ROM Hack Nora and the Time Studio: The Witch of the Misty Forest – English Translation

[Blackiris.]

Sorry for my looooong silence! I'm humbled that there are still people who remember (or discover) this project. The truth is I haven't been working on it much since the last update, mostly due to my frustration with my own inability to reach the level of polish I want – both due to the fact that English is not my native language and that I'm still no expert at Japanese. I struggle to write English dialogues that feel entirely natural; I would like to be able to translate the script in a way that expresses the nuances of the characters' personalities in an enjoyable manner.

The second problem is that I can only translate the script as I play the game because I have no context otherwise (I have the script files for the entire game, but no information which line is spoken by which character and so on). In other words, I have to try to trigger as many different scenes as possible, or else I will not be able to translate the entire script. This has proven to be a challenge as well, and I'm still in a relatively early phase.

But that doesn't mean I have entirely abandoned this project. It's still there on my Desktop, so I won't forget about it. My Japanese has improved quite a bit in the last two years and will continue to improve. I have not forgotten the joy of working on the game without any previous hacking experience whatsoever and the surprisingly quick progress I initially made. I also have a couple of ideas to improve the tools I've coded to make the work more comfortable.

So when will I start working on it again? I don't have a definitive answer for that. Not until September, that's for sure – my spare time is very limited in the coming two months. But it's always been a dream of mine to be involved in romhacking and fan translations and I definitely want to get back to it at some point.

 

[kosterix]

Sorry for my looooong silence! I'm humbled that there are still people who remember (or discover) this project.

The second problem is that I can only translate the script as I play the game

At the risk of being blunt, can you point to a .nds file that you have so far please?

 

[Blackiris.]

Sorry, I will only share my files in the following three cases:
- the project has reached a beta state and needs testing
- I decide to cancel the project
- someone competent and trustworthy wants to seriously contribute to the project (for example as an editor)

I also will never publicly share the .nds file, only patch files.

I don't have plans to release temporary patches. People looking for menu patches won't be happy with the current version anyway, because there's still a lot work to be done. I don't even know anymore what kinds of bugs my latest build had, but there were some issues.

 

[Sliter]

ohhh this project!
I wanted to make the logo! Still haven't made it OTLsorry

 

[kosterix]

do you have your build in github?

 

[Dryon]

Glad to see this game hasn't been forgotten ! Wish I could help in some way, but I don't have any of the skills needed I'm afraid.

 

[Naviski]

Sorry for my looooong silence! I'm humbled that there are still people who remember (or discover) this project. The truth is I haven't been working on it much since the last update, mostly due to my frustration with my own inability to reach the level of polish I want – both due to the fact that English is not my native language and that I'm still no expert at Japanese. I struggle to write English dialogues that feel entirely natural; I would like to be able to translate the script in a way that expresses the nuances of the characters' personalities in an enjoyable manner.

The second problem is that I can only translate the script as I play the game because I have no context otherwise (I have the script files for the entire game, but no information which line is spoken by which character and so on). In other words, I have to try to trigger as many different scenes as possible, or else I will not be able to translate the entire script. This has proven to be a challenge as well, and I'm still in a relatively early phase.

But that doesn't mean I have entirely abandoned this project. It's still there on my Desktop, so I won't forget about it. My Japanese has improved quite a bit in the last two years and will continue to improve. I have not forgotten the joy of working on the game without any previous hacking experience whatsoever and the surprisingly quick progress I initially made. I also have a couple of ideas to improve the tools I've coded to make the work more comfortable.

So when will I start working on it again? I don't have a definitive answer for that. Not until September, that's for sure – my spare time is very limited in the coming two months. But it's always been a dream of mine to be involved in romhacking and fan translations and I definitely want to get back to it at some point.

I'd potentially be interested in being an editor for this. If your main issue is making sure the characters have distinct personalities, then that should be totally doable. I'm new to the site, and not entirely sure how the PMing system works, but I'd be happy to chat with you about this project.

 

[kosterix]

would be happy to help you.

 

[preta]

Hello! If you haven't already taken on an editor, I may be interested. I have some experience already, having been the editor for the fan translation of Brandish 2 Renewal (PC-98) and its prologue story. Please feel free to PM me if you'd like. I'd definitely have some questions - the main one being the total character count of the script.

 

[HinaNaru Cutie]

Sorry for my looooong silence! I'm humbled that there are still people who remember (or discover) this project. The truth is I haven't been working on it much since the last update, mostly due to my frustration with my own inability to reach the level of polish I want – both due to the fact that English is not my native language and that I'm still no expert at Japanese. I struggle to write English dialogues that feel entirely natural; I would like to be able to translate the script in a way that expresses the nuances of the characters' personalities in an enjoyable manner.

The second problem is that I can only translate the script as I play the game because I have no context otherwise (I have the script files for the entire game, but no information which line is spoken by which character and so on). In other words, I have to try to trigger as many different scenes as possible, or else I will not be able to translate the entire script. This has proven to be a challenge as well, and I'm still in a relatively early phase.

But that doesn't mean I have entirely abandoned this project. It's still there on my Desktop, so I won't forget about it. My Japanese has improved quite a bit in the last two years and will continue to improve. I have not forgotten the joy of working on the game without any previous hacking experience whatsoever and the surprisingly quick progress I initially made. I also have a couple of ideas to improve the tools I've coded to make the work more comfortable.

So when will I start working on it again? I don't have a definitive answer for that. Not until September, that's for sure – my spare time is very limited in the coming two months. But it's always been a dream of mine to be involved in romhacking and fan translations and I definitely want to get back to it at some point.

I have to admit I thought the english patch for this game had died like when it was first being translated years back but i am super glad that you are still going at it till this day well year. I am so freaking happy and glad that people didn't give up on this project of yours and i still wish to see the full english patched release for this game. I never did give up on the game to be honest i just forgot about the game cause over the years i've been on my 3ds and yep =0! But i am super happy that you updated on your situation and i wish you the best of luck! I know it can be hard to do the things you are doing but other people who still believe in your project and so do i wish you the best of luck! I hope you come back with good news on this game ;w;!! Really hope to play this game.

 

[kosterix]

I have to admit I thought the english patch for this game had died like when it was first being translated years back but i am super glad that you are still going at it till this day well year. I am so freaking happy and glad that people didn't give up on this project of yours and i still wish to see the full english patched release for this game. I never did give up on the game to be honest i just forgot about the game cause over the years i've been on my 3ds and yep =0! But i am super happy that you updated on your situation and i wish you the best of luck! I know it can be hard to do the things you are doing but other people who still believe in your project and so do i wish you the best of luck! I hope you come back with good news on this game ;w;!! Really hope to play this game.

too bad, I really would like to play this gem!

 

[takechiyo]

keep the good work i also hope to play this game.

 

[kosterix]

keep the good work i also hope to play this game.

Sorry for asking the obvious, but can anyone point me to the patch?

 

[Blobbio]

Sorry for asking the obvious, but can anyone point me to the patch?

There is none yet. Please go back and read Blackiris's post properly (see above).

 

[Avantyr]

Sorry, I will only share my files in the following three cases:
- the project has reached a beta state and needs testing
- I decide to cancel the project
- someone competent and trustworthy wants to seriously contribute to the project (for example as an editor)

I also will never publicly share the .nds file, only patch files.

I don't have plans to release temporary patches. People looking for menu patches won't be happy with the current version anyway, because there's still a lot work to be done. I don't even know anymore what kinds of bugs my latest build had, but there were some issues.

Any chance of getting a more basic version with just system text, and maybe character names?

 

[HeartfeltDesu]

Glad to see this is still being worked on. Excited to play it.

 

[hoshea]

Finished this game while ago with Bad Ending... I don't really know how many endings this game has.
I can only read few intermediate kanjis, this game has many of it.

I don't know anything about programming, and don't have any experience in translating a game.
Deep inside, I really wanted to help this project.

 

[GDN]

Hello,
I gained a recent interest in Toki no Koubou from my findings and your introduction peaked it.
If you are still interested in the translation project, I am willing to help out with any and all text translation as a fluent Jap speaker. Sadly I am not particularly tech savvy, thus requiring your help on hooking the dialogue to plain text format.
Please message me if you're willing to continue and we can talk things out from a chat service of choice (preferably Discord)
Cheers,
GDN.

 

[GDN]

Hello again,
Writing an update to keep you informed, as I've been working on the .incs script dump you, ndgamer, flamethrower &co have been working on while listening to Kou Ogata's arrange of the game soundtrack and I must admit, it's pretty comfy.
I'm intending to continue at this pace without directly starting a project of my own, as it's something you started and I'd rather respect that, so don't worry about urgency and feel free to reply at your own convenience.
Peace out.

 

[GeekyGuy]

Glad to see others taking an interest in translating this game, even to the extent of taking up work of their own. That being said, his/her last post seems to have been about two years ago, so not sure about their original involvement anymore.