Arcturus - The Curse and Loss of Divinity

[Helly_]

Hello there,

I'm currently working on the translation of Arcturus: The curse and loss of divinity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1oe0B_3_Qw




What's Arcturus? Why, it's one of the most famous PC RPGs in Korea!
Developed in 2000 by Sonnori and Gravity (the creator of Ragnarok Online), Arcturus uses the Ragnarok engine, has a Grandia 2-like combat, boasts a bunch of tormented characters and has an epic story focused on death, gods and mankind's folly.
Another team already tried to translate this game some years ago, but they eventually abandoned the project. This project uses none of the previously made translations and is based on the Japanese localization of the game by Falcom.





Team:
Just me, folks.
Special thanks to MrRichard999, LunaireticOmega, ArcturusFan and peco for the help and support.

Total progress: 90%
Detailed progress:

• Menus: 100%
• Magic: 100%
• Skills: 100%
• Items: 100%
• Books: 100%
• Non cut-scene text: 100%
• Cut-scenes: 100%
• Pictures: 50%

The game is now playable and fully translated. I'm still rewriting some of it and there might still be some mistakes here and there, but the translation is good enough as it is for a full playthrough. Also, pictures are getting done by LunaireticOmega and books are still not showing in english despite being translated.
You might encounter some crash when facing some random enemies (it's quite rare, though), so I advise fleeing when you're not sure!
Also, in some scenes the game will display an error message. You just need to click OK (sometimes several time) and you'll go back to the game with no side effects at all. This is a known bug that will be dealt with soon enough.

You'll find the link to the latest patch below:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/wgnf5wvrqt6nd74/Arcturus%2030-04-2018.7z

I hope you'll enjoy playing this piece of Korean history as much as I do translating it!

[Bonesy]

glad someone stepped up since mirrormoon is probably dead

[Helly_]

Yeah, can you believe it's been 10 years already?
Anyway, the project is making good progress. You should expect a first patch as soon as this summer and a complete one in early 2018 at best.

[Starscream]

Very nice to see another PC RPG Project like this. For some reason, I bought the Korean version of this many years ago, never did much with it. I guess it was also considered for an overseas release, I recall there was an English demo.

[Pennywise]

Cool to see someone working on this, but the purist in me is saying it should be translated from Korean instead of Japan. Although I know the reality of that is nearly impossible considering Korean translators don't really exist around here.

Regarding the WIP screenshots, those first like non-bold characters look weird compared with the rest of the text.

[Helly_]

I know it ought to be translated using the korean edition but, well, maybe once I've finished my korean studies I guess!
Anyway, there is one main problem with the game right now that I've managed to circumvent somehow: Non-script text doesn't recognize capital letters.
I know that mirrormoon had the same problems, so there might not be any easy solutions. The english demo did have capital letters for instance, but it doesn't help because it's based on the original 4-CD korean version, not the DVD japanese one. For NPC text, the original edition only had .scr files which contained both scripts and text. The japanese edition keep the same .scr files but uses .jp (and .kr) files which replace the original korean text with the japanese one and those .jp files are what I translated. Sadly, using capital letters in those does not work! It's not a problem of fonts since capital letters in the script files are displayed correctly. The problem is probably linked to the .jp injection, but I've yet to find where and how those files are used.
Anyway, I'm using full-width alphanumerical capital letters which appear as they should (but in a different font). It's either that or no capital letter whatsoever...

[Zoinkity]

Really looking forward to this!
Keep up the good work!

[Helly_]

Thanks!
If anyone's interested, I'll soon need native english speakers to proofread the first act of the game. I'll keep you updated!

[peco]

If you want to fix the problem with uppercase characters, we can do that with a small hex edit. The one I looked at has MD5 signature 81fa7042537db090ebcd932dc764ecf2.

• Open ArcExe in your favorite hex editor.
• Go to offset 65CD5h.
• Change the value 55h to C3h and save. Now uppercase characters in your script files should work.

By the way, did you already get the binary scripts (RSA) figured out?

[SunGodPortal]

Funny, I see that title and all I can think of is Emperor's The Loss and Curse of Reverence and how at times they shared members with Arcturus (Samoth, Hellhammer).

[Helly_]

If you want to fix the problem with uppercase characters, we can do that with a small hex edit. The one I looked at has MD5 signature 81fa7042537db090ebcd932dc764ecf2.

• Open ArcExe in your favorite hex editor.
• Go to offset 65CD5h.
• Change the value 55h to C3h and save. Now uppercase characters in your script files should work.

By the way, did you already get the binary scripts (RSA) figured out?

Oh boy, I can't tell you how grateful I am! It worked! Now, at long last, my .jp files won't have anything japanesey in them anymore
Regarding RSAs, yes, I'm good. I was lucky enough to find Cyber Warrior X's rsa encryption/decryption tool, and it works amazingly.
I don't see any major problems in this project's future now, apart from maybe some graphical editing (which I could mostly forego since almost everything is both in japanese and engrish).
Thanks!

Funny, I see that title and all I can think of is Emperor's The Loss and Curse of Reverence and how at times they shared members with Arcturus (Samoth, Hellhammer).

Well, this actually makes perfect sense since the Arcturus devs seems to be big fans of Scandinavian metal; the game is full of subtle (and not too subtle) metal references. I'm pretty sure I must have missed some too. You'll see.

[peco]

No problem. I've been visiting the Mirror Moon forums infrequently for a few years now, so I was very happy to see that someone else is showing interest in translating this old game. If you encounter any other challenges I am more than happy to help. I already have an unhealthily intimate knowledge of Ragnarok's inner workings, so I can more or less do anything with this game. 

[Helly_]

Thanks, bro! I won't forget that

Anyway, time for an update:
All scripts files are done. Yep. Which means that right now, the game is fully playable and finishable! I still have to playtest it myself to correct mistakes & improve some sentences, but it's pretty much done.

What I still have to do is the lore; all items, characters and entities have some kind of description. It's fluff and thus not necessary, but pretty interesting nevertheless.

I'll update the OP soon.

[ArcturusFan]

Thanks, bro! I won't forget that

Anyway, time for an update:
All scripts files are done. Yep. Which means that right now, the game is fully playable and finishable! I still have to playtest it myself to correct mistakes & improve some sentences, but it's pretty much done.

What I still have to do is the lore; all items, characters and entities have some kind of description. It's fluff and thus not necessary, but pretty interesting nevertheless.

I'll update the OP soon.

As soon as I saw this thread I knew I had to register in order to thank you for your hard work. I've been very interested in Arcturus since a long time ago but, after its localization was quietly cancelled and Mirror Moon's fantranslation effort ended, I accepted it was unlikely I would ever had a chance to experience it in English.

Knowing the game's script is fully translated and that I may finally be able to play it after such a long wait is really awesome and, even if I know Arcturus is as niche as it gets, I'm a bit surprised this project didn't get more attention from fans of Asian rpgs. Who knows, with Arcturus translated there may also be some hope to see the War of Genesis series in English, one day.

[LunaireticOmega]

I've gotta say, I'm very eager to see your efforts pay off, Helly_. Ever since I've found out about this game, I've wanted to play it, as it really does seem like a precursor to Ragnarok Online, with many sounds and special effects even lifted from it for the MMO itself. I also hear that there's supposedly a cameo of Sizz and Maria in-game, but I've never found it.

Thank you so much!

[Helly_]

I've gotta say, I'm very eager to see your efforts pay off, Helly_. Ever since I've found out about this game, I've wanted to play it, as it really does seem like a precursor to Ragnarok Online, with many sounds and special effects even lifted from it for the MMO itself. I also hear that there's supposedly a cameo of Sizz and Maria in-game, but I've never found it.

Thank you so much!

Yeah, it's Ragnarok that made me choose to do that translation over others, really. I used to play it a LOT.
Regarding Sizz and Maria in RO, try the item/weapon shops in Izlude

As soon as I saw this thread I knew I had to register in order to thank you for your hard work. I've been very interested in Arcturus since a long time ago but, after its localization was quietly cancelled and Mirror Moon's fantranslation effort ended, I accepted it was unlikely I would ever had a chance to experience it in English.

Knowing the game's script is fully translated and that I may finally be able to play it after such a long wait is really awesome and, even if I know Arcturus is as niche as it gets, I'm a bit surprised this project didn't get more attention from fans of Asian rpgs. Who knows, with Arcturus translated there may also be some hope to see the War of Genesis series in English, one day.

Well, I really hoped to release the full translation this year, but I still have a lot of playtesting to do, and I'm just one man
On the other hand, the only stuff left to do now is playtesting it and some graphical editing for the battles' victory screen. I just finished the whole encyclopedia and its descriptions of all the game's items, characters, monsters and specific terms. Phew!
Oh by the way, once Arcturus is done for good, the next game on my list is Rhapsody of Zephyr

[LunaireticOmega]

Well, I really hoped to release the full translation this year, but I still have a lot of playtesting to do, and I'm just one man
On the other hand, the only stuff left to do now is playtesting it and some graphical editing for the battles' victory screen. I just finished the whole encyclopedia and its descriptions of all the game's items, characters, monsters and specific terms. Phew!
Oh by the way, once Arcturus is done for good, the next game on my list is Rhapsody of Zephyr

I (and probably everyone else) wouldn't mind helping you out on said playtesting.

[Helly_]

I (and probably everyone else) wouldn't mind helping you out on said playtesting.

Thanks! As soon as I have a version I'm satisfied with, I'll post it here.

[Starscream]

Oh by the way, once Arcturus is done for good, the next game on my list is Rhapsody of Zephyr

Niiice 
Uncharted Waters III went nowhere though I guess?   

[ArcturusFan]

Yeah, it's Ragnarok that made me choose to do that translation over others, really. I used to play it a LOT.
Regarding Sizz and Maria in RO, try the item/weapon shops in Izlude


Well, I really hoped to release the full translation this year, but I still have a lot of playtesting to do, and I'm just one man
On the other hand, the only stuff left to do now is playtesting it and some graphical editing for the battles' victory screen. I just finished the whole encyclopedia and its descriptions of all the game's items, characters, monsters and specific terms. Phew!
Oh by the way, once Arcturus is done for good, the next game on my list is Rhapsody of Zephyr

Your speed is really impressive, thanks again for your hard work! As LunarOmega said, if you need help with testing I'm sure plenty of people here would be glad to help (and to play the game in advance :p)!

The news about Rhapsody of Zephyr makes me even happier, since that's also a game I bought a long time ago but never had a chance to play. I hope someone can also tackle War of Genesis 3, that one always seemed like one of the best rpgs ever made in Korea, alongside Arcturus.