GBA Castlevania HOD: Revenge of the Findesiecle Japan to USA Port

[sorrow]

Awesome Solid One, can't wait to see!

Flavio, I haven't tested, but if Solid One says that the Portuguese translation used some free space at the end of the rom, depending on how much freespace and where, I can probably guarantee that my Findesiecle port would overwrite it.  Freespace in HoD starts roughly around offset 0x069D400 and it's data begins shortly after that.

[Aceearly1993]

Suggestions: So you stated the removal of spell startup voice is to make extra characters avoid being sound like Juste, but Maxim's mirage super is unique and wasn't shared by anyone else, is it possible to only restore Maxim mirage's startup voice and keep other spells at current state?
And is Maxim's healing spell totally shared by Juste now?

[sorrow]

Hi Ace, for the healing spell, I checked the rom just now and I used the same pointer for the healing spell as the one Juste has.

I looked in DSVEdit and saw that the "Healing Spell" pointer for Maxim is different.  I had assumed they were the same, but are they actually different?

If so, it's something I'll make a note of to correct for the next update.

Regarding the voices for spell sounds, I removed all of Juste's voices and I replaced them with a different, appropriate sounding clip that matched (in my opinion anyway 😆) using a magic spell.

I suppose I could've clarified a little more in the readme, but for spell sounds and spell use, they are shared between Juste, Julius, JusteX, and SIMONX.

Really, it is more that they are assigned to a subweapon, not the character per se.

Maxim is the only character that can use the spells assigned to him, because he is the only one with the Shuriken (as it's not an item found within the castle).

I gave his spells the same sound though, as I did for the others.

I thought about leaving his Maxim Mirage sound clip in, but decided not to, in order keep him similar to the other characters, who can't have they own clips.

BUT, I suppose I could always add it back if that's what people would prefer, or maybe as an add one patch or something 👍

[Aceearly1993]

The difference is, in the unmodded original HoD, the Maxim version or healing spell consumes hearts while Juste version consumes MP like any other Juste spells, plus Maxim version has a unique startup voice clip. Not sure how the Revenge of the Findesiecle dealt with the Maxim version of healing spell but somehow they won't work. Maybe the pointer disabled but not actually deleted?

[sorrow]

The difference is, in the unmodded original HoD, the Maxim version or healing spell consumes hearts while Juste version consumes MP like any other Juste spells, plus Maxim version has a unique startup voice clip. Not sure how the Revenge of the Findesiecle dealt with the Maxim version of healing spell but somehow they won't work. Maybe the pointer disabled but not actually deleted?

That's probably another thing I should clarify.  I thought the ReadMe was enough of an explanation for the character magic.

The "Maxim Command Spells" as they worked in Vanilla HoD are still disabled.

I tried my best, but it was either have Maxim use the spells and then ALL the other extra characters can use the same "Maxim Command Spells," or have them disabled, BUT the other characters can use the Juste spells and Maxim can use previously empty data (which has been activated) that is now "Maxim Magic Spells."

It was one or the other, and so rather than have all of the extra characters use the same 2-3 Maxim Spells, I chose to have Maxim get 5 Spells and then the others can use Juste's, which sure, they have more, but it's dependent on which subweapon they have equipped as usual.

So no, he can't use his command spells, but as stated in the ReadMe, you can progress through the castle and once you get a spellbook (fire is the first one I believe), then you can activate a spellbook with Down+L+R and use Magic spells by pressing Up+Attack.

This feels more balanced anyways, since all the characters do start at level 1 and gain abilities as you progress.

Maxim's Healing spell is tied to the Wind Spellbook, and the Maxim Mirage is tied to the Summoning Spellbook.

Fire, Ice, and Bolt also have different spells that I feel were appropriate to Maxim's character.

[Aceearly1993]

Well, I just completed the new Maxim campaign, the only issues are Juste's version of heal spell is assigned to a spellbook move for Maxim instead of Maxim's own version, and startup voice clip for the Maxim mirage spell missing. So that you've found a way to assign Maxim mirage to spellbook, how about assigning Maxim's own version of heal spell (consumes heart) to Maxim's spell book, instead of Maxim sharing Juste's version of heal spell? Or is Maxim's own version not actually a separate version but a same move hardcoded that if assigned to Maxim's spellbook it's always Juste version?

That's probably another thing I should clarify.  I thought the ReadMe was enough of an explanation for the character magic.

The "Maxim Command Spells" as they worked in Vanilla HoD are still disabled.

I tried my best, but it was either have Maxim use the spells and then ALL the other extra characters can use the same "Maxim Command Spells," or have them disabled, BUT the other characters can use the Juste spells and Maxim can use previously empty data (which has been activated) that is now "Maxim Magic Spells."

It was one or the other, and so rather than have all of the extra characters use the same 2-3 Maxim Spells, I chose to have Maxim get 5 Spells and then the others can use Juste's, which sure, they have more, but it's dependent on which subweapon they have equipped as usual.

So no, he can't use his command spells, but as stated in the ReadMe, you can progress through the castle and once you get a spellbook (fire is the first one I believe), then you can activate a spellbook with Down+L+R and use Magic spells by pressing Up+Attack.

This feels more balanced anyways, since all the characters do start at level 1 and gain abilities as you progress.

Maxim's Healing spell is tied to the Wind Spellbook, and the Maxim Mirage is tied to the Summoning Spellbook.

Fire, Ice, and Bolt also have different spells that I feel were appropriate to Maxim's character.

OK looks like you've faced a lot of technical limitations about these. It seems keeping command moves while gaining spellbook move assigned is really that impossible. Got it.

[sorrow]

Aceearly, I was wrong in the previous post, the Healing spell code is the same for BOTH Juste and Maxim in Vanilla HoD, and also for Findesiecle.

The only difference is that "Maxim's" version in Vanilla uses Hearts, as you said.

In Findesiecle, I prefer to keep it as consuming MP.  With how I set it all up, you get the Wind Spellbook it should consume MP because it's a spell, it does not make sense to me for that spell to be the only one that does not use MP and instead uses hearts.

That being said, it's very easy to change via DSVEdit in the Spellbook area, if you prefer for your personal use.

And Maxim's voice clip for Maxim Mirage, again I left out purposefully, but also easy to restore.  In a future release, I could probably do an optional add-on patch to the main Findesiecle+ patch for those who prefer it that way.

[Aceearly1993]

OK, regarding healing spell it's fine either way, it's too bad the two versions of heal didn't totally separate albeit it looks like if Maxim's variant is a true separate version judging from its consumption. Anyway sorrow thanks again for further improving the already brilliant mod/hack, and I'm more than glad my documented ROM variant I sent to you actually did help you in the improving process.

[Solid One]

Awesome Solid One, can't wait to see!

This morning, I grabbed the US rom and performed some analysis on it. The titlescreen graphic is on the offset 0x00505A40 and it's compressed in LZSS 0x10. By using LazyDS to uncompress it to a binary, and VisualBoyAdvance to export the titlescreen palette to .pal, I managed to open it in Tile Molester Mod with the same colors used ingame.

Afterward, I played the "jigzaw puzzle" game with the tiles in order to resemble the order seen ingame, and after this I exported the reorganized tiles to a PNG file which I edited in Photoshop. I managed to get a little mockup of how it should be seen ingame:



It's not finished yet, because I still need to put all tiles back to its position, save the binary and insert it ingame again, but before moving forward, give me your thoughts.

[sorrow]

This morning, I grabbed the US rom and performed some analysis on it. The titlescreen graphic is on the offset 0x00505A40 and it's compressed in LZSS 0x10. By using LazyDS to uncompress it to a binary, and VisualBoyAdvance to export the titlescreen palette to .pal, I managed to open it in Tile Molester Mod with the same colors used ingame.

Afterward, I played the "jigzaw puzzle" game with the tiles in order to resemble the order seen ingame, and after this I exported the reorganized tiles to a PNG file which I edited in Photoshop. I managed to get a little mockup of how it should be seen ingame:



It's not finished yet, because I still need to put all tiles back to its position, save the binary and insert it ingame again, but before moving forward, give me your thoughts.

That...looks...FANTASTIC!

I love that.

[verme]

Hi guys, great job, both on the hack and on the title screen!
this is one of my favorite hacks, so I don't want you to misunderstand me, I'm here with the intention of contributing in some way.
Since this is a localization job, what do you think about translating the title into English as well?
according to what I found on this link:

https://ximwix.net/mirrors/rhdn/index.php@topic=5073.0.html

"Findesiecle" = "Fin de Siecle" = English: "End of the Century"

Revenge of the Findesiecle - sounds wrong

Revenge on the Fin de Siecle

or, better,

"Revenge on the End of the Century"
or
"Revenge at the End of the Century"

[sorrow]

Hi guys, great job, both on the hack and on the title screen!
this is one of my favorite hacks, so I don't want you to misunderstand me, I'm here with the intention of contributing in some way.
Since this is a localization job, what do you think about translating the title into English as well?
according to what I found on this link:

https://ximwix.net/mirrors/rhdn/index.php@topic=5073.0.html

"Findesiecle" = "Fin de Siecle" = English: "End of the Century"

Revenge of the Findesiecle - sounds wrong

Revenge on the Fin de Siecle

or, better,

"Revenge on the End of the Century"
or
"Revenge at the End of the Century"

Ah, I see.  I always wondered about that.  The original J Findesiecle had a conflicting title, which the rhdn page calls it "of the..." but in that page's readme file, it says "on the...".

I had chosen to go with the page title rather than the readme's.

But now the mystery is solved, lol.

That should be a simple fix, and I can do it to all of my related postings as well.

Thank you for clearing that up!

[Solid One]

Hi guys, great job, both on the hack and on the title screen!
this is one of my favorite hacks, so I don't want you to misunderstand me, I'm here with the intention of contributing in some way.
Since this is a localization job, what do you think about translating the title into English as well?
according to what I found on this link:

https://ximwix.net/mirrors/rhdn/index.php@topic=5073.0.html

"Findesiecle" = "Fin de Siecle" = English: "End of the Century"

Revenge of the Findesiecle - sounds wrong

Revenge on the Fin de Siecle

or, better,

"Revenge on the End of the Century"
or
"Revenge at the End of the Century"

Giving my 5 cents here, I don't see this work exactly as a localization/relocalization, and I also don't think we need to change the original title from the original version from "PUNKEMNX & TonyJih".

For the localization part, I know that the initial motivation was porting it from the Japanese version to the American version, but right now, to me it looks more like a romhack than a translation, especially considering new features that are absent in the original version, such as additional bugfixes, new Simon skills, the possibility of adding new characters, etc.

As for the subtitle, I know we may not be sure about which is the correct subtitle from the original creators, whether it is "of the Findesiecle" or "on the Findesiecle", but regardless of that, I think we should stick with "Revenge of the Findesiecle", and here are some reasons:

- Using foreign language words such as "Findesiecle" instead of "End of the Century", although uncommon, still can be used. in "Rondo of Blood", the "Rondo" word is from the french language;
- Between "of the Findesiecle" and "on the Findesiecle", the former seems okay to me. Doesn't seem necessarily wrong, and I think both could be used. Here are some examples, from google;
- The suggestion for "Revenge on the End of the Century" might be too long to fit in the space we have onscreen. Even if we use condensed fonts or something like that, the subtitle might become harder to read.

Anyway, that's only my thoughts. Hearing the opinions of the other members might help reaching a conclusion on this.

[sorrow]

Solid One brings up a good point though, I didn't actually translate anything, the text from the USA game is the same, I only was successful in porting the features from the Japanese Findesiecle over to the USA HoD.

[verme]

no problems friends, in any case I'm happy with what has already been done.
I think the use of the French language in both "Findesiecle" and "Rondo" would be to give it a more European or Victorian feel, and it has a certain charm.
thanks.

[edit]
the title screen of Findesiecle J has been changed and a subtitle has been added at the top right of the screen, but it's so small I can't tell if it's "On" or "Of".

[sorrow]

Oh wow, I had NEVER noticed that before, haha.

It's VERY small though, not readable at all.  It seems like the intent was to have it resemble the subtitle in a script style font.

Cool stuff.

[Masaru]

Wow, you did it before DSVEDIT, amazing, haha.

So what do you think you would do for the Findesiecle logo?

Replace Harmony of Dissonance with Revenge of the Findesiecle?

Or maybe have Revenge of the Findesiecle be underneath Harmony of Dissonance?

A mix of both japanese and english logo?

[sorrow]

A mix of both japanese and english logo?

Hi Masaru.  I'm not following your idea, can you clarify?

[ReeseKaine]

I need help. For whatever reason, Windows 10 is seeing a severe threat from only this rom patch.

Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml

Downloading others doesn't produce this result, and while it may be a false positive, W10 is still catching it, and I can't get W10 to ignore this one, unlike other false positives. I haven't read the whole thread, so I dunno if this was already covered, if so I apologize.

[sorrow]

I need help. For whatever reason, Windows 10 is seeing a severe threat from only this rom patch.

Trojan:Script/Wacatac.B!ml

Downloading others doesn't produce this result, and while it may be a false positive, W10 is still catching it, and I can't get W10 to ignore this one, unlike other false positives. I haven't read the whole thread, so I dunno if this was already covered, if so I apologize.

I had the same issue, downloading MY OWN patch from the link, lol.

It has to be from a recent Windows 10 Update.  What I did to fix it was to open Windows 10'x Anti-Virus or whatever, and go to the stuff that was recently Quarantined or whatever it was called, and you should see the file that it attempted to download, and then click to Allow that file on your device.

Hope that helps!