Hacking [Translation] Shining Blade

[neoxephon]

INTRODUCTION

Hello! This is a fan translation project for Shining Blade. The aim of the project is a full translation to English and, as of writing this thread, I have been working on it for about a month.

That's a month of hacking and programming to lay the groundwork for the project. And now, I've gotten pretty close to the point that I need someone to fulfill the role of translator because that is one area that I cannot do myself. So, here I am, announcing the project to get the word out and seek help.

UPDATES

5/19/2016 - Released the first test patch internally to the team.
4/28/2016 - Finished dumping all of the text to spreadsheets.
4/27/2016 - Project announced.

SCREENSHOTS

The translations in the above screenshots are meant as a showcase of what is possible and are subject to change. (Translation source: cyberakuma)

OTHER INFORMATION

• The story has already been translated. Can you use that?
  I'm aware of the translation work done by cyberakuma. But I've yet to find any way of directly contacting him. His blogs don't seem to provide any contact details and his various website profiles have messaging disabled. If anyone knows of a way to get in contact with him, I'd appreciate the help. That said, it doesn't feel right for me to use his work without first getting his blessing. And even if that happens, it's not as simple as just copying and pasting it into the game. It will need to be edited, not just for grammar and spelling, but also for line lengths. And because I am not a translator, I cannot verify the quality of the work myself.
  
• I want to help. How can I?
  It depends on what skills you bring to the table. If you can contribute something useful to the project, send me a message here on GBAtemp.
  
• Where can I download the patch?
  There isn't any download available at this time, please check back in the future.
  
• When will it be done?
  When it's done.
  
• What are your plans for patch releases?
  We're aiming for a periodic patch releases, with the first one being the completed menu translation.
  
• Why aren't you doing an open translation?
  On the surface, opening up the translation spreadsheets to the public and letting anyone contribute what they can sounds great. But in actual practice, it creates many problems and does not work. I'm not interested in random people adding machine translations because they think that this will help speed up the project. Also, it'll end up creating inconsistencies with the tone and feel of the dialogue. If we have an established group of people working on the project, we can establish standards and keep the quality level up, while also having communication, which an open project does not provide.

TEAM

Programmer/Hacker: @neoxephon
Translator: @sephurchin
Translator: @gorzerger

HELP NEEDED!

Editor
We're looking for at least one editor to assist with the project.

• English must be your primary language.
• You must be able to do quality editing. Spelling, punctuation, grammar and consistency are all important.
• You must be willing to work in a team.
• Knowledge of the series and the past games is very useful and, in some cases, essential.
• You must have free time and be willing to actively contribute to the project.
• You must keep internal test patches private. We release public patches when it is ready.

Image Editor
We're looking for one image editor to assist with the project.

• Must be adept with image editing.
• You must be willing to work in a team.
• You must have free time and be willing to actively contribute to the project.
• You must keep internal test patches private. We release public patches when it is ready.

This job is for the near future, as we move closer to starting to translate the textures.

 

[flame1234]

You're recruiting for translator. So you should post the game size (in characters) if you know it. It helps to know how big of a project it is.

 

[neoxephon]

You're recruiting for translator. So you should post the game size (in characters) if you know it. It helps to know how big of a project it is.

I don't have a number, I'm currently setting up the spreadsheets with the dumped script. However, it's a JRPG. So the script is quite large. The game spans 10 chapters, as well as the additional side content. Anyone that is interested in getting a sense of the size might be able to get a rough idea by checking out the blog-based translation that is linked to in the first post.

 

[zero_g_monkey]

Good luck! I had looked at this game a while back but something kept me from wanting to pursue it further. Looking forward to playing it when it gets done.

 

[Deleted User]

Awesome that someone got around to this project. I can lend a hand in translation if you would like. Also have you thought about the controversial difficulty hack as well. This game is waaaaaaaay to easy no mater what setting you chose. Again congrats for the official project!!

 

[flame1234]

Anyone that is interested in getting a sense of the size might be able to get a rough idea by checking out the blog-based translation that is linked to in the first post.

Based on this I get a count of 160k characters (estimated). Surely there's more stuff in the game than what CyberAkuma translated.

 

[neoxephon]

Awesome that someone got around to this project. I can lend a hand in translation if you would like. Also have you thought about the controversial difficulty hack as well. This game is waaaaaaaay to easy no mater what setting you chose. Again congrats for the official project!!

About helping with translating, I'll send you a PM in a moment. As for difficulty, I've heard it's quite easy except for the extra parts at the end of the game. Maybe if I get to the point that I have nothing else that needs to be done, I'll try to see what it would take to increase the difficulty.

Based on this I get a count of 160k characters (estimated). Surely there's more stuff in the game than what CyberAkuma translated.

There probably is. I'm not sure how complete it is. There are 104 files of varying sizes that are purely script. As well as a handful of files that follow the script file format but are more general game messages. I'll look at getting a character count when I've finished transferring it all into spreadsheets. At the moment, I've stopped that momentarily, because I may have found a way to improve my script dumps with the character name of whoever is currently speaking. I think that would be worthwhile for anyone attempting to translate it.

 

[zero_g_monkey]

I can say for a fact that having the names is a huge plus and if you were able to load the image that goes with it somehow... even better. That is why I am playing through Zero with the spreadsheets so that I can get a read on the facial expressions of the characters (because sometimes it really does help with trying to put text into context) and also for the very rare occasion of the game using actual voice dialog in the game. I'd offer help but my life is completely booked solid with real life and working on getting our projects in gear. But will definitely cheer you on!

 

[neoxephon]

Success!!



Also, an update on the total character count that @flame1234 asked about. The script and general text combined, I get a total of 661,333 characters. Minus the occasional control code, it should still be pretty close. And minus any of the texture based text.

Annnndddd... all of the text is now dumped into spreadsheets.

 

[StorMyu]

I've been looking for translators since 2013, good luck.

 

[chevkraken]

About helping with translating, I'll send you a PM in a moment. As for difficulty, I've heard it's quite easy except for the extra parts at the end of the game. Maybe if I get to the point that I have nothing else that needs to be done, I'll try to see what it would take to increase the difficulty.
.

for an eventuel difficulty patch, I have already made a list of what was needed to increase the difficulty without any AI hack(who will be too difficult)

for the translation, you Should contact sockerem from Gamefaqs forum,

http://www.gamefaqs.com/users/sockerem/boards

he was the one who corrected all all the cyberakuma translation (cyberarkuma is mechgouki from Gamefaqs forum, try to contact him)

Try to contact UnfazedGamer from this board http://www.gamefaqs.com/users/UnfazedGamer/boards

He translated some element from Shining Ark, so he like the serie and have japanese knowledge

xplodax have also translated somes part of Shining Ark and Resonance, he could also help you


You could also check in fansub teams, some team translated Shining Hearts anime so they could be familliar withthe universe and love it.

there was also some players understanding the game on animesuki forum (so some of them understand japanese), you could ask them.

I am going to ask to some message board were there is some fan of the series(some of them have japanese knowledge)

 

[neoxephon]

@chevkraken Thanks, I'll see about getting into contact with those people. I knew about cyberakuma being mech_gouki on GameFAQs. I was going to send him a PM on there, but couldn't because my board level is not high enough.

 

[chevkraken]

My level is high enough to send MP, do you want I send him an MP?

 

[neoxephon]

My level is high enough to send MP, do you want I send him an MP?

If you can make him aware of this project, that'd certainly help.

 

[neoxephon]

For the last few days, I have been working on fixing the category tabs for the Items menu screen.

The tabs are done using textures and the original space given was not enough to fit the text.

As you can see, I managed to re-arrange how the text in the texture was laid out and it now fit. You see, all four tabs are crammed together in a 128x32 texture and because of differences in lengths after translating from Japanese to English, the original layout wouldn't work.

But now there was a problem with two things. One you can see in the above screenshot, the text is stretched and looks bad. This is because they were set to values perfect for the length of the Japanese text. The second problem was the tab background, it was the wrong widths on the Accessories and Artifacts tabs.

After debugging for awhile, I located the values controlling the X vertices for the "text" in the texture and for the tab background. They're used in calculating the width for these textures.

Here is the finished product. You can't see it in this screenshot, but all of the tab backgrounds line up properly with the tab text. Well, that's one thing done with.

 

[gorzerger]

I can help translating if you want, pm me if you'd like.

 

[neoxephon]

Just a quick update to say that progress is going good and we've started to do internal testing of what we have translated so far.

 

[StorMyu]

Nice !

 

[Deleted member 391414]

I am looking forward to this translation so much. I love the gameplay and I would really like to get the story in an immersive way. I also would like to understand what the stats are haha. Thank you guys so much for this.

 

[KainLegacy535]

Really thank you, the hype train is here and i on board.