Chibi-Robo English translation for Wii

[Mikef1]

I like the pictured one, but I think getting the text translated so its playable should take priority.
I'm guessing the 'happy birthday Jenny' is your version. It does seem a bit plain...

Mike

 

[Rya687]

I like the pictured one, but I think getting the text translated so its playable should take priority.
I'm guessing the 'happy birthday Jenny' is your version. It does seem a bit plain...

Mike

No, that's what the Japanese version actually says. It has plenty of textures with English text that got removed during the localization process. You can find more details about what got changed here: https://tcrf.net/Chibi-Robo!#Regional_Differences

 

[e-xtrc]

Good evening everyone.

Since some people here and elsewhere have asked me about the differences between the Game Cube script and my translation, I found the time to make a little side-by-side comparison video for you to watch!

Remember nothing is final in this vid, but I hope it will reassure you about my will to make the best patch I'll be able to!

Please enjoy,

Yours truly.

I personally like your translation work better than the original, my eyes get tired whenever there's too much text to read and would slowly lose my motivation to continue playing I'm very excited to play your translation soon!

 

[NewGBAXL]

you can put the text under the icons of the family and cake

 

[Brand Newman]

No, that's what the Japanese version actually says. It has plenty of textures with English text that got removed during the localization process. You can find more details about what got changed here: https://tcrf.net/Chibi-Robo!#Regional_Differences

Thank you for the link, @Rya687 : this is very informative, and I didn't know they had made other changes!

I think the most logical was the removing of all the "Giccoman" references on the assets, which now makes me very unsure I wanna keep the international name "Drake Redcrest"!

Anyway, as stated, the "Happy Birthday" panel comes from the original Wii version, I didn't touch it, @Mikef1 .

And I might not, considering I spent all the evening yesterday opening the various "brres" files containing the textures, in an attempt to find this one, only for me to fail!

So, in order to determine when the texture would be loaded by the game (which could give me some indication), I decided to dump them with Dolphin, both for Game Cube and Wii.

Turned out none of the two games gave me the texture (despite dumping a lot of textures I had crossed path with yesterday) : seems the games store the two panels differently, and for the time being I have no clue how they do (frustrating!!!)

Anyway, that's not my priority since the Wii version is not written in Japanese : for the time being I'm happy to report I'm about to end the "global.bin" file, which (as you might have guessed) contains A LOT of the dialogues for the game. Only 35 files to go...

So, long story short :

• I'm having big trouble finding the "Happy Birthday" panel, and therefore might just keep the Wii version (admittedly a bit bland),
• I think I might switch back to the name "Giccoman", because of the merchandises reprising his name in the game : I'm unsure it means I should keep the original Japanese names as well, or just do an exception for this character...

Everybody have a nice day.

 

[Brand Newman]

UPDATE : I went back to the textures, and found out that the "Giccoman mug", while maintaining the Japanese design from the Game Cube version, had the name of the character removed!

In such a case, I don't think I'll stick with the Japanese name, since the audience will be more familiar with the international one, unless I stumble on some very specific reason to do otherwise.

 

[Brand Newman]

UPDATE (again!) : OK, I found the "Happy Birthday" panel in a file named "kazari_w.brres" (front and back shown below) :

It confirmed something I was already suspecting, something that had prevented me from finding the texture on Dolphin and Brawlcrate, and that is that the letters are actually polygons!

You see, the texture that is contained within the file is actually the back of the panel : if you dig deep into the brres file, you'll find this "material20" setting, which shows without a doubt the "happy birthday" sentence in poly form:

And as you might have noticed, the colors of the letters are actually taken from the texture's gradient.

Anyway, that means I cannot just replace a texture by another one, like I did in my previous projects : this one would require to get rid of the polygons, and find a way to modify the file so it shows a texture I haven't even found in the gamecube disc by now.

I don't have the knowledge, and all in one it's not worth the effort, so we'll stay with the "happy birthday" sign from the Wii version

But it was good to understand HOW this sentence was displayed!

 

[Deleted member 323844]

Interesting findings and weird design choices. I guess they had some polygons left to spend and the graphics artist wasn't in the office

 

[Brand Newman]

Hi everyone,

Just a small update to tell you that, since some graphical elements from the game still refer to the Japanese name of Drake Redcrest (his TV show, for instance), I decided he would introduce himself with both names first, then switch to the more familiar "Space Hunter Drake Redcrest" from the international Game Cube release.

I think that way no one can really get confused, and the consistency is preserved.

 

[CAugustusM]

I had the game in mind for quite a while, and when I checked the price of the GC version I thought that, even though it got localized back then, the Wii version deserved a translation as well.

That, and me being a Wii-addict : I haven't got in the game that much yet, but I really feel the new if control schemes might improve it, as it did for Mario Tennis and Pikmin (not a fan of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat).

Thank you for your support, that always feels good : since some of you seem to have played the game before, I might contact you when I need beta testers !

Hello everybody, Brand Newman here, telling you all about my latest "work-in-progress" English translation project for... the Wii (what else?) !

Some of you might have enjoyed my various previous patches, for which I'm providing links at the bottom of this message.

For the time being, let's talk about what's in store for 2022 : Chibi-Robo is a Game Cube game that got a worldwide release but apparently didn't sell that well, making Nintendo keep it exclusive to Japan when they ported it on Wii as part of the "New Play Control!" collection.

As a result, the Game Cube version is now ridiculously expensive, compared to the Wii version which some might argue is better, considering the game was originally meant to be "click and play" anyway.

Some people went into the GC iso to try to find the English translation and put it directly into the Wii version : while it does work to some extend (the two versions share a similar folders structure, and the file names are the same), the pointers are not located at the same place, making the game glitch, or even freeze at certain points.

So I decided we needed a proper translation, and went into the files myself, comparing the Japanese script of the Wii version and the official translation from the GC.

Turns out that some things got "lost in translation" (Daddy pun totally intended), others were added for the sake of clarity, and of course I'll have the issue of rephrasing in order for the text to "squeeze" into what room the Japanese game leaves you.

So please be aware the upcoming Riivolution patch will not be a 1:1 version of the Japanese or localized text, but instead a "mix" of the two.

Please find below a little video of the intro that is already done, and stay tuned in 2022 for me to give you news!

Yours truly.

Chibi-Robo introduction video in English for the Wii





My previous project, all available on RomHacking.net (download links on the video descriptions):

Oh man— this is a dream come true! I’ve played this game dozens of times. I got it when I was in elementary school and I’ve never stopped loving it. Ever since I heard about the NPC version being a Japan Exclusive, I’ve always dreamt of playing it in English. Good luck!

 

[CAugustusM]

So tonight I had a nice conversation on Twitter about changes that occur between several versions of a game (mostly ports), like a modified texture to replace a brand name by another, that kind of things...

This reminded me of a noticeable difference between the Wii and Gamecube version of Chibi-Robo, at the very beginning of the game : the 1st one displays a large panel saying "happy birthday Jenny", making us immediately know what day it is.

The GC version, on the contrary, displays a drawing I find irresistibly cute, and waits for us to see the family to understand it's the girl's birthday (OK there's a cake on the picture, but it disappears quite fast).

Below is the comparison of the two.
View attachment 297149

I'm not really a fan of changing textures (other than translating Japanese text like in Reginleiv, obviously), and as I stated on the Earth Seeker thread, I even find it counter-productive sometimes (like I kept the French in certain textures, because the game was supposed to display the panels as "relics" from the ancient Earth).

But in that case, the GC version is so overly cute I'm considering trying to find the texture, and see if I can't at least make a mix of the two?

What do you think?

Yours truly.

I personally am a huge fan of the cute art, but whatever is easiest!

 

[CAugustusM]

UPDATE (again!) : OK, I found the "Happy Birthday" panel in a file named "kazari_w.brres" (front and back shown below) :

View attachment 297267

It confirmed something I was already suspecting, something that had prevented me from finding the texture on Dolphin and Brawlcrate, and that is that the letters are actually polygons!

You see, the texture that is contained within the file is actually the back of the panel : if you dig deep into the brres file, you'll find this "material20" setting, which shows without a doubt the "happy birthday" sentence in poly form:

View attachment 297268

And as you might have noticed, the colors of the letters are actually taken from the texture's gradient.

Anyway, that means I cannot just replace a texture by another one, like I did in my previous projects : this one would require to get rid of the polygons, and find a way to modify the file so it shows a texture I haven't even found in the gamecube disc by now.

I don't have the knowledge, and all in one it's not worth the effort, so we'll stay with the "happy birthday" sign from the Wii version

But it was good to understand HOW this sentence was displayed

UPDATE (again!) : OK, I found the "Happy Birthday" panel in a file named "kazari_w.brres" (front and back shown below) :

View attachment 297267

It confirmed something I was already suspecting, something that had prevented me from finding the texture on Dolphin and Brawlcrate, and that is that the letters are actually polygons!

You see, the texture that is contained within the file is actually the back of the panel : if you dig deep into the brres file, you'll find this "material20" setting, which shows without a doubt the "happy birthday" sentence in poly form:

View attachment 297268

And as you might have noticed, the colors of the letters are actually taken from the texture's gradient.

Anyway, that means I cannot just replace a texture by another one, like I did in my previous projects : this one would require to get rid of the polygons, and find a way to modify the file so it shows a texture I haven't even found in the gamecube disc by now.

I don't have the knowledge, and all in one it's not worth the effort, so we'll stay with the "happy birthday" sign from the Wii version

But it was good to understand HOW this sentence was displayed!

That’s so fascinating! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Daedalus015]

Hello @Brand Newman I am working on a Riivolution Translation Patch of my own, and so far I've just been modifying the game files and testing them in Dolphin. I would like to get this running properly on Wii/WiiU(Wii Mode) hardware using a Riivolution Patcher (so that people who own the discs can play it easily). I've never done this before, but probably the most confusing part I'm running into relates to the .dol file included in every translation I've seen that uses Riivolution. Is that a modded version of the original game's main.dol, or is this a special Homebrew app created to jumpstart a game which is originally from a different region (for instance, running a Japanese disc on a NA system)? Once again, thank you for any help you can offer.

 

[Brand Newman]

Hello @Brand Newman I am working on a Riivolution Translation Patch of my own, and so far I've just been modifying the game files and testing them in Dolphin. I would like to get this running properly on Wii/WiiU(Wii Mode) hardware using a Riivolution Patcher (so that people who own the discs can play it easily). I've never done this before, but probably the most confusing part I'm running into relates to the .dol file included in every translation I've seen that uses Riivolution. Is that a modded version of the original game's main.dol, or is this a special Homebrew app created to jumpstart a game which is originally from a different region (for instance, running a Japanese disc on a NA system)? Once again, thank you for any help you can offer.

Hi, @Daedalus015 , and congratulations on starting on a fan translation : I promise you a lot of challenges, difficulties, hit and miss, and some big satisfaction at the end of the road, stay strong! Out of curiosity, what is the game you're working on?

To answer your question : the main.dol files (or at least mine) are from the original games. I just look for Japanese in them with an hex editor, and replace everything game related with English (be careful not to modify string values and such, that can be in Japanese and will make the game break if you modify them).

My advice would be to remain cautious and "conservative", then play the game thoroughly to see if anything was left untranslated.

(I'm actually doing it myself right now, since I'm modifying the debug rooms that I have no possibilities to visit unless I find some gecko code!)

Also, good call on trying the game on original hardware : Dolphin can leave some issues undetected, like when "Zangeki" would freeze on real hardware because the font had reach the console's memory limits (talk about a game that would exhaust the Wii)!

Hope this will help, please come to me if you have any further question.

PS : On a totally different note, and not to be political or anything, but if anybody here is Ukrainian, or has any family, relatives, friends, etc., who lives there, I'd like for them to know they have my full support, no matter how little it means. And if someone from Russia reads me, please know the World is aware your people is against this war. The protests that are taking place against this madness right now are very courageous. I hope everyone stays safe and we'll come back to better days soon, right now translating and/or playing video games seems a bit pointless...

Everybody takes good care.

 

[Daedalus015]

To answer your question : the main.dol files (or at least mine) are from the original games. I just look for Japanese in them with an hex editor, and replace everything game related with English (be careful not to modify string values and such, that can be in Japanese and will make the game break if you modify them).

Yes, I understand about opening up the .dol file for translation (if necesssary), but I was actually referring to the .dol file typically located in apps/[GameName]/bool.dol on the SDCard which Riivolution-based Translations package into their releases. In the Translation's I've downloaded, I've noticed that the boot.dol files released do not always resemble the size of the original main.dol (found on the disc's DATA/sys/main.dol), so is this a special Homebrew app to assist Riivolution?

 

[Brand Newman]

Yes, I understand about opening up the .dol file for translation (if necesssary), but I was actually referring to the .dol file typically located in apps/[GameName]/bool.dol on the SDCard which Riivolution-based Translations package into their releases. In the Translation's I've downloaded, I've noticed that the boot.dol files released do not always resemble the size of the original main.dol (found on the disc's DATA/sys/main.dol), so is this a special Homebrew app to assist Riivolution?

Not totally sure I'm getting you (I only see a "boot.elf" file, and it's in the apps/riivolution folder).

As far as my translations are concerned, there is indeed a "main.dol" file in my [gamename] folder, and that is the modified main.dol from the game?

I think you should take a look at the .xml file in the "riivolution" folder to get a better understanding : this file "tells" the software what files are to be replaced and where.

While most of the files go in subfolders, the .dol file typically goes into the "sys" folder of your extracted iso, but in the .xml file it is written differently.

For example, below are the settings of my "ES_eng.xml" file for Earth Seeker:
<file disc="main.dol" external="main.dol" />
<folder disc="/2D/" external="2D/" />
<folder disc="/FFX/" external="FFX/" />
<folder disc="/FONT/" external="FONT/" />
<folder disc="/MODEL/MAP/GDM/" external="GDM/" />
<folder disc="/MODEL/MAP/HOME/" external="HOME/" />
<folder disc="/NUT/" external="NUT/" />

I advise you to download any of my patches, and write over the .xml file of them with your own settings, as I didn't put any fancy or extra setting (which I probably would have put incorrectly anyway) : I sticked to file replacement, and "translation ON" setting by default.

 

[Daedalus015]

Thank you for your help. I will continue to investigate to see if I can get Riivolution working. The project's technical aspects are already complete (99% of the translated files are non .dol files), but the translation of the text is only about 20% done. Once the text nears completion, I will be sure to post a general notification.

 

[Deleted member 323844]

To be honest, I can't understand the point of a Riivolution only patch nowadays. Nintendo is not making money with these games anymore and it's not like a Japanese only game is easily available.

To Daedalus015, of course, Brand's patches have always been Riivolution and manual.

 

[Rya687]

I assume your own project also has to deal with the technical limitations that are forcing Brand Newman to shorten many of the lines?

 

[Brand Newman]

To be honest, I can't understand the point of a Riivolution only patch nowadays. Nintendo is not making money with these games anymore and it's not like a Japanese only game is easily available.

To Daedalus015, of course, Brand's patches have always been Riivolution and manual.

I see it the other way around, since I'm providing a method to patch an ISO as well.

Riivolution ensures total compatibility for people who are (like me) very much into owning a physical copy of the game, something ISO patches can lack.

For example, I remember not being able to apply some patches to the ISO I had made of my disc, because several versions of the game had been published, and the IPS (or whatever) would need an exact repliqua of the 1st (and oldest) one.

Single file replacement doesn't (to my knowledge) cause that kind of issues, whether it's with retail disc (Riivolution) or WIT (ISO, WBFS, etc.)

Nothing is more frustrating than reading "this patch must be applied to the 1.00 version"!

Now that being said, the inflation of the market is something that made retail discs very pricey these last few years : but we all know there are ways, it's just up to people to find a copy, and then they'll be fine with the "Wit" method.