With the help of pleonex and the tools he created, we formed a team for an English translation of Ni no Kuni.

Proof of concept/Preview:

Warning: Spoilers inside!

Project started before 2014.
We're working on this right now. All that's left is to get through everything now!

Main translator, project reporter and coordinator : Anjiera

Progress percentage updated March 10th 2018
Text: 100% of the text translated (excluding the bonus content that amounted to a news digest of tweet-like things accessible before you launch a save file)
Edited: 26% (+13%), Actually it's more than 26%, because some text blocks are already displaying fine in-game and don't need to be edited.
Images: 99.99% (+0%), still one image to go?



Translation complete!
We are currently working on the quality of the translation, including another pass through the text to edit it to sound more like it was translated by 1 person rather than ~20, identifying and fixing incredibly frustrating string wrapping issues and any translation consistency issues noticed during playtests, and repeated area play throughs to verify bug fixes.


Fall 2017 update : Play testing and editing is making progress, but we're not finding it easy to quantify our work at this point.
No more progress %, last changes will be small and will not change the % a lot.
This part includes last minutes bug fixing and full game replay to be sure everything is consistent (word choice, name consistency, menus and text length, etc.), this can take longer than expected for each new found issue will require spending time and dedication to fix and test again.

2018 update :
It is still a work in progress - or rather, a work in the seemingly interminable editing and bug fixing stage. BUT. It is still happening, yes. Hahah.
It'll never be perfect, but we keep finding little things that make it tricky to play and some of the technical issues need a delicate hand.
Thanks for your patience and encouragement!

Progression for the past months

Progress update April 2016
Text: 49% translated
Image: 90% translated

Progress updated June 16th 2016
Text: 51.25% of the text translated, ~12% of that has been edited.
Images: 100% of the images have been translated, and of that 85% have been photoshopped.

Progress updated August 15th 2016
Text: 53.83% of the text translated, 13% edited.
Images: 100% of the images have been translated, and 86.83% have been 'shopped.

Progress updated August 29th 2016
Text: 56.78% of the text translated ( +2.95% in 2 weeks. Woo! That's some sweet progress - things are picking up! )
No recent editing or graphics work done, but we've got a couple of new people starting to look at those areas, so we might see some jumps there soon.

Progress updated September 12th 2016
Text: 61.42% of the text translated (+4.64% since August 29th)

Progress updated October 18th 2016
Updated stats:
Text: 66.87% of the text translated (+5.45% since Sept. 12th)

Progress updated November 21st 2016
Text: 70.20% of the text translated (+3.33% since last update)

Progress updated December 5th 2016
Text: 72.73% of the text translated (+2.53% since last update)

Progress updated December 20th 2016
Text: 80.02% of the text translated (+7.29% since December 5th)
Edited: 13.47% not really moving much, a lot of editors have seemingly vanished
Graphics: 100% of the images have been translated, 95.59% 'shopped (About ~75 images, not counting any rework as we play the game and see what is broken on screen)

Progress updated January 9th 2017
Text: 95.81% of the text translated (+16% since December 20th! )
Edited: 13.49% (+0.02%), not moving noticeably, but we're narrowing our focus to areas that were translated before all the terms were nailed down so the % done is not accurate for what we'll consider a release-ready text
Images: 99.99% (+4.5%), only one tricky image left to go, and then we have to check everything in-game to make sure there are no subtle glitches after image import

Progress updated October 9th 2017
Text: 100%[/B] of the text translated (excluding the bonus content that amounted to a news digest of tweet-like things accessible before you launch a save file)
Edited: 13.49% (+0.02%), not moving noticeably, but we're narrowing our focus to areas that were translated before all the terms were nailed down so the % done is not accurate for what we'll consider a release-ready text
Images: 99.99% (+4.5%), only one tricky image left to go, and then we have to check everything in-game to make sure there are no subtle glitches after image import


Progress percentage updated March 10th 2018
Text: 100% of the text translated (excluding the bonus content that amounted to a news digest of tweet-like things accessible before you launch a save file)
Edited: 26% (+13%), Actually it's more than 26%, because some text blocks are already displaying fine in-game and don't need to be edited.
Images: 99.99% (+0%), still one image to go?

You can see how fast the project is progressing. Don't expect a release in next few days or weeks.
This project is not dead, even if there's no new activity in that thread.


Link to the thread containing the other language translation projects.

 

I have not contacted him, partly because he was convinced he'd just do the project by himself, although it's really gonna be a team effort with all the different aspects that we have to deal with, but that may have been caused by the misunderstanding. However, he did not contact me either, but if he (or anyone for that matter) would be interested, we wouldn't mind

It's true that here and there we've got some inconsistencies (like the モニュー or moniyuu) and that's because we had some help here and there from different translators with their own styles. It does indeed seem like a good idea to at least finish the reference document and skim through the current files with new translators and match all the terms (if you look at the Names & Locations Reference file you'll see that the moniyuu is in the terms list, but does not currently have a translation in our project; but I have to admit that that translator was simply wrong (sadly enough, that was not the only time)).

 

Sad to hear that yet another possible translator didn't join the project. The project seems a bit cursed. Anyway Nagato, I don't think its the time to check the text. In AAI2 we had part of case 1 already translated before we had a script dump. A second version was made when we got the script dump and we ended with a 3rd version in the game itself.

 

I've translated everything up until you enter the Northern Woods (so, after all of the cutscenes and you are able to save at the waystone). That should cover the first half hour or hour or so of the game. I don't know how much of the game I'll translate in total but I had some free time and didn't feel like studying for my algorithms exam on Monday, so... yeah. It also gives me a good excuse to replay the game, this time using my legit copy I bought in Japan in June. （●＾o＾●）
Last time I played the game using a combination of shitty scans from the internet, walkthroughs, and random Japanese Yahoo Answers to figure out the puzzles and runes that I needed the book for.

Edit: Also, the book and overall packaging of the game is just fantastic. I'm serious. It's hard to appreciate it without actually owning it, but it's seriously great. And the instruction booklet inside the DS game case (not the Magic Master) is thick as hell. Way more thick than I remember DS games being. Hell, thicker than any game in recent years that I remember. And the box is also really nice looking. There's even a jewel on the cover of the Magic Master. A fucking jewel. You can tell they effort into making everything look nice.

 

Get a legit copy. I picked it up for like $10 or so at Book Off. Book Off is one of my favorite places in Japan. <3
$10 and everything is in mint condition too.


Has the translation for Ni no kuni (and I guess Ichi no kuni) been decided? I've been translating it as "second world" because Shizuku explicitly states that there are many worlds running in parallel with each other, and most people who need a fan translation probably won't understand random Japanese so leaving it untranslated (especially in Ichi no kuni's case) would probably cause some confusion.

Edit: A thought just occurred to me while writing that last question out. If there are parallel worlds with souls linking each other between the first and second worlds, does that mean that the souls of the people in the third, fourth, fifth, etc... worlds are linked with the souls of the people in the first and second worlds? Does something happen to the soul linked Allie in the other worlds too? :?

 

I personally don't have much of a preference besides not wanting to leave it as "ni no kuni" and "ichi no kuni". Maybe some other people could chime in on that?

Anyway, are some scripts missing? I can't find the text from first battle scene after you meet the ancient tree. The lines of text are "いいか。戦いの基本は『たたかう』ボタンや。", "その調子で　次は相手を選ぶんや。", "全員の行動を決めたら　戦闘開始や！行くで！", "なかなか　スジがええやないか！次は　『まほう』を使ってみよか。", "力の弱いおまえが　木の棒で　たたいても　大したダメージを　与えることはでけへん。", "ここは　『ファイアボール』を　使ってみることをオススメするで。", "魔法の使い方は　『たたかう』と同じで　『まほう』アイコンから　魔法を選んで　使う相手を決めるんや！", "あんまり　魔法を使いすぎると　MPが無くなってしまうから　気をつけるんやで！".

 

I'd just like to state that I'm not working on my own project, in case someone is eying this one and doesn't like the idea of someone out there "competing" against them. My only real desire in starting my own was because it seemed (at the time) that the existing project was being mismanaged.

As for joining this one, as I stated in the old thread, I haven't actually completed the game yet, so I'll be of no real use as the main translator until I do. It's something I've been putting off for quite a while now, and I'm not so sure when or if I'll be able to finish it. Which, certainly doesn't bode well for my ability to actually translate it, but there you have it. If I ever get it done, I'd certainly like to reevaluate joining this project at that time, assuming help is still in need. In the mean time, I might be able to assist (?) somewhat.

Also, Nagato pointed out pretty much what I was afraid of, and in this case the translation wouldn't end up simply being inconsistent, but flat out wrong. This is basically why I think starting the script over from scratch isn't a bad idea regardless of how you look at it. "Easy for you to say," right? Well, sure. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

 

I'd like to help. I can work with hex editors, have played the ps3 version, and know English. I could replace japanese characters with english ones.
Are there instructions on how to use the google drive and rom to make a working copy?

 

I really appreciate your offer, but what we need right now are JP>EN translators.
No machine translations, nor Spanish>English translators.
pleonex has taken care of the hacking side, making manual hex editing pointless/unneeded - he has tools that automate that process (which is nevertheless possible without said tools, if you'd like to try -it's up to him to decide when to release it, but for now he released the Tinke tool which you might want to check)

As for relying on the PS3 translation: no, we're doing this translation from scratch.
DS version has different events not covered in the PS3 version, common events often have different details and wording.
About consistency, however, we plan on translating it properly first disregarding the official names (after all, we can't edit the cinematics to insert the English names for Motorville/Hotroit, Gate/Gateway, and all).

After we're done with that, we're open to make a second patch where we comb over the original text and replace Maru/Gyro/Jabo/Richie/Mark/Hotroit with Esther/Swaine/Shadar/Mitey/Phillip/Motorville.
If you'd like to help on that front, we'd appreciate if you gathered a list of English vs Japanese names for
- locations / towns /dungeons
- items
- NPCs, characters
- familiars

 

i also like the original name and i think it's better if you use the japanese name but it's your call
+
Nagato
are you going to translate the game completely or just some parts of it?
you'll be so many people's hero byhelping this team and translating the game