ROM Hack How to hack Suikoden Tierkreis?

[Amici]

I'm sure you guys know about the brilliant job the crew at this topic did with undubbing and 'auto-translating' Suikoden. For my part, I went with the (J) ROM 'auto-translated' with the (U) ROM text files, and so far it works great

However what I cannot let go of is the fact that the New Game and Load Game options are in Japanese (am a bit obssessive-compulsive, you see). I'm wondering if there is a way to transfer the graphics for the title screen (although the title is less of a priority), New Game and Load game from the English language ROM to the Japanese ROM. I've downloaded Crystaltile2, but for the love of me can't figure out how it works, or can't find a suitable tutorial that teaches me how to do this. I'm tempted to go the 'undubbing' route (that is, going with the English ROM with the Japanese sound files), but with its lack of battle voices I'm hoping to be able to make a 'complete experience' for myself

Before anyone can tell me that changing the graphics is not within the bounds of undubbing, I'd like to say that I also want to do this as an initial step to learn how to hack. And I'm fairly well-versed in stuff like this so I'm quick to learn, just need the correct instructions to start with

If anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate it (and I apologize for the wall of text above lol). Thanks!

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

I'm sure you guys know about the brilliant job the crew at this topic did with undubbing and 'auto-translating' Suikoden. For my part, I went with the (J) ROM 'auto-translated' with the (U) ROM text files, and so far it works great

However what I cannot let go of is the fact that the New Game and Load Game options are in Japanese (am a bit obssessive-compulsive, you see). I'm wondering if there is a way to transfer the graphics for the title screen (although the title is less of a priority), New Game and Load game from the English language ROM to the Japanese ROM. I've downloaded Crystaltile2, but for the love of me can't figure out how it works, or can't find a suitable tutorial that teaches me how to do this. I'm tempted to go the 'undubbing' route (that is, going with the English ROM with the Japanese sound files), but with its lack of battle voices I'm hoping to be able to make a 'complete experience' for myself

Before anyone can tell me that changing the graphics is not within the bounds of undubbing, I'd like to say that I also want to do this as an initial step to learn how to hack. And I'm fairly well-versed in stuff like this so I'm quick to learn, just need the correct instructions to start with

If anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate it (and I apologize for the wall of text above lol). Thanks!

Get DSbuff and extract the contents to a folder. Do some swapping around.
If that doesn;t work, then there is a tool for swapping (mainly ripping) graphics from NDS roms, but I can't remember it.

 

[Smartpal]

Forget it, come on it's just a detail. Pfft.

 

[Amici]

Like I said, it's a learning thing for me. If I can get started with this I suppose I can go on with more complex stuff.

Ok, I've been doing some searching through the forums, I found tools such as crystaltile2, narctool, tahaxan, Tile Molester, etc. I know they're all tied up somehow, but I can't find a tutorial that explains how they tie up together, or how exactly to use them for my purposes. I used dsbuff to unpack the files, but I can't find any .arc files or whatnot, just .bin and a few .sdat (which are the audio files, I presume). I've used Tile Molester to look through some of the unpacked files, but can;t find anything resembling graphics. What am I doing wrong?

Also, in this thread, psycoblaster used Tile Molester to view an image within a file called 'ti1_sp_sub0001uncomp.arc.' I ask, where are those .arc files in Suikoden? Are they compressed in some .bin file? If so, how do I get them out of there? Or are the file structures entirely different, and comparing the two games is useless?

 

[Amici]

I'm sorry for the double post, but I have new updates on my 'progress' (if you can call it that). I have managed to rule out that the Title screen is not involved in the data folder. I'm guessing it's either in the root of the ROM (perhaps together with the arm9.bin files?) or the overlay folder. Haven't had success in trying to make the ROM work though, I always get a "Requires BIOS-ROM-Image to execute undef opcode" error on No$gba when I try to replace the (J) ROM's overlay folder with the (U) overlay folder.

 

[tsol]

When I was messing around with the game i noticed that the itr3.bin file in the root directory was related in some way to the start menu and language select screen. I have no idea if it actually contains the start menu graphics or not. I tried placing the European itr3 in the Japanese rom, biut it crashed.. i don't remember where though, if it was at the start menu or before when it tried to load a language select screen.. ( if it tried..). so try that.. it won't work but it may point you in the right direction. if it loads to the start screen in and it is the Japanese one, than i would bet that it is in the arm9, but if it crashes before loading it, they might be in the itr3. I don't know anything editing graphics though..

There is a large chunk of code in the arm9 that relates to the itr3, some of it is in plain text, but i don't know enough about what i am doing to figure it out. If you open the arm9 in a hex editor, i think i was using crystaltile2, and set the encoding to shift-j, you can search out the itr3 and other things. Good luck figuring out what to do with it though : P.

*keep in mind that i, like you, have little idea what is going on, anything i know i figured out trying to learn like you are..

also, if you really are osd about things like this like i am, the more elegant solution would be to enable battle voices in the European Rom, as there are a few small twerps in the Japanese translation, such as the word 'team' not fitting the party selection menu, the naming screen has fewer characters, and maybe the wi-fi screen.. i haven't played far enough to see that yet. enabling battle voices may be impossible though, so I'm not saying to give up on this at all.. it may be the most doable solution.

good luck.

 

[Amici]

Thanks for the reply tsol. I'm beginning to think I'm way in over my head here, though it wasn't a totally fruitless effort, I learned quite a bit on NDS file formats and whatnot (found a few palette files within the itr.bin and got some image of what looks like a landscape or background in it, though nothing useful for my search). I actually thought about trying to 'enable' battle voices in the English version, but I know even less about that than on tile editing.

Am still tickering with the ROM as of now, but I've run out of ideas. Hopefully someone else hits a breakthrough so we can all enjoy Suikoden the way it's meant to be

EDIT: I gave in, and tried my hand at some hex editing. Using UltraEdit and UltraCompare, I found that there is only one mention of the 'ex1' folder on both arm9.bin for the English and Japanese ROMs. Figured out how pointers work (yey for me lol), and managed to find the pointer for the ex1. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any difference I deemed significant in the immediate area of where the ex1 pointer is which could suggest the change made to 'disable' the battle voices in the E ROM. Or maybe I'm not skilled enough to see them (the more likely reason). Oh well.

 

[tsol]

EDIT: I gave in, and tried my hand at some hex editing. Using UltraEdit and UltraCompare, I found that there is only one mention of the 'ex1' folder on both arm9.bin for the English and Japanese ROMs. Figured out how pointers work (yey for me lol), and managed to find the pointer for the ex1. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any difference I deemed significant in the immediate area of where the ex1 pointer is which could suggest the change made to 'disable' the battle voices in the E ROM. Or maybe I'm not skilled enough to see them (the more likely reason). Oh well.

This is pretty much what I did too. I played around with opening the E and J arm9's next to each other and compared pointers to the ex1 and some of the other directories, but it doesn't seem like a simple hex edit can do it. : / I very easily could have missed something though. That wall of numbers can be a bit overwhelming..

The only other thing I can think of would be to load up no$gba dev version, I think it has a way to read memory dumps... If you could find out what is different between the J and E roms this way it might be possible to make an action replay code that enables battle voices. Just a crazy idea. I don't have the dev no$gba, or the time right now to mess around learning how to try to do it... so someday, maybe...

 

[Amici]

Yeah, I think we need some of our expert programmers for that. Lol. Anyway thanks for entertaining my futile attempts though

Need to read up more on this stuff first.