ROM Hack A problem with font. . .

[Alpharage]

Uhm, so. . . today I've started playing again Megaman Starforce: Zerker x Saurian.
Despite me living in Europe, I've got the US version (and playing on my DSi XL), partly because I like games in english (that way, I can learn many new words, and also because english is cooler than my language), partly because in the US version, there are some features that were removed from the EU one.

But now, I remember why I hated playing it the first time I took the game. The font is okay but. . . there aren't spaces after commas (a grammar lover like me can't just stand something like this. . . sorry If it sounds weird. . . maybe I have a complex or something) and it drives me crazy. The text is like "hello there,my friend,how are you?". OwO

I've took some screens to highlight the problem
[ MMSF 2 - US VERSION ] Screen 1 | Screen 2

Now, my friend got the EU version of the game and, it seems, the space-after-comma issue was solved there. I would've gladly switched to the EU version myself, If it wasn't for the cool removed features.

[ MMSF 2 - EU VERSION ] Screen 1 | Screen 2

So I was thinking. . . If the problem was solved in the EU version, would be possible to replace the font file in the US version with the one from the EU one? Or. . . something like that?
Now. . . I don't understand anything about coding and such (forgive my ignorance, it's just something that my brain can't understand), but If it was actually something that could be solved switching files, I'd probably manage to do so using DSLazy. . . I think (I've saw some videos on youtube to understand how to umpack things, but that's all). owo

I've been trying to solve the problem on my own, randomly switching things, but it won't work (well, of course. . . you can't solve something trying randomly), and. . . well, I'm not sure in which file the text / font data is located as well. So I hoped someone could give me some advice?

Sorry to bother, and thank you in advance to anyone who will try to help me out with this thing! <3

 

[FAST6191]

I do not think these games use the standard nftr font format, instead it is something slightly custom. Somehow I missed the region changes, wave command cards seem kind of interesting but I will leave that one. I have not looked at the games yet and might be remembering another DS megaman game but those at least did usually have things called font, be in directory called font, have an extension along the lines of fnt, have a bunch of them with numbers at the end (the different sizes) or at least something quite obvious like that.

But yeah you have three things you can try

1) Text editing to add a space. Indeed this might well have been what the Euro script did. This will be annoying as you will also have to fix the pointers.
2) Swap the font around. Chances are the font format remains the same but the font itself might have been tweaked. Again this assumes it is a font issue and not a script issue. That said swapping the scripts around could be another option, it might be that it was copy and pasted, just with the commas fixed and will have all the stuff for wave command cards.
3) Edit the comma to make it a wide character but leave blank space to the right of things. This would probably be the way I would do it for this game if it is not just a font issue. If you look at the i in "hearing" you can see the game has a nice variable width font. Find the font, find the part of the font that lists character widths, pump up the comma's value to make it wide, maybe also add data if it needs it*

*I will spare the discussion of how to sort files if you have to increase size, for just one character though I would probably replace something else and do it that way. This may also require you to edit the script but that should only be a find and replace rather than anything that would trouble the pointers.

 

[Alpharage]

I do not think these games use the standard nftr font format, instead it is something slightly custom. Somehow I missed the region changes, wave command cards seem kind of interesting but I will leave that one. I have not looked at the games yet and might be remembering another DS megaman game but those at least did usually have things called font, be in directory called font, have an extension along the lines of fnt, have a bunch of them with numbers at the end (the different sizes) or at least something quite obvious like that.

But yeah you have three things you can try

1) Text editing to add a space. Indeed this might well have been what the Euro script did. This will be annoying as you will also have to fix the pointers.
2) Swap the font around. Chances are the font format remains the same but the font itself might have been tweaked. Again this assumes it is a font issue and not a script issue. That said swapping the scripts around could be another option, it might be that it was copy and pasted, just with the commas fixed and will have all the stuff for wave command cards.
3) Edit the comma to make it a wide character but leave blank space to the right of things. This would probably be the way I would do it for this game if it is not just a font issue. If you look at the i in "hearing" you can see the game has a nice variable width font. Find the font, find the part of the font that lists character widths, pump up the comma's value to make it wide, maybe also add data if it needs it*

*I will spare the discussion of how to sort files if you have to increase size, for just one character though I would probably replace something else and do it that way. This may also require you to edit the script but that should only be a find and replace rather than anything that would trouble the pointers.

First of all, thank you very much for the reply. <3

Yeah, the features that were removed were the Command Codes. . . I also saw in the EU version some Battle Cards can't be obtained, If not through cheats, but in this case, it's not possible to use them anyways, as they appear like blank cards with no text.

As for the issue's resolution. . . I was kind of hoping the problem would be solved through simply switching a file or two with another from the EU version (since it's the only thing I'm capable of, with DSLazy), but I think at this point I'll just try to get the EU version, I suppose. I'm not really good with romhacking. . . how I said, it's something I know I can't learn, not only because it's too complicated for someone like me, but also because trying to learn it would probably damge further my eyesight as well).
As I don't have any experience, I don't know how to locate a specific file, or to find fonts and. . . I don't have any idea of what pointers are, either. All the hexadecimal edinting stuff would kill me, I think. xD

Sorry for wasting your time like that, but I really appreciate that you tried to help me out.
Thanks once again and have a nice day!