Chibi-Robo English translation for Wii

[Brand Newman]

UPDATE (11.20.2022) : The Chibi-Robo English translation patch is available for download!
You can find the link in the trailer's description on Youtube.
Thank you all for your patience, I hope you enjoy the game, and if you do, feedbacks are always appreciated!


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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):

 

[Maeson]

Oh my, this is great!

I have Chibi Robo, it became one of my absolute favourites, and I usually play it in Spanish because the translation is actually really well done, but I always wanted to try the New Play Control version, and wanted to find the existing translation but never got to.

It has a lot of text, so doing a mix of inserting the original text and translating might do things easier.

I'll play some Teriyaki Blues to celebrate, lol.

 

[fatherjack]

One of my all-time GC favourites!
Thanks Brand Newman for translating the wii play control version - great excuse for me to play throught it again

 

[Brand Newman]

One of my all-time GC favourites!
Thanks Brand Newman for translating the wii play control version - great excuse for me to play throught it again

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 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 !

 

[Maeson]

I personally found Jungle Beat on Wii more fun than the original one. I never tried Mario Power Tennis though, too used to the GC and I never got a chance to find it on a store around me.

 

[ChibiMofo]

It's the only New Play Controls title for Wii that did not get an English release.

Chibi-Mofo thanks you! (Note the tag below my name. I've been asking for it for years!)

 

[Brand Newman]

I personally found Jungle Beat on Wii more fun than the original one.

I can't say about the GC version, but what I meant is that the Wii version I own feels kind of "stiff". I assume it has to be, considering you move with bongos on Game Cube, but it sure feels a bit frustrating sometimes, especially since DK was in so many great platformers.
So the "new play control" doesn't have that "wow" factor, like it used to have when you played tennis with a wiimote.

It's the only New Play Controls title for Wii that did not get an English release.

Chibi-Mofo thanks you! (Note the tag below my name. I've been asking for it for years!)

Yes, indeed, it remained unfairly exclusive to Japan! I promise to get to the end of it, don't worry, this is happening!

 

[Maeson]

Well, yes, the GC version was stiff too, and a lot more limited in movement because of the Bongos. On GC it was a pretty casual game to play overall, which makes sense with that controller. The Wii version actually introduces a lot of changes, more than any other New Play Control as far as I know, it transforms the game into a far more technical platformer thanks to the much more reliable controls, and also ups the challenge, because the original didn't even have lives or health for example. It also gets rid of the giant DK character model on screen at all times, which I'm quite glad for because it could tend to obscure the playing field.

Jungle Beat to me can't be easily compared to the Country games, they have very different intentions. The Country games are about challenging and precise platforming, Jungle Beat is more about being inventive and using the stage to your advantage to create long strings of moves to multiply your combo and get the most bananas, there's where the game really shines for me. Between that and the many secrets each stage has (and the game loves teasing them after playing each one in videos) I found it highly enjoyable and would try to beat my records often, even if it took a bit of time get accustomed to it initially.

 

[Mikef1]

I'll be looking forward to this.... Thank-you!

 

[Deleted member 323844]

Another very interesting translation, and this time, at least, you have a base to work with. Following closely, as always.

Talking about Bongos vs Wiimotes. I wish Barrel Blast would have been released on Gamecube. I played a four-players party once and it was a complete disaster. Jungle Beat worked much better with the Bongos.

 

[ChibiMofo]

Another very interesting translation, and this time, at least, you have a base to work with. Following closely, as always.

Talking about Bongos vs Wiimotes. I wish Barrel Blast would have been released on Gamecube. I played a four-players party once and it was a complete disaster. Jungle Beat worked much better with the Bongos.

Yes, this. It's downright tragic that Barrel Blast on Wii wasn't released with at least the option of using the Bongos that it was actually designed to use. I hope an "early" version eventually gets leaked that has Bongos support.

 

[Brand Newman]

I made a HUGE progress yesterday night.

You see, contrary to the Game Cube version, the Wii one doesn't use names for characters, but instead replaces them with a combination of hex values which happens to always be the same (0C 25 73 0C )!

That makes the understanding, and even identification, of short sentences especially hard, considering they're not at the same place as in the Game Cube version (they do, however, follow the same order most of the time).

So I went a little bit back on everything that would precede the dialogs, and finally discovered a series of hex values that would depend on the corresponding character being mentioned (0E 10 6D 18 20 for "Chibi", 0E 10 6D 18 23 for "Jenny", etc.)

That, combined with the list of characters I have found in the "global.bin" file, made it possible for me to guess which names were on which sentences, making the identification of their translation in the Game Cube version much easier!

Also, except for the controls, there don't seem to be much graphical resources to translate from Japanese to English, which should be less time consuming!

Of course I'm just starting, but at least I've managed to "crack" most of the game's logics, and am pretty positive about the translation going steady.

 

[ianolivia]

whoa. was not expecting this game (well, the wii version i mean lol) to get a proper translation effort, really excited for this!

 

[Brand Newman]

Thank you all for your kind messages and reactions to my post.

Things are getting a tad trickier than expected (but when did they ever not?) : I don't know if some parts of the story are exclusive to the Wii or are placed elsewhere compared to the Game Cube, but right now the dialogs in the first chapter file don't correspond at all anymore !

Nothing major : some flashback about the Sanderson family discovering Chibi-Robo on TV before they bought it, that sort of thing... Maybe if some of you have played the English Game Cube version, they can tell me if these events happened in the game?

Or maybe that's just unused stuff, as I noticed the GC didn't translate everything to begin with?

Anyway, what came in handy was the characters' names list (once again, some aren't anywhere to be seen on the GC) : the translators took some liberty, but most of the time it was for the sake of puns, and I'm torn whether I should stick with the international version, since these characters are known under these names outside Japan.

For example, Dinah the Dinosaur, whose name is Toy-Rex in Japan.

Or Telly (Vision), who is called Tompy (almost went for "Tompy Rary" with this one), or "Space Hunter Drake Redcrest", whose name is different in every language, but is called "Gitchoman" (as a reference to the anime character "Gatchaman")...

I have kept the English names so far, but some of them had to be shortened in the list, though that shouldn't be an issue since I've replaced these references (the infamous "0C 25 73 0C" hex code) with pure text for the time being.

Still, my heart is not totally settled on that : what do you think? Would you mind getting different names that would be closer to their Japanese counterparts, or would you rather come back to something familiar? (@ChibiMofo , this question is primarly asked to you!)

Please let me know, and have a good day.

 

[ChibiMofo]

I appreciate the shout-out, but I honestly don't have a strong opinion either way. Whatever feels right to you works for me. I suppose if it had been localized for North America by Nintendo they would have used the "internationally" known names, but as long as they are consistent within the game, I'm okay with either approach. Thanks again for taking this one on!

 

[opoppopopp]

“Chibi-Robo like” is a game genre for me. Can’t get this kind of game anywhere else
I played and like all of them. (The true sequel on DS is very good, especially the story)

Captain Rainbow on Wii is another one from Skip Ltd.

and that Giftopia, for GC…still don’t have English patch…

 

[fatherjack]

+1 for Giftpia next!

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

How is the wii version better?

 

[Brand Newman]

How is the wii version better?

For starter it's much more affordable these days (GameCube version price went off the roof recently).

Then there's the "New Play Control" that some can argue is better, since it takes advantage of the pointer (from what I've read, Chibi-Robo was even considered to be some sort of "click and point" game on the GC at some point).

Plus, this version can have a 16:9 ratio if you like it better.

There are also a few things I'm not finding in the international GameCube version (such as items), but at this point I don't know if that's unused content that was left aside in first place.

Anyway, I'm glad the game got an international release this time : that way beta testers will have the opportunity to compare, and I'm expecting them to know the game by heart by the time we start our beta sessions!

 

[Brand Newman]

Some changes immediately make more impact than others.

Like... translating the user interface for instance!

Just a few pictures to show I'm committing to this project, waiting for a few days off to work on it more than a couple of hours in the evening !

Happy holidays to all!