Wrote this in a YouTube comment yesterday on one of my videos, pasting it here since it's been a while:
"I apologize for the constant delays and overall lack of progress. I know it must be disappointing for you, because it's disappointing for me as well. I used to have a lot of free time back when I started this project, but now I'm bogged down by university classes, work, and other obligations. It's really difficult to sit down for a couple hours and sift through spreadsheet after spreadsheet of text, proofreading scripts and making sure everything is held to a high standard of quality. After a long day of work and class, the last thing that I want to do is subject myself to another session of long, tedious work. I really want more than anything to be able to finish this project and release the full patch as soon as possible, but I'm just one person, ya know? I don't get paid to do this, and it does take a large toll on me. I thank you for your continued patience, and hope that you continue to support this project. I promise it will be finished eventually, and I hope you will find it to have been well worth the wait."
I also would like to reiterate again that if for any reason I decide to abandon this project, all work done on it up to that point will be released. That would include scripts, graphics, asm hacks, and translation tools, and maybe the most recent build of the patch. I don't plan on abandoning the project though, so let's hope it doesn't come to that!
Also, since it's been a loooonggg time since I've shared any screenshots, here are a few that give a good idea of what the project looks like (of what has been translated/inserted):
I've translated almost all of the difficult graphics (the Extras Menu was a painnnnn to get just right), and all the board game non-dialog text has been inserted. Additionally, all of the principal's board game dialog has been inserted.
Some of the board game character interaction dialog has been inserted, and the window has been expanded to support longer strings of dialog. Unfortunately, any text that is longer that the width of the original window gets cut off when another character speaks (the effects can be seen in the 2nd image below). This will likely need an asm hack to fix.
I've tried to translate every occurrence of Japanese, such as the "FUMIZUKI ACADEMY" plate on the front gate stage. This particular graphic, however, gets too big in file size when I edit it, which causes the weird graphical glitches seen in the last 2 images. I will have to figure out a way to make the image more compressed.
And finally a list of what needs to be done:
- The story mode scripts need to be revised by me one last time to make sure there are no mistranslations, and that everything is consistent and flows well.
- The board game scripts need to be revised (first by anyone, then double checked by me for the same reasons listed above)
- The scripts need to be inserted back into the game. I'm pretty sure I have the tools I need for that, so this part shouldn't be too hard. I might be able to use help for this once the project gets to this point.
- Some minor asm hacks need to be implemented to give the game polish, such as aligning/centering some text, preventing board game dialog from being cut off by other text boxes, and altering how loading/saving/memory access dialogs appear. I might be able to do these, but it will take a lot of time without a skilled asm hacker.
- The game needs to be tested to make sure there are no crashes, cut off dialog, text box overflows, or untranslated text. During this phase, we will also be checking to make sure there are no typos or awkwardly phrased lines that need to be rewritten.
- Assuming no other major issues pop up, release the patch!