Western Mega Drive players were lucky enough to at least see most of the Japanese quality games come to their shores, unlike SNES players who had gazillions of wanted games remain untranslated. That is probably one reason why there are over 250 translations available in English for different Super Famicom games while the Mega Drive has around 10% of that. Things are getting better though. People are starting to open their eyes to the lost treasures of Sega’s 16-bitter and now there are several translators at work since the last year.
In this day and age of The Internets and ROM-hacking, history is re-written, and thanks to some fans we can soon enjoy the Mega Drive as much as the Japanese did. With the greatness of flash carts, we can also play the games on our very own hardware, which is so much better than on computers. Tototek’s MD-Pro and Mega Cart are available for this purpose, and Krikzz has released the Ever Drive and the Mega Ever Drive. I have written reviews for the first two mentioned, and there is also a review for the Ever Drive so you might know which of them to get. If you are only out to play these translated games, the MD-Pro is your choice. But if you happen to be a Mega CD owner interested in imports, the Mega Cart is appropriate, but it can’t save in Mega Drive games. The Ever Drive can do “everything”, but is more expensive. There are more differences than that, so read the reviews.
In this feature, except for the translated games, I will also present two translation groups and the program you will need to patch the games.
NOTE: The legality of the content described in this article is strictly none. Neither ROMs, flash cards or translation patches are legal according to international law. I don’t encourage people to commit crimes, but testing is okay with me, as well as full use if the original cartridges are owned. All the games involved aren’t sold new anymore, so no profits are lost to the respective owners.
Translation groups
Eidolon Translation Group: Eidolon’s Inn is a ten year-old Sega website dedicated to emulation, hacking, modding and much more. One of its works is the supreme emulator Kega Fusion. In 1998, they formed the ETG, which is the first translation group to focus only on Mega Drive/Genesis games. The projects, like Star Cruiser and Rent A Hero, were unfortunately dropped right after they started. The RPG Surging Aura, however, got pretty far before it was also cancelled in 2000. ETG then seemed pretty dead until this year when a new page was set up, with lots of candidates for translation, as well as a new attempt for Surging Aura. The page hasn’t been updated since the 13th of January, so I am eager to see how things look (and sincerely hope this one doesn’t end up like ALL the other ETG projects).
MIJET: It often takes one programmer and one who knows Japanese to have a translation group, but MIJET is one man who handles both splendidly. In an attempt to fill the void of Mega Drive games in the translation scene, he has already done over a dozen translations since 2005. MIJET handles the tough job of replacing letters that are sprites in messy backgrounds, cleans the Engrish, fixes bugs and adds new features on the ROMs, while maintaining the Japanese language for those who still want it. Apart from his premier work on King Colossus Tougi Ou and the related Phantasy Star Text Adventures, the focus is clearly on games that aren’t RPGs. That’s a little unfortunate, since the RPGs are the games that are most essential to play translated, while platformers and such can entertain without requiring the ability to read. It is quite understandable though, since RPGs take a lot of very hard work to translate. Also, a majority of the games translated by MIJET are ultr@ r@re, so people who want to play the patches with a clear conscience may have to fetch some cash.
Super Fighter Team: This group is actually a developer and a producer of games, and also releases new games such as Zaku for the Atari Lynx. What makes Super Fighter Team unique is the fact that they buy the license from the IP owner and release the game on cartridge, including box and manual. OK, the quality isn’t that good, but it’s better than nothing. Thus far, Super Fighter Team has released three Mega Drive games, Beggar Prince and Legend of Wukong, which are of Taiwanese origin, and Star Odyssey, which is originally Japanese – all are RPGs. Except for the translation, the software also usually has some bug fixes and other things. Rumor has it that the next Mega Drive release from Super Fighter Team will be an American platformer.
Lunar IPS – Patch the ROMs
It is very uncommon that translation groups also provide the actual ROM of the game they have translated. Instead, they give you the patch with the English text and let you pick up the ROM on a page with a thousand pop-ups. It’s the same here – only links to the patches and not to the ROMs. Also, as stated earlier, this website does not support full use of ROMs without buying the actual game.
All of the games mentioned below use the IPS format for their patches, except for Sonic Eraser. It uses NINJA, which I downloaded at Romhacking Dot Net, but it didn’t work for me. I then used Google to find the game already patched on my first hit. Anyway, for all the other games I used IPSWin 2.0, which worked good in all cases except for Langrisser Hikari II. It appears that IPSWin doesn’t patch everything correctly. Therefore, I recommend Lunar IPS which is superior and worked well with the aforementioned game. Lunar IPS can be downloaded at Romhacking Dot Net. A very simple program to use. Have both the ROM and the patch unzipped. Open the program, press “Apply IPS Patch”, select your patch, then the ROM (if you can’t see it, select “All Files”) and wait until its done (usually just a second or so). Then try the newly patched file on your emulator. If it doesn’t work, try it with another ROM dump. The file must be in .bin-format (to convert .smd to .bin, check the Mega Cart feature). Files usually have a code next to the name to specify their content. For example, [!] is a good dump, [+T] has a translation patch applied to it and [EU], [US] and [JP] explain which region the dumped ROM originally belongs to.
The Translated Games
I have decided to focus only on English translations here, simply because English is the world language today that everyone should know, including jealous Frenchmen and Germans. Those translations that aren’t finished are only mentioned if the untranslated text isn’t that big of a deal when playing the game. Translations with very little done get a small brief section, and finally, there are some upcoming projects mentioned. All games in the first section work fine with MD-Pro, save function included. For the Mega Cart, most games work as well. I don’t know how well the Ever Drive works with the patched ROMs, but it should be fine too Most of the patches can be found on the translators’ respective websites, which are mentioned with every game here (if they have one). If any link is broken, here is a good link.
Advanced Daisenryaku/Advanced Military Commander
Translation status: 95% complete, the release is final.
Translator(s): Nebelwurfer HQ
Genre: Strategy
Is there a Nazi Mega Drive player out there? If so, then this is the game for you! You take on the role as the German army, fighting against the Allies to make history that would never be. Actually, many of the battles of this game happened in reality, but things like the occupation of Moscow are, of course, fiction. The game gives a history lesson in the beginning, with Hitler sampled (!) and some photos of the events that caused the outbreak of World War II. Unfortunately, some splash page graphics remain untranslated, but the game is very playable anyway. According to the translator, completing it should take between 150-200 hours. It is a hard game, but Nebelwurfer has been kind enough to make an online manual, which is also downloadable, as well as a few save states. Great work, indeed.
Bare Knuckle III
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): Anton Berglin (hacked by RedComet)
Genre: Beat-’em-up
(Updated 2-9-10): After years of work at a “snail’s pace,” the translation patch for Bare Knuckle III came out. As stated earlier, the western version was heavily changed. Clothes were palette-swapped, an obviously gay boss was removed, the difficulty altered to much harder and, perhaps most significant of all, the story rewritten to much milder. For example, an atomic bomb explosion in a city is removed. There is a complete list of differences by the translator on this site.Although not required at all to play the game, the translation is still very interesting.
Battle Mania Daiginjou
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): MIJET
Genre: Shoot-‘Em-Up
The prequel was released in USA as Trouble Shooter, but Battle Mania Daiginjou was destined to become a ultr@ r@re Japan-only game. There are actually two translations made for this game. One that stays true to the original script, and one that serves as a sequel to the western release of the prequel, which had some name changes, etc. By holding start and another button when turning on the game, the version will be determined. Also, you may choose from three different fonts and combine them with both translations. And as usual with MIJET’s work, the Japanese language is still there, with bugfixing and other things. MIJET always aims for perfection and reaches it without doubt. The game itself is a special shooter where the view brings my thoughts to a flying run-‘n-gun. While it is easy to play, the story and conversations are a big part of the game, so it fitted well for a translation.
Beggar Prince
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): Super Fighter Team
Genre: RPG
Originally known as Xin Qigai Wangzi (The New Prince and the Pauper). I thought I should mention the Super Fighter Team games because while they aren’t really fan translations, at least they are English post market versions, which counts to be included here. If you somehow have missed it, Beggar Prince is a 32 MEGA POWER RPG originally produced by Taiwanese C&E Soft in 1996 and debugged and translated by American Super Fighter Team ten years later. The whole package, like for all of their games, was brand new, including box, full colour manual and a cartridge with a CR2032 battery. Beggar Prince has sold out and as it stands now, no new run is planned at the moment. If you don’t have it and like RPGs, head over to eBay or some other place and cough up the cash needed, because except from the bugs that plague the game and some tiring battles, it is very fun.
Battle Barver Saga: Legend of the Magic Warrior
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): SteveMartin (hacked by Jinny)
Genre: RPG
Originally known as Barver Battle Saga: Tài K?ng Zhàn Shì (The Space Soldier) and as Final Fantasy through its unofficial Russian version. This RPG is unlicensed and produced by ChuanPu, a Taiwanese company. The graphics are said to be among the best on the system, and I really agree. The palette is excellent, with shining and bright colours. It is also well animated, especially in the battles, which are turn-based. So what’s the catch? Most of the game’s content is ripped from other games, most notably those of Square. The sound engine, and some music, is taken from Havoc. At least the story seems to be original (and well written), although very generic and inspired by Final Fantasy VI. It is definitely worth a play if you enjoy RPGs on the system.
Dynamite Headdy
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): MIJET
Genre: Platformer
The western translators originally did a quick job with Dynamite Headdy – they removed almost all in-game text. Instead, they put their effort in making the game harder, changing names, the graphics of some bosses and the endings. In the re-translated version by MIJET, you will be psyched out by the bosses but still have an easier time to defeat them, as the patch only works with a Japanese ROM dump. The story suites fine with the wacky humour of the game and the lighter difficulty will probably just please most people, since the western release could be really frustrating at times. The changed graphical content is somewhat a mysterious case since it isn’t blood, religious symbols, or human stereotypes like there were with many censored games of the era.
Gleylancer
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): MIJET
Genre: Shoot-‘Em-Up
A very popular and rare side-scrolling shmup in the same vein as the Gradius series. What makes it great are the supreme manga-almost-anime cutscenes, the deep parallax scrolling, the beautiful synthrock music, cool voice samples and perhaps most of all, manual options shooting. The story involves a little girl called Lucia, whose father becomes kidnapped as the Earth Federation is being attacked by a mysterious alien force. Between some levels, the story is told further, with two different endings depending on how you play. This is clearly a gem to translate, but MIJET did something extra as well. The introduction music composition was originally played to express what was happening and how the characters felt during one long track. With English text taking more space and leaving the story behind its proper musical part, MIJET spent three whole days to remix the music so it fits as it should. Seldom can I describe such dedication and greatness.
King Colossus Tougi Ou
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): MIJET
Genre: Action-RPG
King Colossus Tougi Ou is an action-RPG, in the same vein as Light Crusader and Beyond Oasis. It has a very well-told story, nice gameplay, and a dark atmosphere. MIJET has done a top notch job with this one. As usual the Japanese text is still on the ROM, which was the first from MIJET that I tried. I had some big problems with this, since my PAL Mega Drive is modded and was accidentally in JPN mode during testing. So I wondered “Why the hell is the game in English on Kega Fusion and in Japanese on the Mega Drive?” If you are Japanese and want to play the game without bugs, then here’s your chance. When naming your character, you can now use lower-case letters and up to eight instead of the original four. I strongly recommend this game, and its translation is my favourite for now. It is very cheap, so there is no reason to leave out this lost gem of Sega.
Langrisser Hikari II, the sequel to Warsong
Translation status: Complete.
Translator(s): Hiryuu Honyaku, NoPrgress,
Genre: Strategy/RPG
YES! Another RPG! In fact, Langrisser is a strategy/RPG series not too far from Shining Force . Masaya, of Wings of Wor fame, created it and the great Noriyuki Iwadare composed the music. The first part was renamed Warsong when ported to the U.S., and because too few were smart enough to buy it, it was destined to become the only part to leave Japan. That’s why the sequel had its translation begun by a Japanese guy, followed by someone missing an “O,” and finished by MIJET. Anyway, I suggest you check this one out, but only after playing through the prequel, since the story is tied between the games, like the Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy X series. Just remember to use the Revision 01 ROM, as the other don’t work with the patch.
Legend of Wukong
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): Super Fighter Team
Genre: RPG
(Update 2-9-10): After enjoying Beggar Prince, I was eagerly awaiting the next Chinese RPG release to follow it. Sadly, Legend of Wukong didn’t meet my expectations. The second Mega Drive release by Super Fighter Team was a huge disappointment for me. Most of the graphics look 8-bit and are extremely repetitive, some dungeons are used twice in the game, the enemies have only one attack spell in the entire adventure, and the story goes on and on about evil demons making living a pain in the ass for the poor humans. Truth be told, I’d only recommend this one for a diehard collector or RPG fan with too much money on his hands.
Monster World IV
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): DeJap and Demiforce, Shion
Genre: Action/RPG
This is the final game of the franchise, and strangely enough it was not released in the west as all other parts were. You play as a girl named Arsha who has a pet called Peperoguu. There is more of an emphasis on platforming and less RPG elements than before, and some very, very beautiful graphics. The game uses an EEPROM battery instead of the usual S-RAM, so it really amazed me when the saving actually worked with the MD-Pro. Monster World IV was the first fully fan-translated Mega Drive game in 2001, making it a pioneer.
A guy called Shion released an enhancement to the old patch by DeJap and Demiforce in May 2008. The update adds previously missing text, corrects spelling and grammar errors and fixes bugs, among other things. I have played through both patches and can without doubt say I enjoyed the game more with the new patch.
Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): Eien Ni Hen, KingMike’s Translations
Genre: Adventure
Originally known as Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (which means “Nadia of the Mysterious Seas”) and loosely based on the anime of the same name, this game is an adventure with puzzle-solving, character interaction and item-using. It may look like a typical RPG, but it certainly isn’t one, as there is zero battles and character development. But the game is fun to play anyway, although on the easy side. My friend who has read Japanese for a few years compared the translation with the original script and found the translation to be missing out on a few jokes and the translation isn’t quite exact. I don’t know if this is because of a character limit the hacking causes, or because of a lacking translation, but at least it gets the job done. It is well worth a play through, but if you want to give the experience a boost, I suggest you watch the anime first, like I did. Thanks to agostinhobaroners on the forum for that recommendation.
Phantasy Star II
Re-Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): Naflign’s Ego
Genre: RPG
Hardcore fans of the franchise have always complained about the poor translations, so some of them thought they should fix it by themselves. There are minor things that are a tad different pretty much everywhere in this re-translation of Phantasy Star II. For example fellow musician Ustvestia has now, after over ten years in the closet, finally come out to the western audience. The patch is based on the western ROM, so things of less important value, like shop chatting (Later, ace!), remain untouched. It is kind of a let down, since it then won’t work with the Japanese ROM, and we are once again neglected the superior drums and sound effects of that version. Another thing that bothered me were the many spelling errors that plagued the new script. Apart from that, it is nice to find out how the game actually should be, without dirty localization fingers ruining the sweet taste of the game.
Phantasy Star II Text Adventures
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): MIJET
Genre: Text Adventure
In 1991, Sega started the short-lived Meganet network service in Japan. It made it possible to go online and play some exclusive games. Among them were eight text adventures based on each playable Phantasy Star II character. If you want toget an idea on how they are, take the gameplay of Snatcher and remove almost all graphics to let text describe the whole game, and you have it in a nutshell. Doesn’t sound entertaining, huh? Well, it isn’t, but at least the translation serves a purpose for those who are great fans of the series and would like to see what the western players missed.
Amia’s Adventure
Strangely enough, Amia was renamed Anna and Anne was renamed Amy in English Phantasy Star II. This adventure about Amia is when she is out to get a hacker, known as Hack, who is out to hack Mother Brain.
Anne’s Adventure
Anne was renamed Amy in the western version of Phantasy Star II. She is a doctor from a middle-class family. One day at work she hears about young pupils being attacked by biomonsters in “Wood Town” (I never saw that place in PSII). As she is commanded to go help them, the player takes control of her. Later on, the plot reveals why she decides to join Rolf in Paseo.
Eusis’s Adventure
Eusis, known as Rolf to us Westerners, is a kid living at an orphanage. There, he starts practicing with the sword and becomes the best of all. This goes to his head and makes him very arrogant. He meets O’Conner, the governor-general of Paseo, who will teach him a lesson of life. This will tell the story on how Eusis became an agent.
Huey’s Adventure
Huey was christened Hugh when going overseas. MIJET describes this game as the funniest in the series, mentioning “no peeking” signs in women’s shower rooms. I agree, that is some fun stuff and I wonder if the writer knew he was working on a text adventure. The story has Huey, being a bright biologist, ordered by the president to do an investigation on a creature that may have entered the Motavian University, before any accident may happen. In Sweden, we have the police for that.
Kinds’ Adventure
Kinds was called Kain in the original game. He had tried some mechanic repair jobs, but they all failed due to his clumsiness. This game tells a story of how he got one of those jobs and how he later became a wrecker. A connection to his entry in the cartridge game is also mentioned.
Nei’s Adventure
Nei has a pretty dark story to tell, much like in the main game. Her foster parents were killed by a mob and she has a crazy scientist after her. The same man who should be counted as her father. What do you say, friends are the family you pick yourself…
Rudger’s Adventure
Rudger, or Rudo as we know him, also has a dark story to tell. While stationed in the military, his wife and son was killed by a mole (!?). And his mission is to get revenge on it. Maybe he will molest it, uhuhuh!
Shilka’s Adventure
Shilka had the name Shir in English Phantasy Star II. She comes from a rich family and misses nothing in life – except thrill. So she starts stealing things, something which later shows to be very useful in the main game. The plot in her own adventure focuses on her attempt to get a painting called “Opa-Opa” from an hotel exhibit.
Pulseman
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): MIJET
Genre: Platformer
Pulseman is quite an obscure platformer with some awesome graphics and sound that debuted near the end of the Genesis’ life span. This makes it rather unique on the Mega Drive. Developed by the creators of Pokémon, Game Freak, it shows the naysayers what the system can do. While the story is close to Mega Man, the gameplay reminds me a little of Sonic, Sparkster and even Alien Soldier. There is not much text at all in this game, and the story won’t dethrone Shakespeare, but being able to read what is said means a lot anyway. I really recommend this platformer based on its gameplay merits alone, pick it up before choosing among all common titles as this one is becoming even more expensive and rare!
Sonic Eraser
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): D
Genre: Puzzle
Another game that was exclusive to the Meganet network. It is a puzzle game similar to Columns and Puyo Puyo. Blocks of different shapes fall down four and four. Have two similar next to each other and they disappear. Make it happen several times in a combo and you (Sonic) attack your opponent (also Sonic), which freezes or weakens his ability to move the blocks one or a few turns. The game ends when a certain column is filled. There are several levels and other play modes, including competition for two. One can probably figure out this untranslated without too much thought, so the English patch serves no greater meaning. The audiovisual presentation is rather bad, and I would highly prefer the yet untranslated Puyo Puyo Tsu over this one, which feels like a quick filler for those with the Meganet back then.
Star Odyssey
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): Super Fighter Team
Genre: RPG
Originally known as “Blue Almanac”. The latest hack from Super Fighter Team is their first game of Japanese origin, and quite a good one at that. It was originally planned to be released in USA back in the day, but fate had other plans until some guy found an old prototype of the translated beta. Super Fighter Team contacted the owners of it and got a license to release the game in English. So how is it? It’s a typical sci-fi RPG, not too unsimilar to Phantasy Star II. It’s got some nice atmosphere and the story telling does its job well enough. What brings the game down is the INSANE encounter rate of battles. Man, couldn’t Super Fighter Team have fixed that? Like half the battles, twice the EXP? Or just anything, it’s not like a perfect difficulty curve would have been ruined, really. Well, at least the game is better than Wukong and well worth a play through.
Twinkle Tale
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): MIJET
Genre: Shoot-‘Em-Up
Twinkle Tale is probably one of the first shooters where you aren’t a male pilot in space against the infinite army of a galactic empire trying to take over the universe. Instead, you are a witch in a fantasy land, where jewels with magic powers are about to be possessed by a black wizard. You must stop him – or else. The story is nicely told with conversations here and there during the levels. That’s better than most shooters, where the story is the above-mentioned scenario written in a few lines in the manual followed by a Big Bang and a “Congratulations!” in the end. Not only do the RPG-ish story and style make Twinkle Tale get away from the pack, but the gameplay does as well. It is more like a top-down run-‘n-gun where the shooting direction follows your moves. It appears MIJET has chosen the right shoot-’em-up to translate. Except for the great translation, he has also unlocked the “S. Hard” difficulty setting so you don’t need to beat the game to use it.
Yu Yu Hakusho Makyoutohissen
Translation status: Complete
Translator(s): MIJET
Genre: Fighter
This game is based on a manga of the same name. It was also released in Brazil, but the translation is based on the Japanese version. To make sure the translation was accurate, MIJET got help from a manga translator and Yu Yu Hakusho fan. The game is a fighter were you can jump between planes like in the Fatal Fury series, charge an energy bar like in Dragon Ball and fight a whopping four at a time like in… in… no other game from the era I know of. Since Treasure made this game, and it wasn’t released in the USA or Europe, it is on very high demand. But is it that good? Hard to tell. If you like the manga, you will probably like it.
We continue our comprehensive look at the different Mega Drive fan translation efforts taking place around the world!
Left Out
Dragon Ball Bu Yu Retsuden
Translation status: 95% according to Romhacking Dot Net, but there is too much French left for that number and this genre.
Translator(s): Dragon Ball Z Game Translations
Genre: Fighter
Dragon Ball is a great manga and anime by the mastermind Akira Toriyama. Unfortunately, the people who got the license to make games of it, are not exactly at his level of cultural intellect. Whoever they were (I don’t want to know), decided to have double life bars in Dragon Ball Bu Yu Retsuden that take forever to empty. You can also run/fly away great distances from your opponent, which makes no sense at all since this is a fighting game. The game was ported to the land of wine and lost wars, so the translation is based on that version. It is far from complete, but I think only a hardcore fan of the series would care anyway for this mediocre fighter. The patched game doesn’t work on hardware and only on emulators with the “Auto-Fixed Checksum” option on. Considering the last update was over six years ago, the project is dead if you ask me.
Panzer Commander
Translation status: 20%, which is battle texts and menu, no story etc.
Translator(s): Gaijin Productions
Genre: Strategy
Another strategy game where you take on the role as the commander of the German army in World War II. There isn’t much in English, but the numbers “1939 09 01” lead me to believe that I am invading Poland. What will I do next; fight on two fronts and leave 110,000 soldiers to become captured in Stalingrad? The current patch gives the game the definition of “playable” by the translators, but since there is no manual available, like for Advanced Military Commander, it is hard to get started. It would have been great if the translation was complete, since the full out experience could be very good with the nice soundtrack and a proper story telling. We will probably not see it though, because the last update was in 1999.
Upcoming
Rent A Hero
Translation status: Almost completed
Translator(s): Paul Jensen
Genre: RPG/Fighter
Made by the same team behind Sword of Vermilion, including the legendary Yu Suzuki as producer, Rent A Hero offers a different take on the RPG genre. First off, it takes place in modern age Japan and makes tributes to both superhero comics and Sega games. Second, the battle system is in one-on-one fighting style, like Virtua Fighter. It should bring some interest to both people who are skeptical of the typical RPGs and those who enjoy it. An older patch with a translation of the beginning of the game is available for those interested.
Shadowrun (Mega-CD)
Translation status: Unknown
Translator(s): iwakura productions
Genre: Adventure/Strategy-RPG
This game is completely different from the Genesis and SNES versions of the game. It’s an adventure game like Snatcher with battles of strategy-RPG style like Shining Force. It is also the last official Mega-CD release ever. If this patch gets completed, it will be the first Mega-CD fan translation EVER (if you discount the Phantasy Star II text adventure games, which you should do).
Sorcerian
Translation status: Unknown
Translator(s): Stephen Seehorn
Genre: Action-RPG
There are a couple of patches made for this game already, but neither is complete; only the menus are done. When this patch is complete, everything will be translated. The only question is when it will happen, as it has stood still for quite some time.
Surging Aura
Translation status: Unknown (French version completed)
Translator(s): Twilight Translations
Genre: RPG
This is it, the most wanted fan translation of all Mega Drive games. It has been tried upon before, but all efforts have failed. But – about two years ago, a French translation was completed. So, an English patch should also be possible, right? That’s what RedComet of Twilight Translations thought, and started working on one. However, the guy has a private life and is known to let his translation patches to take time. So, don’t hold your breath just yet. Please wait and hold your fingers crossed.
Then there are some other projects, but they haven’t been worked on for years, and their translation status is minimal, so I won’t even mention them. Steve Martin, translator of Brave Battle Saga, has expressed liking to translating other Taiwanese RPGs. The next project will probably be Yà Sè Chuán Shuō, another very pretty game with ripped graphics. Let’s hope for the best.
Do YOU hack games and need a translator?
Good. Contact me (Zebbe) on the forum and I’ll hook you up with my friend, who is studying Japanese. Don’t worry, his girlfriend will quality check the translated material.
Final notes
I hope you found some interest in these generally obscure titles, or maybe you have some of them and want to play them again in English. I am without doubt very thankful and happy to see so many titles being readable for me. My wish is to see many RPGs translated in the future, as well as the Puzzle and Action titles, and a great family game for up to four players. With the interest growing in recent years, I am sure it will be true!
Special thanks: To all the translators out there for their great work! Additional thanks goes to the creator of Lunar IPS to help patch our games and to the Romhacking Dot Net crew for helping the translation scene to be organized!
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