Translation Ni no Kuni Translation [ENG]

[Anjiera]

Thanks for everyone that beat me to the response! Haha!

The first step to play the patch is:
1. Have patience.

The second step is:
2. See step 1 until we release.

We're happy that people are interested in the game and in the release, certainly. We've put hundreds of hours into the making of this thing. The last time I started estimating my personal contributions I stopped counting when I hit around 500 hours of estimated work because beyond that the number just becomes "a helluva lot of time". As mentioned many times before, we have a ton of people that have put their time and talents into this project, so the total amount of work put in surely reaches into the thousands of hours once you include playtesting and bug fixing and all the rest.

So, we are happy you want to play it! It would be a shame if we put so much work into something that nobody wanted.

Feel free to tell us you are excited, or ask about the project, but we made a decision many years ago to only release it when it is done so that we are sure that at least some people get to play the full game. Projects that have had very public advertising for their work, and that have done periodic releases of incomplete games seem to have a higher incidence of getting told to stop their work by the copyright holders.

I think that there is nothing that would make us more sad than spending thousands of hours on something that gets buried before anyone gets to see it in action, which is why we will release it when it is done and no sooner.

As promised, this forum will be the first place we post info about the patch when it is published. Keep checking in and you will know when everyone else does.

Thanks for letting us know you are interested in our work! And thanks to everyone who has followed this project for any amount of time - your support has definitely helped make these long hours feel worth it.

 

[CandyIsOk]

Hello there!

I was hoping to maybe become a playtester for the English Version on Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch DS. If not, do you have a release date or an estimate for about what month (or better yet, day) it will be released? Thanks so much!

-CandyIsOk

 

[Anjiera]

I was hoping to maybe become a playtester for the English Version on Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch DS.

Hi there, Candy! We're pretty good on playtesters at the moment, but thanks for the offer! We have a few playtesters already waiting for us to fix our current bug with flashcarts not working, and in the meantime our emulator-based testers are finding lots of typos and minor things for us to fix.

Just a quick note, though. This is not the DS version of Wrath of the White Witch. This game was made and released prior to WotWW and has a slightly different plot and a fairly different play style. So, if you were just looking for a DS version of the PS3 game, this is not quite it.

If not, do you have a release date or an estimate for about what month (or better yet, day) it will be released?

We will not be posting a release date at any point, now or in the future. That has been the project policy for as long as I have been on the project, mostly because as soon as we commit to a date we are guaranteeing that we will have time to fix and test all known issues by then. While we don't have many issues left, many of them are tricky (like this flashcard problem).

We are also a team made up entirely of volunteers. This project has been going on since at least 2014, and in that time project members have both started and finished entire post-secondary degrees, had children, moved to new cities or homes, etc.

Our rule has always been that life comes first, especially on such a demanding project. We don't want to burn people out or make them resent the time they have generously donated to the project. When people need to take a break due to work, family, or even just as a healthy mental break from the project, we always accomodate that. And since those breaks are not predictable, we don't know how much we can get done this week, or this month.

The original DS release was released in December of 2010, so it is almost 8 years old at this point. I'm sure you can find the patience to wait for our unannounced release a bit longer since you have already waited 8 years.

Thanks for your enthusiasm, and your support! If we end up needing more playtesters in the future, I will get in touch with you.

 

[Arcomador]

I've been waiting for this since the original post lol. I have no issue waiting longer Thank you for staying active in the post and keeping us up to date.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[CandyIsOk]

OK. Thanks for being so quick to respond! Three things: One -- do you know if there is anyone who is working on a DS ROM (The Spanish Team did a patch for the DS, right?) ? Two -- What will this project be playable on (e.g. PS3, Mac, PC, etc.) and Three -- Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I appreciate your cordial response, and thank you for donating your time to work on this project.

-CandyIsOk

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Also, you said that the game was slightly different from Wrath of the White Witch. Are you talking about Dominion of the Dark Djinn? I am interested in both, so keep me posted.

 

[AmandaRose]

OK. Thanks for being so quick to respond! Three things: One -- do you know if there is anyone who is working on a DS ROM (The Spanish Team did a patch for the DS, right?) ? Two -- What will this project be playable on (e.g. PS3, Mac, PC, etc.) and Three -- Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I appreciate your cordial response, and thank you for donating your time to work on this project.

-CandyIsOk

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Also, you said that the game was slightly different from Wrath of the White Witch. Are you talking about Dominion of the Dark Djinn? I am interested in both, so keep me posted.

Lol you ask if anyone is working on a patch for the ds Ni No Kuni hmm what forum do you think you are in???


The game is a ds game so will be playable on a ds using a flashcart and will be playable in any other system that can emulate a ds. The patch is for the very first ni no kuni game Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn that came out on the nintendo ds. The game came out about a year before the ps3 Ni No Kuni Wrath Of The White Witch. The 2 games are quite similar but at the same time totally different lol. Also the dev of this patch has stated several times that he does not need any more people to help with it at the moment.

 

[Anjiera]

One -- do you know if there is anyone who is working on a DS ROM (The Spanish Team did a patch for the DS, right?) ? Two -- What will this project be playable on (e.g. PS3, Mac, PC, etc.) and Three -- Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Also, you said that the game was slightly different from Wrath of the White Witch. Are you talking about Dominion of the Dark Djinn? I am interested in both, so keep me posted.

1. I am unclear what your first question is asking. This thread is for the English translation of the Japanese-only DS game "Dominion of the Dark Djinn", but we aren't calling it that because "Dark Djinn" is sort of a misnomer. We are calling it "The Jet-black Mage". It loses the alliteration, but it becomes a name that makes sense.

2. This is a ROM patch project. You will be able to play it on flashcards that support DS ROMs, as well as any emulator that supports DS ROMs. I am not aware of any PS3 emulators, and I have not tested with those, but you will be able to play on your phone (we've tested several emulators on Android), on your computer (mac or windows or linux as long as you have an emulator), and using a flashcard you will be able to play it on any DS hardware (original, DS lite, 3DS, N3DS) from any region because DS games are region free.

3. Thank you for your enthusiasm, we are good for help at the moment!

4. You do not need an emulator or a fan translation to play Wrath of the White Witch. It is available on the PS3 and PS4 stores and nobody from the fan community has ever, to my understanding, ported a PS3 game to the DS because they are very different systems so if you are waiting for that... don't.

Also the dev of this patch has stated several times that he does not need any more people to help with it at the moment.

Thanks for answering, Marko! Maybe be a bit more patient with new people next time, though. Not everyone discovers this forum when they are already an expert at navigating it. We all start somewhere, and as long as someone is being supportive of the project I am happy to answer these kinds of questions.

Also, I think it has been a while since any of the *he* devs associated with this project have posted an update (I think pleonex posted a while ago about his ROM hacks). If you were talking about me: SURPRISE! I'm a lady dev - though on this project I have done almost no coding, and have been acting as a project manager, recruiter and translator. I am a software developer in the real world, though. Learned something new today, huh? Yup, we can't know everything all the time.


In other news, we think we have narrowed down the flashcard bug and are doing even more extensive testing to ensure that there aren't other problems caused by that same commit that will show up at other points in the game. Hurray! For those that are curious, it was a problem with one of the ROM hacks, and a line in the assembly code was mistakenly trying to read a pointer address out of a variable that had a 2 digit int, which as you might imagine is not a valid address in memory. It was a pain in the ass to track down, since it wasn't obvious to the people looking at it that the code had recently changed to using a pointer for that particular bit of info. Anyway, we are doing lots more tests with flashcards now to hopefully find any other places where we have hidden bugs.

 

[CandyIsOk]

Awesome. Thanks for answering all my questions, and sorry I'm so unknowledgeable. I'm happy to hear that you've made progress on the flashcard bug, and it just gets me even more excited! Again, thanks for spending your precious time on this project. I'm really looking forward to trying out the ROM! One question -- Will the patch be free or will we have to pay for it? Thanks so much!

-CandyIsOk

 

[Anjiera]

I hope that you never find a patch that costs money. I think every patch I've ever seen was free (likely because patch developers are not the original content owners), so if you find a patch that requires a payment it is probably a scam. And would probably get shut down pretty quick.

Our patch will be entirely free for people to use to patch a Japanese ROM and make it playable in English.

 

[FireHeart7]

... of the Japanese-only DS game "Dominion of the Dark Djinn", but we aren't calling it that because "Dark Djinn" is sort of a misnomer. We are calling it "The Jet-black Mage". It loses the alliteration, but it becomes a name that makes sense.

Doesn't this version feature the same character who was called The Dark Djinn in the PS3 one, though? (Won't say anything to spoil it) Always wondered if it had the White Witch either, since she isn't in the name on this one.

 

[Anjiera]

Doesn't this version feature the same character who was called The Dark Djinn in the PS3 one, though? (Won't say anything to spoil it) Always wondered if it had the White Witch either, since she isn't in the name on this one.

I only played up until you get the ship in the PS3 game... My reward for finishing the pactch file will eventually be a full playthrough of NNK PS3 and NNK2 on PS4... And a dozen other games I haven't played yet. Haha.

This game features both Shadaar and Jabou, but Shadaar is the New Game+ boss in the DS game and Jabou was renamed to Shadar in the PS3 game for maximum confusion.

The wikipedia page for the DS game doesn't even mention Shadaar, which shows you what a secondary character it is. Anyone that doesn't beat Moya tower (the post-game giant 100 level dungeon tower) doesn't see Shadaar. But, he is there and is a part of the story separate from Jabou (the main villain).

There is no White Witch in any part of the DS game at all.

So... Yeah... It's confusing, we don't like the Dark Djinn name as Jabou is not a Djinn a spirit or hidden from sight). Shadaar is a spirit, but is almost unseen by all players and doesn't deserve to be in the subtitle of the game as far as we are concerned.

Does that make sense? Is it more confusing now? Either way, we are calling it The Jet-black Mage.

 

[CandyIsOk]

Awesome! Thanks for all of your help on this topic. I can't wait to see the finished project, so please notify me when it is complete. I hope to keep in touch with you even after the project is done, and finally, thank you for all your help.

All the Best,
CandyIsOk

 

[Anjiera]

I can't wait to see the finished project, so please notify me when it is complete.

There are hundreds of people that have replied to this thread over time, and I will not be able to contact all of them directly. I will post in this thread when the patch is released, and we will also update the very first page of this thread when we have released with a link to the patch. I would recommend checking in periodically to see if we're done yet.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

 

[CandyIsOk]

I understand. One last question. (Maybe not ) Will this be available to patch the original game that is currently in Japanese, or will we need to use the flashcart. Thanks so much for all your help, again. (Sorry I sound like a broken record)

-CandyIsOk

 

[Anjiera]

Will this be available to patch the original game that is currently in Japanese, or will we need to use the flashcart.

You will be able to patch a ROM of the game that you either create yourself or find online. Then you can play that patched ROM on a flashcart or on an emulator. But, we won't be providing a utility to patch the actual original cartridge.

 

[FireHeart7]

So... Yeah... It's confusing, we don't like the Dark Djinn name as Jabou is not a Djinn a spirit or hidden from sight). Shadaar is a spirit, but is almost unseen by all players and doesn't deserve to be in the subtitle of the game as far as we are concerned.

Does that make sense? Is it more confusing now? Either way, we are calling it The Jet-black Mage.

Hmm, it does actually make more sense now. I didn't realize the DS and PS3 versions were quite that different. I had thought only the battle system was different and maybe a few minor plot details. So the Shadaar that's apparently after the main game doesn't have a PS3 counterpart at all?

 

[CandyIsOk]

OK, so we will have to get a flashcard, and download the data on to that? If so, I assume the data will be accessible through this thread or a link in this thread to the download, right?

-CandyIsOk

 

[Anjiera]

Hmm, it does actually make more sense now. I didn't realize the DS and PS3 versions were quite that different. I had thought only the battle system was different and maybe a few minor plot details. So the Shadaar that's apparently after the main game doesn't have a PS3 counterpart at all?

I haven't finished the PS3 game so I can't be 100% sure, but the ancient mage king (Shadaar on DS) does not appear anywhere in the PS3 guidebook creatures appendix (where all optional bosses, and the white witch and all versions of PS3 Shadaar/Jabou appear) so i'm going to assume that he's nowhere in the PS3 game. Here's a Let's Play video showing the final post-game Shadaar battle if you're curious:


Also, the PS3 game shows the White Witch at the start of the game with some sort of group of people wearing animal masks - those are nowhere in the DS game. The PS3 has the fairy land, but the DS has Del Mokahl the Casino town, and so on... Even the map locations aren't the same for things that are similar - Mount Dekarock / Old Smoky are in both games, but in the DS game it is to the far West of the main continent along with the Temple of Trials, whereas on the PS3 the Temple of Trials is Northeast of Al Mamoon / Babanacia and separate from the smoky mountain.

So, yeah. There are a number of differences beyond just the battle system and the plot. Think of it as the PS3 story is a bigger, grander retelling of the DS story. Like the way that folk tales change over time when they are told repeatedly by different people to different audiences.

Why were there so many significant changes to the plot and the map even though the PS3 game came out so soon after the DS one? I have no idea.

Can you enjoy both as separate stories for their own, unique, endearing values? Yes, definitely (says the girl who hasn't finished the PS3 one but has played the DS one more than 5 times start to finish. ha ha). Are they the best games ever made? No. Do I have criticisms about some of the design choices in the series? Yes! But, the games all have so much heart, and the art and sound direction just feels like you are playing a Ghibli film, which to me is enough to warrant hundreds of hours playing the games (the DS game is ~45 hours for me with some cheats on and ignoring most sidequests) and working on the project. Hopefully that's enough to convince you to give it a whirl once we release the patch.

 

[DarthDub]

Will the patch be in xdelta format and will it be hosted on romhacking.net?

 

[CandyIsOk]

Indeed. I have the same question. If so how do you extract xdelta files?

-CandyIsOk