Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Another Story English translation v2.08

[FlamePurge]

Sailor Moon: Another Story T-Eng v2.08

Feeling lost? Check my guide on how to apply IPS patches!

Not convinced this is an improvement? Check out our comparison screenshot album between the two translations!

Saves made with the Diary will be compatible with all other revisions and versions.
(e.g., players can upgrade from v2.00 to v2.08 and still use the same save; a Diary save can be loaded from the Japanese version or BST's v1.00 with no issues; etc.)

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Another Story is a turn-based RPG for Super NES by Angel, released in Japan on September 22nd, 1995. It aims to be an interquel story, set between the anime seasons S and SuperS. Five-character battles, a down-to-earth modern setting, dual/triple techs, and time travel make it almost like a distant cousin to EarthBound and Chrono Trigger, though obviously not reaching the same heights.

However, the game never saw Western shores. There are many theories why, but regardless, Sailor Moon went on to become an international sensation, and fans were dying for anything and everything of the franchise. To help fill that need, in 1999 Bishoujo Senshi Translations released an English localization of the series' only official RPG.

For the past 20 years, Moonies old and new alike have been able to enjoy Another Story thanks to BST's project. But it is very much a product of its time, and while certain elements are exceptional, (Notably, FuSoYa's amazing reprogramming!) as a whole the translation needed vast improvement.

Today, mziab and I--along with our excellent supporting translators--are proud to release just that: a retranslation from the Japanese original script.

Bonus Patches

Sailor Moon: Another Story is an incomparable experience, yet a product of its time nonetheless. Therefore mziab has seen fit to bundle some goodies alongside the main patch. These can be applied before or after the main patch, and are compatible with any version of SM:AS.

1. Grind-Be-Gone

This gameplay quality enhancement halves the random encounter rate, while doubling the experience and yen payout from each enemy. The result is improved flow with less frustration all around.

2. Swiss Manicure

In order to complete Chapter 2/Mercury, players must face a particularly difficult boss for that part of the game. In my walkthrough on GameFAQs, I recommend bringing a Manicure from Tokyo to boost Mercury's Attack stat. However, this is a missable detail, and so mziab has replaced the Schwartz item sold in Keines Village with the Manicure. Schwartz are still available in Andeng Village.


Features:

• Entirely relocalized script; includes correction of 400+ mistranslations
• Fixed several original game bugs
• Bonus patches for gameplay enjoyment
• Detailed readme including game controls and cheat codes
• In-depth liner notes, just like BST's initial release

ROM specifications:

• Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon - Another Story (Japan).sfc
• Super Famicom
• Japanese
• Unheadered (3 MB; 3,145,728 bytes)
• CRC32 - 02A442B8
• MD5 - 5F776488E366B6D6B44F6E8A01D9953D
• SHA1 - 137F84BA5D0736B887213E0C0CABD0649BBBAFC7

Credits:

• Bishoujo Senshi Translations - Moose M., Lina`chan, Nuku-Nuku (Translation); Janitha R., SoM2Freak, Harmony7, Xeur (Translation support); FuSoYa (Reprogramming); Kisai (Beta Testing); Cecil StormClaw (Webmaster)
• mziab - Tools, reprogramming, data insertion, graphical editing, retranslation, intro fix, Chapter 2/Jupiter font color fix, Red Berry fix, Status menu/Stone improvement, bonus gameplay patches
• FlamePurge - Font editing, text editing, graphic editing, localization, scriptwriting
• ffgriever, Kini, Rose - Retranslation support
• M0nsieurL - Pink title logo
• Special thanks - Hiei-, Lord, FantasyAnime, additional helpers, and all you Moonies out there!

News Articles:

• Jun 6, 2019 - Siliconera: Interquel RPG Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Another Story Has Been Retranslated
• Jun 6, 2019 - GoNintendo: Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Another Story Gets a Second Fan Translation
• Jun 8, 2019 - ROMhacking.net: The Beginning is a New Moon
• Jun 11, 2019 - Sailor Moon News: An updated English translation of the Sailor Moon: Another Story RPG has been released
• Jun 13, 2019 - Polygon: Sailor Moon RPG localized by fans 23 years later
• Jun 14, 2019 - Paste Magazine: Sailor Moon RPG Re-Translated, Localized by Fans 23 Years Later
• Jul 1, 2019 - The Retrogaming Times: Found In Translation - Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Another Story

[KingMike]

One tiny thing with the description: I think Angel Studios was a different company entirely. "Angel" I think was just one of several alternate brands Bandai created.

[FlamePurge]

Good call! I seemed to remember somehow that Angel were called Angel Studios in full, but I can't find any reference to the word "Studios" in the credits. That's been fixed in this post description and in the readme.

[Spooniest]

What well-known JRPG would you compare the combat system to?

[Robin64]

Thanks for this!

I have a question, though. When I access the "Puzzle" menu via the diary, I get just a black screen. I initially found this happens on a SNES Mini (which runs the rest of the game just fine) but then tried the latest snes9x on my PC too and it does the same there.

http://i.imgur.com/l2f2XNB.png

Edit: Tested in higan and it's black there too.

Edit2: Am I being silly? I tried without translation and it does the same. Is this what's meant to happen?

Apparently yes, I was being silly. I assumed something should appear in there.

[mziab]

Are you sure you have any puzzle pieces? The screen does start out blank. You get most puzzle pieces through random battles over the course of the game, while some are hidden in the overworld.

I've just triple-checked with Snes9x with a few saves (both SRM and emulator saves) and I can confirm the puzzle screen works as intended. During development I've also used bsnes-plus and higan.

[Artemis]

Do the bugfixes also contain fixing the damage calculations in battle so that having higher levels and stats cannot result in lower damage output anymore?

[mziab]

Do the bugfixes also contain fixing the damage calculations in battle so that having higher levels and stats cannot result in lower damage output anymore?

No, the only bugs we ended up fixing were:
- the intro text glitch on real hardware and newer emulators (using my own patch that's been available for a few years now)
- a palette bug at the start of Sailor Jupiter's chapter (only noticeable if you bothered to select another font color in the config menu)
- targeting petrified allies when using Red Berry in battle
- displaying the status menu for petrified allies (for some reason the original game blocked that, which we found to be counter-intuitive)

In short, we only fixed obvious bugs and oversights, without affecting gameplay balance. The only thing that affects it is the optional Grind-Be-Gone patch, which halves the random encounter rate and doubles the money/EXP drops for a smoother, less grindy experience.

I do agree an extensive rebalancing patch is a nice idea for the future, however.

On a related note, I'm planning on releasing said fixes separately sans the intro one (which is already readily available). Still haven't decided whether to release them as a pack or separate entries.

[FlamePurge]

What well-known JRPG would you compare the combat system to?

It's a simple turn-based game, but it doesn't have the fast pace of Dragon Quest. I'd probably hazard a comparison to Lufia II, since the two games' battle paces are relatively the same. Similarly, SPD is also a big factor in Another Story's battles.

Do the bugfixes also contain fixing the damage calculations in battle so that having higher levels and stats cannot result in lower damage output anymore?

Yeah, mziab and I talked about a balance patch. (Particularly, the Formation damage modifiers are too large, and Death Reborn Revolution needs its EP cost raised.) But we decided it was out of the scope of the project.

Edit - Other issues I can think of with the battle system...

- Enemy techniques should happen more frequently if possible, and status effects should have a higher chance of connecting at higher levels
- A lot of Link Techs could stand to cost a bit more. Some are rather abusable (Rainbow Double Moon Heart Ache should cost at least 6 EP...)
- Pink Sugar Heart Attack should be a little stronger and cost less
- Time Stop should be hardcoded to only function once per battle (And weakened to the minimum, if possible; at LV 99, Pluto can deal a free 999 damage along with stopping the enemies)

[justin3009]

Glad to see this game get some love again! A balance patch is definitely needed overall. Some of their attacks are just absolutely useless and as you noted, DRR definitely needs an EP cost raise. It's horrendously overpowered for how little it costs.

[FlamePurge]

Thanks for the kind words, Justin! I hope you continue to pursue your project as well; lord knows this game could use a full-on fresh translation...

Edit - The patch is now live on RHDN!

[Shade Aurion]

Well! I'm all over this! Thank you for doing this Vivify ^_^ I might have to add it to my Let's Play list after Lufia 3 is completed because I always had a place in my heart for Another Story :3

Also, Hi Robin! Glad to see you kicking around here. I'm a past Neogaf and current ResetEra member and contributor to your SNES Mini and Hacks threads. Good times <3

[ArkthePieKing]

Ooh, I'll have to give this a shot when you get done! I've heard the game is actually pretty good!

[Googie]

I'm gonna give this a shot too, I have a few SNES Sailor Moon games. (don't judge me)

I only heard about this series through my niece years ago, so the RPG'll be a real treat.

[FlamePurge]

Ooh, I'll have to give this a shot when you get done! I've heard the game is actually pretty good!

We actually released it completed! It's absolutely all finished. We'll keep support for updates in the future, but otherwise it's ready for play.

[seaofserenity]

Hi there, I'm from seaofserenity.net we also do Sailor Moon translations, a few years ago we also completed translation of Sailor Moon: Another Story based off the Japanese direct, but unfortunately we didn't know anyone with the skills to insert it into a game. So the translation just sat on my computer gathering dust.

It's absolutely fantastic there's going to be a version out for everyone and I applaud all your hard work but I can't help feeling a bit disappointed that our translation kind of now doesn't matter (I'm sure you can appreciate what a mission it was!)

I was wondering if there's any way possible that our translations could be somehow married together so all our work isn't going to waste. I'm happy to provide all our files to you if you wish.

Thanks so much and keep up the hard work.

[ArkthePieKing]

We actually released it completed! It's absolutely all finished. We'll keep support for updates in the future, but otherwise it's ready for play.

Oh fantastic! I'm so used to this board being used for projects in progress, this is exciting, thanks for the heads up

[timesoftrouble]

Hey! Long time RHDN lurker, first time poster here. I'm chiming in because I'm super stoked to see this translation! Major props on the work you've done already, and I'm really excited about the prospects of a future rebalancing of the game. I've seen so many people recommend this game over the years and, as a childhood fan of the anime, I'm looking forward to finally trying it for myself.

That said, it doesn't seem to be working right for me? The game is translated, but I'm having an issue with the main dialogue font. My original ROM matches the CRC32, MD5, and SHA1 numbers, and I selected No Header on my IPS patcher, so theoretically it should work fine, right? I patched a version with just the translation and another applying the translation first and the no grind patch second, since I've never played the game and was worrying the no grind patch might be a little too easy, but both of the resulting ROMS have the issue. I'm using RetroArch's SNES9x core, and the issue happens on both my Wii U and my Windows RetroArch setups.

Probably easiest just to show you:





Apologies for the newbie-ish question but I've tried patching it a few times and genuinely can't figure out what I'm doing wrong?

[Artemis-kun]

Okay, talk about absolutely spooky, I happened to pop on rhdn today to completely randomly look up something entirely unrelated, and as I was about to navigate away, this post somehow caught my eye on the recent forum post ticker.

This game. This translation. This is a piece of history. For me, it represents when I first got properly online and involved in a community, which was at LNFTranslations, who worked on this game in the BST collaboration effort, and is when I took on this nick, which I have continued to use to this day. I remember joining up on the forums while this was still in development, and while I didn't end up working with anyone from this team directly, it did get me involved a lot more with the community in general, and how I got into the scene overall.

Not that I really wound up contributing much, but I did do some news reporting for rpgd once upon a time

Anyway, sorry for the bit of nostalgia all over your post, but reading the post and your clear respect for the original work, I thought you would appreciate a bit of a window into things from back then

I've been sort of looking for something to play lately, and I do rather enjoy this game, flaws and all, so I will absolutely be giving this a go. Lina`chan and Nuku-Nuku did a great job for the time, but if memory serves me correctly, this was among their final projects before life got the best of them, as happened quite often back in those days. A refresh will be very interesting to play!

[FlamePurge]

I would like to apologize to everyone I first missed in the making of this post; for some reason, I'm not seeing every single new post right away? Is this a quirk of RHDN? If we ignore anyone, it's done out of sheer ignorance.

Hi there, I'm from seaofserenity.net we also do Sailor Moon translations, a few years ago we also completed translation of Sailor Moon: Another Story based off the Japanese direct, but unfortunately we didn't know anyone with the skills to insert it into a game. So the translation just sat on my computer gathering dust.

It's absolutely fantastic there's going to be a version out for everyone and I applaud all your hard work but I can't help feeling a bit disappointed that our translation kind of now doesn't matter (I'm sure you can appreciate what a mission it was!)

I was wondering if there's any way possible that our translations could be somehow married together so all our work isn't going to waste. I'm happy to provide all our files to you if you wish.

Thanks so much and keep up the hard work.

Let me first say that your translation absolutely still matters! In the ROM hacking world, multiple translations are always very much encouraged. In fact, I have no doubt a translation by you all would be far superior to our work; we only found the obvious mistranslations, after all... Another Story is still in dire need of a retranslation from zero with fresh reprogramming, unrelated to BST's prior work. I believe Justin3009 was working with you for a time? I had seen some progress pics of him working on the menu a while back.

As for your question about combining the two projects... I hope this doesn't come across as too frank. I love your group, and your projects can only begin to be described as wonderful. (I adore your PGSM subs in particular; I still have them on my PC!) But mziab and I decided early on to keep this an intimate project mostly between us. We only wound up including FFgriever, Kini, and Rose out of desperation when the nuance of a text-block couldn't be gleaned. I also was worried there would be conflict... Your team has a desire to maintain consistency by continuing to use your self-researched terms (Which I really appreciate and respect!), as opposed to how I wanted to use VIZ/Kodansha's official terms. As a naturally nervous person, I didn't want to risk causing any bad blood.

That said, I would absolutely welcome a brand-new fan translation from you all. Another Story absolutely deserves something entirely fresh as opposed to this stopgap of ours.

We very much apologize for having stepped on your toes in any way. We're all Moonies here, and we should be standing up for you, one of our amazing established translation teams! My current suggestion perhaps post the text of your translation as a feature on your site; however, mziab is the de facto leader of our tiny team. I don't want to speak for him, nor do I want to be hasty and definitively shut this book before we hear his take on this.

Hey! Long time RHDN lurker, first time poster here. I'm chiming in because I'm super stoked to see this translation! Major props on the work you've done already, and I'm really excited about the prospects of a future rebalancing of the game. I've seen so many people recommend this game over the years and, as a childhood fan of the anime, I'm looking forward to finally trying it for myself.

That said, it doesn't seem to be working right for me? The game is translated, but I'm having an issue with the main dialogue font. My original ROM matches the CRC32, MD5, and SHA1 numbers, and I selected No Header on my IPS patcher, so theoretically it should work fine, right? I patched a version with just the translation and another applying the translation first and the no grind patch second, since I've never played the game and was worrying the no grind patch might be a little too easy, but both of the resulting ROMS have the issue. I'm using RetroArch's SNES9x core, and the issue happens on both my Wii U and my Windows RetroArch setups.

Probably easiest just to show you:

https://i.imgur.com/dkMeiqf.png

https://i.imgur.com/N5rNveJ.png

Apologies for the newbie-ish question but I've tried patching it a few times and genuinely can't figure out what I'm doing wrong?

That's peculiar... You're applying it to the unheadered, unaltered JP ROM, right? Not a ROM with BST's fan translation applied first?

What are you applying it with? We were using Floating IPS.

Okay, talk about absolutely spooky, I happened to pop on rhdn today to completely randomly look up something entirely unrelated, and as I was about to navigate away, this post somehow caught my eye on the recent forum post ticker.

This game. This translation. This is a piece of history. For me, it represents when I first got properly online and involved in a community, which was at LNFTranslations, who worked on this game in the BST collaboration effort, and is when I took on this nick, which I have continued to use to this day. I remember joining up on the forums while this was still in development, and while I didn't end up working with anyone from this team directly, it did get me involved a lot more with the community in general, and how I got into the scene overall.

Not that I really wound up contributing much, but I did do some news reporting for rpgd once upon a time

Anyway, sorry for the bit of nostalgia all over your post, but reading the post and your clear respect for the original work, I thought you would appreciate a bit of a window into things from back then

I've been sort of looking for something to play lately, and I do rather enjoy this game, flaws and all, so I will absolutely be giving this a go. Lina`chan and Nuku-Nuku did a great job for the time, but if memory serves me correctly, this was among their final projects before life got the best of them, as happened quite often back in those days. A refresh will be very interesting to play!

Wow, it's great to hear from someone back when the original project was first being developed! Thank you so much for your insight, Artemis-kun. Thanks for playing the new translation!