Games I Hope SuperFighter team translates

[salamando]

The following are fantastic Genesis RPGs that came out only in Tawain and China. I hope one of them can be the next game SuperFighter team releases in English!!

Thank you guys!

Shuihuzhuan (Tiger Hunter Hero Novel)

It’s a Taiwan-only strategy RPG, based off the book of the same name, sometimes known in the west as Water Margins or Outlaws of the Marsh. In this game, 108 heroes band together to defeat the corrupt Song Dynasty, in the 12th century. Towns and locales can be explored, though the majority of the game is composed of large battles. This game is also absolutely gorgeous, it’s just a real shame that not much is known about it in the West. It should not be confused with the beat ‘em up Shui Hu Feng Yu Zhuan, which was apparently never released.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/3833259013_f2d105d5c8_m.jpg

Heroic Legends of the Sealing Gods

a Taiwanese strategy RPG, sometimes known as Fengshen Yingjiechuan, with gorgeous artwork and some nice magic animations. The plot follows a legend from the Shang Dynasty, where Emperor Zhou fell in love with the goddess of Nu Wa. When he ordered his soldiers to capture her, they informed him of a mortal woman with beauty to rival Nu Wa’s, and captured her instead. Unfortunately, she had been possessed by a fox spirit, and this has lead to corruption and problems in the ruling household. To save China, you must rebel against the royal family. You start as the hero Lin Yuan, and must find the other 8 heroes to help you on your journey. The game focuses entirely on combat and story exposition, with a little travel on the world map thrown in. Once again, it’s a shame so little is known about it in the West.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2629/3834052630_3f9f820c7f_m.jpg

Ya-Se Chao Suo

This one’s a Chinese JRPG, again with some quite nice graphics. The title is also often spelled Yase Zhuanshuo. It’s based on the Arthurian legends, though they provide more of a framework than an actual plot. Some kind of evil force has infected King Arthur’s castle, infecting many of the inhabitants and slowly spreading to everyone in the kingdom. You play a young boy named Dilo, whose father goes missing one day. It’s up to you to find out what happened to him. Once again, not to much is known about this title. Expect the usual fair of turn-based combat and top-down exploration.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2464/3834052654_8c8b59ef59_m.jpg

[Kollision]

You play a young boy named Dilo
Gosh, for one moment I laughed my ass off here because I missread the name! :)

[salamando]

lmfao

[Guntz]

Gosh, for one moment I laughed my ass off here because I missread the name! :)

Heh, I chuckled too. :)

[Barracuda]

Those look like some fun games. Strategy RPG's are my favorite!

[acdc]

Maten no Soumetsu

this rpg needs a translation

great rpg encounter is high but it plays great

[CMA Death Adder]

Hello.


The following are fantastic Genesis RPGs that came out only in Tawain and China. I hope one of them can be the next game SuperFighter team releases in English!!

Thanks for your enthusiasm, but I'm sorry to inform you that neither of these games will very likely be localized by Super Fighter Team, at least not any time in the near future. The matter has been raised here at this very forum several times before, but I'll sum up main reasons behind the decision once more:

These games, while impressive, make use of graphical and / or musical resources that are under copyright by other firms in Japan, namely Square Enix. The company that produced these Mega Drive RPGs (ChuanPu Technical) "borrowed" said resources without permission, likely in an effort to simplify and speed up the development process. The games, after all, were developed for the company by teenagers, who were likely unaware that they were 'stealing' (or simply didn't care, due to the grea area nature of copyrights in Taiwan).

We've spoken with the people formerly of ChuanPu Technical and received their permission to localize the games. But sadly, that's far from enough permission to go to work on them. As a company, we will never produce a localization of someone else's product unless we can have the cooperation of all parties involved.

It would be a lot of time and work trying and track down for certain which resources were "borrowed" and which are completely original, so that they could be replaced with non-infringing ones. And, I feel that making such major changes would take away from the original look and feel of the titles.

The whole thing is a real noodle-scratcher, no question about it.

[Melf]

Someone could still do a fan translation. I mean, everyone speaks Chinese, right? :p

[salamando]

CMA death adder, thank you for clearing that up. Well, with that said, can you confirm any new RPG releases? To be honest I thought these were possible, but hopefully there is at least one more Gem of an RPG you guys at SuperFighter team have yet to bring us!

I appreciate your informative and educated response and thank you for reading.

[CMA Death Adder]

Someone could still do a fan translation. I mean, everyone speaks Chinese, right? :p

Heh. Hacking away at a Taiwan-produced Mega Drive RPG is a daunting task, to put it nicely. Any fan translation team would be in for a real "treat". :(


CMA death adder, thank you for clearing that up.

My pleasure. Thanks for your interest.


Well, with that said, can you confirm any new RPG releases?

Yes, we'll release another new RPG for the Genesis in 2010, following a re-stock of Legend of Wukong. However, I cannot provide any additional details at this time.

[Jesse813]

Yes, we'll release another new RPG for the Genesis in 2010, following a re-stock of Legend of Wukong. However, I cannot provide any additional details at this time.

I look forward to playing this new game in 2010 :)

[salamando]

YEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Not only is the Wukong reissue good news to me, but A NEW 2010 RELEASE!!!??? mAAANNN this is too much! thank you guys i look forward to it!

So glad

[jerry coeurl]

Surging Aura. Actually, any of the "lost in translation" RPGs that Melf covered in his article. But specifically Surging Aura.

[salamando]

yeah that game is amazing i hear

[Dark Sol]

Surging Aura would be great yes, same for Soumetsu. But i don't think Brandon would be able to officialy sell JAP-US translated games at all. Simply as that. And noone would be.
Japanese games are heavier copyrighted then any taiwanese ones. YOu cannot just translate a game and then sell it. Cause it's originally created by some company which holds the rights.

And speaking about these old Taiwanese ones. Brandon, they are abandonware already. Long time ago. Were they licensed by SEGA at all? I don't remember.
And i am pretty sure Square Enix won't bother at all about some super old games pirated by some taiwanese kids who used some questionable graphic tiles...You may at least try to ask them maybe?
I am most sure they don't give a damn. Don't even know maybe..?

[salamando]

Im sure he knows the legal boundries and does not want to invest money in something that can easily be taken away at moments notice due to some stupid "legality" in a sound or graphic bit

[Bramsworth]

Someone could still do a fan translation. I mean, everyone speaks Chinese, right? :p

Yep ;)

Can't help but notice Barver Battle Saga was skipped. I'll have to fix that someday soon..... :) I'm a bit stumped what possibly is left for a release in 2010, seeing as all the Chinese RPGs that are out there have been practically listed by now. Unless there's more out there that no one knows about yet. But not a single one doesn't use ripped graphics of some sort as far as I'm aware, so yeah......I can't begin to imagine what's left unless it's a completely original game.

Well, except for one other game I couldn't help but notice was overlooked, and isn't from Chuan Pu: Tun Shi Tian Di 3 aka Conquering the World 3. And since this thread is talking specifically about Chuan Pu games, it could be a possibility. But of course, that game uses ripped graphics + stolen music too so I guess it wouldn't be a possibility. Not unless you pried a different sound engine from someone and made a new soundtrack, and tracked down all the stolen graphics of course lol Which would be TOO much work I'd bet.

Ya, I guess the majority of these are best left for fan translation. Maybe we'll hear news of that soon, who knows... ;)

[CMA Death Adder]

Japanese games are heavier copyrighted then any taiwanese ones. YOu cannot just translate a game and then sell it. Cause it's originally created by some company which holds the rights.

No. There's no "heavier copyrights". A copyright is a copyright.

Super Fighter Team always respects copyrights, and partners with the companies that originally produced the games we localize. We produced Beggar Prince in partnership with C&E, Inc., and we produced Legend of Wukong in partnership with Gamtec. In both instances, we dealt directly with the copyright holder and negotiated official, signed, legally binding agreements.

Just because Taiwan's legal system is very grey when dealing with the enforcing of copyrights, doesn't mean we just walk by and take the games we want to work on, even if we technically could. We respect all game companies and put quite simply - if we do our best to secure a legal agreement but are unable to do so, we don't work with the game. Plain and simple.


And speaking about these old Taiwanese ones. Brandon, they are abandonware already.

"Abandonware" is a convenient term for the piracy of legacy software. If a company doesn't give their permission to release a game that they own as freeware, license it to another company, etc., there's no legal claim for someone to walk along and take / distribute it.

In the least, one would need to wait until the copyright had expired without being renewed, and had fallen into the public domain. That's a LONG time if you're talking about US copyrights; in Taiwan it's a bit different, but the fact remains - none of these companies in Taiwan have ever said, "Here, take our stuff and distribute it for free."

When we released Super Fighter as freeware in 2001, it was after obtaining the rights to the game from C&E and securing their blessing for such a release. When we released Sango Fighter as freeware this year, it was after acquiring full legal ownership of the game and thus being able to do as we please with it.


Were they licensed by SEGA at all? I don't remember.

Sega wouldn't allow companies in Taiwan to become licensees. This has nothing to do with the copyrights of the games that a Taiwan company produced. Remember, several American companies started out producing unlicensed software; Electronic Arts is a good example - but EA still owns the copyright to all the games they produced, licensed or not.


And i am pretty sure Square Enix won't bother at all about some super old games pirated by some taiwanese kids who used some questionable graphic tiles...You may at least try to ask them maybe?

They may care, and they may not - but we'd never speculate on that issue.

If we were able to receive the written consent of such companies whose material was "borrowed" for use in the games by ChuanPu Technical, I don't see why we wouldn't localize and release them. It's just a matter of getting there...

At any rate, I enjoyed responding to your message, and I hope you find some of the information to be interesting.

[Knuckle Duster]

So have you approached any 'Officially Licensed' developers in Japan, or are you sticking to the whole Taiwan/China/Korea segment of the Asian market?

I think everybody is well aware that the small niche for Asian software pales in comparison to the wanting of Japanese software that wasn't localized.

Are you looking at 'porting' from different hardware platforms as well? That would be cool.

[salamando]

yeah a port of a tawainese RPG from the SNES would be amazing

[CMA Death Adder]

So have you approached any 'Officially Licensed' developers in Japan, or are you sticking to the whole Taiwan/China/Korea segment of the Asian market?

We have approached companies and independent development teams from all over the world, including Japan.

One of the main reasons the majority of our acquired / licensed titles come from Taiwan is because I was a PC gamer, growing up, and a lot of what really impressed me at the time was developed and released in Taiwan. That's where my interest to enter the game industry began: to promote and extend awareness of Taiwanese video games. It doesn't mean our reach will be limited to contracts with Taiwanese companies, but that certainly has been the primary focus since we started back in 2004.


Are you looking at 'porting' from different hardware platforms as well? That would be cool.

Yes.

When we acquired half of Panda Entertainment's back catalog earlier this year, one of the focuses in mind was to port some of their brilliant games over to other platforms. Now that's not something that will be realized overnight, due to the fact that the code is x86 assembly, but it is certainly one of our goals for the future.

Some of you already know my stance on 'ports' from previous discussions here at the forums, about how high quality I feel they need to be before being considered for release. So of course, any effort on our part to bring over a game from one platform to another will be undertaken with great care.

[Bramsworth]

yeah a port of a tawainese RPG from the SNES would be amazing

As far as I know there are absolutely no RPGs that have been made in Taiwan on the SNES. Unless you know of one? :P

[Dark Sol]

No. There's no "heavier copyrights". A copyright is a copyright.

Super Fighter Team always respects copyrights, and partners with the companies that originally produced the games we localize. We produced Beggar Prince in partnership with C&E, Inc., and we produced Legend of Wukong in partnership with Gamtec. In both instances, we dealt directly with the copyright holder and negotiated official, signed, legally binding agreements.

Just because Taiwan's legal system is very grey when dealing with the enforcing of copyrights, doesn't mean we just walk by and take the games we want to work on, even if we technically could. We respect all game companies and put quite simply - if we do our best to secure a legal agreement but are unable to do so, we don't work with the game. Plain and simple.

And Wukong didn't have any contents used from other games?



"Abandonware" is a convenient term for the piracy of legacy software. If a company doesn't give their permission to release a game that they own as freeware, license it to another company, etc., there's no legal claim for someone to walk along and take / distribute it.

In the least, one would need to wait until the copyright had expired without being renewed, and had fallen into the public domain. That's a LONG time if you're talking about US copyrights; in Taiwan it's a bit different, but the fact remains - none of these companies in Taiwan have ever said, "Here, take our stuff and distribute it for free."
Can you give some examples? I am interested to know. For example "We asked this company and they refused to distribute their stuff".
As for abandonware - this term does not have juridical weight indeed. But not all companies release official information that this or that game is now not supported and cant be distributed freely. Many of these companies just do not care at all. I can tell you for sure, that mostly very big companies that survived through 10+ years without going bankrupt actually care about there super old stuff. The rest just do not care, too small or long gone and don't even remember. And need to be just asked directly for a permission to use their old stuff.

Good stuff here to read about legal explanations of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware



Sega wouldn't allow companies in Taiwan to become licensees. This has nothing to do with the copyrights of the games that a Taiwan company produced. Remember, several American companies started out producing unlicensed software; Electronic Arts is a good example - but EA still owns the copyright to all the games they produced, licensed or not.
Aha. So none were licensed. As i thought. And i wonder what kind of copyrights can a company hold if they used illegal contents in the game? I don't think that copyrights are legit in this situation. It's like you use source from Microsoft Windows to develop some Crackdows and then sell it for money and hold some copyrights. Sounds ridiculous. Copyrights can only be legit if your software is original, developed by company from scratch or upon a LEGALLY owned sources.
Or their "copyrights" are so grey , more grey then a sky above. Anyone can steal everything from anyone and stamp (c) on it. But it's just a fluke.
Never knew that EA made unlicensed games?? Any prooflinks?



They may care, and they may not - but we'd never speculate on that issue.

If we were able to receive the written consent of such companies whose material was "borrowed" for use in the games by ChuanPu Technical, I don't see why we wouldn't localize and release them. It's just a matter of getting there...

At any rate, I enjoyed responding to your message, and I hope you find some of the information to be interesting.
Great. Thank you as always Brandon.
You know i'd always support all your work.

I have a friend who worked for Square Enix. I'd ask him for help. We'll see what i can do.

[CMA Death Adder]

And Wukong didn't have any contents used from other games?

No, it did not. While some of Gamtec's games did indeed include "borrowed" materials, Legend of Wukong wasn't one of them. And in Gamtec's case, many of their games were designed to specifically suit the needs of a client. So if the client said, "Make us a clone of Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers", for example and offered them cash to do it, they did it. That's extremely common place behavior for small software outfits in Taiwan and China. Luckily in the case of Legend of Wukong, the goal was to create a completely new and original game - in fact, the first original, Chinese language RPG for the Mega Drive.


Can you give some examples? I am interested to know. For example "We asked this company and they refused to distribute their stuff".

Super Fighter Team has indeed encountered more than one situation in which we approached a company to either acquire one of their titles, license it, or simply inquire about the possibility of a freeware release, only to be denied any of these options. It does happen. And when it does, we respect the decision. You'll understand if I cannot go into specific detail, due to the confidential nature of such business negotiations.


The rest just do not care, too small or long gone and don't even remember.

This may be so, but it comes down to a respect thing, for me. Even if a company doesn't care, I'm still going to take the time to take up the matter with them directly.


And need to be just asked directly for a permission to use their old stuff.

Yes, this is my point. Unfortunately the majority of people don't ask, they just take, which shows no respect whatsoever.


i wonder what kind of copyrights can a company hold if they used illegal contents in the game?

They can hold copyright over their game code, game design, and all elments that weren't "borrowed" from another source.


It's like you use source from Microsoft Windows to develop some Crackdows and then sell it for money and hold some copyrights.

That's a completely different matter altogether. While ChuanPu Technical "borrowed" graphical and sound resources from Square Enix games, for example, they designed and developed their own game code. They did not, for example, reverse engineer and decompile a Square Enix game and adapt it to the Mega Drive.


Never knew that EA made unlicensed games?? Any prooflinks?

I figured it was common knowledge. You'll have to ask someone else for links to the story, though, because I don't presently have the time to dig any out. Pardon that.


Great. Thank you as always Brandon.
You know i'd always support all your work.

Sure, and I appreciate it. :)
It's nice to have you asking some questions and raising some points. I always find these topics interesting to discuss.

[NeoVamp]

I wish SuperFighter team would talk to Westone and make a deal for Monster World IV,
there's not so much text in it (well compared to an RPG anyway)
but its still one of the most coveted Megadrive/Genesis games on the platform.

(yes i know about the translations and the home made cartridge, but the fact is
that i have an extreme dislike for the home made cover which managed to make the cute MW girl look like a long nosed hag with down syndrome)

So yeah, an release of Monster World IV is what i would like to see,
with full color manual and original cover art. (well except for the Japanese on it and the pepelopgieus)

[Bramsworth]

So I'm just going to put this out there: besides the obvously stolen music, is Tun Shi Tian Di 3 aka Conquering the World 3 known to have ripped graphics?

[CMA Death Adder]

is Tun Shi Tian Di 3 aka Conquering the World 3 known to have ripped graphics?

It's been a couple years since I last looked at that one, but I seem to recall it using some graphical resources lifted from Koei games.