Absolute Zero Translations is a relatively high-profile group of dedicated and talented individuals who create and release translation patches for titles in the "Tales of" franchise which have never seen a localization. Their team is comprised of throughhim413 (translator), Gemini (programmer for Tales of Phantasia), Kingcom (programmer for Tales of Innocence/Tempest), StorMyu (programmer), and Kajitani-Eizan (translator). They had multiple projects in progress up until now, but had been focusing mainly on Tales of Destiny DC (PS2). They post monthly updates for the progress made on their projects, sometimes including screenshots, with particularly good progress being made as of the last few updates. They had also recently created a Discord server for their fans and those interested in their projects, as well as started to stream their translation efforts/showcase their progress on their Twitch channel. From the team's "about" page:

Absolute Zero started in August 2006. Originally throughhim413’s personal blog, it quickly became the home of a text translation for Tales of Phantasia PSX. The text translation was an overly ambitious project by a student of the Japanese language who wanted to expand his horizons and was completed in April 2007. That same year, throughhim413 met Gemini on romhacking.net and worked on a retranslation of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX) that was eventually released in 2009. In August 2007, we began work on Tales of Phantasia (PSX), which would become Absolute Zero’s first full release on December 25th, 2007. Several months later, Phantasian Productions and Absolute Zero began working on the Tales of Destiny: Director’s Cut (PS2) behind the scenes. On July 9th, 2008, Kingcom contacted throughhim413 on the romhacking.net forums and proposed a translation of Tales of Innocence (NDS). Tales of Innocence (NDS) was released June 29th 2010. Tales of the Tempest (NDS) was translated in secret and released on April 1st 2013.

The lead translator and project manager, throughhim413, has released a rather lengthy post on the team's webpage detailing the end of their work on all their projects as well as an attempt to explain the decision. In short, they began translating those Tales games which only ever saw a release in Japan, not only to benefit the fans who wouldn't be able to play and understand them otherwise, but to drum up attention and interest for the franchise in western audiences as a means to try and support the series. He reasons that, as the series has now taken off in the west, with each new iteration seeing a localization and distribution on Steam, the team's efforts to draw interest to the Tales franchise are much less important, if not entirely rendered moot. Furthermore, he says he worries that any translation projects his team releases now might be disincentives for Bandai Namco when/if they ever consider localizing older titles, so in the best interests of the franchise, he has chosen to halt all work.

I believe these games still have the potential to make a splash in the West if Bamco decides to port them to PC or release some kind of anthology collection on consoles. The same fantastic games that seemed likely to be neglected forever just a few years ago look increasingly ripe for the picking given recent trends in gaming. When the time comes for Bamco to crunch the numbers and consider releasing any of them in the West, the last thing I want is for them to think hesitate because a fan translation exists ... So that brings me once again to the question of how I can help make the Tales series a success in the West. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it lately and discussing it with friends and the only answer that I can come up with is that it’s time for us to exit stage left.

This means that their work on Tales of Phantasia X (PSP), Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X (PSP), and Tales of Destiny: Director’s Cut (PS2), has halted permanently effective immediately. Additionally, he states clearly and definitively that "Absolute Zero will not be releasing any future translation patches, nor will old patches be available for download". He does, however, promise to donate all work done so far on their projects to Bandai Namco, should they ever request it of him.

Source

 

[Reploid]

well, that blows.

 

[Wuigi]

Bamco?

 

[Meteor7]

Bamco?

It's a portmanteau of "Bandai Namco."

 

[Blaze Uchiha]

W

View attachment 115464​

Absolute Zero Translations is a relatively high-profile group of dedicated and talented individuals who create and release translation patches for titles in the "Tales of" franchise which have never seen a localization. Their team is comprised of throughhim413 (translator), Gemini (programmer for Tales of Phantasia), Kingcom (programmer for Tales of Innocence/Tempest), StorMyu (programmer), and Kajitani-Eizan (translator). They had multiple projects in progress up until now, but had been focusing mainly on Tales of Destiny DC (PS2). They post monthly updates for the progress made on their projects, sometimes including screenshots, with particularly good progress being made as of the last few updates. They had also recently created a Discord server for their fans and those interested in their projects, as well as started to stream their translation efforts/showcase their progress on their Twitch channel. From the team's "about" page:

The lead translator and project manager, throughhim413, has released a rather lengthy post on the team's webpage detailing the end of their work on all their projects as well as an attempt to explain the decision. In short, they began translating those Tales games which only ever saw a release in Japan, not only to benefit the fans who wouldn't be able to play and understand them otherwise, but to drum up attention and interest for the franchise in western audiences as a means to try and support the series. He reasons that, as the series has now taken off in the west, with each new iteration seeing a localization and distribution on Steam, the team's efforts to draw interest to the Tales franchise are much less important, if not entirely rendered moot. Furthermore, he says he worries that any translation projects his team releases now might be disincentives for Bandai Namco when/if they ever consider localizing older titles, so in the best interests of the franchise, he has chosen to halt all work.


This means that their work on Tales of Phantasia X (PSP), Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X (PSP), and Tales of Destiny: Director’s Cut (PS2), has halted permanently effective immediately. Additionally, he states clearly and definitively that "Absolute Zero will not be releasing any future translation patches, nor will old patches be available for download". He does, however, promise to donate all work done so far on their projects to Bandai Namco, should they ever request it of him.

Source

Well I guess you could say that he succeeded in what his team originally set out to do, which was to bring attention the franchise, right? I mean if it is really starting to take off here in the west then I would say so!

 

[WiiUBricker]

Oh well that’s disappointing. Was waiting for the definitive Tales of Phantasia version.

 

[Chary]

I can sort of understand their point, but at the same time, going off Namco's blasé Twitter PR, they don't seem keen to retranslate games that didn't hit the west (the fan's tears for official release of PS3 Vesperia could fill a lake) and going off the wonked out PC version of Zestiria and the trash fire that was Symphonia, I don't really trust Namco even if they did manage to take on translating older games one day.

 

[Deleted User]

It´s been a while since I last visited their Homepage. A bummer to see them stop translating.

I was looking forward to the translation of Tales of Phantasia X and Narikiri Dungeon X.

 

[Shadow#1]

looks like its time to pirate them when they release on steam

 

[Jayro]

Well now we won't get anything... Thanks for everything and nothing all at once.

 

[wormdood]

nor will old patches be available for download".

(forgive the one word post but . . .) fuck

 

[the_randomizer]

Bamco bastards. This is why we can't have nice things. Abandoning the TOP PSX translation is a douche move, sorry not sorry.

TOP has never had a decent western release (no, GBA version was hot garbage), so yeah, this blows.

 

[Spectral Blizzard]

Welp, fuck this shit.
Oh, god, "donating" to Banco?
This shit is about to get rea-

 

[Meteor7]

I can sort of understand their point, but at the same time, going off Namco's blasé Twitter PR, they don't seem keen to retranslate games that didn't hit the west (the fan's tears for official release of PS3 Vesperia could fill a lake) and going off the wonked out PC version of Zestiria and the trash fire that was Symphonia, I don't really trust Namco even if they did manage to take on translating older games one day.

Exactly this. I admire the team's intentions, but they're assuming the odds of Bamco porting any of the ancient Tales games like Narikiri Dungeon X and Destiny DC are not absolute zero.

 

[DeadlyAnGeL91792]

9+ years waiting for a Tales of Destiny translation lmao. What a waste of effort on there part. So many people over the years that wanted to translate Tales of games and decided not to because Cless and Absolute Zero were on it, and now look smh. Hopefully they atleast leave all there tools somewhere so people don't have to start from nothing. His reasoning was BS...idc im not understanding...im salty lol. We might have already had translations for these games were it other people on the job.

 

[Hells Malice]

Bamco bastards. This is why we can't have nice things. Abandoning the TOP PSX translation is a douche move, sorry not sorry.

TOP has never had a decent western release (no, GBA version was hot garbage), so yeah, this blows.

It's a "douche move" that they don't pour blood, sweat and tears for your enjoyment, for free?
Uh, hello? Entitled much?

It doesn't even sound like Bamco had anything to do with this. Throughhim just had a midlife crisis by the looks of it. Very weird move but I mean, they were his projects at the end of the day to do with. The existing patches are out there, and always will be. He just plugged the easiest source.

They hadn't even released anything in 5 years, so it's not like this is a massive blow to the translation community outside of taking down previous projects.

 

[xtreme1]

It's a "douche move" that they don't pour blood, sweat and tears for your enjoyment, for free?
Uh, hello? Entitled much?

It doesn't even sound like Bamco had anything to do with this. Throughhim just had a midlife crisis by the looks of it. Very weird move but I mean, they were his projects at the end of the day to do with. The existing patches are out there, and always will be. He just plugged the easiest source.

They hadn't even released anything in 5 years, so it's not like this is a massive blow to the translation community outside of taking down previous projects.

I still find it to be a major blow. He had, what, 3 full translations patches of tales games under his belt? Not to mention was the central hub of knowledge for all tales related patches, seriously, everyone went to his forum for help with Vesperia, Graces, the other Phantasia patch.

Of all the translators, I knew he would get his done, despite others who never delivered. Looking at you kajitani-eizan.

But for sure, crazy amounts of labor went into this, and I can't blame him (or even kaji), for wanting to do something else with their time.

 

[Nisem0n0]

This kind of reminds me of when the Tales of Graces translation project got axed just weeks from release because of the official localization of F, but only like 100x worse. You know I wouldn't mind if Bamco actually localized the older (and undeniably better) games of the franchise, but we all know that won't happen. The recent tales games like Zestiria and Berseria have been really subpar imo and can't compare to older ones. Can't even remember how long I've been looking forward to playing Tales of Destiny DC, literally was checking progress updates every month

 

[anhminh]

So did they have any plan for translate other series? It seem like a waste now that we lost a fan translator team.

 

[kuwanger]

and going off the wonked out PC version of Zestiria

Yea, apparently Bamco can't be bothered to make a relatively really low resource game run at 60fps on even a decently fast system. Even using community made ToZ fixes and it's still quite horrible. It actually rather amazes me that they even began to think such was acceptable. :/

Overall, I'd say I'm okay with this. Let "Tales of" die. As much as I enjoyed Symphonia, I realize that as a series "Tales of" leaves a lot to be desired. Of course, it's unlikely Bamco will focus on something better, but then that's not really something that can be helped. Absolute Zero Translations went above and beyond to work on something even the original makers couldn't be bothered to do. That they have the love to "set them free" amazes me, honestly. I'd be more inclined to rage quit.

PS - This would be entirely different if it were a small series or Bamco were merely a Publisher so it was an honest issue about a genuine belief of a lack of general interest or not being able to spend the resources on an outside project. Clearly Bamco either knows it would be profitable in the west or they have very little confidence in "Tales of". I can understand why, but that really does mean they'd be better spending their resources on better projects.