Hacking Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity - English Translation

[Drak0rex]

Some may be familiar with Phantasy Star Portable and Portable 2 which received English releases, however 2 Infinity never did. Personally I really like this game and it's quite a considerable expansion so I thought it was a shame no patch has been released so I decided to take a look.

(The following screens are the first examples of text insertion,
they do not represent the actual patch's quality)

*More screens here*

http://gbatemp.net/threads/phantasy...glish-translation.368328/page-37#post-5668740

GROUP MEMBERS

ArasKarasu - Script organisation, typesetting, editing
LoliRam - Script organisation, typesetting, editing
MrFwibbles - Script organisation, typesetting, editing
Weyu - Script organisation, typesetting, editing
JamRules - Romhacking

SPECIAL THANKS

DeviFoxx - for giving permission to use this comprehensive guide
(http://www.devimension.com/dona/psp2i_guide_download.html)
essen – for research into .nbl
fuzziqer – for research into prs encryption
@akiyoruno - for providing extra script resources

EXAMPLE VIDEOS

Example Video - MrFwibbles - Mar 22, 2015



Extended Look - MrFwibbles Sep 14, 2015



Story Demonstration - Weyu - Sep 18, 2015



PROGRESS – Technical

A large amount of functionality has been implemented to facilitate the breaking apart of the many different formats the game uses, however key issues remain.
In general the game is currently unstable and suffers from crashes which should be considered to make it unplayable in its current state.

To do:

Fixes to prevent crashes
-much progress has been made in this area, for example fixes to prevent buffer overruns, changes to help minimize file sizes (RAM usage), etc.
-due to the magnitude of files and the nature of the way files need to be constructed together and archived multiple times debugging these issues can be very time consuming
-it should also be noted that English text generally ends up being much longer in length that the original Japanese, and therefore uses more memory than would have originally been expected

.pmf subs (including timing, encoding, etc) - the game actually uses soft subs so that needs investigating
- as part of an initial investigation an initial functionality has been written to "demux" .pmf files using the packets of their respective streams into video, audio and subtitle streams
- initial investigation into the application of timestamping has been completed to allow timecodes to be pulled for the subs
- subpic exporter has been written to allow the soft-subs to be exported - they can now be muxed into a .mkv and viewed, aiding in translation for Episode 2.
- Episode 1 subpic's will be converted via OCR to allow hardcoding (mainly so that PPSSPP is supported)
- some way to re-encode and remux the files needs devising

*If you know of some other games that use .pmf softsubs I would be very interested to know. You might be able to spot that a game has subs when ran on a real PSP but not on PPSSPP, in that case then it may indicate similar softsubs are present*

asm hack to adjust UI displays
- some UI elements need adjusting to accommodate the English text
- this may not just be from a visual perspective, internally a set amount of allocated space may exist to store text and as English text generally ends up being much longer than the original Japanese memory allocations need adjusting

Other technical randomness - loads of fixes, etc. - too much to mention / *never-ending*

PROGRESS – Translation

Mission-specific battle chat
Mission names and descriptions
Area names
In-mission tutorials, objective text, etc.
Glossary
-mostly complete, needs proper insertion for testing

[The above text is mainly from newer version files found in the game (~10000 files, loads of text)]

All story/NPC dialogue translated and inserted (including tutorials and Client Requests)
-initial version translated and inserted

All inventory/Visiphone names and descriptions
-armor
-modules
-items
-costumes
-weapons
-monsters
-photon arts etc.
-initial translation complete and inserted

All Battle Chat (including all variations of MySynth)
-initial translation complete and inserted

Typesetting, Testing and Clean-up
-in progress - this will take quite a while


PROGRESS – Other
-Textures - important textures now mostly replaced
-Testing - Loads todo here

[Note: this post may not be an up-to-date representation of current progress, further progress may have been made - read the forum for the latest]


FAQs

Spoiler: When will the patch be released?

Please check this threads "Threadmarks" to find the latest updates from the team.

Spoiler: Will there be a partial patch?

The patch will be released as a full patch, this means it won't be released until it is fully done.
This is to ensure that the patch will be in a stable and properly usable state.

Spoiler: How will you be distributing the patch?

We're not sure what service we will use to distribute the patch at this time.
If you have any good suggestions for where we may host the patch please let us know.
The final patch size is not know at the moment but may be around 500MB or more.

Spoiler: How will I install the patch?

The patch will most likely come in the form of an .xdelta patch file.
You will need to use some software to apply this .xdelta file to an ISO of the original game.
More information will be provided upon release.

Spoiler: Do I need to own a UMD copy of the game? / Can the patch be applied to a physical copy of the game?

You will need an ISO of the original game to apply the patch too.
There are ways to dump this using your own UMD, please search how to do this if unsure.
We will not be providing a copy of the ISO.

Spoiler: Will multiplayer still work?

The online component of the game is now offline, as it the case for all PSP games.
The adhoc mode still works however and there are ways to set this up to allow multiplayer over the internet.

For more information please see here:
https://sites.google.com/site/psp2iguide/playing-online

Spoiler: Will the patch work with PPSSPP?

Yes, the patched game can be played using PPSSPP.

Please note that by default PPSSPP doesn't use the same font as an original PSP.
You can however install it.

Spoiler: Will you also be translating the DLC?

We are planning to also translate the dlc quests, those that are available here http://www.psp2infinity.jp/pc/mission/).
However, we don't plan to translate any of the psn store paid dlc items, etc.

Spoiler: Will my existing savedata work?

Existing save data for the unpatched version will continue to work with the patched version.

Additionally there are methods to import your savedata from Phantasy Star Portable 2.
You can search for these yourself or read the post by JC200X here which may help:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/phantas...glish-translation.368328/page-30#post-5514412

or this post by Anubis1101
Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity - English Translation

You spelled unauthorized wrong

 

[MasterJ360]

Excited to see this finished and finally play this game! With PSO 2 finally out this year, 2020 is gonna be a good Phantasy Star Online year

Yeah you definitely want to keep a close eye on pso2 when its fully out there will be limited collaborated characters that you can add to our party like Nagisa. I have her on my JP account.

 

[Eleven]

This is gonna be sweeeet.

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

This gonna be so sweeeet.

 

[Weyu]

Lots of testing finished, but still more to be done.

 

[arnautg2002]

Lots of testing finished, but still more to be done.

I wonder... do the savedata modifier tool affect anything? maybe it can help you search for certain bugs? it basically lets u choose your level, name, emilia's affection points and if the chapters are or not completed, or if u have done the "infinity thing" where u go back to lvl 1, but with extra stats, also lets u use any hability, etc just asking to see if it can help you in your quest searching for bugs // edit: the infinity thing I meant is the rebirth... Im tired and didnt remember the name XD

 

[laz305]

The items are the most important part. Any plans on an eta on that?

 

[Temeraire]

life took over, and when i looked back, PSO2 was on it's way to the states, and PSP2i is nearly done. you guys are doing wonderful work, and I appreciate your dedication to finishing this massive task.

 

[NiamhNyx]

life took over, and when i looked back, PSO2 was on it's way to the states, and PSP2i is nearly done. you guys are doing wonderful work, and I appreciate your dedication to finishing this massive task.

This is gonna be a good year.

 

[IncognitoMan]

Whats the situation exactly? If it's just some hacks to adjust drawing of text boxes/character limits I might be of some help since I'm doing just that on another game... ( taking a break for now since the code makes me want to poke my eyes out )

Lemme know if I can be of any help and I'll try to poke at it.

Thanks for the offer, but we're already past that stage. We basically have almost everything working regarding the UI and the translation itself.
Last I heard from Jam, the re-compressed files did not 1:1 match the original files which caused freezes, but he was working on it and getting closer to figuring out what the problem was.
But since a while I haven't heard from him. As said before, I hope he's just super busy or something and that he'll reappear eventually.

asm hack to adjust UI displays
- some UI elements need adjusting to accommodate the English text
- this may not just be from a visual perspective, internally a set amount of allocated space may exist to store text and as English text generally ends up being much longer than the original Japanese memory allocations need adjusting

Still open to help with that... just need to know what needs to be changed.

 

[Fencie]

Lots of testing finished, but still more to be done.

P.o.g.C.h.a.m.p

I am so hyped for this. Youse guys are making my year great.

 

[Weyu]

Still open to help with that... just need to know what needs to be changed.

Thanks, but we're good on that front.

 

[mudzilla]

Great to hear you're still working on this. Thanks for all the hard work, really looking forward to it.

 

[kagekyo]

to everyone who working this project
OMEGA GOOD JOB

 

[Weyu]

In the midst of multiplayer testing using my spiffy red/black fat Vita and my old PSP.
Surprisingly you can use ad-hoc play between the two consoles and the MP experience is very smooth.
And a bonus slim Vita.

 

[Silvor]

In the midst of multiplayer testing using my spiffy red/black fat Vita and my old PSP.
Surprisingly you can use ad-hoc play between the two consoles and the MP experience is very smooth.
And a bonus slim Vita.

View attachment 199150

That's awesome!
Great to see the progress

 

[SERAPHiM_GAMMA]

....multiplayer can be played on a VITA?!
（ホリ　シート!）

I need to get a vita right the heck now!!1

 

[Weyu]

For people who only check this thread and not the sub-forum: we're now recruiting testers for the patch and I've started a thread.

 

[SCOTT0852]

....multiplayer can be played on a VITA?!

The Vita's PSPEMU supports pretty much all of the PSP's features, including adhoc multiplayer.

 

[Uzaeris101]

Alright so, I read through the beta testers post and would love to apply, however I still haven't met the amount of posts required to be able to pm someone as I don't really use this site often for purposes other than checking up on this thread specifically. I was wondering if the application had to be done through here specifically or if there's somewhere else I can apply through?

 

[Thanos3212]

https://www.siliconera.com/phantasy-star-online-2-to-end-playstation-vita-support-in-japan/

Now that PS02 is about to die on vita. Will the team finally resume work on Nova?