Tengai Makyou Zero translation project

[Hiei-]

From DDS :

Added labels to the screen where you use inventory items.



Fixed combat log to correctly center the appropriate text, and removed garbage tiles from appearing.



From Doug :

Juri's Flower Garden - From Tengai Makyou Zero - English Translation.



Turtle Soup Restaurant - Before and after.

[mikeprado30]

Beyond amazing!!! 

[Merr Man]

In response to PunkFrog's question,

http://fantasyanime.com/garden/translations-main.htm

This may be a good site to look at some remaining Super Famicom JRPGs that still need to be translated, like Akazukin Cha Cha......then there is Gran Historia, but I wouldn't really call it "major" considering that nobody even talks about it, also there was a thread on here with a number of games that have fallen by the wayside and still need some translation help, like Love Quest. Lastly, I would think that GDLeen would be major due to its history with the Super Famicom, itself. You may want to reconsider my commentary, though, as many of these games are not "essential", yet I tend to think that any Super Famicom JRPG does deserve a spotlight set upon it, the American version of the console, after all, was what birthed my love for the genre.

Elmer:

I think that I tried using Mednafen but it didn't work too well if I can recall, will try again. ::sigh:: I wish that Magic Engine could allow anyone to use downloaded ISOs on it, but what can I say? Thank you for the advice, though, it's really the only CD-based add-on that I'm having trouble emulating.

Tom:

Last Bible 3, which is on the page I linked to, looks quite good. Thanks again, for working on TMZ (the one without the gossip )!

[Tom]

An update regarding Tengai Makyou Zero:

I'm currently on my second full playthrough of the English version of the game from a fresh save. I'm in the second to last region, but I've skipped certain events related to PLGS because I'm mainly working from a preliminary rom that still shows bad variables. I'm saving these parts for the "Restart+" mode, with a more complete rom. (Yes, this game has its own version of New Game+.) It will be much easier to test them at that time.

Actually, I recently discovered that what I thought was a "shocking secret" about the Restart+ mode was actually just a PLGS event. There's a certain event that I saw on a restarted file that I didn't see during my "regular" playthrough. I attributed it to being a restart extra... Turns out it's accessible even in the first playthrough.

What was that shocking event? Wouldn't you like to know! 

Mostly, I've been improving the script's flow and readability. For example, if the first word of a sentence lingers on the same line as the previous sentence, I'll tab it down, or if there's one word that appears after a comma hanging on at the end of the line. Basically, I want to put line breaks in the best possible spots... After a period, after a comma, etc.

Lots of fine-tuning. I don't know what the text will look like in game in the script editor, so I just have to add in formatting codes, generate the rom, and test any changes I make in-game. It's a pain. It's probably more work than people will ever realize, but I hope the text works "just right" when they play through it.

Once I finish my current playthrough, I'll jump to manual/packaging translation until Doug and DDS have finished the game in English. If DougRPG finishes, it means the graphics are nearly done... If DDStranslation finishes, it means the credits are nearly done. Either would be big news, so I'm looking forward to seeing who will finish first. Also, I'm really eager to hear what they thought, because as of right now, nobody else has played through it in English before. I can't wait to hear their opinions.

Merr Man: I saw a used copy of GDleen, in box (no manual, though), for sale at a very cheap price (about 250 yen). I am sure that, as the first SFC RPG, it will get translated by someone, someday. Perhaps once there aren't any other, better games to do? It'd be interesting if it could be the first SFC RPG ever released, and the last SFC RPG translation patch released. In all fairness, though... It doesn't look all that bad!

Last Bible 3, on the other hand, is pretty good. The battle pacing is a little slow (as were most of the Megaten-related games on the SFC), and the tone is certainly quite different from any of the other Last Bible games, but like its other SFC Megaten brothers, it's a worthwhile game. But yeah, that site shows off some others great games too, for sure.

Mikeprado: It'll be even more amazing once you're playing the game yourself!

[Merr Man]

Tom:

I do know that GD Leen is on the Aeon Genesis project page: https://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=gdleen (though I think you may have already known this), but it only says that it is 5% done. It does look pretty good, I agree with you on that. As far as last, I found this list while doing a new search: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Famicom_and_Super_NES_role-playing_games. Maybe I should've used that to also answer PunkFrog's question. At least, it probably won't be too long before GD Leen gets fully translated.

One thing that I do take, while watching the Last Bible 3 video, is how much it reminds me of the Lufia games for the SNES, probably moreso the first one, especially in the way the protagonist moves while in a town or other important site.

[Pennywise]

I hear Last Bible 3 is especially evil. Apparently it has its own very large scripting language with text embedded within. Not for the faint of heart.

[Tom]

I hear Last Bible 3 is especially evil. Apparently it has its own very large scripting language with text embedded within. Not for the faint of heart.

Yeah, actually... I remember using the tools on this site years ago to extract at the LB3 script and it had LOTS of programming text thrown in... (But looking at the same text again now, it doesn't seem THAT bad.) Really, LB3 needs a translator who absolutely adores the series, and I'm probably the only one who loves enough the LB series enough to try to muscle through it.

Only this phrase from the hacker's (Bongo's?) documents scares me:

"There's roughly 5 categories of demon speak.
1 which uses index pointers to combine TWO sentence fragments."

Combining Japanese sentence fragments together is never a good thing. (Dragon Quest Monsters 1&2 did a similar thing with battle text, and that was a real pain.) Doing that sort of thing five times over WOULD be painful. No doubt about it. But it wouldn't be impossible.

Actually, DQM 1&2 was even worse. It would break sentences into Japanese grammar constituents, like
(X)ha
(X)ga
(X)ni
(X)wo
(and more)

It would piece everything together on the fly, forming auto-generated Japanese sentences. Japanese grammar doesn't equate one-to-one in English, so if you just replace the strings with English, everything had a "machine translated" feel to it at first... Awkward phrasing, subtle but profound grammar issues... It took a lot of tinkering for Kingcom to make the proper accommodations to get the text to sound decent.

Slightly awkward demon-speak in LB3 is a small price to pay, and perhaps any unavoidable oddities can be written off by saying, "They're demons... Do you expect wild demons to be all that eloquent?" (That would be slightly misleading, though. The LB series mostly uses a term closer to the word "beasts" than demons.)

I do know that GD Leen is on the Aeon Genesis project page...

One thing that I do take, while watching the Last Bible 3 video, is how much it reminds me of the Lufia games for the SNES, probably moreso the first one, especially in the way the protagonist moves while in a town or other important site.

Actually, I had no idea that Gideon was working on GDLeen. That's good to know. I doubt it's a high priority project for him, though. If he has time for it, I'd rather he worked on Madara 2 with me again. It's been too long since I've looked at that script. I'm sure I could improve it.

Your Lufia comparison is very appropriate, by the way. The world is very colorful, just like Lufia. I miss the Lufia games, and I wish they brought that world back. (Though if the DS reboot is any indication of what they'd do with it now, maybe it's better for them to leave the games untouched.) I'm kind of scared what a modern-day Last Bible game would look like, too.

One thing that's clear is that there will in all likelihood NEVER be another Tengai Makyou game (thanks to Konami). I would gladly take a reboot of the Tengai series... Well, unless they put it on phones and tablets as a free to play gacha-system game, which is pretty much the only way it would ever get released in this day and age... 

[Merr Man]

Tom:

Gideon has got many projects on there that are on hiatus that I'm just craving for some kind of a follow-up status on, like Lady Stalker definitely, although I am very, very curious about Madara 2, I kind of liked the first game but the second game attracts me much more. I shouldn't be whining about it, though, he ended up translating my favorite NES/Famicom RPG, Chaos World.

I loved the Lufia games myself. The Fortress of Doom was one of my first RPGs that I've ever played, and I ended up really, really liking it, especially the bittersweet ending, Lufia II definitely got the reputation that it deserved, Returns had one of the most comical protagonists in a video game but everything else wasn't half as good, and IV, I actually liked much more than III even with the mute protagonist and lack of overworld exploration. Would love a new Lufia game, but I guess that they decided that the only way to finish the series was the ending of III, maybe they felt that people were getting tired of the Sinistrals.

As far as the fate of TM goes, I must say that the last thing I ever expected was for Konami to bring out a new Bomberman game, since they didn't do anything since the acquisition besides canceling the 3DS game, and what do you know? I was completely blown away, being a huge fun of the Bomberman series. So, there may be hope (even if I don't think that Super Bomberman R looks like it will set the world on fire). (I will not make a "pachinko machine joke") If you had an idea for a new TM game, what would your fantasy be?

And yes, being a big Breath of Fire fan, I feel your hypothetical pain.

[KingMike]

(I will not make a "pachinko machine joke")

Surely they've done exploding pachinko balls by now...

[dejan07]

Gideon has got many projects on there that are on hiatus that I'm just craving for some kind of a follow-up status on, like Lady Stalker definitely

Yeah, Lady Stalker is a gem for sure. Have you noticed that the best games remain translated last and the bad ones first? On PC Engine besides TM games we have AnEarth Fantasy Stories which is the best Hudson's RPG on the console but we get Xak 3 instead and that strange Odyssey RPG game.

Thank god that Elmer and Samiam are working on Legend of Xanadu series at once.

[Tom]

As far as the fate of TM goes, I must say that the last thing I ever expected was for Konami to bring out a new Bomberman game, since they didn't do anything since the acquisition besides canceling the 3DS game, and what do you know? I was completely blown away, being a huge fun of the Bomberman series. So, there may be hope (even if I don't think that Super Bomberman R looks like it will set the world on fire). (I will not make a "pachinko machine joke") If you had an idea for a new TM game, what would your fantasy be?

Bomberman is a mass-market game with international appeal. Of course they're still going to use it. Konami is not getting out of the games industry completely. They're just going to stick to tried and true IPs with international appeal... And, unfortunately, Tengai Makyou is not one such series.

As for pachinko, yes... Tengai Makyou already has a pachinko machine for part two (actually, not a pachinko machine, but a slot machine). But I don't see them releasing any more of them. Even a gacha system game would surprise me, because the series is not all that popular in Japan now, aside from maniacal fans like the sort we've got assembled here, and many of them wouldn't want a mobile game. The average gamer in Japan knows next to nothing about it... So they wouldn't have a very big user base to exploit.

You asked me what I would do for a new Tengai Makyou game... Well, before I get to that, I mostly want Oriental Red, the prequel to Oriental Blue that they had been planning long ago. There are so many hints and references hidden in Oriental Blue's script. I would have loved to see them expand on the original story, when the Blue-eyed Clan first appeared, and the ogres were still fierce and strong.

But that's just a Tengai series game, not exactly Tengai Makyou...

What I'd want from a new Tengai Makyou game most of all would have to be one that shows the original arrival of the Fire Clan. All of them talk about what the Fire Clan did in the past, and the main characters have always inherited this great legacy from their ancestors. I would like to finally play as the original members of the Fire Clan, who had no predecessors. Everything was new, and they were learning as they were going along. I think that's something any Tengai Makyou fan would like to see.

[Merr Man]

dejan:

How have I never heard of AnEarth Fantasy Stories before? It looks awesome! I've also read that there is a Saturn version of the game, and am wondering, better, the same or worse (if you've played it)? For me, I've been planning to do a runthrough of the whole "Landstalker series" (including the related games), but Lady Stalker is the only one not fully playable in my native language. As far as best and worst, I really don't know, I mean Chaos World was a fantastic game for the Famicom, and up there as one of the system's best games and it was translated years ago, and I loved FF V and ToP, I think that it is more that if there is a real hidden gem for a console, or handheld, you may have to get really lucky to even see it get the light of day. I'm just crossing my fingers that somebody, eventually, comes up with a "Google Translate" for games stuck with the Japanese language, but I know that it won't be the same as the human element.

Tom:

That is a good point, though it doesn't settle my worry about not getting a new "Bonk" or "Adventure Island" game, both series that I love dearly. Then again, I am sure that I'll put in this series as my third feeling of major worry about Konami, itself.

Didn't know that TM isn't too popular in Japan, currently. Because of the multiple installations of the series, I would expect it to be more like Dragon Quest than a cult franchise.

Your ideas for a new TM game sound very, very good, whether Oriental Red or a Fire Clan prequel. Many video games do use an invisible prequel story to tell the story in the current, like the cliche "four warriors sealed the bad demon away", it's also the most consensual thing to get anything out of the world of FFVI besides the main game. Would be cool to think about, given my lack of game design experience and the fact that Konami may not care about one stray email, while playing the series.

[dejan07]

dejan:

How have I never heard of AnEarth Fantasy Stories before? It looks awesome! I've also read that there is a Saturn version of the game, and am wondering, better, the same or worse (if you've played it)?

Saturn version has updated character icons and that's it! I prefer the PC engine version.

For me, I've been planning to do a runthrough of the whole "Landstalker series" (including the related games), but Lady Stalker is the only one not fully playable in my native language.

If you keep having troubles with the diagonal controls there is a patch to change them to classic 4 directions. It is funny that it was me who is responsible for that patch by forcing another hacker to fix it. Deja Vu?

http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,20088.0.html

[Merr Man]

dejan:

Unfortunate that the Saturn version didn't do much to the game, also weird that they titled it "Volume 1" for that release. I would expect the PC-Engine CD version to be easier to work with, possibly, so I am alright in playing it on there.

I'll think about your patch. I really liked Landstalker, but I think that the difficulty was based more on perspective than control scheme, still moving around in an isometric platformer can be a little bit tricky. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[Lentfilms]

Unfortunate that the Saturn version didn't do much to the game, also weird that they titled it "Volume 1" for that release. I

I believe the reason the Saturn release is called "Volume 1" is because Anearth Fantasy Stories was planned to be a trilogy of games. Anearth was released late in the PCE's live so I think they we're planning on finishing the series on the Saturn but it didn't work out.

[PunkFrog]

I am super excited to play this. 

[Merr Man]

I believe the reason the Saturn release is called "Volume 1" is because Anearth Fantasy Stories was planned to be a trilogy of games. Anearth was released late in the PCE's live so I think they we're planning on finishing the series on the Saturn but it didn't work out.

Looking at the time of release, the game was released a year before the Dreamcast started selling in Japan, so that is probably why. The acclaim I've seen it get "one of the greatest 16-bit RPGs" by "The Brothers Duomazov", for example, would make me interested if I ever get to play it in English, to see if a trilogy would've been a good idea.

Part of my hope for taking active attention to this thread, is that it sustains overall interest in the project, or at least a very, very tiny bit. It disappointed me when one thread on this project remained inactive for a while, so I am actually kind of pumped to see so much activity here.

[elmer]

The acclaim I've seen it get "one of the greatest 16-bit RPGs" by "The Brothers Duomazov", for example, would make me interested if I ever get to play it in English, to see if a trilogy would've been a good idea.

Well SamIAm has said that he definitely wants to do the translation, so hopefully you'll see it, someday.

[Tom]

Part of my hope for taking active attention to this thread, is that it sustains overall interest in the project, or at least a very, very tiny bit. It disappointed me when one thread on this project remained inactive for a while, so I am actually kind of pumped to see so much activity here.

Yeah, I like it when people participate in the thread. In the off chance that somebody doesn't know about the translation yet, maybe seeing it up at the top of the board increases the likelihood of them finding out about the translation. My Youtube channel reaches far fewer people, I'm sure.

Most people just aren't familiar with this game or series, so they're not likely to participate in a thread for a game they know absolutely nothing about (even if it is great). They are more drawn to familiar series that they have already played before. That's natural. Maybe once the game's out, people will discover it.

The game is now largely formatted, PLGS content aside. This weekend, I went on an all-out playthrough and formatting binge this weekend. I just have to wrap up a few loose ends before the final battle, beat the boss one more time, then I can send everything out and focus on the manual and packaging translation while DDStranslation and DougRPG do their thing.

Once their work is done, I'll do one more playthrough to clean up any remaining issues with some of the optional PLGS-related text that I didn't see during this playthrough. Once I'm satisfied with the script, we'll try to find some good testers to find whatever errors slipped through the cracks.

It is really coming together well.

[travel27]

I am really excited for this one.  It looks beautiful and maybe the best of the untranslated RPGs left for the snes.  Plus 2016 was a slow year for snes RPG fan translations due to more important real life issues (it seems) for many involved with the scene.  But to be fair Heracles did come in at the tail end of 2016 and 2017 has already given us xak (version 1.00 is fine imo) and 3x3 which is kind of RPG....so it feels like 2017 is going to be a busier year, I bet dd translations is just about ready for some big news, just an individual hunch. 

But ya, this game, so excited to try.  Looks like a ctrigger/Lennus 2 mix or something.