Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

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How should the main characters be named in Generation:2 ?

Poll ended at Fri Oct 19, 2012 1:51 am

Use the full Japanese names
28
38%
Use the English Sega Genesis names
40
55%
It doesn't matter
5
7%
 
Total votes : 73

Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Blaw- » Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:18 pm

Before :

status_trans.JPG
status_trans.JPG (57.01 KiB) Viewed 19066 times


After :

gsdx_20130329180711.PNG
gsdx_20130329180711.PNG (319.74 KiB) Viewed 19066 times


No more limitations for the menu texts size (except, of course, the size of the window itself) thanks to Tryphon magical powers !

The "after" is in french, but I'm pretty sure Kyence will redo them once she'll notice she can now expand the texts.

The Genesis rom can now easily be switched, so it's possible to put the english version instead of the japanese version. I tested PS2 (english) and PS3 (english) roms and they seems to work fine. PS4 is the only one who don't work (probably too big).

I didn't tried if some other genesis roms might work, I'll test some out of curiosity one day (but I think they might work, as long as there aren't too big, it's probably a complete Genesis emulator). The roms are probably loaded in the PS2 RAM, which might be why some big games don't work (not enough room).

And to finish, one screenshot with the japanese subtitle added (always in french, of course, this one mean "The end of an era") :

gsdx_20130328182610.PNG
gsdx_20130328182610.PNG (396.61 KiB) Viewed 19065 times


We just finished the translation of all graphic texts. Misc texts are translated since a while (SLPM ones, 86.3 Kb), so I just need to finish the main script now (126.63 Kb of 364.94 Kb done, 34.70%).

Kyence have access to all the texts I've already translated (we invited her on our forum, where I post all the things I've done), hoping it might help her (as she reads french).
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby BenoitRen » Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:34 pm

Err, that subtitle is wrong. It's supposed to be "The End of the Lost Age" or as a Japanese guy put it: "At the End of the Time That Cannot Be Returned to".
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Blaw- » Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:28 pm

That's not wrong, that's just what we choose (literal translation is evil).

The japanese sentence don't have anything which mean "lost age" in it. Literaly, it means "At the end of the time which don't come back" (the japanese mean that the era that can't come back, not the people who can't return to it, it's probably related to the Mother Brain era).

We discussed a lot of possibilities during a long time and we finally choose this one, the only one which would sound good in french, and which also sound good with the ending sentence of the game (and which also keep the meaning of the original, because once an era is over, it can't come back, so it keep the meaning of the japanese sentence).

The ending sentence in french is : "Que pourront-ils donc bien voir, à la fin de cette époque ?" (which could be translated in english, in "What will they (finally) see, at the end of this era?")

But that's not what will be on the english version if that's what you think, I dunno which one Kyence will choose, but she won't choose "The end of the last age", as what she said in a previous message :

3. I am against the End of the Lost Age for two reasons: #1, this phrasing is NEVER used in English; #2, There is a GBA game called The Golden Sun: The Lost Age in both English and Japanese: "The Lost Age" is written completely differently in Japanese and translates roughly to the same thing in English.


You probably missed the long discussion with Paul Jensen and Kyence that occured a while ago?

Here : viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3175&p=54188#p54185

By the way, a quote from Kyence :
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Zio51 » Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:56 pm

Good evening to all,

This is my first post here. Actually probably even my first post on any forums as far I can recall.

Anyway on the topic of the subtitle, I have to say I agree with Blaw on that one and the Japanese sentence surely does not mention the terms Lost Age implicitly.

I also believe that the subtitle "The End of the Lost Age" , actually is improper in English as it is my impression that the terms are almost mutually exclusive due to their meaning.
Indeed "lost" already carries the meaning that something is irremediably behind, therefore the end of a Lost Age does sound an awkward thing to say and is indeed somewhat a form of tautology.

Same with the literal translation: "At the end of the time which don't come back" or some proposition that had been put by Paul Jensen "at the time of no return" or other proposition that had been discussed . It does not seem to sound right in English.
Phantasy Star has nothing to do with Time travel or such notions therefore Time & Return are mutually exclusive in the context of the storyline of the franchise.

This mutual exclusion is the stem of the translation hurdle in regards to the translation in both French and English.
Though I am no specialist in Japanese, my theory is that the difficulty comes from a distinction in how ideas are expressed in Japanese and other languages such as French or English.
In japanese the above may be grammatically correct and meaningful while in French/English the terms contradictness within the context of the game renders the translation awkward, therefore why it seems wrong when reading litteral translation even if people still understand the nuance of the Japanese script.

I believe in French and English this nuance is perhaps implicit notion and therefore we do not stress any further the relation that opposes and "time/era" the "end" and "return".
So I adhere to the title chosen by Blaw in regards to the French translation of Phantasy Star G2.

That is of course just my humble opinion about this and anyone is free to agree or disagree.

Well!! , that was a first long post but I felt like I wanted to put forward my thoughts about all this as it had been itching me.
Also really good work on the translation, I cannot wait to see the final result ; I am currently playing in Japanese though it's not always so easy to understand everything being said so I give all my thanks to those who are trying to bring this great game to those of us who do not have their fluency in Japanese.


Happy easter to everyone on the forum.
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Blaw- » Sat Mar 30, 2013 12:56 am

It's the final one we choose anyway so we can debate, I have nothing against it, but we won't change it (for us, graphics are finalized once for all, except if we find some typos later), we already debated enough between the two of us :D

I'll post some other screenshots later, if some people are curious to see how it looks like.
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Blaw- » Sat Mar 30, 2013 9:46 pm

47 screens from the french alpha version (for curious people) : http://www.sendspace.com/file/qb2kap

It can give you an idea about how it would look in english if Kyence use the expand possibility of the menus we found a while ago.

Note : We left the soundtrack names of Aventino House in english on purpose (there are already in english in the japanese version, in katakanas). That's way, if someone want to search the songs or whatever, it's easier for him.

Edit : Download link fixed.
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Kyence » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:25 am

Nice work, Blaw!

Yes, we had discussed this at length, and I am going with "The End of an Era." In English, I believe it has the same connotation as in French, in that the period of time "The Era" cannot be returned to, and things will be drastically different from then on in. This can be used in English to mean a good change or a bad one, which is what the game is really about - Mother Brain will be no more, but the era of properity (illusion or not) is over, and the population of Algol will sacrifice their lives for Algol's freedom.

In Japanese, the "End of an Era" is a literal translation; the version we see in the Japanese PSG2 is what is likely used in Japanese to suggest the nuances End of an Era does in English and French. It's actually pretty fun to read different languages idioms and sayings, where the theme is the same but different analogies are used - it's not a 1-to-1 translation.

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong :D

PS-I will be using Tryphon and Blaw's updates. I am busy doing tons of planning and organization for my wedding in a couple of months, so Eusis and Co. are nicely waiting for their ESL certificates to arrive :lol:

I am still working on it, never fear!
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby heis3780 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:41 am

I'm sorry for the aparently stupid question, but I'd like to know what is the status of the translation of PS Generation 2.
Thank you.
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Blaw- » Sun Mar 31, 2013 7:54 pm

About the english translation, I don't think it'll really start before a few months, Kyence is busy with her wedding, but she already started to try to modify the graphics and such things.

She's not late, though, as three bugs has been fixed yesterday in the tools (I started to work on my french translation without buggy tools because I'm also the beta-tester of the tools :D ), but now, they should be okay (but there were still working pretty fine before, it was just some little bugs).

Meanwhile, Tryphon finished to add the support of PSGEN1 in his tools, so maybe there will be a new english patch in the near future (one with a VWF), once it'll have been tested on a real PS2.
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Zio51 » Mon Apr 01, 2013 2:39 pm

That's a really great work Blaw,

It's good to have screen captures of the different element. Town / Battle environment ect...
I sent the images to my brother to show your awesome work and he was like:
"Wow you've go to show me how to get this PS2 emulator working"

Only thing ; I would perhaps have gone for different fonts for some parts though it all comes down to people personal preferences for those kind of things, isn't it. Also I assume that there is only so much fonts that can be used as they need be varied-width compatible?
Anyway great work, to release "screenshots" for progress update always bolsters up the fan excitement.

On another note a more technical question. I assume the code had to be slightly played with to allow or the VWF to be usable. Just wondering how does that affect existing "Save data" and such.
Assuming you have a "Clear Data" of PSG2 all ready so you can get your Nei revival playtrough on the go next, will that clear data be usable once you get the PSG2 patched?
I assume it should be but I thought asking someone who actually knows what mods. have been made to allow translation will be better informed to give a definite reply.


I want also to give my congratulations to Kyence for her wedding. I'm sure it probably keeps her busy and stressed out to get it all arranged and perfect but that's also what eventually make it fulfilling.

PS: By the way, I've played through the PSG1(translated) and it did not really bother me that no VWF were used. Just the "Yes / No" being "Y / N", I think, made a big impression. It just felt like old days RPGs (time sure flies).
But it makes sense eventually to have PSG1 use similar structure as G2 ; keeps things more cohérant. Anyway your thouroughness (and I mean all the fan here working on those translation) is really praiseworthy.
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby heis3780 » Mon Apr 01, 2013 6:02 pm

Indeed, congratulations for your wedding Kyence!
Best wishes for you and your family!
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Tryphon » Mon Apr 01, 2013 6:54 pm

Zio51 wrote:That's a really great work Blaw,
On another note a more technical question. I assume the code had to be slightly played with to allow or the VWF to be usable. Just wondering how does that affect existing "Save data" and such.
Assuming you have a "Clear Data" of PSG2 all ready so you can get your Nei revival playtrough on the go next, will that clear data be usable once you get the PSG2 patched?


It shouldn't be affected. I can use the very same data with both original and hacked version of PSGEN2.

Though, PCSX2 save states won't work since they check the checksum of the executable file first.
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Zio51 » Mon Apr 01, 2013 8:39 pm

Hello Tryphon,

Thank you for the reply. I was expecting as much but I had better check with someone that has more knowledge of the game code structure.

About the Save states, just so I am not confused ; you mean that they won't be usable on the PS G2 (patched version) because checksum of the exe won't be right due to the code changes and it won't match with code running in-game, am I understanding that correctly?

Well it's not like save states are too important in PSG2 though I like to use those when lvling (in not sage way on too strong enemies). I will just lv in safer way then

Anyway thanks again for the reply.

P.S: Are the Tools you made for the translation available somewhere? I quite could not find a link in the forum dedicated to it. I am not planning on shortcutting anyone's work but I'm actually interested at looking how the Game's built up.
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Tryphon » Mon Apr 01, 2013 9:46 pm

Zio51 wrote:About the Save states, just so I am not confused ; you mean that they won't be usable on the PS G2 (patched version) because checksum of the exe won't be right due to the code changes and it won't match with code running in-game, am I understanding that correctly?


No, sorry to have been unclear : they are usable, but you can't save a save state with the original japanese version and use it later wih the hacked version. And reciprocally.

To the contrary, with saved games (on Memory Card) you can do whatever you want.

P.S: Are the Tools you made for the translation available somewhere? I quite could not find a link in the forum dedicated to it. I am not planning on shortcutting anyone's work but I'm actually interested at looking how the Game's built up.


You can find a really early version somewhere on this board, but the actual version is much more complete. It is still under testing, but I'll make it available when we'll have done at least one complete translation (to make sure).

I'll make available too some comments on the program and my modifications. I may develop some other tools too (such as a map editor or a monster editor).
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Re: Phantasy Star Generation 2: English Translation

Postby Blaw- » Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:47 pm

Yep, it's better to release the tools once it's sure there are fuly working.

For example, I found some bugs (which has been fixed since) during the last week-end.

But this time, it should be okay.

However, it's pretty long to write a fine documentation so it'll take some time for Tryphon to do it.

We are also waiting for a friend of mine who is making a script to recreate the iso (right now, we have to manually recreate the iso with the output files).
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