ROM Hack Vampire Knight DS Game Translation

[Zorbnog]

I wonder if we can translate/try to change the text a little bit.

I am almost done with volleyball, woooo! Hopefully I can help with some translations soon!

 

[z3tzilla]

I wonder if we can translate/try to change the text a little bit.

I am almost done with volleyball, woooo! Hopefully I can help with some translations soon!

There are still some key problems to solve before you can edit the text unfortunately.
From what I understand, the text is stored in chunks. Each chunk contains text lines and a pointer table for those lines. Even worse is that all the lines are sorted by length. This raises a couple of questions:
1. Will the game break if the new lines are not sorted by length?
2. Will the game break if the modified chunk size is different?
3. Is there a way to find all text chunks and extract them?
4. Is it possible to find some sort of script in the ROM (so that you see the lines as they appear in the game, not out of context)?

You'd still need to recalculate all pointers so that the game knows where to look for new lines...

If there's a hard limit for chunk size in the game then that means you'd face another difficult problem -- the japanese is a much more compact language and you'd need to make you translations compact as well (or use some tricks to fit more text).

Nothing unsolvable, just needs a bit of research.

As an exercise you can modify the "input first/last name" messages for character naming screen without changing the line length. It should display normally in the game.

 

[z3tzilla]

3. Is there a way to find all text chunks and extract them?
4. Is it possible to find some sort of script in the ROM (so that you see the lines as they appear in the game, not out of context)?

Well, yes and yes...

I wrote a tool that scans the arm bin file for pointers and then checks if they are pointing at text and if there are pointers that point towards those pointers...
Good news is, despite the fact that the lines are scrambled, there is some sort of structure to it all and the pointers to lines are kept in chronological order. And there are pointers that split the script into chapters or some basic structure.

You can see the results here, do note that it's not final and there might be errors.

@PhantomGhost, I used your font table to generate the script, so if there's any context you needed for any of the characters -- this is where you can search for them.

Edit: For example, look for "0B1690". That's the beginning of the game.

 

[PhantomGhost]

Woah, I can't thank you enough for this!! I've reviewed those characters left in font now, and I think I'm pretty happy with it! (Plus I've realized that given the amount of voice acting in the game, if there is anything wrong left, it should be fairly easy to spot.)

I'm surprised to find that in scenes which share lines, the script actually just uses duplicate copies, but that certainly makes it a lot easier to follow!

I can't quite figure out how the game distinguishes between the main character's first and full name. For example, in the intro;

0AF2DC --> 0C9F9C: （私の名前は<01><0A><02> (full name)
0AF330 --> 0CFF28: おはよう、<01><0A><02> (first name only. And, for some reason '今日もご苦労様。' seems to be missing after?)

There's also a section around 1B8B80 before it gets back to the character naming screen that appears to be junk.

 

[z3tzilla]

I can't quite figure out how the game distinguishes between the main character's first and full name. For example, in the intro;

0AF2DC --> 0C9F9C: （私の名前は<01><0A><02> (full name)
0AF330 --> 0CFF28: おはよう、<01><0A><02> (first name only. And, for some reason '今日もご苦労様。' seems to be missing after?)

Yeah, that's one of the tricks they use. Did you notice that all characters in character groups start with 0x10? That's because bytes 0x00-0x0F are special and are not used to print out characters.

For example, if there's a single 0x0A -- that's the newline symbol.
It gets trickier for all the others... You're absolutely right that there's stuff missing in both lines. The way the game prints out character name is that it has a sequence of bytes pointing to the memory address with its values. It goes something like 01 0A 02 00 01, i.e. "print from 0x0100020A" (I think?) where the (first?) name is stored. My tool stops reading text after encountering 0x00 so the rest of the lines get ignored.
That's why I warned that the script is incomplete.
I think the guys figured the way those work in the old thread, I'll give it a look. As soon as I'm able to understand the way those symbols work I'll post the correct script (with the updated font data!).

 

[PhantomGhost]

@z3tzilla To be honest, the technical stuff is kind of above me(!) I might have to bother you for a n00b-proof guide on opening the extracted images you posted on mediafire in the future too >_>' (Though I should be fine on the editing side, since I've done some DS game stuff before.)

But, I'm seriously floored and overjoyed that we've even got a semblance of script to be working with given how much trouble this game seemed to be. You're incredibly talented!

If it's of any help, the default name in there is 黒主 (Kurosu) 優姫 (Yūki), or in western style; Yuki Cross.

Once we've got a good idea of how the translation's going to need to be formatted, I'm planning to make a Discord server and start contacting other translators who might be interested, but as of right now I'm working through it on a spreadsheet. Currently up to my third round of the repeating scene in chapter 1!

(And if you did want to catch me on Discord for any reason, I'm @Phantom#0462 )

 

[z3tzilla]

Thanks for the kind words
I'll do my best to explain on how to work with those images...

Can you check if the text at 0B1694 goes after the beginning portion at 0B1690?

Also, what would be the preferred format for the script?

 

[PhantomGhost]

That'd be awesome, thank you!

The last line of the section at the beginning is at 0AF4D4. Then, it jumps to 0A198C. That part has a yes/no choice where you can view an explanation about how to go on patrol. (The yes choice is 0A10D0, the no just skips ahead.) Given that, I think it's possible this scene is missed out on replays.

On patrol, the player can freely move about so you get branching scenes here. 0B1694 is when you run into Zero, and another example is 0A9698 where you meet Kaname. I'm not 100% on this, but think there's 7 options here.

By format, I meant the general set-up/limitations of the script, like roughly what the English character limit for each line is, and if there's any other text codes to note like <0A>. I'd like to write up a list of any info that's useful to know, so any new translators can jump straight in!

That might mean holding off on starting up the server until most of the hacking work is done, but in my experience it works better to contact interested people when everything is ready for them, rather than making contact and getting back in touch however far down the line to find they've lost interest or disappeared. ^^' There's no pressure to be rushing on with that though! I'm quite happy working on it separately right now and build up familiarity.

Though, I was thinking it might be useful if there's a way to automate breaking the arm9 down into sections where the jumps are, so we could have a bunch of files roughly split into their scenes instead of one long script. That'd make it easier to distribute things amongst a group, (assuming it's even possible.)

EDIT 19/4: I came across a small mistake, '淺' should have been '滲', and has now been updated in the font!

 

[Zorbnog]

That'd be awesome, thank you!

The last line of the section at the beginning is at 0AF4D4. Then, it jumps to 0A198C. That part has a yes/no choice where you can view an explanation about how to go on patrol. (The yes choice is 0A10D0, the no just skips ahead.) Given that, I think it's possible this scene is missed out on replays.

On patrol, the player can freely move about so you get branching scenes here. 0B1694 is when you run into Zero, and another example is 0A9698 where you meet Kaname. I'm not 100% on this, but think there's 7 options here.

By format, I meant the general set-up/limitations of the script, like roughly what the English character limit for each line is, and if there's any other text codes to note like <0A>. I'd like to write up a list of any info that's useful to know, so any new translators can jump straight in!

That might mean holding off on starting up the server until most of the hacking work is done, but in my experience it works better to contact interested people when everything is ready for them, rather than making contact and getting back in touch however far down the line to find they've lost interest or disappeared. ^^' There's no pressure to be rushing on with that though! I'm quite happy working on it separately right now and build up familiarity.

Though, I was thinking it might be useful if there's a way to automate breaking the arm9 down into sections where the jumps are, so we could have a bunch of files roughly split into their scenes instead of one long script. That'd make it easier to distribute things amongst a group, (assuming it's even possible.)

EDIT 19/4: I came across a small mistake, '淺' should have been '滲', and has now been updated in the font!

I think there are 7 (?) choices for each route in the game: Kaname, Zero, Hanabusa, Akatsuki, Takuma, Rima(?), and Senri.

Also sorry for being gone a bit; volleyball ended but my mother has been dealing with some medical issues. I'll try to talk to Phantom more on Discord.

Thanks guys for everything!!!

 

[Deleted member 467926]

Everything is going so well! Im glad, and hopefully i can force my laptop to do some of it, as for the file format, i think .DAT might be a good idea, and dont worry about the translations not being compact. If possible, try and find out the max characters per line and we can work with that. Also a discord server is a good idea
Also since im not at doing ds stuff, ill help out with translations and keeping them as compact as i can, ill also try and expand the table some more

 

[Zorbnog]

Everything is going so well! Im glad, and hopefully i can force my laptop to do some of it, as for the file format, i think .DAT might be a good idea, and dont worry about the translations not being compact. If possible, try and find out the max characters per line and we can work with that. Also a discord server is a good idea
Also since im not at doing ds stuff, ill help out with translations and keeping them as compact as i can, ill also try and expand the table some more

I don't remember if I said this before but a server is a great idea! I can create one right now!

Edit: I made the server! https://discord.gg/V28Dpx7

 

[Zorbnog]

Hi everyone!

In case you were curious, I am alive. XD

The team is more active on discord, which is free for anyone to join. If you want updates, join!

We have started translations on the game so yay!

I almost have time for more translating of the game. From the last time I posted to this point, there is so much stuff that is going on that my head metaphorically exploded.

Now I just have headaches LOL.

Anyway.

I will try to post updates on hereeee!

Stay tuned.

If you have any questions just let me know. My discord is open a lot of the time.

ALSO THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! <3333 Your support makes me so happy and warm. >v<

I hope we can get this game translated!!!! DDD Wouldn't that be awesome!?

Anyway,

Zorbnog out for now!~

 

[StrangeLola]

Thank you so much for this. I mean I hope you can find all the help you need. I'd love to help, but I don't know anything about these kinda things .

So happy to see that even in 2019 there are people willing to translate games for DS .
Been wanting to play Vampire Knight for YEARS. Hope you can finish it!

Best wishes!

 

[Flame]

do you want this thread still open?

 

[PhantomGhost]

@Flame The project is now under new management, so you can close this thread, please

 

[Flame]

@Zorbnog if you want this thread re-open please PM.

 

[Zorbnog]

@Zorbnog if you want this thread re-open please PM.

Thanks for reopening it.

Folks I’m alive. I’ve been taking this time to think everything over and learning Japanese, and I think that there should be someone first to make a transcript. My mistake is not knowing the kanji since everything is so small. That makes my life hell. Then from there we can progress translations. Also, Google Docs hates me existence so I might have to upload a doc or something. Anyway that’s for me.

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

^ Also if you have questions join the Vampire Knight Discord and send me a message. That’s the quickest form of communication.

 

[Zorbnog]

Alright alright folks. You may have seen or heard about Otogelib and their post about Vampire Knight. I got some good news for everyone!

I got in contact with Phantom, whom I worked with previously. We had a falling out but I am happy to announce that we resolved our issues and we are going to work together from now on, as well as moving forward together! I'm really excited for this! We have a lot in store! >v<

That's it for now.
Love, Zorbnog~

 

[Zorbnog]

Hey everyone. I have a small request for everyone here.

Phantom and I need your help for the game! We are looking for people to help us out with the chapter 3 script. It doesn't seem like a lot but it would mean a big deal for me and Phantom and it would also help us translate and hack the game a lot faster! <3 There are two things at the moment we need help with:
1) Name Labelers
No knowledge of Japanese is needed. We need people to help us create a script instead of people going in and playing the game in order to understand what is going on.
2) Building the Script Up Basic knowledge of kana needed. We need people to help us search for main lines in the text dump.

It would honestly mean so much and it would help both of us not get stressed out or feeling overworked. And, it would help progress the game's development.

Please reply here or private message me if you want to help out. If you have any questions, I'll reply as soon as I can. Thank you! <3

Zorbnog out!~

 

[Zorbnog]

Hello everyone, I am back with once again another request.

We are looking for some translators to finish the untranslated portions of the game. It will very helpful for us and it will allow people to progress farther through the game than they already have.

Requirements: fluent/native in Japanese and intermediate knowledge of English.

Please contact me through here or the Vampire Knight DS discord; if you come through the Discord, just let me know that you can help out.

Thank you for everyone for your continuous support. <3