Other news on Echo Night 2
Posted by Gemini on April 7th, 2009
This is a true update on the translation for Echo Night 2; no more April fool’s bullshit. :p
First of all, I’ll explain what I was trying to say in the old babelfish’d post. This translation represents one of the three hidden projects I was talking about on the old Innocent Sin blog. Tom is again the loyal translator responsible for the script, editing, and everything else concerning text. He has already translated the whole dialogue, plus bits of other strings from character profiles, options, and other misc text.
I’d say the script translation is currently 90% complete, where the missing 10% is represented by menu text embedded directly inside the main code (ergo, takes very long to alter the bitch), and the book files.
As for the hacking, I’ve done the big stuff already (vwf, implemented compression, usual stuff), but as I’ve already said, menu strings are embedded directly inside the code segment, and that’s gonna take me a while. The biggest problem is probably with the way the locations are now stored. The game likes to use fixed length strings a lot. Initially I replaced them in the character profile pages with variable strings, only to find out later that they are used in several other menus. For some reason I was sure the locations showing on the header of the main menu were taken directly from the current room you’re in, but I was SO wrong. >_> To quantify the status of the hacking progress, I would probably say 60%, but I’m not yet sure how deep the nest of the rabbit is.
Other than that, I haven’t done anything about graphics yet, so everything is still in Engrish/Japanese for the most, even tho I know the format used in this game (nothing incredibly hard to figure out). This will be probably worked out when all the issues with text are obliterated to hell.
If you’re asking what the other two secret projects are… Well, I’m not telling you yet. :p They will be announced when it’s time. But before you ask this, I can tell you the retranslation of Symphony of the Night is not one of the big missing two, simply because it’s a retranslation and it never was a secret anyway. xD
The true teaser for Echo Night 2. Enjoy!
PS: If you are Italian and you like Dragonball, here you can find my soft-subs for Dragonball Kai, released just yesterday. Enjoy, again!
April 7th, 2009 at 14:53
Dragonball Kai? OMG! O_o
April 7th, 2009 at 23:00
I can’t wait to play this. Go, go! :D
April 8th, 2009 at 03:25
This looks freak’in awesome! I just completed a replay of the first Echo Night and I even bought a copy of the second in anticipation for this!
Didn’t know you were a Dragonball fan by the way. That’s pretty cool. ^_^
April 8th, 2009 at 03:51
There are some glitches here, and the dialogue is only a first-draft. Once I get a chance to play through it, I’ll smooth it out to be absolutely perfect.
Glad you’re excited about it, SlyStrife!
April 11th, 2009 at 10:43
Looking like good stuff indeed. I also played through the first game. I know there is another ps2 version of the series as well.
If we cannot get a name for your two secret projects, may we at least here what genre they are? Are they for the psx? Do they contain the word “tensei” in their titles?
April 11th, 2009 at 15:48
I’ve heard they’re on Commodore 64 and contain the word “dick” in their titles. You don’t belive it? Just wait and see!
April 12th, 2009 at 10:12
That cannot be right, Dick Tracy has already been translated; I don’t think it has a sequel?
April 12th, 2009 at 14:18
They are both J-RPGs, and they are for the Psx. As for the title, there’s no “shin”, “megami”, or “tensei” in any of them.
April 12th, 2009 at 15:01
Here are four guesses, I do not expect to be told if I am correct: Neues, Zill O’, Summon Night 2, or Spectral Force.
Those are my guesses. I would have said Slayers Wonderful, but that would never happen.
April 12th, 2009 at 22:12
Zill O’ll, and I’m sure it’s not one of the secrets.
April 13th, 2009 at 07:21
I’ve played Slayers Wonderful years ago, and quite frankly can’t find a reason to define it “Wonderful”. :D On the other hand, the Slayers Royal series seems to be better and less boring.
April 13th, 2009 at 19:21
Unrelated post: Heart of Africa from RE5 is hidden in the most retarded way possible and it made me kill ten kittens. Thank you for the lack of attention.
April 13th, 2009 at 23:44
I own both of the Saturn Slayers games. They were pretty fun. I am a pretty big fan of the Slayers, so I naturally had to buy them all based on shear principle.
I had my Japanese language instructor translate the manuals for the games, though I found I really didn’t need the help, as I can intuit my way through pretty much any RPG regardless of language.
If you ever get a wild hair up your arse and feel like translating the Saturn two, I would happily donate my copies to your for that. Money too. And beer.
April 14th, 2009 at 06:30
Gemini don’t drink beer! He wouldn’t ge so low! He’s Italian!
April 14th, 2009 at 11:06
Beer is the greatest thing ever (me being German)!
April 14th, 2009 at 12:57
I prefer cream liquor. Beer makes me burp way too much.
April 15th, 2009 at 07:13
I like orange juice, myself. (Fresh squeezed, especially.)
Back to translating. :)
April 17th, 2009 at 09:59
I have been playing through Romancing Saga 3 again and I have to say the translation done is not very good. I think Mana_Sword did it. I have been thinking about going in and editing the text to make it good. If any of you have played any 1990-2000 RPG’s the translation is about standard fair for then. Think of Breath of Fire 2 or Vandal Hearts II. It is pretty bad.
Playing through Tsumi got me thinking about how far ranged fan-translations can go. I do not mean to sound ungrateful, but if you are going to go through all the effort to translating it, I would think doing the job well would be the icing on the cake.
Go figure.
April 17th, 2009 at 20:42
I have played a little bit of some fan translations and I think that there are many pitfalls that are easy to fall into. I haven’t played Romancing Saga 3, but I think that series has a very non-linear story, right?
The translator probably had to write a bunch of lines without knowing the real context, so they might give a very “bare” translation. I wouldn’t knock them too hard for that. Usually, it’s easy to edit the text when replaying it to fix the lines that don’t work well, but the problem is that many of these people just want to get the project out so they can do other things.
With Echo Night 2, when I get a chance to actually play it, I’m going to make sure that the script is more refined. It’s already better than the first Echo Night now, I think, but it still needs some revising. Once Gemini figures out the last bits that need hacking and makes a fully playable version, I’ll get right on it.
April 17th, 2009 at 21:03
That’s why I keep coming here. If you are going to go all out and do something as difficult as translating a game into english which requires tons of effort, you may as well give it your all.
April 19th, 2009 at 06:13
Thanks… But even completing a poor translation takes more effort than people think. I mean, so long as you’re not running it through babelfish. :D
I think some people might want to translate Romancing Saga because it’s a Squaresoft game, so people will be interested in playing it even if they don’t really like the game. They’ll have a big audience and it appeals to their sense of pride… This might be a foolish assumption to make, but if the translation is poor, then they might have released it not because they are fans, but because they wanted a “big release.”
I tend to translate for the love of the game of the game itself rather than just to appeal to a wide audience. Because I do care about the games that I translate, I try to put extra effort into them.
For example, the one that I’m translating now (Oriental Blue: Ao no Tengai) is a game that only a handful of people will probably play when it’s released… But still, it’s a fantastic game and I’ve given it a great translation. It’s nearly done.
I’m hoping that I can give you folks some good news, but we’ll see how that goes. I kinda have to just wait on a lot of these projects. That’s the tough part for me!
April 20th, 2009 at 22:19
Oriental Blue looks like a good game. I like traditional style RPG’s such as Dragon Quest pretty much more than any other style of game. Plus I have a GBA flash cart and I can play it on my hand-held.
April 22nd, 2009 at 00:06
Well, Oriental Blue is not strictly traditional, graphics aside. Unlike games like Dragon Quest, you don’t just get a new skill that makes all of your old skills obsolete. Damage is done through percentages (often with drawbacks), so your old skills are just as useful as the new ones.
With the modding, fusions, and non-linear plot, I wouldn’t call it traditional in any sense other than the graphics. You can see some pictures of the English version here:
http://kaioshin.romhacking.net/
April 22nd, 2009 at 18:41
That is a very interesting webpage. I had no idea anyone was translating DS games. I have been wanting a US release of Xenosaga I & II ever since I heard of it being made. The PS2 Xenosaga II was not too bad gameplay wise, but the way they did everything else was just bad. Also Tales of Innocence is another title I have been wanting.
I can see my future is littered with games to destroy. At least I can beat-down the Symphony of the Night re-translation, although I will miss, “Die you monster, you don’t belong in this world!”
Too bad you cannot go through and fix Lament of Innocence, “I’ll kill you and the night!”
May 3rd, 2009 at 04:10
As silly and cheesy as that one liner was, I kinda think it had a bit of coolness factor. :P
May 3rd, 2009 at 13:54
chaoticprime is just a prick who likes to nitpick. That line is EPIC. Leon is GAR enough to say stuoid things and still sound cool.
May 6th, 2009 at 01:50
Well, when I bought Castlevania for the NES in 1988 I honestly never thought that a male Farah Fawcett look-alike wearing a white-and-red leather suit was the progenitor of the Belmont clan. To be fair, I suppose, by the time that line actually took off I was far more disenchanted with the character design rather than the terrible dialogue.
Also, if I may ask, why did you choose the PSX version of Nocturne in the Moonlight/Symphony of the Night rather than the Saturn version?
May 6th, 2009 at 08:17
What kind of a question is that? Saturn version? LOL It’s just for the nerds that want to be HARDCORE every damn minute which ends in being only pathetic every damn minute.
Also, I obvious that Gemini don’t know anything about Saturn programming since he don’t even own one.
Also 2, how can a man not like Ayami Kojima’s design? You to be a German for that…
May 6th, 2009 at 08:25
*it’s obvious
**you have to be
May 7th, 2009 at 01:22
@chaoticprime: I didn’t hack the Saturn porting because it’s the worst version and the extras are plain terrible (many don’t believe this because they never played the game to see them with their own eyes). Also the fact that I have no clue how the Saturn works.
May 8th, 2009 at 09:40
Yeah, the Saturn extra stages were largely throw away. They were really ugly. The only real difference that I appreciated is that when you show up to talk with Maria under the clock room, she attacks you. This was funny because I did not expect it, so I buzzed through the text and next thing I know she’s whipping my ass.
I got lucky and bought the Sat version from a local collector with an extra copy for cheap and was able to make a profit on ebay after the game “now loading”ed me against it. Plus they moved around the damn familiars.
I also do like many of Kojima’s designs, I just did not like those of Leon Belmont. Her Ralph Belmont design from CoD was pretty well done, and I was actually disappointed to see she had not done PoR or DoS for the DS.
As a whole, however, I really cannot sympathize with the current trend of oddly dressed effeminate protagonists. Such artists as Tetsuya Nomura and Ayami Kojima simply do not appeal to me.
I like anime character designs, but there is still a line. I just don’t care for men wearing belly-shirts with low rider pants principally composed of belt-buckles or arbitrarily positioned armor plates.
I should state, however, that Dragon Quest 2 is my favorite game of all time. I will not go so far as to play games with art I don’t like, after all I care mostly about the gameplay itself, but I don’t get attached to them like I did with games such as Lufia 2 or Xenogears.
I don’t fault anyone for their preferences, I just find there is a line of silliness that just detracts from a game.
For example, I loved FFXII, I played through it once in japanese and again in english, which is rare for me. I hated the main character. Hated. Still, awesome game.
And please, Takehaniyasubiko, quit trying to get a rise out of me, I post here to talk about video games, not to get into fights.
I don’t think its appropriate to go back and forth with hostility, especially considering that both Gemini and Tom expressed their disapproval of it in the IS forum…and it is their house we’re visiting.
May 8th, 2009 at 16:33
Sorry if I sounded as if I wanted you to get in TEH INTERNETZ ARGUMENT. I’m quite rude sometimes, I guess, but it’s not like I want to see you suffer, or anything.
As for new the Castlevania games – the design is horrbile in my opinion. It’s not Castlevania to me. Kojima or GTFO.
Also, I would never put Ayami next to Tetsuya. He’s just a gay who had some luck and started to draw some shit whilst Ayami is a true artist (she just sold herself).
May 8th, 2009 at 21:10
Wow, I found ONE other person in the whole of the internet who hates Tetsuya Nomura. Wow. You know, his monster designs from Final Fantasy V were actually very good. It is when they gave him more liberty that he went all stupid. What’s funny, however, is that I read an interview with him where he stated that he prefers simple character designs…this leads me to believe that, at least now, he is being influenced to draw giant shoes with belt-buckles made of a polystyrene.
May 8th, 2009 at 22:16
Yeah, exactly. Tetsuya is a good guy but he never should have got so much power. He’s just an artisan – there should be someone watching over his work. If he’s left all by himself, he’s going loco and all sort of crap is starting to come out. Amano should slap that bitch in the face and tell him to shake off and pull himself together.
May 9th, 2009 at 04:52
I like the character work from Kunihiko Tanaka and Kazuma Kaneko. Takehiko Inoue, though he mostly does manga work, did a good job with Drakengard and Lost Odyssey. Miyako Kato is another good designer. She did Shadow Hearts, which is one of my favorite games. Neither of the sequels were that great, unfortunately.
Tomomi Kobayashi is another Square artist like Amano whose work is often mistaken for that of Amano. She has a very light style typically using watercolors that always ends up looking very good. She did the SaGa games, of which I am a big fan. Point of fact, I am working my way through SaGa Frontier again as we speak.
May 9th, 2009 at 06:37
I’m also not big on Nomura’s recent work, all his characters generally look the same. Just take a look at Sion from The Bouncer, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, and Neku from the World Ends with You. They all have the same freak’in hairstyle! I swear all you have to do is give them identical out fits and you’d never be able to tell them apart.
I love Shadow Hearts as well, if we’re talking about art, then the first game is definitely the winner. But overall quality I’d have to say goes to Covenant; not just just for the better battle system but also for the excellent story. It was a ballsy move to actually follow up on the bad ending from the first game and I applaud them for that.
I love the SaGa games as well, although to honest, if we’re talking about Frontier than I don’t really care for the first one all that much, SaGa Frontier 2 was loads better. Those watercolor painting style graphics were so good.
May 9th, 2009 at 22:08
Artistically SaGa Frontier 2 was better, as was its story. The first game, however, dominates in gameplay. It’s hard to get into, but once you get rolling its actually quite good.
I still prefer Shadow Hearts over its sequals in pretty much every way. I did enjoy the second game, but the whole thing went into a downward spiral in the latter half (Japan). The third game was just awful. It was a battle system with a game wrapped around it. It reminded me of Grandia X-Treme.
I don’t think Nomura would be so bad even if he quit with the complex costumes. I look at them and think that it must take a team of assistants hours to put the garment on, and they go through about a quart of bikini glue. And I see the characters wearing necklaces and bangles and bracelets, and two minutes later I find replicas for sale on Square’s website.
I recently read that Square Enix took controlling share of Ubisoft. I wonder if this is a good or bad thing? Tetsuya Nomura doing Prince of Persia or Tomb Raider. Or Legacy of Kain?
There was a comic artist in the 90’s named Rob Liefeld. He was the bees’ knees for about a decade, and then his crappy style of artwork became universally reviled. I mean, he was literally the most popular artist in comics. And then he was shit.
Tetsuya Nomura is Japan’s Rob Liefeld. He just needs to do the falling into depravity part…
May 27th, 2009 at 15:14
I have been hoping a group would take this on for translation! I’m going to have to go dust off my import copy :O. Can’t wait to finally be able to fully understand the story.
Very much looking forward to release and seeing your efforts.
May 27th, 2009 at 22:36
I am glad that you’re excited about Echo Night 2! I think you’ll be quite pleased with the story. It really deserves to be in English, so I will personally make sure that the text is polished ten times over before it’s released. :D
May 28th, 2009 at 22:58
Holy crap, Echo Night 2! I loved the first one and Beyond. Beyond is a hidden gem, I think. Not a long game at all, but it’s really innovative and fun to play. It ratchets up the tension to extremes in some points, more so than more acclaimed survival horrors. I was disappointed to see that EN 2 had never been translated and released but not surprised. It’s very much a niche game.
Also, Soul Hackers as well? Dear god people, can you read my mind and what my childhood gaming fantasies were?
May 28th, 2009 at 23:25
I wasn’t really a fan of Beyond, myself. It really took the human side of the story away. You never really got to see the people as they were when they were alive, so saving them didn’t feel as rewarding, in my opinion.
I did like some aspects of it, though. The tension parts, as you said: the dimmed vision, heartbeats, panic and heavy breathing. That was great, but the ending left me feeling confused and deceived. I think you know why.
But I am sure that if you liked Echo Night Beyond, you will cry tears of joy when playing Echo Night 2. It is a beautiful, beautiful game and I am glad to hear that you share my gaming fantasy about playing this game in English too. :)
May 31st, 2009 at 02:34
Great job so far, the text is pretty well translated from what I’ve seen in your video,
I look forward to your finished project.
May 31st, 2009 at 03:45
Well, there are parts about it that I’d like to change, in hindsight. I am really going to fine-tune it to make sure that everything is perfect!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:43
any word on this release
July 16th, 2009 at 04:56
By this release, do you mean Soul Hackers? Gemini’s busy with school work, I heard, so he’s put all of the hacking on the back burner. I’ve been looking into some other projects until he’s ready to get back into it.
I will start working again soon as well, real-job stuff (after over a year of unemployment), so I’m guessing by the time he is ready to work on the hacking, I will have less time to work on the scripts. It’s just bad timing, unfortunately.
As for Echo Night 2, it is also stalled. Since I don’t have a playable English version yet, I can’t edit the script. In other words, it will probably take a while for any of the projects here.
I wish that something could be ready for a release, but the honest answer is that it may take a few more months, at the very least, to see any progress at all.
Actually, I have nine completed translations spread out there among various hackers, along with one editing job that is still not fully hacked. It’s been a little discouraging out there in the world of fan translations lately. I’m afraid that when everything starts to get hacked in, I’m going to get blown away by the revisions and replays needed to cover them all!
If I finish Soul Hackers’ translation quickly now, I might just be dumping more work on Gemini. Neither of us want him to have a whole list of “in progress” games, if you know what I mean!
August 12th, 2009 at 04:02
I was just informed by Take over on the forums that FromSoftware has started a new countdown. I wonder if it’s going to be Echo Night 4? :)
August 12th, 2009 at 23:00
Hey, the fact that you (Tom) do this work at all is enough to satisfy me. Take a year…take two years. What is another two years to play a game in English that has been out ten years and would otherwise never even be in English at all.
Good job, regardless.
August 14th, 2009 at 00:52
I…I love you guys.
First you bring P2: IS…
Now you bring Echo Night 2 AND Soul Hackers…
I… I love you… <3
February 16th, 2010 at 08:35
well, it’s been 8 months now, any news on the translation?
February 17th, 2010 at 12:49
The translation’s done, but the hacking isn’t. Gemini still has to find out how the game handles events before he can make everything work as it should.
March 9th, 2010 at 12:35
hello,how long do you think the events handles take time?
I would like play this great game!
You are awesome guys!:-)
March 9th, 2010 at 14:49
I haven’t got a clue. The game is doing unexpected things, so it’s not like there is a clear timeframe, unfortunately.
The game is awesome, though! Hopefully we can do it justice!
March 31st, 2010 at 03:16
Just wanted to say thanks for working on this guys~
Can’t wait to play it.
Never give up!
April 1st, 2010 at 03:51
No problem! We have all waited a long time for Echo Night 2 in English, and I assure you that it will be worth the wait. I haven’t given up on an English translation since the day I bought it, heh heh!