons or to make the phrase flow more naturally in English.

The only substantial change I made was that I've lyrics to the fire fairy's singing in one scene, because it would have sounded way too stupid to have her say something like "La la la... Water, water... La la la..." (As a result, the fire fairy is a slightly better singer in the English version than she was in Japanese.)

Glitch update: Oddly enough, that glitch I mentioned earlier seems to have been inadvertently fixed with my last round of formatting, because it just doesn't happen anymore. It's weird, because altering the lines in which the glitch appeared did nothing to fix it, when I tried that earlier. Oh well! If it works, it works!

Overall status: It's getting to the point now where we need to be putting together a team of beta testers. Hopefully that can start in March, if all goes well. Best case scenario, we could probably release it at some point in April, I guess. Anything goes. Overall, I'd say we're at about 98.9% complete, though! Right now, it's up to DougRPG to finish the game this week so he can hammer out the last bits for extraction in the main story and move on to the optional festival graphics. He'll be the first person (other than me) to have completed the game in English!

[dejan07]

I have contacted few youtube celebrities like Erika Szabo, SuperDerek RPGs, Lusciousshowcase and few others and told them if they wanna be the first ones to review FEOEZ they should join the beta testers so that the reviews are already up when the game launches in April or May.

They are accustomed to it since they are doing similar things with brand new games. Promo copies and such...

[Tom]

dejan07, If you spread the word about the game, I just ask that you refer to it as either Tengai Makyou Zero or Far East of Eden: Tengai Makyou Zero when you introduce it to people. It should be abbreviated as TM Zero, Not FEOEZ. Zero should be spelled out rather than just abbreviated to Z, because if abbreviated, it will be indistinguishable from TM Ziria.

I want people to learn the difference between "Tengai Makyou" and "Far East of Eden," and refer to the series as the Tengai series (this is what it's called in Japan), because Far East of Eden is only the name of the "book" that inspired some of the games. It's not the title of the games. Far East of Eden is included before some (not all) entries in the series, but it's not the English name of the entire game series. I know this sounds nitpicky, and it is... But I think setting the record straight ahead of time is better than trying to explain things after the fact.

Regarding Youtubers, I was considering asking Happy Console Gamer if he wants to test it, because I know he's a big fan of the series and he already has all of the games. He even commented on the video I put on my channel, so I know he would be the most eager to play through it. The only question is, does he really want to play a test version, or does he want to wait until other people have tested it so that he knows he's playing the best version possible? After all, beta testing is not just about playing for fun... I'll send him a message when the time comes, but who knows if he'll even read it.

I checked out the Youtubers that you recommended. I do like the fact that LusciousShowcase complained about a text error in ActRaiser. That's the kind of people we need for testing, real sticklers who read each line of dialogue with an eagle eye, because my own mistakes are nearly invisible to me. I just skim right over them. (It's like my brain has an auto-correct.) On a side note, I also like DariaPlaysRPGs. Her channel's enjoyable, and she's done other fan translation reviews before.

But more than a large amount of testers who are playing for fun or for their channel, I would prefer a small amount of testers who are familiar with the game, and can focus on it exclusively to make sure the testing process proceeds quickly.

[dejan07]

Erika Szabo expressed interest in the beta test project , she gave me her e-mail.   

To make it clear the celebrity youtubers that i contacted are mainly for the promotion purposes and many of them probably do not have time to report back everything. The main goal is to expose the patch at the launch to many people as possible and those youtubers have tens of thousands of followers. The advantage for us and them would be the timing of the release of reviews and the launch of the patch.

The big companies are doing this all the time with their Promo copies and early access betas and so on...

Update:
Lusciousshowcase sent me a answer:

Id love to do something like that. However I wouldnt have a way to play that on my snes. im a schticler for og hardware and i wouldnt have a way to capture from just the conputer. but ill look into it mate. thanks for the suggestion

He is into repro carts but i am not sure if this can even be done since the game makes use of a special chip to decompress the graphics. Happy Console Gamer doesn't have time for this for sure, he is too busy.

Erika Szabo has reviewed Xak 3 and other fan translated games and she has done it well. In the end not everyone will respond to my proposal anyway so we will end up with 2 or 3 youtubers at best.

[Ishkabibble]

The work is nearly done, Ishkabibble. The wait for Zero will be over soon. Maybe the Saturn game is more popular with Americans due to its western setting, but I am sure that Zero will find a special place in people's hearts once they've played it.

Oh, don't get me wrong, any of the Tengai Makyou games being translated is excellent news and I hope, eventually, they all get similar treatment.

It sounds like this game is having some great care put into it.  What you say about the translation sounds very promising.  It's the sort of dedication I admire in these sorts of projects.

[Lentfilms]

Regarding Youtubers, I was considering asking Happy Console Gamer if he wants to test it, because I know he's a big fan of the series and he already has all of the games. He even commented on the video I put on my channel, so I know he would be the most eager to play through it. The only question is, does he really want to play a test version, or does he want to wait until other people have tested it so that he knows he's playing the best version possible? After all, beta testing is not just about playing for fun... I'll send him a message when the time comes, but who knows if he'll even read it.

I actually first learned about the Tengai series because of HCG's video from 2009 that went over the whole franchise. His videos were also one of the first places that I heard about the Ys series as well. He makes good stuff, I'm a fan.

[dejan07]

I am a fan of him too but today he is pretty popular youtuber and hard to reach. I hope that Tom can reach him through his own channel somehow.

[Tom]

Alright, I'll talk with Erika about a patch, but it won't be available until the graphics are incorporated! Hopefully it's just a matter of weeks!

[Merr Man]

As far as HCG goes, his FB fanbase is also very huge, I think that being one of the first to play a mainline TM game in English would be a dream come true for him, I would consider posting about it on the public figure page or messaging him.....

Thing is, sooner or later he will find out about the fan translation, though, they always do find a way to things like this. Could be a cool launch day special with him at the helm, if it could happen. That makes me think of something, has there ever been a fan translated game, from eons ago, shown at one of the big gaming conventions, with the team behind the translation? I would expect there to be a lot of legal issues, and some others (money, time), but a TM Zero booth would be interesting to see.

As far as progress goes, not every single game needs pop-culture references and a very amusing script, sometimes video games can have their own pheromones that register beyond those decibels, if the video game is a classic from its original roots, than I wouldn't mind such a dedication, sometimes, to an author's original intent. 

Keep up the good work! It's so close that I can feel it!

[Tom]

Merr Man, TM Zero isn't actually a mainline TM game. It's essentially a reboot for the series, but I do feel that HCG would appreciate it in any case. I sent him a message through his youtube channel and on twitter. He already knows about the translation and has commented on the videos I have posted before.

Regarding a booth, it won't happen for several reasons. First, the people who have contributed are located all over the world. Second, Konami currently owns the rights to Tengai Makyou, and they aren't the sort of company that would be open to fan projects. Lastly, there's not really a need for a both. The project speaks for itself. I say the internet is our "booth." If someone wants to contact us, they're free to do so!

As for the English script, it -is- amusing. I don't want to give you the impression that it's lifeless. It's just that I'm not trying to turn the script into Shakespeare, if you know what I mean. (The modern Dragon Quest games tend to try to make every line sound witty, crafty, and larger-than-life in English. I don't subscribe to that philosophy, so this translation isn't doing anything like that. I'm also not doing anything like Working Designs might - no disrespect to WD, though. I'm a big fan of their work.)

The other day, I asked DDStranslation what he thought about the game, and he said that it strikes a good balance between serious and humorous. I'm glad he said that, because it's exactly how I felt.

I just want to make it clear that I didn't take much in the way of liberties with the script. The fire fairy's singing, as I said before... Oh, and one other part that I forgot to mention. There was a really cringe-inducing joke, one of those lines (in Japanese) that was a joke that was so bad that the only punchline is that it's such a bad joke... I originally translated it directly, but it bothered me so much that I made it significantly less cringe-inducing on a second pass. (Don't worry. I still made it a little cringe-y.)

By the way, about Happy Console Gamer... On his twitter account, it appears he just posted about having received a Nintendo Switch ahead of time, so I'm guessing he's going to be going all-out with his new system and won't have so much time for an old Tengai game in March. Stiff competition there... Bad timing, I guess. It's a real shame that this translation wasn't finished years ago, when it could have reached far more people.

[VicVergil]

Perhaps it's for the best, considering the current climate isn't very friendly to fan works. A multi-million subscriber youtube channel advertising a romhack ahead of release could very well end up like the Pokemon Prism situation (a C&D would not only hinder this particular release, but even other Tengai Makyou ones, and that would be... a problem). The E3 booth idea is even worse - that was how Chrono Ressurrection got nuked by Square and even then their hands were forced because otherwise they'd be letting other people leverage their trademark. Konami no longer releases new games to "protect" the IP so they could resort to these means.

Not to jinx it, but that's how it is... Konami have precedent with shutting down fan games (only fan games for now but there's always a first time, remember Nintendo and Square?), even after approving them. Better to err on the side of caution and advertise this game only after it safely ended up in the hands of the players. After all, what use it is to spread the news to get as many people as possible to play it if that ends up restricting the release?

What would be really troublesome is some shit stirring big blogs taking this story and running with it, and then contacting Konami "for clarification", and then racking the clicks from yet a few more articles about the inevitable takedown. It's sad, but hating on translations and snitching on fan works is a thing nowadays.

Patience is a virtue. No reason to give Konami a warning some weeks in advance for them to act.

[Tom]

The nice thing is that Tengai Makyou is too obscure to make such an evil endeavor worthwhile! Nobody would use such an obscure title for "clickbait." It wouldn't get any clicks! 

[travel27]

Don't underestimate things, this topic is already 16 pages for one.  Plus all the views.  There will be a decent amount of people stoked for this release at the least. 

[mikeprado30]

Sometimes I think Tom understimates the quantity of people awaiting for this game to be translated 

I've always thought there is SO MANY PEOPLE in perpetual hopes for someone getting this undertaking  True hordes of them 

IS ALMOST GETTING OVER THE AWAIT, GUYS!!! Hopefully we could play it for this year's Easter (I have holidays through that week )

[STARWIN]

You might want to catch the earlier glitch even if it just disappeared in a newer version, as it could pop up somewhere else.

About visibility, I agree with travel27.

[Tom]

You might want to catch the earlier glitch even if it just disappeared in a newer version, as it could pop up somewhere else.

It originally popped up three or four times in the game, so if it's still in there, it can't be missed. If I encounter it again, I'll let DDStranslation figure out what the problem was...

But like they say, "if ain't broke..."

By the way, I'm sure there are quite a few people who are awaiting this translation, but I think that in general, most people have no idea what this game is... If somebody wants to resort to clickbait, they want to pull big numbers... That means titles that EVERYBODY knows, things like Chrono Trigger, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, and the like...

No response from HCG over twitter or youtube. I'm not surprised. He is probably buried in messages, and I'm sure he's busy playing the Switch. (Turns out  a friend of his got the Switch, by the way... Not he himself.) Dejan07 sent me a message referring me to some other youtuber named Erika. She's clearly got a taste for niche games, but I didn't get a response from her.

I really don't think the game is all that popular. It deserves to be, but the industry has changed a lot. These old Japanese RPGs just don't draw people in anymore, for anything but the most nostalgic of gamers... But people have no nostalgia for games they know nothing about. I think that if this fan translation had been done ten years ago, a lot more people would have been into it, but most people who would have been interested in it have moved on to other things. Only the most dedicated are still around. This thread has a lot of posts for sure, but it's mostly the same people posting many times.

Back to testing the game!