Dragon Quest Delocalized Projects

[Chicken Knife]

I've had a long kindled desire to restore censored and altered elements of the Japanese Dragon Quest releases back into the US Dragon Warrior games. After my efforts in the last couple years to find an experienced rom hacker to take on this project have failed, I decided to try to fumble my way through the process myself and hopefully accomplish all my objectives eventually.

The below patches are what I've accomplished so far.


Dragon Quest: Delocalized Edition



http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4275/
* Custom script where all medieval language was removed. Script is now totally based on the original Japanese. This was written with a strong emphasis on fluid readability.
* NPC, location, item, and monster names made to more accurately represent the Japanese. 
* Spell names are new, reflecting the style of the Japanese spell names but based on English words that translate the meaning of the original root words.
* Custom Dragon Quest title screen, coded and designed by Choppasmith with minor adjustments by me
* Updated hero to original Japanese sprite, augmented with my own graphics to display him walking in four directions
* Updated NPC sprites to their original forward facing Japanese versions. A few of them were conservatively altered due to having to work around issues with importing them
* Updated coastal water made to be the same as the Japanese version

Dragon Quest II: Delocalized Edition



http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4273/
*Brand new retranslation of nearly all the game's text. No medieval language remains, many problems corrected and overall is much closer to the original Japanese script.
* Spell names are new, reflecting the style of the Japanese spell names but based on English words that translate the meaning of the original root words
* Fixed several graphical bugs with the animation of the marching princes in the title screen intro. Examples includ torsos separating from lower body during walking animation and incorrect pixels during one frame of Cannock/Samaltria's animation.
* Altered the head of the prince of Midenhall/Laurasia by changing his horned helm into a leather cap with goggles to better match the Toriyama art and in game sprite
* Restored censored cross design for room with secret passage in Hargon's Castle
* Custom Dragon Quest title screen with subtitle "Gods of Evil"
* Restored crosses on churches
* Restored original priest
* Restored coffins for dead characters
* Item and monster names restored to be mostly in line with the literal Japanese

Dragon Quest III: Delocalized



http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5466/
*Item, Monster and Spell names restored to be mostly in line with the literal Japanese
*Totally retranslated script
*New title screen
*Restored area maps for Lanceal, Necrogond Shrine, and Dharma Temple
*Restored crosses on churches
*Restored original shrines
*Restored original coffin in pyramid & for dead party members
*Restored original king, old man with stick, priest & pilgrim sprites
*Restored backgrounds
*Fixed parry / cancel bug
*Fixed spell learning bug
*Improved text limit for vault
*Changed namecheck from Erdrick to Roto

[Tom]

That's a wonderful idea! The less censorship out there, the better.

[Chicken Knife]

Thanks Tom.

I thought that fixing the sprites would be the easy part for all 4 of these games (well, 3 of them because I don't plan on going back to the forward facing only sprites in 1). However, only the 3rd game's sprites appear easy to edit so far. When I access the second or forth game in graphical editing software, the sprites all appear mangled, likely compressed. I'm wondering if it's that, or a simpler solution. I'd love to fix all the sprites for the 2nd and 4th games as well before delving into the scripts. Clearly I'm a noob at this.

Update: I just redid the link to an updated patch. I uncovered that the priest sprite was animating badly while facing upward. The issue arises from the original DW3 localizers eliminating frames on their replacement sprite and using a mirror of his lower body for his walking animation instead of separate tiles. After a little more tinkering, I had to restrict his upper body movement a bit while he faces upward but I'd say the look is correct and extremely close to the Japanese counterpart. 

Update #2: Looks like someone was able to answer my noob question on tile editing. It wasn't a compression issue. I simply had to adjust the boxes on tile editor.

[KingMike]

I would imagine restoring the original title screen on II to be especially all but impossible without a good disassembly, due to it being completely redone.

Though come to think of it, did Dragon Quest III even have a real title screen (beyond simply a blank screen with the name written in the standard text font?). I haven't played it much so I don't know if it's like FF1 and 3 where there's a title screen but it only appears during an early game cutscene.

[Chicken Knife]

KingMike, As far as I know the title screen on Japanese 3 is a black screen, a static like sound, and the simple text. Japanese 2 is also very simple compared to our elaborate title presentation. With ours, the sprite work and animation are great but some of the characters unfortunately don't look very much like Toriyama's artwork. Maybe we should add some goggles to the prince of midenhall. The Japanese version of 4's title screen though--that is a thing of pure beauty.

[Tom]

It'd probably be best to hack the Japanese rom to keep all the other stuff.

[Chicken Knife]

@Tom

Lots of pros and cons to that question. If someone did it, I think that would be really cool and I'd love to play them but at this point it would be far beyond my abilities. Also, you would be losing quality added content for the US localizations. Dragon Quest 1 would have only forward facing sprites for the hero and all townspeople along with no battery saving. Dragon Quest 2 would lose its intro that shows the fall of moonbrooke castle, along with battery saving. 3 would lose its title video and its unique ortega sprite in and out of battle. 4 wouldn't lose much but there were more bugs in the japanese that would need to be addressed.

[Choppasmith]

Oh wow! I wanted to do the same thing, but what I'm doing is more of a script overhaul. I'm working on 1 right now but I planned to go through both the NES trilogy and the SNES remakes. Perhaps we can combine our efforts? If you need a script overhaul, I've been using the official mobile scripts I extracted to find the script a much needed overhaul (as well as getting it consistent with "Modern DQ" localizations)

[Chicken Knife]

@Choppasmith,

Are you referring to using the scripts from the GBC games? I haven't spent much time with those versions but I believe they did not use the medieval style and did use the Japanese naming (Roto, Laura, Laurasia, etc). I'd be on board with using that. I'm curious if Nintendo still left any censorship in place script wise. I'd want to look at that. The recent mobile phone ports of the first two games still use mostly US Dragon Warrior conventions and medieval language if I recall. For IV, I would want to heavily edit the DS version's script. I'm not a fan of those exaggerated accents.

As far as collaboration, the more the merrier. I'm just starting out in actual hacking and there isn't much I can do beyond messing around with sprites. For this to be the kind of project I've been dreaming of--something like Final Fantasy Restored or Maternal Bound, I would love skilled collaborators to get involved and take the lead on various aspects.
September 03, 2018, 04:08:43 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
I have a question for the community: do you guys like the sprites in US Dragon Warrior 1? Do you find them attractive and do they fit in well with later sprites in the series?

I've had reservations with the sprite work in the US version for awhile. I'm not sure whether the graphics were done by different people at Chunsoft, Enix, or what the story was, but I've always felt that they look off. When I played through the Japanese game a few months back, even though the sprites don't change direction, I found them more charming and looked better in the context of the rest of the games visuals.

I'm curious what you all think about this. I'm toying with the idea of replacing all of the front sprites in the first DW game with the sprites from Dragon Quest for Famicom. For the side and back views, I would probably look to import the corresponding sprites from DW2 and tweak them as needed to match the front sprites. I recall the DQ2 sprites looking very close to 4 direction versions of the DQ1 sprites. For the main hero I would have to simply create matching back and side views.

[mariosmentor]

Perhaps you could just edit the title screens to say Dragon QUEST instead of Dragon WARRIOR. I'd say it's a fair enough compromise.

[Chicken Knife]

@mariosmentor

If only. I've had that conversation with a number of experienced coders and all parties say it would be a nightmare. However, if there is one thing we see in this community, where there is a will there is a way.

Maybe you are saying to just have the word "Quest" show up in the big grey box. I suppose that would be an improvement if it could be easily done without untangling all code.

[Choppasmith]

@Choppasmith,

Are you referring to using the scripts from the GBC games? I haven't spent much time with those versions but I believe they did not use the medieval style and did use the Japanese naming (Roto, Laura, Laurasia, etc). I'd be on board with using that. I'm curious if Nintendo still left any censorship in place script wise. I'd want to look at that. The recent mobile phone ports of the first two games still use mostly US Dragon Warrior conventions and medieval language if I recall. For IV, I would want to heavily edit the DS version's script. I'm not a fan of those exaggerated accents.

No I mean the mobile phone scripts. I've found that the script for DQ1 is used word for word in Builders as well. I don't really know about censored dialog outside the Puff Puff in Rimuldar (The scene is in Kol in the Remakes and Builders). It seems like dialog mostly got cut for space reasons. An example of an NPC in Tantagel

Original:
Where oh where can I find Princess Gwaelin?

Mobile Script:
O Princess... Princess, where art thou...?<1A<0C
Could it be that the foul fiends who took thee have taken thy young life also...?<1A<0C
...Nay!<0D0F We cannot-we must not-surrender to despair!<1A<0C
Brave <07, I prithee-forget all that I said. Henceforth, hope, and hope alone, shall guide me!

I agree with mariosmentor. I was hoping a title screen edit changing Warrior into Quest and then for II and III add the official subtitles (Luminaries of the Legendary Line and Seeds of Salvation respectively) but I'm not really an expert romhacker myself.

[Tom]

Not a fan of the modern DQ style, making most of the script up, trying to one-up the Japanese version.

I would hope that the hack would just remove the censorship without altering the general style.

However, putting the character names back, like restoring Gwaelin's name back to Laura, is fine with me.

[Chicken Knife]

No I mean the mobile phone scripts. I've found that the script for DQ1 is used word for word in Builders as well. I don't really know about censored dialog outside the Puff Puff in Rimuldar (The scene is in Kol in the Remakes and Builders). It seems like dialog mostly got cut for space reasons. An example of an NPC in Tantagel

Original:
Where oh where can I find Princess Gwaelin?

Mobile Script:
O Princess... Princess, where art thou...?<1A<0C
Could it be that the foul fiends who took thee have taken thy young life also...?<1A<0C
...Nay!<0D0F We cannot-we must not-surrender to despair!<1A<0C
Brave <07, I prithee-forget all that I said. Henceforth, hope, and hope alone, shall guide me!

I agree with mariosmentor. I was hoping a title screen edit changing Warrior into Quest and then for II and III add the official subtitles (Luminaries of the Legendary Line and Seeds of Salvation respectively) but I'm not really an expert romhacker myself.

@Choppasmith, I'm sure there are people out there who would prefer the mobile script of 1 and 2 but I wasn't a big fan. If I do anything with the scripts besides restore censored elements, it would be to bring the language of 1 and 2 closer to the language of NES 3 and 4. Less medieval, more contemporary--just as the language was in the Japanese originals from what I hear. The medieval language has always felt at odds with the sorta silly atmosphere of the series. A ton of people love that style and the US conventions like Erdrick, Gwaelin and Tangegel but I'm not crazy about them personally.
September 03, 2018, 11:35:00 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)

Not a fan of the modern DQ style, making most of the script up, trying to one-up the Japanese version.

I would hope that the hack would just remove the censorship without altering the general style.

However, putting the character names back, like restoring Gwaelin's name back to Laura, is fine with me.

Tom, I agree with you that the modern DQ style isn't always the best.

Are you ok with the disparity of the first two games having medieval English while the third and forth games are contemporary? What do you think about the idea of me essentially removing the thee's and thou's but leaving the script mostly intact so that they feel more in line with 3 and 4?

[mariosmentor]

Well, if uncensoring and spiffing up dialogue is your biggest goal, then I take it you know about Nester being shoehorned into DQ1. Apparently, the NPC in Cantlin claiming to be Nester is actually Hajime Kimura, an uncredited developer for the game. Just thought I'd mention it.

[Tom]

I think it's fine to remove the thee's and thou's, GBC remake style.

The character in Dragon Warrior IV is neither Cristo nor Kyril. In Japanese, his name is クリフト ku-ri-fu-to. Neither of those names represent the kana there.

There are plenty of ways it could be rendered to approximate the Japanese, but I suppose it depends on how much space there is in the name box.

[Choppasmith]

Enjoy guys, and let me know if any issues.
September 03, 2018, 11:31:40 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
@Choppasmith, I'm sure there are people out there who would prefer the mobile script of 1 and 2 but I wasn't a big fan. If I do anything with the scripts besides restore censored elements, it would be to bring the language of 1 and 2 closer to the language of NES 3 and 4. Less medieval, more contemporary--just as the language was in the Japanese originals from what I hear. The medieval language has always felt at odds with the sorta silly atmosphere of the series. A ton of people love that style and the US conventions like Erdrick, Gwaelin and Tangegel but I'm not crazy about them personally.

I think it complements the series quite nicely. Playing the fan translation of V on PS2, I think the dialog is great but the literal monster and town name translations really suck out a lot of the charm for me. I still haven't actually played III or IV on the NES, so I can't really comment on the difference in dialog there. In III Mobile, the dialog is normal in the first world with various light accents indicating the region you're in (considering the first world is clearly based off our world, it makes perfect sense to me) and then the second world is good ol' Alefgard Olde English. (oh and I effin' LOVE that Jipang NPCs speak in Haiku form)

In fairness, looking at I and II on the NES, I think the Olde English status messages are a little much (Mobile keeps it as standard English like other DQ games) and playing a little bit of IV again recently, the accents are very much overdone. III Mobile I think has a nice balance of showing different accents and language without making it too difficult to interpret for reading. If/when I get to DW IV NES, I'd mostly make the names and items consistent with the modern versions and then tweak the script so that characters sound the way they should but fix a lot of the frustrating to understand stuff.

Best of luck to you though!

Well, if uncensoring and spiffing up dialogue is your biggest goal, then I take it you know about Nester being shoehorned into DQ1. Apparently, the NPC in Cantlin claiming to be Nester is actually Hajime Kimura, an uncredited developer for the game. Just thought I'd mention it.

Oh! That's neat. I've wondered about that. Thanks for the info!

[Tom]

For those who want to read the made-up scripts, they can play the modern ports.

I appreciate what you're doing here, and I'm sure others will, as well.

[Chicken Knife]

@Choppasmith

Nothing wrong with your instincts to use the most modern rendition of the script and naming conventions. There are probably more people with your sensibilities than Tom and I who have a stubborn adherence to what was original. As far as your comments on the mobile script of 3, I did consider it the best of the mobile versions when I went through them all a couple years back. But again, my heart is with the original renderings. Please feel free to incorporate whatever you want from my graphical edits for your own hack. Whatever you put together, I will probably play at some point. The more people working on Dragon Quest games, the better for everyone. 

@mariosmentor

I vaguely remembered the Nester references that you brought up. I always skipped over the Nester comics in Nintendo Power as a kid so he is definitely getting cut.  I have a question since I am not finding much online at the moment. Was Hajime directly referenced in the Japanese game? If not do you know what the original dialogue was comprised of? When I get to the script editing phase, I'll want to handle that with care.

@Tom

Thank you for the kind words. I'm making these hacks mostly to satisfy my own desires but I'm glad there are other people like you who share them. I wanted to specifically ask you if you think I should edit the Dragon Warrior 1 sprites. They were designed during the production phase of Dragon Quest IV in Japan. I actually observe some commonality between those two sets of sprites when I look over them. I don't like how the DW1 sprites look overly sophisticated next to the extremely primitive original tile graphics and town / dungeon layouts. I also don't like how you finish the first game and move on to the sequel where the sprites feel more primitive in comparison. The Japanese 2 was a massive step forward in all measures which is a feeling I want to reproduce in our English versions. Although most people would think I'm crazy, I think I want to take the original Japanese DQ1 sprites and conservatively edit them to face 4 directions. If I can do a professional job of it, do you think the effort would be worthwhile? Would the overall reduction in sprite quality be for the greater good? Since my main capability right now is graphics, this is the thing I'm debating.

What I'm not debating is a commitment to tactfully replace the word Warrior with Quest in the title screen of all four NES games. This is going to take a fair amount of time since the sprites are huge and I want to be very careful to get the style of the custom fonts right. If I can't make them blend, I'm not going to release it. Script editing will come later and ASM work will come much later unless collaborators get involved who have those skills.

[Choppasmith]

@Choppasmith

Nothing wrong with your instincts to use the most modern rendition of the script and naming conventions. There are probably more people with you sensibilities than Tom and I---who have a stubborn adherence to what was original. As far as your comments on the mobile script of 3, I did consider it the best of the mobile versions when I went through them all a couple years back. But again, my heart is with the original rendering. Please feel free to incorporate whatever you want from my graphical edits for your own hack. Whatever you put together, I will probably play at some point. The more people working on Dragon Quest games, the better for everyone. 

Hey man, appreciate it! Like you said, I think the more options people have the better. The whole reason I'm doing my thing is BECAUSE, like Tom actually said (Baka gaijin comment aside), is we ONLY have the mobile ports which have forced portrait perspective (stretching the graphics in some cases), no controller support, and in the case of III, some features cut out.