No, that's what the Japanese version actually says. It has plenty of textures with English text that got removed during the localization process. You can find more details about what got changed here: https://tcrf.net/Chibi-Robo!#Regional_DifferencesI like the pictured one, but I think getting the text translated so its playable should take priority.
I'm guessing the 'happy birthday Jenny' is your version. It does seem a bit plain...
Mike
I personally like your translation work better than the original, my eyes get tired whenever there's too much text to read and would slowly lose my motivation to continue playingGood evening everyone.
Since some people here and elsewhere have asked me about the differences between the Game Cube script and my translation, I found the time to make a little side-by-side comparison video for you to watch!
Remember nothing is final in this vid, but I hope it will reassure you about my will to make the best patch I'll be able to!
Please enjoy,
Yours truly.
Thank you for the link, @Rya687 : this is very informative, and I didn't know they had made other changes!No, that's what the Japanese version actually says. It has plenty of textures with English text that got removed during the localization process. You can find more details about what got changed here: https://tcrf.net/Chibi-Robo!#Regional_Differences


I had the game in mind for quite a while, and when I checked the price of the GC version I thought that, even though it got localized back then, the Wii version deserved a translation as well.
That, and me being a Wii-addict : I haven't got in the game that much yet, but I really feel the new if control schemes might improve it, as it did for Mario Tennis and Pikmin (not a fan of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat).
Thank you for your support, that always feels good : since some of you seem to have played the game before, I might contact you when I need beta testers!
Oh man— this is a dream come true! I’ve played this game dozens of times. I got it when I was in elementary school and I’ve never stopped loving it. Ever since I heard about the NPC version being a Japan Exclusive, I’ve always dreamt of playing it in English. Good luck!Hello everybody, Brand Newman here, telling you all about my latest "work-in-progress" English translation project for... the Wii (what else?) !
Some of you might have enjoyed my various previous patches, for which I'm providing links at the bottom of this message.
For the time being, let's talk about what's in store for 2022 : Chibi-Robo is a Game Cube game that got a worldwide release but apparently didn't sell that well, making Nintendo keep it exclusive to Japan when they ported it on Wii as part of the "New Play Control!" collection.
As a result, the Game Cube version is now ridiculously expensive, compared to the Wii version which some might argue is better, considering the game was originally meant to be "click and play" anyway.
Some people went into the GC iso to try to find the English translation and put it directly into the Wii version : while it does work to some extend (the two versions share a similar folders structure, and the file names are the same), the pointers are not located at the same place, making the game glitch, or even freeze at certain points.
So I decided we needed a proper translation, and went into the files myself, comparing the Japanese script of the Wii version and the official translation from the GC.
Turns out that some things got "lost in translation" (Daddy pun totally intended), others were added for the sake of clarity, and of course I'll have the issue of rephrasing in order for the text to "squeeze" into what room the Japanese game leaves you.
So please be aware the upcoming Riivolution patch will not be a 1:1 version of the Japanese or localized text, but instead a "mix" of the two.
Please find below a little video of the intro that is already done, and stay tuned in 2022 for me to give you news!
Yours truly.
Chibi-Robo introduction video in English for the Wii
My previous project, all available on RomHacking.net (download links on the video descriptions):
I personally am a huge fan of the cute art, but whatever is easiest!So tonight I had a nice conversation on Twitter about changes that occur between several versions of a game (mostly ports), like a modified texture to replace a brand name by another, that kind of things...
This reminded me of a noticeable difference between the Wii and Gamecube version of Chibi-Robo, at the very beginning of the game : the 1st one displays a large panel saying "happy birthday Jenny", making us immediately know what day it is.
The GC version, on the contrary, displays a drawing I find irresistibly cute, and waits for us to see the family to understand it's the girl's birthday (OK there's a cake on the picture, but it disappears quite fast).
Below is the comparison of the two.
View attachment 297149
I'm not really a fan of changing textures (other than translating Japanese text like in Reginleiv, obviously), and as I stated on the Earth Seeker thread, I even find it counter-productive sometimes (like I kept the French in certain textures, because the game was supposed to display the panels as "relics" from the ancient Earth).
But in that case, the GC version is so overly cute I'm considering trying to find the texture, and see if I can't at least make a mix of the two?
What do you think?
Yours truly.
UPDATE (again!) : OK, I found the "Happy Birthday" panel in a file named "kazari_w.brres" (front and back shown below) :
View attachment 297267
It confirmed something I was already suspecting, something that had prevented me from finding the texture on Dolphin and Brawlcrate, and that is that the letters are actually polygons!
You see, the texture that is contained within the file is actually the back of the panel : if you dig deep into the brres file, you'll find this "material20" setting, which shows without a doubt the "happy birthday" sentence in poly form:
View attachment 297268
And as you might have noticed, the colors of the letters are actually taken from the texture's gradient.
Anyway, that means I cannot just replace a texture by another one, like I did in my previous projects : this one would require to get rid of the polygons, and find a way to modify the file so it shows a texture I haven't even found in the gamecube disc by now.
I don't have the knowledge, and all in one it's not worth the effort, so we'll stay with the "happy birthday" sign from the Wii version
But it was good to understand HOW this sentence was displayed
That’s so fascinating! Thanks for sharing!UPDATE (again!) : OK, I found the "Happy Birthday" panel in a file named "kazari_w.brres" (front and back shown below) :
View attachment 297267
It confirmed something I was already suspecting, something that had prevented me from finding the texture on Dolphin and Brawlcrate, and that is that the letters are actually polygons!
You see, the texture that is contained within the file is actually the back of the panel : if you dig deep into the brres file, you'll find this "material20" setting, which shows without a doubt the "happy birthday" sentence in poly form:
View attachment 297268
And as you might have noticed, the colors of the letters are actually taken from the texture's gradient.
Anyway, that means I cannot just replace a texture by another one, like I did in my previous projects : this one would require to get rid of the polygons, and find a way to modify the file so it shows a texture I haven't even found in the gamecube disc by now.
I don't have the knowledge, and all in one it's not worth the effort, so we'll stay with the "happy birthday" sign from the Wii version
But it was good to understand HOW this sentence was displayed!
Hi, @Daedalus015 , and congratulations on starting on a fan translation : I promise you a lot of challenges, difficulties, hit and miss, and some big satisfaction at the end of the road, stay strong! Out of curiosity, what is the game you're working on?Hello @Brand Newman I am working on a Riivolution Translation Patch of my own, and so far I've just been modifying the game files and testing them in Dolphin. I would like to get this running properly on Wii/WiiU(Wii Mode) hardware using a Riivolution Patcher (so that people who own the discs can play it easily). I've never done this before, but probably the most confusing part I'm running into relates to the .dol file included in every translation I've seen that uses Riivolution. Is that a modded version of the original game's main.dol, or is this a special Homebrew app created to jumpstart a game which is originally from a different region (for instance, running a Japanese disc on a NA system)? Once again, thank you for any help you can offer.
To answer your question : the main.dol files (or at least mine) are from the original games. I just look for Japanese in them with an hex editor, and replace everything game related with English (be careful not to modify string values and such, that can be in Japanese and will make the game break if you modify them).
Not totally sure I'm getting you (I only see a "boot.elf" file, and it's in the apps/riivolution folder).Yes, I understand about opening up the .dol file for translation (if necesssary), but I was actually referring to the .dol file typically located in apps/[GameName]/bool.dol on the SDCard which Riivolution-based Translations package into their releases. In the Translation's I've downloaded, I've noticed that the boot.dol files released do not always resemble the size of the original main.dol (found on the disc's DATA/sys/main.dol), so is this a special Homebrew app to assist Riivolution?
I see it the other way around, since I'm providing a method to patch an ISO as well.To be honest, I can't understand the point of a Riivolution only patch nowadays. Nintendo is not making money with these games anymore and it's not like a Japanese only game is easily available.
To Daedalus015, of course, Brand's patches have always been Riivolution and manual.