ROM Hack [WIP] Dragon Quest VIII (8) "Restoration" Project

DarkSynopsis · Dec 4, 2016

Here we have what I'm going to call "B1" previously I labeled releases as Alpha since there was still quite a bit of work to be done and I had not really done any testing but since then Myself and @Canzah have been hard at work at restoring what we can.

Huge credit goes to @Canzah for going in and getting a strap back on the Magic Bikini, Moving Polygons for the Dancer to have the split in the skirt and the huge pain in the ass task of recreating the Bunny outfit which required redoing UV mapping and all sorts.

This release brings the Dancer/Bunny, along with an NPC we missed, and High Tension models have also been restored to match.

With this everything should now be restored and with any luck is the final release unless bugs are found.

First Image = Original 3DS
Second Image = Restoration

Don't worry about the glitched front, just the 3D Rendered on PC, fine in-game.

Use: Should just be a matter of dragging and dropping the folders onto SD Card and booting up NTR CFW, contains LayeredFS for JPN/EU not US as of yet.

"dq8res" should be on the root of your SD card doesn't need to be within a TitleID folder.

For whatever reason I ended up watching various Censored Gaming Videos and came across DQ8 on the 3DS.

Now is it really "censoring" when the changes are made by the devs in Japan and not a localization team? debatable, which is why I'm calling this a "Restoration" and not "Uncensored".

With the game fast approaching the West I decided to take a look at restoring some of the changes, this pretty much comes down the outfit changes, not much I can do about the 2 "cutscenes" mentioned in the video since they don't appear to be .moflex files which means its not any easy change, maybe if the old animations got left in it might be possible but seems highly unlikely!

I myself haven't touched a Dragon Quest game but since they seem to get high praise I am looking forward to giving this one a shot, keeping that in mind, any changes I have made so far I haven't actually tested in-game.

This brings me to the changes I have done so far.

This outfit has proven to be a tricky one, the UV Mapping doesn't quite match the PS2 Textures which made it tough for me to modify the bikini top into what is found in the PS2 version, I couldn't get it looking right so for the time being just the Skirt has been removed.

I'm curious to know how this turns out in-game since I didn't actually edit the 3D Model and remove the skirt I just made it transparent within the texture and put some skin back since with the skirt removed there is like blue shorts.

Depending on how the lighting system works it could potentially still look like the skirt is there in shadows? or light just might bounce of the character wrong.

Hell, maybe its not even transparent in the game and just Ohana3DS, the tool being used to view/edit the 3D Model.

First = Original
Second = Modified Version

PS2 Texture ported over great, fully restored.

First = Original
Second = Modified Version

Had some problems with skin just under the skirt, didn't port great from the PS2 version so I had to kinda do it myself, not quite happy with the results but I feel you can't really tell from a distance like the shot, be curious to know if its even something noticeable in-game.

First = Original
Second = Modified Version

PS2 Texture ported no problem but its not quite fully restored, in the original PS2 version her skirt parts a little on her right side? I tried to make a section transparent in the texture to replicate that but it didn't quite work so might need a model edit, so the only real change is you can see the top of her underwear now I guess...

First = Original
Second = Modified Version

PS2 Texture ported over great, fully restored.

First = Original
Second = Modified Version

Now with all the screenshots out of the way, you might notice the modified version are lighter? in skin colour, seems all the skin in 3DS version got changed, due to this its possible the faces might revert back to the 3DS skin colour if they animate, without testing these in-game I've no clue, I do want to match the 3DS skin colour I just haven't quite found the right settings to get it exact atm.

I have seen images of another model that is "censored" that is not mentioned in the video and that is some sort of female warrior? since I had no luck extracting the textures straight out of the PS2 version I've had to run the game in an emulator and capture them using a tool which means I need to see the character in question, I have a save that can fast travel every where? I checked various towns for 30ish minutes and couldn't find her so any help on that would be great, screenshot in the spoiler below.

Here in the first image you can see she has what? black shorts? where as the PS2 version she doesn't.

Third image is of another character I saw while looking through all the 3DS Models, seems to have the exact same thing done, I'm unsure if this is an actual change from the PS2 version or not though, if so I also need to find her.

Look forward to the Western release so I can actually see how this all turns out

zombone · Dec 4, 2016

Nice work. I don't have a save file for the game, but I will try to find one or just start from scratch and test your restoration. I was actually thinking about doing this very same thing myself, and I also already have the music from the Japanese version ready to replace the synth in the western release. Anyways, I'll let you know the results along with any relevant screenshots.

BTW, that last picture is of Carrie. The model appears to be the same in both versions. You can see her in the PS2 game here:

zombone · Dec 5, 2016

Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's going to work too well. I got far enough in the game to reach Jessica and rather than playing far enough to get the outfits I decided to edit her main attire making the skirt shorter, similar to how you did the Magic Bikini.

As you can see there are artifacts and parts of the skirt are still visible. I believe the artifacts are due to the version of Ohana3DS that I used, which made the edited bch quite a bit larger than the original. The unedited bch is 249kb, but the one with the edited texture was 441kb. The ones you edited also appear to be much larger files compared to the originals.

At that point, I figured I would try other versions of Ohana to see if I could find one that did not make the files overly large. I did manage to find one that retains the original file size and seems to not have the garbage, but it still does not make the edited parts invisible and has another problem. The texture quality gets pretty messed up, presumably due to compression, showing a line down the middle of her front and back.

So due to these results it looks like it won't be possible to do something like removing the long skirt on the Magic Bikini, and with versions I have tried of Ohana3DS, there will be either the corrupted graphics or poor textures.

I'm going to test older versions of Ohana, in the hopes that one of them saves the bch files at correct sizes without messing up the textures but it looks like removing that part of the bikini is going to require an actual model edit instead of just texture.

Asia81 · Dec 5, 2016

I didn't even know the game will be censored (didn't play the 8, sorry).
Is the 7 on 3DS censored too?

Anyways why not just copy files from th JAP version and inject them in the EUR/USA version once released?
Or is the JAP version censored too? Only the PS2 version is not censored?

zombone · Dec 5, 2016

Asia81 said:
I didn't even know the game will be censored (didn't play the 8, sorry).
Is the 7 on 3DS censored too?

Anyways why not just copy files from th JAP version and inject them in the EUR/USA version once released?
Or is the JAP version censored too? Only the PS2 version is not censored?

The JP version has the altered outfits as well, supposedly due to SquareEnix wanting to get a lower rating. And yeah, the PS2 version is unaltered to my knowledge. I don't believe there are any differences in DQ7, not anything too provocative there that I can think of.

DarkSynopsis · Dec 6, 2016

zombone said:
So due to these results it looks like it won't be possible to do something like removing the long skirt on the Magic Bikini, and with versions I have tried of Ohana3DS, there will be either the corrupted graphics or poor textures.

I'm going to test older versions of Ohana, in the hopes that one of them saves the bch files at correct sizes without messing up the textures but it looks like removing that part of the bikini is going to require an actual model edit instead of just texture.

Damn, could take the model into 3D Software and try remove the skirt, but no clue if that is going to import nicely/if at all.

Other outfits I didn't make anything just transparent so they should work but guess the textures might be lower quality by the sounds of it, imagine you could just rename them to Jessica's default outfit for testing.

Didn't even notice the files ended up that much bigger, knew I was too hopeful just thinking it would all work out

WillTheLion · Dec 6, 2016

It's probably worth looking into how the Busty May mod worked so nicely. It removed and edited geometry and had new textures but it worked great.

This is a project worth doing!

Sonic Angel Knight · Dec 12, 2016

@DarkSynopsis Looks like your work paid off.

http://gbatemp.net/posts/6920090/

DarkSynopsis · Dec 12, 2016

Heh, didn't expect something so minor to really get any attention, cool to see though

On that note I feel like I should actually get some more work on this done, mostly been waiting for the Western Release so I can do some testing.

@zombone Any chance I could get a save where you have met Jessica?

Don Ravioli · Dec 12, 2016

So first off, I'd like to thank you for doing this, as honestly, Nintendo (and the third parties involved)'s policies on this kind of things make absolutely no sense nowadays.

Second, I'd like to mention that this actually isn't the first time this happened, as the female warriors in Monsters 3D : Terry's Wonderland also come with the added black shorts. Which unfortunately mean this was a long planned move.

I really wish companies would understand that consumers should be enlightened enough to know what they are looking at without the need to make it "safer". Oh well, for now we have dedicated people like you. Good luck with this project.

Erdrick The Hero · Dec 19, 2016

Good work so far. I'd like to point out, though, that there appears to be some extra detail in some of the 3DS textures. For example, look at Red's boots and knife. If you could combine the PS2 and 3DS textures to remove the censorship while including the extra details, that would be pretty cool.

I don't have specific details, but the censored cutscenes may be possible to uncensor if this version the game uses the same animation/script formats as the PS2 and/or iOS/Android versions of the game. If that's the case, you should be able to just replace the new animations/scripts with the originals from earlier versions of the game, complete with voiceovers from the PS2 version, if applicable.

While on the topic of DQVIII, there are some music tracks that are still synth even in the Japanese 3DS release - these could be replaced with the symphonic versions found in the western PS2 release.

NANASHI89 · Dec 19, 2016

@DarkSynopsis, Can you provide a CIA of this "restored" version on those "ISO" and "CHAOS" sites like @Asia81 did? And will it be possible to port the original PS2 symphony music as well?

EDIT: I Understand what @Erdrick The Hero is getting at. I still plan to get a physical copy on Day 1.

Erdrick The Hero · Dec 19, 2016

NANASHI89 said:
@DarkSynopsis, Can you provide a CIA of this "restored" version on those "ISO" and "CHAOS" sites like @Asia81 did? And will it be possible to port the original PS2 symphony music as well?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

As I posted directly above you, it is possible to patch the PS2 OST over the 3DS version.
I don't really want to get into the ethics/legality of piracy, but let's please not enable piracy for a brand new Dragon Quest release. We've already missed out on quite a few games in the west because Square Enix thought the series didn't sell well enough. The last thing we need is for the sales of new games to be cut for any reason.

Joe007 · Jan 18, 2017

I hope this project is still alive, western release coming in matter days.

Kamui · Jan 18, 2017

would you guys also include undub or orchestral soundtrack?

DarkSynopsis · Jan 18, 2017

Erdrick The Hero said:
Good work so far. I'd like to point out, though, that there appears to be some extra detail in some of the 3DS textures. For example, look at Red's boots and knife. If you could combine the PS2 and 3DS textures to remove the censorship while including the extra details, that would be pretty cool.

I don't have specific details, but the censored cutscenes may be possible to uncensor if this version the game uses the same animation/script formats as the PS2 and/or iOS/Android versions of the game. If that's the case, you should be able to just replace the new animations/scripts with the originals from earlier versions of the game, complete with voiceovers from the PS2 version, if applicable.

I would be happy to add details back into the "uncensored" versions, I think at the time I was doing the first pass so to say I could quite get the colour matching correctly so opted to leave it for the time being as its all in Proof of Concept stage.

As for the cutscene stuff, I've had no luck finding them in the 3DS version, I don't even know how to unpack the PS2 version to see what format stuff is in and as for Android I did manage to unpack that one, believe the formatting was different, would have been nice to grab the textures from there but they are lower quality than 3DS!

Joe007 said:
I hope this project is still alive, western release coming in matter days.

This is when I will get more serious towards getting this working since I'll hopefully find time to play the game.

I did a few tests on the JPN version and ended up with the same results as previously posted with textures going screwy.

Kamui said:
would you guys also include undub or orchestral soundtrack?

Hadn't planned on it, that is something for someone else to look into, doubt GBATemp would accept linking to audio files ripped straight from the JPN version, imagine on day 1 one of those CIA sites will have what you are after.

DarkSynopsis · Jan 18, 2017

Took another crack at it, seemed to have gotten the textures working in-game without any glitches

Don't worry about Red's T-Pose, she doesn't have same animations as Jessica, just did a model swap so I could see if the texture was working, also same goes for the female warrior in the last shot, when hitting the cutscene she went through the floor

hopefully shows I found and replaced her texture

MEGA Link to "DQ8RestorationA2.zip" (NTR LayeredFS)

For whatever reason GBATemp is not letting me attach the file, the extent of my testing is what is shown above so no clue if there are errors down the line.

WillTheLion · Jan 18, 2017

Hey you got the textures to display correctly! That's great news! Great job! I'm excited to see this work with the USA release (still working on beating VII though

)

Deleted User · Jan 18, 2017

Awesome work. Keep it up!

Canzah · Jan 18, 2017

Hey man.

Amazing work, glad you're doing this. Hope you can figure it out eventually, alternatively you could hook me up with the textures and I could see what I can do to help since I've got some experience modelling and texturing back from the days of modding Q3 Engine based games.

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