# Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (For Gameboy Color) English translation has been released!



## bajol (Jan 17, 2020)

not available anymore, wonder what happened...


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## zfreeman (Jan 17, 2020)

It was probably derived from this release. The author of the translation was commissioned by this company to translate the game for a physical release. I assume a stipulation from the commission disbars the author from publishing the work.


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## hug0-a7x (Jan 17, 2020)

Did someone download the patch before it was deleted?


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## Jayro (Jan 17, 2020)

I still have it on my PC, I'll rehost it when I get home.


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## player594 (Jan 17, 2020)

cool


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## soniccomcisbr (Jan 18, 2020)

Waiting for the new link


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## Jayro (Jan 18, 2020)

soniccomcisbr said:


> Waiting for the new link


I'm off in two hours, I'm at work. But it's the first thing I'll do when I get home, no worries.


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## Jayro (Jan 18, 2020)

Link fixed. Uploaded it to my Google Drive. Enjoy!


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## Sakitoshi (Jan 18, 2020)

wow, big news.
I could have played it already since there is a spanish translation, but I prefer gaming in english.


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## Jayro (Jan 18, 2020)

Sakitoshi said:


> wow, big news.
> I could have played it already since there is a spanish translation, but I prefer gaming in english.


I've waited well over a decade for this, so as soon as I saw it, I just HAD to preserve it, and share it with the world.


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## Paulsar99 (Jan 18, 2020)

Nice I love the star ocean series but ashamed to say that I've forgotten about this game.


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## DaFixer (Jan 18, 2020)

Great news, i love StarOcean 
Thanks for the link


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## xeronut (Jan 18, 2020)

I'd seen some discussion in the Discord about whether or not they wanted to remove it from the site, and knew where it came from.. glad I snagged this from RHDN before the patch was taken down.  This and Super Mario 64 Splitscreen rounded out a very nice week for ROMhacks.


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## seseiSeki (Jan 18, 2020)

Whoo!! I've been looking forward to the translation by "mz" from romhacking.net, but the thread kinda died out. I even bought the game about a year ago and now I can finally play it \^^/

Edit: Ok, nvm. It seems to be mz's translation, but leaked and unfinished. I'll wait for the complete product, or learn Japanese ^^'


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## Silent_Gunner (Jan 18, 2020)

This story gives me AM2R vibes LOL!


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## Jayro (Jan 18, 2020)

Oh snap! This made the front page? That's a first for me!


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## AsPika2219 (Jan 18, 2020)

Wow! Thanks for translations! Waiting for Romhacking website and AGTP website will show this one anytime soon.


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## Fugelmir (Jan 18, 2020)

Can anyone comment on the quality of the translation?  GideonZhi, who is working on another version, claimed it was a haphazard machine translation with slight edits for readability.


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## Sakitoshi (Jan 18, 2020)

I investigated a little about why it was removed and turns out that the translation is not 100% finished and has lots of bugs.
I have yet to play it to confirm if that is true, but I wont get my hopes up just yet.

EDIT: yup, is incomplete.
see for yourself by saving at the first moment you can, reset and enter connect mode.


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## Deleted User (Jan 18, 2020)

Not all heroes wear capes


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## hug0-a7x (Jan 18, 2020)

Thanks


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## animex2k9 (Jan 18, 2020)

This game is always crashing or giving me a white screen after the ship crashed after starting a new game. Can't get pass that scene. Tried on my Android phone and BittBoy, both have the same problem.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

UPDATE #1: It works on my PC using RetroArch. Still not working on my Android and BittBoy.


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## SubLoverD (Jan 18, 2020)

animex2k9 said:


> This game is always crashing or giving me a white screen after the ship crashed after starting a new game. Can't get pass that scene. Tried on my Android phone and BittBoy, both have the same problem.
> 
> --------------------- MERGED ---------------------------
> 
> UPDATE #1: It works on my PC using RetroArch. Still not working on my Android and BittBoy.


Yes i too am having this issue using mgba ship crashes then a white screen


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## bahamut920 (Jan 19, 2020)

Works fine on BizHawk (using the default GB/C core). I didn't get more than a few minutes in, but the translation seems fine, if a bit stiff. If it's a machine translation, somebody definitely did some editing.


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## DarkCoffe64 (Jan 19, 2020)

Cool stuff, I remember trying out this game 'cus I read somewhere that it was in english, and being bummed out that I misread that an english translation was being worked fer it, not that the game was already in english, lol.
Dunno if it buggy or incomplete, but I guess as long as it makes the game understandable, its betten then nothing fer now.
also


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## Ericthegreat (Jan 19, 2020)

Looks like gbc.


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## Glitchk0ud1001 (Jan 19, 2020)

Is not fully translated, the connect option it shows  this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V9VrAMDdMdCZLHNs0RDljpx2_Da0X0i2/view?usp=sharing


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## the_randomizer (Jan 19, 2020)

Wow, removing it was a dick move, they should have at least explained the reason why on the page, no?

Edit: Allegedly, the translation was leaked, or incomplete or some crap, who knows?


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## Fugelmir (Jan 19, 2020)

the_randomizer said:


> Wow, removing it was a dick move, they should have at least explained the reason why on the page, no?
> 
> Edit: Allegedly, the translation was leaked, or incomplete or some crap, who knows?



The translator is selling repro-GBC carts -- he rushed a translation to to reap profit from it.  I'd also guess he doesn't want people criticizing the translation itself or his ethics.


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## Lumstar (Jan 19, 2020)

Fugelmir said:


> The translator is selling repro-GBC carts -- he rushed a translation to to reap profit from it.  I'd also guess he doesn't want people criticizing the translation itself or his ethics.



It's possible, but should we be presuming guilt like this?


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## Fugelmir (Jan 19, 2020)

Lumstar said:


> It's possible, but should we be presuming guilt like this?



Why else would he have it pulled?  He's been selling the carts for months now and it said on the history page that it was an unauthorized distribution of his work.  

Selling repros for profit isn't a big deal to me.  But the quality is questionable here and he seems to not want to clue-in the romhacking.net community.  So I assume the worst in this case.


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## Lumstar (Jan 19, 2020)

Selling repros for profit is one thing. I respect the work in translating and making stuff.
Not telling people that's your intention is pretty scummy.


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## godreborn (Jan 19, 2020)

can this be bought anywhere?  I made a cia of the translation.  however, that instruction manual looks really nice, so I want a legit version.  what people are asking on ebay is ridiculous.


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## Lumstar (Jan 19, 2020)

godreborn said:


> can this be bought anywhere?  I made a cia of the translation.  however, that instruction manual looks really nice, so I want a legit version.  what people are asking on ebay is ridiculous.



I'm not sure. The copies on etsy are different from the ones on ebay.

Another possibility is someone paid him to translate the game, then went behind his back and had repros made.


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## godreborn (Jan 19, 2020)

Lumstar said:


> I'm not sure. The copies on etsy are different from the ones on ebay.
> 
> Another possibility is someone paid him to translate the game, then went behind his back and had repros made.



looks like you can get the game and box pretty cheap.  it's the instruction manual that has an inflated price.  I miss the days of instruction manuals that you could read in the car or something.  this one looks very impressive.


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## Lumstar (Jan 19, 2020)

Heh. The ebay version virtually is a Nintendo sanctioned release if I didn't know better.


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## godreborn (Jan 19, 2020)

I made a cia of the translated game.  the first one I used the online patcher, which corrupted the game (white screen near the beginning), so I used lunar.  it no longer white screens.  the online patcher one even white screened with an emulator, so I narrowed it down to the patcher being the problem.


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## animex2k9 (Jan 19, 2020)

SubLoverD said:


> Yes i too am having this issue using mgba ship crashes then a white screen



I've fixed the problem. Don't use the online ips patcher. Just use the manual offline patcher.


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## godreborn (Jan 19, 2020)

I'm hoping to play this as it was meant to be played: on a gameboy advance.  I found mine, and it's really dark and difficult to see what's going on in the game.  I'm thinking I might need to replace system.  is there a "best" gba to get?


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## the_randomizer (Jan 19, 2020)

Yeah, the one who made the translation (allegedly) has gotten kinda bitter it was leaked, which I get, it sucks when it happens. But let's face it, what's done is done, and can;t be undone, but can't people be a little more levelheaded about it and not make a federal case out of it? And if he has been selling repo carts with the translation, well, I don't know what to tell ya buddy.


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## AmandaRose (Jan 19, 2020)

The dude translated the game which is a good thing.

He then sells pirated copies of the game with the translation. Not so good.

He then gets pissed off someone stole his work. Thats fucking hilarious. A pirate getting pissed off at the fact he got pirated


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## Subtle Demise (Jan 19, 2020)

Star Ocean is one of my favorite RPG series. I didn't know this game even existed! Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll probably add this translation to my Fiancé's SNES classic and get that dusted off again lol. Anyone played it yet? How does it compare to say the SNES version or the PSP remakes?


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## AmandaRose (Jan 19, 2020)

Subtle Demise said:


> Star Ocean is one of my favorite RPG series. I didn't know this game even existed! Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll probably add this translation to my Fiancé's SNES classic and get that dusted off again lol. Anyone played it yet? How does it compare to say the SNES version or the PSP remakes?


Yep its pretty good considering its a gbc game. I have finished the game a good few times in Japanese and the story is a direct sequel to the Second story. Its set two years after second story.


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## Sakitoshi (Jan 19, 2020)

the_randomizer said:


> Yeah, the one who made the translation (allegedly) has gotten kinda bitter it was leaked, which I get, it sucks when it happens. But let's face it, what's done is done, and can;t be undone, but can't people be a little more levelheaded about it and not make a federal case out of it? And if he has been selling repo carts with the translation, well, I don't know what to tell ya buddy.


he didn't got bitter only because it was leaked, he is mad because that translation is incomplete and buggy.
he doesn't want an unfinished product floating around with his name attached to it, which is very understandable.
but this unfinished patch is all we have, so is still better than nothing.


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## AmandaRose (Jan 19, 2020)

Sakitoshi said:


> he didn't got bitter only because it was leaked, he is mad because that translation is incomplete and buggy.
> he doesn't want an unfinished product floating around with his name attached to it, which is very understandable.
> but this unfinished patch is all we have, so is still better than nothing.


He has been selling reproduction versions of of the game online with the patch lol yep he is really concerned about people playing the unfinished patch


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## Lumstar (Jan 19, 2020)

AmandaRose said:


> He has been selling reproduction versions of of the game online with the patch lol yep he is really concerned about people playing the unfinished patch



To me the jury is still out, but yeah the scenario completely changes if there's a link between him and the reproductions.


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## Sakitoshi (Jan 19, 2020)

AmandaRose said:


> He has been selling reproduction versions of of the game online with the patch lol yep he is really concerned about people playing the unfinished patch


we don't know if mz did that or not.
all we know is that fishyface commissioned someone for the translation.
was it mz who sold the translation? did someone that mz shared the translation with to test it sold it?
we don't know the details, so don't go pointing fingers.


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## the_randomizer (Jan 19, 2020)

Sakitoshi said:


> he didn't got bitter only because it was leaked, he is mad because that translation is incomplete and buggy.
> he doesn't want an unfinished product floating around with his name attached to it, which is very understandable.
> but this unfinished patch is all we have, so is still better than nothing.



I mean, it sure looks that way to me

http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=29912.msg388390#msg388390


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## Pluupy (Jan 20, 2020)

Wow I didnt even know this game existed.


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## Egoistamamono (Jan 20, 2020)

I have been waiting for a years to play this full translation game. But, if it take away from anywhere. I Can't do anything. W

Edited:

Ijust investigate something about it and i curiously that this is based on Mz (on Rhdn page) stolen unfinished project.


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## Jayro (Jan 20, 2020)

I woke up to Google's "DMCA takedown" robo-email bullshit for the raw .ips file, so I 7-zipped it together with a 1MB dummy file, and passworded the 7-zip file before reuploading it to Google Drive, MEGA, and a Torrent. Hopefully the links will stay working now.


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## Deleted User (Jan 21, 2020)

godreborn said:


> I'm hoping to play this as it was meant to be played: on a gameboy advance.  I found mine, and it's really dark and difficult to see what's going on in the game.  I'm thinking I might need to replace system.  is there a "best" gba to get?



Gba SP brighter


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## godreborn (Jan 21, 2020)

thanks, that's what I bought last night on ebay. it has a clear blue shell, so you can see the innards.


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## qaz015393 (Jan 21, 2020)

man it was only a matter of time until the game was leaked. I bought my repo copy from fishyface back when they first released it. I only played it after the intro for a few seconds lol becasue i didnt want to start another game before i finish 1 i already started and didnt finish lol. fishyface does great work and glad they released te complete game. sucks someone leaked it and now cheap repos are being made (i see the person who's selling it and others repos- mostly they do lots of pokemon games to make money and sell a number of hacks. i played all of them and know that the ones being sold aren't complete). I'm glad I bought the game from fishyface last year and can enjoy the quality work not only put into the game and love the quality job they did making the box, manual and for also having clear blue and dark blue cartridges ( i chose the dark blue one one).


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## godreborn (Jan 21, 2020)

qaz015393 said:


> man it was only a matter of time until the game was leaked. I bought my repo copy from fishyface back when they first released it. I only played it after the intro for a few seconds lol becasue i didnt want to start another game before i finish 1 i already started and didnt finish lol. fishyface does great work and glad they released te complete game. sucks someone leaked it and now cheap repos are being made (i see the person who's selling it and others repos- mostly they do lots of pokemon games to make money and sell a number of hacks. i played all of them and know that the ones being sold aren't complete). I'm glad I bought the game from fishyface last year and can enjoy the quality work not only put into the game and love the quality job they did making the box, manual and for also having clear blue and dark blue cartridges ( i chose the dark blue one one).



I looked on their website "fishyface," and I could not find any way to buy a new one, so I had to settle for ebay.  sealed copies run for hundreds of dollars.


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## qaz015393 (Jan 21, 2020)

godreborn said:


> I looked on their website "fishyface," and I could not find any way to buy a new one, so I had to settle for ebay.  sealed copies run for hundreds of dollars.


It was a limited release and they only made a certain number of copies last year. I know some sealed ones go for a lot but I didn't care. I bought 1 and didn't get 2 because I knew it has a battery and didn't want to ruin the game keeping it sealed. I know some people do but I actually want to play it.


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## godreborn (Jan 21, 2020)

qaz015393 said:


> It was a limited release and they only made a certain number of copies last year. I know some sealed ones go for a lot but I didn't care. I bought 1 and didn't get 2 because I knew it has a battery and didn't want to ruin the game keeping it sealed. I know some people do but I actually want to play it.



that's the dilemma.  like you, I want to play the game.  I actually bought a refurbished gba sp, since the backlight seems not to work anymore on my original gba.  anyway, when they go for those ludicrous prices (or at least what they're asking with no bites), you feel bad opening the game.  I didn't want to buy one of these super expensive games.  I want the instruction manual mostly, but that would mean opening the package.  it's a difficult decision.


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## qaz015393 (Jan 21, 2020)

godreborn said:


> that's the dilemma.  like you, I want to play the game.  I actually bought a refurbished gba sp, since the backlight seems not to work anymore on my original gba.  anyway, when they go for those ludicrous prices (or at least what they're asking with no bites), you feel bad opening the game.  I didn't want to buy one of these super expensive games.  I want the instruction manual mostly, but that would mean opening the package.  it's a difficult decision.


Yeah I got ya. I'm going to play my game on my backlight gbc. Maybe you can ask one of the people who do repos  or who owns a fishface copy to make you a manual.


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## piratesephiroth (Jan 22, 2020)

so the translation is buggy and incomplete and the only good part is the manual...


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## dazindude (Jan 23, 2020)

piratesephiroth said:


> so the translation is buggy and incomplete and the only good part is the manual...


I just completed the game on an everdrive no issues zero crashes or bugs so I'm super confused about the reports of it being buggy or incomplete. (besides the untranslated connect mode)


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## Deleted User (Jan 23, 2020)

dazindude said:


> I just completed the game on an everdrive no issues zero crashes or bugs so I'm super confused about the reports of it being buggy or incomplete. (besides the untranslated connect mode)


I have yet to test the patch myself. Maybe glitches appear on emulators and not on real hardware?


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## dazindude (Jan 23, 2020)

Dodain47 said:


> I have yet to test the patch myself. Maybe glitches appear on emulators and not on real hardware?


That's certainly possible someone earlier in the thread suggested patching the game using the online ips patcher made it not work so I used the offline one instead.


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## zfreeman (Jan 23, 2020)

The header needs fixed or the typical emulator will mishandle the game. On real hardware, the header is not used, hence, no issues.


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## dazindude (Jan 23, 2020)

zfreeman said:


> The header needs fixed or the typical emulator will mishandle the game. On real hardware, the header is not used, hence, no issues.


Thats makes sense


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## Glyptofane (Jan 23, 2020)

dazindude said:


> I just completed the game on an everdrive no issues zero crashes or bugs so I'm super confused about the reports of it being buggy or incomplete. (besides the untranslated connect mode)


I haven't tried it yet, but those are all reasons the translator, mz, cited for having it pulled from RHDN. It sounds like it may be passable enough afterall to enjoy playing through the game, but he seems pretty ashamed of the outcome.


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## dazindude (Jan 24, 2020)

Glyptofane said:


> I haven't tried it yet, but those are all reasons the translator, mz, cited for having it pulled from RHDN. It sounds like it may be passable enough afterall to enjoy playing through the game, but he seems pretty ashamed of the outcome.


Well most of the reason I'm confused about that whole situation is he says several times that he didn't complete the translation passed a certain area in the game and that he didn't want it being released due to grammar mistakes and due to the fact that he did not finish translating the story stuff but everything is translated in this I was actually trying to find out whether this was his translation or not but I couldn't find any screenshots of his translation anywhere I'm not entirely sure how valid that is or not he said he didn't finish translating the bestiary in the game but as far as I can tell literally every monster that I scanned had a translation. So the reason for taking down the translation didn't make any sense to me after that.


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## zfreeman (Jan 24, 2020)

https://web.archive.org/web/20170503022610/https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=23531
http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=23530#msg328796
https://web.archive.org/web/20191108104655/https://www.fishyfacegames.com/product/so-blue-sphere/
"*This is a NEVER before released complete English translation!  You will not find this ROM or a patch on the web.  This translation was commissioned years ago and is now ready to be released upon the world."*


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## Bazooka_Face (Jan 25, 2020)

What are you trying to prove here?


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## BORTZ (Jan 26, 2020)

I will have to try this out. I have always been interested in the Star Ocean series from afar. I actually own 3 of them... But never really played more than 10 hours of one but. I would like to.


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## SubLoverD (Feb 10, 2020)

animex2k9 said:


> I've fixed the problem. Don't use the online ips patcher. Just use the manual offline patcher.


 I used the manual patcher which corrupted the game white screen near the beginning and then a complete white blank screen


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## animex2k9 (Feb 10, 2020)

Which program did you use? I've used the Lunar IPS Patcher. Mine worked perfectly after that.


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## AmandaRose (Feb 10, 2020)

animex2k9 said:


> Which program did you use? I've used the Lunar IPS Patcher. Mine worked perfectly after that.


I used rom patcher for android and the game also works perfectly for me.


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## bahamut920 (Feb 10, 2020)

I used IPSWin and it worked fine for the few minutes I played.


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## Miktran (Feb 13, 2020)

The game is crashing & freezing constantly while playing this game on my TW++Menu in my 3DS.
Would that be related to the translation itself being 'beta' or the previous mentioned issues with the header adjustment?
Has anyone else faced similar issues while playing in other platforms ?


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## Fugelmir (Feb 13, 2020)

Miktran said:


> The game is crashing & freezing constantly while playing this game on my TW++Menu in my 3DS.
> Would that be related to the translation itself being 'beta' or the previous mentioned issues with the header adjustment?
> Has anyone else faced similar issues while playing in other platforms ?



I didn't like the translation.  Recommend waiting for agtp's faithful, complete product.

https://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=sobs


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## DrgnMasterKota (Feb 29, 2020)

Awesome!


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## Bazooka_Face (Mar 2, 2020)

Fugelmir said:


> I didn't like the translation.  Recommend waiting for agtp's faithful, complete product.
> 
> https://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=sobs






Well, I hope your ready to wait another 10 years.. it's been 10 years since he started this project for christ sake! He might just cancel it now.


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## Fugelmir (Mar 2, 2020)

Bazooka_Face said:


> Well, I hope your ready to wait another 10 years.. it's been 10 years since he started this project for christ sake! He might just cancel it now.



He recently mentioned that it was almost complete but a couple of the private action tables need to be rewritten.  I'd expect it by the end of spring, hopefully.


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## easycrashing (Mar 16, 2021)

zfreeman said:


> The header needs fixed or the typical emulator will mishandle the game. On real hardware, the header is not used, hence, no issues.



how to do this?


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## Jayro (Mar 16, 2021)

easycrashing said:


> how to do this?


If you Google "how to fix gbc header" you'll find a tool. I did this the other day, I just don't remember the tool's name.


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## zfreeman (Mar 16, 2021)

easycrashing said:


> how to do this?


https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/24


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