Faxanadu Retranslation

[Ascended Mermaid]

Nah, not at all. If I can laugh at Tomato's Mother 3 translation problems ("peed increase", "Welcome to th"), surely you can laugh at my conundrums.

In further testing, the person that welcomes you to Forepaw would've garbled up your screen (and no dialog) when you spoke to her.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Hahahaha!

Like old school "It's time to clean the NES and cart" garbling?

[Ascended Mermaid]

Yeah. Of course, on occasion, it'd do the "waterfall of death screen", which I'd never seen on actual hardware. XD

[lpdata]

Dec 10, 2008 3:11:33 GMT -5 User said:

The hype is increasing for this business. I was THIS close to starting on Faxanadu WITHOUT patches a few days ago. I managed to stop myself though.

I was about to do the same thing. 'Cept I never really played the game. 'Cuz nobody had fixed it to be awesome.

As far as using accessing the "expanded" data, maybe you're talking about bank switching (mapping), wherein you'd specify the bank you want to access, which would shift that data to $8000.

It could be related to the code that doesn't seem to be responsive - I see that with NES you switch the banks by specifying a value already stored between $8000 and $FFFF (pointing to it by a write command). So that write to $8261 could be mapping bank $03, where the dialog is stored? I could be wrong or you might know this stuff anyway.

But don't release anything you're not happy with.

[Ascended Mermaid]

It indeed does a bank switch, which may help me down the road; having code which does so. However, that doesn't do diddly squat for the text issue; it's all set up fancy-like.

00 01 C2 00 ;is the easy part. But then it changes to
00 XX XX ;Is increasingly difficult. But then it changes to
XX XX ;I cannot read this!! After that, it goes back to
00 01 A5 00 ;For door and item related messages.

It's separated by (I think):
(Picture) (Draw Window Type) (Message ID) (Bank?) ;but I don't know how the changes are handled as it goes down that list.

...and that's ALL how the text is programmed into the game.

Adding extra space within that area would mean having to do another bank switch and copying the data elseplace; a seemingly daunting task for an amateur like myself.

Learning how bankswitches, jumps and all that relate to "$040000", seems a tad trickier than "20 CE FC" (JMP $FCCE). It's not as easy as "20 00 00 04", I'm guessing. Then again, it could be as easy as that "04" being the bank # -- and utilizing what I know (so far) about bank switching (thanks to the SP's Faxanadu Disassembly files and notes), I may be able to pull this off with a little more ease than I'd imagined at this point.

[Ascended Mermaid]

Awesome, awesome!

Man, I had a brainfart. If the translation doesn't take up too much space, I just might be able to get away with switching banks to the text area for programming! As it stands, I have a LOT of free space in there. Although, I'm not certain what this "xHHx" etc. junk is, but it doesn't appear to be important in the least bit... haha, I make a joke. The last I'd checked, it wasn't important, just like the field of FFs I'm writing to, in $FCCE. Space doesn't appear to be an issue anymore, so I may be able to fit my hack into the ROM without expanding.

// "You need a key." This makes me think that this was used earlier in development; I might be able to find a trace of a generic door (ala Xanadu) if I look hard enough. "You need a key." is just so... unspecific, as it doesn't say WHICH key. Xanadu, predecessor of Faxanadu, didn't have specific keys. Hmmm...

[Ascended Mermaid]

Brown Potions cost 90% of the price of Red Potions. Currently, you can only buy and sell them in Apolune. Eventually, I'll likely move this data to another, expanded bank. The space used for items and item prices is all used up, so I kinda went in favor of eliminating useless items; particularly those that you should've purchased in Eolis.

Considering that you no longer get bumped, I'm thinking of lowering the invincibility time a smidge; walking right through what should've been your second hit without a scratch, is kindof cheating.

I'm losing tolerance for my niece. I can't concentrate with her endless singing and talking. Thankfully, she'd just reminded me of the "quiet game". She can last hours without saying anything. (Now WHY didn't I think of that?!)

[Ascended Mermaid]

XD I'd thought of the same thing, oddly enough. I'd look at the Red Potion and think: "Mmmm... Kool Aid!" (or Hawaiian Punch). I don't know what I'd think if I saw a Brown Potion.

I'm almost ready to unveil the preview patch. I'm thinking it'll happen before midnight. Could even be within the hour, if I wanted. I just want to check and make sure that I have made every change that I had wanted to for this one particular preview patch. It does have quite a few things to make the experience a little more interesting.

...oh, yeah. I forgot about that door to Eolis. XD That will, unfortunately, be an expanded ROM patch for another day.

I'm surprised how far I've gotten into this hack! I mean, the most "hacking" I'd ever done, prior to this, was "hacking" in MegaMan Battle Network. No joke.

// Also, blame Falcom for the "Brown Potion". They started that mess when they made the original Xanadu.

[Ascended Mermaid]

I've released the preview patch. It's on my website.

// Actually, Falcom and Hudson (of Japan) had both used the English words "Brown Potion", when referring to the Brown Potion. I dunno whether or not that makes a difference.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Brown is the color of chocolate milk. =|

[lpdata]

- After visiting the king, the nearest horned-shell enemy starts position behind a column, i.e., I run into it because I cannot see it.

- After dying outside Eolis, I am restarted from the church with some bought items (weapon/magic) intact. Yet the jack key and my ducats are gone, meaning I have to re-visit the king and the key shop.

- Every time I die, my experience points are reset to 0. This leaves me feeling very unaccomplished.

[Ascended Mermaid]

Hmmm... #1 does seem annoying. #2 will be taken care of in a more complete patch. #3 is supposed to happen, but... do you think having a Wing-type item would've been of use?

I could change entirely how the game handles deaths, though...

// Wait, when you said that the Jack Key disappeared, did you mean before or after you used it?

[AllenSmithee]

I started playing the original version of the game...

Very good, but how do I save?

[Ascended Mermaid]

Go to a church in the other towns, and talk to the "guru". He will tell you a prayer. Write it down.

If you're using an emulator, Shift+F1-F10 should do. Or F2. Or F5. They're all different!

[AllenSmithee]

Yeah... about the Guru thing. Are you gonna call them, y'know, "Priests"?


thanks for telling me though!

[Ascended Mermaid]

While I'm certain that they're priests, ministers or some other effect, adoru would be the one to talk to about that.

// In the original Xanadu, if you died and had no Elixir remaining, you'd be sent back to where you last saved, with the same equipment, items, health and gold you had when you saved. Perhaps this could work.

[BelmontSlayer]

Dec 11, 2008 21:28:26 GMT -5 Ascended Mermaid said:

I've released the preview patch. It's on my website.

I...love you.

[Ascended Mermaid]

Well, I won't be taking a break for much longer. Here's what I have up next on my queue:

Fire Crystal
Lamp
Changing how deaths work ;Ipdata is onto something with this, and will be included in the credits for his inspiration throughout the hack.

So, how am I going to change how deaths work? Much like Xanadu: You keep 100% of what you have when you save, and lose any progress made beyond saving your game. I'll add a save point to Eolis, so that you won't have to listen to the king again if you die prior to the next save point.

I'll have to change the mantra system aswell, but that'll require alot more brainpower than I'm willing to invest yet -- it's a tad "encrypted" and requires that I understand how the 1's and 0's work, etc. etc.; I may invest in the aid of Lee Eric Kirwan, whose password cracking skills have successfully conquered this "encryption". I'll have to ask him sometime.

Do keep in mind that this is merely a priority list, and will not affect the outcome of the hack one way or the other; I'm simply keeping in check what I want to do next, immediately upon dismissal from my break.

[lpdata]

Yeah man, what's the point of having "save points" in an RPG if your character's abilities are reset to babyhood? I'm assuming that XP Levels in this game actually increase ability.

It'd be awesome if you included the state of doors in the save information, i.e., whether they've been opened before. It'd be REALLY awesome if the whole "key-fetching" thing was abolished, as I it's sort of an artifact of earlier-era gameplay IMO.

I personally liked the juxtaposition of Buddhist terms with the Medieval Christian setting. I guess there's two ways to "correct" this:

1) Translate the terms to their 15th century counterpart. "Bishop" sounds cool. Have them talk in LATIN.

2) Let FM77 live his dream of tile-art and commission him to change the church to a temple. Replace the crucifix with a statue of Buddha. Keep the old terms.

[Ascended Mermaid]

I'll definately do something about the doors.

1. I like the sound of Bishop, and the 15th century goes well with "Ducats".

2. In Xanadu, the Church was a Temple, so this is plausible. However, I'm going to be fighting myself on this one, as I'd also mentioned to myself "but this is what NoA and NoE had censored, I'd like to uncensor and retranslate the game while boosting playability and overall enjoyment."

However, with the sheer amount of gameplay changes, this is quickly turning into a different game altogether. I also want to increase the strength of the Eolis guardian, as his power is 0; I'd thought that making him "bump" you was good enough, but I'd gotten rid of bumping to increase playability and overall enjoyment of the game.

I like what you're proposing overall, but I'll have to think about it; it's hard to decide what I should be a "purist" on, and what I can take liberties with.

As far as level-ups are concerned, they changed 3 factors in the original game:
1. Agility. It's a small boost, but your agility increases. That's why the jumps get seemingly easier throughout the game.

2. Wing Boots. Their power decreases as you level up.

3. Money -- you gain a certain amount of cash upon death.

As I'd already taken care of 1. and 2., let me tell you what I propose about 3.:
Since I'm changing how deaths work and you'll only gain back what you saved, you'll earn more Money upon levelling up; talking to the Guru/Bishop/dude will make this happen. It'll effectively feel like a level-up, as you'll earn more money which you can use to make important purchases.