New here, and a fan of the Shining series from SEGA. Are there any ongoing projects or any hope for any of the 3 Shining PSP games to get a FT?

[OldSchoolGamer86]

I am new here and as I am a big fan and supporter of the Fan Translation Community as well as games for consoles and Handhelds from the PSP/PS2 days and prior.

One series I have always enjoyed that has sadly seen better days in the past, especially when Camelot was involved with them are the Shining games/series. I have enjoyed and played every release this series has had up until SF3 and the non english parts for Saturn. I did enjoy Shining Wisdom, as well as Shining in the Darkness as well, and after Shining Souls 1+2 for GBA and despite its greatly displeasing Western JRPG Diablo like theme/gameplay, I found enjoyment in Shining Force Neo/EXA, as well as Shining Tears but thanks to many different things, I never got to enjoy the story of the much improved sequel Shining Winds.
For the small group of us still out there, we waited and watched while Japan got Shining ArK, Shining Blade, and Shining Hearts on PSP with no hope or prayer for ever getting an official translation. I tried to play them but with my VERY limited JP knowledge(basically just Kana) I could not get far in Ark, Blade, or Hearts for PSP. After Shining Resonance passed us on PS3 I assumed the same would continue but lo and behold, the PS4 got a translation of the PS3 release.

Getting to the point, I have looked and havn't gotten really any solid concrete anything on any of the Shining PSP games. I wont mention the PS2 game as this is a PSP thread.

Are there any teams working on ANY of the 3 PSP games, or has anyone that is knowledgeable considered working on ANY even one (I see Heart's seems to have the most extra lore and such so perhaps this one?) version of ANY of the games for PSP? Or has Shining's ship basically sailed as far as interest in these are concerned?

I was and AM THRILLED to see Shining Resonance getting a PS3 translation as I dont like or care for current gen consoles and would much prefer playing it on PS3 so I just about fell over when I read about this project.

I KNOW I cant be the only one who still care's for the Shining series despite it being a speck/shadow/glimmer of its former self. But I still dream of the day these 3 can become playable one way or another.

IF anyone would consider doing any of these, while I do not have hacking/programming knowledge, I would be more than happy to test, and help edit grammar and whatnot as well as report bugs and things.

Anyway, I just wanted to see what if any hope there might be out there for these games ever being able to be played in english.

Thanks for any and all responses and consideration regarding this. It is very appreciated.
Be well, and Take care everyone!

 

[AncientBoi]

Hi. Glad to know there is another PSP gamer out there. I don't have the Shining game, but I'm sure somebody has. And,

Welcome to our site of gamers and programmers from around the world. Enjoy

 

[Jack O'Lantern]

The only Shining games I like are Shining the Holy Ark, Shining Tears, Shining Force Neo, Shining Force EXA, Shining Wind, Shining Force Feather and Shining Hearts. Only StHA made by Camelot, it and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn are the only games I actually like from them, tho Shining the Holy Ark I love it.
Also the golden Shining Camelot games also just SF3 games imo. Be4 SF3 they also not named Camelot
I like Royal Stone, Tokyo Majin Gakuen, Treasure Hunter G and Arc The Lad games more.

 

[HaryoBimo]

How to download the rom game shining ark

 

[xFlesk]

How to download the rom game shining ark

i believe you are not going to get an answer here

 

[Waifu4Life]

Not a lot of love for the Shining series in the translation community. SEGA stopped bringing them after the 3rd PS2 games and only threw us a bone with the PS3/PS4 game. So yeah, we're lacking 1 PS2 game, 1 NDS game and 3 PSP games.

 

[Shayuna]

No a lot of love for the Shining series in the translation community. SEGA stopped bringing them after the 3rd PS2 games and only threw us a bone with the PS3/PS4 game. So yeah, we're lacking 1 PS2 game, 1 NDS game and 3 PSP games.

and where is the love u mean ? no single title from the psp was translated until today.. after " 1000 " years we getting a english translation from the last suikoden but i dont believe we ever get a translation from a shining title.. ( btw after playing the last suikoden i understand why it was the last =_= how they can so ruin a franchise )

 

[master801]

Shining Ark - Dead: https://gbatemp.net/threads/shining-ark-english-project.433208/
Shining Ark / Blade - Dead: https://gbatemp.net/threads/shining-ark-and-blade-project-will-be-continue.576918/
Shining Ark - Dead: (I refuse to link it for good reason) YouTube "Shining Ark English patches test" - Good luck getting the patch out of HoaiTrung97's ass

I'm gonna go with no hope as the answer, being the most realistic option.

EDIT:

Poking around in the game files for Shining Ark, I see a lot of reasons why translation patches are abandoned.

Game uses CriWare middleware, which is a pain in the ass to deal with since it's all container files with some magic (you'll see why later on).

For anyone else attempting, DATA2.AFS and DATA3.AFS in PSP_GAME/USRDIR/STREAM aren't interesting at all. All they contain are audio files.

What you really want, is PSP_GAME/INSDIR/DATA.bin. This contains the game's actual files, however the file needs to be decrypted because it's an install file (PGD). pgdecrypt works.

Then the file (DATA.bin) needs to be extracted with an CPK extractor. Any should work, but some tools are more picky than others. Find one that works.

HTX files are GIM texture files. These are easy to convert back to GIM, since HTX is just a container file. Warning, I've only poked at a few, but the container structure looks like it supports multiple textures. May not work for every HTX. Just delete the first 96 bytes (HTEX0 is a container[?] and HTSF is a container[?]) and last 64 bytes (EOFC just signifies the end-of-file container[?]).

ATX files (specifically the ones that end with the file name "_1", not "_02" - this contains some unknown data file for the corresponding file) are just containers for .wav files like HTX. Delete the first 32 bytes (APA3 block) and delete the last 32 bytes (EOFC block).

MSB files seem to be some script files. No idea how it works, but strings are at the bottom of the script file. I'm guessing it just skips from string to string with 0x00 as the spacer.

No idea what MXE files are. Some _01.MXE files have strings in them.

Bonus points to anyone who manages to understand and are able to extract files - I've attached extracted GIM files.

 

[Waifu4Life]

and where is the love u mean ? no single title from the psp was translated until today.. after " 1000 " years we getting a english translation from the last suikoden but i dont believe we ever get a translation from a shining title.. ( btw after playing the last suikoden i understand why it was the last =_= how they can so ruin a franchise )

Typo, missing a "t" in the 1st word. Also, learn to read the entire post before replying.

 

[OldSchoolGamer86]

The only Shining games I like are Shining the Holy Ark, Shining Tears, Shining Force Neo, Shining Force EXA, Shining Wind, Shining Force Feather and Shining Hearts. Only StHA made by Camelot, it and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn are the only games I actually like from them, tho Shining the Holy Ark I love it.
Also the golden Shining Camelot games also just SF3 games imo. Be4 SF3 they also not named Camelot
I like Royal Stone, Tokyo Majin Gakuen, Treasure Hunter G and Arc The Lad games more.

Yeah I love Arc the Lad as well. Sadly my battery for my SupaBoySFC died so as I dont want or like the US SNES and my SD2SNES pro china clone everdrive is in a SFC style casing so I only want a Super Famicom as I love its design and controller among other things whatnot more than the US SNES.
Sadly, I am VERY POOR and the Hyperkin SupaBoySFC with DEAD battery has, as well as I have, been after a SFC for over 2 years now as I cant get the money together it is driving me nuts but anyway I tried Treasure Hunter D a short bit and it seemed alright and I will have to look out for and give Tokyo Majin Gakuen, and Royal Stone a try sometime on whatever hardware they may be on someday. There was a game for SFC fan-translated I tried but shortly after its release my SFC battery stopped taking charge I think but its gameplay felt pretty similar to Arc the Lad PSX's.

I am not a massive S/T-JRPG fan but I do enjoy them now and then a bit and theres quite a few I hope get fan translations someday like Volfoss, BlackxMatrix, and the last 2 games in the Rhapsody Marl Kingdom Trillogy Little Angel and Tenshi no Present.

I am still hopeful for these and I can understand ya not liking them ALL as the "Shining" series has touched on quite a few different Genera's and gameplay styles with all its releases up till now.

I love Niche JP games but I was a SEGA fan back in 1990/91 when I had my first Genesis and year after Game Gear....but yeah, I have and still try now and then to play these in JP with only Katakana and Hiragana not completely know as I need a refresher but most anyway so I can understand the english romanji which helps to a small degree.

Anyway, we are all diffferent...not a problem if you or anyone doesn't like something as not everything is for everyone...with games, movies, music and everything else for that matter,

Be well and Take Care everyone!

Post automatically merged: Nov 7, 2022

Shining Ark - Dead: https://gbatemp.net/threads/shining-ark-english-project.433208/
Shining Ark / Blade - Dead: https://gbatemp.net/threads/shining-ark-and-blade-project-will-be-continue.576918/
Shining Ark - Dead: (I refuse to link it for good reason) YouTube "Shining Ark English patches test" - Good luck getting the patch out of HoaiTrung97's ass

I'm gonna go with no hope as the answer, being the most realistic option.

EDIT:

Poking around in the game files for Shining Ark, I see a lot of reasons why translation patches are abandoned.

Game uses CriWare middleware, which is a pain in the ass to deal with since it's all container files with some magic (you'll see why later on).

For anyone else attempting, DATA2.AFS and DATA3.AFS in PSP_GAME/USRDIR/STREAM aren't interesting at all. All they contain are audio files.

What you really want, is PSP_GAME/INSDIR/DATA.bin. This contains the game's actual files, however the file needs to be decrypted because it's an install file (PGD). pgdecrypt works.

Then the file (DATA.bin) needs to be extracted with an CPK extractor. Any should work, but some tools are more picky than others. Find one that works.

HTX files are GIM texture files. These are easy to convert back to GIM, since HTX is just a container file. Warning, I've only poked at a few, but the container structure looks like it supports multiple textures. May not work for every HTX. Just delete the first 96 bytes (HTEX0 is a container[?] and HTSF is a container[?]) and last 64 bytes (EOFC just signifies the end-of-file container[?]).

ATX files (specifically the ones that end with the file name "_1", not "_02" - this contains some unknown data file for the corresponding file) are just containers for .wav files like HTX. Delete the first 32 bytes (APA3 block) and delete the last 32 bytes (EOFC block).

MSB files seem to be some script files. No idea how it works, but strings are at the bottom of the script file. I'm guessing it just skips from string to string with 0x00 as the spacer.

No idea what MXE files are. Some _01.MXE files have strings in them.

Bonus points to anyone who manages to understand and are able to extract files - I've attached extracted GIM files.

Yeah, you are honestly most likely correct and I will need to like I did with Tales of Rebirth all them years ago go above and beyond to play em but if that is how it has to be than thats it.

I Appreciate the links and info on attempts that I was unaware of. And no...im not going to go through the hassle to bother someone about something they did that they havn't finished as I know that if its not shared already it aint going to be. Thanks for the response!

 

[IX285]

Getting something like those games translated is not one man task and PSP hacking scene is monopoly anyways,why bother?

 

[FAST6191]

Getting something like those games translated is not one man task and PSP hacking scene is monopoly anyways,why bother?

Granted translator-hackers are rare as anything but split that into individual skills and they are not uncommon, and PSP is already blown wide apart -- isos trivially unpacked and rebuilt, any eboot encryption long sorted, many formats known (perhaps not as much as the DS or some others but enough that the general approaches are known). Equally nobody has shown anything as far as they games needing some radical maths that is going to require hand finishing or serious custom assembly work to even consider it.

 

[zerodown]

Shining Ark - Dead: https://gbatemp.net/threads/shining-ark-english-project.433208/
Shining Ark / Blade - Dead: https://gbatemp.net/threads/shining-ark-and-blade-project-will-be-continue.576918/
Shining Ark - Dead: (I refuse to link it for good reason) YouTube "Shining Ark English patches test" - Good luck getting the patch out of HoaiTrung97's ass

I'm gonna go with no hope as the answer, being the most realistic option.

EDIT:

Poking around in the game files for Shining Ark, I see a lot of reasons why translation patches are abandoned.

Game uses CriWare middleware, which is a pain in the ass to deal with since it's all container files with some magic (you'll see why later on).

For anyone else attempting, DATA2.AFS and DATA3.AFS in PSP_GAME/USRDIR/STREAM aren't interesting at all. All they contain are audio files.

What you really want, is PSP_GAME/INSDIR/DATA.bin. This contains the game's actual files, however the file needs to be decrypted because it's an install file (PGD). pgdecrypt works.

Then the file (DATA.bin) needs to be extracted with an CPK extractor. Any should work, but some tools are more picky than others. Find one that works.

HTX files are GIM texture files. These are easy to convert back to GIM, since HTX is just a container file. Warning, I've only poked at a few, but the container structure looks like it supports multiple textures. May not work for every HTX. Just delete the first 96 bytes (HTEX0 is a container[?] and HTSF is a container[?]) and last 64 bytes (EOFC just signifies the end-of-file container[?]).

ATX files (specifically the ones that end with the file name "_1", not "_02" - this contains some unknown data file for the corresponding file) are just containers for .wav files like HTX. Delete the first 32 bytes (APA3 block) and delete the last 32 bytes (EOFC block).

MSB files seem to be some script files. No idea how it works, but strings are at the bottom of the script file. I'm guessing it just skips from string to string with 0x00 as the spacer.

No idea what MXE files are. Some _01.MXE files have strings in them.

Bonus points to anyone who manages to understand and are able to extract files - I've attached extracted GIM files.

you forgot this one: https://gbatemp.net/threads/shining-ark-and-blade-project-will-be-continue.576918/
the only one i couldn't find anything was shining hearts
haha, I have this file from HoaiTrung97, but if someone is doing a more complete translation, why use his?

 

[ExData7]

you forgot this one: https://gbatemp.net/threads/shining-ark-and-blade-project-will-be-continue.576918/
the only one i couldn't find anything was shining hearts
haha, I have this file from HoaiTrung97, but if someone is doing a more complete translation, why use his?

Can u share Hearts one?

 

[zerodown]

Can u share Hearts one?

I'm not a native English speaker, it seems that the translation I did was confusing.
I couldn't find any shining hearts translation projects.

 

[drgnslayers]

Yeah I love Arc the Lad as well. Sadly my battery for my SupaBoySFC died so as I dont want or like the US SNES and my SD2SNES pro china clone everdrive is in a SFC style casing so I only want a Super Famicom as I love its design and controller among other things whatnot more than the US SNES.
Sadly, I am VERY POOR and the Hyperkin SupaBoySFC with DEAD battery has, as well as I have, been after a SFC for over 2 years now as I cant get the money together it is driving me nuts but anyway I tried Treasure Hunter D a short bit and it seemed alright and I will have to look out for and give Tokyo Majin Gakuen, and Royal Stone a try sometime on whatever hardware they may be on someday. There was a game for SFC fan-translated I tried but shortly after its release my SFC battery stopped taking charge I think but its gameplay felt pretty similar to Arc the Lad PSX's.

I am not a massive S/T-JRPG fan but I do enjoy them now and then a bit and theres quite a few I hope get fan translations someday like Volfoss, BlackxMatrix, and the last 2 games in the Rhapsody Marl Kingdom Trillogy Little Angel and Tenshi no Present.

I am still hopeful for these and I can understand ya not liking them ALL as the "Shining" series has touched on quite a few different Genera's and gameplay styles with all its releases up till now.

I love Niche JP games but I was a SEGA fan back in 1990/91 when I had my first Genesis and year after Game Gear....but yeah, I have and still try now and then to play these in JP with only Katakana and Hiragana not completely know as I need a refresher but most anyway so I can understand the english romanji which helps to a small degree.

Anyway, we are all diffferent...not a problem if you or anyone doesn't like something as not everything is for everyone...with games, movies, music and everything else for that matter,

Be well and Take Care everyone!

Post automatically merged: Nov 7, 2022

Yeah, you are honestly most likely correct and I will need to like I did with Tales of Rebirth all them years ago go above and beyond to play em but if that is how it has to be than thats it.

I Appreciate the links and info on attempts that I was unaware of. And no...im not going to go through the hassle to bother someone about something they did that they havn't finished as I know that if its not shared already it aint going to be. Thanks for the response!

the last 2 games in the Rhapsody Marl Kingdom Trilogy Little Angel and Tenshi no Present are finally getting an official release in NA, on PS5 and Switch, this summer as Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles and the two games' official names are:
"Ballad of the Little Princess" and "Memories of Marl Kingdom"

 

[DustynBarlow]

Not a lot of love for the Shining series in the translation community. SEGA stopped bringing them after the 3rd PS2 games and only threw us a bone with the PS3/PS4 game. So yeah, we're lacking 1 PS2 game, 1 NDS game and 3 PSP games.

The company I work for just set up a Beta on this inhouse developed AI that is used in communication from our Japan, Chinese and US offices. It is basically an auto-translator that runs on every communication from any of the international offices to another international office. (ie if Us calls Japan, Japan e-mails us something back, and then we Japan a proposal, it is all automatically translated (according to multi lingual people the translation is really good.)

Anyway, as you can guess my point to this story, is that if AI is able to auto-translate all communication for a large business, I don't see why we couldn't have AI auto translate all scripts in any of the Japan only games. (I am also an accountant, not an engineer so I'm not certain on the specs for the translation AI or anything)

 

[master801]

The company I work for just set up a Beta on this inhouse developed AI that is used in communication from our Japan, Chinese and US offices. It is basically an auto-translator that runs on every communication from any of the international offices to another international office. (ie if Us calls Japan, Japan e-mails us something back, and then we Japan a proposal, it is all automatically translated (according to multi lingual people the translation is really good.)

Anyway, as you can guess my point to this story, is that if AI is able to auto-translate all communication for a large business, I don't see why we couldn't have AI auto translate all scripts in any of the Japan only games. (I am also an accountant, not an engineer so I'm not certain on the specs for the translation AI or anything)

There are a few services like this.

DeepL, Crowdin, etc

But they all cost money and aren't as accurate as some could do by hand.

Otherwise the translations would looking something like RetroArch's awful OCR auto-translation feature, or VNTranslator's translation feature (no idea how the end product looks like, but it's probably about as bad as RetroArch's).