PS1/2 Chaindive PS2 Translation Patch?

[LanHikariDS]

Does any know of the existence of an English translation of the text in Chaindive? I really enjoyed playing the import demo on the PlayStation Magazine Disc, Issue 79, as did one of my friends, the only thing I hate about this game is that it was never released outside of Japan. I find it hard to play, as I don't like playing games while not knowing the plot, and it would seem that a lot of effort went into the lengthy cutscenes, so it would be nice to understand them.

 

[bombaa]

I know this has been years, but I'm with you this game is fantastic I really wish we had an english patch!

 

[Iwuntdie]

I wish someone would do it. I love this game.

 

[LanHikariDS]

Fuck it.

 

[Robert Newbie]

Well, there you go. Is there a lot of text/story in Chain Dive? Was there already a roman alphabet within the gamefiles?

Whatever the case may be, getting to the point where you can display English text on-screen without breaking anything is a big deal in the world of fan translations. Good job.

 

[LanHikariDS]

It's no JRPG, but there's still a decent length to a few of the cutscenes in the first few stages, especially for a 2D action game. The game has a full Shift-JIS table already present, with a full (?) Roman, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabet, on top a whole 4,239 Kanji glyphs, 90% of which I can guarantee the game doesn't even use.

It's also super helpful that individual strings in the cutscenes aren't indexed, the game just reads them sequentially, and there's pretty big chunks of empty space between each cutscene's subtitle blocks, meaning it's trivial to make strings longer than their original, the game just automatically handles that. The menu strings are indexed by offsets, but that offset table is placed directly before those strings. This is the first translation I've started from the ground up, but so far this game's been making it absurdly easy!

The only hard part so far has been making the Encoding Table to view the text correctly in a hex editor, which has been insanely annoying considering there's no real tooling to automate the process, despite it being something that pretty much every translation patch would need to do??

 

[fakefacer]

Oh wow, I’ve been checking back on this thread for a few years now, it’s awesome to see something going.

Not sure if it’s of any significance but thought I’d share that the game was translated and patched to Russian at some point, though unfortunately whoever was hosting it has disappeared and so has the patch (it was posted only on VK). I know of it due to a friend having played it some time ago, but I’m still searching for it.

Anyway, made an account just to comment, haha. I’ll definitely keep looking out for more updates.

 

[LanHikariDS]

Oh wow, I’ve been checking back on this thread for a few years now, it’s awesome to see something going.

Not sure if it’s of any significance but thought I’d share that the game was translated and patched to Russian at some point, though unfortunately whoever was hosting it has disappeared and so has the patch (it was posted only on VK). I know of it due to a friend having played it some time ago, but I’m still searching for it.

Anyway, made an account just to comment, haha. I’ll definitely keep looking out for more updates.

Woah. what the fuck? It's certainly possible, since as I mentioned, there's a whole Cyrillic alphabet in the font, but this is the first I've heard of any other effort.

I'm juggling a few projects right now, so this is a bit on the backburner right now, but if you find any files for that, *please* send them my way, that would actually be incredibly valuable to see if they pulled off reallocating any of the blocks, as that seems to be the current issue that'll come up. I can definitely get it done without them, but having extra reference material is alsways helpful.

 

[fakefacer]

Woah. what the fuck? It's certainly possible, since as I mentioned, there's a whole Cyrillic alphabet in the font, but this is the first I've heard of any other effort.

I'm juggling a few projects right now, so this is a bit on the backburner right now, but if you find any files for that, *please* send them my way, that would actually be incredibly valuable to see if they pulled off reallocating any of the blocks, as that seems to be the current issue that'll come up. I can definitely get it done without them, but having extra reference material is alsways helpful.

Apologies for the  late late reply, kept forgetting to check back. But yeah for sure, if I manage to find it again I'll definitely share it^^

I'll be giving some of the patch repositories another look in case it's somehow found its way into one by now.

 

[LanHikariDS]

At this point, I have another programmer on board that's been a massive help figuring shit out, to the point where it may no longer be of help. But if nothing else, I'd still be curious just to see what it does differently

 

[fakefacer]

At this point, I have another programmer on board that's been a massive help figuring shit out, to the point where it may no longer be of help. But if nothing else, I'd still be curious just to see what it does differently

That’s great either way! Good to know you’ve got some help on the project, any progress is awesome to hear about.

I didn’t end up with any results when I went on the search a few days ago. Still keeping an eye out but it’s possible that patch is just gone unless I either find who created it or someone who might have it. Little unfortunate, but less so if it’s not absolutely necessary

 

[AzureZakura]

I recently came across this game via youtube recommendation for a track from the game's OST. After checking out a little gameplay I have to say it does have me curious. Will keep an eye on this thread for a full translation someday!

 

[Faris-ali]

Hi, im willing to translate the game but since you said you hired a programmer whats your progress so far? so i dont have to waste time while someone else working on it profissionally. Thanks

 

[OurSun]

Just had to make an account to say I'm also willing to help translate! Just recently came across the game a few days ago--it's crazy that this got started so recently!

 

[LanHikariDS]

Just had to make an account to say I'm also willing to help translate! Just recently came across the game a few days ago--it's crazy that this got started so recently!

I've already got a translator looking over the script now, but I appreciate the offers from the both of you. Also, considering your Username and Profile Pic, you might also be interested to know that I've been touching up the Boktai 3 translation, though that's been sitting on the back burner for the past year or so.

 

[ShiftyPringle]

I just learned about this game tonight from a thread on Bluesky, thought it looked cool and went looking for some info on it. Can’t believe I stumbled upon a translation patch happening in real time and not like a dozen years after the fact. Now I’m invested in this game that I haven’t even played yet.

 

[aceywasty]

I just learned about this game tonight from a thread on Bluesky, thought it looked cool and went looking for some info on it. Can’t believe I stumbled upon a translation patch happening in real time and not like a dozen years after the fact. Now I’m invested in this game that I haven’t even played yet.

FOR REAL! im gonna record some gameplay today to hopefully get some people watching

 

[Fissionmailed]

I've already got a translator looking over the script now, but I appreciate the offers from the both of you. Also, considering your Username and Profile Pic, you might also be interested to know that I've been touching up the Boktai 3 translation, though that's been sitting on the back burner for the past year or so.

This is awesome is there anywhere we can go to monitor your progress on all of your projects?

 

[MiataND]

LanHikariDS, you are a saint. This has been on my backlog for years, but I've been waiting on a fan translation. I hope your belly is always full, pillows cool, and blankets warm.

 

[Ciaufer]

I'm following this translation project with interest, I also found out about this game only tru random ost in my YT feed, the magic of the internet I guess