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Post by Wyrdwad on Jul 23, 2018 3:20:13 GMT -5
I am curious - what ever happened to Tancients? Was any of the translation assets of BoF games used by XSeed? For Zwei 2, yes. We paid Tancients and adapted her fan-translation like we did with Deuce for the Ys games. That script was edited almost entirely by my coworker Nick while I was working on Zwei 1. For Zwei 1, I translated the game myself, as we were unable to easily work with Tancients' script due to the game's... erm... very 2001-era programming, let's just say. Our programmer, Matt, took a different approach to Tancients' programmer, and the two resulting data sets really weren't compatible with one another. And given how much effort it would've been for either Tancients and her team or us to adapt her text, we decided it would actually be easier if we just retranslated from scratch. So, that's what we did! ...I'm quite glad we did too, though (no offense to Tancients!), because Zwei 1 wound up being my favorite translation I've ever worked on, hands down. Just editing it would've still been fun, but coming up with all those translations from scratch? That was glorious. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Aug 4, 2017 16:45:19 GMT -5
Sorcerian MSX was released *after* Legend of Heroes? Really?! That game runs *terribly* on my MSX2+, whereas Legend of Heroes runs really smoothly. I always assumed Sorcerian must have been one of the first MSX disk games Falcom made or something, based on how slowly it moves.
Different teams, maybe?
-Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jul 26, 2017 23:28:22 GMT -5
0, 1, and 1' are very true. 2 is sort of a gaming urban legend, though -- Castlevania's first appearance was on the Famicom, with the MSX version releasing around one month later.
The two were developed in tandem by different teams within Konami, IIRC, but the Famicom version beat the MSX to market, and wound up becoming the version everybody remembers. Which is kind of unfortunate, as I actually prefer the MSX version by quite a bit, myself. It's a VERY, VERY DIFFERENT GAME, and it blows my mind that Castlevania fans aren't more familiar with it, as it's such a unique entry in the series, and really shows that the "Metroidvania" formula was in some ways present (if only in embryonic form) since the very beginning.
-Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jul 24, 2017 14:43:20 GMT -5
Can't comment on that at this time, except to say that we hold out much hope for it in the future.
-Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jun 16, 2017 10:24:23 GMT -5
Did you see how much we pushed it at E3? We're taking very good care of Zwei II, so you needn't worry -- we'll make sure this game is a success!
-Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jun 4, 2017 8:58:15 GMT -5
We'll be addressing that at or by E3. If you think about it, though, Zwei 1 is from 2001, uses DirectX 5, has a gajillion integrated desktop apps (desktop apps!), and has a framerate selection of 30fps or... 15fps. So, uh, yeah. It's not necessary to play the games in order, however, as they take place on different continents and with different casts of characters. It's no more necessary to play Zwei 1 before Zwei 2 than it is to play most Ys games in order. We'll definitely be giving more info on Zwei as a whole, though, in the coming weeks, so stay tuned! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Feb 13, 2017 5:06:17 GMT -5
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Post by Wyrdwad on Feb 13, 2017 4:56:43 GMT -5
Figured there might be some people on here who'd find this interesting, though apologies to those of you who are friended with me on Facebook, as I'm sure you're tired of hearing me talk about Rune Worth by now. As many of you know, I've been obsessively collecting and playing through MSX games for the better part of two years now, and have recently gotten my hands on quite a few complete-in-box MSX2 RPGs on disk -- titles I'd either never heard of before or had only ever heard about in passing, like Emerald Dragon, Last Armageddon, Burai Part One, Lenam: Sword of Legend, etc. I picked all of these up almost solely because (1) they were complete-in-box, (2) they were going for relatively decent prices on eBay, and (3) they looked kind of cool from brief YouTube video clips and screenshots, so I figured, ehhh, why not? Neat forgotten gems from obscure developers are part of why I bought my MSX in the first place, and since I can read Japanese, the language barrier isn't an issue, so it only makes sense to add a few of these to my collection. Among the titles I've picked up over the last few months is a game from T&E Soft (most well-known as the developer behind the Hydlide games, but DON'T CLICK AWAY! I swear this is better!) called (in translation) "Rune Worth: The Young Noble in Black." I didn't know a whole lot about the game when I bid on it, but it looked like it came with a bunch of neat stuff, and this video certainly made it seem like a promising purchase: So, I took a chance on it. And suffice it to say, I'm glad I did! The game's bold new feature that the above store demo video advertises is that it's an RPG without experience points -- leveling up occurs by finding and using certain unique items in the game's many dungeons, rewarding you for exploration as opposed to grinding. It also features a day/night mechanic that's used to relatively good effect -- stores and churches are open only during the day, bars are open only at night, the NPCs wandering the streets are considerably different and say very different things depending on the time of day, and bandit raids can occur as random battles when traveling from one town to another during the night, encouraging you to do most of your traveling while it's still light outside. There are also a lot of other neat little details: spells actually have to be chanted, for example, and you're completely vulnerable to enemy attack while chanting them, with more powerful spells requiring longer chants. Another interesting example that doesn't sound like much, but was pretty cool for the time, is the game's relatively nonlinear nature, where the story can sometimes be progressed out of order or in different ways depending on where you choose to go and what you choose to do. It's mostly fake nonlinearity, as there's usually just one specific flag you're supposed to trigger in order to make the story continue, but it's well-implemented enough that the early parts of the game almost feel like an open-world Ys, which is pretty novel for a game from 1990. It helps, too, that the game world is extremely well-developed, with shockingly rich lore behind the kingdoms(/dukedoms/empires/federations) that make up the world of Rune Worth, as well as their histories and cultures. The game came packaged with one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen included with a video game, bound in soft, fuzzy velvet and largely written as a historical/religious text chronicling the world's creation myths and the many gods that supposedly dwell within it in almost excruciating detail. Here's a photo of the book -- imagine that entire cover being fuzzy like a little puppy: Unfortunately, this book is one of the reasons every single English-speaker I spoke with who played Rune Worth ultimately gave up on it (in addition to the game being extremely user-unfriendly to non-Japanese-speakers in general): the game has two separate instances where you're asked specific multiple-choice lore questions that you can only answer by looking them up in the included book, and if you don't give the correct answers, you can't continue. I'd say these scenes were included solely for copy-protection purposes, but honestly, both scenes fit in with the story perfectly, so if they were anti-piracy measures, they were quite well-realized. What all this comes down to is: I really liked the game. It definitely had some issues, both in terms of gameplay and story, but overall, I found it to be a better Ys-like than even the Xak titles -- and the final dungeon and final boss in particular were just absolutely spectacular. In my online searches for info about the game, I encountered some Japanese fans discussing it and saying that they think of it almost like an unofficial Hydlide 4, but honestly, for as decent as Hydlide 3 is (especially compared to its predecessors), this game absolutely blows it out of the water completely. If this is an unofficial Hydlide 4, then the jump from the previous game to this one is practically exponential. I found it rather unfortunate that so few English-speakers had ever played this title to completion, so I decided I was going to do something of a public service. A full fan-translation would've been ideal, but also extremely time-consuming (and probably rather difficult to accomplish programming-wise), so I did the next best thing: I wrote a full walkthrough, complete with (relatively) detailed story summaries of each scene, commentary on game lore and NPC dialogue, etc. Basically, it's a document designed to allow people to play the game even if they can't speak a word of Japanese... provided they don't mind playing "match-the-character" from time to time with Japanese item names and such. I only just posted this walkthrough yesterday, and only on the MSX.org forums so far (for evaluation and revision before posting elsewhere), so I have no idea yet just how effective it'll actually be at allowing non-Japanese-speakers to play and enjoy the game -- but if you're interested in giving it a try, Rune Worth really is a pretty awesome little gem, so I don't think you'll regret it! The walkthrough can be found here: www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/software/rune-worth-full-walkthroughIf you wind up using it to play through the game, I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. It's also worth noting that this game was released on other platforms too: PC-88 and Sharp X68000 for sure, and apparently PC-98 as part of a compilation? Though that might just be the PC-88 version of the game -- I can't quite tell. What I found most surprising, however, is that this game has two sequels! Both are available exclusively for the PC-98, and they look to continue the story, so I'm really intrigued to try them out sometime... but man, finding information on just THIS game was a real ordeal, even in Japanese; finding information on its sequels is nigh impossible, as there's virtually nothing on the whole of the internet about them! (You can buy a compilation that includes all three, however, via Project EGG, which I might just do at some point...) So, yeah... that's my Rune Worth saga, in a nutshell! I had a great time with this game, and figured I'd share in case anyone here wanted to have a great time with it too. As one final bonus, I figure I'll leave you with this link to the game's soundtrack, courtesy of the "Music Disk" included in the box. Each song is accompanied by dancing SD sprites, which for some reason include... Batman and the Joker? A pretty goofy way to include a soundtrack with a game, but I appreciate it! The music is well-composed, too, though I wish the synth were a bit better. The cooler part of the soundtrack -- the dungeon themes -- can be found around the 23:30 mark, with my favorite dungeon theme beginning just after the 28-minute mark (and my next two favorites playing right afterward!). The game's main theme is pretty cool, too. It starts at 1:35. Enjoy! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jan 27, 2017 1:01:01 GMT -5
Link to patch.Original post follows:I got the game to display 16:9 widescreen without stretching the gameworld or characters. The sprites and hud are still stretched but its better than nothing. Unedited exe Original resolution was 1600 x 900 Edited exe Original resolution was 1600 x 900 Uploaded with ImageShack.usTo do this open up the ys6_win.exe or ys6_win_dx9.exe, whichever you use, in a hexeditor. Search for ABAAAA3F which is 1.333333373 and replace it with 398EE33F which is 1.777777791 (16:9), or CDCCCC3F which is 1.600000024 (16:10). The offsets are likely different for the different versions of the exe, but the string should only be in the exe once or twice and any free hexeditor with basic search function should work fine. I have no skills beyond basic hex editing so maybe someone could take this info and turn it into something more user friendly. This also works on Ys Origin. Wow, thank you for your information to make Ys VI to show in widescreen mode. I tried your method to Ys VI standard edition v1.2.0.2 in Windows 10 64bit having 1600x900 display and oh! it worked. As you said, HUD is stretched though, just a little more I would like to ask you to improve HUD aspect. Years have been passed since you posted this information, maybe you had time to research this issue, if you got any further information to improve HUD display, could you post it to this space ? Thank you in advance.
Remember, this game is available domestically on Steam and GOG now, with full widescreen support across the board! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jun 19, 2015 0:29:14 GMT -5
a superior translation, a superior version That is simply not true. I don't think this is worth debating at all, because there's nothing to gain from it, but the translation isn't superior. In its defense, however, and optimistically-speaking, we CAN call it "a different translation". I won't go into details as this was really, really discussed before, meaning it'd be redundant to, but I do have to point this bit out so no one misunderstands things. While Ys Felghana may have had a few moments of silliness on my part, they were VERY few and far between -- the "finger to the lips" moment was really the only one I can think of off-hand. And numerous translation errors were corrected during editing for that game, so our script is absolutely a "better translation" by definition -- it sticks much closer to the original Japanese. You accuse me of "having fun" with the script here, and I was certainly guilty of that in Ys Seven in particular, but I haven't really done it at all since Ys I & II (and I remained serious when seriousness was called for in Ys I & II, only going "silly" during scenes like fireballing villagers). Ys Origin and Ys Celceta both remained very close to the original scripts with few if any "additions" from me (Ys Origin in particular is one I'm quite proud of), and I barely even touched Ys VI (and Brittany, who edited the entire game's script, is 100% against insertion of things that don't belong, and really focused on all the little details like making sure NPC names matched their intended nationalities). I've matured a lot as a translator and editor in the five years I've been working at XSEED, and would encourage you to check my work on games like Corpse Party and Brandish for evidence of this (or Return to PopoloCrois, once it's out!). And while I do have some localization regrets regarding Felghana, I'm still quite proud of my editing work on it overall, and I think it's entirely fair to say it's better than the fan-translation if only because it IS the fan-translation -- just edited to remove mistranslations and correct the tone of certain scenes so it's closer to the original Japanese. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jun 16, 2015 23:21:46 GMT -5
Just popping back in here with links to our E3 trailer:
And some quick gameplay footage (just basic running around and fighting):
-Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jun 13, 2015 19:31:52 GMT -5
Heehee. Yeah, I can't believe I haven't posted about this here yet, actually! Guess it just slipped my mind, with all the E3 prep. But I'm the one translating it AND editing it, and I'm also one of two people showing it at E3, so I'm super excited! I wrote up a blog entry about it, if anyone's interested: xseedgames.tumblr.com/post/121386499595/return-to-popolocrois-a-story-of-seasonsIt's SUPER GOOD. If I had to rank all the games I've played based on the PopoloCrois IP, this would be my third-favorite (of seven). It's really up there with the best of the series, and definitely worth checking out for fans of either PopoloCrois or Story of Seasons! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jun 1, 2015 16:50:26 GMT -5
That's interesting..... totally forgot about Xak! I have those on PC Engine CD, which is probably good enough for me. According to MP83, that's like, the worst version of the game. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Jun 1, 2015 14:31:20 GMT -5
Carts are pretty expensive -- most of my collection has been in the $20+ range, and a lot of the big-name games like Metal Gear and Space Manbow are several hundred dollars no matter where you look -- but I've still done pretty well for myself cart-wise, with a rather nice library of games built up over the course of only two short months without (completely) breaking the bank. And the carts I've purchased do represent the vast majority of the games I've amassed so far, with the *only* disk-based games of the bunch being Xak and Xak II (as opposed to... something like 12 cartridge games?). So yeah, you can totally play MSX as a cart-only system, and I'm having a blast doing so (or mostly doing so, since I am also enjoying Xak). Honestly, I was originally just planning to pick up a handful of games to "tide myself over" until the Megaflashrom was back in stock, but... well, it's back in stock now, and I'm actually not even going to buy one yet, as I already have a backlog of legit cart and disk games. (I've confirmed with the guy from the MSX Cartridge Shop that he'll have them in stock for a few months, most likely, so I'll probably still pick up the Megaflashrom in a bit -- I just don't need it yet, and would rather save my money for the moment.) -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on May 31, 2015 1:06:11 GMT -5
Borfes and the Five Devils is one I've never heard about before. The screenshots look pretty good, I'll check it out sometime. : ) Definitely think you'd like it. It's not as polished as an Ys game, but it's still got a lot of the same appeal to it. Japanese. Really shocked I got it -- it was an eBay auction that started at $60 and had no bids, and wasn't going to be up for 48 hours. So I was like, what the hell? I'll bid $60, though I'm sure I'll be outbid like, INSTANTLY. But nope! 48 hours came and went, and somehow, I was the only bidder at $60. The auction had pictures, and the cartridge and manual both look to be in great shape. Best I can figure is the hardcore collectors didn't bid on it because it didn't have the box -- but me, I don't give a crap about the box! Every other game I've bought so far has been cartridge only, so I'm thrilled just getting it at all, much less with instructions. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on May 31, 2015 0:23:29 GMT -5
Figured I'd post an update for anyone who's interested, as I've done a lot of MSX shopping this past month. In addition to the aforementioned Yajikita and Cross Blaim, I also picked up a Zelda-like game from Xtalsoft called "Borfes and the Five Devils" (or ボルフェスと5人の悪魔, if you prefer), and I've got four more titles on the way: Castlevania/Vampire Killer (which I managed to snag with manual for only $60!), Maze of Galious, F-1 Spirit, and Ashguine 2. I'm mostly just posting, though, to give impressions on Yajikita and Borfes, as both are lesser-known games I picked up on a whim for cheap, half-expecting them to suck, and both turned out to be very much worthwhile titles that I would definitely recommend to others. Here are my general impressions of them, along with useful links: - The Fools Yaji & Kita's Top Secret Journey - This game is pretty rough around the edges, but provided an experience I haven't had in 20+ years: it's a game I could find absolutely *no* information on, in English or Japanese, anywhere on the internet, so I was forced to figure everything out entirely on my own. I didn't even know what my goal was when I started! But with perseverance, I was able to figure out what to do and get about 3/5 of the way through the game before getting hopelessly stuck and seeking help from the msx.org forums, where Larsthe18th managed to create a password generator, hack the game rom to provide invincibility, map the whole game Nintendo Power-style, and then reverse-engineer it to figure out what I was missing. Here's the topic where I went over everything I figured out, then Lars and I went back and forth exchanging info until we basically broke the game: www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/software/zukkoke-yajikita-onmitsu-douchuu-stuck-anybody-played-itIt really is a pretty flawed game (the combat is about as basic and uninspired as it gets), but it has a certain charm and personality to it that I quite like, and solving its mysteries was astoundingly engaging. Gameplay-wise, it's mostly just exploring the rather massive overworld map, doing delivery tasks for money, avoiding or fighting random battles Zelda 2-style, and fighting your way through platformer castles and forests to get from one area to the next. It's the sort of game you draw a map for, with lots of labels and question marks and notes, and there are still mysteries about it that neither Lars nor I have solved (like, what does ice do? And what's the point of raising your strength attribute?), but we've at least beaten the game now, and I don't regret picking it up one bit. Oh, also, the game has a pretty kickin' overworld theme song. The rest of the music is OK, but that overworld theme -- which is what you'll be hearing most often -- is a real earworm in the best possible way. I really like it! - Borfes and the Five Devils - This game is tough as nails, and has a few questionable design decisions (like a password system that doesn't let you use the keyboard to type anything out, absolutely requiring you to use arrow keys or a gamepad to enter it letter by letter, and which doesn't save the password so you can continue if you die unless you use the crystal ball item again immediately after loading), but is overall a very inspired and engaging experience. It's best thought of as a Zelda clone, but with more of an emphasis on... pure survival, really. Enemies spawn and respawn in insane numbers and almost all of them have projectiles which are fired so quickly that only shmup experts could dodge them all, and the ONLY way to recover health in the entire game (and this includes using passwords, since your current health is saved as part of the password) is to pick up hearts randomly dropped by enemies... and enemies will stop dropping hearts entirely (as well as money) if you outlevel them. So the only way to survive this game is to make sure you don't level-up too fast, or else to be so exact in your movements that you never get hit. There are a ton of great weapons at your disposal, though, which are really fun to play around with and all control very differently. My personal favorite so far is the boomerang, which fires ahead of you very slowly, but then tracks your movements -- so if you fire a boomerang to the right, then move up, the boomerang will start to veer upward at an angle. And if you fire a boomerang to the right, then move right, it'll speed up. It kind of reminds me of the guidable magic in Xanadu, except more precisely maneuverable. You also get urns with demons in them. If you equip an urn, the demon inside it will gain 1 HP per enemy killed, and if you then use that urn, you'll actually summon the demon and control it instead of Borfes. Each demon has its own unique attacks, many of which are also used to solve environmental puzzles in order to progress (one of the demons can mend broken bridges, for example). The game sports a pretty wide variety of environments, as well as a TON of different monsters with very different movement systems, AI schemes and methods of attack. There are also plentiful minibosses and tons of dungeons, each of which is sealed until you push one or more of the rocks outside of it in very specific ways (and you typically need to find a local hermit in order to learn what the local dungeon-opening rock pattern is). It's a great game that seems suspiciously like something that SHOULD be a highly-regarded classic -- making it especially weird that it's such an unknown title. It looks good, with detailed environments and really nice animations, it sounds good, with great music overall, and it plays perfectly, with the only real flaw being the inability to move diagonally. If you play it, though, take note: you can't get a password until you buy a crystal ball from a guy in the first cave for 10 coins, and you have to actually USE the crystal ball to get your password -- and you can't use the crystal ball if there are any enemies on or near the screen. Fortunately, despite the high respawn rate, enemies DO eventually stop respawning altogether (until you leave the area, anyway), so if you keep killing them, eventually you'll get their numbers down far enough that you can use the crystal ball in peace. While Yajikita is a "maybe" recommendation (for fans of exploration in games only), Borfes is a wholehearted recommendation to anyone who likes challenging action RPGs (which is probably most people on this forum, considering Ys!). And while English information on it is hard to come by, here's a really nice Japanese mini-FAQ and walkthrough, which also has a ton of screenshots: www.geocities.jp/galfned/borfesu/borfesu01.htmIf you're looking for a great MSX game to try, I recommend checking it out! -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 26, 2015 21:35:30 GMT -5
Thanks! For the moment, I'm still playing through Xanadu more than anything else, but I'm stocking up pretty nicely on other inexpensive games for later as well -- got seven already, with two more on the way in the form of Metroid-like "Cross Blaim" and a Goemon/Zelda 2-esque action RPG from HAL Laboratories called Zukkoke Yajikita Onmitsu Douchuu (Foolish Yajikita's Top Secret Journey).
Looking forward to checking them out when they arrive sometime in (hopefully) the coming week!
-Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 25, 2015 15:50:19 GMT -5
Good call moving this. Sorry to have drifted so far off-topic. -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 21, 2015 19:31:49 GMT -5
Yeah, that's part of why I snatched it up when I found it for cheap -- I was looking at videos of a bunch of Casio games, and in almost all cases (I'll have to check out those two you named later on), my initial reaction was, "Ugh, this looks/sounds super bad!" But then I looked up a video of Youkai Yashiki, and to my surprise, my first thought on that one was, "Hey, this actually looks like it has... like... a somewhat creepy atmosphere! And fun gameplay! And pretty catchy music! Wow!" -Tom
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Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 21, 2015 16:16:12 GMT -5
Scored myself another cheap MSX game, in the form of Youkai Yashiki (Ghost House) -- which, from what I can tell, is the only Casio-published game worth a damn. Everything I've seen online suggests that Casio was kind of like the LJN of the MSX, with most of their games looking downright awful... but to my surprise, Youkai Yashiki actually looks pretty fun! Any of you guys play it before? -Tom
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