The Shiro! Show streamed the latest beta build of the game and had me and my lead translator join them! Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru81s-Dtxbg&t=3267s
Moderators: pcwzrd13, deluxux, VasiliyRS
Sakura Wars: Columns 2 (Hanagumi Taisen Columns 2)
English Translation v1.0
Sega Dreamcast
Project Page:
https://github.com/DerekPascarella/SakuraWarsColumns2-EnglishPatchDreamcast
.------------------::[ Credits ]::------------------
|
| LEAD DEVELOPER / PROJECT LEAD:
| Derek Pascarella (ateam)
|
| TRANSLATION COORDINATOR:
| Chanh Nguyen (Burntends)
|
| LEAD TRANSLATORS:
| Chanh Nguyen Natsume38
| Danthrax4
|
| MAIN TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE:
| HaydenKow esperknight
| VincentNL nanashi
|
| MISCELLANEOUS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE:
| SnowyAria NoahSteam
| TurnipTheBeet YZB
|
| MISCELLANEOUS TRANSLATION ASSISTANCE:
| cj_iwakura Ozaline
| SnowyAria Matatabi Mitsu
| ItsumoKnight Samantha Ferreira
| LettuceKitteh JoblessFloppy
|
| GRAPHICS:
| Derek Pascarella (ateam)
|
| MISCELLANEOUS GRAPHICS ASSISTANCE:
| GriffithVIII Patrick Traynor
| AnimatedAF Small Nerd
| Einahpets
|
`---------------------------------------------------
.-----------::[ Patching Instructions ]::-----------
|
| TOSEC GDI SOURCE:
| Hanagumi Taisen Columns 2 v1.000 (1999)(Sega)(JP)[!].zip
|
| Note that due to the way my custom patching utility works, checksums are not a
| necessary form of patch validation. Instead, this utility will always work with
| any TOSEC-style GDI containing a .GDI file along with two .BINs and a .RAW file.
|
| 1) Open the "Sakura Wars - Columns 2 (Engish Translation Patcher Utility).exe"
| program.
|
| 2) Click "Select GDI" and then select the TOSEC-style source GDI to be patched.
| Note that the original GDI will not be modified during the patching process.
|
| 3) Click "Apply Patch", which will create a copy of the original GDI and then
| apply the patch to it.
|
| 4) Once the process has completed, the newly patched GDI will be in the
| "patched_gdi" folder and ready for use.
|
`---------------------------------------------------
.------------::[ v1.0 Release Notes ]::-------------
|
| It is with extreme pride and excitement that I present to you the v1.0
| release of our English translation patch for "Sakura Wars: Columns 2" (known
| in Japanese as "Hanagumi Taisen Columns 2") for the Sega Dreamcast! This
| patch comes to you all, the wonderful members of the Dreamcast community, as
| 100% complete. Aside from hiring new voice actors to re-record the original
| Japanese, and aside from the online battle section (which I'll be happy to
| translate if the protocol is ever reverse-engineered), no stone was left
| unturned. Everything from start to finish is fully translated and localized.
| On top of that, the original website, the original DLC, and even a fully
| complete/unlocked save, are all accessible from directly within the game itself
| (read on for more details).
|
| For those unaware, this is an extremely in-depth and full-featured puzzle
| game based on the world of "Sakura Wars." Not only does it feature a myriad
| of unlockable content and extra bonus material, but also includes a full
| "Story" mode for all 12 playable characters. For those like me who love good
| puzzle games, "Sakura Wars: Columns 2" not only delivers in the department of
| fun gameplay, but also keeps on giving back to the player with a multitude of
| different ways to enjoy the game.
|
| Unlike most Japanese-exclusive titles, "Sakura Wars: Columns 2" is unique in
| that, without this patch, each and every piece of text, whether it be rendered
| during a dialog scene or as part of an image, is in Japanese. The one and
| only English phrase that previously existed was "PRESS START BUTTON" on the
| title screen. For what must be the most text heavy puzzle game of all time,
| this is saying quite a lot about the level of effort involved in making this
| translation patch a reality. My goal from the start was to produce something
| that felt as close to an official, fully localized English Dreamcast game as
| possible. If you ask me, we achieved that.
|
| Given that literally everything you see in English is the result of this patch,
| it may be a bit tough to thoroughly list each aspect of the game that's been
| modified and translated. However, I thought I'd at least try:
|
| -> All VMU icons have been translated from Japanese to English, including the
| main logo.
| -> Save games will be stored on the VMU with English labels and descriptions,
| which are visible from the Dreamcast's VMU manager. Note that this is
| also true of the bundled DLC.
| -> The main logo appearing on the title screen has been redone in English.
| -> All menus have been translated from Japanese to English, including the VMU
| save manager, the main menus, the options menu, and the in-game menus.
| -> The built-in web browser has been (partially) translated from Japanese to
| English and now points to a custom English landing page that contains links
| to the DLC and a fully complete/unlocked save.
| -> The "Extras" section content has been fully translated from Japanese to
| English.
| -> All "Story" mode scripts have been fully translated from Japanese to
| English, including LIPS responses and title screens.
| -> The introduction text for "Shonen Red" and "Director!" modes has been
| translated from Japanese to English.
| -> Whenever spoken Japanese dialog occurs, the image displayed will contain
| subtitles or manga-style speech bubbles in English.
| -> All character profile images have had their English names added.
| -> All images containing Japanese text that appear in the ending sequences
| for "Shonen Red" and "Director!" modes have been translated into English.
| -> All rank-up messages and puzzle description text has been translated from
| Japanese to English in both "Puzzle Variety" modes ("Puzzle Challenges"
| and "Load Puzzle From VMU" options).
| -> All combat-style icons (e.g. Fire, Shadow, Thunder, Wind, etc.) have been
| translated from Japanese to English with brand new icons created just for
| this patch.
| -> All text and images containing Japanese has been translated to English for
| everything seen during puzzle matches, such as character status messages,
| challenge messages, attack options, HUD labels, and more.
| -> The ending credits seen after beating "Story" mode with a character have
| been translated from Japanese to English and also now include the names and
| roles of the translation patch team.
| -> Even though its half-width and not variable-width, the Latin character font
| sheet has been cleaned up for better aesthetics, including the addition of
| the accented "è" used when Iris calls Ogami "Mon Frère," and the accented
| "ó" used when Kayama says "Adiós."
| -> The trailer FMV shown in attract mode has been subtitled in English.
| -> VGA mode has been enabled, which mainly helps those who will be playing this
| patched game via CDI (i.e. burned disc), as all ODE solutions already have
| on-the-fly VGA patching.
|
| As is plain to see, this was quite an extensive undertaking. It's also highly
| likely that I accidentally left something off that list, which is why it may
| just be better to say "Everything was translated!"
|
| Speaking of extensive undertakings; compared to the previous two Dreamcast
| patches I did ("Neon Genesis Evangelion: Typing Project E" and "Taxi 2"), this
| was much more of a group effort, so much so that I have difficulty in even using
| the words "my patch" when describing it. Because of the varied contributions of
| the core group, as well as many others, this release is as polished, complete,
| and awesome as it deserves to be.
|
| Other than the technical contributors listed later in these notes, the core
| group that helped make this translation patch possible are as follows:
|
| -> Chanh Nguyen (Burntends) served as the project's Translation Coordinator,
| as well as one of the Lead Translators. He was eager to start helping
| with this project and was the very first person to volunteer. Not only
| was he integral in assembling a translation team, but also in his
| knowledge of "Sakura Wars" lore so that the patch would have the proper
| tone and feeling. He also served as Editor, making certain that grammar
| and spelling was accurate, while also giving the final sign-off for the
| various drafts that the script went through to ensure a consistent level
| of quality. You can find him on Twitter as @burntends2.
|
| -> Nastume38 had the role of a Lead Translator. She has the strongest
| Japanese language skills out of the group and thus was an essential piece
| of the puzzle. She worked diligently to translate hundreds upon hundreds
| of lines of text, match them up with recorded game footage, map out the
| LIPS responses, and offer up many fantastic takes on localizing Japanese
| humor and expressions. You can find her on Twitter as @blaster_mania.
|
| -> Danthrax4 assisted the project in the capacity of a Lead Translator. He
| caught my attention after his work with nanashi on the "Cotton 2: Magical
| Night Dreams" English translation patch for the Sega Saturn. While he
| joined our project in its latter third or so, he came to us with a
| fantastic background as an editor in the newspaper industry. His
| suggestions and decisions surrounding both style and form of our English
| text went a long way to give the game the almost-official feeling that I
| was aiming for. He is also responsible for the awesome custom logo you
| see on your VMU while playing this game! You can find him on Twitter as
| @Danbo_4.
|
| Others who aided translation in various ways, whether it be by identifying
| Kanji characters, or by helping to properly translate/localize various
| aspects of "Sakura Wars" lore, and everything in between, are cj_iwakura,
| Ozaline, SnowyAria, Matabi Mitsu, ItsumoKnight, Samantha Ferreira,
| LettuceKitteh, and JoblessFloppy.
|
| From a technical perspective, this game presented many challenges. Being the
| Project Lead and Lead Developer meant that I was solely responsible for
| making sure that all translated text and images successfully made their way
| back into the game to replace the original Japanese equivalents. However,
| such a large portion of my work would not have been possible without the
| fantastic efforts of other programmers and ROM hackers.
|
| Not only were there esoteric file formats to reverse-engineer (e.g. binary
| containers holding important assets), but also a form of file compression
| that kept some of the most important game data locked away and inaccessible
| without some very hacky workarounds I developed. The format of the Japanese
| text used in "Story" mode was even a hurdle to overcome! However, there is
| no mountain too high that hard work and perseverance cannot scale it.
|
| For their technical contributions, I would like to thank the following
| individuals:
|
| -> HaydenKow for the tool he wrote to combine a PVR and PVP combination and
| convert them into a properly indexed PNG, which allowed me to modify such
| images and then convert them back to a PVR/PVP combo. with the color
| palette in-tact.
|
| -> esperknight for not only helping me determine the formatting of the binary
| container files used in this game, but also for taking time to write a
| custom tool to extract/rebuild them in a much simpler way than I was
| previously doing it.
|
| -> nanashi for reverse-engineering the compression algorithm used for many
| key assets and then also writing a tool to perform the decompression of
| said files. He also later identified the compression algorithm, which we
| previously thought was something proprietary created by the game
| developers.
|
| -> VinecntNL for his tips on dumping raw PVR textures using FlyCast, which
| helped me develop the method I used to obtain original images for my early
| "trial and error" method of replacing compressed images with my own
| modified and uncompressed ones.
|
| Additionally, I'd like to thank SnowyAria, TurnipTheBeet, NoahSteam, and
| YZB for their miscellaneous tips and tricks along the way.
|
| Other categories where assistance was so graciously given to our project
| include graphics/video and testing. While I personally did the majority of the
| graphics myself, I want to thank the following individuals for their
| invaluable contributions:
|
| -> GriffithVIII for his beautiful, stylized text used before and after a
| match starts, such as "SHONEN RED SCRAMBLE!", "NEW RECORD!", and
| "GAME OVER."
|
| -> Einahpets and Small Nerd for the custom English logo seen not only on the
| game's title screen, but also on the disc art PVR that users of
| GDEMU+GDMenu will see. They also created the custom cover art that is
| included with this release.
|
| -> AnimatedAF for doing the awesome, manga-style speech bubbles for the
| images seen in the ending sequences for "Shonen Red" and "Director!"
| modes, as well as the background image with the repeating logo used for
| the "LOADING" screen.
|
| -> Patrick "TraynoCo" Traynor for subtitling the trailer FMV that plays
| during attract mode.
|
| For game testing, both myself and Chanh Nguyen (Burntends) did the majority of
| the playthroughs, but I still want to acknowledge the early assistance from two
| well-known "Columns" experts: Trevgauntlet Neu and RoyTheDragon.
|
| In terms of "known issues" or current limitations with this v1.0 release of
| our English translation patch, presently there is only one. Similarly to the
| initial release of "Sakura Wars" for the Sega Saturn, the lip movement for
| on-screen characters in "Story" mode is currently nonfunctional. While I did
| develop a method for restoring lip movements, it ended up only being a partial
| solution and fell short in several cases where limited space is available in
| memory for storing English text.
|
| On this topic, I actually spoke several times with NoahSteam, the lead developer
| on the "Sakura Wars" Sega Saturn project, regarding the method he used for their
| team's upcoming patch update, which, among other things, restores lip movement.
| Unfortunately, "Sakura Wars: Columns 2" does not follow the same format as the
| earlier Saturn game. Still, his method employs essentially the same concept as
| the one I devised. I'm happy to know that he was able to implement this
| improvement in his patch. Perhaps one day in the future I will revisit this
| topic and develop a method that suites this game, as well.
|
| The last important tidbit to know about this release is that I included with
| it a cached version of the original website, the three original DLC puzzles,
| and a fully complete/unlocked save, all of which are accessible from directly
| within the game. The original website is actually still archived and hosted
| on the official "Sakura Wars" website, so deciding to include it was a
| no-brainer for me. Similarly, it makes perfect sense why I would want to
| include the original DLC, too (thank you to DreamcastLive.net for continuing
| to host Dreamcast DLC). However, some may wonder why I'd want to include a
| complete game save, rather than force players to grind away and hone their
| skills in order to enjoy the plethora of amazing unlockable content. Well,
| firstly, I'm not that sinister, and secondly, I wanted players to be able to
| experience and enjoy all of the incredible things that "Sakura Wars: Columns
| 2" has to offer. Perhaps my motives are slightly selfish, but it felt wrong
| to work so hard on this game only to have players see and experience half of
| it.
|
| To access this VMU content, go to the "ONLINE" entry on the main menu and
| then select "WEBSITE AND DLC." From there, the Japanese DreamPassport web
| browser will launch, which I partially translated in order to make navigating
| this section easier. Once the browser launches, select the "Exit" button at
| the top-left of the screen. You'll then be presented with a custom landing
| page I created which includes links to all three DLC puzzles, a fully
| complete/unlocked save, and a cached version of the original Japanese
| website. To copy the DLC or the save to your VMU, simply click on the
| respective link with the "A" button and then select the VMU onto which the
| file should be written.
|
| Once you've downloaded all of the desired files to your VMU, you can exit the
| browser by pressing the "L" button and then selecting the last option on the
| bottom of the menu that appears. If you view these save files in the
| Dreamcast's home screen menu, you'll notice that all of their names and labels
| appear in English, too!
|
| In summary, if you've made it this far in the release notes, let me end by
| thanking you on behalf of the entire team. The Dreamcast itself has given me
| many, many years of joy, and the incredible community that has continued to
| live on remains a huge part of my life today. I gave over 200 hours of my
| time to complete this translation patch and truthfully, I would do it all
| again. Giving back to the community is a pleasure and privilege. I may never
| be able to accurately distill down and put into words what Sega's swansong
| console means to me, but something tells me that if you've downloaded this
| patch, you just might already know how I feel.
|
| Keep Dreaming, my friends...
|
| PS: All custom tools developed by me and other technical contributors for this
| patch are available with permission in this project's GitHub repository.
|
`---------------------------------------------------
.-----------------::[ Changelog ]::-----------------
|
| -> 2021-05-03 (v1.0)
| -Initial release.
|
`---------------------------------------------------
Find me on...
-> SegaXtreme: https://segaxtreme.net/members/ubik.21655/
-> Dreamcast-Talk: https://www.dreamcast-talk.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=5766
-> GitHub: https://github.com/DerekPascarella
-> Twitter: https://twitter.com/DerekPascarella
-> Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/ate4m/
-> YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLLjIeHSQbBLEooQ83SrdfQ
dubcity wrote:Congratulations to everyone involved with this translation. Thank you for bringing this to the community.
Can I make a suggestion? Please change title of thread to finished and update first post.
Again thank you all. I can't wait to play this later today after work.
AlanH wrote:What good is having the pre-patched CDI when the instructions only say how to patch the GDI? Can someone please post a patched CDI?
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